Best Books of 2022

Dilla Time

The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm

By: Dan Charnas
Narrated by: Dan Charnas
Length: 14 hours 52 minutes

This program contains examples of J Dilla's music performed in the studio by drummer Nate Smith and is accompanied by a bonus PDF of maps, photos, guides, and more.

"This book is a must for everyone interested in illuminating the idea of unexplainable genius.” —QUESTLOVE

Equal parts biography, musicology, and cultural history, Dilla Time... Read more

Nightcrawling

A novel

By: Leila Mottley
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 10 hours 48 minutes

“At 17, Kiara has had more difficulties than most. Forced to drop out of high school to find work to avoid eviction, she finds getting a job next to impossible. She falls into sex work, which leads her to a sex trafficking ring run by the Oakland police. Mottley presents these circumstances without flinching or hand wringing. Her astute... Read more

A Magic Steeped in Poison

The Book of Tea: Book #1

By: Judy I. Lin
Narrated by: Carolyn Kang
Length: 11 hours 11 minutes

Judy I. Lin's sweeping debut A Magic Steeped in Poison, first in a duology, is sure to enchant fans of Adrienne Young and Leigh Bardugo.

I used to look at my hands with pride. Now all I can think is, "These are the hands that buried my mother."

For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it's her own fault. She was the... Read more

The Genesis of Misery

By: Neon Yang
Narrated by: Livvie Lin
Length: 15 hours 8 minutes

An immersive, electrifying space-fantasy, Neon Yang's debut novel The Genesis of Misery is full of high-tech space battles and political machinations, starring a queer and diverse array of pilots, princesses, and prophetic heirs.

It’s an old, familiar story: a young person hears the voice of an angel saying they have been chosen as a warrior to... Read more

Mushroom Rain

By: Laura K. Zimmermann
Narrated by: Simon Vance
Length: 15 minutes

What can smell like bubblegum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! From their hidden networks underground to the fruiting body above, mushrooms can do incredible things. But don't call them plants—mushrooms are fungi. They're more closely related to animals... Read more

How High We Go in the Dark

A Novel

By: Sequoia Nagamatsu
Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Brian Nishii, Keisuke Hoashi, MacLeod Andrews, Jeanne Sakata, Greg Watanabe, Kurt Kanazawa, Matthew Bridges, Kotaro Watanabe, Brianna Ishibashi, Joe Knezevich, Micky Shiloah, Stephanie Komure & Jason Culp
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

“Interlinked short stories comprise this novel in the same way gears and levers make an astronomical clock. Many of the stories are heartbreaking, and others seed hope; each has either a narrator in the midst of a journey, or a narrator stuck in one place (literal or figurative) while events explode around them. The two types of characters... Read more

This Vicious Grace

A Novel

The Last Finestra: Book #1

By: Emily Thiede
Narrated by: Carlotta Brentan & Michael Gallagher
Length: 13 hours 12 minutes

“This is a captivating Italian-inspired fantasy about a girl who desperately wants to be loved and touched but is given a cruel fate of loneliness and deadly powers. Sparkling with grim humor, a sizzling romance, and an unlikely group of friends, this book will have you glued to the page as the characters try to meld their powers together to save... Read more

The Dead Romantics

By: Ashley Poston
Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
Length: 10 hours 23 minutes

“Florence Day is a ghost writer for a famous romance author. However, after her boyfriend betrays and breaks up with her, Florence finds it difficult to write a happily ever after ending. When a family tragedy forces her to return home she must face her biggest secret, she can see and interact with ghosts. To her amazement a very familiar ghost... Read more

What's the T?

By: Juno Dawson
Narrated by: Juno Dawson
Length: 5 hours 23 minutes

Discover what it means to be a young transgender and/or non-binary person in the twenty-first century in this candid and funny guide for teens from the bestselling author of This Book Is Gay.
In What’s the T? Stonewall ambassador and bestselling author Juno Dawson is back again, this time with everything you’ve wanted to know about labels and... Read more

A Gift for Nana

By: Lane Smith
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
Length: 7 minutes

Two-time Caldecott Honor author/illustrator Lane Smith tells a whimsical story about a little rabbit searching for the best gift for someone very special.

A thoughtful little Rabbit sets out to find the perfect gift for his Nana. He knows she will love anything he brings her but Rabbit wants this gift to be extra special. As he travels on his... Read more

Mouth to Mouth

A Novel

By: Antoine Wilson
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Length: 4 hours 52 minutes

“While the narrative of Mouth to Mouth skillfully navigates numerous twists and turns, Antoine Wilson is most compelling when he obsessively dissects its philosophical underpinnings—fate and free will, value and values, ethics and aesthetics, the 'eye' and the 'I'—even as his characters toe the line between sinister and self-serving with... Read more

Fiona and Jane

By: Jean Chen Ho
Narrated by: Natalie Naudus
Length: 7 hours 17 minutes

A TIME, NPR, VOGUE, OPRAH DAILY, AND VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR)

One of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022

“Ho's debut work is the perfect modern example of great American fiction. . . . You will love it.” —Jake Tapper

“Intimate, cinematic. . . . The world Ho creates between the two women feels like one friend reading the other’s story,... Read more

Strangers to Ourselves

Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us

By: Rachel Aviv
Narrated by: Andi Arndt
Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

“This is part memoir, part examination of the experiences of four other people who experienced mental illness and struggled with the treatments available. Aviv is most insightful when writing about herself, or the affluent young woman who decides to go off her medications, most likely because Aviv relates more easily to her circumstances. Her... Read more

This Time Tomorrow

A Novel

By: Emma Straub
Narrated by: Marin Ireland & Emma Straub
Length: 8 hours 37 minutes

“Time travel and 1990s teen angst and awkwardness with Emma Straub at the helm? Sign me up! This is the perfect blend of heartbreak and heartfelt laughter that we could all use a dose of right now. Read more

Other Terrors

An Inclusive Anthology

By: Vince A. Liaguno & Rena Mason
Narrated by: Jeanette Illidge, Catherine Ho, James Fouhey, Tim Chiou, Neil Shah & Blessing Mokgohloa
Length: 12 hours 5 minutes

An anthology of original horror stories edited by Bram Stoker Award® winners Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason that showcases authors from historically excluded backgrounds telling terrifying tales of what it means to be, or merely to seem, “other” Offering new stories from some of the biggest names in horror as well as some of the hottest... Read more

Only a Monster

Only a Monster: Book #1

By: Vanessa Len
Narrated by: Vera Chok
Length: 11 hours 36 minutes

The sweeping romance of Passenger meets the dark fantasy edge of This Savage Song in this stunning contemporary fantasy debut from Vanessa Len, where the line between monster and hero is razor thin.Don’t forget the rule. No one can know what you are. What we are. You must never tell anyone about monsters. Joan has just learned the truth: her... Read more

Calling for a Blanket Dance

By: Oscar Hokeah
Narrated by: Oscar Hokeah & Rainy Fields
Length: 6 hours 49 minutes

“This is an incredible family epic in sleek, unpretentious form. Hokeah uses his characters as crisp prisms through which we see the nature of family: vicious and precious, mournful and joyful, everything in-between. A remarkable debut! Read more

Love in the Library

By: Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Narrated by: Sura Siu
Length: 14 minutes

To fall in love is already a gift. But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka, a place built to make people feel like they weren’t human—that was miraculous. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast—elderly people, children, babies—now live in... Read more

Easy Beauty

By: Chloé Cooper Jones
Narrated by: Chloé Cooper Jones
Length: 10 hours 37 minutes

“The subtitle ‘memoir’ doesn't do justice to this spectacular, sui generis meditation on art, disability, parenting, and travel. It's about more than memory — it's about living in the now and creating the future we want for our children. Read more

Vladimir

A Novel

By: Julia May Jonas
Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
Length: 9 hours 40 minutes

“Situations sometimes arise that appear to be one thing and prove to be something very different indeed. This is Vladimir. Crisp, clever, darkly darkly funny and brilliantly written with a reader whose voice nails the character spot on. Book club discussions of this one are going to be lively for sure. Read more