It has become a tradition I look forward to every year to review my favourite (and less favourite) books of the year! You can find 2020 and 2021 on my blog as well. This year I have read 14 fiction books, 10 non-fiction, and 2 memoirs. 

That’s a total of 8375 pages across 26 books!

This post contains the best books I read this year, a few recommendations (to read and to avoid), as well as my complete reading list with ratings out of 10. 

The Very Best

There are two books, fiction and nonfiction, that stood above the rest this year. I fully recommend you grab yourself copies of these!

Best Fiction: A Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)

“Heart warming” is the best word to describe this book. Backman produced an easy, yet enticing, read that I could not put down. It follows the grumpy pensioner Ove as he faces the challenges of everyday life, including being an involuntary cat owner. This quaint backdrop gives rise to a captivating story full of great characters and witty dialogues. The book makes you think about what it means for a life to be well lived. 
Bound to make you cry (in a really good way).

Best Non-Fiction: 4000 Weeks – Time Management for Mortals (Oliver Burkeman)

A human life is, give or take, 4000 weeks long. A book with this title could be easily mistaken for a productivity book urging you to do as much as possible as fast as possible. However, “4000 Weeks” could not be further from that. Burkeman uses this painful finiteness of life to give us permission to not achieve everything. Based on this blunt realisation, the book takes us on a well-written journey of less to experience more.
The antidote to productivity books you didn’t know you needed.

Honourable Mentions

A few other books this year were contenders for the top spots and I would hate for them to go unmentioned!

This Is Not a Pity Memoir (Abi Morgan)

This was one of the first memoirs I ever read and came highly recommended by people who would say the same about themselves. Despite illness being the overarching topic of this book, Morgan kept her promise: this is definitely not a pity memoir. Instead, it is a book about love, relationships, family, and life itself. It is elevated by her superb, yet personal, writing style, which drew me in.
An extraordinary, emotional piece of literature.

Come As You Are (Emily Nagoski)

In the sea of books written about women’s sexuality, Nagoski’s book is a solid rock. She delivers a warm, caring manifesto that draws from her teaching experience and is deeply rooted in her scientific research. Its content is always applicable and down to earth, providing a new point of view on familiar topics. 
Answers to questions that remained unanswered for too long.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (Taylor Jenkins Reid)

This book gives us the honour of taking part in Evelyn Hugo’s enchanting world of glitz and glam. However, we are also permitted a peek behind the polished façade revealing a more nuanced story than the world is made to believe. This book is full of fun and joy, with twists and turns, cleverly intertwining present and past.
When no other book can capture your attention – this will!

Would Not Recommend

This year I relied more on personal recommendations, which improved the overall quality of this year’s reads. Therefore the list of the “would not recommend” is rather short, containing only a single book.   

Girl Crush (Florence Given)

I did (mostly) enjoy Florence Given’s first book “Women Don’t Owe You Pretty” and therefore I was eager to give her first novel a try. Unfortunately, the book disappoints on so many levels: setting, characters, storytelling, and writing. Why is this book set in 2030? Has the main character really never heard of gender neutral toilets before? Is this Florence Given’s wanna-be memoir? This book leaves many questions unanswered as it fails to merge the author’s own experiences with the narrative. If you want Twitter’s hot take on it, check out this superthread!

Complete List

2022	Title	Author	Pages	Rating	Language	F/NF	Month finished
1	Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone	J.K. Rowling	335	8	ENG	F	January
2	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	J.K. Rowling	384	8	ENG	F	January
3	Manifesto – On Never Giving Up	Bernardine Evaristo	191	7.5	ENG	NF	January
4	The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism and Carbon Footprint	Ellie Harrison	360	6	ENG	NF	February
5	Come As You Are	Emily Nagoski	325	9	ENG	NF	April
6	Red, White & Royal Blue	Casey McQuiston	418	8.5	ENG	F	June
7	Clara and the Sun	Kazuo Ishiguro	320	7.5	ENG	F	June
8	A Man Called Ove	Fredrik Backman	368	9	ENG	F	June
9	Dial A For Aunties	Jesse Q. Sutanto	320	8	ENG	F	July
10	Four Aunties and a Wedding	Jesse Q. Sutanto	305	7	ENG	F	July
11	Imposter Syndrome	Kathy Wang	358	6.5	ENG	F	July
12	Whisper Network	Chandler Baker	409	7.5	ENG	F	August
13	Happy Hour	Marlowe Granados	285	7.5	ENG	F	August
14	Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before	Julie Smith	320	7	ENG	NF	August
15	The Lady Tasting Tea	David Salsburg	309	8	ENG	NF	August
16	Four Thousand Weeks	Oliver Burkeman	245	9	ENG	NF	September
17	Girl Crush	Florence Given	371	2.5	ENG	F	September
18	Zero to One	Peter Thiel	195	6.5	ENG	NF	September
19	Super Founders	Ali Tamaseb	275	7	ENG	NF	September
20	Venture Deals	Jason Mendelson, Brad Feld	270	7.5	ENG	NF	October
21	The Bullet That Missed	Richard Osman	421	8.5	ENG	F	November
22	Mother of Invention	Katrine Marçal	242	6	ENG	F	November
23	The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption	Sebastian Mallaby	404	5.5	ENG	NF	November
24	This Is Not a Pity Memoir	Abi Morgan	274	8.5	ENG	Memoir	November
25	Beyond the Wand	Tom Felton	286	7.5	ENG	Memoir	December
26	The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo	Taylor Jenkins Reid	385	8.5	ENG	F	December