This past year I read so many great books! I completed 117 different books and I can easily say that over half of them are worthy of recommending with a 4-5 🍷 rating. That is success!
When I finish reading a book, I rate it on a 1 – 5 scale and then loosely start a list of my favorites. Things do move around as I reflect on the book more or have additional titles to compare it to. At the end of the year I have a bit of a blueprint and then I may move things around even more. I’ll also note that while the dark thrillers are what I tend to gravitate to and enjoy reading the most, few rarely make it to this end of the year list. This year I have more appearing here than ever before, so kudos to those authors, they are stepping it up! There are also several debuts from authors making my list this year.
Many of the books I read this year were from my 2022 Goals & Hopefuls list – although I do get very distracted by new releases and get off course. Due to that, once again I didn’t finish my Goal list. But no biggie! I try to not take it too seriously, it is just reading! It is just a bit of a guide and it does help me read really great books! Next year I am again committed to being very selective with my ARC requests, in fact, I don’t think I will requesting any more that are published before July. I have a good amount of them already (14!) and I feel like that is enough and I can continue to get to other books that are on my back list.
Instead of a lengthy list that I don’t know where to cut off I have decided to post two lists this year – Fiction & Non Fiction.
Here are my Top 25 Fiction reads of 2022:
- The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne
- Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
- Notes On An Execution – Danya Kukafka
- Look Closer – David Ellis – *note – an amazing, dark, twisty thriller! And read the author’s bio!
- Forsaken Country – Allen Eskens – *note – this is a series, go find book 1.
- The Violin Conspiracy – Brendan Slocumb
- Big Lies in a Small Town – Diane Chamberlain
- Hidden Pictures – Jason Rekulak – *note – so original! I recommend print instead of kindle or audio for this one.
- Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
- Count The Ways – Joyce Maynard
- A Good Neighborhood – Therese Anne Fowler
- The Lies I Tell – Julie Clark
- Nora Goes Off Script – Annabel Monaghan – *note – a light fun romance that was a great break from heavier reads.
- Book Lovers – Emily Henry
- Clap When You Land – Elizabeth Acevedo
- A Flicker In The Dark – Stacy Willingham
- Carrie Soto is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
- One Step Too Far – Lisa Gardner – *note – a series, start with book 1
- The Girl With The Louding Voice – Abi Dare
- Two Nights in Lisbon – Chris Pavone
- Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt – *note – an unforgettable non-human character!
- Writers & Lovers – Lily King
- The Measure – Nikki Erlick *note – it was only due to book club discussions that increased my enjoyment of this book and elevated its rating. So much to think & talk about packed in here.
- Scandalized – Ivy Owens – *This is a tad spicier than my normal higher ranking books. Beware!
I’ll be back soon with my top non-fiction reads of 2022!
