2022 Top Reads by Inklings Staff

Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi & Billie Fulford-Brown
Length: 21 hours 45 minutes

“Finishing a book like this is equal parts pleasure and pain: pleasure in reading something so striking and beautiful juxtaposed by the pain of it ending. Few books have brought tears to my eyes; Kuang’s Babel is now numbered among them. Read more

Fevered Star

Between Earth and Sky: Book #2

By: Rebecca Roanhorse
Narrated by: Christian Barillas, Darrell Dennis, Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis & Shaun Taylor-Corbett
Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

“Once again, Rebecca Roanhorse has crafted a magnificent book continuing her Between Earth and Sky series. The Crow God has risen, and war seems inevitable between the clans, dragging Tova further into darkness. Toying with living legends, loyalty, and fate is a dangerous endeavor - whose side will you be on once the battle lines are drawn? This... Read more

Taming the Potted Beast

The Strange and Sensational History of the Not-So-Humble Houseplant

By: Molly Williams
Narrated by: Molly Williams
Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

“A great audio to walk or garden to! The blend of plant care and world history is fascinating. Definitely worth the read for anyone interested in house plants or a fun twist on history from a plant’s view. Read more

The Warsaw Orphan

By: Kelly Rimmer
Narrated by: Nancy Peterson & Charlie Thurston
Length: 13 hours 16 minutes

Instant New York Times bestseller—for fans of All the Light We Cannot See and The Tattooist of Auschwitz!

Inspired by the real-life heroine who saved thousands of Jewish children during WWII, The Warsaw Orphan is Kelly Rimmer’s most anticipated novel since her bestselling sensation, The Things We Cannot Say.

“Gripping… This one easily stands on... Read more

Small World

A Novel

By: Jonathan Evison
Narrated by: William DeMeritt
Length: 15 hours 59 minutes

Winner of the Housatonic Book Award

A New York Times Editors' Choice! 

One of Booklist’s “Top 10 Historical Fiction Novels of 2022”

One of the Los Angeles Times's “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List”

One of Book Culture's Most Anticipated Reads

“A bighearted, widescreen American tale.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Masterpiece . . . The... Read more

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

By: Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman & Jake Silverstein
Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones & Full Cast
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

“This new landmark work of U.S. history, criticism, and art is forged of 18 essays that consider the relevance of slavery to contemporary America through the prism of such subjects as capitalism, music, and healthcare and poems and fiction that focus on key moments in the oppression, resistance, and liberation of Black people in America. Riveting... Read more

Dinosaurs

By: Lydia Millet
Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

“Such an engaging novel, without over-the-top drama or feelings. But don't let that fool you as there's much to reflect on just beneath the surface. It's a story about a lonely man seeking relationships and wanting to have a positive impact on the world around him. Read more

Cloud Cuckoo Land

A Novel

By: Anthony Doerr
Narrated by: Marin Ireland & Simon Jones
Length: 14 hours 51 minutes

“This book is the best thing I’ve read - and the most complex and sophisticated - since Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Three story lines tied together by the mythical quest of a man named Aethon: 1400’s Constantinople, present day Idaho, and a futuristic voyage of a ship called The Argos! Suspense and adventure! With all the beautiful... Read more

Haven

By: Emma Donoghue
Narrated by: Aidan Kelly
Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

In this beautiful story of adventure and survival from the New York Times bestselling author of Room, three men vow to leave the world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them. In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to... Read more

Atlas of the Heart

Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

By: Brené Brown
Narrated by: Brené Brown
Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In her latest book, Brené Brown writes, “If we want to find the way back to ourselves and one another, we need language and the grounded confidence to both tell our stories and be stewards of the stories that we hear. This is the framework for meaningful connection.”

In Atlas of the Heart, Brown takes us on a... Read more

Tiny Beautiful Things (10th Anniversary Edition)

Advice from Dear Sugar (A Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick)

By: Cheryl Strayed
Narrated by: Cheryl Strayed
Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

“Before she was known as the author of Wild, Cheryl Strayed was the anonymous Dear Sugar on The Rumpus website – an agony aunt of sorts, if agony aunts were endowed with ruthless compassion, profound honesty, and excellent prose. Tiny Beautiful Things is a collection of these columns. After I listened to Dear Sugar, the podcast she shared with... Read more

Red Rising

Red Rising: Book #1

By: Pierce Brown
Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Length: 16 hours 11 minutes

“Action scenes so intense they are borderline cheesy but in the BEST way! Read more

Firekeeper's Daughter

By: Angeline Boulley
Narrated by: Isabella Star LaBlanc
Length: 14 hours 13 minutes

“This story of a young woman roped into a federal investigation of a drug ring tearing her Ojibwe community apart is riveting and sorrowful. Daunis is an 18 year old non-enrolled Ojibwe with plenty of ambition and skills and won't see a clear path to her future that doesn't involve working in her community. This book moved me in so many ways but... Read more

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, Book 1)

The Raven Cycle

By: Maggie Stiefvater
Narrated by: Will Patton
Length: 11 hours 7 minutes

“These characters will become your friends, and the atmosphere of Cabeswater and Henrietta will soak right into your bones. Stiefvater's words have a way of coloring the days in which you read them. Listen close, the trees speak Latin! Read more

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy

By: Megan Bannen
Narrated by: Michael Gallagher & Rachanee Lumayno
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes

“It’s a bit like You’ve Got Mail but with a demi-god cowboy, a female undertaker who just wants to keep her family’s business afloat, and a wise-cracking mailrabbit that drinks whiskey and talks like an old-timey gangster. Bannen brings together the cozy and the macabre to create a love story that had me smiling from start to finish. If you’re... Read more

Meet Me in the Margins

A Rom-Com for People Who Love Books

By: Melissa Ferguson
Narrated by: Talon David
Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

“Savannah is secretly writing a romance novel—something that the highly selective Nashville publishing house that employs her as an editor would never deign to pick up—but after a chance meeting with the editor-in-chief of her favorite romance imprint, Savannah thinks she might actually have a chance at getting published. In a cutthroat... Read more

Highland Spitfire

Highland Weddings: Book #1

By: Mary Wine
Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
Length: 9 hours 6 minutes

Passion flares between enemies



Two hotheaded Highlanders, the offspring of feuding lairds, are tricked by the King's Regent into a desperate choice: marry or die. Bhaic MacPherson is more disposed to lead his clan into battle than stay married to the daughter of his enemy. But perhaps the intensity of his feelings has more to do with desire than... Read more

Late Migrations

A Natural History of Love and Loss

By: Margaret Renkl
Narrated by: Joyce Bean
Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

“Margaret Renkl feels the lives and struggles of each creature that enters her yard as keenly as she feels the paths followed by her mother, grandmother, her people. Learning to accept the sometimes harsh, always lush natural world may crack open a window to acceptance of our own losses. In Late Migrations, we welcome new life, mourn its passing,... Read more

The Door of No Return

By: Kwame Alexander
Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Length: 3 hours 35 minutes

“Wonderful and devastating, light-hearted and heart-wrenching, this is an incredible, intense, moving story of family and tragedy. I listened to the audiobook, and it was marvelous. Read more

The Birdcage

By: Eve Chase
Narrated by: Taj Atwall & Aurora Dawson-Hunte
Length: 10 hours 20 minutes

In the spirit of Lisa Jewell and Kate Morton, an emotional mystery set in the rugged remote landscape of north Cornwall full of dark secrets and twists, about three unusual sisters forced to confront the past.

Some secrets need to be set free…

When half-sisters Kat, Flora, and Lauren are unexpectedly summoned to Rock Point, their wild and remote... Read more