Advertisement
BuzzFeed Best Books of 2022: A Reader's Guide to the Year's Must-Reads
Introduction:
2022 was a banner year for books! From gripping thrillers to heartwarming romances and thought-provoking non-fiction, there was something for everyone. But with so many incredible releases, how do you navigate the literary landscape and find the books truly worth your time? This comprehensive guide dives into BuzzFeed's best books of 2022, offering insightful reviews and summaries, helping you curate your perfect reading list for the year ahead (or to catch up on what you missed!). We’ll explore the diverse genres covered, highlighting the unique elements that made these titles stand out and resonate with readers and critics alike. Get ready to discover your next literary obsession!
BuzzFeed's Top Picks: A Genre-by-Genre Deep Dive
1. The Best Thrillers of 2022: Keeping You on the Edge of Your Seat
BuzzFeed highlighted several thrillers that captivated readers with their suspenseful plots and unforgettable characters. These books weren't just about shocking twists; they delved into complex themes of morality, betrayal, and the human psyche. We'll examine titles that masterfully blended psychological suspense with gripping action, leaving readers breathless until the very last page. Specific examples might include titles known for their unpredictable plot twists and well-developed characters. For example, a book might have successfully utilized unreliable narration to keep readers guessing, or a clever plot device that subverted expectations. We’ll analyze what made these thrillers stand out from the crowd and why they deserve a spot on your reading list.
2. Romance Novels That Will Steal Your Heart: From Sweet to Spicy
2022 offered a diverse range of romance novels, from heartwarming contemporary stories to steamy historical romances. BuzzFeed’s selections showcased the spectrum of this beloved genre, emphasizing emotional depth, compelling characters, and well-crafted narratives that went beyond simple tropes. We’ll delve into the elements that made these romances so captivating, exploring themes of love, loss, and self-discovery, and highlighting the unique writing styles that set them apart. We’ll focus on the books that transcended typical romance tropes, offering nuanced character development and exploring complex emotional landscapes. We might discuss the use of unique settings or the way the authors incorporated social commentary into their storylines.
3. Literary Fiction That Will Expand Your Mind: Exploring Complex Themes
BuzzFeed recognized the power of literary fiction to challenge, inspire, and provoke thought. These books weren't just entertaining; they were thought-provoking, delving into complex social issues and exploring the human condition in profound ways. We’ll analyze the narrative structures, character arcs, and thematic depth of these titles, highlighting the authors' masterful use of language and imagery. We’ll discuss how these books confronted readers with difficult truths and fostered intellectual engagement. Specific examples might include books that tackled societal inequalities, explored the impact of trauma, or challenged conventional narratives.
4. Fantasy and Sci-Fi Adventures: Escaping Reality with Imagination
2022 brought us a wave of captivating fantasy and science fiction novels that transported readers to fantastical worlds brimming with magic, adventure, and breathtaking landscapes. BuzzFeed's choices in this genre showcased both established authors and exciting newcomers, highlighting innovative world-building, compelling characters, and narratives that pushed the boundaries of the genre. We'll examine the elements that made these books so immersive and engaging, exploring the unique aspects of their worlds, magic systems, and character development. We will also look at how these works engaged with current socio-political themes, reflecting real-world issues through the lens of fantasy.
5. Memoirs and Non-Fiction That Will Change Your Perspective: Real Stories, Real Impact
BuzzFeed's selection of memoirs and non-fiction included impactful stories that resonated deeply with readers. These weren't just narratives; they were explorations of the human experience, shedding light on important social and political issues. We’ll analyze the storytelling techniques used, the power of personal narratives, and the impact of these works on the wider conversation. We'll discuss how these books shed light on underrepresented voices and perspectives, challenging readers to consider their own biases and assumptions. The analysis will focus on the books' overall impact and how they contributed to important discussions.
Book Deep Dive: "Example Title" by [Author's Name]
Introduction: Briefly introduce the book and its genre. Highlight its main premise and themes.
Main Chapters: Summarize the key plot points and character development. Analyze the writing style and narrative techniques used by the author. Discuss any significant themes or messages explored in the book.
Conclusion: Offer a final assessment of the book's strengths and weaknesses. Explain why it deserves a place on the BuzzFeed best books of 2022 list.
(This section would then be repeated for each book highlighted by BuzzFeed in their best-of list for 2022. Each deep dive would be approximately 200-300 words each.)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Where can I find the full BuzzFeed list of best books of 2022? You can usually find this list on the BuzzFeed website by searching "BuzzFeed best books 2022".
2. Are these books suitable for all ages? No, the suitability of these books varies by genre and content. Always check the age rating or content warnings before reading.
3. Can I borrow these books from my local library? Many libraries carry these titles, but availability may vary. Check your library’s online catalog.
4. Are e-book versions available? Most of the books on this list will be available as e-books through various retailers like Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, etc.
5. Which book from the list is the best for a beginner reader? This depends on the reader’s preferences. Consider the genre and themes to determine suitability.
6. Are there any audiobooks available? Many of the books are available as audiobooks through services like Audible, Spotify, and others.
7. What makes this list different from other "best of" lists? BuzzFeed's list is known for its broad appeal and inclusion of diverse genres and authors.
8. How were these books selected for the list? BuzzFeed's editorial team reviews and selects books based on factors like critical acclaim, reader reviews, and overall cultural impact.
9. Will BuzzFeed release a similar list for 2023? It's highly likely BuzzFeed will release a "best of" list for 2023 at the end of the year.
Related Articles:
1. Top 10 Mystery Novels of 2022: A deep dive into the best mysteries published last year.
2. The Best YA Fantasy Books of 2022: Exploring the best young adult fantasy novels of the year.
3. Romance Novels That Will Make You Cry: A curated list focusing on emotional and romantic novels.
4. The Must-Read Sci-Fi Books of 2022: A guide to the best science fiction novels from the year.
5. Best Historical Fiction Books of 2022: A review of compelling historical fiction titles.
6. Memoirs That Will Inspire You: A selection of inspirational memoirs and autobiographies.
7. Top Non-Fiction Books for Self-Improvement: Focuses on self-help and personal growth non-fiction books.
8. Best Thriller Books for Beginners: Introduces readers to easily accessible yet thrilling novels.
9. BuzzFeed's Best Books of All Time: A retrospective list of BuzzFeed's most beloved books across all years.
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy Megan Bannen, 2022-08-23 A uniquely charming mixture of whimsy and the macabre that completely won me over. If you ever wished for an adult romance that felt like Howl's Moving Castle, THIS IS THAT BOOK. —Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness. Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest. After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born. If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most—Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares—each other? Set in a world full of magic and demigods, donuts and small-town drama, this enchantingly quirky, utterly unique fantasy is perfect for readers of The House in the Cerulean Sea and The Invisible Library. Truly outstanding romantic fantasy. —India Holton An unabashedly offbeat adventure. —Freya Marske I cried twice and smiled plenty. —Olivia Atwater A little sweet, a little spicy, a little sharp and entirely moreish! —Davinia Evans I showed up for the fantastic, fun fantasy setting but it was Hart and Mercy that kept me reading. —Ruby Dixon |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: All This Could Be Different Sarah Thankam Mathews, 2022-08-02 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST ONE OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES' TOP 5 FICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR ONE OF TIME AND SLATE'S TOP 10 BOOKS OF THE YEAR Named one of the BEST BOOKS OF 2022 by NPR, Vogue, Vulture, BuzzFeed, Harper's Bazaar, and more “One of the buzziest, most human novels of the year…breathless, dizzying, and completely beautiful.” —Vogue “Dazzling and wholly original...[written] with such mordant wit, insight, and specificity, it feels like watching a new literary star being born in real time.” —Entertainment Weekly From a brilliant new voice comes an electrifying novel of a young immigrant building a life for herself—a warm, dazzling, and profound saga of queer love, friendship, work, and precarity in twenty-first century America Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She’s moved to Milwaukee for an entry-level corporate job that, grueling as it may be, is the key that unlocks every door: she can pick up the tab at dinner with her new friend Tig, get her college buddy Thom hired alongside her, and send money to her parents back in India. She begins dating women—soon developing a burning crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful dancer who always seems just out of reach. But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It’s then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all. A beautiful and capacious novel rendered in singular, unforgettable prose, All This Could Be Different is a wise, tender, and riveting group portrait of young people forging love and community amidst struggle, and a moving story of one immigrant’s journey to make her home in the world. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural Ryan Bergara, Shane Madej, BuzzFeed, 2022-09-06 Based off one of the most popular web series on the internet, Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej present BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural, 101 of the scariest, spookiest, and creepiest locations around the USA and a few abroad, with 50 percent brand-new content and locales exclusive to the book. Hey there, demons! BuzzFeed Unsolved Supernatural has entertained viewers over the course of seven spooky seasons, covering the supernatural and otherworldly spirits, to ghosts, ghouls, unexplained paranormal activity, and everything in between. In their thrilling debut book, cohosts Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara (lovingly known as the “ghoul boys” to fans) deep-dive into dozens of haunted locations around the USA and a few abroad, including subjects from some of their most favorite and talked about episodes, as well as brand-new locations not previously seen before on their show. As they explore the history behind haunted houses, creepy graveyards, former insane asylums, abandoned buildings, and horrifying hotels, Shane and Ryan use their trademark wit and humor to dissect each terrifying tale with their most hilarious highlights and biting commentary. So hold on to your hell-bound soul, boys and ghouls—it’s about to get demonic up in here. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Pop Song Larissa Pham, 2021-05-04 A warm and expansive portrait of a woman’s mind that feels at once singular and universal, this collection of essays interweaves commentary on modern life, feminism, art, and sex with the author's own experiences of obsession, heartbreak, and vulnerability (BuzzFeed). Like a song that feels written just for you, Larissa Pham's debut work of nonfiction captures the imagination and refuses to let go. Pop Song is a book about love and about falling in love—with a place, or a painting, or a person—and the joy and terror inherent in the experience of that love. Plumbing the well of culture for clues and patterns about love and loss—from Agnes Martin's abstract paintings to James Turrell's transcendent light works, and Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet to Frank Ocean's Blonde—Pham writes of her youthful attempts to find meaning in travel, sex, drugs, and art, before sensing that she might need to turn her gaze upon herself. Pop Song is also a book about distances, near and far. As she travels from Taos, New Mexico, to Shanghai, China and beyond, Pham meditates on the miles we are willing to cover to get away from ourselves, or those who hurt us, and the impossible gaps that can exist between two people sharing a bed. Pop Song is a book about all the routes by which we might escape our own needs before finally finding a way home. There is heartache in these pages, but Pham's electric ways of seeing create a perfectly fractured portrait of modern intimacy that is triumphant in both its vulnerability and restlessness. Each of the essays in this debut collection reads like a mini-memoir . . . in which the author reflects on her experiences of young love, trauma, and transcendence through discussions of art and music . . . with an intimacy that is at once tender and expansive. —New York magazine |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The American Roommate Experiment Elena Armas, 2022-09-06 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Cosmopolitan, Goodreads, PopSugar, and more! From the author of the Goodreads Choice Award winner The Spanish Love Deception, the eagerly anticipated follow-up featuring Rosie Graham and Lucas Martín, who are forced to share a New York apartment. Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then, the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who Rosie has been stalking—for lack of a better word—on Instagram for the last few months. Lucas seems intent on coming to her rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. Only this one strolls around the place in a towel, has a distracting grin, and an irresistible accent. Oh, and he cooks. Lucas offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration. Rosie has nothing to lose. Her silly, online crush is totally under control—but Lucas’s time in New York has an expiration date, and six weeks may not be enough, for either her or her deadline. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Must Love Books Shauna Robinson, 2022-01-18 A heartfelt and exciting debut...a wise and honest story of how it feels to be a young woman in search of yourself.—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Malibu Rising The Bookish Life of Nina Hill meets Younger in a heartfelt debut following a young woman who discovers she'll have to ditch the dream job and write her own story to find her happy ending. Meet Nora Hughes—the overworked, underpaid, last bookish assistant standing. At least for now. When Nora landed an editorial assistant position at Parsons Press, it was her first step towards The Dream Job. Because, honestly, is there anything dreamier than making books for a living? But after five years of lunch orders, finicky authors, and per my last emails, Nora has come to one grand conclusion: Dream Jobs do not exist. With her life spiraling and the Parsons staff sinking, Nora gets hit with even worse news. Parsons is cutting her already unlivable salary. Unable to afford her rent and without even the novels she once loved as a comfort, Nora decides to moonlight for a rival publisher to make ends meet...and maybe poach some Parsons' authors along the way. But when Andrew Santos, a bestselling Parsons author no one can afford to lose is thrown into the mix, Nora has to decide where her loyalties lie. Her new Dream Job, ever-optimistic Andrew, or...herself and her future. Your next book club read touching on mental health, happiness, and the peaks and perils of being a young woman just trying to figure it all out. Nora Hughes is the perfect heroine for anyone looking to get past their own chapter twenty-something and build their storybook life. A tender reflection on finding your person while you're still desperately searching for yourself.—KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicken Sisters A book for book lovers... It's impossible not to root for Nora!—Jesse Q. Sutanto, National Bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Disfigured Amanda Leduc, 2020-02-11 A CBC BOOKS BEST NONFICTION OF 2020 AN ENTROPY MAGAZINE BEST NONFICTION 2020/21 A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK OF THE DAY (07/23/2022) Fairy tales shape how we see the world, so what happens when you identify more with the Beast than Beauty? If every disabled character is mocked and mistreated, how does the Beast ever imagine a happily-ever-after? Amanda Leduc looks at fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm to Disney, showing us how they influence our expectations and behaviour and linking the quest for disability rights to new kinds of stories that celebrate difference. Historically we have associated the disabled body image and disabled life with an unhappy ending” – Sue Carter, Toronto Star Leduc persuasively illustrates the power of stories to affect reality in this painstakingly researched and provocative study that invites us to consider our favorite folktales from another angle. – Sara Shreve, Library Journal She [Leduc] argues that template is how society continues to treat the disabled: rather than making the world accessible for everyone, the disabled are often asked to adapt to inaccessible environments. – Ryan Porter, Quill & Quire Read this smart, tenacious book. – The Washington Post A brilliant young critic named Amanda Leduc explores this pernicious power of language in her new book, Disfigured … Leduc follows the bread crumbs back into her original experience with fairy tales – and then explores their residual effects … Read this smart, tenacious book. – The Washington Post Leduc investigates the intersection between disability and her beloved fairy tales, questioning the constructs of these stories and where her place is, as a disabled woman, among those narratives. – The Globe and Mail It gave me goosebumps as I read, to see so many of my unexpressed, half-formed thoughts in print. My highlighter got a good workout. – BookRiot Disfigured is not just an eye-opener when it comes to the Disney princess crew and the Marvel universe – this thin volume provides the tools to change how readers engage with other kinds of popular media, from horror films to fashion magazines to outdated sitcom jokes. – Quill & Quire “It’s an essential read for anyone who loves fairy tales.” – Buzzfeed Books Leduc makes one thing clear and beautifully so – fairy tales are fundamentally fantastic, but that doesn’t mean that they are beyond reproach in their depiction of real issues and identities. – Shrapnel Magazine As Leduc takes us through these fairy tales and the space they occupy in the narratives that we construct, she slowly unfolds a call-to-action: the claiming of space for disability in storytelling. – The Globe and Mail A provocative beginning to a thoughtful and wide-ranging book, one which explores some of the most primal stories readers have encountered and prompts them to ponder the subtext situated there all along. – LitHub a poignant and informative account of how the stories we tell shape our collective understanding of one another.” – BookMarks What happens when we allow disabled writers to tell stories of disability within fairytales and in magical and supernatural settings? It is a reimagining of the fairytale canon we need. Leduc dares to dream of a world that most stories envision is unattainable. – Bitch Media |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Elatsoe Darcie Little Badger, 2020-08-25 A National Indie Bestseller TIME's Best 100 Fantasy Books of All Time An NPR Best Book of 2020 A Booklist's Top 10 First Novel for Youth A BookPage Best Book of 2020 A CPL Best of the Best Book A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2020 A Buzzfeed Best YA SFF Book of 2020 A Shelf Awareness Best Book of 2020 An AICL Best YA Book of 2020 A Kirkus Best YA Book of 2020 A Tor Best Book of 2020 PRAISE Groundbreaking. —TIME Deeply enjoyable from start to finish. —NPR Utterly magical. —SyFyWire Atmospheric and lyrical...a gorgeous work of art. —BuzzFeed One of the best YA debuts of 2020. Read it. —Marieke Nijkamp FIVE STARRED REVIEWS ★ A fresh voice and perspective. —Booklist, starred review ★ A unique and powerful Native American voice. —BookPage, starred review ★ A brilliant, engaging debut. —Kirkus Reviews, starred review ★ A fast-paced murder mystery. —Publishers Weekly, starred review ★ A Lipan Apache Sookie Stackhouse for the teen set. —Shelf-Awareness, starred review A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin's ghost and vows to unmask the murderer. Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals—most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered. Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started? A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: All the Things We Don't Talk About Amy Feltman, 2022-05-24 A “big-hearted, lively, and expansive portrait of a family” that follows a neurodivergent father, his nonbinary teenager, and the sudden, catastrophic reappearance of the woman who abandoned them (Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author). Morgan Flowers just wants to hide. Raised by their neurodivergent father, Morgan has grown up haunted by the absence of their mysterious mother Zoe, especially now, as they navigate their gender identity and the turmoil of first love. Their father Julian has raised Morgan with care, but he can’t quite fill the gap left by the dazzling and destructive Zoe, who fled to Europe on Morgan’s first birthday. And when Zoe is dumped by her girlfriend Brigid, she suddenly comes crashing back into Morgan and Julian’s lives, poised to disrupt the fragile peace they have so carefully cultivated. Through it all, Julian and Brigid have become unlikely pen-pals and friends, united by the knowledge of what it’s like to love and lose Zoe; they both know that she hasn’t changed. Despite the red flags, Morgan is swiftly drawn into Zoe’s glittering orbit and into a series of harmful missteps, and Brigid may be the only link that can pull them back from the edge. A story of betrayal and trauma alongside queer love and resilience, ALL THE THINGS WE DON’T TALK ABOUT is a celebration of and a reckoning with the power and unintentional pain of a thoroughly modern family. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English Noor Naga, 2022-04-12 Winner of the 2022 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize Winner of the 2023 Arab American Book Award for Fiction Shortlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize Shortlisted for the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Shortlisted for the 2022 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award Winner of the Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize, a lush experimental novel about love as a weapon of empire. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, an Egyptian American woman and a man from the village of Shobrakheit meet at a café in Cairo. He was a photographer of the revolution, but now finds himself unemployed and addicted to cocaine, living in a rooftop shack. She is a nostalgic daughter of immigrants “returning” to a country she’s never been to before, teaching English and living in a light-filled flat with balconies on all sides. They fall in love and he moves in. But soon their desire—for one another, for the selves they want to become through the other—takes a violent turn that neither of them expected. A dark romance exposing the gaps in American identity politics, especially when exported overseas, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English is at once ravishing and wry, scathing and tender. Told in alternating perspectives, Noor Naga’s experimental debut examines the ethics of fetishizing the homeland and punishing the beloved . . . and vice versa. In our globalized twenty-first-century world, what are the new faces (and races) of empire? When the revolution fails, how long can someone survive the disappointment? Who suffers and, more crucially, who gets to tell about it? |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: American Betiya Anuradha D. Rajurkar, 2021-03-09 A luminous story of a young artist grappling with first love, family boundaries and the complications of a cross-cultural relationship. Perfect for fans of Sandhya Menon, Erika Sanchez and Jandy Nelson. Rani Kelkar has never lied to her parents, until she meets Oliver. The same qualities that draw her in--his tattoos, his charisma, his passion for art--make him her mother's worst nightmare. They begin dating in secret, but when Oliver's troubled home life unravels, he starts to ask more of Rani than she knows how to give, desperately trying to fit into her world, no matter how high the cost. When a twist of fate leads Rani from Evanston, Illinois to Pune, India for a summer, she has a reckoning with herself--and what's really brewing beneath the surface of her first love. Winner of SCBWI's Emerging Voices award, Anuradha D. Rajurkar takes an honest look at the ways cultures can clash in an interracial relationship. Braiding together themes of sexuality, artistic expression, and appropriation, she gives voice to a girl claiming ownership of her identity, one shattered stereotype at a time. A brave, beautiful exploration of identity--those thrust upon us, and those we forge for ourselves. --Elana K. Arnold, award-winning author of What Girls Are Made Of |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: A Scatter of Light Malinda Lo, 2022-10-04 “Full of yearning, ponderances about art and what it means to be an artist, and self-revelation, A Scatter of Light has a simmering intensity that makes it hard to put down.—NPR An Instant New York Times Bestseller Last Night at the Telegraph Club author Malinda Lo returns to the Bay Area with another masterful queer coming-of-age story, this time set against the backdrop of the first major Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage. Aria Tang West was looking forward to a summer on Martha’s Vineyard with her best friends—one last round of sand and sun before college. But after a graduation party goes wrong, Aria’s parents exile her to California to stay with her grandmother, artist Joan West. Aria expects boredom, but what she finds is Steph Nichols, her grandmother’s gardener. Soon, Aria is second-guessing who she is and what she wants to be, and a summer that once seemed lost becomes unforgettable—for Aria, her family, and the working-class queer community Steph introduces her to. It’s the kind of summer that changes a life forever. And almost sixty years after the end of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, A Scatter of Light also offers a glimpse into Lily and Kath’s lives since 1955. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Sally's Baking Addiction Sally McKenney, 2016-10-11 Updated with a brand-new selection of desserts and treats, the fully illustrated Sally's Baking Addiction cookbook offers more than 80 scrumptious recipes for indulging your sweet tooth—featuring a chapter of healthier dessert options, including some vegan and gluten-free recipes. It's no secret that Sally McKenney loves to bake. Her popular blog, Sally's Baking Addiction, has become a trusted source for fellow dessert lovers who are also eager to bake from scratch. Sally's famous recipes include award-winning Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies, No-Bake Peanut Butter Banana Pie, delectable Dark Chocolate Butterscotch Cupcakes, and yummy Marshmallow Swirl S'mores Fudge. Find tried-and-true sweet recipes for all kinds of delicious: Breads & Muffins Breakfasts Brownies & Bars Cakes, Pies & Crisps Candy & Sweet Snacks Cookies Cupcakes Healthier Choices With tons of simple, easy-to-follow recipes, you get all of the sweet with none of the fuss! Hungry for more? Learn to create even more irresistible sweets with Sally’s Candy Addiction and Sally’s Cookie Addiction. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Palmares Gayl Jones, 2021-09-14 2022 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction A NPR BOOKS WE LOVE 2021 Selection A New York Times “Biggest New Books Coming Out in September” Selection · A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice Pick · A Guardian “50 Biggest Books of Autumn 2021” Selection · An Esquire “Best Books of Fall 2021” Selection · A Buzzfeed “Best Books Coming Out This Fall” Selection · A Bustle “Most Anticipated Books of September 2021” Selection · A LitHub “22 Novels You Need to Read This Fall” Selection · A Kirkus Reviews “16 Best Books to Read in September” Selection · A Root September “PageTurner” “This story shimmers. Shakes. Wails. Moves to rhythms long forgotten . . . in many ways: holy. [A] masterpiece.”—The New York Times Book Review The epic rendering of a Black woman’s journey through slavery and liberation, set in 17th-century colonial Brazil; the return of a major voice in American literature. First discovered and edited by Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones has been described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century. Now, for the first time in over 20 years, Jones is ready to publish again. Palmares is the first of five new works by Gayl Jones to be published in the next two years, rewarding longtime fans and bringing her talent to a new generation of readers. Intricate and compelling, Palmares recounts the journey of Almeyda, a Black slave girl who comes of age on Portuguese plantations and escapes to a fugitive slave settlement called Palmares. Following its destruction, Almeyda embarks on a journey across colonial Brazil to find her husband, lost in battle. Her story brings to life a world impacted by greed, conquest, and colonial desire. She encounters a mad lexicographer, desperate to avoid military service; a village that praises a god living in a nearby cave; and a medicine woman who offers great magic, at a greater price. Combining the author’s mastery of language and voice with her unique brand of mythology and magical realism, Jones reimagines the historical novel. The result is a sweeping saga spanning a quarter century, with vibrant settings and unforgettable characters, steeped in the rich oral tradition of its world. Of Gayl Jones, the New Yorker noted, “[Her] great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them.” Like nothing else before it, Palmares embodies this gift. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: These Deadly Games Diana Urban, 2022-02-01 A propulsive mystery with high stakes and devious, masterful twists that will leave you guessing until the very last page. Diana Urban's latest had my jaw on the floor. —Jessica Goodman, bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us Let’s play a game. You have 24 hours to win. If you break my rules, she dies. If you call the police, she dies. If you tell your parents or anyone else, she dies. Are you ready? When Crystal Donavan gets a message on a mysterious app with a picture of her little sister gagged and bound, she agrees to play the kidnapper’s game. At first, they make her complete bizarre tasks: steal a test and stuff it in a locker, bake brownies, make a prank call. But then Crystal realizes that each task is meant to hurt—and kill—her friends, one by one. But if she refuses to play, the kidnapper will kill her sister. Is someone trying to take her team out of the running for a gaming tournament? Or have they uncovered a secret from their past, and wants them to pay for what they did... Author of All Your Twisted Secrets, Diana Urban’s explosive sophomore novel, These Deadly Games, is a must-read, propulsive YA thriller with deadly stakes, stunning twists, and a shocking ending you'll never forget—perfect for fans of I Know What You Did Last Summer and One of Us Is Lying. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Zyla & Kai Kristina Forest, 2022-06-07 A fresh love story about the will they, won't they—and why can't they—of first love. While on a school trip to the Poconos Mountains (in the middle of a storm) high school seniors, Zyla Matthews and Kai Johnson, run away together leaving their friends and family confused. As far as everyone knows, Zyla and Kai have been broken up for months. And honestly? Their break up hadn't surprised anyone. Zyla and Kai met while working together at an amusement park the previous summer, and they couldn't have been more different. Zyla was a cynic about love. She'd witnessed the dissolution of her parents' marriage early in life, and it left an indelible impression. Her only aim was graduating and going to fashion school abroad. Until she met Kai. Kai was a serial dater and a hopeless romantic. He'd put a temporary pause on his dating life before senior year to focus on school and getting into his dream HBCU. Until he met Zyla. Alternating between the past and present, we see the love story unfold from Zyla's and Kai's perspectives: how they first became the unlikeliest of friends over the summer, how they fell in love during the school year, and why they ultimately broke up... Or did they? Romantic, heart-stirring, and a little mysterious, Zyla & Kai will keep readers guessing until the last chapter. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Fiona and Jane Jean Chen Ho, 2022-01-04 A TIME, NPR, VOGUE, OPRAH DAILY, AND VULTURE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (SO FAR) One of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022 “Ho's debut work is the perfect modern example of great American fiction. . . . You will love it.” —Jake Tapper “Intimate, cinematic. . . . The world Ho creates between the two women feels like one friend reading the other’s story, wishing she were there.” —The New York Times Book Review “[Fiona and Jane] is about an incredible lifelong friendship between two Asian American women growing up in Southern California—absolutely adored that book.” —Ailsa Chang, NPR’s “All Things Considered” “Intricately rendered. . . . Fiona and Jane celebrates a woman’s ability to be late, to show up in their own lives when and where they want to, to change their minds, to be lonely and to be in love, and to be respected regardless.” —The Washington Post A witty, warm, and irreverent book that traces the lives of two young Taiwanese American women as they navigate friendship, sexuality, identity, and heartbreak over two decades. Best friends since second grade, Fiona Lin and Jane Shen explore the lonely freeways and seedy bars of Los Angeles together through their teenage years, surviving unfulfilling romantic encounters, and carrying with them the scars of their families' tumultuous pasts. Fiona was always destined to leave, her effortless beauty burnished by fierce ambition—qualities that Jane admired and feared in equal measure. When Fiona moves to New York and cares for a sick friend through a breakup with an opportunistic boyfriend, Jane remains in California and grieves her estranged father's sudden death, in the process alienating an overzealous girlfriend. Strained by distance and unintended betrayals, the women float in and out of each other's lives, their friendship both a beacon of home and a reminder of all they've lost. In stories told in alternating voices, Jean Chen Ho's debut collection peels back the layers of female friendship—the intensity, resentment, and boundless love—to probe the beating hearts of young women coming to terms with themselves, and each other, in light of the insecurities and shame that holds them back. Spanning countries and selves, Fiona and Jane is an intimate portrait of a friendship, a deep dive into the universal perplexities of being young and alive, and a bracingly honest account of two Asian women who dare to stake a claim on joy in a changing, contemporary America. NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2022 BY VOGUE * USA TODAY * TIME * OPRAH DAILY * PARADE * THE WASHINGTON POST * BUZZFEED * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING * MARIE CLAIRE * FORTUNE * GLAMOUR * W MAGAZINE * NYLON * BUSTLE * POPSUGAR * ELECTRIC LITERATURE * THE RUMPUS * DEBUTIFUL * AND MORE! |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Before We Were Strangers Renée Carlino, 2015-08-18 From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: High-Risk Homosexual Edgar Gomez, 2022-01-11 *Winner of the American Book Award* *Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir/Biography* An Honor Book for the 2023 Stonewall Book Award—Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Book Award This witty memoir traces a touching and often hilarious spiralic path to embracing a gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo—from a cockfighting ring in Nicaragua to cities across the U.S.—and the bath houses, night clubs, and drag queens who help redefine pride I’ve always found the definition of machismo to be ironic, considering that pride is a word almost unanimously associated with queer people, the enemy of machistas . . . In a world desperate to erase us, queer Latinx men must find ways to hold on to pride for survival, but excessive male pride is often what we are battling, both in ourselves and in others. A debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx man, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Edgar Gomez’s uncle’s cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was sent at thirteen years old to become a man. Readers follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love being gay and Latinx, including Pulse nightclub in Orlando, a drag queen convention in Los Angeles, and the doctor’s office where he was diagnosed a “high-risk homosexual.” With vulnerability, humor, and quick-witted insights into racial, sexual, familial, and professional power dynamics, Gomez shares a hard-won path to taking pride in the parts of himself he was taught to keep hidden. His story is a scintillating, beautiful reminder of the importance of leaving space for joy. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Greedy: Notes from a Bisexual Who Wants Too Much Jen Winston, 2021-10-05 Named one of the Best Books of 2021 by Oprah Daily, Glamour, Shondaland, BuzzFeed, and more! A hilarious and whip-smart collection of essays, offering an intimate look at bisexuality, gender, and, of course, sex. Perfect for fans of Lindy West, Samantha Irby, and Rebecca Solnit—and anyone who wants, and deserves, to be seen. If Jen Winston knows one thing for sure, it’s that she’s bisexual. Or wait—maybe she isn’t? Actually, she definitely is. Unless…she’s not? Jen’s provocative, laugh-out-loud debut takes us inside her journey of self-discovery, leading us through stories of a childhood “girl crush,” an onerous quest to have a threesome, and an enduring fear of being bad at sex. Greedy follows Jen’s attempts to make sense of herself as she explores the role of the male gaze, what it means to be “queer enough,” and how to overcome bi stereotypes when you’re the posterchild for all of them: greedy, slutty, and constantly confused. With her clever voice and clear-eyed insight, Jen draws on personal experiences with sexism and biphobia to understand how we all can and must do better. She sheds light on the reasons women, queer people, and other marginalized groups tend to make ourselves smaller, provoking the question: What would happen if we suddenly stopped? Greedy shows us that being bisexual is about so much more than who you’re sleeping with—it’s about finding stability in a state of flux and defining yourself on your own terms. This book inspires us to rethink the world as we know it, reminding us that Greedy was a superpower all along. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The Wild Hunt Emma Seckel, 2022-08-02 A BuzzFeed Best Historical Fiction Book of Summer and Best Book of August Lit Hub Best Book of Summer and a Tor Best Horror Book of the Month A Crime Reads' and Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year A transporting, otherworldly debut of a young woman’s fated return to a wind-battered island off the coast of Scotland, and the dark forces—old and new—that she finds there. The islanders have only three rules: don’t stick your nose where it’s not wanted, don’t mention the war, and never let your guard down during October. Leigh Welles has not set foot on the island in years, but when she finds herself called home from life on the Scottish mainland by her father’s unexpected death, she is determined to forget the sorrows of the past—her mother’s abandonment, her brother’s icy distance, the unspeakable tragedy of World War II—and start fresh. Fellow islander Iain MacTavish, an RAF veteran with his eyes on the sky and his head in the past, is also in desperate need of a new beginning. A young widower, Iain struggles to return to the normal life he knew before the war. But this October is anything but normal. This October, the sluagh are restless. The ominous, birdlike creatures of Celtic legend—whispered to carry the souls of the dead—have haunted the islanders for decades, but in the war’s wake, there are more wandering souls and more sluagh. When a young man disappears, Leigh and Iain are thrown together to investigate the truth at the island’s dark heart and reveal hidden secrets of their own. Rich with historical detail, a skillful speculative edge, and a deep imagination, Emma Seckel’s propulsive and transporting debut The Wild Hunt unwinds long-held tales of love, loss, and redemption. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: A Novel Obsession Caitlin Barasch, 2022-03-15 A Good Morning America Buzz Pick, and A Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by BuzzFeed, The Millions, Goodreads, Bustle, BookRiot, and The Nerd Daily If you’ve ever felt tempted to ‘keep tabs on’ a partner’s ex on Instagram and then found yourself down a rabbit hole of their vacation posts from three years ago, this debut novel—which follows a 24-year-old New Yorker named Naomi who becomes obsessed with her boyfriend’s former girlfriend—is for you.—Vogue, “Best New Beach Reads” Twenty-four-year-old New York bookseller Naomi Ackerman is desperate to write a novel, but struggles to find a story to tell. When, after countless disastrous dates, she meets Caleb—a perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all her quirks—she thinks she's finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. Then Caleb's ex-girlfriend, Rosemary, enters the scene. Upon learning that Rosemary is not safely tucked away in Caleb’s homeland overseas, but in fact lives in New York and also works in the literary world, Naomi is threatened and intrigued in equal measure. If they both fell for the same man, what else might they have in common? The more Naomi learns about Rosemary, the more her curiosity consumes her. Before she knows it, her casual Instagram stalking morphs into a friendship under false pretenses—and becomes the subject of her nascent novel. As her lies and half-truths spiral out of control, and fact and fiction become increasingly difficult to untangle, Naomi must decide what—and who—she’s willing to sacrifice to write the perfect ending. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The Shadow in the Moon Christina Matula, 2018-07-17 A unique blend of traditional folklore and contemporary customs brings the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival to life. Two sisters and their grandmother celebrate a popular Chinese holiday with family. Their favorite part? Mooncakes, of course--along with Ah-ma's story of the ancient Chinese tale of Hou Yi, a brave young archer, and his wife, Chang'E. A long, long time ago, Hou Yi rescued the earth from the heat of ten suns. The Immortals rewarded him with a magic potion that could let him live in the sky with them forever. But when a thief tries to steal the potion, what will Chang'E do to keep it out of dangerous hands? The sisters are mesmerized by Ah-ma's retelling and the fact that the very mooncakes they enjoy each holiday are a symbol of this legend's bravest soul. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: 100 Boyfriends Brontez Purnell, 2021-02-02 Winner of the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize. One of Buzzfeed's Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2021, NBC's 10 Most Notable LGBTQ Books of 2021, and Pink News' Best LGBTQ Books of 2021. This hurricane of delirious, lonely, lewd tales is a taxonomy and grand unified theory of the boyfriend, in every tense. —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times I loved this book—raunchy, irreverent, deliberate, sexy, angry, and tender, in its own way. —Roxane Gay An irrerverent, sensitive, and inimitable look at gay dysfunction through the eyes of a cult hero Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure—from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama—Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it—or perhaps because of it—they shine. Armed with a deadpan wit, Purnell finds humor in even the darkest of nadirs with the peerless zeal, insight, and horniness of a gay punk messiah. Together, the slice-of-life tales that writhe within 100 Boyfriends are an inimitable tour of an unexposed queer underbelly. Holding them together is the vision of an iconoclastic storyteller, as fearless as he is human. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Siren Queen Nghi Vo, 2022-05-10 Lyrical, mesmerizing, and otherworldly. . . stunning proof that Nghi Vo is one of the most original writers we have today. A beautiful, brutal, monstrous Hollywood fantasy.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo Immortality is just a casting call away. Locus Award Finalist An Amazon Best Book of 2022 One of NPR’s Best Books of 2022 Vulture’s #1 Fantasy Novel of 2022 Best of Year Selections at Apple Books | B&N Booksellers | LibraryReads | TIME Magazine | Oprah Daily | The Philadelphia Inquirer | Publishers Weekly | Buzzfeed | Chicago Review of Books | LitHub | Book Riot | Paste Magazine | Geek Girl Authority | Bookish | The Mary Sue | New York Public Library | Vulture | Locus Recommended Reading List | Kobo | The Quill to Live | L. A. Public Library | Audible | Amazon | NPR An Indie Next and LibraryReads Pick A Brooklyn Library Prize Finalist It was magic. In every world, it was a kind of magic. “No maids, no funny talking, no fainting flowers.” Luli Wei is beautiful, talented, and desperate to be a star. Coming of age in pre-Code Hollywood, she knows how dangerous the movie business is and how limited the roles are for a Chinese American girl from Hungarian Hill—but she doesn't care. She’d rather play a monster than a maid. But in Luli's world, the worst monsters in Hollywood are not the ones on screen. The studios want to own everything from her face to her name to the women she loves, and they run on a system of bargains made in blood and ancient magic, powered by the endless sacrifice of unlucky starlets like her. For those who do survive to earn their fame, success comes with a steep price. Luli is willing to do whatever it takes—even if that means becoming the monster herself. Siren Queen offers up an enthralling exploration of an outsider achieving stardom on her own terms, in a fantastical Hollywood where the monsters are real and the magic of the silver screen illuminates every page. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: An Arrow to the Moon Emily X.R. Pan, 2022-04-12 Romeo and Juliet meets Chinese mythology in this magical novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Astonishing Color of After. Hunter Yee has perfect aim with a bow and arrow, but all else in his life veers wrong. He’s sick of being haunted by his family’s past mistakes. The only things keeping him from running away are his little brother, a supernatural wind, and the bewitching girl at his new high school. Luna Chang dreads the future. Graduation looms ahead, and her parents’ expectations are stifling. When she begins to break the rules, she finds her life upended by the strange new boy in her class, the arrival of unearthly fireflies, and an ominous crack spreading across the town of Fairbridge. As Hunter and Luna navigate their families’ enmity and secrets, everything around them begins to fall apart. All they can depend on is their love…but time is running out, and fate will have its way. An Arrow to the Moon, Emily X.R. Pan’s brilliant and ethereal follow-up to The Astonishing Color of After, is a story about family, love, and the magic and mystery of the moon that connects us all. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: One for All Lillie Lainoff, 2022-03-08 “There are no limits to the will—and the strength—of this unique female hero.” —Tamora Pierce, writer of the Song of the Lioness and the Protector of the Small quartets One for All is a gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love. Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion. Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for new Musketeers: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a sword fight. With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels that she has a purpose, that she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming—and might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to decide where her loyalties lie...or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted. Lillie Lainoff's debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love. Includes an author's note about her personal experience with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Belzhar Meg Wolitzer, 2014-10-09 I was sent here because of a boy. His name was Reeve Maxfield, and I loved him and then he died, and almost a year passed and no one knew what to do with me. A group of emotionally fragile, highly intelligent teenagers gather at a therapeutic boarding school where they are mysteriously picked for 'Special Topics in English'. Here, they are tasked with studying Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jarand keeping a journal. Each time the teens write in their diaries they are transported to a miraculous other world called Belzhar, a world where they are no longer haunted by their trauma and grief - and each begins to tell their own story. From internationally bestselling author Meg Wolitzer, and published by John Green's editor, Belzharis a breathtaking and surprising story about first love, deep sorrow, and the power of acceptance. Entertainment Weekly's YA book of 2014 TIME Magazine's Top Ten YA of 2014 Kobo's best of 2014 Amazon's best books of 2014 'A story about what it means to lose someone, or something, you love. Twice.' Kirkus Reviews 'A welcome attack on continuing to live in the past at the expense of the present…Dry humour accompanies each journey in this readable novel, already selling well in America and deservedly so' Independent 'Breathtaking' Glamourmagazine 'Wolitzer has imagined a world for young readers that celebrates the sacred, transcendent power of reading and writing' New York Times 'An engaging fable about literature's healing power'Financial Times |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The Town of Babylon Alejandro Varela, 2022-03-22 A FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 – Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, LitHub, Electric Literature, LGBTQ Reads, Latinx in Publishing *Recommended by The New York Times* In this contemporary debut novel—an intimate portrait of queer, racial, and class identity —Andrés, a gay Latinx professor, returns to his suburban hometown in the wake of his husband’s infidelity. There he finds himself with no excuse not to attend his twenty-year high school reunion, and hesitantly begins to reconnect with people he used to call friends. Over the next few weeks, while caring for his aging parents and navigating the neighborhood where he grew up, Andrés falls into old habits with friends he thought he’d left behind. Before long, he unexpectedly becomes entangled with his first love and is forced to tend to past wounds. Captivating and poignant; a modern coming-of-age story about the essential nature of community, The Town of Babylon is a page-turning novel about young love and a close examination of our social systems and the toll they take when they fail us. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Buffalo Is the New Buffalo Chelsea Vowel, 2022-06-07 “Education is the new buffalo” is a metaphor widely used among Indigenous peoples in Canada to signify the importance of education to their survival and ability to support themselves, as once Plains nations supported themselves as buffalo peoples. The assumption is that many of the pre-Contact ways of living are forever gone, so adaptation is necessary. But Chelsea Vowel asks, “Instead of accepting that the buffalo, and our ancestral ways, will never come back, what if we simply ensure that they do?” Inspired by classic and contemporary speculative fiction, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo explores science fiction tropes through a Métis lens: a Two-Spirit rougarou (shapeshifter) in the nineteenth century tries to solve a murder in her community and joins the nêhiyaw-pwat (Iron Confederacy) in order to successfully stop Canadian colonial expansion into the West. A Métis man is gored by a radioactive bison, gaining super strength, but losing the ability to be remembered by anyone not related to him by blood. Nanites babble to babies in Cree, virtual reality teaches transformation, foxes take human form and wreak havoc on hearts, buffalo roam free, and beings grapple with the thorny problem of healing from colonialism. Indigenous futurisms seek to discover the impact of colonization, remove its psychological baggage, and recover ancestral traditions. These eight short stories of “Métis futurism” explore Indigenous existence and resistance through the specific lens of being Métis. Expansive and eye-opening, Buffalo Is the New Buffalo rewrites our shared history in provocative and exciting ways. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter Scaachi Koul, 2017-03-07 **National Bestseller **A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice **A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2017 **A National Post Best Book of 2017 **A CBC Best Book of 2017 **An Amazon Best Book of 2017 **A Popsugar Best Book of 2017 **A Kobo Best Book of 2017 **An NPR Best Book of 2017 **A Chatelaine Best Book of 2017 **A Buzzfeed Best Book of 2017 **A Book Riot Best Book of 2017 **A Chicago Review of Books Best Book of 2017 **A Paste Best Book of 2017 **An Amazon Best Humour and Entertainment Book of 2017 **Finalist for the 2018 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize **Finalist for the 2018 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour **Nominated for the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award For readers of Mindy Kaling, Jenny Lawson and Roxane Gay, a debut collection of fierce and funny essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, a land of ice and casual racism, by the irreverent, hilarious cultural observer and incomparable rising star, Scaachi Koul. In One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi deploys her razor-sharp humour to share her fears, outrages and mortifying experiences as an outsider growing up in Canada. Her subjects range from shaving her knuckles in grade school, to a shopping trip gone horribly awry, to dealing with internet trolls, to feeling out of place at an Indian wedding (as an Indian woman), to parsing the trajectory of fears and anxieties that pressed upon her immigrant parents and bled down a generation. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of colour, where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision or outright scorn. Where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, forcing her to confront questions about gender dynamics, racial tensions, ethnic stereotypes and her father’s creeping mortality—all as she tries to find her feet in the world. With a clear eye and biting wit, Scaachi Koul explores the absurdity of a life steeped in misery. And through these intimate, wise and laugh-out-loud funny dispatches, a portrait of a bright new literary voice emerges. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera, 2017-09-05 Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day. #1 New York Times bestseller * 4 starred reviews * A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Editors' Choice * A Bustle Best YA Novel * A Paste Magazine Best YA Book * A Book Riot Best Queer Book * A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of the Year * A BookPage Best YA Book of the Year On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day. In the tradition of Before I Fall and If I Stay, They Both Die at the End is a tour de force from acclaimed author Adam Silvera, whose debut, More Happy Than Not, the New York Times called “profound.” Plus don't miss The First to Die at the End: #1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Silvera returns to the universe of international phenomenon They Both Die at the End in this prequel. New star-crossed lovers are put to the test on the first day of Death-Cast’s fateful calls. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The Parted Earth Anjali Enjeti, 2022-04-05 Spanning more than half a century and cities from New Delhi to Atlanta, Anjali Enjeti's debut is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow of the Partition of India on the lives of three generations of women. The story begins in August 1947. Unrest plagues the streets of New Delhi leading up to the birth of the Muslim majority nation of Pakistan, and the Hindu majority nation of India. Sixteen-year-old Deepa navigates the changing politics of her home, finding solace in messages of intricate origami from her secret boyfriend Amir. Soon Amir flees with his family to Pakistan and a tragedy forces Deepa to leave the subcontinent forever. The story also begins sixty years later and half a world away, in Atlanta. While grieving both a pregnancy loss and the implosion of her marriage, Deepa's granddaughter Shan begins the search for her estranged grandmother, a prickly woman who had little interest in knowing her. As she pieces together her family history shattered by the Partition, Shan discovers how little she actually knows about the women in her family and what they endured. For readers of Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins, The Parted Earth follows Shan on her search for identity after loss uproots her life. Above all, it is a novel about families weathering the lasting violence of separation, and how it can often takes a lifetime to find unity and peace. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Khabaar Madhushree Ghosh, 2022-04-04 Khabaar is a food memoir/narrative braiding global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration and indenture focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners asking the simple question of what it means to belong, and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country. This question is braided into the author's own immigration journey as a daughter of refugees to America, as a woman of color in science, a woman who left an abusive marriage and a woman who keeps her parents' memory alive through her Bengali food-- |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Sirens & Muses Antonia Angress, 2023-07-11 Four artists are drawn into a web of rivalry and desire at an elite art school and on the streets of New York in this “gripping, provocative, and supremely entertaining” (BuzzFeed) debut “Captures the ache-inducing quality of art and desire . . . a deeply relatable and profoundly enjoyable read, one drenched in prismatic color and light.”—Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of With Teeth FINALIST FOR THE MINNESOTA BOOK AWARD • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Glamour, PopSugar, Debutiful It’s 2011: America is in a deep recession and Occupy Wall Street is escalating. But at the elite Wrynn College of Art, students paint and sculpt in a rarefied bubble. Louisa Arceneaux is a thoughtful, observant nineteen-year-old when she transfers to Wrynn as a scholarship student, but she soon finds herself adrift in an environment that prizes novelty over beauty. Complicating matters is Louisa’s unexpected attraction to her charismatic roommate, Karina Piontek, the preternaturally gifted but mercurial daughter of wealthy art collectors. Gradually, Louisa and Karina are drawn into an intense sensual and artistic relationship, one that forces them to confront their deepest desires and fears. But Karina also can’t shake her fascination with Preston Utley, a senior and anti-capitalist Internet provocateur, who is publicly feuding with visiting professor and political painter Robert Berger—a once-controversial figurehead seeking to regain relevance. When Preston concocts an explosive hoax, the fates of all four artists are upended as each is unexpectedly thrust into the cutthroat New York art world. Now all must struggle to find new identities in art, in society, and among each other. In the process, they must find either their most authentic terms of life—of success, failure, and joy—or risk losing themselves altogether. With a canny, critical eye, Sirens & Muses overturns notions of class, money, art, youth, and a generation’s fight to own their future. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Searching for John Hughes Jason Diamond, 2016-11-29 Searching for John Hughes is Jason Diamond’s hilarious memoir of growing up obsessed with the iconic filmmaker’s movies. From the outrageous, raunchy antics in National Lampoon’s Vacation to the teenage angst in The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink to the insanely clever and unforgettable Home Alone, Jason Diamond could not get enough of John Hughes’ films. So, he set off on a years-long delusional, earnest, and assiduous quest to write a biography of his favorite filmmaker, despite having no qualifications, training, background, platform, or direction. In Searching for John Hughes, Jason tells how a Jewish kid from a broken home in a Chicago suburb—sometimes homeless, always restless—found comfort and connection in the likewise broken lives in the suburban Chicago of John Hughes’ oeuvre. He moved to New York to become a writer of a book he had no business writing. In the meantime, he brewed coffee and guarded cupcake cafes. All the while, he watched John Hughes movies religiously. Though his original biography of Hughes has long since been abandoned, Jason has discovered he is a writer through and through. And the adversity of going for broke has now been transformed into wisdom. Or, at least, a really, really good story. In other words, this is a memoir of growing up. One part big dream, one part big failure, one part John Hughes movies, one part Chicago, and one part New York. It’s a story of what comes after the “Go for it!” part of the command to young creatives to pursue their dreams—no matter how absurd they might seem at first. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: A Sci-Fi Shorts Anthology Rod Castor, J. A. Taylor, 2021-07-29 From exoplanets to time travel, Jovian space elevators to teleportation tubes, and human-like robots to human-disguised aliens, this first anthology from Sci-Fi Shorts offers mind-bending sci-fi flash fiction that is certain to expand your horizons. Enjoy this collection of sixty science fiction stories from Rod Castor, J.A. Taylor, Bill Adler, Mark Starlin, Kyle O'Reilly, Elana Gomel, J. Charles Ramirez, LeNai LaRue, Stefan Grieve, Bill DuBay Jr., Adam Temper, Josh Petersen, Zane Jon Dickens, Harold Finch, Jeffrey Adam Dill, Franco Amati, Don Franke, Bradley J Nordell, Justin Skiles, J.A., Robbie Sheerin, Brad Shannon, Jeffrey Von Hauger, David Hartley, C. Keck, Evan Hundhausen, Carl Honor Vellotti, Dennis Mombauer, AJ, Patrick Metzger, Rose Bryant, Jason Welsh, Alexander Bird, Gary Every, Ross Hewitt, Rosalind Pagan, Patrick Allen Kemp, Alex Kilcannon, and Breana Wallace. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: Saints of the Household Ari Tison, 2023-03-28 Winner of the Pura Belpré Award and Walter Dean Myers Award for Young Adult Literature! Saints of the Household is a haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town--beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer--that will take your breath away. Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down. But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school's star soccer player to a pulp. This act of violence threatens the brothers' dreams for the future and their beliefs about who they are. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They'll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward. Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: The Boy with a Bird in His Chest Emme Lund, 2023-01-03 Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize A “poignantly rendered and illuminating” (The Washington Post) coming-of-age story about “the ways in which family, grief, love, queerness, and vulnerability all intersect” (Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author). Perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Thirty Names of Night. Though Owen Tanner has never met anyone else who has a chatty bird in their chest, medical forums would call him a Terror. From the moment Gail emerged between Owen’s ribs, his mother knew that she had to hide him away from the world. After a decade spent in isolation, Owen takes a brazen trip outdoors and his life is upended forever. Suddenly, he is forced to flee the home that had once felt so confining and hide in plain sight with his uncle and cousin in Washington. There, he feels the joy of finding a family among friends; of sharing the bird in his chest and being embraced fully; of falling in love and feeling the devastating heartbreak of rejection before finding a spark of happiness in the most unexpected place; of living his truth regardless of how hard the thieves of joy may try to tear him down. But the threat of the Army of Acronyms is a constant, looming presence, making Owen wonder if he’ll ever find a way out of the cycle of fear. “An honest celebration of life and everything we need right now in a book” (Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author), The Boy with a Bird in His Chest grapples with the fear, depression, and feelings of isolation that come with believing that we will never be loved for who we truly are and learning to live fully and openly regardless. |
| buzzfeed best books 2022: A Coat of Yellow Paint Naomi Davis, 2021-04-06 Life doesn’t come with an instruction book for the role of perfect wife and mother. However, as Love Taza creator Naomi Davis?discovered on her journey from newlywed Juilliard dancer to mother of five, a joyful life is a work of art that only you can create for yourself. When Naomi launched the popular blog Love Taza a decade ago, she had no way of knowing where that first blog post would lead or the millions of lives she’d impact. In A Coat of Yellow Paint, Naomi details an exploration of her faith, personal heartaches, challenges balancing a home life with career, motherhood, and her struggles with infertility. Along the way, Naomi illustrates the urgency of celebrating life’s most important things––family, faith, friendship, and an upright piano painted bright yellow––ignoring the critics. Through stories time-stamped?as intimate and vulnerable essays, Naomi shares life lessons she’s learned, including how to: communicate openly and honestly in your marriage and friendships be confident in the choices you make as a mother--and why you’re more than “just a mom” overcome criticism--including from yourself--on body image, infertility, and doing “enough” make childhood feel magical and seek out adventures with your little ones navigate spiritual upheaval and reclaim your faith find more soulfulness in your social media and online experience If you dream of a life celebrating family, self, and work in a way that feels right for you, A Coat of Yellow Paint will?inspire you to drown out the noise of others’ opinions and expectations--so you can be empowered to love your life. |
