Hello to all of my millions of readers, well, all 17 of yous that reads this here blog. I can’t believe we have survived 2022, there have been so many cock ups by those in charge that I’m shocked that we still have an existing civilisation. In previous years I’ve tried to get a famous person in to hand over awards to the best books I read that year, but I kept getting let down by them, they were frigging useless, so this year I thought I’d get all artsy and meta and get in an inanimate object to hand over the awards, great idea eh? There is a new fangled juice out on the streets and it agreed to participate…all I had to do was pick it up from Aldi…I got to the store waaaay before opening and there was a huge queue and much fighting, looks like Prime had agreed to help out with literally hundreds of end of year book reviews, so sod it, I’m doing it again myself….In years to come I’ll re-read this and wonder what the hell I was on…not Prime juice that’s fer sure.
This year I read 93 books (there may have been more but Goodreads has become awful and very slow to get new books on the site) It was a fairly even mix of fiction and not-fiction, with a few books of poetry added in to make me look clever. I have not shied away from giving any book a go and because of that I have been able to read some proper interesting books. As per usual I have avoided main stream books as much as possible, in fact this year I only read 3 popular books of which I was only able to complete the one (and that was only just). I also set myself a mini reading challenge, one of my favourite authors is Anthony E. Thorogood and he has a series of 11 books featuring Jack Hama and I read all of these in 2022, I’ll forever be recommending these books so have a read and let me know. So which were the best books for 2022? Read on to find out.
Just think all you businesses out there, this would be the ideal spot to sponsor me and have an advert for your product here in the middle of this blog….yes I am looking at you drink making YouTubers!!!!
FICTION
Below are some of my favourite novels of this year with the overall winner at the end.
- Mestiza Blood by V. Castro. A Collection of short stories by one of my favourite female horror writers, doesn’t disappoint.
- Red Mountain Man: Or, The Mighty Lessons in Hasty Exaltation by Jack CJ Stark. Never has there ever been such an underrated writer as Stark, so many people are missing out on his mighty wordings.
- Homesick by Jennifer Croft. For a while this was a book of the year for me and I thought this beautiful piece of writing would win but it was just pipped at the post.
- Shoot The Horses First by Leah Angstman. One of the best writers out there, this is a remarkable collection of stories and I was almost worn out falling for character after character.
- WINNER!!!!!!!! Broken Rhodes by Kimber Silver. I cannot stress enough how impressive this was, a whodunnit novel picked as my favourite and I am incredibly fussy over this genre, Silver has managed to carve out a proper classic series in the making here, great story, great characters….it really was great!
NOT-FICTION
Below are some of my favourite Non-fiction books of this year with the overall winner at the end.
- The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown by Anna Keay. One of those get out of your comfort zone books, a short period of history based around a few characters, interesting read with loads to learn…I have managed to use what I learnt in real life.
- Fledgling by Hannah Bourne-Taylor. Favourite nature book of the year, very well written and the love for this bird blazes from the pages.
- On The Scent by Paola Totaro. All about scent and the affect the loss of this sense had on people during COVID. So much info here and written in a way that makes it accessible to a non-sciency guy like me.
- Ghost Signs by Stu Hennigan. One of the most important books written in my lifetime and somehow it still got beat, I’m so shocked this didn’t win. You should give this book a read, especially if you are a politician, it might help you locate one of those Souls ya all seem to be lacking.
- WINNER!!!!!!!! brother. do. you. love. me. by Manni Coe & Reuben Coe. Absolutely ridiculous! How can a book be this good? How can it make robots cry? An absolute masterpiece, words by Manni and artwork by his brother Reuben. Read this book please!
MY THANKS
To the publishers, writers and book pushers out there, I’ve no idea how much longer this world of small independent book publishing/shops is going to last but everything I’ve read by you guys this year has been fabulous. Here is a list of my favourites, please shout if I’ve missed you off, there are so many and my brains is so few.
Bluemoose books
Storgy books
Elliot & Thompson
Sandstone Press
Eland Publishing
Sagging Meniscus Press
Dead Ink Books
Alternating Current Press
Flame Tree Press
Summersdale
Horror Sleaze Trash
Charco Press
Anne Cater @ Random Things Tours
And all the authors that sent me copies of their books to read and review.
Finally a massive thanks to Litalist, without this site I don’t think I would have found so many interesting books to add to my out-of-control reading pile, I have spent many an hour browsing users bookshelves and adding and adding to my wishlist and it is all set up to support local independent bookshops, this reader hasn’t purchased a book from Amazon for at least 6 months now. Click on my Best of 2022 shelf below to see the full list of the best books I read in 2022.
Gnome Appreciation Society 