Year-End Lists

The New Yorker: The Best Fiction and Poetry of 2022, a list of a dozen "essential reads" followed by a long list of further recommendations

[see also The Best Books of 2023 • The Best Nonfiction of 2022 • The Best Books We Read in 2020]

• Afterlives
  Abdulrazak Gurnah
• The Book of Goose
  Yiyun Li
• The Books of Jacob
  Olga Tokarczuk
• Checkout 19
  Claire-Louise Bennett
• Chilean Poet
  Alejandro Zambra
• Continuous Creation

  Last Poems
  Les Murray
• Customs
  Solmaz Sharif
• The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories
  Jamil Jan Kochai
• The Last White Man
  Mohsin Hamid
• Lessons
  Ian McEwan
• The Rabbit Hutch
  Tess Gunty
• Trust
  Hernan Diaz

The New Yorker: The Best Nonfiction of 2022, a list of a dozen "essential reads" followed by a long list of further recommendations

[see also The Best Books of 2023 • The Best Fiction and Poetry of 2022 • The Best Books We Read in 2020]

• An Immense World

  How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
  Ed Yong
• Bad Mexicans

  Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands
  Kelly Lytle Hernández
• Constructing a Nervous System

  A Memoir
  Margo Jefferson
• G-Man

  J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
  Beverly Gage
• Getting Lost
  Annie Ernaux
• The Invisible Kingdom

  Reimagining Chronic Illness
  Meghan O’Rourke
• Magnificent Rebels

  The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
  Andrea Wulf
• The Revolutionary

  Samuel Adams
  Stacy Schiff
• The Song of the Cell

  An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
  Siddhartha Mukherjee
• Stay True

  A Memoir
  Hua Hsu
• Strangers to Ourselves

  Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us
  Rachel Aviv
• We Don't Know Ourselves

  A Personal History of Modern Ireland
  Fintan O'Toole

Esquire: The Best Books of 2022

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

1. Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
   James Hannaham
2. Harry Sylvester Bird
   Chinelo Okparanta
3. Young Mungo
   Douglas Stuart
4. Time Is a Mother
   Ocean Vuong
5. Trust
   Hernan Diaz
6. Liarmouth

   A Feel-Bad Romance
   John Waters
7. Butts

   A Backstory
   Heather Radke
8. Fight Like Hell

   The Untold History of American Labor
   Kim Kelly
9. Overdue

   Reckoning with the Public Library
   Amanda Oliver
10. Woman, Eating
    Claire Kohda
11. The Passenger
    Cormac McCarthy
12. Fen, Bog and Swamp

    A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis
    Annie Proulx
13. Because Our Fathers Lied

    A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
    Craig McNamara
14. A Ballet of Lepers

    A Novel and Stories
    Leonard Cohen
15. Lost & Found

    A Memoir
    Kathryn Schulz
16. Less Is Lost
    Andrew Sean Greer
17. Fairy Tale
    Stephen King
18. The Furrows
    Namwali Serpell
19. The Book of Goose
    Yiyun Li
20. Liberation Day
    George Saunders
21. The Pink Hotel
    Liska Jacobs
22. Nuclear Family
    Joseph Han
23. Night of the Living Rez
    Morgan Talty
24. Phasers on Stun!

    How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World
    Ryan Britt
25. Raising Lazarus

    Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis
    Beth Macy
26. Tracy Flick Can't Win
    Tom Perrotta
27. Cult Classic
    Sloane Crosley
28. The Angel of Rome and Other Stories
    Jess Walter
29. Dirtbag, Massachusetts

    A Confessional
    Isaac Fitzgerald
30. Sea of Tranquility
    Emily St. John Mandel
31. The Candy House
    Jennifer Egan
32. The Immortal King Rao
    Vauhini Vara
33. Scoundrel

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

    Reimagining Chronic Illness
    Meghan O’Rourke
35. True Story

    What Reality TV Says about Us
    Danielle J. Lindemann
36. Anthem
    Noah Hawley
37. Olga Dies Dreaming
    Xóchitl González
38. To Paradise
    Hanya Yanagihara
39. How Civil Wars Start

    And How to Stop Them
    Barbara F. Walter
40. How High We Go in the Dark
    Sequoia Nagamatsu
41. Notes on an Execution
    Danya Kukafka
42. South to America

    A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
    Imani Perry
43. Vladimir
    Julia May Jonas
44. The Employees
    Olga Ravn
45. Thank You, Mr. Nixon
    Gish Jen
46. Moon Witch, Spider King
    Marlon James
47. Groundskeeping
    Lee Cole
48. Trust the Plan

    The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Reshaped the World
    Will Sommer
49. How to Take Over the World

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

    A Reckoning and a Reconciliation
    Maud Newton

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