'It's my job to recommend books. Here are the 10 best new books of 2022.'

When you read a lot of books, you soon become very good at picking out the best ones. 

The books you thoroughly enjoyed reading. The books you wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone. 

The books that were beautifully written, perfectly plotted out, and are absolutely unputdownable. 

These are those books for me from this year. (P.S. if you'd like to see my weekly recommendations, follow me on Instagram). 

Here are my top 10 books from 2021:

Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor

Image: Pan Macmillan. 

"My best friend wore her name, Esther, like a queen wearing her crown at a jaunty angle. We were 12 years old when she went missing."

Fans of Jane Harper and Trent Dalton will love Hayley Scrivenor's debut novel, Dirt Town. 

Set in a small, rural Australian town, the beautifully written, atmospheric mystery follows the story of best friends Esther and Ronnie. 

One day, Esther and Ronnie leave school together. Esther never makes it home. Five days later, her body is found. 

Compelling and character-driven, Dirt Town is a mystery that digs beneath the surface to ask: What do we owe the girl who isn't there? 

Exiles by Jane Harper

Image: Pan Macmillan. 

Aaron Falk is back, I repeat, Aaron Falk is back. 

At a busy festival on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds.

A year on, Kim Gillespie’s disappearance casts a long shadow as her friends and family gather deep in the heart of the South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family.

Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he takes some much needed time away from work, Falk begins to suspect this tight-knit group might be hiding something. 

Over the festivities, fractures within the group start to appear and long-buried secrets begin to emerge.

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Image: Penguin Books Australia. 

Carrie Soto is Back is the last in Taylor Jenkins Reid's quartet of stories about famous women through the ages. 

Six years after retirement, Carrie Soto is sitting in the stands at the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan. 

At 37, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. 

Touching on failure, second chances and starting over, Carrie Soto is Back is the author's most vulnerable book yet.

The Couple Upstairs by Holly Wainwright

Image: Pan Macmillan. 

Holly Wainwright's fourth novel is about ghosts. 

Not the hide in your closet and yell out 'boo' ghosts, but the ghosts of your past. 

The people and places and feelings that remind you of who you used to be and who you used to love. 

The Couple Upstairs follows the story of newly separated mum-of-two Mel. Five months after Mel told her husband to leave, a ghost moved in upstairs. 

The young man reminds Mel of a past lover who changed her life and then vanished. When the man's travelling girlfriend comes to stay with him, the boundaries between the two houses blur, with devastating consequences. 

Through one sizzling, unsettling summer, The Couple Upstairs explores love, regret and whether you can stop history repeating itself. 

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Image: Hachette. 

The bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You is back with a new novel set in a not too distant dystopian future that feels uncomfortably close to reality. 

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet life with his dad under laws written to preserve "American culture" in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. 

He doesn't know his mum, a Chinese-American poet who left the family when he was nine years old. But when Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. 

Our Missing Hearts is an unputdownable novel about a mum's unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear. 

Seeing Other People by Diana Reid

Image: Ultimo Press. 

After two years of lockdowns, sisters Charlie and Eleanor are about to start the rest of their lives. Eleanor has just broken up with her boyfriend and Charlie's career as an actor is just taking off. They're about to get everything they've ever wanted, if only they can figure out what that really is. 

From the bestselling author of Love & Virtue, comes a darkly funny story about two sisters and the summer that almost breaks them. 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Image: Penguin Books Australia. 

Meet the unconventional, uncompromising Elizabeth Zott.

It's the early 1960s, and Elizabeth is the only female scientist working in an all-male team at Hastings Research Institute. Most of Elizabeth's colleagues ignore her - except for Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. 

Flash forward a few years, and Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six.

But Elizabeth is not only teaching women how to cook... she's daring them to change the status quo. 

Lessons in Chemistry is a joyful book about a woman determined to change the world. 

The Way From Here by Jane Cockram

Image: HarperCollins. 

The Way From Here follows the story of the Anderson sisters - Susie and Mills - who grew up on a remote property in the Northern Territory. 

When Susie suddenly dies just days before her 40th birthday, she leaves Mills six letters and a mystery to solve. The letters take Mills on a journey through London, a tiny French Island, and the English countryside as she pieces together what happened to Susie during her gap year travels and how that event marked the rest of her life. 

The Way From Here is an intergenerational family mystery, full of twists and turns and a lot of heart. 

Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes

Image: Penguin Books Australia. 

Rachel's Holiday is one of the first books I fell deeply in love with. The novel follows the story of 27-year-old Rachel Walsh, whose family has admitted her to Cloisters — Dublin’s answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. 

During her time at Cloisters, Rachel faces some hard truths about herself and learns that it's never too late to start over. 

In Again, Rachel, Keyes revisits Rachel, who is now in her 50s. She's happily married with kids, works as an addiction counsellor and even... gardens. 

She's the poster girl for getting your sh*t together. 

But with the sudden reappearance of a man she once loved, Rachel's life wobbles. Maybe she's not as settled as she thought? And maybe it's time for her to rethink things. 

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

Image: Bloomsbury. 

Nightcrawling follows the story of 17-year-old Kiara Johnson who lives in Oakland, California. 

With her mother in rehab and their landlord demanding the rent, Kiara finds herself walking the street, determined to make ends meet. 

Then one night Kiara is picked up by Officers 601 and 190, and the gruesome deal she is offered in exchange for her freedom lands her at the centre of a media storm.

If she testifies at a grand jury trial, she could help expose the corruption of the police department. But at what cost to herself and her family? 

Nightcrawling is an unforgettable novel about race, police corruption, and the ties that bind us. 

Keryn Donnelly is Mamamia's Pop Culture Editor. For her weekly TV, film and book recommendations and to see photos of her dog, follow her on Instagram and TikTok. 

Do you often find you need a pick-me-up to get through the day? Take our survey now to go in the running to win a $50 gift voucher.