The Best Books We've Read in 2022
Just like last year, we asked our contributors, book clubbers, and readers to share the best books they read this year.
We have 15 lists for you, consisting of many books and even some more than one reader loved. These are our favorite books we read this year, but I’d love to hear about yours in the comments! And if you’re looking for more best of lists, you can find our list of 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 right here.
Esmée de Heer
Host of Bored to Death book club
Het Bureau 1: Meneer Beerta - J.J. Voskuil
This wasn’t an immediate five-star read because it’s long and sometimes quite boring and there are six more volumes I need to get through, but after finishing it, I found myself thinking about it all the time. There is something cyclical in the work of Het Bureau, in capturing a time that has past in such detail that is genius coming from someone whose job was exactly that. I love how self-referential it is, how much it makes the reader guess about reality and the past. But I also love the dumb office politics, am extremely jealous at some parts of working life back then (also very glad we no longer have a six-day workweek) and am really excited to read the other parts in this work even though they are just as long and boring.
The Bass Rock - Evie Wyld
Suzanne recommended this to me and she couldn’t have been more right. A gothic novel about women living in an abandoned house in Scotland dealing with the violence towards women, interspersed with narratives of women and the violence done to them. It was heavy hard-hitting and amazing.
Dagboek van Rotummerplaat - Godfried Bomans
Read in Schiermonnikoog together with the companion piece written by Jan Wolkers. This was an absolute delight and another cool look into Dutch literary history. In 1971 both Bomans and Wolkers were asked to stay on a Waddeneiland completely alone for one week. They were to talk about their experience on the radio and write in a diary which was published later. The stark contrast in experience between Bomans and Wolkers is amazing. Wolkers loves every moment of being alone, walking around naked, making art and living off the land. Bomans on the other hand is miserable. Hating the nature, afraid of the birds and getting more and more sick by the day. Their personalities speak through their experiences and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’d probably be a Bomans, but that’s also why his book spoke to me more.
White is for Witching - Helen Oyeyemi
I like Oyeyemi’s style and here she takes on the haunted house genre by taking the perspective of the house in such a cool way that I still think about it. Eerie, not too scary and super atmospheric.
Cipher - Kathe Koja
Another horror novel, this one a lot more violent and gruesome. I’ve been reading a lot of horror since last year and this novel was something so different, something so singular, that it really stood out. Kathe Koja is masterful with voice and description and even though I sometimes I had no idea what was happening, the vibe of it was immense.
Sam
Book clubber, find Sam on instagram
In no particular order:
Betty - Tiffany McDaniel
Raw, visceral story comes to life through McDaniel's beautiful and lyrical writing. An absolute gem of a coming-of-age book, which will stay with you for a long time.
Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead - Emily Austin
A funny yet bleak account of life through the eyes of a depressed, twenty-something lesbian. The most relatable thing I have read this year.
The Stand - Stephen King
My favourite King (so far). His storytelling is incredible and it amazed me throughout how he kept me wanting to read more of this incredible chonker.
Rotterdam: een ode aan inefficiëntie - Arjen van Veelen
An absolute must-read for everyone who lives in Rotterdam, is socially/societally conscious, cares about the environment, and are looking for a thought-provoking read.
Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
Painting such an intricate family picture that it feels you are part of said family, but also immensely grateful to be observing it from afar.
Laura
Find Laura on Instagram
A Certain Hunger - Chelsea G. Summers
I’m Glad My Mom Died - Jennette Mccurdy
Leven en Laten Leven - Madeleijn van den Nieuwenhuizen
Lapvona - Otessa Moshfegh
Men Explain Things to Me - Rebecca Solnit
Suzanne Peet
Find Suzanne on instagram
The Bass Rock - Evie Wyld
Easily the best book of 2022 for me. There are so many layers and little details in this book that it blows my mind.
Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder
A book about the complexities of motherhood and identity, a wild ride to read when you've just had your own baby.
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
A vivid dreamlike world to rival The Night Circus & The Starless Sea, but with a much deeper philosophical layer. There is a passage in here that just broke me.
The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night - Jen Campbell
One of the best short story collections I have read. Magical, inventive, funny and just so so well written.
Autumn - Ali Smith
Poetic and weird and political and floaty. Just exactly my kind of book. It was a very close call between this one and No One is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood which has similar vibes just a different country with different political shenanigans.
Dyann
find Dyann on instagram
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Beautiful World Where Are You - Sally Rooney
A Court of Silver Flames - Sarah J. Maas
The Love Hypothesis - Ali Hazelwood
Tender is the Flesh - Agustina Bazterrica
Roy den Boer
Book clubber, find Roy on Goodreads
1. De uitvreter / Titaantjes / Dichtertje / Mene Tekel - Nescio
De uitvreter and Titaantjes are not the only two stories in this collection, but they’re the ones that earned this the top spot. Those two stories are somehow made even more precious by the fact that even Nescio wasn’t able to come close to those heights again.
2. Het Bureau 1 Meneer Beerta - J.J. Voskuil
A book that constantly begs the question: why does this work at all? Shouldn’t this be the most boring book in the world? Why am I engaged and interested throughout?
3. The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
None of these by themselves is perfect, but the totality is such an ambitious, mad, complete vision of the future. A story spanning galaxies, centuries and all written in a broad, pulpy style that I cannot get enough of.
4. Nooit meer slapen - W.F. Hermans
Hermans makes writing a great novel feel so effortless that you almost forget to fully appreciate what he is doing. But yeah, it’s a masterpiece.
5. Kaas - Willem Elsschot
It’s certainly sobering to realise that a certain kind of story, tone and character I had been trying to capture in my own writing was already written ninety years ago.
Philomeen Kaan
find Philomeen on instagram
The Paris Apartment- Lucy Foley
The Witch’s Heart - Genevieve Gornichec
The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon
The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner
The Agathas- Kathleen Glasgow
Carina Pereira
Book clubber, find Carina on instagram and listen to her podcast
It is never easy to make a choice of the best off, especially when it comes to books, and having to choose five from a big list is an impossible task. And yet, every year, because Esmée asks us kindly and because, as readers, we like to share the books that moved us, we go through this impossible task and make a list. I didn’t have the best of reading years in 2022: quantity wise it was more than enough, but a lot of the books fell a bit flat, or at least they didn’t awe me as I was expecting them too. Still, I did get my hands on plenty of good ones.Below are five books which, not being exactly my absolute favourites, for one reason or another deserve a mention in the best 5 of this year.
Moon Of The Crusted Snow - Waubgesigh Rice
Written by an Indigenous author, it takes place in an indigenous community. As some sort of apocalypse reaches a part of North America, and electricity seems to have stopped working, the community starts gathering resources and preparing to live and work together in the face of adversity.
Despite the circumstances, things are under control, until an outsider reaches the reserve seeking refuge and starts playing by his own rules. This one offers great consideration on colonialism, and is a thriller that kept me on my feet throughout.
Wahala by Nikki May
The amount of drama in this book made me feel like I was watching a movie or series, rather than reading a book - in all the best ways!
Vivid images, intricate plots, and good ol’ drama. I gasped several times, was left speechless a couple more, and laughed my ass off. A joy and, absolutely entertaining without losing its literary side.
Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austen
Another one of those books that manage to talk about very deep themes in such a way that you’ll end up wondering how you’re laughing at something so serious.
The main character is an atheist queer woman accidentally hired as a secretary for a church. As if all this did not suffice, she also likes to meddle with things she has no business meddling with.But this is just the surface of the storyu deep down there is a lot to consider about loneliness, anxiety and depression, death of course, and about how humour is often the best way to cope with what life throws at you.
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
A book with deep feminist roots, and three timelines that intersect at some point - which is always a delight to encounter.It made me want to visit Scotland even more. The writing is dark and compelling, and it has a layer of melancholy across the whole of it, and incredibly beautiful prose.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The best way to add a few more books to a list that restricts you to five, is to read more than one book by the same writer in one year. That is what I did with Emily St John Mandel.
Sea Of Tranquillity (which came out this year but I had a chance to get an advanced reading copy last year) blew my socks away. \I ended 2021 and started 2022 in the company of Station Eleven - I was literally reading the book as the midnight bells rang, and I continued to do so as the night turned into the morning of the first of January. I then read The Glass Hotel and Last Night In Montreal.
Sea of Tranquillity is still my favourite Mandel, but I can’t add it to this list because I haven't read it this year (yet! - I still intend to reread it during my vacation between Christmas and New Year). From the other three I mentioned above, I cannot choose one alone: they are all amazing and all touched me in different ways. Mandel has a way of bringing up humanity’s best and worst traits, and then wrapping them in a prose that is hypnotizing and redeeming.
So there: Station Eleven is perhaps her most famous work and the one I chose to represent her this year, but all the titles above are very much worth a reader’s time.Can’t wait to include another one of her books on next year’s list. Or two.
Viènna
find her on instagram
Trieste - Daša Drndiç
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall
Kimmerer, Habitus - Radna Fabius
Radioactive - Lauren Redniss
Disoriental - Négar Djavadi
Jochem F. Melis
Book clubber, find Jochem on Goodreads
1. The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin
Nearly 50% of my 2022 reading life consisted of Le Guin, The dispossessed being the highlight. By far the finest piece of philosophical sci-fi I have ever read.
2. De Uitvreter, Titaantjes, Dichtertje, Mene Tekel - Nescio
Not much has changed these last hundred years.
3. The World for World is Forest - Ursula Le Guin
Climate activist Le Guin, totally my kopje thee.
4. The Magicians - Lev Grossman
A book could annoy the crap outta me, but still managed to completely suck me into it's universe.
5. Herinneringen aan mijn droeve hoeren - Gabriel García Márquez
Lyrical, light and entertaining.
Leonie
find Leonie on instagram
1. Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
2. Süss - Ann-Kristin Tlusty
3. My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
4. Hold Still - Nina LaCour
5. Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu
Clara Bolle
book clubber, find Clara on instagram
Brieven aan Sarte - Simone de Beauvoir
Zes Elegieën in Grote Terts - Léopold Sédar Senghor
Natalja Gontsjarova: haar leven en werk - Marina Tsvetajeva
Wandelingen met Walser - Carl Seelig
So Long a Letter - Mariama Bâ
Elizabeth Zagroba
Book clubber, find Elizabeth on instagram
I was looking for things that transported me this year. Each of these made me feel like the work day was just an interruption until I got to read more and dip back into another world.
1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Don't be intimidated by how long this one is, it's a delightful read. I love British people being snobby about magic.
2. A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
This story really stuck with me, but I've had a hard time recommending it to people after going through The StoryGraph list of trigger warnings.
3. The Sentence - Louise Erdrich
A Native American ghost story at a bookstore in Minneapolis. The book covers the year from November 2019 to November 2020, so be ready for the pandemic and the George Floyd protests in this one.
A retelling of the Greek myth, this falls into a category of books I get made fun of for reading which is roughly "lady lives by herself in the woods and goes insane".
This is more of a bunch of ladies (nuns) living together in the woods (in 12th century Britain) and going insane. But so poetically!
Eileen Ramos
Contributor, find Eileen on instagram
1. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Hilarious and thrilling, I was swept away by how witty, literary, and passionate this book is. I just wish I read more classics so I can better understand the inside jokes, but it did not take away the sheer joy I had while frolicking through this romp. It’s a brilliant debut of a series that I wish I read ages ago. I can’t wait to read the next Thursday Next!
2. Tales from the Inner City by Shaun Tan
Wildly beautiful and imaginative, these stories and their paintings were such a moving delight. They were stunning to behold and to consider, a treat no matter how old you are. Tan made me want to create and see where my own paintbrush and pen could go. If you ever feel dull, just pick up a Shaun Tan book and witness your mind explode.
3. The Museum of Modern Love - Heather Rose
A novel that manages to meet the high artistry of Marina Ambramović of whom it centers around, is quite the feat. I adored the exploration of art, love, creativity, and endurance that Rose takes us through the complicated characters and even a Muse. I’ve heard about The Artist is Present but had no idea of its magnitude until this book. It made me want to create my own singular art that only I can conjure and that’s the highest compliment you can give to a writer.
4. The Musical Illusionist: and Other Tales - Alex Rose
Speculative flash fiction in a luxurious range of settings all told through the Library of Tangents which is a sprawling subway museum. It’s a wonderful journey that sets your imagination on fire. While cleverly including vintage illustrations and diagrams to add authenticity. Exquisitely written, I could have read whole novels of each story. What a daring adventure.
5. Notes on Shapeshifting - Gabi Abrāo
Such a slim poetry book had an incredible impact on me. The rituals, mindsets, and explorations Abrāo offers are tantalizing to behold and fulfilling. It felt like a cleanse and a guiding hand to a new world that was always in front of me but I was too blocked to see. I don't always understand her poems but I know I'll grow to. It's a penetrative work that invites expansion and clarification, especially if you have a broken heart. A glorious way to heal.
Anne Ahlmann Kristensen
Book clubber, find Anne on Instagram
The Wolves from the Forest of Eternity - Karl Ove Knausgård
I dont think this is out in English yet but keep an eye out for Knausgård! I spent the summer reading this and the norwegian everyday life combined with the hygge Russian forests was a perfect vibe.
Winther Stories - Ingvild H. Rishøi
Most touching and heartbreaking stories I’ve ever read
The Jade Cat - Suzanne Brøgger
A peculiar jewish family history from Riga to Vopenhagen in the 20th century. I loved the language and the cynical humor
Mørkt Forår - Unica Zürn
A literary trauma! So horrible and beautiful
The Complete Poems of Enheduana - the worlds first author translated by Sophus Helle
Powerful and stunning poems and hymns written by the first known author, Enheduana, in old Sumerian
If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much for reading and a big thanks to everyone who shared their favorite books of 2022. If your favorite isn’t mentioned, be sure to leave it as a comment and I will check it out. Happy holidays and until the new year!