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Best Books of the Year & A Look Ahead

LitHub compiles “The Ultimate Best Books of 2022 List.”

CrimeReads lists the best true crime books of the year. 

Foreign Policy rounds up “The Best Books We Read in 2022.”

Town & Country has “The Best Books of 2022.”

The Washington Post shares “The 15 best book covers of 2022.”

Time looks forward to the most anticipated books of 2023. 

Tor shares 22 books to cozy up with this winter.

Alice Oseman tops the author/illustrator category of the newly released The Bookseller 150 list. 

Big Book of the Week

Queen of Myth and Monsters by Scarlett St. Clair (Bloom Books) leads holds this week. It is also a Library Reads pick:

“Vampire King Adrian and his beloved Queen Isolde return in this searing erotic romance in which peril hides at every turn. St. Clair takes the reader on another high-stakes thrill ride as the couple works to establish their reign in a dark fantasy realm of mortals and immortals. Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunters.”—Donna Rasmussen, Librarian-at-Large, Northern NJ Libraries

This book and others publishing during the weeks of Dec. 19 and December 26, 2022, are listed in a downloadable spreadsheet.

In the Media

The People "Picks" book of the week is The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (Grand Central; LJ starred review). Also getting attention are The Ingenue by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (St. Martin’s), and No One Left To Come Looking for You by Sam Lipsyte (S. & S.). The “New in Nonfiction” section highlights Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century by Jennifer Homans (Random; LJ starred review), and The Tudors in Love: Passion and Politics in the Age of England’s Most Famous Dynasty by Sarah Gristwood (St. Martin's). The staff pick is A Giant Win: Inside the New York Giants' Historic Upset over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII by Tom Coughlin and Greg Hanlon (Grand Central).

The “Picks” section spotlights Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, based on the Italian fairy tale. Plus, Prue Leith, Bliss on Toast: 75 Simple Recipes (Bloomsbury), shares a recipe.

Reviews

NYT reviews Motherfield: Poems & Belarusian Protest Diary by Julia Cimafiejeva, trans. by Hanif Abdurraqib and Valzhyna Mort (Phoneme): “A dual-language publication, Motherfield reads like a testament to the innate multilingualism of Belarus. And after all, what Belarusians say matters just as much as what language they say it in.” And, Scatterlings by Resoketswe Martha Manenzhe (HarperVia): "Manenzhe’s words are full of a wild, roaming intelligence that drifts into both intense philosophical exploration and acknowledgments of the unknowable."

The Washington Post reviews To Catch a Dictator: The Pursuit and Trial of Hissène Habré by Reed Brody (Columbia Univ. Pr.): “It’s an absorbing saga that raises a disturbing question: How do brutal fascists like Habre and other murderous heads of state evade a courtroom reckoning for so long after falling from power?”  Plus, there are short reviews of 5 historical fiction books.

BookMarks shares "The 10 Best Book Reviews of 2022."

Briefly Noted

Vogue talks with Kase Wickman about her new book, Bring It On: The Complete Story of the Cheerleading Movie That Changed, Like, Everything (No, Seriously) (Chicago Review Pr.). 

Slate has a “Totally Normal Interview With Author Emily St. John Mandel.”

BookRiot writes about books that will enter the public domain in 2023. 

CrimeReads shares 8 mysteries with librarians as amateur detectives. 

The Atlantic highlights six classics that live up to their reputation. 

LitHub shares “88 Writers on the Books They Loved in 2022.”

FoxNews reflects on the publication of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol on Dec. 19, 1843.

"Milton Viorst, Writer Who Chronicled the Middle East, Dies at 92."  NYT has an obituary. 

Authors on Air

CBS Sunday Morning chats with Michael Weintrob about his instrumental photography and book, INSTRUMENTHEAD (Magnet Bound Press).

NPR’s Fresh Air revisits an interview with Glenn Frankel, author of High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic (Bloomsbury USA), about “what a classic '50s Western can teach us about the Hollywood blacklist.”

NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday shares NPR staff's favorite fiction of 2022. 

GMA recaps episodes of The Book Case podcast with Kate and Charlie Gibson. 

CrimeReads suggests the best international true crime podcasts for winter.

NPR’s It’s Been A Minute explores the deadly allure of Dark Academia.

Cecily Strong, This Will All Be Over Soon (S. & S.), departs SNL after 11 years. The Atlantic reflects on her tenure.  

Nathan Newman’s How to Leave the House, will be adapted for TV. Deadline reports. 

LitHub has "The 13 Best Literary Adaptations of 2022."

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