Algonquin’s Best of the Year: 2022

Here at Algonquin, we are filled with pride about all the accolades and best-of-the-year lists for our books! Admittedly, we are a little biased about these books and authors (we love them!), but others agree these are the best of the best, the ones to be sure to read. Check out all of the honors below and pick up a few to read in 2023!

In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we can expand it.

In an era when divisive voices take up so much airspace, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love? Taking a clear-eyed look at injustice, political polarization, and the destruction of the natural world, Gay shows us how we might resist, how the study of joy might lead us to a wild, unpredictable, transgressive, and unboundaried solidarity. In fact, it just might help us survive.

“In essays that are lyrical, pensive, and surprising, poet Gay sheds light on all the places joy can lurk: it’s there for him in strangers, in skateboarding, and can be found amid sorrow. Gay’s a remarkable writer, and the collection makes for a spellbinding meditation on the ways joy deepens and grows in the company of grief, fear, and loss.” —Publishers Weekly

“In this essay collection, the award-winning poet and author considers those tender moments when we support one another. He writes about pickup basketball and skateboarding in public spaces, and tending to the tomatoes and zucchini that grow in August. But joy is not merely a state — it can become a path to heal, as Gay emphasizes while caring for his dying father and eventually grieving the loss.” —The Washington Post

“Gay reads his book in a comforting, softly gravelly voice, inviting us to consider not only joy but also every emotion around it, including sorrow and rage.” —BookPage

“It’s hard to disagree with poet Ross Gay’s call for joy. In a series of linked essays, he delves into the conviviality of gardens, the complexities of caring for a parent, and skateboarding’s relationship with sidewalks, among other topics. Love lurks on every page—something we need more than ever.” —Adriana E. Ramírez, The Boston Globe

“Poet and best-selling author Ross Gay is a true ray of sunshine in an often dark world. . . He sees the world for what it is and finds the joy and delight in it with intelligence, generosity and insight. The 14 essays in this book cover 14 “incitements” from “Losing Your Phone” to “Falling Apart,” and each one is a mini-revelation and an absolute joy itself. This is a book that should live on your nightstand.” —Samantha Schoech, San Francisco Chronicle

“Gay, an acclaimed poet, infuses his sentences with a wild abandon — so appropriate to channeling wild emotional takeovers — that sometimes threaten to careen out of control, but that’s an illusion, one so enjoyable it thrilled me every time a long passage took me for a ride to somewhere I couldn’t previously imagine.” —Erin Keane, Salon.com

“In a culture so poisoned with division and suspicion, what Gay delivers is no small gift.” —Indianapolis Monthly

“From pickup basketball games and skateboarding to fighting injustice and caring for his dying father, Gay ponders the sources of joy in his life and explains the many ways in which joy and sorrow are are deeply intertwined.” —Jonathan Bastian, KCRW

Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah

A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2022

A Kirkus Reviews Best Debut Fiction of 2022

A Debutiful Best Debut Book of 2022

Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize

Oscar Hokeah’s electric debut takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle, whose family—part Mexican, part Native American—is determined to hold onto their community despite obstacles everywhere they turn. Ever’s relatives all have ideas about who he is and who he should be. His Cherokee grandmother, knowing the importance of proximity, urges the family to move across Oklahoma to be near her, while his grandfather, watching their traditions slip away, tries to reunite Ever with his heritage through traditional gourd dances. Through it all, every relative wants the same: to remind Ever of the rich and supportive communities that surround him, there to hold him tight, and for Ever to learn to take the strength given to him to save not only himself but also the next generation.

How will this young man visualize a place for himself when the world hasn’t made room for him to start with? Honest, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, Calling for a Blanket Dance is the story of how Ever Geimausaddle finds his way home.

“Moving between the voices of Ever and his 11 family members, Hokeah explores what happens after the young protagonist’s father is injured at the U.S.-Mexico border. By blending the family member’s perspectives, Hokeah reveals how Ever marks the turning point between the old generation and the new, both carrying and recovering from intergenerational trauma.” —Laura Zornosa, TIME

“Simply told and true to life.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The voices in Hokeah’s multigenerational saga explore the obstacles faces of a Native American family. Heritage and tradition anchor this novel as the main character tries to become his own man while his family wants him to be molded in a different light.” —Debutiful

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry

A Kirkus Reviews Best Memoir of 2022

From the bestselling author and host of the wildly popular Undisclosed podcast, a warm, intimate memoir about food, body image, and growing up in a loving but sometimes oppressively concerned Pakistani immigrant family.

At once a love letter (with recipes) to fresh roti, chaat, chicken biryani, ghee, pakoras, shorba, parathay and an often hilarious dissection of life in a Muslim immigrant family, Fatty Fatty Boom Boom is also a searingly honest portrait of a woman grappling with a body that gets the job done but that refuses to meet the expectations of others.

Chaudry’s memoir offers readers a relatable and powerful voice on the controversial topic of body image, one that dispenses with the politics and gets to what every woman who has ever struggled with weight will relate to.

“The literary equivalent of chaat masala fries: spicy, heady, sour, and uniquely delicious.” —Kirkus Reviews

Somewhere Sisters by Erika Hayasaki

An NPR Books We Love in 2022 Pick

It was 1998 in Nha Trang, Việt Nam, and Liên struggled to care for her newborn twin girls. Hà was taken in by Liên’s sister, and she grew up in a rural village with her aunt, going to school and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. Hà’s twin sister, Loan, was adopted by a wealthy, white American family who renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Việt Nam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college.

But when Isabella’s adoptive mother learned of her biological twin back in Việt Nam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members. She brings the girls’ experiences to life on the page, told from their own perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters’ experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, intercountry and transracial adoption, and the nature-versus-nurture debate, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees.

“The product of intensive reporting that distills the five years that journalist Erika Hayasaki spent with Isabella, Hà and their families, tracing how they came to live such divergent lives. Crucially, Hayasaki contextualizes their stories in the larger history of transracial and transnational adoption, as well as nature-nurture science, making for a nuanced portrait.” —Kristen Martin, writer and book critic, NPR

Lark Ascending by Silas House

A Salon Favorite Book of 2022

A Garden & Gun Best Southern Book of 2022

A Booklist Editors’ Choice of 2022

2023 Southern Book Prize Finalist

A riveting story of survival and hope, set in the not-too-distant future, about a young man forced to flee the United States and seek refuge across the Atlantic.

As fires devastate most of the United States, Lark and his family secure a place on a refugee boat headed to Ireland, the last country not yet overrun by extremists and rumored to be accepting American refugees. But Lark is the only one to survive the trip, and once ashore, he doesn’t find the safe haven he’d hoped for. As he runs for his life, Lark finds an abandoned dog who becomes his closest companion, and then a woman in search of her lost son. Together they form a makeshift family and attempt to reach Glendalough, a place they believe will offer protection. But can any community provide the safety that they seek?

“House’s powerful novel asks necessary questions against the backdrop of a speculative near-future that feels more realistic with every passing day: How do we retain our humanity in a degraded, dangerous world, and what keeps us moving forward when all appears to be lost?” —Erin Keane, Salon.com

“Lark Ascending traverses a dark, dystopian world yet somehow imparts a message of hope and kindness. That’s the magic of House. He’s also a dog lover, which is evident in the pages. All digits up for this one.” —Dave DiBenedetto, Garden & Gun

Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard

A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction

In 1951, former debutante Jacqueline Bouvier is hard at work as the Inquiring Camera Girl for a Washington newspaper. Her mission in life is “not to be a housewife,” but when she meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy at a Georgetown party, her resolution begins to falter. Soon the two are flirting over secret phone calls, cocktails, and dinner dates, and as Jackie is drawn deeper into the Kennedy orbit, and as Jack himself grows increasingly elusive and absent, she begins to question what life at his side would mean. For answers, she turns to his best friend and confidant, Lem Billings, a closeted gay man who has made the Kennedy family his own, and who has been instructed by them to seal the deal with Jack’s new girl. But as he gets to know her, a deep and touching friendship emerges, leaving him with painfully divided alliances and a troubling dilemma: Is this the marriage she deserves?

Narrated by an older Lem as he looks back at his own role in a complicated alliance, this is a courtship story full of longing and of suspense, of what-ifs and possible wrong turns. It is a surprising look at Jackie before she was that Jackie. And in best-selling author Louis Bayard’s witty and deeply empathetic telling, Jackie & Me is a page-turning story of friendship, love, sacrifice, and betrayal—and a fresh take on two iconic American figures.

“A charming story that captures our ongoing fascination with the Kennedy marriage, Jackie & Me focuses on the years when Jack and Jackie were still two distinct individuals, a young man and a younger woman navigating their ways through Washington.” —The Washington Post

Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles

A New York Times Best True Crime Book of 2022

In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. The free-spirited and remarkable young couple had met and fallen in love the previous summer while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite, their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing, and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story.

When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines, and details that just don’t add up. With unprecedented access to crucial crime-scene forensics and key witnesses—and with a growing sense of both mission and obsession—she begins to uncover the truth. An innocent man, Miles is convinced, has been under suspicion for decades, while the true culprit is a known serial killer, if only authorities would take a closer look.

Intimate, page-turning, and brilliantly reported, Trailed is a love story and a call to justice—and a searching and urgent plea to make wilderness a safe space for women—destined to become a true crime classic.

“The true-crime book that has stayed with me this year is Kathryn Miles’s Trailed. . . Miles not only solves the case, she shines a light on the crime rate in the country’s national parks.” —Tina Jordan, The New York Times

Honor by ThrityUmrigar

A Bookclubs Best Book Club Book of 2022

In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.