If you're yet to stock up your bookshelf, or if you’re like me and you’ve already read through half your planned 2022 reading list by February. Take my word for it and sink your eyes into my must-reads for this year, from light-hearted love stories, mystery psychopaths to sci-fi worlds with talking pigs and Pleiadean aliens. Whatever your flavour, I can guarantee you’ll walk away, heart, mind, and eyes a little more open and a whole lot more full with these five fab reads.
This is my favourite feel-good book for 2022. A beautiful easy read for all things love, hope, and new beginnings. The Things We See In The Light is based around female lead, Sahar, who shows up at her best friends Lara’s doorstep unexpectedly after living in Jordan with her husband for years. Alone, and soon to be divorced, The Things We See In The Light tells a story of love, loss, the strength of friendship, and coming home to yourself, at any age, with any past. The Things We See In The Light is a warm hug in a bubble bath read. Amal’s book In A Past Life I was Cleopatra, is also on my must-read list for 2022.
One man's life summed up into 368 pages. Lucky's is a story of family, the moments that define a lifetime, the loss, tragedies, and love that weave us all together. Lucky’s is a story, about the man himself, Lucky, and how he came to be the renowned Greek restaurateur throughout Australia. What it takes to win, what you must lose, and the regrets he has no choice but to live with.
It’s been a while since a book has made me cry but reading through the life of Lucky and his wife Valeria, you’ll too understand why. Life affirming, heart-breaking, and warming. Pippos beautifully articulates a time in Australia, Immigration and Greek Cafes in Sydney.
Incredibly eye-opening, insightful, and beautiful read and one that I know I will pick up again. Don’t lend this one out, to the friend who never gives books back, it’s an essential reread. Shriver writes from the perspective of couple Kay and Cyril where together they agree to commit a dual suicide at the age of 80. The book follows a series of twelve different universes and possible endings to the one decision proposing a world of questions, what would they miss out on? What if the world got better? What defines a life of fulfilment and what really matters on our last days?
Pip Drysdale’s strong female characters are always bread from determination and sass, making me a huge fan of her work. But my personal favourite book of Pip's is The Paris Affair. The Paris Affair is about Harper-Brown, an American Arts and Culture Journalist who lives in Paris, finds herself accidentally hot on the trail of a serial killer. A psychological thriller at its best. Think, a more grungy, possibly realistic version of Emily in Paris. For the women, who love adventure, dream of the midnight mysteries of Europe (that seems so god damn far away in our current world), and routinely listen to a murder podcast on your morning walk. This is the book for you. Not only this book but all of Pip’s wonderful writes. If you love this book, make sure you put The Strangers We Know on your list also. I'm already looking forward to Pip's fourth book. No pressure Pip.
Honestly, when reading the blurb to Nagamatsu’s masterpiece I knew it was bending my reading preferences. I honestly thought it would be something that I put down straight away or force myself through just due to the raving reviews. But by five pages in, I couldn’t put it down. I found my mind lost in the story while I was at work, wondering which twist or turn Nagamatsu was going to take me on next. Nagamatsu is a brilliant in-your-face writer. Your heart will race and you'll want to put it down, turn away, and when you think you can’t take any more of the not too different scary future reality he portrays, you’re spun deeper into the web of the mystery of the Arctic Plague and the world that has evolved around it.