My Top 10(ish) Books of 2022

Hello Everyone! I said it all year, 2022 was an amazing year for books. It was so hard to come up with a top 10 if I am being honest. But here we are. My Top 10 books of 2022, with two honorable mentions. I loved all of these books, and hope that each and every one of them makes it onto your TBR. Please read them and tell me all about it. Thank you all for watching all year long! I am so lucky to have you all along on this journey. Happy New Year!
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Books Discussed
Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressman Taylor (ECCO)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (TOR)
Perish by Dr. Latoya Watkins (Tiny Rep Books)
A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy (B+B)
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (Penguin Press)
The Change by Kirsten Miller (William Morrow)
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (Grove)
The Other Mother by Rachel M. Harper (Counterpoint)
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer (Scribner)
Trust by Hernan Diaz (Riverhead Books)
The Trees by Percival Everett (Graywolf)
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey (DoubleDay)

[@neetupd8510]

Thank you Russell for all the recommendations through the year... Wish you a very Happy and prosperous 2023! 😊

[@InkandPaperBlog]

You are so welcome. Thank you for watching. I hope you have a great year and great reading!

[@mimad4923]

I've loved watching your videos this year Russell. Thank you for all the engaging bookish content & happy new year! 🙂

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Oh Mima - thank you so much. I hope you have found a good book or two!

[@margo8248]

Thanks Russell, as usual you've caused my tbr to grow exponentially lol Hope 2023 is wonderful reading year for you

[@InkandPaperBlog]

That’s what I love to hear!! Happy New Year and Happy Reading!!

[@junebug861]

omg!! I just discovered your channel and I'm obsessed! our tastes in books overlap so much and I will be binging your videos for the next few weeks 🫡

[@InkandPaperBlog]

I’m so glad you found me too!! I hope I can lead I to many amazing books!!! Happy Nee Year!!

[@sihamwh]

Happy new year! Great rec as usual.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

To you too! Thank you so much for watching.

[@curioushmm9027]

thanks russell...i hope you're dry and safe. am adding your top choices to my tbr...

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Thank you so much :-) It is pouring down here again today. Puddles for sure.

[@sallychampa8816]

I just picked up The Change from your recommendation. I love it! Great review. Thank you!

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Oh, I am so glad to hear that. It was such a great book and I want more people to read it.

[@CharlieBrookReads]

Maps is my favourite book of the year and loved The Trees too. I will definitely check out They’re Going To Love You. Happy New Year Russell 🎉🎉❤️

[@InkandPaperBlog]

I support Maps as your favorite book LOL. All the tears for sure. I hope you love They’re Going to Love You - I sure did. Happy New Year.

[@SixMinutesForMe]

Such a great list, Russell! I also adored The Trees, such a brilliant read! And I’m reading Our Missing Hearts at the moment and think it’s incredible, so totally see why it made your top list! You’ve popped a few more on my tbr so many thanks (I hadn’t actually even heard of They’re Going To Love You)🙏 hope you’re well x

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Hello friend! Congrats on the little one on the way!!! I agree about The Trees so much. And Our Missing Hearts is so so so good. I hope you can get your hands on They’re Going to Love You … I think you will love it.

[@spexi513]

The Change = one of my favorite books of 2022 as well! This is first time I’ve heard it mentioned on booktube 🙌🏿 💚

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Oh really - well I loved it and hope you pick it up and love it too.

[@KurtAnderson812]

Great list! The Trees is definitely on my top ten list as well.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@LouiseReader]

I loved Maps of our Spectacular Bodies too, and can't believe it didn't make the short list. I was considering They're Going to Love You in the shops yesterday. I put it down. I'll have to go back...

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Oh I hope you do Louise… I loved it. I agree with you about Spectacular Bodies - deserved all the accolades.

[@Phillybookfairy]

I’ll definitely be reading The Change, and I’m adding your favorite to my tbr!

[@InkandPaperBlog]

That is what I like to hear!

[@joanneorrico1761]

I have several of these on my TBR from your previous videos and must move them up to the front of the line. Address Unknown and Perish first. They’re Going to Love You would not be something I would normally choose, but since it’s your number one book, I will have to check it out! I loved Young Mungo. I think my number one read of the year is either Yonder by Jabari Asim or Ghost Town by David Chen. Happy New Year, Russell! I look forward to your 2023 videos.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

I have both Yonder and Ghost Town on my TBR. I need to get to them for sure. I hope you like a book or two from my list Joanne. Happy Reading!

[@spexi513]

I agree that The Trees definitely made a strong, necessary point brought all its related points . The usage of humor to make it digestible for people who previously had a different perspective of the meal = art.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

You said it exactly how it need to be said. The Trees. - so so so good.

[@user-qo6tz1oe1v]

Happy new year Russell 🎉 ✨️ 🍾 🥂

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Happy new year!

[@forwardneverfalter]

Young Mungo put me through all my feelings and was one of the few that made me properly cry. I have also just reserved The Change and the Trees from my library, you have sold the premise completely to me.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

100% - Young Mungo brought on the tears for sure! I hope you like The Change , which should not make you cry, and The Trees that might. I hope you love them. Happy Reading.

[@philnasmith9755]

Lovely review - thank you!

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Thank you so much,.

[@hardbackhypebeast]

Such a great list, can't wait to try some of them. Maps, The Trees, and Young Mungo all on my list and Trust very nearly was! Young Mungo was my book of the year - I think it's been massively overlooked and I demand justice for Mungo haha! The most beautiful love story.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Young Mungo was just so good. All of these books are. And Mungo was so sad … I kept tearing up.

[@galilali4]

Best wishes for a wonderful 2023! From México City 🙂

[@InkandPaperBlog]

You too! Have a great reading 2023!

[@readandre-read]

I really need to read Our Missing Hearts. The Trees made my list, too. Your videos inflate my TBR, lol.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

You do! LOL…. I am sorry that your TBR is inflated… but not really ;-) Happy Reading.

[@NeetuSingh-eo4iu]

Happy New Year and have a wonderful year ahead. 🤗

[@InkandPaperBlog]

To you too! Happy Reading.

[@miaarndt9501]

The Other Mother and They’re Going to Love You we’re not on my radar at all and I’m super excited to add them to my tbr!

[@InkandPaperBlog]

That is what I like to hear. Love to introduce you to books you did not know about. I hope you love them both.

[@drewnorth5545]

Great video, really enjoyed learning about your year in reading. I, too, read Perish by Dr. Watkins. To say I enjoyed it feels wrong to say given the subject matter, lol, but she definitely propelled me to the end. However, and maybe this happened with your reading, about two-thirds of the way through the novel, the trauma cascade was so all encompassing that it began to eat away at my suspension of disbelief. Did this happen with you? As if she needed to turn down the trauma dial from 11 to 7, you know? Enjoy your videos and I hope you have a great 2023 reading year (hoping you read Andrew Miller’s The Slowworm’s Song at some point as I’d be interested in your thoughts). Happy New Year!🎉

[@InkandPaperBlog]

thank you! I think the same was said about A Little Life when it came to all the trauma. In neither book did it seem excessive to me, but I can get how people feel that way. I know a few people who have lives similar to the characters in Perish. Thank you so much for watching, and I will hope to get to The Sloweworm’s Song soon. Happy Reading.

[@christopherberry2375]

Happy New Year kind sir!!! All great books! I actually want to read all of them in 2023! As a side note! Emmett Till was murdered on August 28, 1955. So, we are looking at 68 years ago this August coming! Hope all is well!!! ❤️❤️❤️

[@InkandPaperBlog]

It seems so crazy to me that 1955 is 68 years ago. Goodness, I am getting to that point in my life where I cannot judge time any more. I hope you pick up one of them my friend and enjoy them so.

[@christopherberry2375]

@@InkandPaperBlog oh yes! I can’t believe it either! Where did the time go? I indeed wrote down all the books you showcased! I hope that 2023 (reading) is better for me rather than 2022! ❤️Happy Reading Buddy!!! ❤️❤️

[@trombaba]

Just added a bunch of these books to my list!

[@InkandPaperBlog]

OMG! That is what I love to hear. I hope you pick up an amazing book and love it as much as I did.

[@verucasalt4535]

Great list! Just subscribed and added a few of these to my Goodreads list. My favorites list for 2022 (in no order): 1. The Green Mile by Stephen king 2. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy 3. Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine 4. The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent 5. House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune 6. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky 7. Wild Swans by Jung Chang 8. Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates 9. Childhoods End by Aurthur C. Clarke

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Thank you so much for watching. I feel like everyone talked about McCurdy’s book. I need to pick it up. I am a huge Klune fan and loved Cerulean Sea. He has a new book coming out this year. Sounds like a great list. Happy Reading!

[@bookofdust]

Our only overlap in the top ten is Young Mungo, which was my one number one this year, although I did read a few others on your list as well. I’m definitely checking out Address Unknown in the new year. I too am am reading less YA, but trying to keep up on LGBTQ+ YA regardless. If you haven’t checked out When You Call My Name about two high school senior boys in NYC at the height of the AIDS crisis it’s worth a look. Interestingly, My Government Means to Kill Me could easily been marketed as YA as well and covers similar, but very different ground.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Young Mungo was one heck of a book. I need to pick up My Government - I always mean to. When You Call My Name sounds good but sad! I will need to find it.

[@FilipeMafagafo]

The way you talk about each book makes all tittles look great, not enough time in our life’s for every recommendation unfortunately Basically everyone is talking about Maps of our spectacular bodies, that one I’m as didn’t to the list Happy new year, Russel :)

[@InkandPaperBlog]

I will take that as a compliment. I hope you pick up Maps. It is really special

[@janethansen9612]

Demon Copperhead made top of my list, I thought it was terrific.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

I loved the first 2/3rds of that book .. then it become a little too on the nose for me. But I do think it is worth the read. She is an amazing writer.

[@annegibson6072]

Good afternoon. The Trees was also my number two book. My number one book was The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. I loved it. If you enjoyed The Trees I found Anywhere You Run by Wanda M Morris. It's so very good.

[@columbusmoore9655]

Totally agree. I read Anywhere You Run a couple of months ago and it was superb.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Yes for The Trees! I have tried to read Shafak and she does not work for me. I need to giver her another chance. I will need to find Anywhere You Run - sounds amazing.

[@mixtlens]

I’d like to hear the playlist. Bet it’s good

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Start with Philip Glass’ The Complete Piano Etudes performed by Maki Namekawa - I am obsessed.

[@columbusmoore9655]

THE TREES was the last book I read for 2022. I’ll probably be thinking about it for the rest of 2023. Everett is an incredible writer. Brilliant!

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Agree 100% - it was unforgettable

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

Read in 2022 was 52 books in 52 weeks. 1) "The Way We Live Now" by Anthony Trollope 2) "Can You Forgive Her?" by Anthony Trollope 3) "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro 4) "Mark Twain: A Life" by Rom Powers 5) "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain 6) "The Innocents Abroad" by Mark Twain 7) "The End of the Affair" by Graham Greene 8) "Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady" by Samuel Richardson 9) "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Spark 10) "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote 11) "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" by Raymond Carver 12) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy 13) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy 14) "Master and Man" by Leo Tolstoy 15) "A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy 16) "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" by Leo Tolstoy 17) "The Raid" by Leo Tolstoy 18) "A Princess of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs 19) “In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 20) "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" by Victor Hugo 21) "Clara Militch" by Ivan Turgenev 22) "Mumu" by Ivan Turgenev 23) "Kassyan of Fair Springs" by Ivan Turgenev 24) "The Portrait Game" Ivan Turgenev 25) " Punin and Baburin" by Ivan Turgenev 26) "The Inn" by Ivan Turgenev 27) "The Watch" by Ivan Turgenev 28) "Acia" by Ivan Turgenev 29) "Home of the Gentry" by Ivan Turgenev 30) "On the Eve" by Ivan Turgenev 31) "Rudin" by Ivan Turgenev 32) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev 33) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev 34) "The Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev 35) "How Russians Meet Death" by Ivan Turgenev 36) "Sketches from a Hunter's Album" by Ivan Turgenev 37) "Volodya" by Anton Chekhov 38) "Ward No. 6" by Anton Chekhov 39) "The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekov 40) "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" by Alexander Pushkin 41) "The Captain's Daughter" by Alexander Pushkin 42) “Le Grand Meaulnes, or the Lost Domain” by Alain-Fournier 43) "Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 44) "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky 45) "Flipped" by Wendelin Van Draanen 46) "Kolyma Tales" by Varlam Shalamov 47) "An Island Hell" by S. A. Malsagoff 48) "The Return of the Native" by Thomas Hardy 49) "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy 50) “Strait is the Gate” by André Gide 51) “And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer” by Fredrik Backman 52) “Middlemarch” by George Eliot I have begun for 2023 to read plenty. 1) "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens 2) "The Warden" by Anthony Trollope 3) "Agnes Grey" by Anne Brontë 4) "The 39 Steps" by John Buchan 5) "The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe" by John Toland 6) "Pamela, or, Virtue rewarded" by Samuel Richardson 7) "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë 8) "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery 9) "The Moon Is Down" by John Steinbeck 10) "The Princess" by Anton Chekhov 11) "What Men Live by" by Leo Tolstoy 12) "How Much Land does a Man Need" by Leo Tolstoy 13) "The Life and Ministry of Rev. Ivan Voronaev" by Dony K. Donev 14) "Less Than Zero" by Bret Easton Ellis Currently reading "Vilette" by Charlotte Bronte.

[@susantaulli6580]

I struggle to find the time to read. Your list is impressive!

[@ReligionOfSacrifice]

@@susantaulli6580, and worth it. Charlotte Bronte with "Vilette" made it into the top ten books I've ever read and is the first woman do ever do that.

[@wordstowordlessthings]

Rec for you for more mature gay YA: All That's Left in the World by Erik J. Brown. Strong characters, amazing pacing, and somehow romance and humour mixed perfectly with deeply affecting postpandemic trauma.

[@InkandPaperBlog]

I read it. Liked it. Thank you for recommending it again so others will pick it up!

[@jacquelinemcmenamin8204]

My three overlaps with my best of list are Young Mungo Trust The Trees Others on my best of list are Demon Copperhead The Lacuna The Poisonwood Bible Oh William! Lessons in Chemistry Foster by Claire Keegan Tresspasses by Louise Kennedy Take My Hand The Colony by Audrey Magee Elena Knows Devotion by Hannah Kent The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida Early Morning Riser War Doctor by David Nott The Innocents by Michael Crummey The Sleep Walkers Guide to Dancing The Arsonists City After The Parade by Lori Ostlund What Willow Says Interpreter of Maladies The Rain Heron Labyrinth The Garden of Evening Mists A Thousand Acres The Performance Happy New Year Russell 🎉🍀👋☘️🤩🥳🤗📚☕️📕📖

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Oh my goodness that is a list. I just got Foster from the library - so will give it a go. I did not love her other book I read, so I am hoping to connect to this one better. I adored Early Morning Riser, and am so glad you read The Arsonist’s City - not enough people have. What a wonderful book! Seems like you had an amazing reading year. Happy 2023!!!

[@omgoshwtfun2761]

hi from turkiye

[@InkandPaperBlog]

Hello! Hope all is well.

[@lindabridges9242]

Really? Did you not hear about George Floyd?

[@InkandPaperBlog]

What?