My Reading Plan for 2022

Help me fill out my list!

Hi friends! I have a plan.

That’s me, thinking about my plan. Next year, I am going to read (some of) the books that people recommend to me over and over again. You know the ones—the books that you know will be great but just never seem to get around to, the backlist titles that you’ll read someday. Well, someday has arrived! Or will arrive in two weeks! 2022, you’re mine.

Here are some books on my list. Will I read all of them in 2022? No! But will I choose from these, many of them recommended by my very smart friends? Yes! You might see some of these and say, Emma! How have you not read these books? Because I read other books instead. Because for the last five years, I have had galleys thrown at my head a hundred times a day. You cannot shame me within my own newsletter. Some of them I started and put down fifteen years ago. Many of them are already on my bookshelf at home, waiting. Remember—it is a lucky thing not to have already read every beloved book in the world, because then you still have the pleasure of reading them ahead of you. Here they come!

-Shirley Hazzard, The Transit of Venus (This is going to be my January Staff Pick at the store, read along with me!)

-Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women (Recommended by Books Are Magic supervisor Natalie, who wrote the most selling shelf talker I’ve ever seen.)

-Helen DeWitt, The Last Samurai

-Louise Erdrich, La Rose

-Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

-David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas (Recommended by Emily Mandel)

-Norman Rush, Mating (Recommended by Rumaan Alam)

-Rebecca Makkai, Great Believers (Recommended by Priyanka Mattoo)

-Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Française

-Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

-Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Recommended by Megan Mayhew Bergman)

-Junichirō Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (Recommended by Katie Kitamura)

-Audre Lorde, Zami (Recommended by Taffy Brodesser-Akner)

What are your favorites of all time, the ones you recommend to friends over and over again? I want to know! Add titles in the comments! Please and thank you.

Pre-order This Time Tomorrow here.

P.S. Need a last minute gift for a person who loves books? Donate to Brooklyn Book Bodega in their name! Win-win!