Our 2022 Staff Favorites!
While music apps wrap up the soundtracks of our lives for each year, us booksellers and readers get the fun challenge of somehow picking our favorite books of the year. It honestly feels impossible when reflecting on everything we’ve read but somehow magical books found each of us, exactly when we needed them, and they left a mark on us. So after much love and thought, our Old Town Books team presents to you our favorite books of 2022!
Ally’s Book of the Year: Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
"Trespasses has a slow burn to begin with - moody, atmospheric. Sit with these characters a bit and you’ll be dazzled as their fears, hopes and heartache come to life. Cushla is a narrator I won’t soon forget. She’s wise and kind, complicated. I was fascinated by what felt like her need for escape, by the tensions between duty and desire. I loved this book."
Rachel’s Book of the Year: Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese
"Two Wrongs Make a Right is lyrical, funny and unlike anything I've read this year. The neurodiversity representation (anxiety specifically) was on point for this reader and I'm so happy to see Liese getting the traditionally published stage she deserves. As a homage to Much Ado About Nothing, the smart pacing and engaging plot will draw anyone in and the slow burn romance will keep the pages turning until the very end."
Abby’s Book of the Year: Babel by R.F. Kuang
“Babel by R F Kuang is a gorgeous sweeping epic of a story, and I adored its seamless mix of a campus novel, friendship tragedy, a (fictional) historical account, and call to arms. It had me thinking about cultural appropriation at its deepest level as well as just adoring the characters, to the point where I cried when one of them died. I also am so envious of writers when they create magic systems that are so unique from R*wling's magic system in Harry Potter (because chances are most writers publishing fantasy these days read Harry Potter at some point in their lives). But this magic system is unique and amazing and takes 'word based' magic in a completely new direction."
Athena’s Book of the Year: The Measure by Nikki Erlick
"Still to this day I struggle to shut up about The Measure. Nikki Erlick somehow and brilliantly brought together all of the questions, anxiety, and existentialism in life by making us readers face a smack-in-the-face question: Would you open a box that reveals the length of your life? If so, how would you go about living afterwards? Basically, I call this therapy in a book and in all the best ways. It’s such a heavy topic but written beautifully, and was unputdownable. I cried a lot (happy and sad tears), loved and mourned the characters, and found comfort in a lot of self-reflection. Dare I say it’s a life-changing book.”
Melissa’s Book of the Year: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill
"It's the fiercely feminist story we need this year, a compelling exploration of gaslighting, gender roles, and the restrictions on women's power. Kelly Barnhill is beloved for her award-winning middle-grade fantasy, but I loved this adult debut even more. It reads like a realistic coming-of-age story, set in the 1950s suburban Midwest, with one fantastical twist: the young heroine is a witness to an incident involving thousands of housewives and young mothers spontaneously transforming into dragons and abandoning their homes. Was it their choice? What about the families they left behind? Why did our protagonist's aunt transform but her mother didn't? And why is everyone forbidden from acknowledging that it ever happened?"
Jen’s Book of the Year: Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
"It's a subtle ghost story that still packs a punch. The perfect slow descent into madness; we get to sit back and watch while the narrator slowly goes insane. I love supporting women's rights AND women's wrongs!"
Nicole’s Book of the Year: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
"An enthralling look at friendship, creativity, and relationships packaged in a can't-put-it-down novel of two best friends and the worlds they create. For fans of Normal People or video games or Shakespearean drama or all or none of those things, this book has something for everyone. No matter why you pick it up, you'll be enthralled by Sadie and Sam."
Acacia’s Book of the Year: A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
"Hanif is a mover and shaker bringing forth a lyrical masterpiece that deserves all the recognition! Throughout his essays he investigates how art and politics are deeply intertwined. He presents his case with moving personal accounts and major Black performances that have impacted history. His cultural critiques push the envelope and is masterfully genius. You will be thinking about this one for a long time to come."
Kim’s Book of the Year: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
"It made me laugh, cry, broke my heart and then put it back together. It's a fantasy/romance/mystery genre mashup that pulls you in right from the start."
Su’s Book of the Year: Don’t Cry for Me by Daniel Black
"Daniel Black does a remarkable job writing about the LGBTQ+ experience through the lens of an unsupportive father repenting to his gay son. The entire book is one long letter from his death bed. The thing is, his perspective and memory is the only thing you get. I LOVE unreliable narrators. It pulls me into books and makes me engage with the content in a wholly unique way. While this book left me possibly with more questions than answers, as someone who has come to learn over the last decade what it means to see your parents as people and not as roles in your life, I really appreciated the depth and nuance with which this book explored an incredibly complex relationship."