My Top 5 Books for 2022

My top 5 novels of 2022 on my actual desk.

For the second year in a row, I set and met a goal of reading 52 novels in the year—one per week for all of 2022. And, again like last year, I’m using this space to call out my top 5 favorites for the year.

I always feel compelled to caveat this list. First and foremost, I’m not a professional book reviewer, just a regular reader. So I don't have a particularly diligent or objective process of selecting books besides just picking ones that are interesting to me personally. Your tastes may vary. Second, not everything I read this year was a 2022 release (my criteria to be in my top 5). There were many great books I read that I didn’t include simply because they were released in prior years. Third, despite hitting my reading goal, I’m only touching the first few snowflakes on the tip of the iceberg of work published in the year. No one except maybe ChatGPT can read them all. It’s a challenge in the publishing industry overall—infinite supply, finite reading time.

All that said, my reasons for putting this list together remain the same. It answers the question I often get: what books do you recommend? It is also a way to acknowledge the authors and work that has influenced me. The only rules: it needs to be a novel, that I’ve read, published in 2022, and (new rule this year), it can’t be my own book! This year’s list has a discernible theme: dark and heartbreaking coming-of-age stories. Probably not surprising since that's the theme of my next book. So here are my top 5.

DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver

As soon as I read this book, I knew it would be one of my favorites of the year. The protagonist and subject matter are straight up my alley, examining how poverty, exploitation, and overall life conditions can keep someone down. Demon is a personification of a generation of youth, many from disadvantaged, rural areas, who are forgotten and often disrespected in contemporary American culture.

TOMORROW AND TOMORROW AND TOMORROW by Gabrielle Zevin

I thoroughly enjoyed this book—not just because I was once a developer of games and founder of a gaming company (the underlying context of the book, which struck me as dutifully authentic)—but because of the long arc and entanglement of friendship, creative collaboration, and love. Few works of fiction get the workplace setting right, and this one does—at least for tech.

NOTES ON AN EXECUTION by Danya Kukafka

This book tells the story of a serial killer on death row through the lives of the people he victimized, in a way that somehow simultaneously evokes disdain and empathy. You need to pay attention in this one—lots of characters, shifting timelines, changing narrative voice, and a deeply interwoven plot. But the payoff is a fascinating and incredibly well-crafted story with an impactful message about violence, forgiveness, and politics in modern society.

YOUNG MUNGO by Douglas Stuart

Mungo is a teenage boy growing up poor in Glasgow, struggling with an alcoholic mother, abusive brother, and the societal intolerance and exploitation of his emerging sexuality. This novel is a study in the forces of financial, religious, and identity-based discrimination, and how insidious, self-reinforcing, and difficult to overcome those forces can be. This is a simultaneously compassionate, tragic, and inspiring coming of age story unlike any I’ve ever read.

TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON by Chris Pavone

This unexpected novel feels like a conventional thriller at the start—a woman’s husband is kidnapped in Lisbon—but it goes on to reveal a much bigger cultural commentary that is pitch perfect for our time. This novel is exactly what I aspire to in my own writing: a compelling thriller that keeps you guessing till the very end, combined with a strong, timely, and insightful political message.

For a full list of the books I’ve read this year, along with ratings and reviews, visit my Goodreads author profile.