We’ve curated a list of the best books for 2022 and we can’t wait to share this elite shortlist of books with the world. We also reveal who we’ve crowned best book for 2022! Read on to find out who won this accolade.
About our best books award
At Financial Expert, we’re big fans of the written medium. We love all books – not just investing books or economics textbooks as our pages might suggest, but also purely fictional works.
Each year, we award a single book with the title of ‘Best book for [upcoming year]’ which is our simple way of honouring an author & publisher who have blown our minds. Great things should be shared, and the best books are no exception.
We hope you enjoy our updated list of the best books and leave your comments below if you felt we ignored another great contender for the title. Of course, we’d ask that all discourse is polite as choosing the best book is a bit of fun and completely subjective.
Which book sold the most last year?
Amazon bestseller list
If a book purchase is voting with a wallet, then we could look to the UK bestseller lists of 2021 to see which book rose to the top of the league table. Popularity isn’t the same thing as artistic merit, but it’s certainly not a bad place to start.
#1. Pinch of Nom Quick & Easy: 100 Delicious, Slimming Recipes by Kay Featherstone
#2. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy
#3. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
#4. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
#5. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
#6. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
#7. Guinness World Records 2022 by Guinness World Records
#8. Tap to Tidy: Organising, Crafting & Creating Happiness in a Messy World by Stacey Solomon
#9. Jane’s Patisserie: Deliciously customisable cakes, bakes and treats by Jane Dunn
#10. The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music Hardcover by Dave Grohl
When compiling this list of Amazon bestsellers we excluded different editions of the same title (e.g. paperback and hardback).
The chart shows an interesting picture of UK book reader interests. 5/10 titles were fiction, and the remaining 5/10 were non-fiction. 2 involved food, and 2 involved murder!
Nielsen Bestseller list
Nielsen is a market data company that specialises in the primary collection of sales data. It is well known for reporting on US TV ‘ratings’ using surveys and samples taken from the living rooms of households up and down the country. Less known is that Nielsen also provides data to Sunday Times, The Guardian and other UK media organisations to create UK bestseller lists.
Here’s the Nielsen Bestsellers in all categories at the time of writing:
#1. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
#2. One August Night by Victoria Hislop
#3. Mega monster by David Walliams
#4. Jane’s Patisserieby Jane Dunn
#5. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
#6. Time for Mercy by John Grisham
#7. Daylight by David Baldacci
#8. The Appeal by Janice Hallett
#9. Judas Horse by Lynda La Plante
#10. Deadly Cross by James Patterson
This list gives a live snapshot of what’s currently flying off the shelves in book shops across the UK because it’s regularly refreshed. Unlike the Amazon list, it’s only based upon a short period of weeks rather than a 12 month period.
New York Times bestseller list
We don’t share reading list with our American companions, it would seem, as this hot list of New York Times bestsellers compiled by book chain Barnes & Noble has zero titles in common with what UK readers have been picking up in 2021:
#1. All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner
#2. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
#3. Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
#4. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
#5. Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
#6. The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
#7. Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
#8. Beautiful World, Where Are You? By Sally Rooney
#9. Bewilderment by Richard Powers
#10. Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
The best book
We’ve chosen the best book from an almost limitless range of titles released between 2010 – 2022.
We have awarded the best book award to Ashlee Vance for her biography of Forbes 2021 person of the year Elon Musk.
We think Elon Musk is the best book because it provides an insightful, and at times the critical picture of a man who is increasingly shaping the aspirations and technological forefront of our society.
What makes a Financial Expert best book?
To be in contention to be named best book, a title has to be relevant, impactful and novel.
Relevant
A book is one of the best when it fills an urgent need for context or information.
Impactful
All books will share information but only the best have a measurable impact upon societies wider perception of an issue or person.
Novel
A book must stand out from the crowd by offering a unique take on a subject.
We believe that Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance remains relevant, impactful and novel after a year in which Elon Musk briefly became the worlds richest man, and in which his new SpaceX Starship prototype continues to push the boundaries of what humans can achieve in space.