Every year I rank all the books I’ve read into general categories. What books do you love on this list? Where did I get it wrong?

Use the “Contact Me” section to let me know!

2022

Book(s) of the Year 2022

• Last Letters from Hav by Jan Morris

• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

• Journal of the Gun Years by Richard Matheson

New Favorites

• Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

• Storm by George R. Stewart

• Malpertuis by Jean Ray

• The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung

• Saga, Compendium One by Brian K. Vaughn 

            and Fiona Staples

Great

• Comemadre by Roque Larraquy

• Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

• Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

• Passing by Nella Larsen

• Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms by Eugenia Bone

• Jade City by Fonda Lee

• Jade War by Fonda Lee

• Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee

• Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliot Chaze

• The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

• Nature’s Warnings: Classic Stories of Eco-Science Fiction Edited by Mike Ashley

• Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

• Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

• Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

• Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Really Good

• The Dying Earth by Jack Vance 

• The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe

• Crawling Horror: Creeping Tales of the Insect Weird Edited by Daisy Butcher and Janette Leaf 

• Monday Starts on Saturday by Arkady Strugastky and Boris Strugatsky 

• Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Stories of Horror Edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxielli Nieto

• Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

• Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

• Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

• The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis

Pretty Good

• River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

• The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

• The Hunger by Alma Katsu

• Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

• Sin Eater by Megan Campisi

• Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

• Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert

• The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

• Good Citizens Need Not Fear: Stories by Maria Reva

• Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

• Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding 

• Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman

• Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

• The Mad and the Bad by Jean-Patrick Manchette

No Strong Feelings

• River of the Gods: Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard

• The April 3rd Incident by Yu Hua

• Basti by Intizar Husain

• The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore

• The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

• Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton

• Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey

• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

• The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor by Maggie Aderin-Pocock

• The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

I Hated Certain Parts But I Couldn’t Stop Reading

• The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe

• Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui

• Ice by Anna Kavan

• Skyborn by David Dalglish

• The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett

Not For Me

• Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi

• Goulash by Brian Kimberling

• Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

• My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

• Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez 

Boy oh Boy, How Would You Even Rank This

• Father of Lies by Brian Evenson

THROW IT IN THE TRASH

• Ring by Kōji Suzuki

2021

BOOK(S) OF THE YEAR

• Dhalgren by Samuel Delaney

• Lady Joker Vol. 1 by Kaoru Takamura

• The Door by Magda Szabo

• The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell by Brian Evenson

NEW FAVORITES

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

• Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb

• Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

• Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

• The Afflictions by Vikram Paralkar

• The Animals in that Country by Laura Jean McKay

GREAT 

• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

• The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

• The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman 

• The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

• American Indian Stories by Zitkala-Sa

• The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

• Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

• Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

• The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
  Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey

• Grendel by John Gardner

• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

• Costalegre by Courtney Maum 

• God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

• The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

• Underworld by Don Delillo

• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

• The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf

• Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson

• The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

• Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman
  

REALLY GOOD

• The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

• The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

• Six Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente

• Lie with Me by Phillipe Besson 

• Why Did You Leave the Horse Alone by Mahmoud Darwish

• Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

• The General Zapped an Angel by Howard Fast

• All Systems Red by Martha Wells

• The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman

• The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen L. Carter

• Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

• Weather by Jenny Offil

• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

• Chocky by John Wyndham

• Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu

• The Fisherman by John Langan

• Cruise of Shadows: Haunted Stories of Land and Sea by Jean Ray

• The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya

• The Cloven Viscount by Italo Calvino

PRETTY GOOD

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik

• Mexican Gothic by Silva Moren-Garcia

• Holy Lands by Amanda Sthers

• In the Heat of the Night by John Ball

• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

• Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey 

• The Hanging on Union Square by H.T. Tsiang

• Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff

• Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

• Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson

• The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne 

NO STRONG FEELINGS 

• The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

• Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings

• The Builders by Daniel Polansky

• The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

• Firestarter by Stephen King

• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames 

• Sao Bernardo by Graciliano Ramos

• The Witchcraft of Salem Village by Shirley Jackson

• The Vegetarian by Han Kang 

• A Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham

I HATE CERTAIN PARTS BUT I COULDN’T STOP READING

• We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

• The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson

• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

NOT FOR ME

• The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

• Professor Andersen’s Night by Dag Solstad 

GENUINELY PAINFUL TO READ

• Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

UN-RANKABLE

• The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien

• The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien

• The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkien

• The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington

2020

BOOK OF THE YEAR:

• This is How You Lose the Time War

NEW FAVORITES:

• Royal Assassin

• The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

• Kindred

• Last Argument of Kings

• The Lies of Locke Lamora

• American Wolf

• The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

• Words of Radiance

• Dune

• The Martian Chronicles

GREAT:

• The Way of Kings

• Best Served Cold

• Oathbringer

• After Dark

• The Blade Itself

• Before They Are Hanged

• The Fifth Season

• The Nickel Boys

• The Rage of Dragons

• The Dragon Republic

• The City of Brass

• Interior Chinatown

• Red Seas Under Red Skies

• Assassin’s Apprentice

• Hyperion

• Tender is the Flesh

GOOD:

• Leviathan Wakes

• Caliban’s War

• Abaddon’s Gate

• Way Station

• False Bingo

• Peplum

• Dune Messiah

• Dealers

• Little

• The Poppy War

• The Tombs of Atuan

• The Republic of Thieves

• The Dream Peddler

NO STRONG FEELINGS:

• The Last True Poets of the Sea

• Edgedancer

• Sisters of the Vast Black

• Horsemen of the Sands

• Love in the Anthropocene

SO CLOSE TO BEING GOOD BUT SOMEHOW NOT GOOD AT ALL:

• The City We Became

• Every Heart a Doorway

NOT A FAN:

• A Darker Shade of Magic

• Infinite Detail

• The Dragonbone Chair

• Nine Princes in Amber