We’re Adding These 10 Titles to the Top of Our Vacation Reading List in 2022

We’re big fans of everything author Emily Henry writes, and though her next novel, Book Lovers, is on the top of everyone’s reading list for next year, we thought an appropriate addition to this list would be this year’s People We Meet on Vacation.

It centers on Poppy and Alex, best friends who go on an annual vacation together–that is, up until two years ago when a certain incident blew up their friendship. After years of not speaking, Poppy somehow manages to coax Alex out for a make-or-break vacation where they can fix their friendship. What could go wrong?

This will they-won’t they, friends-to-lovers tale makes for a highly addictive beach read, and Henry writes with such love for her characters, that it’s easy to fall in love with them, too. Making what could be a trope-filled premise feel fresh (Poppy and Alex are also complete opposites, of course), this book is the perfect story to envelope yourself in before diving into her latest next year. If that’s not enough, multiple Goodreads users have described it as having When Harry Met Sally vibes. I’ll have what she’s having!

Author Grant Grinder is highly adept at writing biting, witty, and flawed characters in a way that feels authentic. In Let’s Not Do That Again, which publishes in March, we meet Harrison’s fictional family, Senate-candidate mother, brother, and sister, deep in the trenches of crisis-mode after the latter, Greta, takes up with a band of protesters in Paris. Hoping to Olivia Pope their way out of a political disaster, they embark on a wild mission to get Greta outta there. Described as Veep meets Succession, we can wait to pick up this one next spring.

Oh, Tucci, how we love thee. Actor-turned-gourmand Stanley Tucci released Taste: My Life Through Food earlier this year, but if you haven’t picked it up yet, its delicious and delightful ethos will buoy you into the new year. Filled with recipes (for both dishes and his infamous cocktails), stories, and tales from his childhood, this warm memoir fills you up like a bowl full of carbonara.

Read it in anticipation of your big family trip to Italy, or on the way to your big family reunion. Either way, this one will just make you feel good.

Ryan Stradal has a way of writing about the Midwest with such love and care and tenderness, it’ll make you want to pack up and see what it’s all about. In his first novel, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, we follow the coming-of-age story of a virtuoso chef and all the people whose lives she touches. In Minnesota, we follow two sisters, Helen and Edith, one of whom inherits their family farm upon their father’s death. From the inheritance, she creates a successful brewing empire–without sharing her success with her sister. Decades later, her grandniece is allowed her shot at helping with the family business. Will she succeed? Will her success help heal old grudges and repair family wounds?

Stradal loves writing about interesting and complex women, and instead of making them “difficult” or one-note or Manic Pixie Dream Girls, he gives them the same love, care, and tenderness he offers to the Midwest.

A quirky, charming, family drama, enjoy in a hammock paired with your favorite lager.

In Charles Montgomery’s Happy City, the author examines our relationship to happiness, our surroundings, and day-to-day life. But this isn’t a stale textbook. It brilliantly uses a variety of cities across the globe as case studies from chapter to chapter, discussing how the revamp of Bogota’s public transport system cut back on deadly pedestrian collisions by a staggering amount. It shows how community and neighborhood engagement can open up our world in Portland. It explains why European cities spark that dizzying feeling of romance and wanderlust, and why there’s an immediate sense of ease, comfort, and nostalgia when you enter Main Street in Disneyland.

It also has actionable advice on how you can help change your city, the history of cars in cities (and how we can build for people, not automobiles), and an incredible amount of detail that will make you rethink everything you know about where and how you live.

Jami Attenberg is so skilled at writing intense page-turners and carving out such very specific, nuanced, (and messy) family trees, that she’s been called, “the poet laureate of difficult families” by Kirkus Reviews. Naturally, it was only a matter of time before she turned the tables on herself and wrote I Came All This Way to Meet You, a memoir about “unlocking and embracing her creativity.”

Feeling stuck as the daughter of a traveling salesman in the Midwest, Attenberg grew up yearning for adventure and exploration, eventually making her way across the states and later the globe honing her craft, discovering who she was an artist, and being inspired by the world around her. Debuting in January, we can’t think of a better read to pick up and inspire in the new year.

In Kendra James’ prep-school memoir, she explores the unique challenges faced as a young Black student trying to navigate the blindingly-white experience of boarding school. James looks back at her three years at The Taft School, an intense, elite boarding school in Connecticut, where racial politics often reared their ugly head in the form of roommate drama and divisive, racist school newspaper articles.

She also breaks down the juicy drama of it all, debunking myths about boarding school, giving Gossip Girl-esque insight into its posh world, and the cutthroat politics of getting into one of these schools.

Reflecting on “the lie she was selling” (James later became an admissions officer), James discusses how all too often the game is rigged, while infusing laugh-out-loud humor, poignant storytelling, and behind-the-scenes drama. We can’t wait for this sure-to-be buzzed about book come January.

If you are not currently following podcaster/writer/pop culture savant Danny Pellegrino on Instagram (@dannypellegrino) I want you to stop what you’re doing and go follow him, immediately if not sooner. Done? Great.

Pellegrino’s highly anticipated memoir about wildly embarrassing moments in his life (like accidentally throwing a tooth at his dry cleaner), can only be infused with the same hope, earnestness, and joy that his hysterical Instagram musings can be.

Growing up gay in Ohio, Pellegrino leaned on queer icons like Rosie O’Donnell and The Nanny to give him a sense of belonging and hope. Now, a pop culture aficionado, Pellegrino expertly chronicles Bravo drama, his undying love for all things Christmas, and Hallmark movies, all with his signature wit, hilarious impressions, and general zest for life. If he’s weaved all of that zany, warm energy into his memoir the same way he manages to in his Instagram posts, this book is set to be a surefire bestseller.

In The Guncle, author Steven Rowley writes the tale of Patrick, an aging, gay sitcom star, who is suddenly saddled with his niece and nephew after their mother dies. Completely upended by this change in lifestyle, he immediately tries to make the children fit in his world (the novel opens with a very fun brunch scene) but quickly realizes that his world, and he himself, will have to change now that he’s a full-time guncle.

This book chronicles grief in a way that offers a lot of comfort to the reader, and while at various points is a definite tearjerker, it often unlocks the humor and joy that can still be found after those we loved are gone.

Wistful, warm, and very funny, The Guncle is one part Less one part Nothing to See Here, with a bit more levity.

This satire debut written by nonbinary writer Alex McElroy has a wild, dystopian premise. Two friends–one recently canceled, one a perpetual failure–create a startup called The Atmosphere, a rehabilitation community for men.

Cleverly disguised as a “job program” to lure in desperate prospectives, the program aims to help men shed their toxic masculinity. Obviously, things quickly go bonkers.

We don’t want to spoil too much, but this heady, smart, and timely book explores the current cultural landscape in a fresh, futurist way. It also examines our obsession with social media, making us feel part-of-the-problem and call into question the ramifications of a life spent “online.” It’s just so delectable, so expertly written, and has a premise that unspools your brain rapidly, like the never-ending scroll of an app.