The Soho House Book Club: best reads of 2022

It’s no understatement to say that 2022 has been a turbulent year, and as always we have looked for solace, joy, discovery – and hope – within the pages of our favourite books. To wrap up our Book Club for 2022, we asked five brilliantly bookish people from within the Soho House community to select the reads that made their year. 

Here are their top picks to provide some inspiration for your book shelf in the year ahead. 

 

 

The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

Picked by: Emma Tucker, The Sunday Times editor

‘I loved this novel for so much more than the plot line: the writer’s generosity towards some deeply flawed characters, a vivid sense of place that had me searching for images of kettle ponds and a hotly debated ending that made total sense to me.’

 

 

Tiepolo Blue by James Cahill

Picked by: Matt Railton, managing director, culture, at Four Communications

‘Art, sex, power – Tiepolo Blue has it all, wrapped together in a plot that grabs you by the hand and leads you into the wild nights of Soho’s gay nightlife and the 1990s British art scene. It’s gripping and exquisitely written, with queer lust cutting through a pervasive air of unease.’

You Made A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Picked by: Ore Agbaje-Williams, author of The Three of Us (pre-order here) 

‘This was the book lighting up all my group chats, the novel that prompted DMs saying things like “Tell me when you get to that part”. Emezi has proven that they are elite at writing about everything already, and their first foray into romance literature (hopefully not their last) was a gift to us all. Telling the entirely addictive story of a Black woman’s very eventful love life, her friendship with her best friend and her work as an artist, it is almost impossible not to finish in one go. Read it on the train, I dare you.’

Black And Female by Tsitsi Dangarembga

Picked by: Dipo Faloyin, VICE senior editor and author of Africa Is Not a Country

‘This collection of essays from one of literature’s bravest, most celebrated voices is a timely, much-needed exploration of the impact of colonialism at an essential human level. It’s a wonderful study of the impact history has had on the way we look at race and gender today.’

A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney

Picked by: Laura Craik, Evening Standard fashion editor

‘For me, A Heart That Works was one of the bravest and best-written books of the year, and also one of the toughest to read; which is obviously a ridiculous thing to say, for to read it isn’t to have lived it, as Rob Delaney did. To find humour in the worst of circumstances – and there is nothing worse than the loss of a child – is an achievement, and to express it as deftly as Delaney does is a real feat. That it’s also a love letter to the NHS at a time when those who professed to love it during the pandemic haven’t really followed through, is a bonus.’