PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

In recent years, it’s become a tradition to pull together a list of the titles that helped us muddle through another difficult year in a long line of them — whether that book came out this last year or a century ago. It’s always wonderful to see the synchronicity that comes in: two titles by Olga Tokarczuk, submitted within minutes of each other; a collective (and timely!) appreciation for horror; books that comforted not by looking away from the difficult parts of our world, but by looking directly at them; and persistent reminders about how much it matters to extend grace and compassion to ourselves and to care for the communities around us.

All of the books listed below provided a light during this uncertain time; we’re grateful for them, and hope you find books on this list that do the same for you.

I was feeling directionless and was struggling to find a book that really captivated me, so I decided to tackle some long neglected sci-fi titles on my TBR list. Leviathan Wakes was exactly what I needed — immersive and exciting, with really wonderful characters you can't help but fall in love with. It's wild and fast-paced, and luckily there are eight more novels in the Expanse series that keep up the momentum and brilliance of Leviathan Wakes. — Lesley A.

Each January I try to read a book that has long been on my "to be read" list. Starting the year off with a challenge puts my mind to work, and the winter weather gives me time to focus. This year I read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. I've spent the year thinking about this modernist snow-bound classic, and how it captures all of life and death in its meandering pages. — Adam P.

This story is so visceral, emotional, and magical that it's hard to even explain what it's about. You follow main characters Judith, Gentle, and Pie around the five dominions on a goose chase for the ruler of it all. At the core, Imajica is about how we are all connected, and how significant yet insignificant our individual stories are. — Rin S.

I found this at a small bookshop in Dublin, Ireland and by the time I left a few hours later, I was half way through with it. Tokarczuk is a master at transporting you to different geographical locations and time periods, similar to that of the plane rides that her unnamed narrator takes throughout the book. I describe this book as 'eloquently schizophrenic,' taking you from the airport in modern Germany to the border of 19th century Warsaw where Chopin's heart was smuggled. — Ally G.

Oozing with a love for nature and solitude, and a disdain for the arbitrary rules of so-called "civilization," this book is just what I needed this year. As someone who is chronically overwhelmed by life and all of its expectations, I felt seen by the narrator's preferences for a quiet, slow, and thoughtful existence. And, painfully, I related to the experience of having that existence trampled on by others. At one point, the narrator ponders, "Why should we have to be useful and for what reason? Who divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right?" Pertinent questions, indeed! — Marley S.

Warhawk is the sixth out of eight installments of The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra series. Many series start to drag when they approach their end, but Warhawk sets a breakneck pace from the first page. It’s packed with daemons, starships, shamans, and people of all identities choosing to work together to either hasten or prevent the end of everything. The book's central motif is sacrifice and the ending made me cry despite being foreshadowed from the first chapter. — Shadrach W.

Portland author, Zoe Ballering, takes us deep into her well-considered if very weird world through a group of speculative short stories. Lots of similarities between Ballering and early Kurt Vonnegut, or even Jorge Luis Borges. — Lars G.

I spent 2022 doing a read of every X-Men comic since the 60s and finished it off with this and the books that come after. Hickman writes some of the best X-comics in twenty years and Pepe Larraz draws some of the finest pages I've ever seen. House of X features the Earth's mutant population banding heroes and villains together to form the nation of Krakoa and joining the world's political stage. — Maggie R.

This book came out right before Mother's Day and the overturn of Roe V. Wade and boy oh boy, was it timely! Full of a quiet desperation and determination that steadily grows into a righteous and fury-filled roar, this book quickly became an instant recommendation to every female role model in my life. — Kat H.

Butler's protagonists seem to always face immediate and catastrophic change (sound familiar?) and I have used her books as a guide to navigate the drastic changes in our own world. In Lilith's Brood, Lilith is ultimately faced with the choice to adapt and survive or stay stagnant and wither. Lilith’s struggle with accepting reality in combination with her determination to live her life authentically has been a mirror to reflect back my own existence, and I am grateful to have her example. — Roomie W.

The synopsis calls this one "a jolting look at the maladies of late capitalist life." Yes. Perfect 2022 reading. Deliciously odd and all too relatable. A young woman's quest for an "easy" job (close to home, little thinking, preferably sitting) intersects with the surreal, the suspicious, and (maybe, hopefully) the meaningful. Unlike some workdays, I never wanted this book to end. — Sarah R.

Under the Whispering Door is the exact book that I needed to read during the pandemic. It was a beautifully written story that reaffirmed important aspects of life during uncertain times. Using quirky humor and light magic, the book taught me to be appreciative of my life, and those in it. — Chris P.

This book is one of my prized possessions — the artwork is so amazing. I love just sitting down and studying the illustrations and color choices. I love the way the line weight is used, and the shading and hatching??? Mwah! The way the eyes are drawn and colored are so interesting, too. Not to mention the overall compositions and the very detailed backgrounds. 10/10 make brain go brrrrr. — Sebastian D.

O Robin McKinley, light of my life! This book fully ruined reality for me at 15 and I've reread it obsessively in dark times ever since. If only life were as simple as stepping into your magically imbued spiritual inheritance and going head-to-head with a demon king... — Sitara G.

In the midst of so much distressing news, this book made me believe, not in a perfect world, but in the endless journey towards a better one. By contrasting her "ambiguous utopia" with a world very much like our own, Le Guin considers the flaws and strengths of both, and offers a powerful vision of how we might better care for each other. Oh, and it's also a great love story. — Kai B.

A grizzled, middle-aged reporter and photographer are driving down a country road in Finland when they hit a hare, who darts into the woods. The reporter, Vatanen, stops the car to make sure the hare is okay, and ends up quitting his job, leaving his wife, and traveling the country with the hare by his side. I loved the author's quirky humor, the idyllic pace of the story, and the odd situations Vatanen would find himself in. The novel is picturesque, but by no means sentimental, and it was just what I needed to get through 2022. — Amy W.

As the perilous decline in critical thinking seems to accelerate unabated and our collective inability “to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true” grows virtually unchecked, the sagacity of Carl Sagan both consoles and enlightens. In his 1995 masterpiece, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, the late astronomer and science communicator reckons with “the dumbing down of America” by shining light on superstition, pseudoscience, and the “celebration of ignorance.” Always brilliant — if forebodingly prescient — Sagan’s wise words offer anodyne insight to help forestall our backslide into darkness. — Jeremy G.

This is such an elegant book and it’s written like poetry! I read it more as a reference guide to the different moon phases and guidance on how to work with its energy. I learned more about myself through the prose and rituals in this book. There were shaky times during 2022, but the constants in my year were this book and the moon itself. — Vicky K.

Patricia Smith's Blood Dazzler was much-lauded upon its release, but I only got to it recently. Smith's poems about Hurricane Katrina are so inventive and so visceral. Absolutely stunning. This collection is like the eye of the storm: surrounded by a maelstrom of fear and rage, there is a center of calm wisdom about disaster: what it is and how we meet it; it was just what I needed, just when I needed it. — Keith M.

I both love and resent my therapist for introducing this book to me several years ago. Faced with what has been, at least for me, another very tough year, I find myself leaning hard on the teachings from this book — to be kind to myself and to give myself the grace and compassion I would grant a treasured friend. — Deana R.

I ended up reading a lot of books about grief in 2022 and Path of Totality quickly emerged as the one I'd been looking for. Within the total universe of this aptly titled poetry collection, grief is neither an amphibious vehicle submerging you into a so-called deeper meaning, nor is it an element to be alchemized into something beautiful. Rather, Pollari's stark, unblinking lines, written after the death of her infant daughter, chart a new path altogether, furrowed as an arrow through the terrible heart of happenstance, and lit from within by an all-too-human capacity to love so much and expect so much. — Alexa W.

This is a perfect book of phenomenal essays, about music and also about everything. But I really picked it because They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us is the closest I could get to my real answer of "Hanif Abdurraqib's Instagram stories." I truly love the way he thinks and processes and writes about the world, his generosity in sharing his words, and his musical musings and jokes — it was a consistent bright spot in my 2022, and truly wild that Instagram brought me anything good.

(I realize I'm already recommending his entire catalog, but giving an extra shout to the shiny new 5th anniversary edition of They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.) — Michelle C.

There were many books that got me through another rough year because of the comfort and/or fantastical escapism they gave. This was not one of them, which was a good thing. Parable of the Sower presents such a plausible vision of a dystopian very-near-future and grapples with it so seriously that reading it this year was a tonic. No matter how bad things may get, we are all adaptable by virtue of being human. — Claire A.

I had a rough start to the year (multiple car vandalisms) that left me with a long commute on public transit in the middle of winter. However, Tigana's excellent plot, characters, world, and prose kept me so invested that I looked forward to my long commute each day. I describe this book like a rare vintage wine to enjoy slowly as you attempt to keep warm in the blizzards that life throws your way. — Nick K.

Though it didn't carry me through the whole year, it did carry me through the end of it. I spent all of October clutching this book to my chest wishing my fingers would turn to scaly claws so that I may frighten all who approach me with their pestering mundanity. If only I could be ferocious and unabashed like the hissing monsters in this perfectly macabre collection. — Stacy Wayne D.

This was the year I found Lidia Yuknavitch. I’ve always meant to pick up her books — they’d stare at me from the bookstore shelves, asking why not now — and somehow I knew that the answer was because I’d need them in 2022. I read this loud and angry, beautiful and wildly feeling memoir on my birthday, sitting along the stony shores of the Washougal River. It was exactly the gift I needed to start my 34th year with, and I’ve been treasuring every Yuknavitch title I’ve read since. — Kelsey F.