Here are the Books We Love: 400+ great 2022 reads recommended by NPR
NPR's Books We Love returns with 400+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 10 years of recommendations all in one place – that's more than 3,200 great reads.
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Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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Here are the Books We Love: 400+ great 2022 reads recommended by NPR
NPR's Books We Love returns with 400+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 10 years of recommendations all in one place – that's more than 3,200 great reads.
Open the app now!
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Here are the Books We Love: 400+ great 2022 reads recommended by NPR
NPR's Books We Love returns with 400+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 10 years of recommendations all in one place – that's more than 3,200 great reads.
Open the app now!
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
Locus Online
The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field
NPR’s Best Books of 2022
For the complete list, see the Books We Love page .
©Locus Magazine. Copyrighted material may not be republished without permission of LSFF.
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8 books that npr critics and staff were eager to tell you about in 2022.
NPR has launched its complete Books We Love list for 2022, our quirky collection of staff and contributors' favorite books of the year. Here are...
It's that time of year again: NPR brings you the complete Books We Love list for 2022, a quirky, highly personal collection of our staff and contributors' favorite books of the year.
We've curated a range of reads from the renaissance of ever-diverse graphic novels to hair-raising thrillers and mysteries .
Of the 402 books that made the list, here are eight of the books that our Books We Love readers recommended the most.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
You know that feeling when you finally beat a video game? Emotional catharsis floods your mind and body and, drained, you set down the controller with a sigh. If you're not much of a gamer, but you still crave that emotional release, Gabrielle Zevin's brilliant novel about two friends' journey to video game stardom is the perfect substitute. This story of love, loss and the constant battle between art and commercial success left me short of breath. It's one of those books you'll be thinking about long after "game over."
— Brandon Carter , associate producer, Washington Desk
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
For centuries, the crone Baba Yaga has been a figure in Slavic folklore – the kind of character who might lend you a magical candle or kill you and use your skull to decorate her house on chicken legs. In her debut novel, Thistlefoot , author and folklorist GennaRose Nethercott reimagines Baba Yaga as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern European shtetl in 1919, during a time of civil war and pogroms. Through the crone and her story, Nethercott explores the idea of folklore as a retelling of a memory too painful to talk about plainly.
— Mallory Yu , producer/editor, All Things Considered
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Former iCarly star Jennette McCurdy's account of her tumultuous relationship with show business, disordered eating and abuse by her mother is the heart of her debut memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died . McCurdy's storytelling is not only fantastic but intimate and raw, full of both pain and humor. While it can be hard to read, learning about how much she was going through privately while in the public eye, I'm Glad My Mom Died is also hard to put down – and hard to forget.
— Aja Miller, associate, Member Partnership
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
I could say something buttoned-up, like "Jonathan Escoffery's debut collection of short stories examines race, identity and class in incisive ways." And that'd be true, but phrasing it that way betrays the lack of didacticism in his writing . Instead, the book – which follows generations of one Jamaican American family – focuses on the hunger (literal and figurative), heartbreak, horniness and (maybe?) hope that often come hand-in-hand with trying to make it in this country.
— Andrew Limbong , correspondent, Culture Desk and host, Book of the Day
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Lucy Foley is back with her latest whodunit, this time set in an eerie Parisian apartment complex. Running from her own problems, Jess decides to visit Ben, her journalist brother. But when she gets to Paris, Ben is nowhere to be found. None of his neighbors know where he is, but they all seem to know him – maybe a little too well. As she investigates, Jess learns more about her brother, his work and those peculiar neighbors. With characters suspicious and unlikable in their own way and a fun twist, you're in for a dark and moody escape .
— Arielle Retting , growth editor, Digital News
The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
I'm a sucker for Gothic novels, and I've been loving the trend of Gothics that take place somewhere unexpected (i.e., not Europe). The Hacienda is a story that takes us to, well, a hacienda – in a remote Mexican town in the 1820s, not long after the War of Independence. The protagonist, Beatriz, moves to her new husband's large estate, eager to escape the rejection, poverty and tragedy that she's suffered in Mexico City. What she finds instead is a ridiculously haunted house inhabited by some equally haunted-seeming people – including those meant to be closest to her.
— Leah Donnella , supervising editor, Code Switch
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Sequoia Nagamatsu's debut is beautiful and unsparing in its depiction of a world reeling from a climate catastrophe-driven plague . From the earliest days of a pandemic, to the impacts that linger centuries into the future, the plague forces humans to reckon with immeasurable grief and loss. And the commercialization of death is inescapable: There's a euthanasia amusement park for terminally ill children, a hotel for the dead. But despite the doom and gloom, these stories are endlessly imaginative and rich with meaning. Though the universe these stories are unfolding within is undeniably bleak, Nagamatsu imbues his characters with a sense of cosmic hope and humanity.
— Summer Thomad , production assistant, Code Switch
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
The 1950s weren't just unkind to women with aspirations outside the home – they were punishing. Case in point: Elizabeth Zott, chemist. She doesn't have her Ph.D. because she was assaulted by a professor; she's belittled and harassed by the men she works with. She falls in love with a star scientist – and is dogged by rumors that she's using him to get ahead. His accidental death, her surprise pregnancy and new single-mother desperation lead her to success in an unlikely place: a TV cooking show. But Zott gives her audience radical lessons that go beyond the kitchen. This book is an often funny-yet-infuriating read.
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Books We Love
Great reads, thoughtfully curated by npr, what would you like to read.
Mix and match the filters below and the years above to explore more than 3,600 recommendations from NPR staff and trusted critics.
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Starred titles reviewed in our November 2022 print issue, spanning audio, mystery and suspense, SF/fantasy, romance, and more.
Backman, Fredrik. The Winners . S. & S. Audio.
Rinella, Steven & others. MeatEater’s Campfire Stories: Narrow Escapes & More Close Calls . Books on Tape.
Wellesley, Mary. The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts . Blackstone Audio.
MYSTERY & SUSPENSE
Brannigan, Ellie. Murder at an Irish Castle . Crooked Lane.
Connelly, Michael. Desert Star . Little, Brown.
George, Emily. A Half-Baked Murder . Kensington.
Mackintosh, Clare. The Last Party . Sourcebooks Landmark.
McKinlay, Jenn. Fatal Fascinator . Berkley.
Penny, Louise. A World of Curiosities . Minotaur: St. Martin’s.
Clark, C. L. The Faithless . Orbit.
O’Keefe, Megan E. The Blighted Stars . Orbit.
Pardo, Paz. The Shamshine Blind . Atria.
Parry, H. G. The Magician’s Daughter . Redhook: Orbit.
Bailey, Tessa. Secretly Yours . Avon.
Peckham, Scarlett. The Portrait of a Duchess . Avon.
Shupe, Joanna. The Duke Gets Even . Avon.
Brooks-Dalton, Lily. The Light Pirate . Grand Central.
Cullhed, Elin. Euphoria . Canongate.
Decos, Lissette. Ana Takes Manhattan . Forever: Grand Central.
Everett, Percival. Dr. No . Graywolf.
Marshall, Heather. Looking for Jane . Atria.
Hendrix, Grady. How To Sell a Haunted House . Berkley.
CHRISTIAN FICTION
Jennings, Regina. Engaging Deception . Bethany House.
CLASSIC RETURNS
Clair, Maxine. Rattlebone . McNally Editions.
Haushofer, Marlen. The Wall . New Directions.
Tonks, Rosemary. The Bloater . New Directions.
ARTS & HUMANITIES
Bonneville, Hugh. Playing Under the Piano: From Downton to Darkest Peru . Other Pr.
Bono. Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story . Knopf.
Cho, Su. The Symmetry of Fish . Penguin Bks.
Choi, Franny. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On . Ecco: HarperCollins.
Feil, Ken. Fearless Vulgarity: Jacqueline Susann’s Queer Comedy and Camp Authorship . Wayne State Univ.
Gervitz, Gloria. Migrations: Poem, 1976–2020 . NYRB.
Guralnick, Peter & Colin Escott. The Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll: The Illustrated Story of Sun Records and the 70 Recordings That Changed the World . Weldon Owen. p
Klawans, Stuart. Crooked, but Never Common: The Films of Preston Sturges . Columbia Univ.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Dunlap, Tori. Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsh*t To Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love . Dey Street.
Keltner, Dacher. Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life . Penguin Pr.
Schlesinger, Jill. The Great Money Reset: Change Your Work, Change Your Wealth, Change Your Life . St. Martin’s.
Taylor, Goldie. The Love You Save: A Memoir . Hanover Square: Harlequin.
Thompson, Lisa. Finding Elevation: Fear and Courage on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain . Girl Friday Bks.
Dato, Lara. Raising Adventurous Eaters: Practical Ways To Overcome Picky Eating and Food Sensory Sensitivities . New Harbinger.
Rajan, Rekha S. The Read Aloud Factor: How To Create the Habit That Boosts Your Baby’s Brain . Parenting Pr.: Chicago Review.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Chace, Daniella. Home Detox: Make Your Home a Healthier Place for Everyone Who Lives There . Storey.
Hollenstein, Jenna. Intuitive Eating for Life: How Mindfulness Can Deepen and Sustain Your Intuitive Eating Practice . New Harbinger.
Saffitz, Claire. What’s for Dessert: Simple Recipes for Dessert People . Clarkson Potter.
Woolfson, Esther. Between Light and Storm: How We Live with Other Species . Pegasus.
Digital Literacy: Skills & Strategies . Salem Pr.
PROFESSIONAL MEDIA
Weber, Mary Beth & Melissa De Fino. Virtual Technical Services: A Handbook . Rowman & Littlefield.
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