Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino, a great companion to the movie and expands on characters in really unique ways that make me think about them.

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, a near future book about climate change and trying to fix it with an interesting geopolitical look of China acting like the US. I also liked Ministry of the Future but it was less fun of a read.

Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt, a reasoned look at how social media and devices are negatively impacting society and children.

Borne by Jeff VanderMeer, a weird near future declinepunk with bioengineering and evil corporations.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, very short book with a glimpse into post colonial colonialism in remote locations. Wanted to read a book about Congo.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, a portrait of a character in a time I didn’t experience.

Postwar by Tony Judt. Published in 2005, it covers 1945 Postwar Europe to ~2005. Good coverage of not just the major Western European countries like the UK, Germany, and France, but attention is paid to the Eastern European countries and Soviet Union. The US of course comes into the picture at parts, but the book is firmly focused on Europe. I found the economic development, political attitudes and party shifts, and the coverage of the Soviet Union and countries behind the iron curtain.

I am looking for a follow up and may read Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich, Stalin by Kotkin, or The Free World by Mendand. Suggestions appreciated

> someone with a ideological bone to pick

Not really "someone", more like most anthropologists. E.g. David Wengrow and David Graeber's takedown in Dawn of Everything

Or

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27503687

Do Nothing by Celeste Headlee.

Top three (sorry)

Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism by Kathryn Tanner. A really good look at how capitalism has been expressed in our modern world, and how Christianity should not enable the worst excesses of capitalism.

The Power Broker by Robert Caro. This one actually took me about 6 months between reading and Audible, because it is in some ways too detailed, but the naked use of power for maintaining power for a singular vision is illuminating. Even in an antagonistic biography, Moses leaps off the page as a bright, energetic, flawed human. I enjoyed this a lot.

Rediscovering Scripture’s Vision for Women by Lucy Peppiat. A persuasive, intelligent, and solid look at how Christianity in America has taken many unfortunate turns away from reading Scripture as a document of equality and elevation, and toward a document of hierarchy and repression. I think Peppiat does a good job of discussing all theological avenues of thought and while clearly disfavoring some, not stooping to ridicule, caricature, or personal attack.