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The 50 Best New Books of 2022 That You Won't Be Able to Put Down

Wondering what you should be reading this year? Our list includes romance novels, non-fiction best-sellers, thrillers and so much more.

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30 best new books to read in 2022 so far

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There's just nothing like cracking open a new book. I was always that kid getting in trouble for reading under my desk, working my way through the classroom bookshelf and then the school library, huddled in a corner with a paperback during recess. Imagine my delight when I got older and realized that reading and writing about books could be a career! Books offer an escape when the real world feels too stressful or scary, can spark even the most dormant imaginations with fantasy or historical fiction, send a chill up the straightest of spines with a good thriller, melt even the most hardened hearts with a steamy romance novel or give us a chance to walk in someone else's shoes through nonfiction or memoir.

And this year's crop of new releases will do all of that, and more. Some of your favorite authors have new books out that rival their previous releases (peep that new Jennifer Egan!) and a whole host of debut authors also came out with stellar reads that will leave you hungry for their next one before you reach the last page. These are the best and most-anticipated books we've found so far, with something for fans of every genre and style. Of course, we have to acknowledge that "best" might mean something different to everyone. There are as many reading appetites as there are readers, so if your favorite book of 2022 doesn't make our list, don't despair. Let us know in the comments, and you might just inspire someone else to pick it up, too.

1
Released in January

Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho

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Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
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Credit: Viking

Fiona and Jane are best friends, navigating their tumultuous teenage years together, as well as their family histories and all that comes with them. But when Fiona moves across the country, their bond weakens and threatens to break. This novel about the power of female friendship will give you a gorgeous peek into both women's perspectives on a shared story that has as many facets as they do.

2
Released in January

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamin Chan

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The School for Good Mothers by Jessamin Chan
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Credit: Simon & Schuster

Frida's daughter Harriet is everything to her. But when she makes a terrible one-time mistake, the state decides that she has to prove her ability to be a good mother in order to remain one at all. This scarily prescient novel that's reminiscent of Orwell and Vonnegut explores the depths of parents' love, how strictly we judge mothers and each other and the terrifying potential of government overreach.

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3
Released in January

30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani

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30 Things I Love About Myself by Radhika Sanghani
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Credit: Berkley

Newly single freelance writer Nina isn’t exactly flourishing, especially after she has to move back in with her depressed brother and her overbearing mother. But when she finds herself reading a self-help book in jail on her 30th birthday (long story), she embarks on a journey toward self-love, learning lessons most of us could stand to hear, too.

4
Released in January

Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories by Gwen E. Kirby

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Shit Cassandra Saw: Stories by Gwen E. Kirby
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Credit: Penguin Books

Just because Cassandra can see the future doesn't mean she's sharing what she finds there. In this wildly inventive collection of stories, Kirby explores the power of feminity in its many forms – including as brazen witches, virgins who can't be sacrificed and even cockroaches who catcallers fear. It's laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes brightly painful, thought-provoking and completely original.

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5
Released in January

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Credit: HarperCollins

When an archaeologist witnesses the unleashing of a long-buried plague, it changes the course of history. This hauntingly beautiful story focuses on how the human spirit perseveres through it all. With everything from a cosmic search for home to a theme park for terminally ill kids and a talking pig, it’s a lyrical adventure that feels fantastical yet familiar.

6
Released in January

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
Credit: William Morrow

Serial killer Ansel Packer is going to die for his crimes in 12 hours. But as the clock ticks down, we get to know the women who passed through his life, including his desperate mother and the homicide detective who became obsessed with his case. It’s a chilling, surprisingly tender tale of how each tragedy ripples through many lives.

RELATED: 25 Best True Crime Books of All Time to Unleash Your Inner Sherlock

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7
Released in January

Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier

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Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier
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Credit: Berkley

The rich live differently than the rest of us, and that's never more evident than this chilling account of one family that plays a sick and twisted game with their tenants. When one (an interloper herself) decides that she's not just a pawn, nobody wins – or do they?

8
Released in January

Devil House by John Darnielle

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Devil House by John Darnielle
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Credit: MCD

Fans of true crime, police procedurals and books that stick with you for weeks after you reach the last page, don't sleep on the latest from the multitalented Mountain Goats singer. It follows a true crime writer who's trying to figure out what really happened at a dilapidated former porn store where locals (and lore) say the Satanic panic resulted in death, but the truth goes so much deeper than that.

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9
Released in February

Don't Say We Didn't Warn You by Ariel Delgado Dixon

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Don't Say We Didn't Warn You by Ariel Delgado Dixon
Credit: Random House

Two sisters' paths repeatedly diverge and intersect through this story about trauma and reckoning with it. Through life in an abandoned warehouse just outside NYC, stints at a wilderness rehabilitation center and a scrabble to find their footing as young adults, this is a sharp and unsettling story of two girls' ongoing search for their own place in the world and how their history shapes who they become.

10
Released in February

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso

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Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso
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Credit: Hogarth

Midwesterners, New Englanders and anyone from small town America will recognize the contours in this quietly beautiful novel about what it feels like to grow up an outsider. It's a starkly lyrical exploration of the darkness that lies underneath a lily white community with an emotional resonance that sneaks up on you and won't let go.

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11
Released in February

Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

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Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms
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Credit: Sourcebooks Landmark

In a little mountain town hit hard by poverty and the opioid epidemic, there's a chance at escape. Magical doors appear to some people as a way out, but once they step through, there's no turning back. This fantastically real, absorbing novel explores what it would feel like to have an escape hatch from the hardships of life, and the agonizing decision whether to leave everyone you love behind.

12
Released in March

The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard

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The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard
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Credit: Amistad

From the author of The Rib King comes a collection of stories about the Black residents of a southern suburb in the years between the beginning of the Clinton administration and Obama's election. It's about racism, the war on drugs, class and struggle, but at its heart, it's a portrait of a community. While it doesn't flinch away from the hard truth, it's also filled with love and a steely kind of hope.

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13
Released in March

When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

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When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
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Credit: Doubleday

This eerily magical, richly atmospheric novel follows Darwin, a devout Rastafarian whose poverty forces him to cast off his religion to become a gravedigger, and Yejide, one of a line of women who have the power to usher the dead into the afterlife. Darwin gets mixed up in some funny business and Yejide is looking for a way out of the life she's been handed. When they're drawn together, they discover whether their love can rival the forces working against them.

14
Released in March

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

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Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
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Credit: Penguin Press

Ingrid has hit a wall in her PhD research on poet Xiao-Wen Chou when she comes across something that suggests he may not have been who he seems. Before she knows it, Ingrid has blown open a scandal that threatens her relationship with her fiancé and her best friend, her academic department and even her own self-knowledge. This is a fresh, hilarious and thoughtful satire that'll make you think about cultural identity in a whole new way.

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15
Released in March

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

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Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
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Credit: Knopf

If you loved Station Eleven, you'll adore this dystopian novel that's about time travel as much as it is about love and family, and what happens when we lose sight of what's truly important. It takes the reader from a plague-ravaged earth to moon colonies, from 1912 to the near future in a triumph of science fiction for those who think they hate science fiction.

16
Released in April

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

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The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
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Credit: Scribner

You don't have to read A Visit From the Goon Squad to love this sibling novel to Egan's stellar hit. The revolutionary technology Own Your Unconscious allows users to store and access their memories – and other people's. Through complex and intimate intertwining narratives, it follows a cast of characters' experiences with Bouton's creation, and how its consequences echo through the decades.

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17
Released in April

End of the World House: A Novel by Adrienne Celt

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End of the World House: A Novel by Adrienne Celt
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Credit: Simon & Schuster

What do you get when you take Groundhog Day, add a dash of the apocalypse, a little French obsession and mix in female friendship and romantic entanglement? This firecracker of a book that gets weirder and more bizarrely funny the more pages you turn.

18
Released in April

Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories by Leigh Newman

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Nobody Gets Out Alive: Stories by Leigh Newman
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Credit: Scribner

The Alaskan wilderness is unforgiving, and so is life for the people who live there. In this arresting collection of stories, we meet people who are fighting not only the snowy tundra, but addiction, heartbreak, complicated families and the demons so many of us carry with us, regardless of when or where we live.

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19
Released in April

When We Fell Apart by Soon Wiley

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When We Fell Apart by Soon Wiley
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Credit: Dutton

Min can’t believe his Korean girlfriend Yu-jin died by suicide, right before graduation. As he embarks on a quest to uncover the truth, he learns more about Yu-jin’s life as the daughter of a high-ranking government official, the true nature of her bond with her roommate So-ra, and his own bi-racial identity. This compelling, propulsive novel is as complex as the characters it follows.

20
Released in May

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

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You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
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Credit: Atria Books

A sharply original novel about love, friendship and the journey grief takes, this one will ring true for so many of us these days. Five years after losing the love of her life, Feyi's BFF, Joy, wants her to get back out there, but when she does, Feyi finds herself thrown into her future without a net. For anyone who's been feeling a little lost, let this book give you some inspiration.

Headshot of Lizz Schumer
Lizz Schumer
Senior Editor
Lizz (she/her) is a senior editor at Good Housekeeping, where she runs the GH Book Club, edits essays and long-form features and writes about pets, books and lifestyle topics. A journalist for almost two decades, she is the author of Biography of a Body and Buffalo Steel. She also teaches journalism as an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies and creative nonfiction at the Muse Writing Center, and coaches with the New York Writing Room.
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