The 5 Best Books I Read in 2022 — and Why They’re (Almost) All Fiction
In past editions of this yearly book roundup, the recommendations have been almost exclusively nonfiction. This year was different, mostly because I was burnt out from doing research for my own book, A Bar in Toledo.
I plowed through dozens of biographies, memoirs, and true crime accounts — all of which were interesting and well-written. But after I turned in the manuscript I needed to detox my brain from reading straight-up information.
It’s like when you overplay one kind of music and have to retrain your Spotify algorithm.
This led me down the fiction rabbit hole, which I regret not diving down earlier. It’s amazing how much more you enjoy novels when they aren’t forced onto you by over-educated English professors (no offense if that’s you).
Anyway, if you only read a few books this year, give these a shot.
1. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
I picked this up randomly at a bookstore in LA, read the first paragraph, and immediately bought it.
The unnamed protagonist — an independently wealthy pill head — decides to spend the year 2000 in a self-induced hibernation with the assistance of a cocktail of drugs and New York’s worst therapist. If that premise seems absurd, that’s because it is. But Moshfegh somehow turned it into something (darkly) hilarious and also important.
She has an airy, deadpan writing style that puts you in a trance — which you wouldn’t expect from someone who unapologetically writes “disgusting” female characters (much to the chagrin of suburban housewives.) This book sold like crazy when it came out in 2019, but the themes are even more relevant today: boredom, alienation, escapism.
Vogue hit the nail on the head: “Moshfegh’s the kind of provocateur who makes you laugh out loud while drawing blood.”
2. Serotonin by Michel Houellebecq
Some people read cheery stories to lift their spirits — others read dark shit to remind themselves how things could always be worse. This book is for the latter camp.
Despite financial independence, a young girlfriend, and increasingly stronger doses of SSRIs (hence the title), Florent-Claude Labrouste’s life gets bleaker by the day. He quits his job and relocates to a nostalgic region of France, but his soul searching is spoiled when he sees consumerism and corruption have degraded the one place he thought he could rediscover happiness.
(Eerily reminiscent of today’s tech bros who thought an RV in Bozeman, Montana would fill the void in their souls).
Serotonin is a scourge against technology, corporate culture, and the malaise of modern living. That might sound like a total boomer take, but I promise this book is light years ahead of your aunt’s Facebook diatribes.
3. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
This came out two months before I was born, but Hornby captures the nature of careers, romance, and shitty coworkers as if it were written yesterday. It’s the kind of book that makes you think: Oh, I’m not the only person who has these thoughts
The main character, Rob, is struggling to keep his indie record store afloat. Meanwhile, his girlfriend ditches him for the upstairs neighbor. Sounds brutal, right? Or is it the wakeup call he needs to get his life back on track?
High Fidelity is frighteningly relatable for guys trying to figure things out — and for women who put up with them.
4. Running the Light by Sam Tallent
Sam opened for one of my favorite comedians in St. Louis, where he was selling copies of his book after the show. I wish I would’ve bought it that night instead of waiting to finish whatever else was on my reading list.
This dude is savagely funny behind a microphone, but I’d argue he’s even more gifted as a novelist. Running the Light chronicles the twilight of Billy Ray Schafer’s comedy career: a seven-day trek through the Southwest, fueled by cocaine, nicotine, booze, and the waning desire to un-fuck his life.
This book will make you reevaluate basically every part of your existence. It will also make you laugh harder than every cable TV show combined.
5. How to Be Alone: Essays by Jonathan Franzen
Resist the urge to take the title literally. It’s not an instruction manual for sitting still or resisting FOMO. It’s a collection of essays that asks — and attempts to answer — what it means to exist in a world that begs you to become a member of a crowd, rather than an individual.
Franzen explores topics ranging from his father’s battle with Alzheimer’s to supermax prisons to the meteoric rise of the sex advice industry. Disparate as these world’s may be, he examines each of them in a way that makes you reflect on the importance of carving out an identity
Favorite quote: “Silence is a useful statement only if someone, somewhere, expects your voice to be loud.”
Bonus/Shameless Plug: A Bar in Toledo: The Untold Story of a Mafia Front Man and a Grammy-Winning Song
Self promotion makes me cringe, but I figured this was an appropriate place to plug the book I published in September. It’s the (true) story of a Syrian construction worker whose mob-backed nightclub inspired one of the greatest country songs of all time.
If you’re curious about the backstory and why I spent 2+ years writing it, I explain everything in this article.
The book got solid press coverage in the Toledo Blade and BroBible. You can grab it from these retailers:
