Our 10 Favorites from Book Riot's Best Books of 2022

Our friends at Book Riot have released their list of the best books of the year and it includes some great reads. A few of them landed on the ThriftBooks Best Books of 2022 list as well! We've selected ten of our favorite titles from their list. From bookish paranormal thrillers to comedic kids' stories to complex family sagas to superhero graphic novels, there's something here for everyone.

Book Lovers

Rom-com maven Emily Henry's newest charmer is about Nora, a big-city literary agent who embarks on extended vacation in a sleepy North Carolina town. With visions of a small-town transformation, Nora is beset by repeated run-ins with Charlie, a brooding colleague from the city.

Babel

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang, a superb exploration of violence, colonialism, and language. In an alternate 1800s England, Robin is an orphan adopted from China and raised by a British professor. When serving the Empire means betraying his motherland, he must decide where his allegiances lie.

The Book Eaters

In this dark fantasy by Sunyi Dean, a powerful family living in the Yorkshire Moors consume books as their literal food and retain the content of the pages after eating them. A daughter of this otherworldly clan finds she must break with her lineage and join forces with her enemies to protect her son.

Bathe the Cat

Kids and adults alike will delight in this rollicking read-aloud from Alice B. McGinty with lively, colorful illustrations by David Roberts. Dad and Papa make a to-do list to wrangle their kids in preparation for a visit from Grandma Marge. But a mischievous kitty complicates matters.

Green Lantern: Alliance

This is the second book in a charming middle-grade graphic novel series by Minh Lê. Rookie superhero Tai Pham struggles to balance his newfound responsibilities with school and work. But the arrival of a new partner in the form of Kid Flash may be just the help he needs to stop a destructive arsonist.

Black Cake

Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel centers on the death of a woman in modern-day California. When her two children meet with the family lawyer, they find she's left them a strange inheritance: a black cake made from an old family recipe and a voice recording sharing her tumultuous story.

Siren Queen

"No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers." Chinese-American actress Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Nghi Vo offers up an enthralling exploration of her surprising rise in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page.

Ask the Brindled: Poems

In this award-winning debut collection, No'u Revilla crafts a lyrical, and visceral, landscape, inking the page red—for desire, for love, for generations of blood spilled by colonizers. It is an unflinching, intergenerational reclamation of the narratives foisted upon Indigenous and queer Hawaiians.

Reader, I Murdered Him

Brontë fans will be thrilled by Betsy Cornwell's inventive YA sequel to Jane Eyre, a mystery told through the eyes of Rochester's young ward, Adele. Sent away to boarding school, she becomes a vigilante for justice against men with dark intentions toward her and her new friends.

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto

What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? According to Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, far too many of us work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine-level pace. Here she explores the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.

These are just a few of our favorites, but we encourage you to check out the full list on Book Riot.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon