Favorite Books of the Year

The books published this year that have stuck with me the most.

I read 45 books this year (not counting the ones I read for blurbs and editing) but I’m narrowing down my list to the five that have stuck with me the most. I’m excluding books published this year by people I know, which includes some widely acclaimed ones, but it seems best to leave them off my ranked list. I cannot recommend them highly enough; all of them are wonderful, and not just because they’re by people I know and admire as human beings:

Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia. An important contribution to Appalachian literature.

From the Hood to the Holler by Charles Booker. A compelling memoir that transcends politics.

Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen. I laughed, I cried. The feel good novel of the year that is also thought-provoking and moving.

Traces by Patricia Hudson. Historical fiction at its finest (full disclosure, I served as editor on this book).

The Book of Susan by Melanie Hutsell. Hutsell is a literary stylist who knows how to keep the reader in her grip.

Runaway by Erin Keane. A smart, thrilling look at the ways we are shaped by pop culture and our parents’ stories.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. One of the most acclaimed novels of the year is narrated by a character you’ll never forget in one of Kingsolver’s best books, which is saying something indeed.

Life Sentences by Billy O’Callaghan. One of my favorite Irish novelists published one of his most personal books this year.

The Parting Glass by Lisa Parker. This volume of poetry is an epic told in the intimate.

Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott. Nobody can write like Philpott. She’s funny, clever, resonant…I don’t know anyone who has read this who doesn’t love it.

These Prisoning Hills by Christopher Rowe. So inventive and readable. Rowe is one of our most underrated writers and in this novella he creates a whole new genre: Appalachian science fiction.

Illuminated by Water by Malachy Tallack. Few people can write so complexly and beautifully about nature as Tallack.

A Year Without Months by Charles Dodd White. His sentences are gems and these essays are sometimes heartbreaking and always insightful, intelligent, and full of empathy.

I post most all the books I read on Instagram and usually I don’t say much about them unless they are ones that absolutely blew me away. Sometimes I read books I end up not loving, yet I post them on there, too, and often people tell me that they saw my “recommendations”. Just because I’ve posted what I’m reading doesn’t necessarily mean I’m recommending them…but I’m also not going to say negative things about other authors’ books publicly just because they didn’t align with my taste. Most writers work too hard for me to do that, and almost every book is someone’s dream, so I have no intention of tearing that down in public. But on this top five list I am highly recommending all of these titles. With that in mind, please know that not everyone’s taste is the same and many of these books are for a very specific taste. I tend to like books that are language-driven, have a strong sense of place, and leave me thinking about them for a long time. I appreciate ambiguity and vivid characterization. Most importantly, please keep in mind that I’m only listing here books that were published in 2022. (The best books I read this year that weren’t published this year were Zorrie by Laird Hunt—I’ve thought about it almost everyday since reading it—and Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, an absolute masterpiece). But here are my favorites I read this year that were published this year.

Foster is only 96 pages long but it packs as much power as most books three times its length. The story of a girl from a troubled, overwhelmed family who goes to live with her aunt and uncle for a time. There she encounters family life and love unlike she has ever known but a secret looms over all of them. There is not one wasted word in this gem. Claire Keegan is an Irish writer whose novella Small Things Like These was my favorite book of last year. She is so precise and empathetic that her work stays with you long after you’ve put the book down—perhaps forever.

Benjamin Meyers has written two other novels that I absolutely love—Beastings, which was an influence on Lark Ascending, and The Offing, which is one of the best novels I’ve read in the last twenty years. His latest novel, The Perfect Golden Circle, is perhaps even better than those two as far as craft goes. Set during one summer during the tumultuous 1980s, when Britain’s working class was teetering on the edge of revolution, this is the story of two men who work by cover of night to create crop circles that end up giving hope and a sense of wonder to Britons, and the whole world. There are so many layers to this book. It’s about friendship, the power of art and the need for beauty, class, and climate change. It is a remarkable piece of writing.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. This book is heavily science fiction (people are living on the moon, for example), but like the best genre work, this transcends any genre to become about the human condition: loneliness, the deep bonds of parenthood, missing someone you love, etc. I couldn’t hardly put this book down. It’s beautifully written, masterfully structured, and it sticks with you. I’ve only read one other of her books—Station Eleven—and I loved it, too.

In some ways Douglas Stuart’s novel Young Mungo is a retread of his debut, Shuggie Bain, which gained him international acclaim. In both a young, sensitive boy lives on the razor’s edge with an alcoholic mother in violent Glasgow. But in Young Mungo there are three major additions that make it a superior novel: an endearing and loving sister, a frightening brother that enables Stuart to explore the complexities of family loyalty, and—most of all—a love interest. More than anything else Young Mungo is a love story between two teenage boys. One is Protestant and one in Catholic in a time and place when these differences are almost as divisive as the fact that they are both boys. I couldn’t put this novel down. I was, however, hesitant to include this book because it includes long sections of sexual abuse that I found almost too horrific to read despite the fact that they never near being gratuitous. Also, some Scottish friends of mine have told me that some Scots find Stuart’s portrayals of Glasgow to be stereotypical and heavy-handed. I was swayed back to include it, though, because the novel has stuck with me so vividly.

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain is about a 65 year-old man who comes out for the first time. It’s also the story of the teenage romance that forever shaped him. It’s a completely enjoyable novel about someone discovering a full life. Populated by complex, quirky secondary characters and a vivid sense of place, you will never forget Albert. It’s a light, fun read but the prose is never sacrificed for that.

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Besides the ones mentioned above, here is the full list of books I read this year:

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry

Tongues of Fire by Seán Hewitt

Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward

The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (re-read)

Still Life by Louise Penny

Bone Black by bell hooks

When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash

A Long Long Way by Sebastian Berry

Zorrie by Laird Hunt

Matrix by Lauren Groff

The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran

The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile

Silverview by John LeCarre

Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan

My Policeman by Bethan Roberts

The Rising Tide by Ann Cleeves

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

The Exorcist: A Film Analysis by Mark Kermode

The Watchers by A.M. Shine

The All of It by Jeannette Haien

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard