Best Books of 2022: I read 80 books this year with 32 of the books being published this year. I will post my top ten books published this year and my top 5 of books that were not published this year.

Top Ten of Books Published in 2022:

1: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin is a fantastic novel about life, love, death and video games. I’m a casual gamer and didn’t know if this book would be for me but I was blown away by the passion poured into every word of this book. This book became an instant favorite and was clear front runner for best book of 2022 .The story is about how two college kids start a video game company and put their heart and souls in to each game, that can sometimes mirror their own lives. This book will make you respect the art, countless hours, and detail that go into to making a video game. This book was on a couple of best of 2022 list and won the Goodreads choice for best fiction of the year.  I have to thank Knopf Publishing and Netgalley for sending me an early copy, I don’t know if I would have selected this book on my own but so happy that it got sent to me.

2: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is a fantastic debut novel of modern day fiction, that’s is really something special. This and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow where the front runners I connected so easily with these stories. This book is A Man Called Ove meets Charlotte’s Web which is a crazy combo but it works. The uniqueness of the story is we get the perspective of an octopus, Marcellus, that is one of the smartest characters and has a unique perspective on life behind it’s inch of glass it desperately wants to escape from. Marcellus subtly nudges the humans to connect and appreciate life in a way like Charlotte did in Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. 

3: Gallant by V.E. Schwab is a modern day dark gothic young adult fairy tale filled with ghosts and death. V. E. Schwab can do it all and has such a fantastic imagination. Gallant is a hauntingly good story that seeped into my dreams. The plot is half mystery and half gothic horror. The pace of the story is very rapid and doesn’t let up. Olivia the lead character is born mute, which would be a challenge for any writer to make compelling, having others talk and you lead character only gesture, but Schwab makes it work seamlessly. The dark gothic horror elements don’t go too dark and seem appropriate for the young adult audience as low as 12. The world building and mystery are done really well, I loved deep diving into the family history and the curse. This won Goodreads Choice award for Young Adult Fantsay.

4: The Island by Adrian McKinty is an intense, page turning thriller, that does not let up until the end. I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did but man is this book deliver on a unique story and a unique family dynamic. The pace for this book is rapid pace even when the book as its rare slow moments, it’s still interesting. This book is suburban mom with step kids meets Rambo. The thriller aspect is so intense, but I also have to commend McKinty for his analysis of the family unit, I have never read a trophy wife quite like this. It’s one thing escaping backwoods killers, but you have to parent kids that are closer in age to you than you are to your husband. The twists are great, there’s not too many but they make them have impact. The scary thing in this book is the rational of desperate people scrabbling to make sure they keep their independence. The setting of the untouched island off the coast of Australia has that stranger in a stangeland quality, where the family have to not only escape but deal with the elements and wildlife of the Outback that they have only read about.

5: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi is a short novel seeped in pop culture references and take a fun approach to what if Kaijus were real. This one was another surprise I’m not a huge Kaiju fan but, the fun and the science of this novel really worked.  What is a Kaiju? a giant monster, think Godzilla and King Kong. The book uses a lot of mythos from Godzilla created from a nuclear blast and all Kaiju’s are radioactive. I liked that this wasn’t a Jurassic Park rip off it’s its own thing, though there are references to Jurassic Park littered throughout. This novel is hard in it’s science fiction and trying to make the science work, there’s some science that went over my head. The character that we the reader follow is in over his head which really works he is a grunt a person who lifts things. But in another life he has a Master’s in fiction and did his thesis on science fiction novels.

6: Harley Quinn: Reckoning by Rachael Allen is an original take on Harley Quinn’s origin, a rocking feminist revenge plot and a mystery all rolled up into one. I was blown away by how good this book was and the aspects it explored of her personality and sexuality. Harley Quinn: Reckoning is part of the DC Icons series which tells origin stories for the young adult audience before the hero or villain has became a super hero or super villain. A big part of this book was the mystery, and I was really compelled to find out who done it. There’s a couple of really clever plot twist and there is some twist that lead to the mystery that is Harley Quinn.

7: The Maid by Nita Prose is a warm hearted mystery that is all about character in a really strong debut novel. This book started the new year of 2022 and still made an impression on me at the end of the year this is a good mystery. What makes this novel so unique is that you have a main character that can not read emotion. We see everything through that person’s eyes so a conversation can feel innocent but can be sinister, some things will be instant red flags, but most will have you guessing the intent of the character. The mystery is good and filled with lots of layers, that kept my interest. Molly the Maid has so much charm that so just can’t help but root for against all the odds she’s up against. The Maid reminded me a lot of The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime which is good company.

8: The Diamond Eye By Kate Quinn is a historical fiction taking place during World War II from the perspective of a former Russian teacher now a sniper nicknamed Lady Death. This story is based on a true story of Russia’s Number 1 female sniper. This story has action. drama, and romance. The story is paced pretty well from the start making it pretty hard to put down, it dips a little when it’s focus goes away from the battlefield. The book is like two stories in one the history of Lady Death and then a time where she campaigns for US involvement and a presidential murder plot. The presidential murder is teased throughout the book until the story catches up.

9:.Violeta by Isabel Allende is life story about a Chilean woman who is born in one pandemic the Spanish Flu and writes her life story as she is close to death in the midst of Covid. The story acts as a confession to her grandson Camilo about her life from the 1920’s to 2020’s. The novel covers a hundred years of struggle to find love, survive death, and find her purpose in life. The story is beautiful and very emotional at times. The history is felt in every part of this historical fiction.

10: Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell is a science fiction with about the worlds survival after earth has already blown up. Stars and Bones made my top 10 because it was so unique and really stuck out among by other 4 star ratings. The novels plot is half the science fiction horror movie Life meets half of 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke. This novel gets pretty brutal and no one is safe. The pace of the novel is good as you and the character’s race for time and answers. The big Science Fiction ideas get a little heady but I felt I was able to follow along pretty well. The backstory for the plot and how the earthlings got to this moment in time was the highlight. Stars and Bones was brutal and gory at times as bodies are broken apart and reformed not always in the right way making them nightmare creatures.

Top Five Books that Were Not Published this Year:

1: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir puts the “science” in science fiction. This is a book that made me mad I didn’t read it sooner.  This is from the writer of The Martian. Project Hail Mary serves as both a compelling story and a lesson in science that is fascinating and not boring. This book is filled with twist and discovery. The story is told from the perspective of Grace Ryland a man with no memory waking in space, we get his back story as his brain slowly starts to remember. The narrative really works and leads to a lot of discovery about science and his character. There’s no love interest and I give props because there could have been one but it is a character that had devoted his life to science and in the end that’s what he does. My lack of science could fill a library full of book shelves, but I came away learning a lot about measurements and the scientific method. This book had a surprising amont of humor that were layered throughout the novel.

2: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles is historical fiction taking place in the 1950. Another book where I’m bummed it took me a year to pick up. This is a wonderful story about life and the many ways it can change either by standing up to change or being caught in the wave of it. The theme of the book is redemption, all the characters are trying to redeem themselves of either something they did or their family did. What I love is that all don’t succeed or have a very messed up view about redemption. I though this book was going to be a road book, where the characters get thrown off course to the California destination but eventually make it, but the opposite happens where the character by happenstance go backwards away form California.

3: Misery by Stephen King is King at his best. I read the Shining last year and was blown away and this year it happened again, both stories I though I knew but the book is better and so good. Misery is a deeply psychological horror that you can not put down. White knuckle thrill ride is not a term I use often, but the finale is so tense, that could not help being delighted and terrified of what was on the next page. Misery is a character but also cleverly the tone of this book and what Annie puts Paul through. I have seen the movie Misery, where the excellent Kathy Bates won her Oscar, and thought I knew the story, where some things were similar and right from the page, others were not which made it still terrifying, and had no idea what would happen next. The book is way more brutal and gorier than the movie for one thing.

4: The Poet by Michael Connelly is very dark atmospheric mystery.  This book was a reread for me and still packed a punch I forgot who the killer was and was very entertained. The killer from The Poet is the most terrifying because of the way they mask their kills, there’s a line from the movie The Usual Suspects written by Christopher McQuarrie “The Greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, that fits so well here. The Killer only goes after detectives and makes their kill look like suicide. The police department don’t want to talk about so are quick to dismiss it, until a reporter and a twin bother of one of the victims won’t let it rest and discovers his brother might not be the only one. This book is so great and what’s cool is it is a reporter solving the crime instead of a detective. I think this is Connelly most personal story since he used to be a crime reporter before becoming a full time novelist. 

5: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a great novel about family, relationship, and history. I don’t know if I would call this book historical fiction even though most of it takes place in the 1980’s no major historical events happen but you can feel the decade in the narrative. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s gift is getting to care about characters so fast, I don’t know how she does it but I’m drawn in almost instantly, and the same thing happen with Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. The theme of directions and history repeating it self was layered through out, there was a subtitle passage about one character not turning a blinker and it is because at that moment his life has no direction. This novel is an emotional ride, there’s so many highs and lows like a surfer’s wave.