This year was a very interesting reading year for me. I was not sure if I had enough five star or favorites for the year to put together this post. But upon review, I rated exactly five books five stars in 2022. I also rated ten books between four and five stars; those I included as honorable mentions.
Favorite Reads
Bad Fat Black Girl: Notes from a Trap Feminist
Sesali Brown
Through personal stories, Sesali Brown offers provocative commentary about being female in American, particularly black and female. This book taught me a lot and reminded me why intersectionality is so important.
The Bodyguard
Katherine Center
Katherine Center was my introduction to the romance genre and continues to be one of my favorite authors. This book was yet another of hers with complex, realistic characters who overcome challenges while falling in love.
Winterland
Rae Meadows
I went into this book expecting a historical thriller about a USSR gymnast and found something much different. It was a story that gripped me from the start and continued to grow in my heart and mind after I finished.
Corrections in Ink: A Memoir
Keri Blakinger
Keri’s writing immersed me in her emotional and powerful story about her experience with prison.
Upgrade
Blake Crouch
I am not typically a big science fiction reader, but I will read anything Blake Crouch writes. Once again, he delivered a thrilling and complex novel that made me stop and ponder the world and the future.
Honorable Mentions
American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road
Nick Bilton
The unbelievable true story of the man who built a billion-dollar online drug empire from his bedroom—and almost got away with it.
Anthem
Noah Hawley
A group of teenagers break out of a psychiatric facility amid a global suicide pandemic to bring a monster of a man to justice and rescue his prisoner. But this book is also so much more and an essential read.
The Change
Kirsten Miller
Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp feminist revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.
Good Rich People
Eliza Jane Brazier
A destitute woman deceives her way into the guesthouse of a Hollywood Hills mansion and inadvertently becomes a target in the twisted game of the wealthy family upstairs.
I’m Glad My Mom Died
Jennette McCurdy
A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life.
It Had to Be You
Georgia Clark
A witty and heartfelt romantic comedy featuring a wedding planner, her unexpected business partner, and their coworkers in a series of linked love stories.
Pet
Akwaeke Emezi
In a near-future society that claims to have gotten ride of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting seventeen-year old Jam’s mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster.
The Sign for Home
Blair Fell
When Arlo Dilly, a sheltered young DeafBlind man, decides to take a writing course at the local community college, he hires a new tactile ASL interpreter who exposes him to much more than English.
Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches
John Hodgman
A nonfiction story collection about adulthood from former The Daily Show With Jon Stewart correspondent John Hodgman.
Weather Girl
Rachel Lynn Solomon
In the aftermath of a disastrous holiday party, Ari, a TV meteorologist, and Russell, a sports reporter, decide to team up to solve their bosses’ relationship issues. Between secret gifts and double dates, they start nudging their bosses back together. But their well-meaning meddling backfires when the real chemistry builds between Ari and Russell.
Read Between the Spines 