The year 2022 has come and passed. A snowy winter turned into a gentle spring, and the subsequent glowing summer settled back into a bone-chilling fall. The Earth has again wound itself around the molten Sun, and once again we have aged, mourned and loved through the world’s exhaustion. Alongside the ebb and flow of our annual heartbreaks, deadlines and other varieties of fresh experiences, books have followed. We’ve allowed ourselves to get lost in daydreams of fiction, the battles of historical fiction and the mysteries of horror. Books have offered sanctity against the turmoil of each day passing. While 2022 may have been tumultuous, it was nothing compared to the novels it produced. From New York Times bestsellers to indie darlings, The Michigan Daily Book Review has created our definitive list of the best books published in 2022. — Ava Burzycki, Senior Arts Editor, and Ava Seaman, Books Beat Editor “Cult Classic” by Sloane Crosley Call me a snob — I was skeptical of a book that was heralded as “inventing a new genre,” especially a book with a name like “Cult Classic.” Bracing myself for an on-the-nose novel with a strong concept yet low levels of execution, I was almost shaken by the visceral flashbacks of the unpredictable, apparently jumbled past of recently engaged New York writer Lola as she curiously begins running into her exes across the city. As “judgemental Virgo moon” Lola continues to encounter her previous paramours around every street corner, one begins to wonder: What’s really happening here? The novel peels back a mystery that operates on multiple levels, which, as a fellow judgemental Virgo moon, I couldn’t help but love. The narration is Crosley dialed to her max; gems such as this one permeate the text: “‘Do you have a McCarthy Genius Grant yet?’ she asked. ‘Not yet,’ I said, trying to relax my face. ‘Still chipping away at that communism.’” It’s been months, but I am still stunned by the artistic and entertaining qualities of “Cult Classic” — I hesitate to say more and ruin the story, but I’ve urged everyone I know to pick up this book for sharp takes on loving and living in the zeitgeist. Reading this book made me discover what the entire world already knew: Sloane Crosley is hilarious. — Meera Kumar, Daily Arts Writer “Carrie Soto is Back” by Taylor Jenkins Reid “Carrie Soto is Back” follows Taylor Jenkins Reid’s acclaimed successes, “Daisy Jones & The Six,” “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and “Malibu Rising.” Jenkins Reid is a literary force to be reckoned with — she specializes in setting, each of her books focusing on a specific era and location with such absorbing details that one wonders if Jenkins Reid is a time traveler herself. “Carrie Soto is Back” begins at the 1994 U.S. Open with our protagonist, Carrie Soto, one of the best tennis players of all time. The book tracks Carrie’s rise, going back to her childhood in the ’70s when her father (an all-star tennis player himself) started to train her. Jenkins Reid effortlessly captures the intensity of Carrie’s career and the significance of her position as a Latina woman in sports, commenting on the intersectionality of Carrie’s and other players’ identities while also masterfully describing numerous tennis matches. Carrie’s relationship with her father provides another layer to the story, allowing us to see Carrie in different lights as she navigates familial, platonic and romantic relationships on and off the field. “Carrie Soto is Back” proves that TJR is an author you shouldn’t miss and that her stories are worth rooting for. — Lillian Pearce, Daily Arts Writer DAILY BOOKS WRITERS There were a lot of films this year. Many films about films. Many biopics. While some of them we regret watching, others were thought- provoking, made us think or feel differently than we thought possible, or at least gave us an unparalleled movie-going experience. Of all the films we loved, these are the ones we think you should get out to the theater (or onto your laptop) and watch immediately — the Film Beat’s top 10 films of the year. — Erin Evans, Senior Arts Editor and Zach Loveall, Film Beat Editor 10. “The Batman” “The Batman” is a superhero movie done right. Centered around the cat-and-mouse chase between vigilante hero Batman (Robert Pattinson, “Tenet”) and serial murderer the Riddler (Paul Dano, “The Fabelmans”), “The Batman” calls into question what justice looks like in the face of corruption. Director Matt Reeves (“War for the Planet of the Apes”) crafts the perfect villain in the Riddler — one that exists not in direct opposition to Batman, but as someone with similar values and wildly different methods. Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz, “Kimi”) is a link between the two conflicting forces, acting as the bridge between Batman’s glamorous billionaire life as Bruce Wayne and the less privileged background of people like the Riddler. Three hours is the perfect time frame for intrigue to blend into action, for quiet moments to spark romance and for fear of the Riddler to turn into hope for a better life. Powered by Pattinson’s strong performance as a Batman beginning to find his place in the world, Reeves leaves us with more to think about than just a superhero saving the day. Batman may have won the battle against the Riddler, and viewers may have enjoyed the excitement of seeing the hero defeat the villain, but we’re all losing when the line between good and evil, between right and wrong, is more blurred than ever. 9. “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” I prepared for “Glass Onion” a couple of months ago, meaning I popped some popcorn and rewatched “Knives Out,” convinced that maybe with some practice I could solve the complex murder mystery introduced in the sequel. In “Glass Onion,” I was impressed again by the humor, the wit, the character dynamics and, unsurprisingly, the twists. The sequel cleverly replicates everything I loved about its predecessor, but does so with more glamor, more drama and more flash. “Glass Onion” uses all of its 139 minutes effectively, crafting a visual and auditory masterpiece. The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com The top 10 films of 2022 Wednesday, January 18, 2023 — 3 Read more at MichiganDaily.com Arts Design by Leah Hoogterp. The best books of 2022 Design by Grace Filbin. puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com By Jason Reich & Katie Hale ©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 01/18/23 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis 01/18/23 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: Release Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2023 ACROSS 1 Droops 5 Future yearling 9 Lengthy test answer 14 Furrow maker 15 Off course 16 __ lazuli 17 To whom Rick says, “The Germans wore gray. You wore blue” 18 Commits an email faux pas 20 Wannabe 22 Inscribe 23 Lamb nurser 24 Unaccounted for, for short 26 Prop for Gandalf 29 Reader’s Digest co-founder Wallace 31 Stink 33 Battery size 35 Space bar neighbor, on a PC 37 Crowdsourced source, briefly 38 Sass 39 Tempter of Odysseus 40 Unit of resistance 41 Matches a bet 43 Post-op area 44 Challenge 46 Undoing 47 Didn’t need to be let out 48 “Mamma Mia!” pop group 49 Rider’s strap 50 Actress Birch 52 Greenish blue 54 Gimlet liquor 57 Classic PC game 59 Words of apology 61 Salisbury Plain megaliths 65 Michigan, for one 66 Justice Sotomayor 67 Adderall target, briefly 68 Plan from a nutritionist 69 Lack of musical talent 70 “Roar” singer Perry 71 Stops DOWN 1 Rub component 2 Greenlight 3 Undeniably accurate statement 4 Convince 5 Like a dreamy look 6 Have because of 7 Dadaism pioneer Jean 8 Crocodile in Bernard Waber children’s books 9 Fish that shock prey 10 Beyoncé’s “I Am... ___ Fierce” 11 Place for some “me time” 12 Feel off 13 DKNY rival 19 Generous response to 59-Across 21 January 1 to December 31 25 Like sous vide cooking 27 Downpour, or when parsed another way, what can be found in this puzzle’s sets of circles 28 Stops working 30 Barinholtz of “The Mindy Project” 32 Not so bright 34 Semicircular church area 35 “Dream on” 36 Permitted by law 40 Poetic sphere 42 French pal 45 Embarrass 46 Hybrid genre 51 Labor __ vincit: Oklahoma motto 53 Small cube? 55 Got to 56 Russian refusals 58 Hardwood used for pricey salad bowls 60 Shoppe adjective 61 Oft-redacted ID 62 In addition 63 Number of players needed to play solitaire 64 Secret-protecting doc SUDOKU WHISPER “We have tried aristocracy, meritocracy. Now it’s time to try democracy.” “National park is SeaWorld for trees.” WHISPER By Craig Stowe ©2021 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 10/27/21 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis 10/27/21 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: Release Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 ACROSS 1 Like many a basement 5 Hold dear 10 Breakfast companion? 13 __ vaccine 14 As a companion 15 Soup du __ 16 Big name in plant food 18 Reverse 19 Also 20 G.I. entertainment often featuring Bob Hope 22 Through street 26 Hollywood Walk of Fame symbols 27 Get duded up 28 “Despite my best attempts ... ” 30 Bladed tool 31 Enjoyed the buffet 32 [as per the original] 33 First section of the “Divine Comedy” 36 “That makes more sense” 40 Witticism 41 Big bang letters? 42 Keep __ distance 43 Kitchen gadget 47 Greek wraps 49 Take the floor 50 Unlike bikinis 52 Handicraft worker 54 Something up one’s sleeve 55 Jackson family musician born Toriano 56 Home with a between-floors entrance ... and what can be found on puzzle rows 3, 6, 8 and 10? 62 Smooth (out) 63 Events with kings and queens 64 Shade of blue 65 “__ Rosenkavalier” 66 Lathered up 67 Slush Puppie parent company DOWN 1 __ Pérignon 2 “Hereditary” director Aster 3 Deface 4 Missouri River feeder 5 Heroism 6 Blonde beverage 7 Part of a cord 8 Like a mob scene 9 They might clash on stage 10 Actress Helena __ Carter 11 Email program named after writer Welty 12 Half-asleep 15 Supreme Court figure 17 Filmmaker Ethan or Joel 21 Davis of “Do the Right Thing” 22 “East of Eden” brother 23 Sailing hazard 24 “Leave __ me” 25 Exist 27 Letter after upsilon 29 Helper: Abbr. 31 Payment before a deal 34 Sentiment 35 Lures (in) 36 Concerning 37 Snitch (on) 38 Chiwere speaker 39 Used to be 41 Royal flush card 43 Like many candies 44 Get in 45 Ramble on and on 46 Amateur 47 Birth announcement word 48 Sana’a native 51 One taking a fall 53 Egyptian slitherers 57 Mauna __ 58 Little devil 59 Device that may be wet or dry, briefly 60 End of the day 61 Cleaning ingredient 2022 was a year that felt like my humanity was restored. Morbius memes. Gentleminions. “No Maidens” jokes from Elden Ring. In 2020 nature was healing, but in 2022 WE were healing. For the most part. Some of us felt the need to cheat at chess while others felt the need to cheat on our wives (hey Try Guys: I’ll join your troupe of goofy dudes). Looking back at everything in this article makes me feel a bit wistful, but also glad that all of it is behind us now. If I had one word to explain the year, it would be “debaucherous.” — Hunter Bishop, Senior Arts Editor Honestly, it feels like too much happened this year for my little peanut brain to comprehend. Artificial Intelligence is able to produce art and writing at unprecedented quality, but with risk of ethical infringement. So many TikTok trends happened that I deleted the app. Those still in the TikTok trenches are braver than I am. We bravely defended Android users, Barbie girls and babygirlifiers. Spotify got wrapped. Video games got gamed. Below is a collection of our most important moments in Digital Culture 2022 — some enjoyable to discuss and some necessary to mention. It was truly one of the years of all time, but we look to the future now: It’s 2023in’ time. — Saarthak Johri, Digital Culture Beat Editor January: Elmo, AKA the reason Gen Z is so sarcastic If you had told me that the start of 2022 would be marked by an Elmo renaissance, I wouldn’t have believed you. Well, maybe it isn’t all that surprising given the state of internet humor nowadays, but hopefully, you get my point. It all started when a clip from “Sesame Street” went viral in late 2021, in which Elmo raps about “a plastic water bottle and a paper towel roll.” Everyone began pointing out how sassy Elmo sounded in this song, and it resulted in other clips of the lovable red monster making the rounds on TikTok at the start of the following year. Some notable ones include several of Elmo’s appearances on late-night talk shows and the resurfacing of his long-standing feud with Rocco, the pet rock of another Muppet named Zoe. People were quick to realize just how chaotic Elmo could be, finding him relatable and even going so far as to say that he is the reason Gen Z is … well, the way we are. Though his snappy sarcasm helped us ring in 2022 with a laugh, Elmo wants to turn things around in 2023, tweeting (yes, he has a Twitter) his New Year’s resolutions with “be kind to Rocco” at the top of his list. February: The Wordles heard ‘round the world Okay, to be real, I don’t play Wordle. I occasionally might with friends or when I was bored at my old job, but I have never been a serious Wordle player (Wordler?). I wrote this article because I was like, “hm, Wordle is cool and relevant right now and this is kind of breaking news” and guess what? It worked — that article did really well, and now here I am a year later, bringing you another update about our (your) beloved word game. As of spring 2022 Wordle was still free, but in the summer of 2022 its popularity dropped by 51% since it was purchased by The New York Times. In the fall, the NYT appointed a new editor, Tracy Bennett, to Wordle and changed the game’s rules to follow the NYT’s own answer list. Despite the changes made to Wordle and its dip in popularity, do I think it will release its chokehold on the goofy game lovers among us? Absolutely not. I know people that still play it every day, and I know people that live for the thrill of sharing how quickly they guessed the day’s word. And, just before the 2022 holiday season, players began breaking their Wordle streaks in a show of support for a walk-out staged by the Times Guild, a union that represents NYT employees. So Wordle may have lost some traction as a game in 2022, but who said it couldn’t be reborn as a political device? March: “Elden Ring” arrives The cultural impact of “Elden Ring” was massive this year. It felt like people had waited for this game for a decade, even though it was only announced in 2019. Digital Culture’s 2022 Year in Review Read more at MichiganDaily.com DAILY FILM WRITERS DAILY DIGITAL CULTURE WRITERS