In 2022, the books I was able to finish tended to be on the shorter side, compared to previous years. You’ll find several books on this list hovering around or under 200 pages.

I don’t feel like I had a shorter attention span, so much as I had a lot competing for my attention in 2022: Mourning the death of a parent; welcoming the arrival of my first child; transitioning back to an in-person office environment during a global pandemic; changing jobs and working from home for a new organization. I still read for pleasure, but I had other priorities to attend to.

That said, there were plenty more books I did finish that did not make this list. Those tend to be of the board book and picture book variety. I left off the reading aloud to my little one since it marks a drastic deviation from my previous years’ lists. I also lost track of the titles and number of times I read each one.

That does not diminish the importance of this kind of reading. My favorite of the board books was Little Owl’s Night, by Divya Srinivasan. I think my daughter’s favorite was probably What’s for Breakfast? by Steph Stilwell.

 

As always, here is a guide to the emojis in this list:
⭐ Endorsement
📖 Read hardcover or paperback
📱 Read as ebook or PDF
🎧 Listed to audiobook

 

1. The South: Jim Crow and its Afterlives
   by Adolph L. Reed, Jr.
   📖 Finished on May 10
   160 pages
    

2. Arbitrary Stupid Goal
   by Tamara Shopsin
   📖 Finished on May 14
   336 pages
    

3. Worn: A People’s History of Clothing
   by Sofi Thanhauser
   🎧 Finished on May 22
   400 pages
    

4. Devo’s Freedom of Choice (33⅓ series by Bloomsbury)
   by Evie Nagy
   📖 Finished on June 5
   168 pages
    

5. Citizen Cash: The Political Life and Times of Johnny Cash
   by Michael Stewart Foley
   🎧 Finished on June 16
   384 pages
    

6. South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
   by Imani Perry
   📖 Finished on July 14
   432 pages
    

7. The Idiot
   by Elif Batuman
   🎧 Finished on July 18
   423 pages
    

8. The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation
   by Cathy O'Neil
   🎧 Finished on July 21
   272 pages
    

9. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
   by Oliver Burkeman
   🎧 Finished on August 16
   288 pages
    

10. Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy
    by Whitney Goodman
    🎧 Finished on September 5
    304 pages
     

11. Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City⭐
    by Andrew Ross
    📱 Finished on September 19
    312 pages
     

12. Severance
    by Ling Ma
    🎧 Finished on September 24
    304 pages
     

13. The Scorpion’s Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War⭐
    by James Oakes
    📖 Finished on September 25
    207 pages
     

14. Detail in Typography
    by Jost Hochuli
    📱 Finished on December 15
    64 pages
     

15. They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent
    by Sarah Kendzior
    📖 Finished on December 30
    256 pages