My Top 10 Books of 2022

2022 was a pretty great reading year for me. I managed to read 43 books, which for a slow reading like myself is really good! I read some absolutely brilliant books this year so narrowing down my top 10 out of 43 was pretty tough but I’ve managed it.

I think what really helped with my reading this year is sticking to themes in certain months. For example from the start of September to the end of November I read books from my autumn list. I created a separate collection on my Kindle for books that I thought fit well for autumn so horror, thrillers etc. In December I read Christmas themed books. I know this won’t be very everybody but it worked well for me and I really enjoyed it, especially my autumn reading list challenge.

As always I tracked my books on Goodreads with their reading challenge so if you want to follow me on there you can do so here.

Here are my top 10 books for 2022:

Beartown

Author: Fredrik Backman | Genre: Fiction | Length: 432 pages

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world. – From Goodreads

When I first read the blurb for this book the heavy focus on ice hockey put me off. But this book is absolutely incredible. The characters, the stories, the description of the town all had me under a spell. It was nothing short of perfect. There are two more stories in the Beartown series and I think I may have to get around to reading them this year.

My Dark Vanessa

Author: Kate Elizabeth Russell | Genre: Thriller | Length: 373 pages

2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed? – From Goodreads

My Dark Vanessa has become hugely popular since it was released a couple of years ago. As a warning the book does come with a few trigger warnings (sexual abuse, paedophilia, grooming, emotional manipulation and rape. I found this to be one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time though. It’s heavy going but extremely well written and gripping.

It Ends With Us

Author: Colleen Hoover | Genre: Romance | Length: 386 pages

Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened. – From Goodreads

Find me someone who didn’t read a Colleen Hoover book in 2022! TikTok well and truly blew up this author and I know her books are proving to be a little like Marmite but I loved this one. Romance is totally not a genre I ever read and I normally avoid super hyped up books because they can never truly live up to my expectations but I was hooked from the first couple of pages with this one.

All That Remains: A Life In Death

Author: Sue Black | Genre: Nonfiction | Length: 368 pages

Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab, at burial sites, at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment, and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All that Remains she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed, and what her work has taught her.

Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue’s book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour in stories as gripping as the best crime novel. Our own death will remain a great unknown. But as an expert witness from the final frontier, Sue Black is the wisest, most reassuring, most compelling of guides. -From Goodreads

I don’t read a lot of nonfiction but in an effort to expand my horizons I gave this one a go. It was a truly fascinating look at death and how it’s still perceived. The book opened with the quote “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” I knew from that moment that I would be hooked and that it would be really thought-provoking.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid | Genre: Historical fiction | Length: 389 pages

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways. – From Goodreads

Another hugely popular book from the last few years. I honestly could have started this all over again the moment I finished it just to experience how wonderfully amazing it is. Nothing I say could ever do it justice but I was gripped from the very first page. It’s one of those books you can truly get lost in, a rare bit of magic in reading. It’s heart-breaking, beautiful and you’ll love, admire and be shocked by Evelyn all at the same time.

This Little Family

Author: Ines Bayard | Genre: Thriller | Length: 272 pages

Life is going well for Marie. She and her husband, Laurent, live a comfortable life in a large apartment in the eleventh arrondissement in Paris. Laurent has a good job at a big law firm and Marie enjoys her work at a bank, where she feels appreciated by her clients and colleagues.

Comfortable and secure, and ready for family life, the couple begin to try for a baby. But not long afterwards Marie experiences a shocking encounter which threatens to derail their plans completely, and her world slowly starts to fall apart.

Less than two years later, the family’s apartment is cordoned off by police tape as forensic officers examine a horrific scene in the family apartment. Three bodies around a dining table. Marie, Laurent and their little toddler, Thomas, in his high chair. All three of them have been poisoned by Marie. – From Goodreads

This one may seem an odd choice when I get into it but for the sheer impact this had on me I had to add it to the list. Now enjoyable it probably the wrong word to use given the nature of the book but the extreme darkness and the poignancy of the book is like nothing I’ve ever read before. The book does come with a trigger warning for graphic rape descriptions. I read and watch a lot of messed up things but even I had to think twice about whether to carry on reading this because it is very graphic. However the spiral of destruction that follows is truly bone chilling and gripping.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Author | Shelby Van Pelt | Genre: Fiction | Length: 360 pages

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors–until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. – From Goodreads

A book with chapters told by an octopus, what more could you want?! While it was easy to guess some of the plot points quite early on it totally didn’t spoil the book because it was just such a gem of a read. It’s clever and heart-warming and leaves you with that warm, fuzzy feeling inside!

Penpal

Author: Dathan Auerbach | Genre: Horror | Length: 243 pages

How much do you remember about your childhood?

In Penpal, a man investigates the seemingly unrelated bizarre, tragic, and horrific occurrences of his childhood in an attempt to finally understand them. Beginning with only fragments of his earliest years, you’ll follow the narrator as he discovers that these strange and horrible events are actually part of a single terrifying story that has shaped the entirety of his life and the lives of those around him. If you’ve ever stayed in the woods just a little too long after dark, if you’ve ever had the feeling that someone or something was trying to hurt you, if you remember the first friend you ever made and how strong that bond was, then Penpal is a story that you won’t soon forget, despite how you might try. – From Goodreads

The backstory to how this novel was created intrigued me before I’d even read the first page. Penpal actually started out as a series on the No Sleep Subreddit before the author went out to raise over 1000% of his target on Kickstarter to turn it into a revised and expanded novel. This build tension incredibly well and leaves you feeling seriously freaked out.

Hidden Pictures

Author: Jason Rekulak | Genre: Horror | Length: 373 pages

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job in the affluent suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves this new job. She lives in the Maxwell’s pool house, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

As the days pass, Teddy’s artwork becomes more and more sinister, and his stick figures steadily evolve into more detailed, complex, and lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to suspect these are glimpses of an unsolved murder from long ago, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force lingering in the forest behind the Maxwell’s house.

With help from a handsome landscaper and an eccentric neighbor, Mallory sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy—while coming to terms with a tragedy in her own past—before it’s too late. – From Goodreads

Soooo many twists in one book! I couldn’t put this down. I read this when my reading game took a bit of a hit and this well and truly brought it back. It’s definitely one of those books where you keep telling yourself “just one more chapter” and before you know it you’ve actually read another ten chapters because you absolutely have to keep going. One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while.

Him With The Beard

Author: Pernille Meldgaard Pedersen | Genre: Christmas | Length: 39 pages

When nine-year-old Mille suddenly no longer believes in Santa Claus, it turns the house upside down.

Her mother, Stella, is in a pickle as the hunt to find Santa Claus unearths some family secrets.

Christmas is at risk! And there’s only one person who can save it. – From Goodreads

A super short story with a big heart. This was the perfect Christmas read for me. A beautiful little story about no longer believing in Santa and learning what the true magic of Christmas means. A really fresh take on the idea of Father Christmas and what that magic means to different people.

Don’t forget to follow me on Goodreads to see how I get on with my 2023 reading challenge!

What was your favourite book of 2022? Have you read any of the ones on this list? Let me know in the comments!