Yahoo Autos People Are Sharing The Best Book They've Read So Far In 2022, And I'm Adding Every Single One To My Reading List
Since it's the mid-point of 2022 and the start of summer, book readers across the world have checked off a few good books from their reading list.
NBC / Via giphy.com
So to find out exactly which were some of the best books they read this year, we asked the BuzzFeed Community, "What is the greatest book you've read so far this year?" And the answers covered just about every genre. If your favorite isn't mentioned here, leave it in the comments!
1."I read This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar in January, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It’s a short epistolary novel (I read it in one sitting) that follows two characters who communicate with each other through letters that travel in weird ways across time and space. I had no idea what was going on for the first 75 pages, but I loved every minute of it."
Blurb: "Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love."
2."The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan. It's so well-written and creative. It really aces the nuances of motherhood."
3."The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. It gave me a whole new perspective on how things that we don’t notice have massive effects on our lives and others."
—Anonymous
Blurb: "Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers.
One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his 'meaningless' life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question: 'Why was I here?'"
4."Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. It was a good one. A small part of it is quasi-sequel to her The Glass Hotel — which is also worth the read — but it's one of those rare things that's full-on sci-fi in premise (involving time travel, handled in a deftly smart way that holds up the Novikov self-consistency principle). But despite also introducing another pandemic (and not her first in fiction!) and all the global anxiety that brings, it told a small essential human story that comes together in a beautiful little burst of violin music you can practically hear off the page."
Blurb: "The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space."
5."Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was the best book I've read, not only in 2022, but probably in the past five years. I read on average 80 books a year, and only a handful are memorable enough that I recommend them to others. Lessons In Chemistry is one of those books. It is a feminist, smart book with a protagonist along the vein of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine that makes science interesting. It is a beautiful, unexpected book."
—Anonymous
Blurb: "Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize-nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with — of all things — her mind. True chemistry results."
6."I read Yours Cruelly, Elvira obviously written by Cassandra Peterson herself. She has lived such a wild life and it was beyond interesting to get a sneak behind the persona of Elvira. From her almost dying as a toddler to her teenage go-go dancing days to her current relationship, I highly recommend reading about all her history. I managed to get an autographed copy and it is now a treasured possession."
7."Invisible Boys by Holden Sheppard. It's such a great telling of the LGBTQ experience in rural Australia. The characters are diverse, and I was able to identify with bits of each, which has been a first in quite a while. There are moments that made me cry and other moments that had me grinning from ear to ear. For his first novel, Holden did a fantastic job."
Blurb: "An emotional tale of identity, sexuality, and suicide derived from personal experience about three teenage boys who struggle to come to terms with their homosexuality in a small Western Australian town. On the surface, nerd Zeke, punk Charlie and footy wannabe Hammer look like they have nothing in common.
But scratch that surface and you'd find three boys in the throes of coming to terms with their homosexuality in a town where it is invisible. Invisible Boys is a raw, confronting YA novel that explores the complexities and trauma of rural gay identity with painful honesty, devastating consequences, and, ultimately, hope."
8."A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. This book is so informative and fun to read. It’s so cool to hear how tiny niche things play into each other from paleontology to astronomy to physics and biology. If you’re looking for a scientific book that isn’t too hard to understand, this is a good place to start. It scratches the surface of so many different fields and how they’re connected. It mentions notable scientists in the various fields, too, which I found interesting because a lot of scientific books make it so boring to learn but this book wove everything together near seamlessly."
—Anonymous
Blurb: "One of the world’s most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body takes his ultimate journey — into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer."
9."The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab. My heart ached for Addie. I fell in love with a boy named Henry, and I was charmed by the darkness. Addie made a deal to live forever to finally have the freedom to see the world, but in return, she learns she gave up the ability to ever be remembered. Such a powerful story. I was ready to reread immediately after I finished it."
Blurb: "France, 1714: In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever — and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name."
10."The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams hands down. It's a funny romance novel that's perfect for a beach read. I tend to hate romantic books because they tend to be super raunchy, but this one has the perfect combination of a little bit of sexiness and comedy. I devoured this book in a single afternoon and found out it's a series, so I'll be reading all of them as soon as I can get my hands on them!"
—Anonymous
Blurb: "Nashville Legends' second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major-league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him."
11."Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura. It touches upon key issues such as loneliness, bullying, and mental health in such a beautiful way."
Blurb: "In a tranquil neighborhood of Tokyo seven students are avoiding going to school — hiding in their darkened bedrooms, unable to face their family and friends — until the moment they find the mirrors in their bedrooms are shining. At a single touch, they are pulled from their lonely lives into a wondrous castle straight out of a Grimm's fairy tale."
12."Ready When You Are by Gary Lonesborough. I am obsessed with how good this book is. It hits on serious topics thoughtfully, while being a heart-warming rom-com aimed at a YA audience. It features two boys who are just realizing they are LGBTQI+. The main characters are all aboriginal and the book looks at oppression and racism in modern Australia, too. Listening to the audiobook is even better as the narrator is aboriginal and brings such life to the story. This book simultaneously taught me so much and stole my heart. A must read."
13."Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. The same guy who wrote The Martian. The sun is dying and we have to do something about it. I could not put the book down."
Blurb: Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission — and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery — and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he?
14."Seven Days in June by Tia Williams. It tackles themes of chronic pain and illness, features BIPOC main characters, and attempts to destigmatize erotica!"
—Anonymous
Blurb: Seven days to fall in love, fifteen years to forget, and seven days to get it all back again...Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award-winning novelist, who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York.
15."I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston is one of my favorite reads so far in 2022. If Paper Towns had a baby with Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, this would be that book. Absurd, romantic, and intimate, McQuiston’s YA coming-of-age novel centers on the disappearance of the most popular girl in a small Southern town and how the last three people she kissed — her rival, her boyfriend, and her next-door neighbor — hunt for clues to her whereabouts."
"The book is brutally honest and is wrapped up in the mystery of why the title character ghosted her friends and family while exploring who she really is. The author also raises some interesting topics and questions about being out or closeted in a small conservative community and the assumptions we make about the South and its inhabitants. If you loved this author’s debut novel Red, White, and Royal Blue, then I Kissed Shara Wheeler is your next reading destination."
Blurb: "Chloe Green is so close to winning. After her moms moved her from SoCal to Alabama for high school, she’s spent the past four years dodging gossipy classmates and the puritanical administration of Willowgrove Christian Academy. The thing that’s kept her going: winning valedictorian. Her only rival: prom queen Shara Wheeler, the principal’s perfect progeny. But a month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and vanishes"
16."Billy Summers by Stephen King. I love the dark sinister side of how Stephen King writes all of his stories, but this took a different side of dark. The build of connection with the main character and small breadcrumbs within that nudge to The Shining made me absolutely have to read it again. Seriously, I fan-girled over this book to this day."
—Anonymous
Blurb: "Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first, there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
How about everything.This spectacular can’t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small-town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King's fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption.You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy."
