Today, the Amazon Books Editors announced their selections for Best Books of the Year of 2022, naming Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow as the top pick! This annual list is hand-picked by the Amazon Books Editors, who have read thousands of books to share their recommendations for the top 10 Kindle books that they have read this year.
“We’ve had a bumper crop of amazing books to choose from this year,” said Sarah Gelman, editorial director for Amazon Books. “But to get our passionate (read: opinionated!) team of editors to agree on one they loved is almost a miracle. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is that miracle—a simply perfect book about the complexities of human relationships, the importance of human connection, the innocence and optimism of youth, our journey with technology, and the many shades of love.”
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
After devouring this novel, you’ll walk with a bounce in your step, a full heart, and the buzzy feeling that this is one of the best books about friendship—in all of its messy complexity and glory—you have ever read, which is why we named it the Best Book of 2022. Gabrielle Zevin has written a novel perfect for this moment, when connection is what we crave and hope is what we need.
Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
Neil Gaiman once said, “Fiction gives us empathy…gives us the gifts of seeing the world through [other people’s] eyes.” Solito is one of those rare nonfiction reads that achieves the same thing, and puts a human face on the immigration debate—that of a 9-year-old child making a harrowing journey from South America to the United States, and the found family who eases his way. A heart-pounding, heart-expanding memoir.
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
We can’t stop talking about Stolen Focus. It’s vital and mesmerizing, examining why we as individuals and as a collective have lost our attention spans. Suffice to say, Hari’s three-month tech-detox and his findings will make you immediately want to stop scrolling the internet, quit thinking in slogans and 280 characters, and engage authentically in sustained thought so that we can tackle global issues like poverty, racism, and climate change. Deeply satisfying and affirming and full of light-bulb moments, this is a book everyone should read.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Fairy Tale’s Charlie Reade joins the ranks of King’s best characters, and the story he tells—of a curmudgeonly neighbor with dangerous secrets, a parallel world ruled by an unspeakable monster, a child-eating giant, and a dog who has lived more than one lifetime—is wonderous. Fairy Tale is fantasy, coming-of-age, friendship, and adventure—it’s good versus evil, a boy and his dog on a perilous quest; it’s King doing what he does best: setting our imagination on fire.
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
One of the best American novels we’ve read in years—galloping backward and forward in time to tell a story about race and freedom, horses and art, and the lineage of not just ancestors but actions. From Kentucky to New Orleans, from the 1850s to present day, Pulitzer Prize-winning Brooks weaves together a story centered on one of the fastest thoroughbreds in history and the Black groom that catapulted Lexington to the front of the track. A heart-pounding American epic.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins-Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & The Six) has written another book you’ll inhale in a day. Soto is a former tennis champ who returns to the game to defend her title. She’s unapologetic, ambitious, and willing to put everything on the line. This is a big-hearted story about her relationship with her father, taking risks, and standing up bravely in a world that doesn’t necessarily want to see strong women succeed.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
In this mesmerizing novel, Kingsolver peers into the neglected hollers of Appalachia to tell an insightful and razor sharp coming-of-age story about a boy called Demon Copperhead. Born behind the eight ball of life, Demon faces hunger, cruelty, and a tidal wave of addiction in his tiny county, but never loses his love for the place that claims him as its own. With the soulful narration by this kind, conflicted, witty boy, Kingsolver gives voice to a place and its people where beauty, desperation, and resilience collide.
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng joins our Best of the Year list for the third time with her most gripping story yet. A mom mysteriously disappears amid a nationalistic movement that feels chillingly close to reality—launching her young son on a courageous quest to find her, aided by everyday heroes in unexpected places. The prose sings as the pieces click. This is fiction as revolution, serving as a warning, a dystopian fairy tale, and a suspenseful thriller with moments of hope that buoyed us as we read.
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freeland
This is the true story of one of the few people who escaped Auschwitz, but that only touches on what this book is about. Rudolph Vrba set out to tell the world about the atrocities he had witnessed in the concentration camps, but much of the world was not ready to hear it. The author, Jonathan Freedland, paints a vivid, moving portrait of what Vrba experienced, both during and after the war. Vrba was a hero, for sure, but he was human as well. This is a forgotten story that you won’t soon forget.
City on Fire by Don Winslow
Don Winslow (Power of the Dog trilogy, Broken) is, without doubt, one of the best crime fiction writers in decades. And in City on Fire, he’s written one of the most immersive, head-turning, heart-stopping crime family novels since The Godfather. It’s about loyalty, love, fraternity, family, belonging, betrayal, and survival. But no matter how epic its themes, it’s Winslow’s eye for the small, personal details that will sear these characters in your heart and in your memory.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.