Post your best reads of the year, by any criteria you see fit. Fiction Pachinko - Min Jee Lee Mickey7 - Edward Ashton Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel Trust - Hernan Diaz Upgrade - Black Crouch The Measure - Nikki Erlick Babel: Or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - RF Kuang Non Fiction Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages - Dan Jones Davos Man: How Billionaires Devoured the World - Peter S Goodman We Own This City: A True Story of Crime Cops and Corruption - Justin Fenton Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City - Andrea Elliott Allow Me To Retort, A Black Guy's Guide to the Constitution - Ellie Mystal The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States - Walter Johnson
I'll post more later but the one that immediately came to mind is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. If you enjoyed the solving sci-fi problems via plausible-ish science and logic from the Martian, you'll love Project Hail Mary. One of my favorite books I've ever read.
I read that last year. 10 out of 10. If you like Andy Weir - check out Mickey7. It's not as good as Weir novels (they're in a league of their own) but it scratches the same itch of science heavy sci-fi with humor. Not as much of a real world (or galaxy) setting, but still good.
Appreciate the recommendation. After PHM I combed the internet looking for books that could come close to replicating the experience. It was so good that it made me feel almost depressed that it was over. Read all the Bob-iverse books which were good but not nearly as funny or charming (solid reads though, do recommend). Read Artemis for the second time but it's easily Weir's weakest book. Then I was finally done grieving the loss of my first PHM experience and was able to move on to other things
I graduated law school and took the Bar this year which obviously monopolized most of my reading time through July. And none of that shit belongs anywhere near "best" anything. But here's my list anyway, in order of most to least favorite. 1. Project Hail Mary - it's been discussed 2. Dune - finally got around to reading this. First one was fantastic. Peaced out like halfway through the second one because it got kinda boring 3. Billy Summers by Stephen King - classic King page-turner. Good characters, compelling mystery, engaging writing, and a surprisingly good ending for a King book 4. Bobiverse series - super nerdy sci-fi logistics problem solving fiction. Main characters are sentient space ship clones of each other exploring the universe. Strange concept but good books if you're into the genre. 5. Lexicon by Max Barry - think Kilgrave from Jessica Jones meets Hogwarts. There's people that have the ability to force people to do shit just by telling them to. And there's a school built around training them to be good at it. Interesting concept that is explored well. Really dark at times but also a bit too mushy for my taste. Still enjoyed it though.
Best books I read this year regardless of genre. Ratings are not objective; it’s a subjective measure of how much I personally enjoyed/learned from the book. Mountain Men: The Remarkable Climbers And Determined Eccentrics Who First Scaled The World's Most Famous Peaks / Mick Conefrey and Tim Jordan (9.5/10) The Lost City Of Z: A Tale Of Deadly Obsession In The Amazon / David Grann (10/10) Roots: The Saga Of An American Family / Alex Haley (10/10) Land: How The Hunger For Ownership Shaped The Modern World / Simon Winchester (9.5/10) The Island At The Center Of The World: The Epic Story Of Dutch Manhattan And The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America / Russell Shorto (10/10) How Soccer Explains The World: An Unlikely Theory Of Globalization / Franklin Foer (10/10) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly / Anthony Bourdain (9/10) The Tao Of Pooh / Benjamin Hoff (10/10) Nomadland: Surviving America In The Twenty-First Century / Jessica Bruder (10/10)
I had this book assigned in a freshman geography class and remember it being good. Need to go read it again as a far more informed adult.
I had heard similar from people, think it gets assigned in college a lot. It was really good to someone with no soccer knowledge and basic globalization knowledge
a little late here and I was too lazy to record my 2022 reads in the main thread but Greg Grandin's The End of the Myth was the best thing I read last year. Really helped to crystallize some thoughts I had about modern America and helped to put those thoughts in historical perspective. Highly recommend.
just looking at that, I think Grandin's book is a narrower in focus. Mostly about how we were able to deflect potential points of conflict outward via constant expansion. Give it a read, I bet you'd enjoy it.
Made an effort to get back into reading last year, my top 5 for the year: Project Hail Mary- no question #1 Dune Defending Jacob The Kite Runner Red Rising Also read The Martian but don’t count it really since I have seen the movie a few times and it didn’t feel new.
Days Without End - Sebastian Barry The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan The Candy House - Jennifer Egan Postcards - Annie Proulx Beautiful World, Where Are You - Sally Rooney Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward The Sea - John Banville The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes Light Years - James Salter All That Is - James Salter The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty - Sebastian Barry A Death In the Family - James Agee The Shipping News - Annie Proulx A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann