I read 72 books in 2022, which is the most I have read in more than a decade by far. I decided to rank them from worst to best so that you could get an idea for which book to read next.
A few notes on how I rate books: I rate them on how much I enjoyed them. There are books on this list (looking at you, The Love Hypothesis) that I would not necessarily recommend to other people but were so bad I couldn’t help but be entertained. It is very unusual for me to give a book less than three stars, and if I do, it means I felt they were truly awful to read. I know I should be a little less liberal with the books I give five stars to, but I know myself and I won’t.
With that out of the way, here are the books I read this past year, ranked.
The Rankings
72. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (1.5 stars)
71. Hunger by Jackie Morse Kessler (1.5 stars)
70. He Felt Unwell (So He Wrote this Book) by Grant Chemidlin (2 stars)
69. No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (2.5 stars)
68. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh (2.5 stars)
67. Daring Greatly by Brene Brown (2.5 stars)
66. A Guide to Being Just Friends by Sophie Sullivan (2.5 stars)
65. With Malice by Eileen Cook (2.75 stars)
64. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff (3 stars)
63. Crank by Ellen Hopkins (3 stars)
62. Bones and All by Camille DeAngelis (3 stars)
61. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown (3 stars)
60. People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (3 stars)
59. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon (3 stars)
58. The Ethical Slut (Third Edition) by Dossie Eaton and Catherine A. Liszt (3 stars)
57. Fallout by Ellen Hopkins (3.25 stars)
56. Glass by Ellen Hopkins (3.25 stars)
55. Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas (3.25 stars)
54. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (3.25 stars)
53. Dumplin by Julie Murphy (3.5 stars)
52. Dare to Lead by Brene Brown (3.5 stars)
51. True Believer by Virginia Euwer Wolff (3.75 stars)
50. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (3.75 stars)
49. Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (3.75 stars)
48. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (3.75 stars)
47. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (3.75 stars)
46. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo (3.75 stars)
45. After I Do by Taylor Jenkins-Reid (3.75 stars)
44. Verity by Colleen Hoover (3.75 stars)
43. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep (4 stars)
42. This Full House by Virginia Euwer Wolff (4 stars)
41. Lost Boy by Christina Henry (4 stars)
40. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (4 stars)
39. The Girls by Emma Cline (4 stars)
38. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (4 stars)
37. Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney (4 stars)
36. Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica (4 stars)
35. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (4 stars)
34. Wilder Girls by Rory Power (4 stars)
33. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (4 stars)
32. People Like Us by Dana Mele (4.25 stars)
31. We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han (4.5 stars)
30. It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han (4.5 stars)
29. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (4.5 stars)
28. Normal People by Sally Rooney (4.5 stars)
27. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (4.5 stars)
26. The Red Scrolls of Magic by Cassandra Clare and Wesley Chu (4.75 stars)
25. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (4.75 stars)
24. Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron (4.75 stars)
23. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (4.75 stars)
22. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (4.75 stars)
21. Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus (4.75 stars)
20. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (4.75 stars)
19. Luster by Raven Leilani (4.75 stars)
18. All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott (5 stars)
17. City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare (5 stars)
16. City of Glass by Cassandra Clare (5 stars)
15. Layla by Colleen Hoover (5 stars)
14. White Horse by Erika T. Wurth (5 stars)
13. Little Monsters by Kara Thomas (5 stars)
12. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (5 stars)
11. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins- Reid (5 stars)
10. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (5 stars)
9. Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson (5 stars)
8. Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson (5 stars)
7. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (5 stars)
6. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (5 stars)
5. As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson (5 stars)
4. The Family Game by Catherine Steadman (5 stars)
3. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (5 stars)
2. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (5 stars)
1. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (5 stars)
To follow my 2023 book adventures, follow me on StoryGraph!
Did you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!
Write Through the Night 
We are not even on the same planet if ‘Of Mice and Men’ is the worst book you read this year. Obviously, enjoyment is a personal experience. I was looking today at best books written in safari and found best all time, best selling as well as other combinations. I also get that generations have context that set them apart. Enjoy your reading.
Here is a link to one place that has such lists. Any search provides many such responses.
https://thegreatestbooks.org
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The ableism and racism (despite being written in the 1930s, I know many point to the “context of the time”) was to a point where I cannot enjoy the book. This is an issue I have with many classics and as a reader in today’s context who reads critically, I could not enjoy the book in any way, shape or form. Also as a disabled and autistic person, it was really traumatizing to read.
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I understand your comment in context. I have found similarities as with ‘Orphans in the Sky’, a childhood favorite. It was so dismissive of women as to render the experience a poor one. I have not ready ‘Of Mice and Men’ recently so I have not experienced it from a woke state. A fair statement though I tend toward learning from our mistakes rather than erasing all vestiges. Thank you for your elucidating response.
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