Best and worst books of 2022

[litskispeciality]

With just a few days left in the year I'd like to hear everyone's best and worst books/reads of 2022 (so far as you might be finishing a few this week). Anything you would recommend someone else picks up in the new year? Any surprises of books that were well rated, but didn't land well with you?

[charlatti]

Worst (that I didn’t DNF): Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty — I normally enjoy her books but this one was just boring to me

Best: I had a lot I really liked. Top 4 are Groundskeeping by Lee Cole, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt , The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

[dearprudence]

Worst 5: Black Cake, Spanish Love Deception, Ethan Frome, The Wife Upstairs, The Wedding Date

Best 5: Joan, Spinning Silver, Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, Jameela Green Ruins Everything, Honey and Spice

[litskispeciality]

I really enjoyed

Hooked by Sutton Foster
Every Vow you Break by Peter Sutton
Someday Maybe by Onyi Nwabinelli - major TW (suicide) and very sad
Verity by Colleen Hoover
The Perfect Marriage

Didn't like
The Turnout by Megan Abbott
Songs of the Humpback Whale by Jodi Picolt
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korel

I have Lessons in Chemistry on hold. I keep putting it off until I have more time. Hope to add it to my list early 2023.

[mrspez07]

I really liked (and would recommend) Firekeepers Daughter, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and I Must Betray You.
Other 5 star books on my list include Last Flight, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and Killers of a Certain Age.

Books I did not like but finished: A Novel Obsession and Modern Lovers. Books I did not finish: I’ll Show Myself Out and Carrie Soto is Back.

[estrellita]

Best (I gave them 5*):
Under the Whispering Door
The Last Mrs Parrish
The Love Hypothesis
Ariadne
The House in the Cerulean Sea (I think this would be my winner for favorite overall)

Worst (2 or 3* and disappointed):
The Paris Apartment (my winner for overall worst)
The Silent Patient
The Maid
A History of Wild Places

[travella]

Worst book: The School for Good Mothers

Best (in no particular order):
I Must Betray You
A House Without Windows
Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Colony
A World of Curiosities


Recommendation:

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (while it didn't make my best list it was really good and I think it would be great for a wide range of readers. I didn't want to put this book down).

Misses:
The Sentence, Cemetery Road, The Fifth Season- all DNFs: I just couldn't force myself to finish these books.

Under the Whispering Door - too Hallmark/ romance for my reading preference but I'd watch it in a heartbeat.

[ufcasey]

In no particular order

Top 10 Best*:
Babel by R.F. Kuang
The Daughter of Auschwitz: A Memoir by Tova Friedman
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Concealed (The Taellaneth, #1) by Vanessa Nelson

*I am currently reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and will probably make this list

Worst:
Queen (Fae Games, #3) by Karen Lynch
The Bodyguard by Katherine Center
To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
The Temptation of a Highlander by Elisa Braden
Shifter Planet by D.B. Reynolds

[litskispeciality]

Thank you everyone! I'm adding a lot to my 2023 TBR list.

I'm so behind on 2022 group reads I shouldn't ask...are we doing 2023 group reads?

[ufcasey]

Dec 28, 2022 11:33:53 GMT -5 litskispeciality said:

Thank you everyone! I'm adding a lot to my 2023 TBR list.

I'm so behind on 2022 group reads I shouldn't ask...are we doing 2023 group reads?

Good question - I'll create a separate thread.

[sju]

Best:

The Kite Runner (favorite quote)
All the Light We Cannot See
Remarkably Bright Creatures (favorite character)

Worst:

Beautiful World, Where are You (DNF)
The Last Thing He Told Me
Verity

Currently reading Lessons in Chemistry.

I was surprised that I did not really enjoy Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

[tacokick]

I don’t know if they were the best but I enjoyed these the most:

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Mon Mari by Maud Ventura

Games and Rituals: Stories by Katherine Heiny

The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly

the Harbinder Kaur mysteries by Elly Griffiths

Small Game by Blair Braverman

Dying of Politeness by Geena Davis

Jackal by Erin E. Adams

Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor

The Boys by Katie Hafner

Mother Daughter Me by Katie Hafner

Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore

More Than You'll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez

Are You Awake? by Claire McGowan

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

So Help Me Gosh by Brooke Barker

Vera Kelly: Lost and Found by Rosalie Knecht

Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Wahala by Nikki May

O Beautiful by Jung Yun

Hello, Molly by Molly Shannon

Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli

************

These were books I finished and hated (largely good ideas, bad books):

Gentrifier: A Memoir by Anne Elizabeth Moore (one of the worst books ever)

Are You Sara? by S.C. Lalli

I Know Who You Are By Alice Feeney

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family by Rabia Chaudry

Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison

When I Am Through with You by Stephanie Kuehn

The Year of the Horses: A Memoir by Courtney Maum

The Housekeeper by Joy Fielding

Ayoade on Ayoade: A Cinematic Odyssey by
Richard Ayoade


The Family Remains: The Family Upstairs #2 by Lisa Jewell

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han

Groupies: A Novel by Sarah Priscus

Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the Worlds Most Notorious Diaries by Rick Emerson (so poorly done)

Kings of B'more by R. Eric Thomas

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen (poorly done)

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

[krystee]

I read the most I’ve ever read in a year (90) and had a lot I loved:

Favorites (in no particular order):
Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Winners
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
The Anthropocene Reviewed
Razorblade Tears
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle
Empire of Pain

No real misses!

[abs]

Best:
The Book of Lost Names
Book Lovers
The Simple Wild
Part of Your World
Every Summer After
Nora Goes Off Script

Worst:
Wrong Place Wrong Time
Before I Do
The Last Housewife (this is the overall worse, WTF)
Upgrade
The Wedding Crasher

[Vespasia]

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was by far my favorite book of the year. 

Other favorites:
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O'Neill
Near the Bone by Christina Henry
The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance, #3) by Naomi Novik
Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar


Absolutely terrible books:
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

I read both of them early in the year and I can still remember how incredibly stupid they were. 

Not terrible but disappointing:
Carrie Soto is Back
All the Devils Are Here (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #16)
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson

[dancingirl21]

Best:
Our Missing Hearts
Lessons in Chemistry
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Nora Goes off Script
Carrie Soto is Back
Sea of Tranquility
Bomb Shelter

Worst:
Go Tell the Bees That I am Gone (Outlander #9)
The Paris Apartment
The Club

[dontlook]

I’m going to have to give Remarkably Bright Creatures another try. It was so slow that I quit.

Best:
- The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
- The Lincoln Highway
- Kite Runner
- Billy Summer

Worst:
- Every Summer After (it was technically fine but I read a much better version with the same exact plot)
- One Italian Summer

I missed my reading goal 48/60. I feel like the library holds are extra long plus I just couldn’t focus for large chunks of the year. Hoping I do better next year.

[al dente]

Best:
Project Hail Mary
A Women is No Man
The House in the Cerulean Sea
The Poisonwood Bible

Worst:
People We Meet On Vacation. I DNF and now I don't even remember what it was about but I remember I hated everything about the characters and was so annoyed with them I couldn't read it anymore lol.
Idk if I would say worst, but I really did not like Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. I also feel like because so many people loved it I was expecting more maybe? If I had randomly stumbled across it I may have been just more meh about it and quickly forgotten it.

I feel like I had other books I loved, but I don't really keep track of my books at all so those are just the ones that stand out that I remember.

[Gato]

There are so many 2022 books that I still need to read! But of the books I did read, three stood out:

Night of the Living Rez - Morgan Talty

Either/Or - Elif Batuman

Companion Piece - Ali Smith


I also was really intrigued by the candor of Claire Dederer's "Love and Trouble" from 2017.