npr book reviews october 2022

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8 books that NPR critics and staff were eager to tell you about in 2022

Maison Tran

It's that time of year again: NPR brings you the complete Books We Love list for 2022, a quirky, highly personal collection of our staff and contributors' favorite books of the year.

We've curated a range of reads from the renaissance of ever-diverse graphic novels to hair-raising thrillers and mysteries .

Of the 402 books that made the list, here are eight of the books that our Books We Love readers recommended the most.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

You know that feeling when you finally beat a video game? Emotional catharsis floods your mind and body and, drained, you set down the controller with a sigh. If you're not much of a gamer, but you still crave that emotional release, Gabrielle Zevin's brilliant novel about two friends' journey to video game stardom is the perfect substitute. This story of love, loss and the constant battle between art and commercial success left me short of breath. It's one of those books you'll be thinking about long after "game over."

— Brandon Carter , associate producer, Washington Desk

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

For centuries, the crone Baba Yaga has been a figure in Slavic folklore – the kind of character who might lend you a magical candle or kill you and use your skull to decorate her house on chicken legs. In her debut novel, Thistlefoot , author and folklorist GennaRose Nethercott reimagines Baba Yaga as a Jewish woman living in an Eastern European shtetl in 1919, during a time of civil war and pogroms. Through the crone and her story, Nethercott explores the idea of folklore as a retelling of a memory too painful to talk about plainly.

— Mallory Yu , producer/editor, All Things Considered

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Former iCarly star Jennette McCurdy's account of her tumultuous relationship with show business, disordered eating and abuse by her mother is the heart of her debut memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died . McCurdy's storytelling is not only fantastic but intimate and raw, full of both pain and humor. While it can be hard to read, learning about how much she was going through privately while in the public eye, I'm Glad My Mom Died is also hard to put down – and hard to forget.

— Aja Miller, associate, Member Partnership

If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery

I could say something buttoned-up, like "Jonathan Escoffery's debut collection of short stories examines race, identity and class in incisive ways." And that'd be true, but phrasing it that way betrays the lack of didacticism in his writing . Instead, the book – which follows generations of one Jamaican American family – focuses on the hunger (literal and figurative), heartbreak, horniness and (maybe?) hope that often come hand-in-hand with trying to make it in this country.

— Andrew Limbong , correspondent, Culture Desk and host, Book of the Day

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Lucy Foley is back with her latest whodunit, this time set in an eerie Parisian apartment complex. Running from her own problems, Jess decides to visit Ben, her journalist brother. But when she gets to Paris, Ben is nowhere to be found. None of his neighbors know where he is, but they all seem to know him – maybe a little too well. As she investigates, Jess learns more about her brother, his work and those peculiar neighbors. With characters suspicious and unlikable in their own way and a fun twist, you're in for a dark and moody escape .

— Arielle Retting , growth editor, Digital News

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

I'm a sucker for Gothic novels, and I've been loving the trend of Gothics that take place somewhere unexpected (i.e., not Europe). The Hacienda is a story that takes us to, well, a hacienda – in a remote Mexican town in the 1820s, not long after the War of Independence. The protagonist, Beatriz, moves to her new husband's large estate, eager to escape the rejection, poverty and tragedy that she's suffered in Mexico City. What she finds instead is a ridiculously haunted house inhabited by some equally haunted-seeming people – including those meant to be closest to her.

— Leah Donnella , supervising editor, Code Switch

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Sequoia Nagamatsu's debut is beautiful and unsparing in its depiction of a world reeling from a climate catastrophe-driven plague . From the earliest days of a pandemic, to the impacts that linger centuries into the future, the plague forces humans to reckon with immeasurable grief and loss. And the commercialization of death is inescapable: There's a euthanasia amusement park for terminally ill children, a hotel for the dead. But despite the doom and gloom, these stories are endlessly imaginative and rich with meaning. Though the universe these stories are unfolding within is undeniably bleak, Nagamatsu imbues his characters with a sense of cosmic hope and humanity.

— Summer Thomad , production assistant, Code Switch

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

The 1950s weren't just unkind to women with aspirations outside the home – they were punishing. Case in point: Elizabeth Zott, chemist. She doesn't have her Ph.D. because she was assaulted by a professor; she's belittled and harassed by the men she works with. She falls in love with a star scientist – and is dogged by rumors that she's using him to get ahead. His accidental death, her surprise pregnancy and new single-mother desperation lead her to success in an unlikely place: a TV cooking show. But Zott gives her audience radical lessons that go beyond the kitchen. This book is an often funny-yet-infuriating read.

— Melissa Gray , senior producer, Weekend Edition

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Here are the Books We Love: 400+ great 2022 reads recommended by NPR

NPR's Books We Love returns with 400+ new titles handpicked by NPR staff and trusted critics. Find 10 years of recommendations all in one place – that's more than 3,200 great reads.

Open the app now!

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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NPR's top picks for 2022 fiction books

• Summer Thomad
• Natalie Escobar
• Rommel Wood
• Karen Grigsby Bates

[Copyright 2022 NPR]

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Books We Love

Great reads, thoughtfully curated by npr.

‹ Back to books

What is this thing?

Books We Love is NPR’s interactive reading guide. Mix and match tags such as Book Club Ideas , Biography & Memoir or Eye-Opening Reads to filter results and find the book that’s perfect for you or someone you love.

How are the books selected?

We reached out to our staffers and trusted critics and asked them to nominate their favorite books published in 2023. They responded with hundreds of titles. Then, the editors and producers at NPR Books sat down with a huge spreadsheet of responses; we resolved duplications, noted omissions, considered the overall mix and balance of books recommended and then made assignments.

Why isn’t this just a list?

Back in 2013, the NPR Books staff was suffering from an acute case of list fatigue. So we teamed up with our friends at NPR News Apps and started to think about a site that would be more Venn diagram-y than list-y – a site that could help you seek out the best biographies that were also love stories, or the best mysteries that were also set in the past. We wholeheartedly believe that human beings are capable of absorbing new information in formats that are 1) not sequentially ordered and 2) wait … dammit! and 3) never mind.

But no, really, I just want to see a list of books

We got you. To view these books as a list of titles rather than as an array of covers, you are welcome to select the “List” option in the upper right-hand corner of the site.

So what’s the deal with these tags?

At NPR Books, we’re all about discovery: helping you find your next great read – the mystery you can’t put down, the memoir you recommend to all your friends. In 2013, we hashed out a basic taxonomy that was both functional (e.g., Biography & Memoir or Kids’ Books ) and fun (e.g., It’s All Geek To Me and Let’s Talk About Sex ). Over the years, we’ve refined our filters and added new tags, like The States We’re In and No Biz Like Show Biz .

The names are cute, but what do they mean?

The States We’re In is for stories of the American experience both true and fictional. It’s All Geek To Me is for deep dives on particular topics – trees, personality tests, tiny houses, you name it. In The Dark Side , you’ll find dystopias, serial killers, true crime and people behaving badly in general. Eye-Opening Reads will give you a new perspective on the topic at hand, whether it’s the state of philanthropy or a new pair of shoes.

How do the books get tagged?

Our critics and staffers make suggestions, but to ensure we are applying tags consistently, the producers and editors at NPR Books consider and discuss every tag on every book.

That must take a very long time

Can i look under the hood.

If you want to know more about how Books We Love was designed and coded, you can read about the process here . And if you’re curious to see the code and adapt it for your own project, you can check it out here .

If I click on the links and purchase one of the books, does that purchase help NPR?

Yes. And you can read more about how that works here .

How can I stay up to date on reviews and recommendations from NPR Books?

Sign up for our newsletter ! Every week we will send interviews, stories and reviews right to your inbox.

Subscribe to our podcast ! NPR’s Book of the Day brings you today’s great reads in 15 minutes or less.

Have fun exploring Books We Love! We hope you find something wonderful to read today.

The 2023 Books We Love team: Rose Friedman , Andrew Limbong , Beth Novey and Meghan Collins   Sullivan

Project Credits

This edition of Books We Love was published on Nov. 20, 2023.

• Produced and edited by Rose Friedman, Beth Novey and Meghan Collins Sullivan
• Design and development by Alyson Hurt and Brent Jones
• Copy edited by Preeti Aroon, Arielle Retting and Pam Webster
• Branding work by Luke Medina and Alexander Reade

Previous editions of Books We Love: Annette Elizabeth Allen, Preeti Aroon, Jeremy Bowers, Tayla Burney, Nicole Cohen, Patricia Cole, Danny DeBelius, Camila Domonoske, Beth Donovan, David Eads, Juan Elosua, Jess Eng, Natalie Escobar, Rose Friedman, Alice Goldfarb, Christopher Groskopf, Geoff Hing, Clinton King, Becky Lettenberger, Megan Lim, Wes Lindamood, Petra Mayer, Amy Morgan, Koko Nakajima, Duy Nguyen, Beth Novey, Maureen Pao, Katie Park, Ashley Pointer, Christina Rees, Arielle Retting, Ellen Silva, Meghan Collins Sullivan, Ruth Talbot, Shelly Tan, Pam Webster, Glen Weldon, Thomas Wilburn, Matthew Zhang

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