Sara Tieman is not only an amazing Promotions & PR Manager for WGN Radio, but she is also a voracious reader who has read nearly 100 books this year! Yes, you read that right! She joins John Williams to discuss some of the best books she read in 2022. Check out her entire list below. It could provide some great last-minute stocking stuffer ideas for the book-lover in your life.

95 books under my belt for the year, but probably will get to 98-100 by year’s end. Reading banned or challenged books was one of my focuses, as well as staying on top of books to watch.

By the numbers (to date)

58 fiction/37 nonfiction

On the top 10 list:

Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt

The Island of Missing Trees – Elif Shafak

Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus

Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson

In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage – Silvia Vasquez-Lavado

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life – Lulu Miller

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century – Timothy D. Snyder, illustrated by Nora Krug

Gender Queer: A Memoir – Maia Kobabe

  1. Clark and Division – Naomi Hirahara
  2. The Island of Missing Trees – Elif Shafak
  3. Sankofa – Chibundo Onuzo
  4. Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life – Alan Cumming
  5. Project Hail Mary – Andy Weir
  6. Huda F are You?  – Huda Fahmy
  7. My Body – Emily Ratajkowski
  8. Taste: My Life Through Food – Stanley Tucci
  9. The Family – Naomi Krupitsky
  10. Dirty Daddy: The Chronicles of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian – Bob Saget
  11. The Last Cuentista – Donna Barba Higuera
  12. Akata Witch – Nnedi Okorafor
  13. Violeta – Isabel Allende
  14. Wahala – Nikki May
  15. Fiona and Jane – Jean Chen Ho
  16. Shout – Laurie Halse Anderson
  17. Olga Dies Dreaming – Xochitl Gonzalez
  18. All Boys Aren’t Blue – George M. Johnson
  19. Honor – Thrity Umrigar
  20. The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music – Dave Grohl
  21. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century – Timothy Snyder
  22. The Last Thing He Told Me – Laura Dave
  23. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States – Sarah Vowell
  24. Notes on an Execution – Danya Kukafka
  25. In the Shadow of a Mountain: A Memoir of Courage – Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
  26. Homicide and Halo-Halo – Mia P. Manansala
  27. A Walk in Chicago: Never a City so Real – Alex Kotlowitz
  28. Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life – Lulu Miller
  29. Wishful Drinking – Carrie Fisher
  30. Other People’s Clothes – Calla Henkel
  31. The Love of My Life – Rosie Walsh
  32. Gender Queer: A Memoir – Maia Kobabe
  33. Where the Forest Meets the Stars – Glendy Vanderah
  34. These Precious Days: Essays – Ann Patchett
  35. A Face for Picasso: A Memoir – Ariel Henley
  36. Run Rose Run – Dolly Parton and James Patterson
  37. The Maid – Nita Prose
  38. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know – Malcolm Gladwell
  39. My Monticello – Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
  40. Fly Girl: A Memoir – Ann Hood
  41. Bitter – Akwaeke Emezi
  42. The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams
  43. Take My Hand – Dolen Perkins-Valdez
  44. Very Cold People – Sarah Manguso
  45. Book Lovers – Emily Henry
  46. Finding Me – Viola Davis
  47. Nothing Burns as Bright as You – Ashley Woodfolk
  48. Happy People are Annoying – Josh Peck
  49. Read Dangerously – Azar Nafisi
  50. She Kills Me: The True Stories of History’s Deadliest Women – Jennifer Wright
  51. The Tobacco Wives – Adele Myers
  52. Two Nights in Lisbon – Chris Pavone
  53. The Unsinkable Greta James – Jennifer E. Smith
  54. The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles
  55. Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir – Nikki Grimes
  56. Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson
  57. Shit, Actually – Lindy West
  58. Ancestor Trouble: A Reckoning and a Reconciliation – Maud Newton
  59. What My Bones Know – Stephanie Foo
  60. Corrections in Ink – Keri Blakinger
  61. George (formerly titled “Melissa”) – Alex Gino
  62. The Emergency: A Year of Healing and Heartbreak in a Chicago ER – Thomas Fisher
  63. The Seagull – Anton Chekhov
  64. Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt
  65. Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir – Erika L. Sanchez
  66. Lessons in Chemistry: Bonnie Garmus
  67. An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for Young People – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese
  68. I Kissed Shara Wheeler – Casey McQuiston
  69. Best. State. Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland – Dave Barry
  70. When Stars are Scattered – Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed
  71. Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings – Chrysta Bilton
  72. Hollow Fires – Samira Ahmed
  73. Thanks A Thousand: A Gratitude Journey – A.J. Jacobs
  74. Memphis – Tara M. Stringfellow
  75. Honey & Spice – Bolu Babalola
  76. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin
  77. The Silence That Binds Us – Joanna Ho
  78. Any Other Family – Eleanor Brown
  79. A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow – Laura Taylor Namey
  80. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight – Jennifer E. Smith
  81. As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow – Zoulfa Katouh
  82. The Rosie Result – Graeme Simsion
  83. Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard – Tom Felton
  84. Nightcrawling – Leila Mottley
  85. The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks – Shauna Robinson
  86. The Truths We Hold: An American Journey – Kamala Harris
  87. Wildoak – C.C. Harrington
  88. Whiskey in a Teacup – Reese Witherspoon
  89. Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You – edited by Adam Kay
  90. Gmorning, Gnight: Little Pep Talks for Me & You – Lin Manuel-Miranda
  91. The Bullet That Missed – Richard Osman
  92. When We Were Sisters – Fatimah Asghar
  93. The Littlest Library – Poppy Alexander
  94. A Rover’s Story – Jasmine Warga
  95. One Day in December – Josie Silver

Currently reading:

The Personal Library – Marie Benedict

Killers of a Certain Age – Deanna Raybourn

Next on deck:
Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng