2022 Master Reading List

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Time to start a new year with a new master reading list, which includes book selections for all of the reading challenges I’ll be participating in. This list isn’t exhaustive, as I’ll likely pick up a lot of new releases from publishers that I read for as well as a handful of other books along the way.

Like years in the past, I’ll be participating in the Popsugar Reading Challenge, a list of fifty prompts to encourage readers to branch out to new genres, new and old. I’ll also be doing Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, which really forces you to put on your thinking cap, with multi-descriptive prompts that will help you diversify your bookshelf and read more books by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors - something I have been trying to do for years.

I also enjoy doing the RAD Reading Challenge and the #ReadYourBooks challenge, both of which give you an opportunity to add some books that you already own but haven’t read to your TBR, along with some other fun choices. And finally, I’ll be choosing a few more selections from Sanne’s Back to University list, picking up some of those books from my school years that I never read or finished when I was supposed to. It’s been a lot of fun to go back and read some of those classics.

There have been a few changes this year. In light of the pandemic that has been happening the last two years, some challenges have been discontinued, like Anne Bogel’s Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge, and I applaud her for encouraging her followers to read whatever and whenever they want. You can read her explanation if you’re curious. I always end up reading a lot of books every year, but I find myself not getting a lot of breathing room because I participate in so many challenges. This year, the focus is on reading for relaxation and not pushing so hard to check off these lists.

After this post was originally published, the Reading Glasses Podcast came out with their reading challenge list, and Roxane Gay added some of her picks for the 2022 Audacious Book Club, so I’m adding those books to my totals. I’m also adding a new challenge, the Big Book Reading Challenge, which encourages the reading of more big books. By my count, that’s 125 books on the list, fewer than in the past, but I’m excited to get started! Happy reading!

Popsugar Reading Challenge (Count: 50/50)

1. A book published in 2022 - Acne by Laura Chinn

2. A book about a band or musical group - The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

3. A book set on a plane, train, or cruise ship - Babysitters on Board by Ann M. Martin

4. A book with a character on the ace spectrum - Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

5. A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society - Wilder Girls by Rory Power

6. A book with a recipe in it - Home by Bryan Voltaggio

7. A book with a tiger on the cover or “tiger” in the title - The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

8. A book you can read in one sitting - The Awakening by Kate Chopin

9. A sapphic book - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

10. A book about a secret - The Secret Place by Tana French

11. A book by a Latinx author - With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

12. A book with a misleading title - How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

13. A book with an onomatopoeia in its title - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming

14. A Hugo Award winner - This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

15. A book with a protagonist who uses a mobility aid - Among Others by Jo Walton

16. A book set during a holiday - The Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

17. A book with a “found family” - Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee

18. A different book by an author you read in 2021 - That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam

19. An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner - The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

20. A book with the name of a board game in the title - Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come by Jessica Pan

21. #BookTok recommendation - Apples Never Fall by Lianne Moriarty

22. A book featuring a manmade disaster - I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919 by Lauren Tarshis

23. A book about the afterlife - The Light Between Us by Laura Lynne Jackson

24. A book with a quote from your favorite author on the cover or Amazon page - The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

25. A book set in the 1980s - The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

26. A social-horror book - The Circle by Dave Eggers

27. A book with cutlery on the cover or in the title - Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson

28. A book set in Victorian times - Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

29. A book by a Pacific Islander author - Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden

30. A book with a constellation on the cover or in the title - Finding Orion by John David Anderson

31. A book about witches - Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian

32. A book you know nothing about - Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

33. A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2022 - The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

34. A book about gender identity - Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

35. A romance novel by a BIPOC author - Luster by Raven Leilani

36. A book featuring a party - The Guest List by Lucy Foley

37. A book that takes place during your favorite season - Autumn by Ali Smith

38. An #OwnVoices science fiction fantasy book - The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

39. A book whose title begins with the last letter of your previous read - Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

40. A book that fulfills your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar Reading Challenge - Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

41. A book with a reflected image on the cover or “mirror” in the title - Notes From Ghost Town by Kate Ellison

42. A book about someone leading a double life - American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

43. A book that features two languages - Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

44. A book featuring a parallel reality - Coraline by Neil Gaiman

45. A book with a palindromic title - Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

46. A book with two POVs - Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

47. A duology (1) - Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

48. A duology (2) - Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken

49. Two books set in twin towns, AKA “sister cities” (1) - Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay (Mexico)

50. Two books set in twin towns, AKA “sister cities” (2) - Forty Autumns by Nina Willner (Berlin)

Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge (Count: 24/24)

1. A biography of an author you admire - Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

2. A book set in a bookstore - The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

3. Any book from the Women’s Prize shortlist/longlist/winner list - The Road Home by Rose Tremain

4. A book in any genre by a POC that’s about joy and not trauma - You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

5. An anthology featuring diverse voices - Hungry Hearts by Caroline Tung Richmond

6. A nonfiction YA comic - Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

7. A romance where at least one of the protagonists is over 40 - Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

8. A classic written by a POC - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

9. The book that’s been on your TBR the longest - The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

10. A political thriller by a marginalized author - August Snow by Stephen Mack Jones

11. A book with an asexual and/or aromantic main character - Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

12. An entire poetry collection - The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon

13. An adventure story by a BIPOC author - A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

14. A book whose movie or TV adaptation you’ve already seen - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

15. A new-to-you literary magazine - New England Review Vol. 43, No. 1

16. A book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes - Book Lovers by Emily Henry

17. A memoir written by someone who is trans or nonbinary - Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt

18. A “Best_ Writing of the year” book for a topic and year of your choice - Buzz Books Great Reads Spring/Summer 2022

19. A horror novel by a BIPOC author - The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

20. An award-winning book from the year you were born - The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

21. A queer retelling of a classic of the cannon, fairytale, folklore, or myth - Ash by Malinda Lo

22. A history about a period you know little about - The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

23. A book by a disabled author - Disability Visibility by Alice Wong

24. A challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat - All of This by Rebecca Woolf

Back to University Reading List (Count: 5/5)

1. The Mist by Stephen King

2. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

3. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

4. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

5. The Grasshopper by Richard Lovelace

The RAD Reading Challenge (Count: 9/9)

1. A graphic novel - White Bird by R.J. Palacio

2. A #BookTok rec - Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

3. A one-word title - Freed by E.L. James

4. A book about food - My Life in France by Julia Child

5. A book with a cover you love - I Could Pee on This, Too by Francesco Marciuliano

6. A celeb memoir - Will by Will Smith

7. A book set where you live - Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz

8. A book that became a movie - The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

9. Reread a book from high school - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

#ReadYourBooks Challenge (Count: 10/10)

1. The Valentine Circle by Reinaldo Delvalle

2. Roanoke by Angela Hunt

3. Once Upon a Summer by Janette Oke

4. The Haunted House by Walter Hubbell

5. The Art of Peeling an Orange by Victoria Avilan

6. Focus by Ingrid Rick

7. The Legend of Devil’s Creek by D.C. Alexander

8. The Tumor by John Grisham

9. Spilt Milk by D.K. Cassidy

10. The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Reading Glasses Challenge (Count: 10/10)

1. A self-help book - Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown

2. A retelling - Beauty by Robin McKinley

3. The first book in a series - A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

4. An AAPI author - Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen

5. A book that’s been adapted - The Last Duel by Eric Jager

• Watch the movie adaptation

• Ask someone what they’re reading

• Track your reading for the year

• Do a reading streak - 10 minutes a day for one week straight

• Figure out your reading pathway

Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club (Count: 12/12)

1. January: Noor by Nnedi Okarafor

2. February: To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

3. March: How High We Go In the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

4. April: Memphis by Tara Stringfellow

5. May: Ancestor Trouble by Maud Newton

6. June: Trust by Hernan Diaz

7. July: Women of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

8. August: Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen

9. September: How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo

10. October: Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi

11. November: Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

12. December: Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa

Big Book Reading Challenge (Count: 5/5)

1. A book by a BIPOC author - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

2. A translated book - The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness by Shin Kyung-sook (Translated by Ha-Yun Jung)

3. A book you consider to be a “classic” - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

4. A backlist book that’s been on your TBR list for too long - Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

5. A book you consider especially long - The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco