Top Ten Favorite Books I Read This Year(s), 2021–2022
Welcome back! As per a long-running tradition, I like ranking my favorite books I’ve read over the past two years. It’s an interesting way to reflect on what I’ve enjoyed the most, as well as stay motivated to read and track my preferences over time.
It was extremely challenging to decide this top ten list, for several reasons. First, there wasn’t anything that I unconditionally loved, which made deciding my top several sports unusually tough. At the same time, there were so many books that I really liked that narrowing the list down to ten proved excruciating.
A final confusing wrinkle was where to put Pale, the long-running web serial which has devoured a lot of my reading time. It would surely rank in the top ten, but it still isn’t finished. I decided ultimately to rank this whenever it finishes which presumably will be before 2024.
Finally, shout out to The Big Short which was my number eleven. On to the top ten!
10. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Every year at least one book set in a desolate landscape makes my top ten and this year it’s Disappearing Earth, set in contemporary Siberia. The book follows a collection of women living on the peninsula of Kamchatka and does a brilliant job describing the challenges and small triumphs of daily live. Phillips lived in Kamchatka and her love for the area and its people shines through. While the novel sort of has a plot, it is really more of a collection of loosely-connected short stories with lovely prose. This is Phillips’ debut novel and her ability to evoke character and place is remarkable. I’m definitely looking forward to her next work — I just hope it has more of a central narrative.
9. My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
This is a weird one. The central conflict is tracking down a murderer which makes it a mystery novel… kind of? Frankly, I didn’t find the mystery all that interesting. It’s an exploration of the 16th century Ottoman empire which is evocative and compelling. It’s a wild story told from numerous unusual perspectives. For example, one of the many narrators is the color red. Maybe most of all it’s a story about art, using a plot revolving around Ottoman minature at a particular point in time as a lens to discuss the nature of art and beauty.
That all sounds incredibly ambitious and it only half-worked for me. But this was undoubtedly one of the most interesting and transporting books I read over the last two years. The kaleidoscopic weirdness is so consistently intriguing that I found the book surprisingly riveting.
8. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
One of the reasons I do this exercise is to see how my tastes have evolved over time. I read Mandel’s breakout success Station Eleven in 2015, but apparently it didn’t make my top ten books of that year. Tastes change, go figure.
Station Eleven attracted attention in part because it was a book about a catastrophic global pandemic. Interestingly, Sea of Tranquility is also very much about pandemics, including Covid-19. In Station Eleven that pandemic is a terrifying apocalyptic force; in Sea of Tranquility a pandemic is often more of a cause of boredom not just terror and death.
Mandel is channeling David Mitchell hard here with a similar nesting structure to Cloud Atlas and I think a fairly similar view of the future as Mitchell presents in The Bone Clocks. But hey, I really like David Mitchell so I’m all for it.
7. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Every time I do these lists I have at least one big, multi-generational family drama and at least one set in a desolate polar landscape. This time the winner of the multi-generation family drama category is The Vanishing Half. This is just a good book with an interesting premise and it expands upon that premise in directions that create both tension and emotional impact. There’s maybe a little bit too much going on in this book given that it’s not very long but this book is super solid and there’s a reason why it was such a hit when it came out.
6. Beloved by Toni Morrison
If you haven’t read anything by Toni Morrison but know of her reputation as a literary giant you might assume her books are staid, elegant affairs. But her books are wild; this is my favorite I’ve read so far because it so thoroughly embraces surreal, apocalyptic horror. The genesis of the book was a newspaper article about a slave who killed one of her children and was attempting to kill others to prevent them from being forced to return into slavery. So yup, the book is horrifically dark. It’s a difficult but certainly memorable read and if you’ve heard Beloved is great but never gotten around to reading it, give it a shot.
5. The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
Ruth Ozeki is my pick for most underrated contemporary author. I’ve loved everything I’ve read from her. So even though The Book of Form and Emptiness is my least favorite book from her, it is still really, really good. I love the edge of weirdness that pervades Ozeki’s work, and how she uses those weird elements to augment themes in her novels.
In this case, the story is largely told as a conversation between a boy and a book. On one hand, the whole “objects having sentience” thing seems like a bit of a gimmick in an otherwise grounded book. But on the other hand, the book really is about objects and how people relate to them. One of the central characters is a hoarder while another is a zen priest who is more or less Marie Kondo with a different name. The whole story is about how humans relate to their possessions, so the conversation with a book makes sense. Classic Ozeki weirdness that works.
4. Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson
This was the hardest book for me to place on this list. It’s well over a thousand pages and I finished it in a matter of days, then immediately gave it five stars on Goodreads (A rating I give <10% of the time). The world building continues to be absolutely spectacular and the characters are terrific. Special shout out goes to Navani who somehow manages to have a riveting subplot while spewing exposition about the magic system of Roshar.
But… for whatever reason this book didn’t stick with me as much as the others in the Stormlight Archive series. It might be because I read it so fast, like how binging series can be less enjoyable than watching them week-by-week. A book like Words of Radiance felt like spectacular payoff to the giant setup that was The Way of Kings. This book, now more than four thousand pages into The Stormlight Archive, felt… less spectacular. I don’t know. If I made this list immediately after I read Rhythm of War I would have been surprised if this book wasn’t my favorite of 2021–2022. Now, while I remember enjoying it immensely I’m not sure I can have a book that didn’t age as well as my favorite, as much as I liked the read.
3. To Lose a Battle: France 1940 by Alister Horne
For some reason, I seem to really like non-fiction books where the author makes it extremely clear that they personally dislike part of what they are covering. In this case, the Third French Republic is the target or Horne’s well-deserved frustration. The book covers the astoundingly successful German invasion of France during World War Two. Part of the strength of the book is the subject matter is naturally interesting — it’s hard to think many military plans in history which were simultaneously as complex, risky, daring, and almost flawlessly executed as Case Yellow. At the same time, the maddening incompetence of French leadership makes a morbidly entertaining contrast to the well-planned German attack.
The book doesn’t hold your hand much and expects the reader to have a base level of knowledge about the German invasion. At least some familiarity with the geography of Belgium and eastern France is practically required to visualize what the heck is going on. Still, it is a well-organized narrative that splits between a discussion of the underlying weakness of the French government prior to the invasion and the subsequent ways those weaknesses undermined the French defense.
2. The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee
Don’t judge a book by its cover because these win the award for “ugliest covers of the past two years”. The first book in the trilogy, Jade City, has this weird black cover with a green lightning bolt that looks like a janky self-published book. Then the next two books decided to go with the same ugly cover design, just in different colors. There was a limited release that had great covers, but that’s no longer available. Regardless, these books might not draw your attention but pick them up if you see them because they’re great.
The Green Bone Saga tells a story of the protracted struggle between two warring crime syndicates whose members have supernatural abilities. In a lot of fantasy novels, magic is used in military conflict. This series is far more interesting because open war would likely be catastrophic for both sides. The conflict is mostly indirect, filled with constant intrigue, tentative alliances, targeted assassinations, and questionable loyalties. It reminds me a lot of the first three books of Game of Thrones. And hey, this series actually has a reasonably satisfying ending! Overall, an exciting fantasy series that feels fresh and makes me want to read more novels of fantasy court intrigue.
1. The Overstory by Richard Powers
This was probably the toughest book to rank out of any I read over the past two years. There are parts that really worked on me, parts that didn’t, and parts that I am still unsure about. It’s a book following a group of eco-terrorists (kind of), how they meet, and the evolution of their beliefs and actions.
The book is split into distinct acts, which is part of why it is hard to rate, because the first act is so spectacular. The opening of the book, disparate stories of characters with profound relationships to trees, is the best stuff I’ve read in the past two years. Unfortunately, once the various characters start meeting each other and interacting, the book loses momentum until it peters out in an ending I found disappointingly limp.
The other challenging part of the book is the characters. They are very strange people, and that can be alienating because it is hard to understand why they are doing what they are doing. Then again, most people aren’t eco-terrorists, so maybe the characters should act and think in disorienting ways. Nevertheless, they have an internal logic which made me feel like I really understood the characters. Finally, Powers’ prose is truly spectacular. Is it occasionally overwrought? Maybe. But I loved it just as I loved this book.
Past Top Lists
2019–2020
10. How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe
9. Ostkrieg: Hitler’s War of Extermination in the East by Stephen G. Fritz
8. The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
7. Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight by Timothy Pachirat
6. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
5. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat
4. Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
3. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
2. The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole by Roland Huntford
- Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
2018
10. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
9. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
8. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
7. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
6. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
5. Worm by Wildbow (John C. McCrae)
4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
3. My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
2. The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
2017
10. The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
9. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
8. The Magicians Land by Lev Grossman
7. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
6. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
5. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
4. Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite by Suki Kim
3. Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government by Christopher H. Achen and Larry Bartels
2. A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton
- The Magicians by Lev Grossman
2016
10. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
9. 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris
8. A Hologram for the King by David Eggers
7. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
6. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
5. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
4. Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
3. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
2. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
2015
10. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
9. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
8. The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal
7. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
6. Hild by Nicola Griffith
5. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
4. Kingkiller books 1+2 by Patrick Rothfuss
3. In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides
2. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
2014
5. Bring Up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel
4. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
3. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don’t by Nate Silver
2. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities by John Cassidy
2013
5. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Phillip Pullman
4. The Trial by Franz Kafka
3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
2. The Metamorphoses by Ovid
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
