I think we’re lucky that some of our avid readers agree to share their favorite books every year. Jeff Meyerson was the one who originally suggested that we talk books on Thursdays for “What Are You Reading?” I’m always grateful for his contributions. When I’m not available, Jeff often steps up to chat with readers on Thursdays. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of books and authors, and he always has interesting background to share. Thank you, Jeff, for what you share here, including your list of Favorite Books of 2022.

As I said, every reader shares their favorites in a different way. Jeff broke his down by genres. He didn’t pick a top book in each category, so I just highlighted the first one.

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I didn’t read as many books as I’d hoped this year – more like 125 than the 150 I wanted to read – but I did read more short stories (probably around 850) than any year other than 2021 (920).

Anyway, start with mysteries (and these are in order read rather than favorites:

Nick Petrie, The Runaway (Peter Ash helps a runaway wife in the Midwest)

Stephen Spotswood, Fortune Favors the Dead (fun first novel set in the 1940s featuring PI Lillian Pentecost and her assistant/narrator/Archie Goodwin, Willowjean “Will” Parker, a circus runaway)

Jeffrey Siger, One Last Chance (Ch. Insp. Andreas Kaldis and his team in Greece)

Brandon Webb & John David Mann, Cold Fear (another thriller featuring Finn, this one set in Reykjavik, Iceland)

Paula Munier, The Wedding Plot (K-9 mystery in Vermont with Mercy Carr and Elvis)

Ramona Emerson, Shutter (first mystery largely on Reservation in Mew Mexico and in Albuquerque)

Chris Offutt, The Killing Hills & Shifty’s Boys (set in Eastern Kentucky; the first Mick Hardin mystery was my favorite of the year)

Michael Robotham, Good Girl, Bad Girl (first Cyrus Haven & Evie Cormac book; he’s a shrink and she is a girl who doesn’t seem to know who she is or what happened to her – fascinating)

Richard Osman, The Bullet That Missed (third Thursday Murder Club book and each one gets better; new characters added only make it more fun)

Hayley Scrivenor, Dirt Creek (first novel set in Australian outback – a 12 year old girl disappears on the way home from school in rural Australia; very good)

Michael Connelly, Desert Star (Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch, Cold Case Squad)

Shelley Burr, Wake (much like Dirt Creek, only different.  Another first Aussie mystery in the outback of central New South Wales this time; it’s been 19 years since Evie McCleery disappeared, seemingly from her bedroom where her twin sister slept.  Can a PI really find what happened to her now?)

Short story collections (including mysteries):

Roddy Doyle, Life Without Children (first pandemic-related book I read)

Bill Pronzini, Dago Red

Edward D. Hoch, Constant Hearses & Other Revolutionary Mysteries (mostly Alexander Swift, a spy for George Washington, during the Revolutionary War)

Chris Offutt, Out of the Woods (Kentucky)

Dan Chaon, Stay Awake

Other fiction:

Fredrik Backman, Anxious People (fun comedy drama made into a Netflix series about a father-son cop team in a small Swedish town dealing with a bank robbery)

Nita Prose, The Maid (has definite mystery elements)

John Scalzi, The Kaiju Preservation Society (for “Kaiju” picture Godzilla and other huge monsters from Japanese movies.  Fun science fiction includes a parallel world where the Kaiju are real)

Stephen King, Billy Summers (Billy Summers is a hitman, offered an inordinate amount of money to do one last hit,  He rightly believes the people who hired him do not intend to let him survive.  A little slow at the start, this grew on my as I went along.)

Emma Straub, This Time Tomorrow (If you’re a time travel aficionado, you need to read this.  On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice wakes up and it is her 16th birthday, in her old apartment.  Yes, she remembers everything, and yes, there is a way she goes back and forth, and yes, it is definitely worth finding out how and what happens to her)

Finally, the non fiction:

Bill Geist, Lake of the Ozarks: My Surreal Summers in a Vanishing America (the humor writer revisits his teenage days working at his uncle’s resort in Central Missouri in the 1960s; if you’re a Geist fan as I am you can’t miss this)

Lawrence Block, A Writer Prepares (another revisit to his past adventures becoming a writer)

Amy Bloom, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Lost (helping her husband end his life)

Ann Hood, Fly Girl: A Memoir (the writer’s early 20s were spent as a stewardess/flight attendant, which also helped her become a writer; very entertaining book)

Stanley Tucci, Taste: My Life Through Food (a memoir, centered about his love of food and cooking)

Chris Offutt, My Father the Pornographer (fascinating memoir. His father, Andrew J. Offutt, was at one time a well know science fiction writer, but he was really a pornographer with hundreds of books in that field to his credit)

Martin Edwards, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators (another terrific non fiction book by Edwards on the history of the mystery genre)

David Milch, Life’s Work: A Memoir (the great television writer – NYPD Blue and Deadwood, among others – now has Alzheimer’s. His family helped him put together this fascinating memoir)

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Thank you, Jeff. You’ve added some books to my TBR pile!