It is that time of the year when we look back upon a year of reading and make book lists. Here are my best books of 2022. This list includes books that stayed in mind long after I read them. Be prepared to get lost in museums in New York city, hide a dead body, befriend a cat, or cause some mayhem for love (or lust). I hope you enjoy!
Best books of 2022
This was a difficult list to compile because there were so many good books I read in 2022. After being unsuccessful in limiting this list to 10 best books of 2022, I’ve trimmed my list to 18. This means I skipped some of my favourite books of the year—like Crying in H Mart that made me weep on every page, the indulgent French series, Mirror Visitor , that kept me company in summer, the Percy Jackson books that I read on my laptop under the duvet, The Ocean at the End of the Lane which I read more than once this year and a few others.
In this list you’ll find a mix of genres and moods—sad books, thrilling books, cozy books, and horror stories.
1. She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai, Naruki Nagakawa, translated by Ginny Taplew Takemori (2017)
I fell head over heels (and cried too) for She and Her Cat, a slim book translated from Japanese with four interconnected stories about women and cats. These stories are about loneliness, a desire for connection, and the beauty of community as these women trudge through depression, guilt, grief and heart break. You would love this book even if you are not a pet lover. I read the 2022 edition by Atria books which has illustrations by Rohan Eason.
(PS: There’s a dog too. The last chapter broke my heart, but in a good way and reminded me that everything will be alright).
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2. The Sound of the World by Heart by Giacomo Keison Bevilacqua
Perfection! This graphic novel, translated from Italian, is as much an ode to the city of New York as about love and loneliness. It made me crave to sit on a bench at a museum for hours. It made me wish I was sandwiched in the busy crowds on the pavements New York city. It made me want to run into the New York Public Library. This book is about art, magic in a still photo, life in a busy world, soul mates and serendipity. I finished it with tears in my eyes and started re-reading right away. PS: Don’t skip the dedication.
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3. Disorientation by Elaine Hseih Chou (2022)
I read major parts of Disorientation on a commute and found myself cackling and re-reading paragraphs. This debut novel is a witty satire on academia. It lists the challenges faced by people of color trying to survive in all-white academic departments that study other cultures. Chou packs a punch with her sly commentary on power dynamics in inter-racial relationships, authenticity of translations by white translators who cannot speak the language they translate and win awards for, and identity politics that clash with personal and professional spheres. This one’s a real treat.
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4. All the Lovers in the Night by Meiko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd (2022)
A perfect novel for those who enjoy sad girl books. I knew no peace until I savoured page by page of this quiet novel about a freelance copywriter in her mid-thirties looking for love, connection and happiness. All the Lovers in the Night is the kind of book you read before bed, underlining your way and pausing more often than you intend to. If you love books by Murakami, consider picking up a Kawakami. Marvellous!
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Also Read : 18 Fun Asian Books to Binge Read
5. Manjhi’s Mayhem by Tanuj Solanki (2022)
Do not sleep on Tanuj Solanki’s potboiler of a Mumbai book that clasps your neck with the opening lines “None of this happened in English. It couldn’t have. English is not the language in which life runs for most people in this country. It all happened in a mix of Hindi and Marathi.” Solanki spins an addictive, thrilling tale of a Dalit security guard who changed his caste with a fake Adhaar card for better prospects in job and women, and an immigrant worker from UP who persuades him to pursue revenge on her behalf. The city of Mumbai spreads its hands and catches those who fall dejected. It throws them back into the game of life, whispering ‘play’ in their ears.
Manjhi’s Mayhem captures the essence of life in India, which many contemporary novels miss, without shying away from the medley of language politics and caste politics. It is about friendships forged in local trains, lust sealed with promises, gangsters, roadside stalls, love, sex and money, mayhem, narrated with a cinematic, adrenaline-charged prose.
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Also Read : Jane Borge’s charming ode to Bombay—Bombay Balchão
6. Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth (2022)
I had heard high praise for Motherthing before I picked it up but what I didn’t know was how incredibly funny this book is! This is a gothic domestic horror where a young wife tries to save her marriage from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law. It is about toxic, symbiotic relationships, recipe books, crabby mother-in-laws, dingy basements. Dark, witty, zingy, outrageous, surprising.
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7. Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid (2022)
Three witch sisters live secluded in a magical castle under the watchful eyes of their tyrannical ex-wizard father. Set in the capitalist city of Oblya, an inspired East European city, moving away from magic and superstitions to modernity and industrialization, this grim novel talks about women’s agency, hunger, patriarchy and magic. More thoughts about the novel in my newsletter edition #42// witches and boarding schools. Fans of Bear and the Nightingale series by Katherine Arden would love this dark, grotesque fairytale.
Trigger warnings : Abuse (mental, physical, sexual, child), cannibalism, eating disorders
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8. Seven days in June by Tia Williams (2021)
Seven Days in June is a perfect escapist romance between literary fiction writer Sean and vampire erotica writer Eva Mercy. It is about first love and second chances, single mothers and wise teenagers. Sensual, funny and hot.
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Also Read : 14 awesome books for all moods of 2022
9. Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q Sutanto (2021)
A laugh riot with an accidental murder, a big wedding and an inter-generational curse on a Chinese-Indonesian family. When Meddelin Chan accidentally kills her blind date, her fierce aunties help her hide the dead body, while simultaneously managing the big wedding of their billionaire client. I listened to this book on audio narrated by Risa Mei, and had to re-listen for more laughs. Check the review in my newsletter #37// the aunties are here.
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10. Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe (2021, 2022)
The Lore Olympus volumes that follow the tumultuous romance between Hades and Persephone kept me company throughout 2022. Smythe’s Greek gods love meddling in love lives. Set in a modern world with social media and dating apps, the Greek pantheon serves us scandalous gossip, glitzy parties and a forbidden romance. I can’t wait for Vol.4 but for the impatient ones among you, there is always the webtoon to binge on.
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11. Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (2020)
I love that I find at least one cosy crime to obsess over every year. In 2021 it was Horowitz’s Magpie Murders—where writer Alan Conway’s untimely death bore eerie similarities to his soon-to-be published murder mystery set in a sleepy English village. Susan Ryeland, Conway’s editor, played an accidental detective. This year I devoured the sequel Moonflower Murders where Ryeland is retired and happily (not quite) running a small hotel on a Greek island with her boyfriend. When the rich Trehernes offers her a deal to play detective on an old murder case, which seems to hold secrets in an Alan Conway crime novel, she gladly accepts it for money and a golden opportunity to go back to London. Similar to Magpie Murders, there are hidden clues in Conway’s mystery novels that chip away the lies surrounding the murder case. The climax was underwhelming, but overall, Moonflower Murders was a glorious escape. I hope Horowitz would bless us with a third book in this series.
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12. This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel (2022)
My favourite thriller of 2022! This Might Hurt is set in a wellness retreat hosted on a private island in Maine, where attendees are forced to cut connections with the mainland, and give up their phones and internet. It follows two sisters—workaholic Natalie and depressed Kit—and is heaped in toxicity, family secrets, biting cold, and fear. It’s a maddening, gripping cultish story that plunges you into icy deep waters without warning.
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13. Brown Girls by Daphne Palasi Andreades (2022)
Told in a collective voice, almost musical, Brown Girls is pure indulgence. The story—told in snippets—follows a group of brown girls who grow up in the dregs of Queens. Brown Girls is a hypnotic dance on the senses as the cultural and personal lives of the girls collide, flow, and diverge. It is a book about marginalization, dreams, ambition, racism, motherhood and personhood, told in evocative, lyrical prose—a fitting ode to brown girls of America. A stunning debut and one of the best books of 2022.
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15. If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery (2022)
I read If I Survive You in December and it is one of the finest books that narrate the American experience. Told through interconnected stories, this book follows a Jamaican family that immigrates to America. Perhaps this is the first book that I read that beautifully encapsulates the identity crisis of a first-generation Jamaican in America—he doesn’t look or sound Jamaican, he isn’t American enough, he looks Dominican but he can’t speak Spanish, black people don’t consider him black, some Americans consider him black, some think he is brown, and his fellow Jamaicans don’t call themselves black. This is a book that begs to be underlined, written in shocking, razor-sharp prose.
If I Survive You wasn’t on my radar, so I was more than thrilled to read it and find a new favourite; thanks to the American fiction series by Boxwalla, curated by author Alexander Chee. It is an urgent book about identity crisis, immigration, racism—you simply cannot look away.
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15. Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (2022)
I immersed myself in the life of the thirty-something writer who is mostly sad, tired and misunderstood. Sorrow and Bliss is funny in parts but also profoundly sad in a way that made me cry bucketfuls over the course of the novel. It is about marriage, societal expectations from a married woman and loneliness, told in between gaping depths of sorrow and short-lived, elusive happiness. If you loved Sally Rooney’s Normal People about people in their twenties, shatter your heart with the spiraling trials of a woman in her thirties in this caustic, beautiful novel.
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16. Seeking Fortune Elsewhere by Sindya Bhanoo (2022)
I picked up Sindya Bhanoo’s stories as a quick read, one story at a time. But before I knew it, my tea had gone cold and I was under the spell of her Tamil and Tamil-American characters. It’s been a while since I read stories where characters burrow into your heart. A woman who inherits a house exercises her choice over her husband’s decision, a widow in a retirement home chats with other elderly parents about their children in America, a mother is jealous when her daughter invites her step mother to a family trip but not her, a professor faces inquiry after his students filed a complaint about exploitation. These stories explore the disconnect between American and Indian cultures, the dissonance in a family where identities clash, the urge to belong and the bitterness of being shunned, and the rifts that deepen with no fault of either side of the relationship. Restrained, bittersweet writing with sad notes for fans of Jhumpa Lahiri—A must-read of 2022.
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Also Read : The best books of 2022—short story collections
17. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020)
The Vanishing Half is an exhilarating, pulsing, pacy story about the Vignes twins of Mallard, a small town in Louisiana, in the middle of nowhere. It’s a town of light skinned black people where dark skin is frowned upon. One twin decides to pass off as white, reinvent a past and escape home while the other remains in the wretched hometown. If you are looking for a book that’ll make you feel all the emotions in the world—happiness, anger, frustration, disappointment, betrayal—this one’s for you. It’s been a year since I read this but the Vignes twins live rent-free in my head.
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18. This was Our Pact by Ryan Andrews (2013)
One of the most beautiful middle grade graphic novels I’ve read. It’s about a group of boys who make a pact and cycle towards an adventure. There are talking bears, caves of stars, witches, constellations, folk songs—cozy, fantastical, magical!
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This is such a fantastic list, Resh! Now that my reading mood is back and I’ve started taking bookstagram photos again (not many, but still), I will have to make notes on books I’d like to read sooner rather than later!
From your list, Dial A for Aunties catches my eye – I think it might be very fun on audio. And also what you say about Disorientation by Elaine Hseih Chou has really intrigued me!
Glad to hear. I hope you have a fun time with Dial A for aunties and a witty and thought provoking time with Disorientation