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Original poster

What have been your standout books of 2022?

65 replies

TattiePants · 23/12/2022 16:13

I have a ridiculously long TBR pile but always on the lookout for new book / author suggestions. I’ve had a pretty good reading year and haven’t had any complete duds. My favourites have been:

Still life - Sarah Winman
The Crow Road - Iain Banks
The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
All the Broken Places - John Boyne
Hungry - Grace Dent
My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout
Clothes, clothes, clothes…. - Viv Albertine

OP posts:
Swissnotswiss · 23/12/2022 20:48

Chouette - Claire Oshetsky

IsFuzzyBeagMise · 23/12/2022 20:44

A Place of Execution: Val McDermid
Death And The Penguin: Andrei Kurkov
The Woman in White: Wilkie Collins
A Gentleman in Moscow: Amor Towles.

There are others that I really liked, but these stand out.

mustbefunny · 23/12/2022 18:32

Still Life was my summer read 😍. Sooo good. Following for more recommendations... currently reading Hamnet

ABlindAssassin · 23/12/2022 18:21

A terrible kindness
The school for good mothers

SummerHouse · 23/12/2022 18:19

Lessons in chemistry was fabulous - lots of purchases of that made for family and secret Santa!

Currently half way through Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty and findIng it a great story with excellent characters.

Original poster
TattiePants · 23/12/2022 18:10

I loved half of a yellow sun, his bloody project and lessons in chemistry. Great Circle and Sorrow & Bliss are both books I want to read.

OP posts:
flamingogold · 23/12/2022 17:42

Oh and yes to the Great Circle - brilliant!

cloudjumper · 23/12/2022 17:42

Mine were:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

And the whodunits by Anthony Horowitz, so entertaining

flamingogold · 23/12/2022 17:42

I liked The Fell as well. Otherwise this year Hamnet and On Beauty for fiction, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe and Selfie by Will Storr in non- fiction.

Cherrypi · 23/12/2022 17:39

Mine were:
The Fell by Sarah Moss
The Instant by Amy Liptrot
Alison by Lizzy Stewart
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

carbuncleonapigsposterior · 23/12/2022 17:31

Frostquake - Juliet Nicholson
His Bloody Project - Graeme Macrae Burnett
The Locked Room Ellie Griffiths
Forever Young - Haley Mills
How To Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie
The Stopped Heart - Julie Myerson
Sun Damage Sabine Durrant
A Slow Fire Burning - Paula Hawkins
Shrines of Gaiety - Kate Atkinson
The Ink Black Heart - Robert Galbraith

CatNamedEaster · 23/12/2022 17:13

My standout for the year is Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.
Follows the life of two women: one a pilot growing up in the Depression, one an actress due to play the first in a movie now.
It was one of those books that makes me want to Google the pilot to find out more about her as the story was so fascinating, but I have to remind myself it's a novel and she didn't exist.

Original poster
TattiePants · 23/12/2022 16:53

I forgot about Small Things Like These, I read it a couple of weeks ago when it was snowing and loved it. Also loved the Alice Network. I’ve read most of Kate Atkinson’s and Maggie O’Farrell’s books but was holding out for their latest in paperback, I might have to succumb!

Off to look up the others on Goodreads.

OP posts:
IrishMamaMia · 23/12/2022 16:42

Great list OP. Definitely adding some of these to my tbr. My favourite book so far was Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. It's set in Northern Ireland in the Seventies and its a wonderfully crafted and written love story.
My other mentionables this year are The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell, The Escape Artist by Jonathan Friesland and I'm currently reading Free by Lea Ypi which is incredibly interesting.
Hope you get some nice cosy reading time over the hols.

AlbertaWildRose · 23/12/2022 16:33

My favourite books this year were (not all were published this year but I read them this year):
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
The Maid by Nita Prose
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

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