Best Books of 2022Like this list

100 items

• Afterlives

  Gurnah, Abdulrazak, 1948-

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  Set against the backdrop of European colonialism in early twentieth century East Africa, the latest novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021 Nobel Prize for Literature winner) tells a story of family and entrepreneurship disrupted by war. Khalifa…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• All This Could Be Different

  Mathews, Sarah Thankam,

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  A recent college graduate living in Milwaukee and working as a consultant, Sneha is succeeding in recession era 2012, squirrelling away some savings, sending money home to her parents in India, enjoying getting to know her new friend Tig,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Also a Poet

  Frank O'hara, My Father, and Me

  Calhoun, Ada,

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  While searching her parents' East Village home's storage for childhood mementos, Calhoun stumbled across some cassettes of interviews her art critic father Peter Schjeldahl conducted with friends of the poet Frank O'Hara in the 1970s after…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• American Midnight

  the Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis

  Hochschild, Adam,

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  For simplicity's sake, the study of history is typically divided into periods bookended by major events. While helpful on the surface, the technique can obscure important context, and major events can overshadow happenings every bit as…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Art of Prophecy

  a Novel

  Chu, Wesley,

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  This heroic fantasy epic concerns an aging but legendary warrior Ling Taishi and the young hero she takes on as a student, Wen Jian, who is prophesied to defeat the Eternal Kahn. But when the prophecy goes awry, their plans must change.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Birdcatcher

  Jones, Gayl,

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  This playfully dark novel, a National Book Award finalist, was originally published in Germany in 1986. Travel writer Amanda Wordlaw is staying on the island of Ibiza with her friend Catherine, a renowned sculptor who repeatedly tries to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Black Cake

  a Novel

  Wilkerson, Charmaine,

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  Instead of taking secrets to her grave, Eleanor Bennett left "death bed" recordings shedding light on a complicated past, alleviating her regrets and guilt, and sharing lessons on how far women let shame affect the trajectory of their…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Bliss Montage

  Ma, Ling, 1983-

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  Ma's smart new collection of stories contains elements of fantasy, commenting on the unique absurdities of our current moment. Failed relationships, disconnection and toxic masculinity feature prominently. In one story, the narrator lives…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Book Lovers

  Henry, Emily,

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  Henry's hotly-anticipated new novel does not disappoint. Successful and ambitious literary agent Nora has built a life she loves in New York City, except for the fact that her boyfriends keep leaving her for small town relationships. So…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Book of Goose

  Li, Yiyun, 1972-

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  Agnes, who lives in 1960s Philadelphia far away from her past, receives a letter from her mother in her hometown of Saint-Rémy, France, that Fabienne has passed away while giving birth. Agnes was once a well-known writer and escaped from…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Books of Jacob, Or, A Fantastic Journey Across Seven Borders, Five Languages, and Three Major Religions, Not Counting the Minor Sects

  Tokarczuk, Olga, 1962-

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  Nobel prize-winning Olga Tokarczuk's magnus-opus, first published in Polish in 2014, has finally been published in English. Tokarczuk's cinematic, densely historical novel is ambitious in a multitude of ways. Its collage-like structure…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Booth

  a Novel

  Fowler, Karen Joy,

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  The Booths were an early American dynasty of acting talents who enjoyed a fair amount of celebrity - and some scandal - in their day, but were eventually tarnished by infamy when John Wilkes betrayed their pro-Union family and assassinated…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Breathless

  the Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

  Quammen, David, 1948-

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  Humanity’s latest battle against deadly viruses gets a page-turning and highly-informative treatment in science journalist Quammen’s page-turning account of COVID-19, which reads like an international medical thriller full of intrigue.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• By Hands Now Known

  Jim Crow's Legal Executioners

  Burnham, Margaret A., 1944-

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  With access to a database assembled by Northeastern University's Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, founding director Margaret A. Burnham has crafted a powerful reckoning of Jim Crow violence occurring from 1920 to 1960. Drawing…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Calling for a Blanket Dance

  a Novel

  Hokeah, Oscar, 1975-

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  Hokeah's debut novel is a coming-of-age story about a young Native American named Ever Gerimausaddle and his family of Kiowa, Cherokee, and Mexican heritage in Oklahoma. This book touches on the complexities of family, community, the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Camera Man

  Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century

  Stevens, Dana (Film critic),

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  Buster Keaton was always on the cutting edge of entertainment. As a child, he and his parents travelled the country as one of the bigger vaudeville acts. This was how Buster learned many of the physical comedy moves he was so famous for…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Candy House

  a Novel

  Egan, Jennifer,

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  Egan revisits the characters from her hugely successful 2010 novel A Visit from the Goon Squad in this new novel that grapples with contemporary issues with dazzling verve. Egan sets up a kind of parallel reality that's pretty much…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Checkout 19

  Bennett, Claire-Louise,

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  Checkout 19 takes on literature with a variety of techniques: multiple narratives, stream of consciousness, and auto-fiction, for starters. It reads like James Joyce at times and Sheila Heti at others. Told from the perspective of a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Companion Piece

  Smith, Ali, 1962-

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  While her father is in the hospital during the COVID pandemic, Sandy, an artist, sees her life further (and comically) disrupted by an old college classmate named Marina whom she barely remembers. Martina works for a museum and has run…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Constructing a Nervous System

  Jefferson, Margo, 1947-

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  In this slim but sophisticated blend of autobiography and cultural criticism, the celebrated writer Margo Jefferson draws on her memories growing up in Chicago, the daughter of a pediatrician, and throughout her career. She moves with…Read moreRead more of this annotation