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The Best Nonfiction of 2022

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This year saw some very highly anticipated books come out (more on that below), which then set

It’s not that I’ve read more per se, but somehow it seems that my choices

You’ll have to judge for yourself, but I think it has been an especially good few

Sort of like a “greatest hits” of my reading life, I have some titles I have just

As someone with only a passing knowledge of biology, you might not think I am the ideal

I heard of Mukherjee’s first book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer many

And as soon as I started, I knew I wouldn’t be able to put it down

This would be a great read for anyone who liked Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of

It is a little difficult to categorize since it embraces both nonfiction and personal history, but they

Definitely one of the best nonfiction books of 2022, it is a meditation not only on U

history, but also on what it means to belong to America and call oneself an American, while

There is also a young readers edition Caste (Adapted for Young Adults) for those who find that

I have had Alice Wong’s first book, Disability Visibility, on my reading list for some time,

All that is to say that you don’t have to know who she is, either

This book is such an excellent standalone memoir that you can enjoy it even if you (like

Temple Grandin is an author I have heard a lot about, but still haven’t read much

Plus her writing is very accessible and clear to me, qualities not always found in authors who

She explains with clarity how our brains are wired differently in an exploration of visual thinking

Definitely give this book a read and see how it changes the way you see your thinking

Fellow Rioter Patricia Elzie-Tuttle also mentioned it as one of her best of 2022 nonfiction picks in Book

I found myself believing what she said as I listened: “Grind culture cannot have you…Stay in

” I can’t be the only person who recognizes how much the world needs this book and

I had marked this as one I wanted to read in 2022, but am thankful to fellow Rioter

Parks initially set out to understand what happened to her grandmother’s transgender neighbor who lived as

Content warnings for sexual assault, addiction, and homophobia

This is exactly the sort of nonfiction gem that I missed when it came out in 2022, so

I got teary-eyed when I first started reading Gay’s introduction

She goes to the Buddha and asks him to bring her son back to life

The mother goes from home to home searching for a person who has never grieved the loss

And of course, she returns with empty pockets and an understanding of the universality of loss

Perhaps she also returned with a deep understanding that though grief may feel isolating, it can be

This memoir is also one of the most affecting nonfiction titles I read 2022, but you should know

Content warnings for sexual assault, rape, child abuse, and pregnancy loss

On the other hand, I was drawn in from the first page and could not put this

This is a very worthwhile read despite covering very difficult topics

A few come to mind immediately like Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora and Julian Aguon’s