If I had to sum up this year, I’d just quote Psalm 139:8 – If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. There were some exceptional highs, but mostly a lot of lows. God was with me all the time. I was lucky enough to read 57 books this year and 5 rose to the very top. What details from each book can you spot in the picture below?

#5: Open Throat by Henry Hoke

I get why people can’t decide on one name. This can’t all be ellay.

This unbelievable, unique novel tells the story of a non-binary and starving mountain lion fleeing the inequality of Los Angeles and the devastating effects of climate change in search of a place to belong. At times, Hoke’s oddity can overpower his message, but this was far and away the most unique and interesting book I read this year. Hoke skewers in gorgeous prose the cruelty of climate change, homelessness, and heteronormativity and cissexism. This is for brave fans of the atypical who feel a little lost in their skin.

You may also like: Shadowbahn by Steve Erickson for the strange plot line; Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett for gender identity as a motif; or Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter for nontraditional prose and personified animals.

(Purchase Open Throat from Tattered Cover, an independent bookstore in Denver, Colorado)

#4: The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

But there is no law in nature against cruelty.

In a small college town in the woods of California, a freshman falls asleep and dies. She becomes the first of thousands of patients who contract a mysterious illness that causes a deep and endless sleep, marked by signs of dreaming. A handful of characters wrestle with the meaning of life, dreams, plagues, and ethics in this searing and memorable novel of a community of the brink of devastation. This novel is for people okay with loose ends and rich atmosphere who secretly feel everything in life is spiraling out of control.

You may also like: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam for a disaster novel about implications more than details; Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Øyehaug for a gorgeous atmosphere; or How High we Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu (something else I read this year!) for a cast of complicated characters facing a plague.

(Purchase The Dreamers from Queen Anne Book Company, an independent bookstore in Seattle, Washington)

#3: All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore

All my knotted-up life I’ve longed for the sanity and simplicity of knowing who’s good and who’s bad.

Beth Moore has been a tower in the field of women’s ministry for many decades. Christians around the country have been vocal for their support for or hatred of this former Southern Baptist, outspoken Christian leader. For the first time, Beth tears back the curtain to reveal her painful and profound life in and out of ministry. I laughed and cried my way through this and, as the child of a woman in ministry, felt healed by her sharing the chaos and pain of living a complicated life in the gray spaces of morality. I walked away confident we needed more leaders like Beth. This is a book for people who wish the world was simple but have come to find beauty in the mayhem.

You may also like: The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom by Andrew Peterson for a memoir of someone deeply rooted in ministry; The Autumn Balloon by Kenny Porpora for a memoir about complicated legacy; or Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh a memoir about the complexities of womanhood.

(Purchase All My Knotted-Up Life from Eagle Harbor Book Co. in Bainbridge Island, Washington).

#2: Pines by Blake Crouch

It was a pretty simple choice for me. Would I rather love or be loved? – From The Last Town, the third book in the Wayward Pines series.

Ethan Burke, a secret service agent, wakes up in Wayward Pines, Idaho after a devastating car accident. As days pass, he realizes something is very wrong in this small town. His wife or supervisor won’t return his calls, strange fences encircle the town, and no one will give him back his possessions. As Ethan works to uncover the truth, nothing in Ethan’s life, or the world, will ever be the same. This book ,the first in a trilogy, has a few plot holes that get resolved in latter books, but maintains a thrilling, horrifying sense of dread that had me cursing out everybody for being stuck in a blizzard without access to the second book. This is a book for people who like to be scared and provoked.

You may also like: I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid for a thrill ride where you can’t even trust yourself; Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel for the first book in a series you can’t stop reading; or 11/22/63 for a book about by Stephen King for a protagonist in places he shouldn’t be.

(Purchase Pines from More Than Words, an independent bookstore in Fargo-Moorhead, North Dakota/Minnesota).

#1 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Usually you not stupid. Why stupid, question?

In deep space, astronaut Ryland Grace awakes to a ship of dead crew mates and no memory of who or where he is. Unbeknownst to him, the fate of earth is in his amnesiac hands. All he needs to do is solve an impossible problem all alone in the middle of an unknown galaxy. This book got off to a slow start for me before I was catapulted into an anxious and heart searing plot led by characters I couldn’t help audibly cheering and sobbing for. Weir is a master of uncovering and celebrating our humanity in the most unexpected places. This novel is for dreamers and cynics who wonder if they might be able to change for the better. This was a clear and obvious #1 book contender – I haven’t stopped thinking of it or wanting to reread it since.

You may also like: Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy for themes of humanity and regret at the edge of existence; Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley for a non-fiction look at accomplishing the impossible; or The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (also read this year!) for a solitary protagonist on an uncertain quest in space.

(Purchase Project Hail Mary from Powell’s City of Books, an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon).

Comment below your favorite book(s) of the year! If you’re looking for other reading recommendations, check out my top books of: 2022; 2021; 2020; the 2010’s.

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Bryce Van Vleet is the #1 selling author of Tired Pages and Before We All Die Let’s Have One Last Chat by the Fireside. He also hosts the podcast Death in Dakota and sells poetry art here. You can support him by clicking through blog posts or donating (scroll to the bottom of the page).

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