Our favourite reads of 2022 (of books published in 2022).
Ndiaye, Mamadou, author
2022
Ever wonder how to tell if a moose is about to subtract you? Curious why you should be terrified of cassowaries, the "velociraptor that time forgot?" Questioning whether that cute baby hippo is actually a homicidal maniac in the making? Yea, so was Mamadou Ndiaye . . . and now he's got your answers. You'll learn not only which animals to avoid, but which ones can beat you in a footrace, which ones create surprisingly high body counts, and which ones will give you a good reason never to venture into the ocean. Mamadou also offers the occasional survival tip, even if it is just to make peace with your higher power.
Booth, Molly, author
2022
New student Vi finds herself falling for Orsino, even though he wants Vi's help asking Olivia to the school dance.
Henry, Emily, author
2022
When her little sister, Libby, begs for a sisters' trip, Nora Stephens agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August. Instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor. If Nora knows she's not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he's nobody's hero, but as they are thrown together again and again, what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they've written about themselves.
St. James, Simone, author
2022
In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Beth Greer was the perfect suspect-a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion. Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn't right.
Daniel, Danielle, author
2022
1657. Marie, a gifted healer of the Deer Clan, does not want to marry the green-eyed soldier from France who has asked for her hand. But her people are threatened by disease and starvation and need help against the Iroquois and their English allies if they are to survive. When her chief begs her to accept the white man's proposal, she cannot refuse him. 1675. Jeanne, Marie's oldest child, is 17, neither white nor Algonquin, caught between worlds. Her heart belongs to a girl named Josephine, but soon her father will have to find her a husband or be forced to pay a hefty fine to the French crown.
Beaton, Kate, 1983- author, illustrator
2022
Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta's oil rush-part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed. Beaton's natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest.
Coates, Darcy, author
2022
"The SS Arcadia vanished during a routine voyage. A strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, but no trace of the ship, or of its crew, could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course. A small team are granted permission to dive to it. Their purpose is straightforward: explore the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished. But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and the submerged halls hold more than simple mysteries. Trapped hundreds of feet beneath the surface, the dive team must fight for their lives in a place where even the smallest mistake turns deadly"-- Provided by publisher.
Novik, Naomi, author
2022
"The one thing you never talk about while you're in the Scholomance is what you'll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it's all we dream about: the hideously slim chance we'll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls. And now the impossible dream has come true. I'm out, we're all out--and I didn't even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother's prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn't kill enclavers, I saved them. Me and Orion and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: We saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves everywhere. Ha, only joking! Actually, it's gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war. And the first thing I've got to do now, having miraculously gotten out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in"-- Provided by publisher.
Schur, Michael, 1975- author
2022
"From the creator of The Good Place and the co-creator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world"-- Provided by publisher.
Garmus, Bonnie, author
2022
Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. But it's the 1960s and despite the fact that she is a scientist, her peers are very unscientific when it comes to equality. As events are never as predictable as chemical reactions, three years after meeting Calvin, a legend and Nobel nominee, Elizabeth is an unwed, single mother and the star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's singular approach to cooking and independent example are proving revolutionary. Because Elizabeth isn't just teaching women how to cook, she's teaching them how to change the status quo.
Lin, Judy I., author
2022
Ning enters a cutthroat magical competition to find the kingdom's greatest master of the art of brewing tea, but political schemes and secrets make her goal of gaining access to royal physicians to cure her dying sister far more dangerous than she imagined.
Hall, Alexis J., author
2022
Paris Daillencourt is a recipe for disaster until his roommate enters him in Bake Expectations in hopes of pushing him out of his comfort zone. Paris initially finds success, winning the first week's bake and falling into flirtation with Tariq Hassan. But with each week of the competition, Paris is crumbling. Despite the attraction, the differences between him and Tariq keep moving them further and further apart. Paris's desserts and delicacies consistently impress the judges, but his fear of failure keeps spilling over into his baking. And when the show airs, thrusting Paris into the spotlight, the savagery of social media is all his worst anxieties come to life.
Hahn, Sabina, author, illustrator
2022
A misunderstood girl, who is certain she is a princess, creates a pineapple headpiece fit for royalty--unfortunately, a horde of eager subjects in the form of flies take direction poorly and her kingdom slowly devolves into chaos, causing both her rule and her pineapple crown to fall apart.
Mandel, Emily St. John, 1979- author
2022
"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 an island off Vancouver in 1912 to a dark colony of the moon three hundred years later, unfurlinga story of humanity across centuries and planets"-- Provided by publisher.
Díaz, Hernán, 1973- author
2022
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the brilliant daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth. But the secrets around their affluence and grandeur excites gossip. This is the mystery at the centre of a successful 1938 novel entitled "Bonds," which all of New York seems to have read. But it isn't the only version.
Ward, J. R., 1969- author
2022
Nadya is a self-taught nurse who does what she can to ease the suffering of the prisoners. When Kane comes under her care, she cannot help but empathize with his condition for very personal reasons - and as the guards take him away one last time, she fears he is facing a terrible death. Choosing life, for the time being, he goes back for the female who took such good care of him - but his duty to Nadya sets him on a collision course with his own past. When long-buried secrets are exposed, his self-destruction is inevitable - unless true love can save his soul.
Liu, Simu, 1989- author
2022
The star of Marvel's first Asian superhero film, in this candid, inspiring and relatable memoir, tells his own origin story and how he embarked on a journey that took him far outside of his comfort zone into the world of show business.