Good Fiction Books To Read – Every year at the end of December, I post a list of my favorite stories that I read that year. I read a lot of (non-educational) books a year, so I pick 8-10 that I like the most and would like to recommend! Remember that my tastes can change over time too, so consider this a time frame, although I will revise this list if I think a past recommendation might not be possible.
2022 was another tough reading year for me, but I did read some books that I really enjoyed. These are my favorites!
Good Fiction Books To Read
THE FINISH’S DAUGHTER by Angeline Boulley. A mystery thriller starring a college student and set in rural America. I hear this is becoming a Netflix series and I can’t wait!
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AKATA WITCH by Nnedi Okorafo. This falls under the “Too bad I didn’t read it sooner” category after hearing good things about this book for years, but I’m glad I did! Examples of YA that reflect Nigerian society.
MORNING AND MORNING AND MORNING by Gabrielle Zevin. My favorite book I’ve read this year, hands down. It’s hard to explain, but in addition to being a blanket of confusion for gamers of my generation, it’s also a story about friendship and life and the tech industry.
BOOK OF THE NIGHT by Holly Black. I had to read an ARC of this asap and it did not disappoint with its original parentage. The magic was *beautiful* and I really enjoyed the mystery plot.
BLOOD LIKE BLOOD by Liselle Sambury. Nature and science fiction! This is about witches in Toronto in the 2040s, so it’s possible to have a magical system while also having a bad tech director.
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THE DEAD ROMANTICS by Ashley Poston. Honestly, I don’t read much about romance, so two books make this list very different for me! This is Ashley’s debut as an adult, and it’s *beautiful* and has the kind of flavor I get from writers I know “growing up” in the media community. Also interesting: a ghostwriter who can see ghosts!
Casey McQuiston’s LAST STOP. Actually, I think it’s a bad idea to give away the main theme, so I’ll say it’s about two women who meet and fall in love on the subway. Except now you know there’s a twist, and I’ll note that (just like Dead Romantics) I rarely read a romance that doesn’t have four fictional facts.
THE ANTHROPOCENE REVIEW by John Green. I know this is a lie because it’s a fiction reading list. But I had to put this book on my list because it was so important to me this year. I read it at a very difficult time for me, and it stuck with me in a way that is hard to explain. And I think I got something that made me think about my own life, similar to what I get from the best fiction. Despite this read it
2021 is a tough fiction reading year for me. I have read less than 20 books, which is below average. I also read a slightly higher ratio of YA than usual because I had to keep up with the monthly book club, but it wasn’t too bad. 🙂 And luckily the books I’ve read are really good, and I hope you like the books I’ve featured here!
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A GREAT INVENTION by Hank Green. I don’t usually mention sequels in this series if the first book was the previous year, but I rarely like the sequel more than the first. Partly because he was heavily influenced by technology trends! A twitter thread about it.
Friend of Sheila M. Averbuch. I didn’t expect one of the best fictional stories I’ve seen to touch on technology to appear in a modern middle grade novel. 🙂 Attached examples in elementary schools should be more.
SERULEO MAR FALE T.J. clone This book received a lot of publicity, and V.E. Schwab described her as “a big gay blanket,” which I thought I liked. I made it! Although the “magical system that was chased by bureaucracy” is an idea that works better for me.
IRON WIDOW Xiran by Jay Zhao. I saw someone describe this sci-fi story by J.A. like “Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid’s Tale” and this idea really lives up to it. It’s all SMASH THE PATRIARCHY style with added Chinese historical references and a romance structure we don’t often see in YA.
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THE IVIES by Alexa Donne. I’m cheating specifically because I read a movie that was mostly made in 2020, but released in 2021! I think YA fans are having a moment and murder + college admissions are perfect right now. I gave a copy of this book to some college students this year and they tore it up.
SAGA BOOK ONE Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (artist). When SAGA first came out, I read it issue by issue for six months or so before I got out of the comic list habit. I’ve always wanted to go back, and I finally did this year. I’ve actually read the first two of these omnibus editions; 18 seeds each. I don’t know how to describe this series except that it’s a fantastic epic/epic opera, and I’m so glad I have more to read.
THE SEEING SONG by BETHY C. Morrow. Over the past 15 years, I’ve read a lot of YA urban fantasy, and this one has two things I really like: (1) mermaids, and (2)) it’s world regeneration. . where wizards see how the wizarding world interacts with things in the present (like YouTube or the justice system).
TIME IS BETTER THAN DEATH, by Charlie Jane Anders. Charlie is one of my favorite authors, and with this being his first JA book, as you can imagine, I was here for it and I was not disappointed. It is a very insightful look full of many things that I love.
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See you in 2022, I’m determined to spend more time reading this year!
I read a total of 39 fiction books in 2020, which is below average, but hey…it’s a tough year to focus on anything. 🙂 I also read a very high number of good books this year, maybe because I had no patience for books I didn’t like! Here are my 10 favorite books I read this year that I think others might enjoy too. Also, I recently posted a list of books that will make kids happy with coding and coding, so check it out! And for some NON-FICTION, here’s my unexpected viral tweet about tech ethics books.
THE ESSENTIALS by Hank Green. Information about the social media star and ALIENS too?! Yes please! I did this book on audio, and it’s a real page turner, so it was a lot like cleaning my house just to have an excuse to keep listening. I also read this thoroughly when I first started on YouTube. 🙂
CRITICAL JUDGMENT by Ann Leckie. I’ve been wanting to read this book for years and I definitely needed to do it sooner! It’s interesting and thought-provoking and original. If you are a researcher, you must read it. No wonder it won All The Awards, and it’s also part of the book design club I started at the end of last year.
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AXIOM’S END by Lindsay Ellis. More aliens + languages and also a proxy for wikileaks?! Between this and Green’s book, I’m really enjoying hookup stories right now. I started reading this before I went down a hole of Ellis video essays (yes, I know I’m late to this party), so liking this book was enough to get me started. .
DO NOT READ Eric Smith’s comment. I haven’t read as much YA this year as I usually do (probably due to the lackluster but successful Dragon Con, where I help organize the YA Lit track, which I tend to read a bunch before and after), but I’m really enjoying this . . It covers a lot of topics that I think about as part of my online research, especially sports. And good manners!
THE FUTURE OF BEST TIMELINE by Annalee Newitz. I’ve described this book to people as “time travel, but evil women fight trolls and role models like Wikipedia.” The idea is VIRAL. You’ll notice Newitz Autonomous’s first book on my 2018 list, and it’s one.
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