What have been your standout books of 2022?

[TattiePants]

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

The Push by Ashley Audrain- read months ago and still think about it.

Mine are:

Kirstin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset. Translated by Tiina Nunnally

Esther's Notebooks 1. Tales from my ten-year-old life by Riad Sattouf. Translated by Sam Taylor

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. Translated by George Bird

Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov. Translated by Boris Dralyuk

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Lots of these have been favourites in previous years. I loved Daisy Jones, I know this much is true, Diary of an ordinary woman and The Secret History. I started and quickly put down Milkman so need to give that another try.

Shuggie Bain
The Paper Palace
The Fair Botanists

One for the blackbird one for the crow
Florence Adler swims again
The trouble with goats and sheep
All of the grishaverse books

@dementedma if you enjoyed Shuggie Bain (though not sure that’s the right description for such a sad book) then try Young Mungo by the same author.

Love after love by Ingrid Persaud
The Somnambulist by Essie Fox
The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
The most fun we ever had by Claire Lombardo

Not all books from 2022

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver
The Passage by Justin Cronin
Dark is the Grave by T.G. Reid

loads more read but have not made much impact, plus have read or stopped reading some absolute trash, including a load of YA stuff my daughter is reading.

My top books of 2022:

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
The Six Tudor Queens series by Alison Weir
11/22/63 by Stephen King
The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

@Scout2016 you have reminded me to reread I Know This Much is True. Amazing book and I've read it twice, the last time a fee years ago.

@pigalow27 I'm reading The Push now. It's so good although I'm reading it with a slight dread at what's to some!

The Melting - Lise Spitz
City of Girls - Elisabeth Gilbert
an Anne Tyler book I think about a disappeared daughter and a man who looks for her?
My Name is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout
Amy and Isabelle - Elisabeth Strout

I’d say about these books - they’re not ones I necessarily love or would recommend, the first one was quite disturbing actually! I like Strout, but I wouldn’t say her books are my favourite by any means. And I read other books which I think were/are easy to dismiss, the awful Hurdy Gurdy being one but I’m quite fussy in what I really like!

My favourites this year (out of 58 I’ve read so far!).
last house on needless street - catriona ward
Piranesi- Susanne Clark - not what I’d normally read but so atmospheric it really stuck with me!
the olive tree - Lucinda Riley - a new author to me but loved it so much I’ve asked for the 7 sisters series for Christmas
Malibu rising - Taylor Jenkins read
a prayer for Owen meany - John irving

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig
The Huntress - Kate Quinn

Hey @TattiePants you may already know mine if you've been lurking on 50 Books but :

Fiction :

Queenie by Candace Carty Williams
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The People In The Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Not Outstanding But Really Good Reads :

Foster and Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan
My Policeman by Bethan Roberts
Convenience Store Worker by Sayaka Murata
Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Fire And Blood by George RR Martin
The Sealwoman's Gift by Sally Magnusson
The Somnambulist by Essie Fox

Non Fiction

Action Park by Andy Mulvihill with Jake Rossen
Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
House Of Glass by Hadley Freeman
Natives by Akala
Madhouse At The End Of The Earth by Julian Sancton

And less outstanding

Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser

@EineReiseDurchDieZeit i get lots of my book inspiration from the 50 book thread. Every year I plan to take part then forget! I’m reading The Sealwoman’s Gift now and enjoying it so far. I read The Dutch House a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it.

@wonderingpondering1 im also on book number 58 so need to get a move on to hit my target of 60 by the end of the year. I’ve enjoyed all the books you’ve read so will have to check out The Olive Tree.

I set myself a goal of reading 50 books this year and have just finished number 82! My standouts for the year have been:

The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
The Nightingale - Kristen Hannah
A Terrible Kindness - Jo Browning Wroe
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Still Life - Sarah Winman
Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr
The Push - Ashley Audrain
Great Circle - Maggie Shipstead

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart as an audiobook. I think it worked particularly well in this format.

Anyone who likes book chat and reading goals, please join us on 50 Books

That sounds good :) @EineReiseDurchDieZeit

Fiction
Small things like these by Claire Keegan
Bournville by Jonathan Coe
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith

Non-fiction:
Regenesis by George Monbiot
And Finally by Henry Marsh
Mother’s Boy by Howard Jacobson
Free by Lea Ypi

got these for Christmas, looking forward to getting stuck in, once I finish current read (7 deaths of Evelyn hardcastle) which I’m really struggling with but don’t like giving up a book halfway through

I just remembered another one!

Mother's Boy by Patrick Gale

My standouts this year are both non-fiction, (only the first published this year):
The Naked Don't Fear The Water by Matthieu Aikens (Undercover journalist travels with a friend who is an Afghan refugee from Kabul as he tries to get to Europe)
Land of a Thousand Hills by Rosamond Halsey Carr (Memoir of 50 years living in Rwanda after moving there in 1949 as a young bride, including through the end of colonialism, & the genocide)

Think this is going to be my stand out non fiction book. Got it for Christmas and its fascinatin g,as well as beautifully produced.
The History of the World in 100 Plants by Simon Barnes