Our resident speed reader is back with more recommendations based on the first 60 books he’s read already in 2022. That’s right. Look at the date, now read that again, back at the date, here again. Check out the full list of recommendations on Burgerchamp’s goodreads.com list.

The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality by Blake J. Harris

If you are ever looking for a detailed history of the minds behind virtual reality, this is it. Palmer Lucky is a true genius and sometimes victim of circumstance and a guy I would never want to hang out with. From the makers of Console Wars.

The Fade Out by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

A noir Hollywood murder mystery with fantastic art, sordid characters, dames with gams that go all the way up, addicted writers, skeezy producers, and all the snappy dialog you’ve come to expect from Ed Brubaker. Trigger warning: some scenes of sexual assault.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

You like The Martian? You like math heavy science fiction? You’ll love this one. More fast thinking due to mission failure seems to work for Weir. I have to say, this one turned out to be totally different from my expectations. Try to go in sans spoilers.

The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr

This book is filled with fascinating facts you needed, and sometimes never wanted, to know about grocery stores. Especially Trader Joe’s. The shrimp stuff will haunt you.

Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner

I am, admittedly, not a Star Trek fan. Not even a little. But I am a huge fan of actor, director, and writer Brent Spiner. This hilarious half truth about a Data stalker has some laugh out loud moments. Spiner is a master storyteller. I highly recommend the audiobook version of this one as the entire cast of TNG appears as their respective selves. Well, versions of themselves anyway.

The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl seems like one of the last of the older school rockers that are still having a good time playing music. A marvelously told tale not of how a guy got famous for hitting drums really hard, but about how despite the game and fortune, he’s still just a fan at heart and he still gets starstruck like the rest of us when he meets his heroes. A great way to remember Taylor Hawkins. Plenty of good old fashioned trouble making with Taylor here.

The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron and Clint Howard

I am very familiar with the work of the Howard brothers, having grown up on Any Griffith and Gentle Ben and watching them make transitions into director and character actor and thought this book might be interesting. I won’t lie, this book caught me by surprise. The long spin tale of their lives, told through the lens of the story of their parents was unbelievably compelling. I couldn’t put it down. What I thought was going to be a pretty good yarn turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year. High recommend.

Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido

The only thing I knew about this book when I pulled it from the library shelf was that a game had been made of it. What I found when reading it were some decent post WWII detective yarns elevated by some of the best art I’ve seen in a graphic novel. Oh, and all the characters in this are anthropomorphic animals. The expressions on these animal faces are unbelievable. Come for the story, but stay for the pictures. This one is worth a flip through just to look.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

I am mostly a fan of John Scalzi. When he’s on, he’s really on. When he’s off, he can be a bit of a mess. This was a definite hit for me. If you like to turn your brain off and listen to people quip around giant, skyscraper sized monsters, this is for you. It’s not his best. He’s better when he’s grounded, but this was a fun one off romp that was the perfect COVID transition book.

Flux by Jeremy Robinson

I read a book by Jeremy Robinson years ago and really didn’t like it. When I saw he had written a time travel piece, I was obligated to read it and I liked it a lot. Set in a rural mining town where a mysterious force is sporadically moving things back in time, collecting people and creatures as it crawls, this book goes wild over and over again, creating an insane time travel ride. What? I like time travel books.

Nailbiter by Joshua Williamson

This was the reason I didn’t stop at 50 books before writing this. This series is insane. It’s the story of a small town in Oregon where 16 of the most prolific serial killers of all time were born and the Investigation into the mystery of why it’s happening. Violent, sometimes funny, but always compelling. I had a really good time with this one.

That’s it for now. Look for another one of these at the end of June, once I’ve (hopefully) reached 100. Look below for a link to my Goodreads shelf that contains all of the books listed above. As always, try to read one more book than last year.

Check out the full list of recommendations on Burgerchamp’s goodreads.com list.

Burgerchamp’s Best of the First 60 Books read in 2022