Oh, friends. Albeit the holidays are a challenging and tiring time for many, they are also the glorious occasion of Best Books of the Year lists, which I love so much. I am linking to, uh, a certain number of those lists. Make of that what you will.
NPR’s Book Concierge for 2022
Brittle Paper‘s list of 100 Notable African Books of 2022.
The Guardian‘s Best Books of 2022.
Paste‘s Best Fantasy Books of 2022.
Kirkus has a bunch of subject-specific lists of best books of 2022.
The Globe and Mail‘s Best Books of 2022.
Laura Miller’s best of 2022. Dan Kois’s best of 2022. (both from Slate)
Shelf Awareness: Best Books of 2022
Chicago Tribune‘s Best 10 Books of 2022
New Scientist‘s best nonfiction of 2022
Washington Post‘s 10 Best Books of 2022
New York Times‘s Best 10 Books of 2022
Foreign Affairs’ Best Books of 2022
Time‘s 100 Must-Read Books of 2022
Barnes and Nobles’ Best Books of 2022
Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2022
Vulture’s Best Books of 2022
I am absolutely delighted about Goncharov (1973), and I think you will be too. It is, however, another illustration of how much fandom loves to invest emotions in white characters and whiteness.
“Don’t you want to be able to retire?” How home-reno shows are making us think we want and need home changes we don’t like.
What will writers do without Twitter?
Thank heaven someone has done an oral history of the 12-foot Home Depot skeletons. God bless this Vice article, and God bless the 12-foot Home Depot skeletons. They’re so stupid. I love them so much.
Aubrey Gordon has a new book out and is a national treasure!
An all-spoilers review of what makes Andor so great.
Usually I love the “this industry is completely unregulated!” exposes but this one on hospice is even more of a goddamn bummer travesty than these pieces usually are. Also like… this article takes some turns. You think it’s just “this industry is completely unregulated!” and then some time goes by and there’s a WHOLE ASS SCHEME with a LAWYER IN A WIG DISGUISE and shit. (Seriously, holy shit, I cannot overstate how insane this article is.)
“As the queer content of many of Donatello’s sculptures has been the subject of intense scholarly debate, it would have been intellectually rigorous for the catalogue to address these debates more directly. Instead, silence was observed in deference to the Catholic Church.”
Kavita Das has a new book about writing on social issues, and here she is in a roundtable on the subject with Gaiutra Bahadur and the wonderful Gabrielle Bellot.
The US absolutely owes it to our Afghan allies to adjust the status of refugees now in the US to allow them to stay. Otherwise, they’ll be deported back to Afghanistan. If you take nothing else away from this links round-up, please call your elected officials about this!
Emancipation (the movie!) hadn’t been on my radar until this week, and Valerie Complex has a typically thoughtful review of the movie in itself and the place of Black trauma in cinema.
Always nice to read a story about how romance novels gave someone joy in hard times!
Wesley Morris talks about the crisis of the type of movies that build movie stars.
“Ironically, this is the most personal piece of writing I have ever published.” Isabel Kaplan’s boyfriend (a writer) broke up with her because she’s a writer.
Twitter is awful and being terminally online is awful and everything is awful.
“Our ambulances are simply the entrance to a broken pipeline.” An EMS worker in New York City weighs in on Eric Adams’s shitty new proposal to institutionalize more mentally ill people so that the rest of the New York public won’t have to look at them anymore.
America doesn’t have a polarization problem; it has a white supremacy problem.
Gretchen McCulloch has helpfully standardized how we spell the abbreviated version of the word “usual.” Thanks, Gretchen McCulloch!
Iron Horse asked seven poets about their revision process, and here’s the result.
Have a wonderful weekend! Good luck with your TBR lists! I regret nothing!