But that said, over the last decade, Tolstoy Therapy has evolved around what I’ve been reading – and lately, that’s included a lot more new fiction and non-fiction than classics.

So, what are the best new books I’ve read in 2022? Throughout the year, I’ve been updating this list with the best new books that I’ve been enjoying (and hope you will too).

Without further ado, here’s my current list of the best new books in 2022 to read. Pick these up over the Christmas period, read them to kick-start the new year, or add them to your last-minute Christmas wishlist. Enjoy!

The best new books I’ve read in 2022

1. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

The Marriage Portrait is a spellbinding book, as gorgeously crafted and infused with life as any of protagonist Lucrezia’s wonderfully imaginative paintings. I raced through it in just a few days.

Right from the start of the book, we know that less than a year after fifteen-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici marries Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, she will be dead. The official cause of death was ‘putrid fever’, but it was rumoured that she had been murdered by her husband.

It’s historical fiction built on a foundation of reading between the lines; of wondering what might have been thought and felt, what might have caused certain events, and what might have happened behind closed doors.

O’Farrell has brought life to the book’s cast with such care and artistry and built a marvellous world – or rather worlds; one constrained and polished to a fine sheen on the surface, the other wild, feral, and uncaged. I loved it.

2. A Line in the World: A Year on the North Sea Coast by Dorthe Nors

“Me, my notebook and my love of the wild and desolate. I wanted to do the opposite of what was expected of me. It’s a recurring pattern in my life. An instinct.“

I wasn’t sure if I was in the right mood to read A Line in the World, but I decided to give the first few pages a chance – largely because I now live in Denmark, I know very little about Jutland, and I love nature writing. Maybe it would be a good fit for next year, I thought. But I soon realised that I had to keep reading.

A Line in the World is a stunning memoir; graceful and lyrical, but with a powerful roar in there too. Read it if you loved The Salt Path by Raynor Winn, or other quietly powerful and introspective memoirs rooted in wild nature.

3. The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

The Sea of Tranquility is a difficult book to categorise in terms of the topics I usually write about. It’s neither a feel-good book nor a comforting book, really. And while it’s beautifully written, it’s a rather lopsided type of beauty. That said, it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

From the best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, The Sea of Tranquility is a stunning novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

4. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

I’ve stayed away from books about the pandemic until now; I wanted reading to be my escape from it, not a reason to think more about it. But I feel like there’s been sufficient distance now for me to read books like this one. And Lucy by the Sea just felt so… therapeutic.

In this third book of Strout’s Amgash series, which you can read as a standalone or start with My Name is Lucy Barton, it’s March 2020 and Lucy’s ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, leaving the washing-up in the sink and expecting to be back in a week or so.

As weeks turn into months, Lucy and William spend their long, quiet days thinking about their complex past together – and the connections that sustain us in the hardest moments.

5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

The fantastically vibrant cover of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has been popping up everywhere over the last few months.

Winner of the Goodreads Best Fiction Award 2022, it’s the wonderfully nerdy, imaginative, and creative story of Sam and Sadie, who first meet in a hospital in 1987 and develop a unique bond as two brainy kids with no other real friends.

However, that connection is forgotten as they return to their normal lives – until the pair spot each other eight years later in a crowded train station.

When Sadie gives Sam a game she’s been developing, they immediately reignite that spark and find once-in-a-lifetime intimacy in the digital realm. It’s also the start of a collaboration that brings them money and fame – but also duplicity and tragedy.

6. The Bookseller at the End of the World by Ruth Shaw

The Bookseller at the End of the World is one of the best new memoirs of 2022. It’s Ruth Shaw’s immersive, heartbreaking yet charming story of running two wee bookshops in the remote village of Manapouri in Fiordland, in the deep south of New Zealand.

In this beautiful book for booklovers (that is sure to make you want to read even more books), Ruth weaves together stories of the characters who visit her bookshops and musings on the books that have shaped her life.

She also shares bittersweet stories from her full and varied life, including losses, enduring love, and adventures sailing through the Pacific, being held up by pirates, working with drug addicts and prostitutes, and campaigning to protect the environment.

7. Water, Wood & Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town by Hannah Kirshner

“With this book, you feel you can stop time and savor the rituals of life,” shared Maira Kalman about Water, Wood & Wild Things. I came across this beautiful book in my local library recently and fell in love with it.

Water, Wood & Wild Things is artist and food writer Hannah Kirshner’s journey through the culture and cuisine of one misty Japanese mountain town, its evergreen forests, local water, and smoke-filled artisan workshops.

Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, and full of Hannah’s beautiful drawings and recipes inspired by her time in Yamanaka, this is a soothing and inspiring book about what it means to find purpose in cultivation and craft and sustain traditions.

From making a fine bowl to harvesting rice, this tender book is a celebration of craftsmanship, creativity, quiet dedication, and the simple beauty of life.

8. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

“Tender and healing… I’m prescribing a preorder to anyone who has ever felt lost. Stunning, kind, necessary,” writes author Sarah Gailey about this gentle and life-affirming book from the author at the forefront of hopeful science fiction.

A Prayer for the Crown Shy is the second book in Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot series, weaving an intriguing world about the robots of Panga who long ago laid down their tools and disappeared into the wilderness after they gained self-awareness.

To start at the beginning of the Monk & Robot series, first read the equally uplifting A Psalm for the Wild-Built, in which a robot returns to civilisation to startle a tea monk with a very difficult question: “what do people need?”

9. City on Fire by Don Winslow

Don Winslow has been one of my guilty pleasure authors for a few years. I first read The Power of the Dog while on the Trans-Mongolian train across Russia, Mongolia and China a few years ago and was hooked. (So was my now-husband, who ended up reading most of it over my shoulder.)

This year, I flew through the audiobook of Don Winslow’s newest release and the first part of a new series, City on Fire. It’s a compulsively readable thriller that transforms the events at Troy and the founding of Rome into a riveting gangster tale as two criminal empires fight to control New England.

10. Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid has written some of the best can’t-put-down books from the last few years.

I first read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and enjoyed how wonderfully flawed yet fantastic the characters were. I loved the strong family ties in Malibu Rising. I listened to the full-cast audiobook of Daisy Jones & the Six and immersed myself in a world of music, rocky relationships, and the even rockier road of self-discovery.

Now in 2022, Taylor Jenkins has published Carrie Soto is Back, her story of a tennis legend supposedly past her prime at thirty-seven, brought back to the tennis court for one more grand slam. Carrie Soto sacrificed everything to become the best, and now she needs to give everything she’s got to defend her record.

11. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

Another book I enjoyed as an audiobook in 2022 was Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. It’s an incredibly gripping book about what we choose to keep from our past and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over, after leaving her picture-perfect life in Boston – married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, and raising a beautiful son, Asher— to return to the house she grew up in, taking over her father’s beekeeping business in a sleepy New Hampshire hometown.

This seems like the new start she needed… until Olivia receives a phone call that Lily, the new girl in town, is dead. When she hears that Asher is being questioned by the police, she wonders if she really understands her son at all. 

Looking for more books to read in 2022? You might also like my recommended books for when you don’t know what to read and the best can’t-put-down books to binge-read.

The post The best of 2022: the new books I’ve loved this year appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Sure, some classic books are extremely intellectual and academic, like Finnegans Wake and Gravity’s Rainbow. But others? Classic books can be just as feel-good, compulsively readable, and enjoyable as modern bestsellers.

To give you some ideas of what to add to your reading list, here are some of the best classics of all time that are actually quite easy to read. I’ve included my own top recommendations, but I’ve also checked what Reddit has to say about the best easy-to-read classics to give you some other perspectives.

Read on for my top 12 suggestions and see what jumps out as a classic for you to read next. Once you start reading, give your chosen book time and attention, but don’t be afraid to stop reading if it’s really not working. There are plenty of other books out there.

Books shouldn’t be hard work – rather, they can offer a treasure trove of life lessons, comfort, guidance, and support, if we give them a chance to work their magic.

12 of the easiest classics to read

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Count of Monte Cristo is an unlikely contender for an easy-to-read classic. For one, it was originally published in 1846. Secondly, the Penguin paperback is 1276 pages long. But it’s so good.

This book offers the same gripping themes of wrongful imprisonment and justice as Shawshank Redemption, even though it was published 150 years earlier.

Reddit user Mammoth-Corner shares my thoughts in this comment: “Monte Cristo is ridiculously good. I put the audiobook on while I was taking a walk and wound up going in loops for two hours because I didn’t want to go back inside and turn it off.”

2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

This was one of the first sci-fi books I read, and it’s an all-time classic. While reading it on the London Underground, someone interrupted me to tell me to share their excitement about the book – and invite them to their sci-fi book club (which unfortunately I couldn’t join).

If you like Flowers for Algernon, you might also like Richard Powers’ latest novel, Bewilderment, which puts a modern spin on the classic book about an experimental procedure to increase your IQ and change your life.

3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

This beautifully silly feel-good classic follows the galactic (mis)adventures of Arthur Dent, beginning one Thursday lunchtime when the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is one of those classics that you feel you should have read, but it’s also a book that’s actually easy and fun to read.

4. The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle offers some of the coziest, most easy-going classic writing you can read. I’ve previously recommended his collected Sherlock Holmes stories as one of the best bedtime audiobooks, but that doesn’t mean they’re boring enough to send you to sleep. Or at least I hope not.

On Reddit, here’s what bmbreath advises about reading Sherlock Holmes stories: “If taken in smaller doses, they’re very easygoing and easy to grasp language wise. I just find they start to get old if too many of them are read in a row. If anyone does ebooks, they are listed for free pretty often and are a good travel book.”

5. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

I first read Rebecca as a teen and had no idea what to expect; I was making my way through a BBC best books ever written list, and this had made the shortlist. I was expecting something boring, honestly, but was given a dark psychological tale of secrets and betrayal.

Rebecca is a book that deserves to be read and re-read for its layered and multi-faceted characters, slow tension build, iconic gothic setting, and plot twists that keep you frantically turning pages.

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

This is the classic story of Jane Eyre (surprise, surprise), a seemingly plain and simple girl whose courage and rich inner life emerge and are tested as she begins her work as a governess at Thornfield Hall, the imposing home of the wealthy and impetuous Mr Rochester.

Here’s what Reddit user JediNinja8027 said about Jane Eyre: “I thought it was going to be a bit dry but I got through it so fast. I found Jane herself to be a very modern character if she were dropped into a modern day setting she would thrive.”

7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

If you think of classic books, Pride and Prejudice might be one of the first books you think of. But it’s also accessible and fun to read. You might not guess it when you meet him (he’s a sheep farmer in his sixties), but Pride and Prejudice is my Dad’s favourite book.

First published in 1813, it does have a different vocabulary than we’re used to, but a good way to get around this is by listening to an audiobook (this one with Rosamund Pike is great) and having a professional read it with the right tone and delivery.

I also love this advice for someone struggling to read Jane Austen: “You’re not bad at reading – what I’d suggest is to add a ‘sarcasm’ filter for Jane Austen: when she’s writing about nearly anybody in observation mode (where the protagonist is describing actions of people around her), she’s usually poking fun at them.”

8. Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm is a common book to read at school… which helped to make it a favourite for some readers, but a nemesis to others. It’s a good book to give a second chance in adulthood, and it’s absolutely as fresh and relevant today as it’s ever been.

In this cutting and satiric masterpiece, a farm’s overworked and mistreated animals decide that enough is enough. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality.

On Reddit, PlagueGhosty shared about Animal Farm: “Turns out unless you need to analyze it for a test, you don’t need to know exactly who represents what and how literary devices further the plot etc etc etc, more nerd talk. tl;dr I love it WAY more as an adult.”

9. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Even without having read it, you might have an idea of what happens in The Great Gatsby. The quick summary: a man orders his life around one desire, to be reunited with the love he lost five years earlier. This leads him to vast riches and eventually back to her – but also to a tragic end.

It’s one of those classics that once you finally read it, you pick up on cultural references to it everywhere.

10. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

Sure, it’s a book about death, but The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the most accessible places to start with Leo Tolstoy. It’s a fairly easy classic to read, and one of the best books ever written about illness, dying, and the shortness of life.

If you’re in the right mood for the subject matter, give it a go. There are plenty of life lessons to uncover and ponder.

11. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

The Enchanted April is a balm for the soul. If you’re feeling weary, under the weather, or stuck in a dreary place in winter, pick up a copy and escape to a sun-kissed villa on the Italian Riviera with the four middle-aged women of the novel.

12. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

I loved reading what secretmorning shared on Reddit about Slaughterhouse-Five: “It’s so easy and amazing and beautiful [to read] that someone should create a scale for literature that goes from 1-10 and rates how readable a book is versus how much you get out of it. Call it the Vonnegut scale.”

This American classic – and one of the world’s great antiwar books – shares character Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time during the firebombing of Dresden, and reflects our own search for meaning in our fractured lives.

If you liked this post, you might also like my recommendations of books you can’t put down and the best books for people who usually don’t read much (not to presume anything, but you know.)

The post 12 of the best classics that are actually easy to read appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

For this post, I’ve compiled some of the books I most frequently recommend to people who don’t generally read fiction. Read on for the most accessible thrillers, love stories, and beautiful worlds to get lost in.

If something doesn’t grab you in the first thirty pages, try something else. Life’s too short for books you don’t like. Once you figure out what works for you, it’s so much easier to find more of the same.

There are a few overlaps between this post and my recommended books to binge-read, so check that out next if you want more suggestions.

The best books for people who don’t like to read

1. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

Read this if you want: a book packed with action and suspense to binge-read.

“A big, breathless tale of nonstop suspense” is how The New York Times described I Am Pilgrim in 2014. Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist: a man who must return from obscurity, and the only man who can uncover a flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity.

Over the last decade, this can’t-put-down thriller has been my most recommended book for men who don’t read. (Although I’m a woman who loves to read and enjoyed it a lot too.) My brother read it faster than any other book before, and my Dad re-reads it every few years once he’s forgotten the plot (he sees this as a perk of ageing).

2. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Read this if you want: the book equivalent of an addictive Netflix music documentary.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of today’s best authors if you want to get lost in a book. I listened to the excellent audiobook edition (featuring a whole cast of voice actors) of Daisy Jones & the Six and flew through it in a couple of days.

Daisy Jones & the Six became a sensation from the moment Daisy walked barefoot onto the stage. Their sound defined an era. They played sold-out arenas from coast to coast. You couldn’t escape their music. Then, on 12 July 1979, it all came crashing down. This is the story of their legendary rise and fall, friendship and rivalry, ambition and heartbreak, as told by the intertwining voices of the band’s members.

Despite being utterly fictional, it reads like a music documentary you just can’t stop watching. If you’re anything like me, you need to know what happens next.

3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Read this if you want: a once-in-a-lifetime story of love and heartbreak in World War II.

All the Light We Cannot See is one of those books that nails the perfect formula for a story. If you’re yet to read it, I’m envious. This New York Times bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize is the story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. It’s a heartbreaking book that changes the way you see the world, and it’s ideal to choose if you haven’t read a good book in a while.

4. City on Fire by Terry Hayes

Read this if you want: a gangster movie on paper.

Don Winslow has been one of my guilty pleasure authors these last few years. I first read The Power of the Dog while on the Trans-Mongolian train across Russia, Mongolia and China a few years ago and was hooked. (So was my now-husband, who ended up reading most of it over my shoulder.)

This year, I binge-listened to the audiobook of Don Winslow’s newest release and the first part of a new series, City on Fire. It’s a compulsively readable thriller that transforms the events at Troy and the founding of Rome into a riveting gangster tale as two criminal empires fight to control New England.

5. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Read this if you want: a feel-good classic that’s actually easy to read.

If you browse Reddit for the best book recommendations for people who don’t read, you’ll keep hearing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. This beautifully silly feel-good classic follows the galactic (mis)adventures of Arthur Dent, beginning one Thursday lunchtime when the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. Here are 12 more classics that are surprisingly easy to read.

6. The Martian by Andy Weir

Read this if you want: a book that’s just as good as the movie.

Another popular Reddit book recommendation for people who don’t read is The Martian. Quadsimotto shared: “I couldn’t put this book down. Finished it on a set of flights and was laughing hysterically at some of the story. The passenger next to me was then trying to read it over my shoulder and was having a hard time keeping pace.”

Even if you’ve seen the movie, this is one of those books that captures everything you love about the movie and gives you even more to enjoy. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read, The Martian is the bestselling story of astronaut Mark Watney, who became one of the first people to walk on Mars six days ago. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there – but Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, engineering skills, and relentless refusal to quit, he’s determined to figure out a way back home.

7. World War Z by Max Brooks

Read this if you want: a gripping story about the survivors of a zombie apocalypse.

I had an ex-boyfriend who loved this book. Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is a record of the zombie apocalypse by the few that survived. On Reddit, SonOfPlinkett shared: “I never liked reading and didn’t read a novel until I was 20. World War Z was the first book I choose to read and I’ve been reading novels every day ever since.”

8. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Read this if you want: to escape into a fantasy world and forget about life for a while.

If you don’t like reading, try Six of Crows, the hugely popular young adult book that’s now a Netflix series. Immerse yourself in the world of six dangerous outcasts and one impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don’t kill each other first.

This is Book 1 of 2 in the Six of Crows series, but Leigh Bardugo has also written the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the King of Scars duology if you need more books to read next.

The post 8 of the best books for people who don’t like reading appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

That said, there’s always a place in my heart and house for beautiful books, and they’re usually what I give to others too. For 2022, here are some of my favourite beautiful books to give to booklovers.

I’ve included some of the best new books for 2022, beautifully illustrated books, fantastic books about books, and other choices that most bookworms will appreciate (even if it seems like they have every book already).

Looking for small bookish gifts? You might also like my lists of the best stocking stuffers for book lovers and the best bookish gifts from Etsy.

The most beautiful books for gifts for booklovers in 2022

1. Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien: The Deluxe Hardcover Edition

With Christopher Tolkien as your guide, take a tour through this wonderful gallery of enchanting art produced by his father, J.R.R. Tolkien. It’s a book to treasure for any fan of Tolkien, offering a feast for the imagination.

Presented in a gorgeous cloth slipcased edition, this wonder of a book confirms Tolkien’s talent as an artist with examples including delicate watercolors depicting Rivendell, the Forest of Lothlorien, Smaug, and Old Man Willow, to drawings and sketches of Moria Gate and Minas Tirith.

2. A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader by Maria Popova

Like everything else from Maria Popova, the mind and heart of The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings), A Velocity of Being is a gorgeously curated book celebrating the joys of reading.

Maria Popova has brought together some of the most wonderful culture-makers – writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philosophers — to reflect on the joys of reading, how books broaden and deepen human experience, and the ways in which the written word has formed their own character. 

A beautiful illustration accompanies each letter about how books have shaped a contributor’s life, sharing stories from figures as diverse as Jane Goodall, Neil Gaiman, Shonda Rhimes, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Elizabeth Gilbert.

This is a thoughtful and beautiful book to give to bookworms who you think have already read everything.

3. Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras

From the ever-curious minds behind Atlas Obscura comes this adventurous guide to the diverse food that defines our world, spanning each of the seven continents.

Like a feast of tapas, this delightful book offers a selection of traditional delicacies, unexpectedly delicious treats, and hidden gems to feed your sense of wonder.

4. Wanderlust USA: The Great American Hike by gestalten

I received a gorgeous copy of gestalten’s hardcover Wanderlust Europe as a gift a couple of years ago, and it’s since become one of my favourite travel books to enjoy pride of place on my shelves. This companion book, Wanderlust USA: The Great American Hike, is also stunning.

It’s a stunning guide to the best U.S. long-distance treks, short day trips, and extended weekend adventures, compiled in a hardcover that’s perfect to give to adventurous loved ones this holiday season. Once you see it for yourself, you’ll probably want your own copy too.

It’s one of the best travel books to show off on a coffee table and keep turning to for inspiration, complete with wanderlust-inspiring photos and maps.

5. The Unwinding: And Other Dreamings by Jackie Morris

In this beautifully illustrated book to prompt dreaming and creativity, the Kate Greenaway Medal-winning artist Jackie Morris bridges the magical land between awake and dreaming where fairytale characters explore and magnificent creatures dwell.

The Unwinding is a book written with the chief purpose of easing the soul, unlocking the peaceful harbours where our imagination can stretch and quiet reflection can bring us tranquility. It’s a wonderful book to gift to readers both young and grown to treasure for years to come.

Maria Popova of The Marginalian describes it as, “A quiet masterpiece . . . a love story, a hope story, a story out of time, out of stricture, out of the narrow artificial bounds by which we try to contain the wild wonderland of reality because we are too frightened to live wonder-stricken.”

6. Water, Wood & Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town by Hannah Kirshner

“With this book, you feel you can stop time and savor the rituals of life,” shared Maira Kalman about Water, Wood & Wild Things. I came across this beautiful book in my local library recently and fell in love with it.

Water, Wood & Wild Things is artist and food writer Hannah Kirshner’s journey through the culture and cuisine of one misty Japanese mountain town, its evergreen forests, local water, and smoke-filled artisan workshops.

Part travelogue, part meditation on the meaning of work, and full of Hannah’s beautiful drawings and recipes inspired by her time in Yamanaka, this is a soothing and inspiring book about what it means to find purpose in cultivation and craft and sustain traditions.

From making a fine bowl to harvesting rice, this tender book is a celebration of craftsmanship, creativity, quiet dedication, and the simple beauty of life.

7. Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

“Murakami is like a magician who explains what he’s doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers,” writes The New York Times Book Review about this anticipated book for 2022.

Novelist as a Vocation is an insightful look into the mind of the master storyteller behind Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, and 1Q84.

It’s a unique look at the lonely and patient craft of writing, sharing Murakami’s musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire his surreal words, his prodigious output, and the life that he has devoted to his craft.

8. Collective Wisdom by Grace Bonney

In this gorgeous book, Grace Bonney, the bestselling author of In the Company of Women (another fantastic book to gift!) curates the best lessons, inspiration, and advice from women over 50.

Best enjoyed as a hardcover, Collective Wisdom is a rich and multilayered collection of interviews, conversations, and intimate photographs of over 100 trailblazing women who describe the ups, downs, and lessons learned while forging their unique paths. 

From an Olympic athlete and a NASA team member to award-winning artists, activists, writers, and filmmakers, Grace Bonney celebrates the stories of those who have been there and know the road, generously sharing their wisdom across generations.

9. Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall

“Over a hill, at the end of a road, by a glittering stream that twists and turns stands a farmhouse.”

If you have young children to buy gifts for this year, use it as an excuse to buy this gorgeous new picture book from Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall. That said, it’s a book that’s just as exquisite for grown readers.

Step inside the dollhouse-like interior of Farmhouse and relish in the joyful daily life of the family that lives there, rendered in impeccable, cozy detail.

10. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

In this beloved and lyrical classic, Anne Morrow Lindbergh gracefully weaves her meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, and solitude and contentment as she settles into a vacation by the sea.

Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, the mother of five, acclaimed writer, and pioneering aviator casts an unsentimental eye on the trappings of modernity that threaten to overwhelm us, offering a reminder of the bliss to be found in carving out space for contemplation and creativity within our own lives.

11. Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession by Gavin Francis

Island Dreams is a delight to browse, read, and hold. Gavin Francis’s memoir of a life obsessed with maps is cloth-bound with gold detail and makes for a perfect gift for curious travellers, cartophiles, and book enthusiasts.

I picked up a copy from an independent bookshop in Edinburgh, and know so many others who would love it too.

12. Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani

Ex Libris is another perfect book to give to booklovers. This is literary critic Michiko Kakutani’s personal selection of over 100 works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with passionate essays on why each has had a profound effect on her life.

From Homer’s The Odyssey to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Ex Libris covers a rich and vast range of old and new classics, accompanied by gorgeous illustrations from lettering artist Dana Tanamachi.

13. Wild Places (Inspired Traveller’s Guides) by Sarah Baxter

I love the Inspired Traveller’s Guide series from White Lion Publishing, including beautifully illustrated books such as Hidden Places, Artistic Places, and this favourite of mine: Wild Places.

From the Galápagos Islands to St Kilda in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, this beautiful celebration of the solace of wild places transports you to some of the most awe-inspiring corners of the world from your armchair.

14. Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

A small but mighty book, Gratitude is Oliver Sacks’s most tenderly-curated collection of essays. Dr Sacks reflects on and gives thanks for a life well-lived, expressing his thoughts on growing old, facing terminal cancer, and reaching the end with wisdom and appreciation.

It doesn’t take long for Oliver Sacks’s writing to soothe my spirit and help me to breathe easier. Gratitude makes for a perfect gift, too – I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve given it to.

15. The Annotated Arabian Nights by Yasmine Seale and Paulo Lemos Horta

Like Emily Wilson achieved for The Odyssey with her new translation in 2017, Yasmine Seale’s proficiency in (and poetic ear for) Arabic, English, and French shines through in this lyrical and accessible new translation of The Arabian Nights.

Accompanied by hundreds of stunning illustrations and edited by Paulo Lemos Horta, this exquisite edition lets readers travel into the evocative dreamland of the stories and their history. It’s a huge book, packed with annotations and special details, and it makes for a really special gift.

For more gift inspiration, you might also like my curated lists of the best new books for 2022, bookish stocking stuffers, gifts from Etsy for book lovers, and the most beautiful books to treasure.

The post 15 of the best books to give as gifts in 2022 appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

To make things simpler for you, I’ve selected my pick of the best books for book clubs to read and discuss in 2022, including new books, all-time classics, and other award-winning and bestselling books from the last few years.

For more ideas, you can also keep an eye on what I’m reading in The Tolstoy Therapy Book Club.

Which book will you choose to read next in your book club?

The best book club books for 2022

1. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout (2021)

• What is it about? An unshowy, intimate novel-cum-fictional memoir about a successful writer and her relationship with her ex-husband and father of her daughters.
• Choose it to discuss: how your relationships have shaped your life, human imperfections, love, and loss.
• Books like Oh William!: My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout, These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

In Oh William! the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Booker-longlisted bestseller offers an open-hearted and fearlessly honest novel about love, loss, family secrets, and oh-so-common human imperfections.

Now in her 60s and settled into a successful writing career, Strout’s heroine Lucy Barton returns to explore her tender and complex relationship with her first husband, William.

2. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb (2019)

• What is it about? A memoir of a therapist who realises that she needs to find her own therapist.
• Choose it to discuss: mental health and experiences with therapy.
• Books like Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner

In a Reddit thread about the best books read in 2022, DarkHeraldMage shares, “This was a featured selection in my Discord book club last month and it was absolutely amazing. It gave us a wonderful insight into the author’s journey but also that of the (anonymized) patients she’d seen and helped. We got to have some wonderful discussions about mental health and removing the stigma of seeking help from a therapist, and it inspired me to finally seek out an appointment for myself to work some long standing issues out.”

3. Haven by Emma Donoghue (2022)

• What is it about? A story of adventure, survival, and faith from the bestselling author of Room.
• Choose it to discuss: faith, survival, and the human urge to explore.
• Books like Haven: Room by Emma Donoghue

In Haven, three men leave the seventh-century world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, guided only by faith.

Yvonne C. Garrett writes for The Brooklyn Rail, “This is a powerful read with careful attention paid to balancing natural and historical detail with a broader exploration of faith, madness, survival, and what it means to be human.”

4. Piranesi by Susanna Clark (2020)

• What is it about? A genre-bending book where nothing is quite what it seems.
• Choose it to discuss: What on earth happened in this book.
• Books like Piranesi: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, Uprooted by Naomi Novik

The winner of The Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, Piranesi is a hypnotic story of a man in a house with infinite rooms, endless corridors, and waves that thunder up staircases.

Beejay Silcox writes for The Times Literary Supplement, “The page-turning thrill of Piranesi is watching him puzzle out what we can already see, and guilelessly wander into danger…”

5. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017)

• What is it about? An epic of a Korean immigrant family over four generations as they fight for acceptance, freedom, and riches in 20th-century Japan.
• Choose it to discuss: family, the choices we make, loss, and the path from poverty to wealth.
• Books like Pachinko: Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

I finally managed to convince my husband to read Pachinko this month (mostly so we can watch the excellent new adaptation by Apple TV together). It’s one of those remarkably epic books that manages to encompass such a sheer amount of time, change, and human emotion. It’s one of my all-time favourites.

6. City on Fire by Don Winslow (2021)

• What is it about? A compulsively readable thriller that transforms the events at Troy and the founding of Rome into a riveting gangster tale as two criminal empires fight to control New England.
• Choose it to discuss: family ties and conflict, marriage, and duty.
• Books like City on Fire: The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow, I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

Don Winslow has been one of my guilty pleasure authors these last few years. I first read The Power of the Dog while on the Trans-Mongolian train across Russia, Mongolia, and China a few years ago and was hooked. For City on Fire, his newest release and the first part of a new series, I binged the audiobook over a few days.

7. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (1886)

• What is it about? One of the best books ever written about death and the shortness of life. (And a classic that’s not too difficult to read.)
• Choose it to discuss: death, coming to terms with mortality, and making the most of life.
• Books like The Death of Ivan Ilyich: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

The subject matter is pretty heavy, sure, but The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the most accessible places to start with Leo Tolstoy – and a fairly easy classic to read. There’s also plenty to discuss as a book club read.

8. Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (2021)

• What is it about? An award-winning young adult novel (and soon-to-be Netflix TV series) about tragedy, trauma, and growing up.
• Choose it to discuss: heritage, trust, communities, and speaking out about corruption.
• Books like Firekeeper’s Daughter: There, There by Tommy Orange

In Firekeeper’s Daughter, Daunis Fontaine is an 18-year-old who has never managed to fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When she falls for Jamie, a charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team, she feels like life is finally changing… but soon realizes Jamie is hiding something. When Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, she confirms this – and is also thrust into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.

9. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (2020)

• What is it about? Twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white.
• Choose it to discuss: how our upbringing affects us, definitions of home, leaving the place you grew up
• Books like The Vanishing Half: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

For NPR, Maureen Corrigan writes: “As another melodramatic novelist, Charles Dickens, recognized: If you tell people a wild and compelling enough story, they may just listen to things they’d rather not hear.”

10. The Bear by Andrew Krivak (2020)

• What is it about? The last two humans left on earth, a father and daughter living self-sufficiently close to nature.
• Choose it to discuss: humankind’s relationship with nature, the future of our planet, and loss.
• Books like The Bear: Uprooted by Naomi Novak, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Bear was my Tolstoy Therapy Book Club pick for September 2022, after I stumbled upon it for perfect bedtime reading. Nothing much happens, but it’s the calmest, most pared-down take on the end of humankind that you will likely ever read.

The post The 10 best books to read in your book club in 2022 appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

Throughout that time, Tolstoy Therapy has been my way of documenting the best books I’ve read as a twentysomething, including those that guided me through anxiety, heartbreak, trauma, depression, and bold leaps: to quit my job, start my business, and move abroad several times.

While writing this post, I’ve asked myself: of all that I’ve read, what are the best books I’ve read as a woman in my twenties? And which books would I recommend to others navigating this stage of their life?

Here’s my pick of the best books for women to read in their 20s, featuring the best novels and most impactful non-fiction for understanding who you are, reaching your goals, navigating relationships, managing your finances, and finding your courage and creativity. And for just living.

The must-read books for women in their 20s

1. The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

I’ve recommended The Course of Love to so many people, and so many people have recommended it to me as well. It’s a guidebook to love, really, told as a novel yet interjected with philosopher Alain de Botton’s trademark comments on the psychology, sociology, and philosophy of love.

Why is love never smooth sailing? Why do our partners infuriate us? And why is our partner so uniquely infuriating? Read this book if you’d like an answer – it’s one of the most impactful non-fiction books to read in your twenties. (Spoiler: we’re all infuriating and crazy in our own way, only those we don’t know very well seem totally sane.)

2. Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Meditations was one of the best books I read during the most anxious period of my life, at university in the southwest of England. This is the first self-help book ever written, and it’s just as applicable today as it was two thousand years ago. Get your own copy and turn to it when you’re feeling lethargic, lost, or lacking motivation.

One of the sections I think of most is this:

“At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: ‘I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?’”

3. Undistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal

There have never been more distractions. We’re surrounded by them. And yet, if you can find a way to control your devices – rather than let them control you – you unlock a superpower that lets you access more focus, time for your projects, creativity, and often, joy. Undistractable is one of the best books to help you find more digital balance and time for what matters.

4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

If I had to name the perfect author today for women in their twenties to read, it’d be Taylor Jenkins Reid. She’s the bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six, Malibu Rising, and newly-published Carrie Soto is Back. For this list, I’ve chosen her 2017 novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

In this novel, a young and ambitious woman gets the gig of a lifetime when she’s asked to interview Evelyn Hugo, a woman at the end of her own career of iconic stardom. Like Jenkins Reid’s other novels, it’s compulsively readable and binge-worthy. But it’s also packed with life lessons.

5. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is my go-to guidebook on creativity. When I need inspiration, courage, or a kick in the butt, I pick up my copy of Big Magic or listen to the fantastic audiobook read by Liz Gilbert. There’s some woo-woo to navigate, but that’s pretty easy to skip past if it’s not for you.

Pay more attention to the main message: you are creative, just by being a human. And you can create, be, and do so much during your lifetime. If someone else is doing the things you dream of, why can’t you?

6. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

At the stroke of midnight on her last day on earth, Nora finds herself transported to a library. There she is given the chance to undo her regrets and try out each of the other lives she might have lived. Which leaves her with the all-important question: what is the best way to live?

On Reddit, user Parcival_Reddit shared about The Midnight Library: “I’m about halfway through right now and I cannot recommend it enough. I don’t know how it’s going to end but it’s already making me think about the decisions I’m making every day.”

7. Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Future You Want by Dr. Grace Lordan

How would your life change if you started thinking bigger? If you dream bigger dreams, set bigger goals, and made bigger changes? I recently read Think Big and loved how it gave me a new spin on some of my own philosophies, both in the decisions I’ve made in my own life and in Life Studio, the course I launched this year over on Live Wildly.

8. How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

I read How to Love during a breakup in my early twenties and it’s held a fond place in my heart ever since. In this little guide, Thich Nhat Hanh shared his best advice on how to love not just others, but also ourselves. That’s the most important place to start.

If you enjoy this, you might also like the other books that soothed my soul during the same breakup, especially The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim.

9. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero

I needed to read this book at the start of my twenties. Sure, it’s got a really cheesy title, but You Are a Badass gave me the push I needed to shake up my life. I needed to hear that so much was in my power to change and things could be different. I wasn’t stuck. I could dream up different directions for my life and work and actually make them happen. Read this to quell your self-doubt and remind yourself that you are capable of so much.

10. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

Wintering is one of the best books to learn to live by the seasons of your life and navigate burnout. You won’t always feel full of energy and creativity, but nor should you. Wintering is just as acceptable and inevitable. This is exactly what I needed to hear during my last period of burnout.

11. Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead by Tara Mohr

Written by a fellow quiet person, Playing Big is a handbook for stepping up and being more you. That doesn’t need to mean shouting or wearing a nice blazer. It can also mean quietly sharing more of your writing, ideas, and creations with gentle and graceful confidence. You get to choose how you show up. What matters is that you do, whatever your own way looks like.

12. Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez

This finance classic is perhaps the best reminder in a book of what money is really for: life. Your Money or Your Life is not just about managing money, it’s also about creating a life you love. And that’s something worth thinking about as early as possible.

If you read one personal finance book, I’d recommend choosing this one. If you enjoy it, you might also like Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames.

13. Normal People by Sally Rooney

Are we in a relationship or not? I thought you liked her? Why don’t you like me? This is the classic modern (and very dysfunctional) love story. Oh, how reading Normal People will make you want to scream at its characters. But we’ve probably all been there.

14. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

How do you actually want to spend your time here on earth? Four Thousand Weeks is one of the best books to help you answer that question. I flew through it earlier in 2022 and covered it with notes and annotations. It’ll make you rethink your ideas of productivity and time management and dive into what it’s all actually, ultimately for.

15. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

What makes life worth living? When Breath Becomes Air is an incredibly moving memoir about the beauty and fragility of life. At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient coming to terms with the little time he had left.

In a Reddit thread about the books everyone should read in their 20s, user IWouldLoveThat shared, “I bought this book on [user burrosfail’s] recommendation two days ago. I just received it and almost read the full thing in one sitting. The way he writes is incredible.”

The post 15 of the best books for women in their twenties to read appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

The selected book was A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a book I devoured as a teenager. In our seminar spent discussing the book, however, I realised that not all fellow-students were as keen on Joyce’s writing. We discussed our first impressions of reading Joyce, and the class was divided: while half of us couldn’t get enough of Joyce’s groundbreaking style, at least as many people couldn’t get into it at all.

The class soon developed into what the lecturer neatly termed a “Joyce self-help session”, and we agreed upon five main ideas to make James Joyce more accessible to read. If you’re curious, read on!

How to read James Joyce

1. Start small

Some of Joyce’s finest writing can be found in Dubliners, his short story collection, and it’s the least daring of his books. Immerse yourself in the world of Dublin and savour the stunningly beautiful final lines of “The Dead”. Reading James Joyce doesn’t mean battling through Finnegans Wake.

2. Get an audiobook

Joyce’s writing is wonderful to listen to, and you could say his books are better heard than read. Get an audiobook – the free LibriVox recording of Portrait is great – and let the words flow over you.

3. Don’t worry too much about details (or understanding everything)

One of my fellow students suggested that there are two ways to read Joyce: understanding all the little details and intricacies below the surface, or allowing yourself a ‘superficial’ reading that doesn’t question too much. I’ve only really done the latter so far in my Joyce journey, and I think it’s helped me to gain a really good basic understanding of each book I’ve read (and enjoyed, too).

4. Joyce goes well with whisky

My lecturer recently admitted that one of her best experiences reading Joyce happened when she was in bed with fever…and a bottle of whisky. If you enjoy a nightcap, combine it with Joyce’s writing and you won’t find yourself preoccupied with the little details, that’s for sure.

5. Develop a lifelong relationship with Joyce’s writing

I started reading Joyce a few years ago, and I’m so enjoying adding layers to my reading as I get older. When I first read Portrait, I could relate to Stephen’s shyness during his school years. During my recent reading, however, I’ve been drawn to his search for meaning and creativity. It’s exciting to think about what my interpretations will be like in years to come.

My advice for reading Joyce is similar to that for reading Tolstoy, although Joyce’s writing comes with its characteristic modernist style. It’s easy to feel put off by this, and Joyce isn’t for everyone, but I’m hoping these ideas will provide guidance for those who wish to give his books a go.

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