What are 22 year old girls reading please

[Tantomile]

I want to send a book along with some other bits and pieces (snacks, choc) to my friends 22 Year old daughter who has been poorly and now recovering. Not too heavy going but not total fluff. I was also thinking maybe short - stories but I am a bit stuck. Any suggestions appreciated.

I am (sadly) not 22 years old, but my first thoughts are:

How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

I believe Bella Mackie has a new one out too but I can't remember what it's called.

At 22 I was ready a lot of bukowski and kurt vonegurt, hunter s Thompson.
id love to be able to be that age and read them again fresh but they only really resonate so hard when you’re in your 20s I think

I would go with Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang which is about a young woman in the beauty industry or if you want short stories She’s Always Hungry by Eliza Clark

https://amzn.eu/d/aihIwCz 101 Essays by Brianna Wiest is a winner
as is Dolly Alderton’s book https://amzn.eu/d/3ovhPV2 . I genuinely would buy her both. Good life lessons in both books and Dolly’s book (which is recommend for girls in their 20’s) will give lots of laughs which is always nice for somebody recovering :)

22 year old women are as diverse as any group of women. If you’d asked about a child it would be straightforward to pick out a few authors, but she’s not a child she is an adult with her own tastes and experiences. Just pick something you love that you would happily recommend to a friend?

My 20s daughter is reading/has recently read
Orientalism by Edward Said
Helter-Skelter Fashion Unfriendly by Kyoko Okasaki
Ars Armatoria by Ovid
Wedlock by Wendy Moore
Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov
Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (unabridged)

Some girls like princess books, others like adventure books but at 22, she's a grown woman!

What kind of things does she like? What does she do for work? How does she spend her time? What genre of books does she like?

I'd also wonder what she is interested in, and what genre she likes. I assume that your friend might be able to come up with a few suggestions!

At 22, I was completely and utterly sick of "chick-lit" and had read most of the classics that interested me. After that, I went down the route of autobiographies, ranging from hermits to ex-nuns and farmers and beyond. They were a bit more interesting than a single woman who simultaneously falls in love with two men and abandons her brain cells at the same time...

Sometimes, though, when I am recovering from illness, I delve back into what I read as an older child/young teen, as it is easy reading, familiar and comfort reading!

Thank you to those who offered me some ideas. I must admit I was expecting the 'she's not a child..' type of responses..I guess contributing to a book thread makes some feel a bit superior.

Romantasy! Fourth wing, Throne of Glass, ACOTAR, The serpent and the wings of nights, quicksilver….

I'm a big advocate of giving people not what they might already want to read, but what might open new doors for them.
Rather than a particular author, how about an anthology of short stories by women? For that matter, I have a fun compilation of feminist history that I've given as a gift.

It’s a ridiculous question, though. There’s no type of book that’s any more likely to appeal to a 22 year old woman than any other. If you said the authors/genres she liked, people could have made targeted suggestions, but a 22 year old might enjoy anything.

Does she like poetry? I loved Walt Whitman in my 20s.

How about the “Tales of the City” series?

Ovid ‘s poems are quite racy and funny for being over 2,000yrs old. My DD talks my ear off on what she reads,

In Ars Armatoria- He says the best places and times to find hot girls in Ancient Rome i.e….“Do you only saunter at your leisure in the shade of Pompey's Portico, when the sun approaches the back of the Lion of Hercules…”

and the horror of buying your mistress the right birthday present…
“Great must be your dread of the birthday of your mistress,…”

[Ofc being ancient Roman it’s wildly patriarchal, but it is soooo Lad Bible proves men do not change….]

Ovid’s Elegy VI is hilarious imho. He laments the death of a parrot he had given to his mistress (Corinna):
https://sacred-texts.com/cla/ovid/lboo/lboo28.htm

As good as Monty Python…🤣😂

@Gouache It isnt a ridiculous question and who are you to call another person's post ridiculous? Asking this simple question has been like putting your hand up in class whilst expecting to be shot down by the teacher who knows so much better. @MsAmerica - I agree, I just posted for some ideas, gifts don't always have to be targeted and sometimes it is good to try something a bit different (that you might not buy yourself).
Thank you again to the posters who offered ideas. I am going to pop into Waterstones at lunchtime - job done.

Does she have a Kindle? Can I suggest maybe a voucher to buy her own book instead? 🙂

Maybe a mix of genres?

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Both v different but good books.

The 22 year old woman I know reads Dostoevsky and Freida McFadden, so anything along that spectrum is a possibility for her 😂

DSD is 23 and we’ve just had a pre-holiday spree in Waterstones. This is what she bought:
the Iliad - Emily Wilson translation
Ovid’s Metamorphoses - AD Melville translation
My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante
Atmosphere - Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Artist - Lucy Steeds
Hakuda Photo Studio - Her Taeyeon

Recently, she has ploughed through all the Stephen Fry Greek myths series, the novel of Poor Things (Alasdair Gray) and has Beloved (Toni Morrison) on standby for when we get back from holiday (she doesn’t want to be in a bad mood on holiday).

I bought lots too and she is planning to steal these from my pile:
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library - Michiko Aoyama
The Safekeep - Yael Van Der Wouden

Omg I completely agree. I also hardly think any of the posters are in their 20’s. I’m 27 and had to think a couple years back. There’s also so much targeted advertising for young women when it comes to books these days. Certain books are popular for a while and friends pass them to eachother.

I’m 22, I don’t read much but I know a lot of women my age like Colleen Hoover books (which are very poorly written imo) or any of a similar nature. However it’s too broad of a question - she could be into any genre.

I personally love the classics. The Handmaid’s Tale is also quite popular at the moment and very resonant of the times.

22 is the perfect age for The Bell Jar, A Room of Ones Own and Catch 22. The ‘looking at life as an endless series of possibilities’ stage.

I remember loving ‘A Month In the Country’ by JL Carr for comfort and wonder in a world turned upside down. Forster’s Howards End is lovely.

Maybe Kurt Vonnegut, I enjoyed John Irving for lightweight whimsy at that age, also classic science fiction is easy to read, classic crime like Dorothy L Sayers is quite comforting.

Short stories also a great idea.

DD1 is about that age. She's recently read and loved "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller. She bought me a copy and I also loved it.

DD is 21.
Recent reads include Ellie Griffiths -Dr Ruth Galloway series;
Leigh Bardugo - Shadow and Bone series
Alice Roberts - Crypt, Buried and Ancestors books.