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The Best Books We Read in 2022 (That Weren’t

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It’s this: don’t get too hung up on the hot-off-the-press buzzy books

If you’re steeped in BookTok or Bookstagram, or you’re a professional book nerd — a bookseller,

You might want to be part of the conversation about the new books; you might want the

And sometimes, the allure of other people’s enthusiasm is impossible to resist

But here’s the thing: just because a book is new, that doesn’t mean it’s

And because there are only a limited number of hours in a day, the more of the

In 2020, with everything else going on, I leaned heavily into that: I wasn’t going to make

I’m still surrounded with a lot of book enthusiasts, and I’m lucky enough to get

And more recently, I dragged myself out of a reading slump with The Hating Game by Sally

I asked my fellow Book Rioters what backlist books (books published before 2022) they’ve enjoyed this year

Does a book need conflict? I’ve never thought so, and the Laid-Back Camp manga series I

They don’t argue, except to good-naturedly tease each other

It’s cozy and calming, like the book equivalent of ASMR, and I cannot get enough of

I’ve read 11 volumes so far this year, and I wish there were a hundred more

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Skye Shin is a Korean American teenager whose dream is to become a K-pop star, so she

But in 2022 I discovered Dracula Daily, a Substack that delivers a chunk of the novel to your

Since Dracula is an epistolary novel, this delivery method gives it the feeling of receiving updates from

More importantly, the book went semi-viral this year, especially on Tumblr, which became a massive, quirky book

It was a fantastic entry into the world of Louise Erdrich (who herself is kind of a

This is the first book I’ve seen on queer Utah history, and I loved the photos

There were stories and movements I’ve never really heard told here

It made me even more interested in learning about local queer history in greater depth

It’s an interesting combination of memoir, public history, and social treatise, and it hits just right

And of course, the amount of history we just weren’t taught in the American school system

It’s an absolute must read for anyone, whether you’re a history person or not

I absolutely loved this book, which explores the concept of “wintering,” or embracing the qualities of the

Given that winter is here, this is a superb book for December or January

I’ve read several of Butler’s other books, but this one felt very different in style

On the day of Dana’s 26th birthday in 1976, she’s bizarrely transported to a pre–Civil

She saves his life and almost immediately finds herself back in her time

It’s a thought-provoking, brilliant book that shows exactly why Octavia E