Maybe youve had enough of pandemic novels by now, but hear us out: How High We Go in the Dark is exactly the white-hot missive of hope, humanity, and compassion you need. Why do we seek meaning in the lives of violent men, while overlooking the lives of women who pay the ultimate price? Diazs spellbinding tale parses the truth of just what happened to a patrician Manhattan couple during the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, and the role money played in all of it. In the process, she learns archery and magic and falls in love with the Emperor's son. This is a book for the women who survive. As serial killer Ansel Packer awaits his execution on Death Row, Notes on an Execution counts down his final twelve hours through remembrances from the women who survived knowing and loving himas well as those who didnt. The American South is often cast as a backwater cousin out of step with American ideals. Jennifer Egan won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for her sprawling novel A Visit From the Goon Squad. It follows Protestant teenager Mungo who begins a relationship with James, a Catholic boy. Vara, an exWall Street Journal reporter who covered the tech industry, conjures its high jinks and lowdowns with an insiders flair in this multilayered novel exploring global capitalism and climate change. That coming together is the richly entertaining foundation for Obaros debut novel of loyalty, betrayal, and ultimately the unwavering love that courses through our most intimate bonds. Isabel Allende is the award-winning Chilean-American author behind novels like City of the Beasts and The House of the Spirits. What Are the Mighty Thor's Powers in 'Thor: Love and Thunder'? Smiths deceptions set him free and catapulted him to literary fame, but ultimately, he nearly took another innocent womans life, leaving blood on the hands of Buckley and his other champions. And just in time for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in May comes a panoply of fiction from Asian and Asian American writers such as Vanessa Hua and Japan's Mieko Kawakami. Our list of the best books of 2022 includes books in a wide variety of genres -- modern classics, science fiction & fantasy, historical fiction, and more. Yet it also reaches deeper to explore science fiction's animating questionswhat makes us human? In compulsively readable chapters on everything from COPS to Honey Boo Boo, Lindemann illuminates how reality television both reflects and creates us, while also codifying our deep conservatism and fragile hierarchies of power. His mesmerizing new novel recasts Romeo and Juliet with two teenage boys as the leads.

This year continues that momentum, with new novels by prizewinning, bestselling authors such as Emily St. John Mandel, Jennifer Egan, Monica Ali, Tom Perotta, Emma Straub, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Douglas Stuart, to name a few, as well as exciting work by emerging talents Leila Mottley, Tomi Obaro, Hernan Diaz, Michelle Hart, and more. By the time mankind takes the stars in search of a new, plague-free home, youll be long bewitched. Sea of Tranquility also engages with the simulation hypothesis, which claims that the reality we inhabit is actually an elaborate computer simulation; a theory which has been endorsed by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Rigorously researched and lucidly argued, How Civil Wars Start is an arresting wake-up call. Drawing on three decades of reporting, Villarosa balances scathing expos with a cautious hope that we can reengineer the healthcare system to make it more equitable. A long-lost child further complicates the situation. RELATED: 30 Movies That Are Way Better Than the Book. ), When I'm Nostalgic for the '80s and '90s, I Read These Books, The Best Romance Books You've Never Heard Of, A Map to the Best Treasure Hunting Mysteries. Who doesnt love a campus novel? The year's most popular books on Goodreads span a variety of genres, from crime and sci-fi to historical epics and intimate family dramas. Exuberant, optimistic, and just plain fun, How to Take Over the World will both surprise and delight. Set in 1992 Glasgow, Young Mungo recalls the religious turmoil between Catholics and Protestants in Scotlands largest city, pummeled by the iron fist of Margaret Thatchers fiscal policies, perpetuating a vicious code of behavior among working-class men. Moshfegh expertly creates a world with its own superstitions and laws, both timeless and topical, made of limestone, the air heavy with the blood smell of iron.. The War of Two Queens is the fourth installment in Jennifer L. Armentrout's fantasy series, Blood and Ash. This sensual, sparkling debut novel explores the connection between young Mallory and a married college professor, their affair seemingly transactional, erotic; but Hart delves into the motivations of both women to dissect what exactly our desires conceal. Keep an eye on your inbox. Here are the 15 most popular historical fiction books, according to Goodreads, that have been published so far in 2022: Check out the full list of all 36 titles at Goodreads. My First Learn-to-Write Workbook: Practice for Kids with Pen Control, Line Tracing, Letters, and More! A virtuoso performance by an emerging talent whose first novel was a finalist for the Pulitzer and PEN/Faulkner, Trust is four books in one: a novel within a novel, a partial manuscript, a memoir, and a diary. In this elegant fusion of memoir, reporting, and cultural history, ORourke traces the development of modern Western medicine and takes aim at its limitations, advocating for a community-centric healthcare model that treats patients as people, not parts. Transporting and ephemeral, The Employees is among the years most memorable novels, even though it clocks in at just 136 pages. Soon, secrets and lies bubble to the surface. To Paradise is yet another masterwork from a visionary writer who never fails to surprise and astound. Its a stunning expos of why Black people in our society live sicker and die quickeran eye-opening game changer. Through a formally dazzling novel-in-stories structure, Nagamatsu envisions how life goes on. In the coming months, well be regularly updating this roundup to include additional thrilling new offerings from a variety of genresfrom riveting mysteries to must-read nonfiction to more from our most beloved literary novelists and short story writers.

Egans technical brio enriches her humane and timely novel, hinting at the risks and rewards in a brave new coded world. In this grand and sweeping novel, her first since 2015s much-lauded A Little Life, Yanagihara crafts a symphony from three disparate stories, each one set in an alternate America. Elsewhere, a woman suffering from cancer seeks out her stoner exthe only person who can assuage her fear of dying. In her 24th book, the Pulitzer Prizewinning author observes the Garretts from their first and last family vacation in the 1950s through the present day, examining the challenges and joys of our daily intimacies with those closest to us. Reading True Story is like seeing the matrixyoull never watch Bravo the same way again. We may earn commission from the links on this page. When her brother, Diegoa factory worker and snake charmerflees a white mob, Luz is left to provide for her family, becoming the new protector of their stories and myths. RELATED: 10 Bestselling Fantasy Novels of the Last 10 Years. This pyrotechnic novel opens in 2030, when an archeological dig in the Arctic Circle unleashes an ancient plague destined to reorganize life on Earth for generations to come. Oprah likes to say, There is no best life without books. We couldnt agree more, which is why weve scoured the spring and summer literary landscapes in search of the seasons most tempting new offerings28 in all. Olga, a wedding planner working with well-heeled Manhattan clientele, wonders if shell ever find a love story to call her own; meanwhile, popular Congressman Prieto fights for the siblings' Latinx neighborhood while concealing his sexuality. Daiyu must navigate a maze of challenges, from a calligraphy school in Zhifu to a brothel in San Francisco (pots of rouge for the cheeks and lips, rice powder for the face, black paint for the eyebrows and eyes) to a mining town in Idaho. Just what do the facts of a life tell us about who we are or where we come from, and what can our personal histories tell us about our national past? I am tired of seeing Ted Bundys face. The latter won the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2015. But this gimlet-eyed Trojan horse of a book has a trick up its sleeve: what if some schemes from the supervillain playbook, like extending our life spans and controlling the climate, could actually save the world? Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. This content contains affiliate links. Whether youre looking to understand our current moment through rigorous nonfiction or escape it through otherworldly plots, 2022s crop of new titles offer something for readers of every persuasion. Brown, the director and choreographer of the recently opened Broadway revival of For Colored Girls. For Colored Girls remains timeless and resonant because it brought representation of the nuanced private lives of Black women and girls to the stagealong with tackling previously undiscussed matters such as intimate partner violence, confidence, faith, and joy. Average men become interesting when they start hurting women, Kukafka writes in the preface to this mesmerizing novel, sure to be one of the years most lauded. A shrewd chronicler of social mores and inner lives, Straub delivers a surefire bestseller. The nurses and techs spend more time with patients than any doctor does. The first three books have already sold almost a million copies. Nearly 25 years after Election was published, Perrotta's hyper-competent heroine returns. Sea of Tranquility, Mandels sensational sixth novel, offers immense pleasures of puzzle box plotting and high-flying imagination.

Is a synthetic life still a life? When a secret romance blossoms between them, Owen and Alma must navigate both the vicissitudes of love and the growing pains of their own becomings. NEXT: 10 Great, Underrated Movies Recommended by Roger Ebert. Masterfully plotted and deeply moving, this visionary novel folds back on itself like a hall of mirrors to explore just what connects us to one another, and how many extraordinary contingencies bring us to each ordinary day of our lives. That book introduced Selin Karada, a young woman of Turkish heritage studying linguistics at Harvard in 1995. A lifelong movie nerd, he's written for sites like Paste and Briefly. None of us have seen anything like this, Thomas Fisher observes of the Covid pandemic, midway through his eloquent, candid The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER. To learn more about our picks for the best books of 2022, visit our blog! On a planet called New Discovery, crew members retrieve mysterious objects that exert a strange power over man and machine alike, awakening dreams, memories, and longing. A marvel of language. To any young men out there who arent too far gone, Fitzgerald writes, I say youre not done becoming yourself.. Updated daily.

In the title story, a Chinese girl in heaven pens a cheerful thank you note to poor Mr. Nixon, postmarked to his address in the ninth circle of hell. In this alternate reality, the world has been forever changed by Own Your Unconsciousness, a popular platform where memories are stored in the cloud and accessible to any user. Like that book, her latest work follows a host of characters as they navigate life and relationships. The writers recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with people close to Floydthey conducted more than 400 interviews in allto produce the definitive work on who Floyd was and what his murder triggered. In the past twenty years, the number of active civil wars around the globe has doubledand now, a leading political scientist insists that were on the verge of one of our own. She recounts her life under a dictatorship, implied to be the government of Augosto Pinochet. (Familiar, right?) In this delectable novel, a bestselling Southern California food writer joins a committee from her Unitarian Universalistcongregation as they seek to hire a spiritual leader. They are sure to include some great selections for even the pickiest readers. One of our finest practitioners of the short story form returns with Thank You, Mr. Nixon, a spiky collection distilling five decades of Chinese-American life into eleven remarkable short stories. Their quest leads them into parts of their mother's life they never knew about and raises questions about their own identities. We're halfway through the year which means that our best books of the year (so far) list is here! Her latest, Sea of Tranquility, is a sci-fi novel about time travel that spans multiple centuries. Luckily, there are plenty of new historical fiction titles out this year that readers can pick up now. When scientist Elizabeth Zott becomes the host of a cooking show, she kicks off a revolution that does more than just challenge the status quo. Fusing memoir, reportage, and travelogue, Perry imparts Southern history alongside high-spirited interviews with modern-day Southerners from all walks of life. Through characters like the teenage mother who abandoned him and the determined detective who brought him to justice, Ansel comes into view, but so do we, the crime-hound readers, indicted in the funhouse mirror of our own dark obsessions. Their therapist Avery has an unconventional method (and has recently lost her license). The residents are the ones who put their hands on every patient, he writes. Wise, poignant, and generous of spirit, these stories remind us that Walter is a national treasure. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book), Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience, Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love, The Great Reset: Joe Biden and the Rise of Twenty-First-Century Fascism, Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win, Half Baked Harvest Every Day: Recipes for Balanced, Flexible, Feel-Good Meals: A Cookbook. Luc has also worked behind the camera on short films and other projects.

It's an epic saga of court intrigue, magical beasts, and doomed romance. Book sales rose more than 9 percent in 2021, with fiction powering much of that growth. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the features of our site. Holly Blacks adult dark fantasy debut is everything you loved about The Cruel Prince series, now for adults. The plot unfolds against the backdrop of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico that year. Her last novel A Long Petal of the Sea, set during the Spanish Civil War, was one of the most acclaimed books of 2019. In her fiercely imagined new novel set in London, the author of Brick Lane peels away the illusions we conjure when our core relationships are threatened. Vivid photographs from the plays productions from 1976 to 2019 to round out a refreshed and refreshing offering of the classic work. Now an assistant principal at a New Jersey high school, Tracy Flick jumps at the chance to advance her career when her boss retires, but before she can lock it down, a cabal of men swoop in to thwart her ambitions. Few novels explore technology's impact on modern life and relationships with such precision. At Kentuckys Ashby College, two young writers collide: Owen, a local neer-do-well working as a groundskeeper in exchange for free creative writing classes, and Alma, a prestigious writer in residence. In 1893, the scion of a wealthy family resists an arranged marriage as he falls for a penniless music teacher; in 1993, a young Hawaiian paralegal hides his past from his much-older lover; finally, in 2093, a woman in totalitarian, pandemic-ridden New York uncovers the mysteries of the men shes loved. Now in her forties, Tracy Flick is ruminating on roads not taken: the #MeToo movement causes her to question a long-ago sexual encounter with a teacher, while caretaking responsibilities have dashed her law school dreams and led her back to Green Meadow High School as the beleaguered assistant principal. Dirtbag, Massachusetts opens with his hardscrabble childhood in a dysfunctional Catholic family, then spins out into the decades of jobs and identities that followed. Critics have praised Mandel's work for its high-concept premises and its lyrical prose. Black Cake is the debut novel of former journalist Charmaine Wilkerson. Every product was carefully curated by an Esquire editor. At a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, we meet our unnamed narrator, a fifty-something literature professor whose husband, the charismatic chair of the English department, is under investigation for sexual misconduct with students. Discover the top books to read in 2022 so far, including fiction, teens & kids' books. Athenas defense takes the story back to her fathers traumatic childhood in India, all the way through to his meteoric rise and eventual downfall. In this dazzling and provocative novel, Egan, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, asks the essential zeitgeist question: Whats app with that? In 2010, Bix Bouton, a Black tech visionary, embarks on a mission to sate his omnivorous curiosity and enrich his family by devising a download that accesses each users memories. Constructed as a series of witness statements from the crew, gathered after tensions with their oppressive employer boil over, The Employees is an unforgettable novel about the psychic costs of labor under capitalism. He finds pleasure and pride in their work: Like attending physicians in EDs across the country, I dont get involved with every decision, but I meet and examine each patient, and I am ultimately responsible for their diagnosis, treatment plan, and outcome. A must-read. Into this powder keg enters Vladimir Vladinski, a hunky new faculty member with a wife, a young daughter, and a dark past of his own. In another standout, Hong Kong parents go to desperate lengths to make contact with their number-one daughter, now in self-imposed exile across the globe; in another; a glamorous young womans romance with an older Chinese-American man is squashed by his watchful mother, to hilarious effect.