Welcome to the 18th installment of our Year in Reading series! Over the last two decades, Year in Reading has grown into a beloved Millions tradition, an annual gathering of writers and thinkers to share the books that shaped their year. What makes YIR special is that it’s not just a roundup of book recommendations (as if we needed to add anything more to our TBR) but a celebration of the books that move us—and, in many cases, a thoughtful and intimate look at why they move us.
This marks my first YIR as editor of The Millions, a series of words that feels surreal to type; I distinctly remember, as an undergrad, finals fast approaching, sitting in a cafe near campus and, instead of studying, scrolling feverishly through YIR entries, dreaming that one day I would write one of my own. Which is to say: getting to not just contribute to but assemble this year’s series has been, quite literally, beyond my wildest dreams.
This year’s prompt was open-ended—contributors were simply asked to reflect on what they read in 2022. Some guiding questions: What did you love? What did you dutifully trudge through? What eerily coincided with your personal life, or maybe illuminated something in it? Responses took many forms, and it was important to me to preserve the diversity of contributors’ approaches.
The shape of a YIR essay can reveal a lot about the nature of one’s reading life; at the heart of YIR’s prompt are questions of temporality, taxonomy, reflexivity. Some contributors, for instance, divided their essays into months or seasons, while others organized their essays around an experience—a trip, a pregnancy, a book tour. Some contributors did a deep drive on a singular book, others stuck to the highlights, and yet others attempted to tabulate an entire year’s worth of reading. Yet, varied as the entries are, there were patterns: The work of Percival Everett and Annie Ernaux appeared often, as did recent books by Gwendoline Riley, Sheila Heti, Jessamine Chan, and Elaine Hsieh Chou. Contributors also frequently wrote about “devouring” or “inhaling” books this year; eating, breathing, reading: all essential, life-giving functions.
We our deeply grateful for the generosity of our 2022 contributors, the names of whom will be revealed below as entries are published throughout the month. Bookmark this page and follow us on Twitter to make sure you don’t miss an entry—we’ll be running at least three a day, Monday through Thursday, through December 22.
—Sophia Stewart, editor
Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness
Delia Cai, author of Central Places
A Year in Reading Archives: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
