As with all my annual re-caps, the book didn’t have to be released in 2022 to make the list, it just had to be my first time reading it. No re-reads allowed. My reading slowed down a lot in the last third of the year due to writing and revising a new novel and the holiday madness, but I’m excited to see what 2023 brings. Until then, these are ten can’t miss books that I highly recommend.
10. Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson
The surreal spookiness of Jackson’s body of work has one foot firmly in the supernatural (or possibility thereof) and the other foot smack dab in the realm of realistic horrors, or more frankly, the very real horrors of being a woman (wife, student, mother, etc.) in the 20th century. Which can get pretty damn scary. This tale of a young woman going off to college in Bennington, Vermont is more the latter but with such a hazy, mysterious sense of dread that you expect the surreal bottom to fall out at any moment. And it eventually does, ending on a fever dream of betrayal, abandonment, and deception, between the characters and the reader alike. I wrote a novel about the real disappearance of Paula Weldon, a college student at Bennington in the 1940s, and this novel is also based on her case, but not about what happened after, more about what may have led up to it, which is even more unnerving in this portrayal.
9. Ice Ghosts by Paul Watson
I’ve always had an interest in the stories of lost explorers and the mysteries they faced that may have led to their doom, and this book looks at the lost Franklin Expedition that became lodged in the artic trying to find the Northwest Passage. Lodged and lost for years and generations. The book is partly about how they got lost, and mostly about the many expeditions to find them, first to save them, then to find out what happened once too much time passed. Many of those rescuers got lost as well. It’s a tale heavy on history but moves quickly, never bogging down too much, though there are many interesting asides along the way, including the amazing history of the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and its ties to polar exploration.
8. The Library Book by Susan Orlean
I read this in preparation for a trip to Los Angeles to see the library for myself and it’s a deeply fascinating read, alternating between the history of the library, the massive fire that almost destroyed it in the 1980s, and the modern personal accounts by librarians working within the hallowed and gorgeous halls of the building today. Like Ice Ghosts, this one moves nicely, never bogging down too long, and has a lot to say about the wild history of LA, its literary community, and the hunt to find the infamous arsonist who almost burned the building to the ground. A BIG thank you to Amelia for recommending this one. I loved it.
7. In Sunlight or In Shadow by various authors
This is my favorite short story collection of the year, a book of stories inspired by different Edward Hopper paintings (included with each story) and edited by the great Lawrence Block. I took this one on a trip to Texas and it served me well on log flights, with stories that range from noir to surreal to paranormal to heartbreaking. The authors in this one are no joke, and includes work from Stephen King, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Lee Child, Joe R. Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, and others. I skipped a couple, but the vast majority were gripping and neatly-tied to the paintings each chose to base the story around. A clever device for a collection of stories. Sometimes these collections can get too cute with their premise and fall apart. This one holds up. Great stuff.
6. This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
This one got to me. I still think about it a couple times a month, and there are a few scenes that will forever creep me out. It’s a modern horror/paranormal story with a realistic, original voice that made the narrator sound like someone we all know, a friend just trying to get through life, but unfortunately he moves into the wrong apartment, loses a loved one, and is haunted and stalked by someone…or something. The use of modern technology pairs nicely with the omnipresent and almost demonic foulness that follows the narrator, and the tale spins into such concentric mazes that you become unsure if what you’re seeing is real, a hallucination, a haunting, or the onset of madness. Plenty of twists and chills. A wild ride.
5. Teenager by Bud Smith
Take the teen murder spree from Badlands, add a little Kurt Vonnegut, blend it with ample doses of modern wit, and you get one hell of a novel by Bud Smith. There’s nobody quite like Bud today, but he doesn’t lean on anyone from the past either. Getting to know him back in the day and then reading his novels, it’s fun to see his dry humor, subtle sarcasm, surreal imagination, and deep kindness and humility come through in his writing. The book may seem wild, manic, and at times violent, but at its heart there’s real humanity and love, and there are valid questions about why our world is the way it is today. It’s a gorgeous and dreamlike novel with two feet on the ground and its head in the clouds. How is that possible? Because Bud is a giant. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
4. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Like I need to tell you anything about Joan Didion, one of the greatest essayists and memoirists of our time. And the hype is real. This was the biggest gut punch of the year for me, just sweeping in its sadness and loss, but also so finely detailed in its documentation of the ways we find to carry on, even if it doesn’t seem like there’s any real wisdom to share moment-to-moment. The act of finding ways to move forward even when it feels like we’re headed nowhere is a monumental challenge, and Dideon is spectacular at describing exactly how it unfolds, for good or ill. Even if the end of life is full of heartache and loneliness, the journey is beautiful, and beautifully told in this book.
3. Basketball (And Other Things) by Shea Serrano
Talk about something completely different from the last one on this list, huh? No book had me in stitches like Shea’s hilarious and meticulous examination of the unanswered questions that abound in the NBA. He dives into the silly (“Which NBA Player Should You Team Up With to Get Through The Purge?” or his “Fictional Character NBA Draft Rankings”), the serious (“Which NBA Championship Is the Most Important?”), and the things I never really considered before (“What is the Most Disrespectful Dunk in NBA History?”). There are a ton of detailed statistics, but also A LOT of personal asides, jokes, reminiscing, and deeply biased opinions, many of which I appreciate also being a San Antonio Spurs fan. Reading this has been an absolute blast.
2. The Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin
I read this one right out of the gate in 2022 and it blew the goddamn doors open. It might be my favorite Vlautin novel yet. The book reads like an intense “all in one night” ‘90s thriller, but written with such personal detail and development that you feel like you’re right there every step of the way, flipping the pages desperate to see how each dire situation unfolds. It follows a young woman who will soon be homeless and who needs to scrounge up enough money to get her special needs brother and herself out of town and into a new life ASAP. But first she has to face off with her abusive ex, her negligent mother, and a series of scumbag criminals and con artists, all while navigating a haunting depiction of poverty in America, the kind JD Vance only wishes he could write or understand, the pathetic con artist that he is. Anyway, this book is epic, and it deserves all the attention in the world.
1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
For the first time in a long time, this book made me feel like I was twelve again, all curled up in my bed staying up way too late reading an epic tale of adventure with characters who felt like friends. This book could have gone on for another 50,000 pages and I’d have kept reading deep into the night. Sure, it’s about a group of rabbits heading off to start a new life for themselves, but it’s really a story of friendship, learning to trust your intuition, community building, and the bravery it takes to put the good of the many over your own personal safety. The group meets every kind of trouble along the way, and at no point does the book settle into a lull, not for long at least. No other book kept me as glued to the pages as this one and no other book had me literally jumping out of bed to cheer the characters on. There’s a reason it’s a classic. An enduring tale that cannot be overlooked. Easily my favorite of the year.