Best Books Of 2022 List

We are joined by three booksellers from the Boulder Bookstore who share their favorite books of 2022 and give recommendations for readers of all ages.

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Brad Costa is a buyer at the Boulder Bookstore and his four recommendations are:

Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin

"A creepy and wonderful collection of short stories from one of my new favorite authors. Each of these stories is about absence, a missing person, a void, something that just feels off. Schweblin writes wonderful slow-burn stories that build, and these seven stories combine for a master of a book. I know this just came out, but I'm already looking forward to what she puts out next."

The Trees by Percival Everett

"Two dead bodies show up in a small town in Mississippi, but shortly afterwards one of them goes missing from the morgue, only to wind up at another crime scene. Everett does not let up for the next three hundred pages. This book is difficult to classify. It's a little horror, a little comedy. It's a murder mystery and a social critique. The way that all of these genres and styles mix and mingle is truly remarkable."

Mount Chicago by Adam Levin

"Adam Levin is fast becoming one of my favorite contemporary writers. This novel details the despair of someone after intense tragedy; everyone that the main Solly loves dies when a crate forms in the center of Chicago. His despair is matched by Apter, a man who works in city hall and is trying to track him down for a benefit concert, where he wants the depressed comic to perform. The story was good, but Levin's writing style is what kept me interested page after page."

Lady Joker Volume 1 by Kaoru Takamura

"Based loosely on the Monster with 21 Faces crimes in the 1980s, this police procedural follows a crime against a corporation. Five people who have very little to do with each other decide to hold a beer company hostage, telling the president of the company that they will poison their on-shelf products if they are not paid handsomely. The crime in the 1980s was unsolved, but you'll have to wait until October 2022 for the conclusion of this novel."

Stephanie Schindhelm is the Marketing & Promotions Manager at the Boulder Bookstore, and her book recommendations are:

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

"What a gorgeous, sexy book! Akwaeke Emezi can write beautifully in any genre, and here they take on Romance. Feyi lost the love of her life in a car accident 5 years ago and finally feels like she can move on with her life and her art career. At the insistence of her best friend, she’s getting out into the dating scene again and meets the perfect guy — too bad she can’t ignore her attraction to his father."

The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

"A wonderful kaleidoscope of words and images! The jazz and art come alive in Alex Jennings' surreal tour of New Orleans' multifaceted personality, and like good jazz you have to pay attention. The melody is humming and the words seem familiar, but there is always something more to hear and sometimes the timing changes and it's a whole new world."

How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

"Five women and their fairy tale inspired stories of love and trauma skewer our own obsession with tabloid and reality TV, media’s victim-blaming and slut-shaming, and society’s tendency to disbelieve women’s stories. This book is whip-smart, and the characters are dimensional and real (even if you don’t really like all of them). A great pick for book clubs, there’s so much to pull apart here.