New York Times Book Review: 100 Notable Books of 2022

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2022

A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ”

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, THE NEW YORKER, BOOKPAGE, AND KIRKUS REVIEWS

“Superb. . . . A celebration of a place and time when people held onto their own ways, and basked in ordinary joys even as... Read more »

From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor

"A riveting, resonant...

In this bold examination of the Israeli–American relationship, Walter Russell Mead demolishes the myths that both pro-Zionists and anti-Zionists have fostered over the years. He makes clear that Zionism has always been a divisive subject in the American Jewish community, and that American Christians have often been the most fervent supporters of... Read more »

Avalon

“A contemporary coming of age story, a young woman, abandoned on a sketchy landscaping farm falls in with a group of intellects at her high school. Faced with a budding on again off again romance, Zink's character Brandy takes her challenges on with a perfect blend of naivete and sarcasm. Nell Zink is the most prolific female writer I know, who flashes with a higher level of vocabulary and cosmopolitan references.”

Roxanne, Bookstore1Sarasota

The first in a charming, joyful cozy crime series set in 1920s Bangalore, featuring sari-wearing detective Kaveri and her husband, Ramu. Perfect for fans of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.

When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry handsome young doctor Ramu, she’s resigned herself to a quiet life.

But...

A personal, social, and intellectual self-portrait of the beloved and enormously influential late Randall Kenan, a master of both fiction and nonfiction.

Virtuosic in his use of literary forms, nurtured and unbounded by his identities as a Black man, a gay man, an intellectual, and a Southerner, Randall Kenan was known for his groundbreaking... Read more »

A new creation by the author of Severance, Bliss Montage crashes through our carefully built mirages.

What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end?

In Bliss Montage, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective...

A NEW YORKER “ESSENTIAL READ”

“Just as awe-inspiring as the Nobel judges claimed.” – The Washington Post

“Olga Tokarczuk is one of our greatest living fiction writers. . . This could well be a decade-defining book akin to Bolaño’s 2666.” –AV Club

“Sophisticated and ribald and brimming with folk wit. . . The comedy in this novel blends, as it... Read more »

National Book Award Finalist

The story of the worldwide scientific quest to decipher the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, trace its source, and make possible the vaccines to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Breathless is the story of SARS-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its... Read more »

The Candy House

“Egan weaves together these seemingly disparate characters and storylines into a stunning ending. The Candy House is about family, connection, legacy, technology, and so much more. It is her best work yet.”

Ariana Paliobagis, Country Bookshelf

A NEW YORK TIMES 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A NEW YORKER "ESSENTIAL READ"

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORKER AND VOGUE

“Bennett writes like no one else. She is a rare talent, and Checkout 19 is a masterful novel.” –Karl Ove Knausgaard

From the author of the “dazzling. . . . and daring” Pond (O magazine), the adventures of a young... Read more »

‘A story is never an answer. A story is always a question.’ Here we are in extraordinary times. Is this history? What happens when we cease to trust governments, the media, each other? What have we lost? What stays with us? What does it take to unlock our future? Following her astonishing quartet of Seasonal novels, Ali Smith again... Read more »

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From "one of our most nuanced thinkers on the intersections of race, class, and feminism" (Cathy Park Hong, New York Times bestselling author of Minor Feelings) comes a memoir "as electric as the title suggests" (Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom).

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, TIME... Read more »

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

“A fantasy, adventure and even a bit of romance, this riff of the H.G. Wells century-old classic is a great read with a strong, intelligent woman at its center.”

Anne, Newtonville Books

The Dead Romantics

“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 has followed her home. With his help, she might be able to heal both her heart and her spirit. The Dead Romantics is a quirky fun read that will have you come back again and again. If you are looking for a quirky romance that you will absolutely fall in love with, The Dead Romantics is your next perfect read!”

Gretchen, Fiction Addiction

Japan's internationally celebrated master storyteller returns with five stories of women on their way to healing that vividly portrays the blissful moments and the sorrows that surround us in everyday life

First published in Japan in 2003, Dead-End Memories collects the stories of five women who, following sudden and painful events, quietly... Read more »

The census isn't just a data-collection process; it's a ritual, and a tool, of American democracy. Behind every neat grid of numbers is a collage of messy, human stories—you just have to know how to read them.

In Democracy's Data, the data historian Dan Bouk examines the 1940 U.S. census, uncovering what those numbers both condense and cleverly... Read more »

A NEW YORK TIMES "TEN BEST BOOKS OF 2022"

An Oprah’s Book Club Selection • An Instant New York Times Bestseller • An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller • A #1 Washington Post Bestseller 

"Demon is a voice for the ages—akin to Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield—only even more resilient.” —Beth Macy, author of Dopesick

"May be the best novel of 2022....

In this “razor-sharp” and “dangerously hilarious” novel that “hooks readers from the beginning” (Los Angeles Times), a trans woman reenters life on the outside after more than twenty years in a men’s prison, over one consequential Fourth of July weekend—from the author of the PEN/Faulkner Award winner Delicious Foods.

Carlotta Mercedes has been...

A sly, madcap novel about supervillains and nothing, really, from an American novelist whose star keeps rising

The protagonist of Percival Everett's puckish new novel is a brilliant professor of mathematics who goes by Wala Kitu. (Wala, he explains, means "nothing" in Tagalog, and Kitu is Swahili for "nothing.") He is an expert on nothing. That... Read more »