Best book you read in 2022

Thanks for all the great suggestions

My top favourites were I’ve read this year have been

Memphis - Tara M Stringfellow
The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams
Any human heart - William Boyd
The Nightinggale- Kristin Hannah (also loved Four Winds)
Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus
Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo
The Rosie project is fun and light hearted
I also love all the Thursday Murder club books by Richard Osman

Klara and the Sun was a beautiful book.

The Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift - it's about a woman who survives a pandemic that wipes out about 99.99% of the population in the UK. The TV show the Last of Us had a similar theme, but the book didn't involve zombies etc. It was more about how a normal woman would survive in that kind of situation.

I'm new to this forum, too, so it's great to connect with fellow book lovers. I totally get what you mean about American Dirt, it was a powerful read. If you're into gripping stories, you might want to check out the "Game of Thrones" books by George R.R. Martin. They're not just epic fantasy, but also packed with complex characters and political intrigue that'll keep you hooked. I stumbled upon a cool website, https://bookwormera.com, that has a comprehensive guide and analysis of the "Game of Thrones" books. It's been a fantastic resource for me while diving into the series.

I love that this thread is full of so many book recommendations; it's like a treasure trove for bibliophiles! Last year, I delved into a mix of genres, but the one that really stood out for me was "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It's a WWII novel narrated by Death, and it offers an extraordinarily unique perspective on the lives of ordinary Germans during the war. Highly recommend!

If you're into exploring different cultural perspectives through books, you might want to check out this fascinating list from Mental Floss. They've compiled the highest-rated books in each country, and it's quite an eye-opener. It's a great way to "unscramble literature" and discover gems you wouldn't typically encounter.

I enjoyed Klara and the Sun by Kazoo Ishiguro.

I also agree with PPs on Shuggie Bain, American Dirt, Station Eleven (I read that when it came out and still think about it now all these years on!) Small Pleasures and The Five. All brilliant.

Using this thread to add to my list! 😃

Notes on an Execution. Absolutely brilliant. Second place goes to The Book of Form and Emptiness

A much needed corrective to all the killer porn this culture seems to adore then.

It very much does, without sugar coating how the women got to be where they were in Whitechapel on those nights. It's angry but in a positive way - the women aren't just 'victims' but wives, mothers, daughters and siblings.

I haven’t read the book but I detest serial killer litt and all the Jack the ripper tourist stuff. Guided tours 😡. But it sounds like that book is in a different mould and returns their humanity to the victims

I loved The Five too. I found it quite haunting. I read it shortly after it was published and I still think of them every now and then. It makes me quite cross now when people talk about Jack the Ripper like he's a fun fictional character.

My favourite book of 2022 was Piranesi.

Stunning book - the amount of research she did for each woman and the placing them in society so you can see that each step they take leads a little bit further down and the impossibility of pulling themselves up again once that spiral had started. I liked as well that there was absolutely no mention of the crimes or what was done to them - they are front and centre of the narrative.

I read Station Eleven in 2022. Can’t stop thinking about it even now. Late to the party , written 2017 but became popular in 2020.
Amazing book.

Not a lot of people know that right up until the 19th century, pirates based in North Africa or turkey would go around the Mediterranean, and up the Atlantic including England and Ireland ( and occasionally as far as Iceland) to raid villages and grab people for the slave markets of Morocco, Algiers and Tripoli. The only way out was to convert to Islam thus ensuring freedom, or get your folk back home to raise a ransom.

On the back of this thread I have just read We Begin at the End, and Cloud Cuckoo Land. I enjoyed both of them very much.

I’ve downloaded several books after reading this thread - thank you!

Somebody I used to know (Wendy Mitchell), a re-read, a memoir of the author’s experience of living with dementia. Just astonishing

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, seen from a Jewish perspective and so interesting

Another Time, Another Place (Jodi Taylor)

I was disappointed with Hamnet too!

Four Winds and The Stranding were mine, American Dirt not far behind.
A Little Life was the worst one I read last year.

Great thread! Here's mine in no particular order

The Somnambulist by Essie Fox
The Black Magician Trilogy Books by Trudi Canavan
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Piranesi for me. So interesting and ethereal, completely sucks you into another world.

Funnily enough the 2021 version of this thread convinced me to read American Dirt which I really didn't connect with like alot of others, didn't even make my top 5 last year. Similar with Hamnet, I read so many glowing reviews but really didn't rate it.

Small pleasure by Clare Chambers for sheer enjoyment.
Shuggie Blaine has stayed with me. I’m not in a hurry to read young Mungo though.
Return to Rheims by Didier Eribon- some commonality with Shuggie Baine. In fact gay survivor of dysfunctional sub proletarian childhood seems to be a genre in European literature at the moment, and rightly so.