12 Books I Want To Read in 2022

It’s better late than never!

2022 provides a brand new start and another year filled with amazing new titles to be introduced to the world. However, like any self-proclaimed book hoarder (such as myself), it’s just another new year wherein we’ll be buried underneath our massive TBRs. I specifically did not do an elaborate reading goal for this year because of my current schedule, so I only wanted to do my usual target of reading a total of 50 books. Apart from that, everything else is out in the open, especially given how much I mood read.

However, there are a few titles that I am really itching to get my hands on, and these 12 books are the ones I want to prioritize for this year. I originally planned on having 22 books on this year, but then I thought really hard on it, and decided to cut it down into something more manageable. I also didn’t include any 2022 releases (since I’m pretty bad at keeping track of all of them) and the 12 books I asked my social media moots to recommend me. I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed in the hope that I will be able to read all these titles before 2022 ends.

Say Yes to Science Fiction

• Morning Star by Pierce Brown
  • I reread Red Rising and read Golden Son (and absolutely loved it) last year, but unfortunately did not immediately followed through with Morning Star because I was still in so much pain after all the events that happened in the second book. I have high expectations that Morning Star will deliver even more, especially after the massive changes that went on from the first book towards the second.
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
  • The Teixcalaan Duology has been a high recommendation amongst my bookish Discord friends. They wouldn’t stop talking about how immersive and beautiful these books have been, but still keeping a lot of important concepts and issues in its pages to make it even more well-rounded. I’m sure all of them will be finally glad that I’ve finally picked up this one especially after I failed to join in their buddy reads.
• Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson
  • 2021 was the year I was introduced to Brandon Sanderson’s non-Cosmere works, and I started it with Skyward. I’m currently caught up to the series, finishing last with the second novella ReDawn. I was already planning to buy a copy of this book when it finally arrived in the country, but then one of my friends told me that he’ll be giving me his extra UK copy of the book as a gift! Yay for friends! Hence I will be delaying this book until his book shipments finally arrive.

Getting Back to the YA Roots

• The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
  • I always wanted to read The Gilded Wolves, but for some unknown reason, I haven’t even picked up it after all these years. Fortunately enough, the last book in this trilogy has just been released last year, which gives me the push to finally tackle on this series and binge read if it I wish to without the agonizing wait for the next book.
• These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
  • This well-beloved duology is constantly on all my social media feeds, but like with my case with The Gilded Wolves, I couldn’t explain why I haven’t started this yet. And also like the previous mentioned series, the last book in this duology just recently came out late last year, so more binge-reading for me!
• Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
  • Six Crimson Cranes was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021, as it both featured a new book from the author (who I happened to enjoy her Spin the Dawn duology) and it was a The Wild Swans retelling – my most favorite fairytale story since I was a kid. I definitely blame my school schedule for not immediately picking this one up as soon as it came out, so I’m hoping to rectify it this year.

Fantasy Sequels to Forge On

• Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
  • I decided that 2022 will be the year I would finally introduce myself to a new fantasy giant, namely Robin Hobb. I was able to start and finish the first book in the Farseer trilogy – Assassin’s Apprentice – earlier this month, and it was an enjoyable read. I’m hoping to get to the next book soon, since I’ve been told that it’s a great improvement in terms of the pacing of the story compared to the first book.
• The Liar’s Knot by M.A. Carrick
  • The Mask of Mirrors made it to my top 10 favorite books of 2021, and even though the second book just came out late last year, I’ve been putting it on hold for the meantime because I really want to read this one with the audiobook – which isn’t going to come out until August 2022. The wait for it is keeping me in constant agony, because the audiobook version was such a wonderful experience, and I want to dive into the second installment with the same amount of whimsy and excitement. I would be eternally grateful if the audiobook comes out sooner than everyone’s expecting it! Fingers crossed!
• The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon
  • Samantha Shannon’s books have always been my favorites within the adult fantasy space, and I deemed that it was time to get back into the world of The Bone Season. I actually already read The Bone Season and The Mime Order a couple of years ago, and I wanted to reread them this year before finally continuing on with books 3 and 4, because while there were details that I could still vividly recall, there are still some parts that I may have forgotten already since then. Of course I would still listen to the audiobook versions of these books too, like what I’ve done previously.

More Fantasy Series to Devour

• The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
  • My good friend Sarah (check out her Booktube channel!) is one of the few people within the book community that I highly trust her fantasy recommendations. So it wasn’t surprising that I wanted to join in her A Chorus of Dragons readathon this 2022 in preparation for the release of the final book this year. I’m actually halfway through this book already, and so far I’ve been really enjoying the experience!
• The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
  • The Bone Shard Daughter is just one of the many adult fantasy backlog titles that I’ve been desperately wanting to get into as soon as they were released, but unfortunately my schedule keeps getting in the way. I actually received a physical copy of this from my sister as a Christmas gift, so now I don’t have any excuses not to read it sooner! And to think that its sequel just also recently came out.
• The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu
  • The Grace of Kings is the first book in an epic fantasy story that I absolutely know nothing about aside from the fact that Lena from Sufficiently Advanced Lena – another new budding fantasy Booktuber – keeps singing high praises about. Her enthusiasm regarding this series just piqued my interest, and I wanted to push on in reading this because she’s also one of the few Booktubers that I really trust their fantasy book recommendations.

What books are you planning to read this year?