The Best Books of 2022 (So Far)

And it opens in the year 1900 and we follow one of our primary main characters sunja as she makes the decision to leave her home country korea and move to japan to raise her future family.  

this again is a story that follows a multitude of different points of view i’m not kidding when we say we’re spending so much time and so many different people directly within this family but also connected to this family.  through all of these different perspectives we just get this picture of life and living and just struggling to find one’s place in a culture that honestly isn’t very accepting of them.

this is a quiet but incredibly powerful and moving story of one specific family that speaks also to a larger experience. personally speaking this was also a topic i personally did not know much about before picking this book up just the quiet narration and the intimacy we had with this family was just stunning.  

I loved this so much i would recommend for anyone to pick this book up it is just a sweeping historical fiction saga that will leave a huge emotional impact on you.  one of the best books i read this year one of the best books i personally have ever read read pachinko if you haven’t already.  

i’m not kidding this is one of the best books i’ve ever read.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is on the list of Best Books of 2022.

I completed it and it was an emotional and traumatizing ride from beginning to end within the tawny man trilogy we basically find ourselves back with the fits and the fool.

and a large amount of time has passed since the events of the original farseer trilogy but something that I really appreciate about robin hobb is that she is really a character-focused fantasy writer and she really makes us and her characters suffer but also confront so many different emotions.

and she also allows her characters to give space to a lot of their feelings and to actually work through them the emotional burden of being a chosen one and basically giving up your entire life for the crown and the people around you is something that Fitz has been trying to deal with since his late teens it is still something that heavily burdens him.

in this particular trilogy, we basically find Fitz as he is beginning to be pulled back into the politics of the crown once again specifically around the heir to the throne. the tension that exists amongst the population as it relates to the magic that exists in this world.

one is called the skill which is a very rare form of magic mostly associated with the royal line it has to kind of do with mind control and the other is the wit which is a more common animal-based style magic which has been deeply villainized by the population at large.

this tension that has always existed against whit users is starting to come to a boil at the beginning of this series. follow Fitz as he has to navigate that with his closest friend and confidant the fool. I love this trilogy so much like obviously, the politics in the world that robin Hobb is able to create is so well-plotted you’ll be fascinated from beginning to end at least I always am.

I also feel like she’s really great at making us wait so certain plot elements always have a fantastic payoff but more than that I just love the characters in this world so much.

I also find the relationship between the Fitz and the fool to be one of the most unique nuanced and emotional relationships that I have ever read about in a fantasy world in a non-fantasy world and the layers of this relationship that robin Hobb has been able to create across many of her different series just really shines within this particular trilogy.  

I loved this it broke me I really cannot reiterate how good robin hobb is at destroying you but also just creating characters you would just ache for. I had a feeling this would also make my list and it definitely did

Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobb is on the list of Best Books of 2022.

Now California and the united states is full of many different dangers from pervasive water shortages to vagabonds roaming the street willing to do anything to live another day the story opens on our main character Lauren who lives in a kind of gated community of individuals who basically work together for their survival.

burn’s father is actually also the preacher within this community and at the beginning of this tale, Lauren has this sense that things are going to change and if her community does not adapt she’s fearful that they will not survive or make it Lauren herself also has a vulnerability.

That she has to hide and that is something called hyper empathy which is a dilapidating condition which results in her feeling the emotions and pain of anyone around her and in a world where the smallest thing could result in you perishing this is something she tries to keep from others around her.

despite Lauren’s pleas with the community for them to listen to her and also kind of change some of their habits to be more survival-focused they ignore her. which results in a dramatic shift not only in their lives but Lauren’s as well and we follow her from there as she goes on a physical and spiritual journey to try to find a new home.

this book is fantastic for so many different reasons again this is set in the 2020s after a climate crisis and you get this sense while reading it that if we continue to leave so many of these different issues to fester within our world this could very well be a reality sooner rather than later which kind of gives an intensity to the overall tale that it might not have because it just feels so real and so possible.

also really enjoyed structurally how this book was written it kind of reads like diary entries from Lauren as she’s working through not only her day-to-day life living within this community but also as she starts to work through her own spiritual journey and the creation of her own religion that better fits the world as it currently is this book walks the balance of being horrifying and terrifying as you kind of watch society crumble to a place that feels very tangible to us.

but also having this feeling of hope and perseverance as we see our main character not only fight through what seem to be impossible odds but also try to carve out a new perspective in the world itself. I loved following Lauren I really need to read the sequel of this particular story but the parable of the sewer is just again one of the best books I’ve ever read.

I feel like you could read this book and write an essay about it there’s just so much to unpack there’s so much to talk about it’s not very long but it will leave you reeling it will leave you thinking I guarantee it.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler is on the list of Best Books of 2022.