Books I Will Spend All My Money on in 2022 | New Releases I'm Looking Forward to

As the dust settles from all the craziness of the holiday season I am starting to look ahead to what this year has in store. There’s a lot I’m looking forward to this year! I’m in a job I actually like, working on a Master’s degree, and taking tangible steps towards my goals. These are all wonderful and fulfilling things but, if you know me you probably already know that I am almost equally excited for new books coming out. I read 66 books in 2021. If I'm really into a story I am the type to just shotgun it like a beer at a frat party, so I usually read at least a few books each month. 

Anyway, as a full time student again I’m making it a goal of mine to read more library books. It’s a cheaper and more sustainable option! I don’t have the money or the shelf space to buy every book that catches my eye! These are the books that are most likely to make me blow my budget in the year of 2022. Many are sequels to books I’ve already read and loved, but others just happened to catch my eye when I stumbled upon them online. If this list makes you stumble upon more books you want to read and spend money on, I will not be held liable. Consider that a warning.

1) The Merciless Ones by Namina Forma

As someone in my early 20s I’m starting to steer away from YA reads and gravitate more towards adult books. Adult books can offer a level of depth and complexity that is often missing in books geared towards younger audiences. The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna was a definite exception to this. The story was entertaining, the world building was rich, and there were a lot of interesting and nuanced real world parallels. I read the last 250 pages of it in a single day because I just needed to know what was going to happen next. I am very much looking forward to the sequel which comes out on April 5th.

2) Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel

Feminist Greek Mythology retellings have become a popular genre of their own the past few years thanks to Madeline Miller. However, there are so many pantheons around the world with their own fascinating stories to explore. This book looks at the story of a Queen in Hindu mythology stepping into her power and defying the powers at be. I am super excited to dive in to this one when it comes out on April 26th.

2) Homicide and Halo Halo by Mia P. Manansala

Mia P. Manansala is releasing her second installment of her Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series this February, and I am stoked! I read the first, Arsenic and Adobo, over the course of a weekend shortly after it came out last spring. It was the definition of “cozy mystery” with a cast of endearing characters and just enough suspense to keep me on my toes! There’s murder involved, but it’s like funny, fictional murder. The only good kind.

4) Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto

This is another sequel to a cozy mystery I absolutely devoured last year! Dial A for Aunties, the first book in this series, had a lot of parallels to Arsenic and Adobo (they both follow women in their twenties who have put aside their dreams in order to help their family business as they deal with the aftermath of a murder, and they both feature a big crazy family that serve as important supporting characters). Despite all these similarities, the plots were completely different. It was simply the most fun a person could have reading about homicide. I’m so looking forward to its release date of March 19th.

5) Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong

I had never been that interested in poetry until this past year. Reading Ocean Vuong’s first collection of poetry, Night Sky With Exit Wounds, this past fall helped solidify my interest in poetry altogether. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since Ocean Vuong is probably already considered one of the great poets of our time despite only having one published collection thus far. This next one comes out on April 5th, at which point I will slowly and thoughtfully savor it.

5) Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

Art History has been a pretty frequent subject of random internet rabbit holes I’ve gotten into recently so this art heist novel coming out on April 5th definitely caught my eye. From the descriptions I’ve read it seems equally fun and thrilling and explores the legacy of colonialism through the art world. April 5th is shaping up to be a very bad day for my bank account.

7) True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Danielle J. Lindeman

I heard about this book recently on withcindy’s youtube channel. She said she’d recommend it to anyone who is reality TV trash like her, a category I certainly fall into. Reality TV is such a guilty pleasure of mine and because I’m a nerd I feel the need to intellectualize everything. Needless to say, this book is right up my alley! The author is going to explore the context from which certain popular shows arose and the impact they had. The book comes out February 15th, at which point I hope the publisher will shut up and take my money!

8) Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

I am currently in the middle of the third book I have read by the author and I am thrilled to see that she is coming out with another one! Many of my favorite authors are dead so I'm glad one of the few living ones has been cranking out books like a machine the last few years. All of the books I’ve read from her so far were set in this century, but this one is set in the medieval era! Everything I know about medieval Europe seems like it could have come out of a shitpost meme generator. I can’t wait to see the inherent weirdness of that era combined with the author’s already weird style. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait until June 21st.

9) Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

This is another exception to what I said earlier about YA. The first book in the series, Legendborn, was definitely my favorite book I read in quarter 1 of 2021, and among the best books I read all year. Set in modern day North Carolina it perfectly blended magic, Arthurian legend, mystery, and real world issues like the white patriarchy. We sadly have to wait until NOVEMBER 8TH until the second installment of this series.

So there are the 9 books I’m going to spend all my money on in 2022. I’d make it a round 10 but I wanted to be genuine with the books I chose to include. Hopefully this post didn’t strain your budget too much!