I will tell you what I had been told before picking Sheila Heti’s Pure Colour up for the first time: this novel is different, very likely to be unlike anything you’ve read before. Even so prepared, I hope and expect that this novel will astonish and move you as it did me. This was the most memorable reading experience of the year for me, and the book I thought most about after finishing. It’s super weird! It shouldn’t have worked! It absolutely did.

Set in the universe of the Uglies, and the final book in Westerfield's second series, Youngbloods will keep you on the edge of your seat as you join a group of rebels in their mission to save their world. Will this ragtag group of criminals be able to keep it together long enough to see the fall of the evil regime their leader accidentally created, or are they fated to continue fighting against smart cities that want to take over nature and possibly humans themselves? You’ll have to read for yourself to find out.

This book was incredibly well-written. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire book. I saw parts of myself in all the characters, because despite the horror, all the characters were undeniably human. I have told everyone about this book! I loaned a copy to a friend and was immediately sad, so I went and got another copy. If you like horror and suspense this is the one from 2022!

Hope Cassidy and her sisters, Faith and Charity, have been raised in an ultra-conservative mega-church. When Faith is outed, she runs away to avoid conversion “therapy,” and Hope finds solace in rock 'n' roll. Channeling her inner Joplin, Hope forms a band with newly-out Danny, performing anti-establishment originals and directly challenging the hate speech written by Danny’s twin brother for his new band Alt-Rite. Interspersed with excerpts from a sci-fi love story (perhaps penned by the missing Faith), this incredible novel glows with a simple, heartfelt message: hope in the face of oppression and cruelty is punk as hell.

Marlon James has done the impossible and written a trilogy that can be read in any order. With this, the nominal second book, M. James shows how truly creative he is as both writer and world builder. I can’t wait for the third one to come out so I can read it all again

A fun and funky rom-com genre mash-up that’s set in a fantasy-western world filled with zombies, demigods, magical mail service, and dogs!! One of my favorite books I read in 2022. Beware... you might need tissues, but it does have a HEA. xoxo Enjoy!

This lovely, whimsical, humorous, smart, and fantastical book brightened up my winter reading (lucky enough to read an advanced copy). Take yourself out of this wearisome world and into Laura Stanfill’s magic.

A beautiful, lyrical, and heart-wrenching memoir about coming of age and coming out in the American Midwest. Setting his own story against the destruction of his home state of North Dakota, Brorby deftly crafts a story that has stuck with me months after finishing the last page.

A couple weeks after reading this book, I went camping. I didn’t realize until night fell that certain scenes from Meloy’s novel had stuck with me enough to make that night in the woods just that much more uneasy. The Stars Did Wander Darkling is an atmospheric horror novel set in 1980s Seaham: a sleepy Oregon Coast town. It is middle reader but don’t let that fool you. Dripping with hair raising moments and nostalgia, this new tale from Meloy will delight fans of Stephen King and Stranger Things of any age. THOK. If you know, you know.

Hawk Mountain is a queer horror story as tender as a caress to the cheek before the snapping of a neck. It begins when two classmates, Todd and Jack, victim and bully, meet again after fifteen years. What happens after Jack begins to worm his way into Todd and his son’s life is both unexpected and utterly inevitable at the same time. This is a deeply chilling and poignant tale born from the horrors of homophobia: when love and hatred blur until indistinguishable, when we are doomed to continue our own cycles of abuse. I loved every second of it.

Atmospheric, lyrical, and enchanting, this story feels like a lost piece of Scottish folklore. It draws you in slowly, wrapping you in an embrace of soft plaid until you’re a part of the clan, wholly caught up in the fates of the characters. Its music and mystery will capture your soul, while its rivals-to-allies-to-lovers romance will capture your heart.

My Heart is a Chainsaw is a love story to classic slasher movies. Gritty, witty, yet somehow soft around the edges, Jade Daniels is a protagonist that is intriguingly loveable despite all odds. A horror-obsessed high school dropout who would love nothing more than to see the town (and father) she hates run with blood, the new girl who lives across the lake and seems to have the world at her fingertips, and a town ghost story from a century before come together to make the most compelling and mesmerizing horror novel I have ever read.

When I tell you I CRIED. I SCREAMED. I LAID ON MY FLOOR. I DIDN’T SLEEP. Muir keeps doing it. I would wrap myself up in her books if I could. If you’re familiar with The Locked Tomb series, you know why I loved it so much. The twists! The laughs! The love! The endearing narrator! Seeing my favorite characters again! If you’re not familiar, and the idea of queer fantasy sci-fi with incredible characters and impeccable worldbuilding interests you, please go pick up Gideon the Ninth. And immediately come talk to me about it.

What a beautiful book! I was blown away by the authors’ ability to show all the ways animals perceive the earth versus how we experience it. Imagine what the dog’s nose can pick up while just walking down the street? What if you could navigate by electromagnetic fields as you drive to work? Or pick up electrical messages like fish do? If any book could offer motivation for saving our beautiful planet — this is it! The cutting-edge science in this book makes it a perfect gift for animal lovers, science geeks. and environmentalists.

This book surprised me in a number of ways. First, it’s well-written historical fiction, depicting Ivan IV's “Reign of Terror” in 16th century Russia. Second, it’s a welcome introduction to the Slavic pantheon of gods — Perun, Mokosh, Volos, etc. Third, it reimagines the vedma (witch) Baba Yaga, as half-mortal, half-goddess, and the heroine of this story. Heck, it’s even a romance of sorts. All around a very satisfying, well-paced story that I was sad to see end. I’ll be looking for more of Gilmore’s work in the future!

The final book of this adorable series, Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite is a perfect blend of wholesome and horrific. The artwork is stunning, and the characters are fun. I hope you enjoy their story as much as I have.

Blissfully queer in every sense of the word. Cohen’s stories alternate between sardonic and hopeful, complete with a delightfully millennial sensibility. Every story creates a strange and exciting new reality, familiar yet not, as if you’re looking at the world sideways.

Dilla Time is a book about the turbulent life and musical impact of hip-hop’s most influential producer, James Dewitt Yancey (also known as J Dilla). Dan Charnas breaks down the rhythmic nuances behind Yancey’s production style, and takes a detailed look at his imprint on hip-hop music in the late 90s and early aughts. Truly one of the best music biographies I’ve read in a long time!

I was all in on Jawbone from the epigraphs page (all of which are phenomenal and spooky and strike the exact right tone). This is such a strange, wonderful, prickly book, in a phenomenal translation from Sarah Booker. For anyone who would like their eerie campus novel to have a side of creepypasta and/or Moby-Dick. For anyone who revels in books that inhabit that gray zone of morality. For anyone who misses those intense friendship-bonds formed when you’re younger and convinced of your immortality. It’s been months and I’m still so obsessed with this one.

An atmospheric story of power and retribution following medical school dropout Lena as she is brought into the fold of the wealthy. Employed as the caretaker of a mysteriously ill son of an elite family, Lena discovers an opportunity to seek revenge against those who hurt her family the most. The situation grows more complicated as Lena grows closer with the adult children of the family, who it appears share her animosity towards their parents. After an attempt at revenge, Lena’s knowledge of poisonous plants proves useful not only for her, but for the whims of her hedonistic employers.

I’m not usually a fan of horror but I had heard such great things about this graphic novel that I just had to see for myself, and it ended up being my favorite of the year. As I was reading, I began feeling the slow creep of uneasiness, but it was like I was in a trance and was unable to stop reading. It is a brave soul who would read this one alone at night!

Sergey lives in Little Starhorodivka, which lies in the grey zone between areas controlled by the Ukrainian military forces and those that wish to become part of Russia. He is retired with a disability pension and is a beekeeper, hence the title Grey Bees. There is only one other permanent resident named Pashka who bullied him in their school days. Sergey eventually decides to head to Crimea with his bees to visit a fellow beekeeper friend. On his travels, he observes how life still goes on all around him — sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes mundane.

My *goodness*, this book. Set aside any misgivings you might have about reading a pandemic novel during a pandemic. These gracefully interconnected narratives have their roots in familiar territory, but their branches arc and sprawl beyond the world we know into the far reaches of Sequoia Nagamatsu’s imagination. The result is an immersive, tender, life-affirming book that left me both wonderstruck and — much to my surprise — comforted.

Désir’s feelings of alienation and “otherness” are so relatable to me as a BIPOC woman living in the PNW. The first few pages where she lines up the history of running as a sport alongside important moments in Black history is absolutely striking. Reading her words, I felt like I was running alongside her, cheering her on as she overcame depression while always carrying around the shared awareness BIPOC know so well: many spaces will not always welcome us. This book isn’t just for athletes; it’s for those who want to make sure safe spaces exist for everyone.

I’ve talked about this book so much that I’m worried that folks will get sick of me. Well, not that worried. Dirtbag, Massachusetts should honestly be talked about even more. It’s an honest, mouthy, passionate portrayal of a man who realizes that maybe he’s not fully over the events that transpired in his child. You’ll root for Isaac, but you’ll also groan and cringe alongside him while he’s learning to become the man that he one day hopes to be. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a book for the misfits in all of us.

I read A Taste of Gold and Iron three times this year and loved it more each time. It’s a beautiful, character-driven fantasy romance. The fantasy world is interesting, the sprinkle of magic is just enough, and the secondary characters are wonderfully fleshed out. But the draw for me, and what brought me back again, was the two main characters: Kadou and Evemer. They both shine so brightly in this narrative; as they stumble through their (wrong) first impressions of each other and a series of romance tropes, the resulting story is an absolute joy to read!

A fun read when you just need an escape! A dozen authors have managed to capture Christie’s Miss Marple so well as to be published by Agatha Christie Limited, encouraging our dreams of also writing Christie fanfiction (or of becoming a Marple ourselves in our retirement). These mysteries — some of them murders — range from adventures on a cruise ship to China, to a British/Caribbean wedding, and back to St. Mary Meade itself, with a Christmas story just in time for winter break!

Mecca is a book that makes the most out of its form (a novel in stories), at once a sprawling epic that crosses borders and spans generations and an intimate snapshot of a tightknit community of people struggling to survive in a harsh but beautiful landscape. Along the way, it asks urgent questions: who gets to belong, and what does that belonging entail? What is the price of loyalty, and when is it too steep to pay? How far will you go to protect the people you love?

Following the life of a fascinating, flawed, or fascinatingly flawed protagonist through book after mesmerizing book is one of the thrills of my life. Lucy Barton handles the pandemic, loss, relationship woes, friendship, aging, and parenting her two adult daughters as only she can. Savor this one!

I tend to read a lot of memoirs. One of my favorites this year was Diary of a Misfit. Parks sets out to answer the mystery of Roy, a country music singer, and resident of a rural Louisiana town. Roy is a folkloric hero shrouded in secrecy by people working to protect his identity. Through telling Roy’s story, Parks shares her own experiences: growing up in the South, coming into one’s queer identity, working as a journalist in Portland, Oregon, and chasing a news story with help from her mother. This was a beautiful, absurd, and complex book.

These are some of my favorite essays I’ve read in a while. Each author’s story is beautiful and horrifically unique. In a big way, these essays feel like marginalized individuals reclaiming a genre that is built on vilifying them. A much needed and refreshing addition to the horror conversation. Big slay.

What drew me in was the cover: a person taking a selfie with a manicured sasquatch hand. I HAD to read it and ended up loving this book so much! A reality dating TV show arrives to film on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest due to budget reasons. It’s a love story mixed in with mystery, horror, and local lore. I recommend it if you’re a fan of King Kong, cryptids, and love above all else.

This book was so much more than I expected it to be. I picked it up wanting a spooky mystery that takes place in the woods, and I got that. But I also got conflict, grief, and love that drives a soul to the heights of desperation. I got knots in my stomach and tears in my eyes. I did not think this would end up being my favorite book of 2022. It took me by surprise, and it’s held on. I still think about it often.

In this fabulous poetry collection, downey melds observations, nostalgia, and philosophical contemplations into a Beat-inspired, stream-of-consciousness style that is both thought-provoking and funny. Regionally, what he writes is very Pacific Northwestern, but can also be quite transcendent, highlighting the moods of so many of us around the world today, and especially encapsulating the doubts, worries, humor, and desires of those coming of age in the 2000s. He’s a storyteller, a mind traveler, and a wordsmith, and I could pick up this book, read anywhere, and be effectively transported into his world, a place that I’m always happy to explore.

I would love to shelve this book in every applicable section, just to get the maximum number of eyes on it! It fits perfectly in environmentalism, as its overarching theme is the threat of rising seas to Pacific Island nations. I’d also welcome it in US History, where you can learn about our government’s treatment of Guam, its people, its resources. Literature Reference? Yep, the book is full of loving recommendations. Poetry? It overflows with impactful poems. Aguon is a remarkable writer — open-hearted and full of fierce love for his home island, for books, for people, for the planet.

End of the World House is so many things: an irresistible trapped-in-a-time-loop story, an exploration of how the most important relationships in your life change over time, an all-too-realistic view of working a professional job during an apocalypse that’s unsettlingly close to our own (different details, same vibes). This novel is also so well-crafted — it shifted into different, unexpected shapes, and I loved every surprising turn. There are moments that feel like an A24 horror movie, or the best song on a break-up album, or laughing so hard with your closest friend that your eyes hurt. A masterpiece!

In my opinion, the best cookbooks are the ones you want to read, as well as cook from, and The Vegan Chinese Kitchen falls squarely in this camp. With so many nice touches — from tips, to photos, to layout, to giving the phonetic pronunciation of ingredients — this book is for any vegetable lover who wants to learn more about the rich history of cooking vegetables in China. You don’t need to be a vegan or a culinary expert to appreciate any of these excellent recipes. I’m looking forward to many wonderful dinners to come.

If you loved Braiding Sweetgrass, I recommend We Are the Middle of Forever, a profound collection interviews of Indigenous activists — wisdom keepers discusing environmental changes and our responsibilities in the face of these difficult times. Their long story memories place the beginning of these changes at about 1492 or 1620, depending on the region they’re from, so their peoples have been considering these matters for some time. The interviewees trace the real root cause to damaged and overly narrow philosophies of kinship and reciprocity. This is a book I’ll read and reread for many years to come.

In Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart continues his project of documenting working-class Scottish life in the late 20th century. While alcoholism, homophobia, and violence are all very present in Mungo’s world, so is the possibility of escape into a time and place where his developing attraction to other boys can be accepted. Young Mungo is suspenseful and heartbreaking, hopeful and tender, and a worthy follow-up to Shuggie Bain.

Nightbitch is a fever dream of a novel, in the very best way. While the premise of a woman turning into a dog may sound silly, it’s also this incredible physical manifestation of Nightbitch’s emotions, of her rage, her love, and her longing. She chooses to wholly embrace her transformation, rather than try and make herself a smaller, more palatable version of who she really is. This isn’t a story of rebelling against motherhood but rather of rebelling against the notion that a woman must give up her dreams in exchange for the title of mother.

The writing is whimsical but transcends whimsy. The story is magical but transcends magic. Laura Stanfill’s Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary is deceptively delightful, exploring real-world themes of connection, loss, feminism, death, and identity, all wrapped up in lyrical language, bountiful cleverness, and endless wit. Resplendent and transcendent.

The Remembered Part (translated by Will Vanderhyden) follows the Best Translated Book Award-winning The Invented Part and The Dreamed Part to conclude Rodrigo Fresán’s brilliantly tangential trilogy about The Writer — three novels forming a singular portrait and “memoir not of a life but of a method.” Overflowing with wit, humor, and digressions aplenty, Fresán masterfully contends with the nature of writing (and not writing), while intoxicating the reader with a dizzying/dazzling inventory of literary, cinematic, and musical references and allusions. Called the “pop Borges,” Fresán and his genius-level free association and proseful prestidigitations are simply stunning to behold.

Of all the great books that came out in 2022, Taylor Brorby’s memoir Boys & Oil: Growing Up Gay in a Fractured Land absolutely stands out to me. While recounting the struggle of growing up gay in rural North Dakota, Brorby seamlessly weaves together stories of pain and heartbreak with stories of joy and wonder. This book is not just the story of someone coming to terms with who they are and discovering their place in the world, it’s also a poignant love letter to the natural wonder found in a place many may dismiss as “flyover country.” I can’t recommend this book enough.

Everett is at the top of his game; his signature wit and dark, absurd humor are on full display. An expert in nothing on the hunt for nothing with a mysterious billionaire villain who wants nothing but nothing (and revenge)! This book is as philosophical as it is funny, a satisfying and skewering take on what it means to have everything in a society willing to turn a blind eye to the crimes of the rich and powerful. There’s also a one-legged dog!

Tennis phenomenon Carrie Soto is stepping out of retirement. While she may not be as young or in shape, with her record on the line she’s determined to remind the world she’s still its best player. Her drive, ambition, and dedication to a game where most others have counted her out made for a character I found myself rooting for. Carrie is sharp tongued, honest, and unapologetic. Reid’s character work shines throughout this novel about the love between a father and daughter, believing in oneself, and subverting others expectations.

In this much anticipated second poetry collection from Inupiaq-Inuit poet dg nanouk okpik, we encounter a host of voices and bodies that leak, contaminate, echo, and ripple outwards across a windchilled terrain. Crystalline and sonically rich, its poems emit a corporeal aliveness on the page. Yet what sets this collection apart is the non-hierarchical ecological consciousness it invokes, turning attention away from an idealized pastoral vision and instead towards the interconnectedness of all life as it suffers under Anthropocenic violence. okpik’s book offers a metaphysics of contingency, a language for ongoingness, and a deepened sense of “the wonder of things.”

I’m positive that Tamara Shopsin reached directly into my heart and pulled this book out of my combined desires for fiction that is odd, scrappy, and deliciously niche and to know things that are odd, scrappy, and deliciously niche. A coming-of-age set inside the legendary nineties indie Mac repair shop Tekserve. It’s wistful fiction and fascinating history. I’m old enough for floppy discs to have been on my school supply lists — only just — and this blip of messy analog techno-curiosity and “do right” ethos teetering on the edge of a world of Genius Bars and planned obsolescence hits just right.

This gorgeously written book is the most horrifying thing I’ve read in years. A retelling of a classic Poe story, T. Kingfisher breathes a life of their own into this tale, and what a terrible life that is. At only 160 pages, this little world is a claustrophobic, creepy, bleak, and, at times, funny one. “The dead don’t walk.” But they do. And they walked right into my nightmares for a solid three nights (and counting). 2022 was a great year for horror, but this one clawed itself up to the top of the pile.

A Chosen One who might not be all that chosen, a grumpy martial arts master maybe past her prime as his mentor, and an assassin able to walk through shadows following them... I mean, do you need more? This book was fantastic! Reading it felt like watching a cinematic masterpiece of martial arts. The characters are all amazing and interesting and I can’t wait to see what they do in book two.

This book is very Emily St. John Mandel. Dreamy prose, general melancholia, thoughtful character development that manages to make you question not only them, but yourself? Check. Sea of Tranquility weaves the lives of four people together. Despite being separated by centuries, they share this strange, anomalous experience. And while part of the story does take place during a global pandemic and time travel definitely plays a part, in the end it’s not really about either of those things, but about what is inevitable, what is real, and if any of it really matters.

Every time I think I’ve maybe come across the best read of 2022, I keep coming back to Manhunt. It may be caked in blood, puss, spit, and bile, but at its center is the most ineffaceable, queer tenderness. Seeing trans people not only included in a post-apocalyptic narrative but placed staunchly at its helm is simply too historic for me to choose another. Maybe all you’ll get is an upturned stomach (trust me, you will), but maybe... just maybe... you’ll experience the raw, unfettered power — and oddly, joy — of queer existence sans curtains, veils, and closets.

Book Lovers stole my book-loving heart this year! Emily Henry writes the “career woman from the big city travels to small town and finds love” rom-com trope with humor, a lot of heart, and originality. It’s a love letter to the romance genre, the publishing industry, and everyone who loves a good book. The story and characters feel familiar and fresh all at the same time, with a happy ending (the best kind of ending, as any romance fan knows!).