Now that 2022 is coming to a close, Aster(ix) editors and contributors picked their favorite fiction and nonfiction reads of the year. Stay tuned for forthcoming recommendation reads in 2023! Until then, enjoy these picks!
Nobody’s Magic by Destiny O. Birdsong
(2022, Grand Central Publishing)
“The women of Nobody’s Magic are unforgettable. These are deeply moving stories of love and longing, mourning and discovery, getting unstuck and moving toward freedom. Birdsong captures the unexpected grace of everyday life in sharp, vibrant prose, and the power of these characters–their courage and willingness to reinvent themselves–stayed with me long after the last page.”
—Naima Coster, author of What’s Mine and Yours
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
(2022, Doubleday Books)
“The Man Who Could Move Clouds is a memoir like no other, mapping memory, myth, and the mysteries and magic of ancestry with stark tenderness and beauty. A dreamlike and literal excavation of the powers of inheritance, Ingrid Rojas Contreras has given us a glorious gift with these pages.”
—Patricia Engel, author of Infinite Country
Harry Sylvester Bird by Chinelo Okparanta
(2022, Mariner Books)
“Arresting, bold and exactly the kind of book we need right now. Harry Sylvester Bird is haunting in the best way possible. It is truly thrilling to read such an unapologetic point of view from a master storyteller.”
—Angie Cruz, author of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
The Girls in Queens by Christine Kandic Torres
(2022, Harpervia)
“This book is a tender, moving, and masterful novel. Set in Woodside, Queens during a rare winning streak for the Mets, The Girls in Queens has no easy answers, but as I followed Brisma’s journey and her strained relationship with a community that wants to turn a blind eye to the wrongdoings of one of their own, I found myself recognizing the faulty logic we’re forced to use to defend the people we know and love, in a system that usually fails to satisfy the needs of anyone — victim and perpetrator alike.”
— Stephanie Jimenez, author of They Could Have Named Her Anything
Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir
(2022, Graywolf Press)
“Poet and psychoanalyst Nuar Alsadir juxtaposes motherhood with circus arts in this wondrous book on laughter and reframing perceptions of joy: “Recently,” she writes, “I noticed the word “moth” in the word “mother,” a tendency toward light.” Her writing creates a light all its own. A must read.”
— Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew
Voice of the Fish by Lars Horn
(2022, Graywolf Press)
“Voice of the Fish is a stunning lyric essay that explores fluidity, genderqueerness, transmasculinity, healing, the body, and the nature of consciousness in piercingly innovative ways. It’s exquisitely crafted, thematically ambitious, and a true joy to read.”
—Carolina De Robertis, author of The President and the Frog
Burning Butch by R/B Metz
(2022, Unnamed Press)
“Burning Butch howls against the dogged mouth of the past as much as illuminates the present, evoking the legendary Leslie Feinberg and their struggle for selfhood in the classic memoir, Stone Butch Blues. Mertz’s extraordinary and stunning debut memoir extends and deepens the tradition begun by Feinberg for ‘butch’ life, butch recognition, gender non-conformity, and queerness by writing the catastrophic and world-shattering repressions that radical Christianity can inflict on children, people, and communities. In this gorgeously written, powerful and moving literary accomplishment, Mertz reminds us of the sheer miracle that any of us queer kids are alive. Burning Butch is sure to be a new classic. It will lead us into a brighter future.”
—Dawn Lundy Martin, author of Good Stock Strange Blood
Neruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera
(2022, Ballantine Books)
“Neruda on the Park is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. This is the unforgettable story of a family and community under threat, and a mother and daughter just beginning to truly see one another. It is as poignant and perceptive as it is sexy and thrilling, the rare book that manages to be chilling and fun and profound all at once. A remarkable feat of imagination from a wholly original writer.” — Naima Coster, author of What’s Mine and Yours
Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion by Bushra Rehman
(2022, Flatiron Books)
“With a poet’s sensibility for language, Bushra Rehman has created a tender and multi-layered story of young Muslim women navigating a complicated and racialized world. This novel will break your heart open.”
—Daisy Hernández, author of The Kissing Bug
Borderless by Namrata Poddar
(2022, 7.13 Books)
“A finalist for The Feminist Press’s Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, Borderless is a novel made up of interconnected stories set in call centers in India to Orange County, CA. Namrata Poddar is a fierce storyteller, and Borderless has a lively, singular cast of characters that will stay with you for a long time.”
—Angie Cruz, author of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
(2022, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
“The understated poetry in this new novel from Yiyun Li left me a more transparent creature in the strange creek of life. Li’s depiction of rural childhood, of the intensity of girlhood friendships in isolated places, resonated with me deeply. ”
—Idra Novey, Those Who Knew
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
(2022, Ballantine Books)
“Exquisite and expansive, Black Cake took a hold of me from the first page and didn’t let go. This is a novel about the formation and reformation of a family, and the many people, places, and events that can shape our inheritances without our knowing. A gripping, poignant debut from an important, new voice. How lucky we are to read Charmaine Wilkerson.”
—Naima Coster, author of What’s Mine and Yours
