Year-End Lists

The Atlantic: The Best Books of 2022, which they're calling "The Atlantic 10" and "the books that made us think the most this year"

[see also 2023 • 2021 • 2019]

• G-Man

  J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
  Beverly Gage
• Spin Dictators

  The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
  Sergei Guriev & Daniel Treisman
• Stay True

  A Memoir
  Hua Hsu
• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
  Jamil Jan Kochai
• The Consequences
  Manuel Muñoz
• We Don't Know Ourselves

  A Personal History of Modern Ireland
  Fintan O'Toole
• My Phantoms
  Gwendoline Riley
• The Books of Jacob
  Olga Tokarczuk
• Under the Skin

  The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation
  Linda Villarosa
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
  Gabrielle Zevin

BuzzFeed: The Best Books of 2022

[see also 2021 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018]

Literary Fiction

• If I Survive You
  Jonathan Escoffery
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
  Gabrielle Zevin
• The Book of Goose
  Yiyun Li
• All This Could Be Different
  Sarah Thankam Mathews
• The Boy with a Bird in His Chest
  Emme Lund
• If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English
  Noor Naga

Romance

• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
  Akwaeke Emezi
• Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
  Lizzie Damilola Blackburn
• Mistakes Were Made
  Meryl Wilsner

Nonfiction

• Easy Beauty
  Chloé Cooper Jones
• Fight Like Hell

  The Untold History of American Labor
  Kim Kelly
• Finale

  Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim
  D.T. Max
• Crying in the Bathroom
  Erika L. Sánchez
• High-Risk Homosexual
  Edgar Gomez
• Ducks

  Two Years in the Oil Sands
  Kate Beaton
• A Heart That Works
  Rob Delaney
• Constructing a Nervous System

  A Memoir
  Margo Jefferson

Historical

• The Hacienda
  Isabel Cañas
• Lavender House
  Lev A.C. Rosen

Fantasy

• Babel

  An Arcane History
  R.F. Kuang
• Siren Queen
  Nghi Vo
• When Women Were Dragons
  Kelly Barnhill

Mystery/Thriller

• A Novel Obsession
  Caitlin Barasch
• The Violin Conspiracy
  Brendan Slocumb

Patrick Rapa: The Best Books of 2022, as published by The Philadelphia Inquirer

[see also 2021]

1. Either/Or
   Elif Batuman
2. If I Survive You
   Jonathan Escoffery
3. The Hero of This Book
   Elizabeth McCracken
4. The Candy House
   Jennifer Egan
5. An Immense World

   How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
   Ed Yong
6. Devil House
   John Darnielle
7. My Government Means to Kill Me
   Rasheed Newson
8. Ducks

   Two Years in the Oil Sands
   Kate Beaton
9. The School for Good Mothers
   Jessamine Chan
10. The Immortal King Rao
    Vauhini Vara

BBC Culture: The 50 Best Books of the Year 2022, compiled by Rebecca Laurence and Lindsay Baker

• Liberation Day
  George Saunders
• The Kingdom of Sand
  Andrew Holleran
• Bournville
  Jonathan Coe
• Demon Copperhead
  Barbara Kingsolver
• Trespasses
  Louise Kennedy
• The Whalebone Theatre
  Joanna Quinn
• The Book of Goose
  Yiyun Li
• I’m Sorry You Feel That Way
  Rebecca Wait
• The Passenger
  Cormac McCarthy
• Darling
  India Knight
• There Are More Things
  Yara Rodrigues Fowler
• Getting Lost
  Annie Ernaux
• Fairy Tale
  Stephen King
• Nightcrawling
  Leila Mottley
• After Sappho
  Selby Wynn Schwartz
• Our Missing Hearts
  Celeste Ng
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
  Shehan Karunatilaka
• The Colony
  Audrey Magee
• The Last White Man
  Mohsin Hamid
• Trust
  Hernan Diaz
• Best of Friends
  Kamila Shamsie
• Booth
  Karen Joy Fowler
• Shrines of Gaiety
  Kate Atkinson
• Cult Classic
  Sloane Crosley
• Young Mungo
  Douglas Stuart
• The Candy House
  Jennifer Egan
• Either/Or
  Elif Batuman
• Constructing a Nervous System

  A Memoir
  Margo Jefferson
• In Love

  A Memoir of Love and Loss
  Amy Bloom
• Love Marriage
  Monica Ali
• Tiepolo Blue
  James Cahill
• Fire Island

  A Century in the Life of an American Paradise
  Jack Parlett
• Pure Colour
  Sheila Heti
• Sea of Tranquility
  Emily St. John Mandel
• Memphis
  Tara M. Stringfellow
• Time Is a Mother
  Ocean Vuong
• How High We Go in the Dark
  Sequoia Nagamatsu
• Burning Questions

  Essays and Occasional Pieces, 2004 to 2021
  Margaret Atwood
• Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head
  Warsan Shire
• In the Margins

  On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing
  Elena Ferrante
• Moon Witch, Spider King
  Marlon James
• Olga Dies Dreaming
  Xóchitl González
• Glory
  NoViolet Bulawayo
• French Braid
  Anne Tyler
• To Paradise
  Hanya Yanagihara
• The School for Good Mothers
  Jessamine Chan
• The Exhibitionist
  Charlotte Mendelson
• Free Love
  Tessa Hadley
• Black Cake
  Charmaine Wilkerson
• Auē
  Becky Manawatu

Salon: Favorite Books of 2022, "in no fixed order" but numbered as follows

[see also 2012]

Nonfiction

1. Sickening

   How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It
   John Abramson
2. The Method

   How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act
   Isaac Butler
3. A Waiter in Paris

   Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City
   Edward Chisholm
4. California Soul

   An American Epic of Cooking and Survival
   Keith Corbin
5. How to Read Now

   Essays
   Elaine Castillo
6. Dear Damage
   Ashley Marie Farmer
7. Inciting Joy

   Essays
   Ross Gay
8. I'm Glad My Mom Died
   Jennette McCurdy
9. Predator

   A Memoir, a Movie, an Obsession
   Ander Monson
10. We Don't Know Ourselves

    A Personal History of Modern Ireland
    Fintan O'Toole
11. Reader's Block

    A History of Reading Differences
    Matthew Rubery
12. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki
    Baek Sehee
13. Our Fermented Lives

    Fermentation and the History of How We Eat, Heal, and Build Community
    Julia Skinner
14. It Was All a Dream

    Biggie and the World That Made Him
    Justin Tinsley

Fiction

15. More Than You'll Ever Know
    Katie Gutierrez
16. The Work Wife
    Alison B. Hart
17. The Cloisters
    Katy Hays
18. A Ghost of Caribou
    Alice Henderson
19. Lark Ascending
    Silas House
20. Babel

    An Arcane History
    R.F. Kuang
21. All I Should Not Tell
    Brian Leung
22. Lapvona
    Ottessa Moshfegh
23. Daughters of the New Year
    E.M. Tran
24. The Department of Truth, Vol. 3

    Free Country
    James Tynion IV

Vanity Fair: 39 Best Books of 2022

[see also 2023 • 2020]

• The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man

  A Memoir
  Paul Newman
• The Man Who Could Move Clouds
  Ingrid Rojas Contreras
• Aesthetica
  Allie Rowbottom
• Less Is Lost
  Andrew Sean Greer
• Stay True

  A Memoir
  Hua Hsu
• Heartbreak

  A Personal and Scientific Journey
  Florence Williams
• Incredible Doom

  Volume 2
  Matthew Bogart and Jesse Holden
• The Nineties
  Chuck Klosterman
• How Far the Light Reaches

  A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
  Sabrina Imbler
• Lincoln and the Fight for Peace
  John P. Avlon
• Mr. B

  George Balanchine's 20th Century
  Jennifer Homans
• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
  Akwaeke Emezi
• In the Mouth of the Wolf

  A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press
  Katherine Corcoran
• The Old Place
  Bobby Finger
• The Candy House
  Jennifer Egan
• Trust
  Hernan Diaz
• Constructing a Nervous System

  A Memoir
  Margo Jefferson
• Honey & Spice
  Bolu Babalola
• I'm Glad My Mom Died
  Jennette McCurdy
• Corporate Rock Sucks

  The Rise and Fall of SST Records
  Jim Ruland
• Young Mungo
  Douglas Stuart
• Everything I Need I Get from You

  How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It
  Kaitlyn Tiffany
• Who by Fire

  Leonard Cohen in the Sinai
  Matti Friedman
• Picasso's War

  How Modern Art Came to America
  Hugh Eakin
• Secret City

  The Hidden History of Gay Washington
  James Kirchick
• Portrait of an Unknown Woman
  Daniel Silva
• Temples of Books

  Magnificent Libraries Around the World
  Marianne Julia Strauss
• All This Could Be Different
  Sarah Thankam Mathews
• Just Passing Through: A Seven-Decade Roman Holiday: The Diaries and Photographs of Milton Gendel
  Milton Gendel
• The Ruin of All Witches

  Life and Death in the New World
  Malcolm Gaskill
• Agent Josephine

  American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy
  Damien Lewis
• Last Call at the Hotel Imperial

  The Reporters Who Took on a World at War
  Deborah Cohen
• Dele Weds Destiny
  Tomi Obaro
• Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head
  Warsan Shire
• Time Is a Mother
  Ocean Vuong
• I'll Show Myself Out

  Essays On Midlife And Motherhood
  Jessi Klein
• The Song of the Cell

  An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
  Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Lungfish
  Meghan Gilliss
• The Method

  How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act
  Isaac Butler

Paste Magazine: The Best Novels of 2022

[see also 2023 • 2010s • 2018 • 2017]

• The Wolf Den
  Elodie Harper
• Nettle & Bone
  T. Kingfisher
• Kaikeyi
  Vaishnavi Patel
• Horse
  Geraldine Brooks
• Elektra
  Jennifer Saint
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
  Gabrielle Zevin
• The Rabbit Hutch
  Tess Gunty
• Four Treasures of the Sky
  Jenny Tinghui Zhang
• Book Lovers
  Emily Henry
• The Half Life of Valery K
  Natasha Pulley

The Economist: Best Books of 2022

[see also 2023 • 2021 • 2012]

Politics and current affairs

• The Impossible City

  A Hong Kong Memoir
  Karen Cheung
• There Are No Accidents
  Jessie Singer
• Confidence Man

  The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America
  Maggie Haberman
• We Have Tired of Violence

  A True Story of Murder, Memory, and the Fight for Justice in Indonesia
  Matt Easton
• The Naked Don't Fear the Water

  An Underground Journey with Afghan Refugees
  Matthieu Aikins
• The Age of the Strongman

  How the Cult of the Leader Threatens Democracy around the World
  Gideon Rachman
• The Economic Weapon

  The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
  Nicholas Mulder

Business and economics

• Money Men

  A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth
  Dan McCrum
• Chip War

  The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
  Chris Miller
• Dead in the Water

  A True Story of Hijacking, Murder, and a Global Maritime Conspiracy
  Matthew Campbell & Kit Chellel
• The Power Law

  Inside Silicon Valley's Venture Capital Machine
  Sebastian Mallaby
• For Profit

  A History of Corporations
  William Magnuson
• Butler to the World

  How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything
  Oliver Bullough
• Slouching Towards Utopia

  An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
  J. Bradford DeLong
• Power Failure

  The Rise and Fall of General Electric
  William D. Cohan

Biography and memoir

• The Escape Artist

  The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
  Jonathan Freedland
• The Facemaker

  A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
  Lindsey Fitzharris
• Agatha Christie

  An Elusive Woman
  Lucy Worsley
• The Huxleys

  An Intimate History of Evolution
  Alison Bashford
• Inventor of the Future

  The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller
  Alec Nevala-Lee
• Hayek

  A Life
  Bruce Caldwell and Hansjoerg Klausinger

History

• Budapest

  Between East and West
  Victor Sebestyen
• The Siege of Loyalty House

  A Civil War Story
  Jessie Childs
• The Serpent Coiled in Naples
  Marius Kociejowski
• A Pipeline Runs Through It

  The Story of Oil from Ancient Times to the First World War
  Keith Fisher
• The World

  A Family History of Humanity
  Simon Sebag Montefiore

Fiction

• The Candy House
  Jennifer Egan
• Maror
  Lavie Tidhar
• Still Born
  Guadalupe Nettel
• The Trees
  Percival Everett
• Small Things Like These
  Claire Keegan
• When We Were Birds
  Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Culture and ideas

• Of Boys and Men

  Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It
  Richard V. Reeves
• Life Is Hard

  How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way
  Kieran Setiya
• The Subplot

  What China Is Reading and Why It Matters
  Megan Walsh
• Papyrus

  The Invention of Books in the Ancient World
  Irene Vallejo
• Magnificent Rebels

  The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
  Andrea Wulf

Science and technology

• The Song of the Cell

  An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
  Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Elusive

  How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
  Frank Close
• An Immense World

  How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
  Ed Yong
• Beyond Measure

  The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
  James Vincent
• The Equality Machine

  Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future
  Orly Lobel
• This Mortal Coil

  A History of Death
  Andrew Doig

Esquire: The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022

[see also The 20 Best Books of 2023 • The Best Books of 2022 • The 50 Best Books of 2021 • The Best Books of the 2010s • The Best Nonfiction Books of 2019]

1. The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man

   A Memoir
   Paul Newman
2. Bad Sex
   Nona Willis Aronowitz
3. The High Sierra

   A Love Story
   Kim Stanley Robinson
4. My Pinup
   Hilton Als
5. Dirtbag, Massachusetts

   A Confessional
   Isaac Fitzgerald
6. Dickens and Prince
   Nick Hornby
7. Because Our Fathers Lied

   A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
   Craig McNamara
8. Raising Lazarus

   Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis
   Beth Macy
9. Fight Like Hell

   The Untold History of American Labor
   Kim Kelly
10. Phasers on Stun!

    How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World
    Ryan Britt
11. Year of the Tiger

    An Activist's Life
    Alice Wong
12. Fen, Bog and Swamp

    A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis
    Annie Proulx
13. Butts

    A Backstory
    Heather Radke
14. Novelist as a Vocation
    Haruki Murakami
15. How You Get Famous

    Ten Years of Drag Madness in Brooklyn
    Nicole Pasulka
16. The Last Resort

    A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, and Peril at the Beach
    Sarah Stodola
17. Hollywood Ending

    Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Silence
    Ken Auletta
18. The Last Days of Roger Federer

    And Other Endings
    Geoff Dyer
19. The Gotti Wars

    Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster
    John Gleeson
20. Dress Code

    Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink
    Véronique Hyland
21. How Civil Wars Start

    And How to Stop Them
    Barbara F. Walter
22. Lost & Found

    A Memoir
    Kathryn Schulz
23. You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays
    Zora Neale Hurston
24. Sweat

    A History of Exercise
    Bill Hayes
25. Admissions

    A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School
    Kendra James
26. South to America

    A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
    Imani Perry
27. The Nineties
    Chuck Klosterman
28. Foreverland

    On the Divine Tedium of Marriage
    Heather Havrilesky
29. True Story

    What Reality TV Says about Us
    Danielle J. Lindemann
30. Scoundrel

    How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free
    Sarah Weinman
31. The Invisible Kingdom

    Reimagining Chronic Illness
    Meghan O’Rourke
32. Trust the Plan

    The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped the World
    Will Sommer
33. Overdue

    Reckoning with the Public Library
    Amanda Oliver
34. How to Take Over the World

    Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain
    Ryan North
35. Ancestor Trouble

    A Reckoning and a Reconciliation
    Maud Newton

J. Howard Rosier: The Best Books of 2022, as published by Chron

1. Constructing a Nervous System

   A Memoir
   Margo Jefferson
2. Bliss Montage
   Ling Ma
3. Seduced by Story

   The Use and Abuse of Narrative
   Peter Brooks
4. Dr. No
   Percival Everett
5. Milkweed Smithereens
   Bernadette Mayer
6. The Tribe

   Portraits of Cuba
   Carlos Manuel Álvarez
7. House of Bondage
   Ernest Cole
8. Golden Ax
   Rio Cortez
9. The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On
   Franny Choi
10. Dinosaurs
    Lydia Millet