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Best Nonfiction of 2022 | Best Debuts of 2022 | Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Romance & Graphic Novels of 2022 | Best Kids' and YA of 2022

As fun as it is to put these lists together, it’s also so, so difficult, because there are always so many books we want to include. This year, we did our best to contain it to 10 books, but the more we read and discussed and argued, the more we wanted to add an extra 5, and then another 5, which is how we ended up here...

Personally, I think October gets too much credit during spooky season. November is (in my opinion) just as spooky, and since November is also Native American Heritage Month, I wanted to pull together a (by-no-means-exhaustive) list of horror titles from Native American authors. On this list, you’ll find entities and shapeshifters, cosmology and mythology, social commentary and superstition, doomsday preppers and imposters. We know the days are getting shorter, but that just means you’ll have more hours to read these spooky books by candlelight...

After a few years where this category was dominated by books about current events, I was relieved to put this list together and see not just books about important issues of the day, but also a broad variety of books about the world and our place in it. And almost none of them mention the White House! A gift! So maybe take a breather and find a nourishing book on this list; current events will still be here when you finish...

Every year, as I look over upcoming fiction releases, I pay special attention to debut novels and story collections because they bring so much new energy to the bookstore. Debut authors often have fresh ideas about form, and they utilize unique perspectives to spotlight different aspects of human experience — this is especially true in recent years as publishers are working to correct past injustices and produce work by authors from a greater variety of backgrounds and identities...

Every year, we like to celebrate Native American Heritage Month by featuring a list of recently published books by Native authors. This year, I was struck by how many of the books are debuts, and how many of them manage to masterfully walk that tightrope line of tone — they’re often hilarious and moving in equal measure, while interrogating the difficult topics of colonialism, white supremacy, generational trauma, and cycles of addiction, displacement, and dispossession (just to name a few)...

We recently highlighted a selection of works by authors of Korean heritage, as a part of our Read The World series. Choosing titles for the display was a real joy — researching release dates, balancing genres and subjects, and reading a ton of great books. The downside to putting together a title list for a subject that you love is that you can’t include everything you’d like, and this list was especially difficult to narrow down...

We had so much fun putting this list together. This year's list is filled with ghost writers and throuples, explorations of sexuality and identity and grief, some sexy hijinx, plenty of gross monsters, the magic of etymology, women just trying to survive, giant mechs and religion, "domesticity with a side of bones, blood, and body-swapping," Satanic Panic, and so much more. The world may not be at its best right now, but if you’re looking to escape into some great science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, or graphic novels, then the 15 books below may be just the ticket. Don’t forget to put your phone on Do Not Disturb mode before digging in! You’re not going to want any interruptions...

I’ve always been obsessed with happily ever afters.

It started when I was five, with Belle and the Beast singing to each other in the snow. Then it was the Nora Ephron VHSs I watched on constant rotation with my dad every other weekend. Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries dominated my eighth-grade daydreams, and soon, I was devouring every young-adult novel with a romance subplot I could get my hands on. (Yes, Twilight included.) I adored the meet-cutes and the misunderstandings and the magic...

I’m not excited at all. Well, maybe a little. OK, I’m EXCITEDDD. Because once again it’s time to announce our favorite kids’ and young adult books of the year!

And this year’s list has it all! Magical stories, love stories, family sagas, tales of home and school, gothic mysteries, and Victorian noirs. It has demon swarms, witches-in-training, forbidden forests, time-stealing monsters, very hungry trolls, lizard people, questing rabbits, and two different picture books featuring big-hearted owls. And more. Lots more...