From novels to non-fiction and memoirs, listed here are the books we loved in 2022.
NONFICTION
![Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention -- and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/stolen-focus.jpg?w=674)
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and Methods to Think Deeply Again
Johann Hari (Crown)
If you happen to’ve found yourself finding it nearly unimaginable to pay attention today, you’re not alone. Spoiler alert: It could have something to do together with your phone! When Hari found himself unable to focus, jumping from tab to tab, app to app, he decided to embark on a 3-month tech sabbatical. It was glorious, but nothing modified when it ended; he was quickly back to his old addiction. “Stolen Focus” takes a surprising, alarming have a look at what devices are doing to everyone’s attention — and the way it needs to be treated as a systemic issue. A very important read.
![Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin's Wrath by Bill Browder](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/freezing-order.jpg?w=672)
Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath
Bill Browder (Simon & Schuster)
Who said financial crimes were dull? Actually not Bill Browder. In his followup to the rip-roaring bestseller “Red Notice,” the creator further explains how he became one of Vladimir Putin’s biggest enemies — by exposing his billion-dollar campaign of theft and money laundering to the world. (Browder’s lawyer was Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in a Russian jail; Browder has made it his life’s mission to show his killers, ending up on quite a few watchlists himself.)
![Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania are Ruining Kids' Sports, and Why it Matters by Linda Flanagan](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/take-back-the-game.jpg?w=678)
Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania are Ruining Kids’ Sports — And Why it Matters
Linda Flanagan (Portfolio)
In the past few many years, youth sports have gotten out of control in terms of intensity and the seriousness with which they’re taken (we’ve all seen the headlines about parents punching out referees.) Flanagan explains why and the way this got here to be the case — and what parents can do to fight back. This book is for anyone who has ever found themselves spending entire weekends at youth soccer events and asked, “Why?”
![Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties by David De Jong](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/nazi-billionaires.jpg?w=682)
Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties
David DeJong (Mariner Books)
Gunther Quandt was the head of the dynasty that today controls BMW. Accused of Nazi collaboration in 1946, he was acquitted after lying in his testimony, claiming that he had forced by Joseph Goebbels to affix the Nazi party. This deeply researched book takes a have a look at this and other German dynasties with dark pasts which have never been fully resolved — and which have amassed even greater wealth in the many years that followed World War II.
![Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Streeet in Russia by Natasha Lance Rogoff](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/muppets-in-moscow.jpg?w=696)
Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia
Natasha Lance Rogoff (Rowman & LIttlefield)
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early Nineties brought incredible opportunities — amongst them, the ability to bring the beloved show “Sesame Street” to a Russian audience. Rogoff was the producer of this (by no means straightforward) undertaking, which brought extreme challenges, automotive bombings, a military takeover of the production office, and cultural clashes. Above all, it’s a story of great poignance and a love letter to the ideal of educating children through television.
![When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/when-mckinsey-comes-to-town.jpg?w=674)
When McKinsey Involves Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm
Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe (Doubleday)
McKinsey & Co. is one of the most prestigious consulting corporations in the world; its value statement goals to make the world a greater place (while commanding billions of dollars in fees). But what does McKinsey & Co. actually do? The authors of this thoroughly reported book took a glance behind the curtain and located that the company’s dealings steadily didn’t line up with its purported values.
![Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/rogues.jpg?w=678)
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks
Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday)
The bestselling creator of “Say Nothing” and “Empire of Pain” brings together some of his best known essays from The Latest Yorker which, as Keefe explains in the preface, “reflect on some of my abiding preoccupations: crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial.”
![The New Kings of New York: Renegades, Moguls, Gamblers and the Remaking of the World's Most Famous Skyline by Adam Piore](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-new-kings-of-new-york.jpg?w=701)
The Latest Kings of Latest York
Adam Piore (The Real Deal)
Latest York real estate is theater, business, and blood sport combined, and journalist Piore offers a have a look at how the Latest York City skyline was remade in a brief period of time as the city transformed from gritty and nearly bankrupt to luxury cosmopolis. He recounts the players and the wheeling and dealing that got here together with some of the city’s major real estate projects, from Billionaire’s Row to Hudson Yards.
![American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/american-midnight.jpg?w=682)
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
Adam Hochschild (Mariner)
An enchanting have a look at the time between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, a turbulent time when Black churches were burned to the ground by indignant mobs, lynchings occurred, citizen’s arrests ran rampant, newspapers and magazines were banned by mail, and the foundations of American democracy were crumbling.
FICTION
![Wahala by Nikki May](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/wahala.jpg?w=674)
Wahala
Nikki May (Custom House)
This sharp, glittering debut follows three Ango-Nigerian besties — Ronke, Boo and Simi — and the absolute chaos that ensues when a 4th woman — charismatic Isobel — inserts her way into their group. At first it looks as if Isobel brings out the best in each woman — after which, not a lot.
![Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/signal-fires.jpg?w=674)
Signal Fires
Dani Shapiro (Knopf)
On a summer night in 1985, three teenagers have been drinking once they are involved in a automotive accident. The doctor who arrives on the scene — Ben Wilf — comes to a decision that can alter his profession and his life, and nobody on Division Street will ever be the same. Many years later, the couple across the street has a baby boy, and again, Wilf becomes involved. An exquisite novel about connections, loss, and the passage of time on a quiet suburban street.
![The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-orchard.jpg?w=682)
The Orchard
Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry (Ballantine)
Anya and Milka are best friends coming of age in the USSR in the Nineteen Eighties, spending summers at Anya’s family dacha outside of Moscow. While Anya’s parents fixate on the past, she and Milka are obsessive about Queen, bootleg tapes and travel outside their country. As the USSR collapses, their lives diverge — and years later, Anya is left attempting to negotiate her recent American life with the world she left behind. Loosely based on Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” and achingly sad.
![The marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-marriag-portrait.jpg?w=672)
The Marriage Portrait
Maggie O’Farrell (Knopf)
In 1550s Florence, young Lucrezia is the third daughter of a grand duke. Her childhood is comfortable until it ends quite abruptly in her marriage to a much older man, the duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. She leaves home behind to enter the court of Alfonso — a person she barely knows and who, as she soon realizes, has plenty of secrets. An enchanting fictionalized account of the young Lucrezia de Medici.
![The Last Chairlift by John Irving](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-last-chairlift.jpg?w=684)
The Last Chairlift
John Irving (Simon & Schuster)
Clocking in at 912 pages, nobody will accuse John Irving of being too succinct. He has his themes, and he does prefer to go on at length. Luckily for the reader, the themes resonate and change into almost meditative of their repetition. This novel — about Adam, a boy growing up in an unconventional family with a ski instructor mother, Little Rae, funny and wholly unconcerned with societal norms and expectations — is a gorgeous celebration of life lived by itself terms.
![Flight by Lynn Steger Strong](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/flight.jpg?w=678)
Flight
Lynn Steger Strong (Mariner Books)
Siblings Henry, Kate and Martin have gathered with their spouses in upstate Latest York to look at the first Christmas without their mother. The group is there, children under foot, to look at traditional family rituals — but additionally to determine what to do with their mother’s Florida house, her sole inheritance. Financial concerns and other tensions linger thickly in the air. Just because it looks as if the sibling ties are fraying, a daunting event brings them together and restores perspective.
![The Shore by Katie Runde](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-shore.jpg?w=664)
The Shore
Katie Runde
Seaside is a summer town, but Brian and Margot Dunne have made their lives there year-round, renting out real estate properties to tourists while raising their daughters, now teenagers. Money has at all times been tight. But when Brian develops a brain tumor and his personality changes overnight, the family’s future becomes precarious, and Margot finds herself dreaming of moving away and starting over. There aren’t enough novels that cope with the concerns of individuals who pay bills, and this one is poignant and raw.
![Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/hurricane-girl.jpg?w=656)
Hurricane Girl
Marcy Dermansky (Knopf)
The creator of the popular “Very Nice” is back with a highly original (seriously, you haven’t read a book like this before) novel about Allison Brody, a 32-year-old woman who buys a beach house on the coast and owns it for an entire week before a hurricane demolishes it. She eventually makes her way back to her childhood home and spends the next few months on the lookout for a recent plan — in the form of a rooftop swimming pool and a recent boyfriend’s luxe but sterile apartment.
![Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/iona-iversons-rules-for-commuting.jpg?w=678)
Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting
Clare Pooley (Pamela Dorman)
Every single day, a magazine columnist named Iona sees the same people on her train from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station. She doesn’t know their names, and so they never speak — that’s the first rule of commuting. But at some point when one of the commuters chokes on a grape and is saved by a quick-thinking male nurse named Sanjay, the group of quiet commuters begins to talk to one another — and so they even change into a gaggle of unlikely friends. Endearing and quirky, this novel might make you really wish to commute.
![The Making of Her by Bernadette Jiwa](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-making-of-her.jpg?w=679)
The Making Of Her
Bernadette Jiwa (Dutton)
In Nineties Dublin, the country of Ireland is undergoing an economic boom and Joan and her husband are an element of it. Life is sweet and their home is impressive. Appearances are being kept up. Then at some point, a letter arrives at some point from Emma, the daughter she and her husband gave up for adoption 30 years prior in a really different Ireland. Emma doesn’t wish to reconnect — she has a serious favor to ask, one which can have Joan questioning nearly every aspect of her life.
![After the Hurricane by Leah Franqui](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/after-the-hurricane.jpg?w=678)
After the Hurricane
Leah Franqui (William Morrow)
Puerto Rico is where Elena Vega’s father lives — but nobody has seen him since Hurricane Maria. Troubled by alcoholism and bipolar disorder, he’s a person given to disappearing, leaving his daughter to select up the pieces. Elena returns to the battered island and starts looking for him, trying to resolve the mystery of a person she doesn’t know thoroughly. Puerto Rico comes alive on this book about family and secrets.
![The Revivalists by Christopher M. Hood](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/the-revivalists.jpg?w=678)
The Revivalists
Christopher M Hood (Harper)
On this haunting debut novel, the Shark Flu pandemic has destroyed much of the world’s population. Bill and Penelope have survived and are rebuilding their recent lives — when their grown daughter Hannah gets in contact over the shortwave radio and tells them she’s joined a cult in Bishop, California. Bill and Penelope begin a dangerous cross-country trek to avoid wasting their family as they navigate a wierd and sometimes terrifying recent world where the old rules of society now not apply.
Paul
Daisy LaFarge (fiction, Riverhead Books)
Frances is a young graduate student spending the summer in Southern France, volunteering on a farm. The farm’s owner, Paul, is mysterious and strange (very strange), and she or he soon finds herself romantically involved with him. But as the summer wears on, Frances starts to understand with growing unease that she doesn’t know very much about him.
![Any Where You Run by Wanda M. Morris](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/any-where-you-run.jpg?w=680)
Anywhere You Run
Wanda Morris (fiction, William Morrow)
From the talented creator of “All Her Little Secrets” comes this gripping tale of two Black sisters on the run in the Nineteen Sixties South. Violet has killed the man who attacked her — and she or he’s now fleeing, on the lookout for a spot — anywhere — where she will be able to start over. Her sister Marigold has also left their town of Jackson, Mississippi, fearing the police will turn their attention on her. But there’s a person who’s been paid to search out Violet — and he won’t stop until he tracks her down.
![Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/disorientation.jpg?w=674)
Disorientation
Elaine Hsieh Chou (fiction, Penguin Press)
Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Ingrid Yang is nearly finished along with her dissertation on Chinese poet Xiao-Wen Chou; once she gets that PhD, she will be able to do what she really wants — even when she doesn’t quite know what that’s. But a wierd note in the archives leads her down a wierd recent path of secrets and cover-ups. A hilarious campus satire.
![We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/we-all-want-impossible-things.jpg?w=678)
We All Want Inconceivable Things
Catherine Newman (Harper)
Edith and Ashley have been friends for 42 years, sharing nearly every part together. As Ash says, “Edi’s memory is like the back-up harddrive for mine.” Now, Edi is dying of ovarian cancer and spending her last days in a hospice home near Ash as a forged of characters rotate out and in. Not advised for reading in public, unless you enjoy crying around strangers.
MEMOIR
![A Heart that Works by Rob Delaney](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/a-heart-that-works-1.jpg?w=670)
A Heart That Works
Rob Delaney (Spiegel & Grau)
At the age of 1, actor Rob Delaney’s son Henry was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Two years later, he would die — leaving the family devastated. This shouldn’t be a straightforward read, and to his credit, Delaney makes no try and sugarcoat the experience with platitudes. The result is that this raw, beautiful book about loss, grief and what matters most.
![A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City by Edward Chisholm](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/a-waiter-in-paris.jpg?w=682)
A Waiter In Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City
Edward Chisholm (Pegasus)
Behind the opulent calm of any Parisian restaurant is a waiter able to deceive you, writes Edward Chisholm on this moving tale of a young British man who moves to Paris and — despite speaking subpar French, manages to secure a post as a waiter. It’s here that he meets a backroom staff of other immigrants, ex-soldiers, aspiring actors and others caught between their dreams of a greater life and the paltry paycheck they receive each week.
![Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/surrender.jpg?w=692)
Give up: 40 Songs, One Story
Bono (memoir, Knopf)
For the first time ever, legendary musician Bono writes about his family and upbringing, from his early days as a boy in Dublin to the death of his mother when he was 14 — “We were three Irish men, and we avoided the pain that we knew would come from considering and speaking about her,” he writes, of sharing the house together with his father and older brother — to his many years of activism.
![Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage by Heather Havrilesky](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/foreverland.jpg?w=678)
Foreverland
Heather Havrilesky (Ecco)
Havrilesky has counseled readers through many a troubled relationship under the guise of Ask Polly; on this memoir, she turns the lens on herself, examining her own 15-year marriage and its highs and lows, aggravations, slights, and sweet moments.
![Because our Father's Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietname to Today by Craig McNamara](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/because-our-fathers-lied.jpg?w=659)
Because Our Fathers Lied: A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
Craig McNamara (Little, Brown)
McNamara grew up in the late Nineteen Sixties, a time of political tumult. His father Robert served as John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense and the architect of the Vietnam War — while Craig would grow as much as take part in anti-war protests. When he failed his draft physical, he decided to travel by motorcycle across Central and South America, learning about agriculture. The book tells the story of the Vietnam War from a singular perspective, as McNamara tries to return to terms together with his father’s legacy.