With the end of the year almost upon us, we are seeing many institutions release their best books of 2022 lists. Now, the New York Times has gotten in on the fun and has released their top 100 picks for the best books of 2022!
Many people know the New York Times for being the most trustworthy news service but they cover a variety is topics. One of them happens to be books. The New York Times best-selling list is one of the most respected lists out there. While there have been more and more lists, people will always hold the New York Times one in high regard.

They review books on a consistent basis and keep track of most of the new books that are released. That gives them some expertise but the readers will ultimately decide if their list is good. Without further ado, you can see the full list below.
New York Times 100 Best Books of 2022
- Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Also a Poet by Ada Calhoun
- American Midnight by Adam Hochschild
- The Arc of a Covenant by Walter Russell Mead
- Avalon by Nell Zink
- The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra
- Best Barbarian by Roger Reeves
- Black Folk Could Fly by Randall Kenan
- Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
- The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
- Breathless by David Quammen
- The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
- Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
- A Catalog of Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On by Dung Kai-cheung
- Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett
- Come Back in September by Darryl Pinckney
- Companion Piece by Ali Smith
- Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson
- The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston
- Dead-End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto
- Democracy’s Data by Dan Bouk
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
- Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham
- Dr. No by Percival Everett
- Ducks by Kate Beaton
- Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones
- Either/Or by Elif Batuman
- Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany
- Fire Season by Gary Indiana
- Flung Out of Space by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer
- Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
- The Furrows by Namwali Serpell
- G-Man by Beverly Gage
- Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux
- Gods of Want by K-Ming Chang
- The Grimkes by Kerri K. Greenidge
- Half American by Matthew F. Delmont
- Hokuloa Road by Elizabeth Hand
- Homesickness by Colin Barrett
- How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
- The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón
- If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
- An Immense World by Ed Yong
- The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
- In Love by Amy Bloom
- Indelible City by Louisa Lim
- Index, A History of the by Dennis Duncan
- Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hämäläinen
- Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang
- Kiki Man Ray by Mark Braude
- Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu
- The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
- Legacy of Violence by Caroline Elkins
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
- Liberation Day by George Saunders
- Life Between the Tides by Adam Nicolson
- Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
- Magnificent Rebels by Andrea Wulf
- Metaphysical Animals by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman
- Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
- Mr. B by Jennifer Homans
- My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
- Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
- Now Do You Know Where You Are by Dana Levin
- The Old Woman With the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo
- Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
- Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
- The Palace Papers by Tina Brown
- The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy
- Path Lit by Lightning by David Maraniss
- Picasso’s War by Hugh Eakin
- Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
- The Quiet Before by Gal Beckerman
- The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
- Red Blossom in Snow by Jeannie Lin
- The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad
- The Revolutionary by Stacy Schiff
- The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
- Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
- Secret City by James Kirchick
- Seek and Hide byAmy Gajda
- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
- Shy by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green
- Solito by Javier Zamora
- Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
- The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Stay True by Hua Hsu
- Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv
- Super-Infinite by Katherine Rundell
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander
- Trust by Hernan Diaz
- Under the Skin by Linda Villarosa
- Walking the Bowl by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama
- We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole
- The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
- When McKinsey Comes to Town by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe
- Yonder by Jabari Asim
- You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
What do you make of the New York Times best books of 2022? There are a lot of books from all over the world. New authors and old both made it to the list. It will take a couple of years to know which books were hidden gems on the list while other books made a splash when they were released.
Conclusion
Which books have you read or plan to read in the future? Let us know in the comments below!
Not a one.
I like my books to age a couple of years to let all the garbage sink to the bottom so I can skim off only the good stuff floating at the top 🙂
Fair enough 😂
What are your thoughts on the politics of book lists, especially those that are done by publishers? I recently read about it at the following link and would love to hear your thoughts! https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a43530028/barack-obama-reading-list/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email