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November 23, 2022 8:05 AM   Subscribe

100 Notable Books of 2022 (NYT gift link)

It seems like year-end list season starts earlier every year, and I don't mind a bit.

Things that should be on the list but aren't, other books from this year that you enjoyed, other 2022 lists of books? Tell me about them.
posted by box (12 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Because I read a lot, here are a bunch of 2022 books that aren't on the Times list but managed to resonate with me.

Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels, Paul Pringle
Bad Sex: Truth, Pleasure, and an Unfinished Revolution, Nona Willis Aronowitz
Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, Craig McNamara
Bodies on the Line: at the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America, Lauren Rankin
Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Maggie Haberman
The Devil Takes You Home: A Barrio Noir, Gabino Iglesias
Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional, Isaac Fitzgerald
The Hawk's Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty, Sy Montgomery
The House Across the Lake: A Novel, Riley Sager
How to be Perfect: the Correct Answer to Every Moral Question, Michael Schur
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, Alexandra Lange
Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley
Now is Not the Time to Panic, Kevin Wilson
The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits that Reveal the History of Pop Music, Tom Breihan
Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator, Sofia Warren
Riverman: An American Odyssey, Ben McGrath
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop, Danyel Smith
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, Imani Perry
The Southernization of America, A Story of Democracy in the Balance, Frye Gaillard and Cynthia Tucker
The Storm is Here: An American Crucible, Luke Mogelson
There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster--who profits and who pays the price, Jessie Singer
Tracy Flick Can't Win, Tom Perrotta
Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic panic, and the imposter behind the world's most notorious diaries, Rick Emerson
posted by box at 9:32 AM on November 23, 2022 [5 favorites]


I nominate Siddhartha Mukherjee's amazing book Song Of The Cell. Great writer and great subject.

Fresh Air interviewed him a couple days ago.
posted by bz at 10:29 AM on November 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


There seems to be a bunch of good books in the list (unsurprisingly) but I hate the format. At least on my computer, you have to individually click on each title; you can't just scroll through. I don't want to click 100 times to see all the blurbs.
posted by Dip Flash at 11:31 AM on November 23, 2022 [4 favorites]


Was there any science fiction there at all this year? Or speculative fiction generally?
posted by newdaddy at 12:19 PM on November 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


I haven't read it, but Sea of Tranquility (Emily St. John Mandel) sounds like it.
Naturally the Times doesn't identify it as such, nor let us identify other sf titles.
posted by doctornemo at 12:55 PM on November 23, 2022


Sea of Tranquility is indeed science fiction.

Vauhini Vara's The Immortal King Rao takes place in the future, and it sounds like Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts and Jessamine Chan's The School for Good Mothers might as well.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, The Dead Romantics, Gods of Want, and Motherthing all sound like they have some fantastic elements, but not like they're science fiction.

(Disclaimer: I haven't read any of these, and don't specifically know a lot about SFF.)
posted by box at 1:07 PM on November 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


(Maybe I should say that Sea of Tranquility is science fiction unless you’re one of those people who thinks that ‘literary fiction’ is not only a genre but also one that trumps other genres, like e.g. Motherless Brooklyn is not a mystery or detective fiction because it’s literary fiction, but in my experience the number of science fiction readers who feel this way is close to zero.)
posted by box at 4:24 PM on November 23, 2022 [3 favorites]


Was thinking: maybe we don’t need lists of best books published this year, but lists of what are considered the best books this year, eg. what books are more relevant than ever?
posted by beesbees at 9:34 PM on November 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Good, recent SF and fantasy I've read this year:
  • A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, further adventures in the interesting Teixcalaan setting, with 3-dimensional characters exploring cultural identity and community, I just wished for a slightly more satisfying resolution to the story. BTW, you should read the first one in the series first.
  • The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers, number four in the Wayfarers series. Not big on plot, but good characters and a very cozy and positive vibe.
  • She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan. Set in ancient China, and very light on the fantasy elements, but it might be explored further in the next volume (?). Not very cosy or positive, as it kicks off during war and famine with the main character being the sole survivor from her family. Also grapples with identity and community, and very well written.
  • Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, third in the Locked Tomb series, which is about lesbian necromancers in space. A bit different than the first two, but funny and compassionate and with the best characters of any current SF/fantasy I've read. (I'll fight you on that. With swords and bone magic.)
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Read this for the technology and the clever solutions to the difficult situations the characters find themselves in. Weir can't write character not made of cardboard to save his life, but if you enjoyed The Martian I think you'll enjoy this.
posted by Harald74 at 12:17 AM on November 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


I'm hitting a paywall at the link
posted by tovarisch at 1:29 AM on November 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Ungated version
posted by chavenet at 8:14 AM on November 24, 2022 [1 favorite]


Harald74, I'm halfway through Nona and continue to be impressed by Muir's series.
posted by doctornemo at 2:19 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]


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