Noor's favourites 2022

Yes, it's the time of year when every bookshop in the land tells you about their top reads and why there were no better reads in this particular year. We're no different, but we HAVE made it extra difficult for our booksellers by asking them to choose only three books. These needn't have been published in 2022; they were merely titles that our team picked up at some point in the year and which will stay with them long after the 2023 page has been turned.

Here's what stuck out most for Noor in 2022!

My Fourth Time We Drowned by Sally Hayden: Probably the book I recommend most to people now when they want to understand migration and borders. I was gobsmacked when I read some things in this book, and heartbroken too. Absolutely worth reading.

Babel by RF Kuang: God I loved this book. I read it in two days and then waved it like a crazy person at anyone who would listen. A friend and I purposely stayed behind on a group walk-thing so we could finally talk to someone else who had read it. Basically, its a page-turning, heart pounding novel that re-imagines empire - and resistance - in one of the most realistic, and magical ways I've seen. From resource extraction, to the use and abuse of translation, to just a bunch of friends who you grow to love and cherish.

A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam: The first book I read this year, and it has not left me since. The protagonist of the novel travels through Sri Lanka, back to the Tamil areas where his people were genocided in the civil war. He tracks back through his memories of the war, and muses on the lives of others who endured the untold horrors and lost their loved ones. The novel is written in the most compassionate and patient prose, and I sometimes had to read lines twice because they felt so beautiful and profound.

Check out 2022 favourites from the rest of the Lighthouse team: Lindsay, Rachel, Trisha Christina, Nyrema, Mairi and Jess