What we enjoyed reading in 2022 - and what what you should read in 2023

Some recommendations from the team - tell us yours!

We are big believers that our politics are only as good as our arguments - and reading widely and deeply is really essential to that. My New Year’s resolution is the same as it always is: read more!

Here are a few recommendations from us as to what helped us make sense of 2022, and get ready for 2023.

If you want to purchase them, we suggest you head to Amazon and make the Battle of Ideas charity your Amazon Smile charity. Just click on this link so you can buy from Amazon Smile. The charity will get a small proportion of every purchase you make.

• The Road to Ukraine: How the West lost its way (Frank Furedi)

  This book remains absolutely essential to understanding what is at stake in the war in Ukraine. If you haven’t yet read it, please do!

• How Woke Won (Joanna Williams)

  We were delighted to read this important book published by our friends at Spiked. Despite the title, it actually offers an important account of what we need to do to beat the woke crusade.

• The New Puritans: How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World (Andrew Doyle)

  Andrew Doyle’s barnstorming account of the rise of Social Justice theories is a true must read.

• Hybrid Warriors: Proxies, Freelancers and Moscow's Struggle for Ukraine (Anna Arutunyan)

  We can’t hope to understand the current war in Ukraine without understanding its origins in the initial outbreak of war in 2014. This radical and brave book demonstrates how Russia got caught in a web of its own making in Ukraine.

• The Fall of Boris Johnson (Sebastian Payne)

  Essential reading on how Boris squandered a historic election victory.

• The People Immortal (Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler)

  This short novel only translated this year shares with Grossman’s masterpiece Life and Fate an astonishing ability to capture the way politics and war are totally intertwined.

• Letters on Liberty (Various authors)

  It would be wrong if we didn't include a plug for our series Letters on Liberty! This year we’ve seen incredible essays on everything from the future of free speech to trans social contagion, animal sentience to abortion, and from gambling to digital identity. Explore more and get yours here.

• Dr Magnus Jones at Paine Anglia University (Alain Wolf - published on Substack)

  I fully support all those, like Alain, engaging in literary experiments. Substack has provided an interesting format for this serialised campus novel.

We’d love to see your comments about what you read in 2022 that captured your imagination.

Not enough?

If you need even more to get stuck into, I HIGHLY recommend you check out this event from the boi charity. Tickets are now on sale for the annual intellectual feast from the Battle of Ideas charity. It is a chance to surround yourself with good company and dig into great books at a residential weekend of lectures, seminars and discussions. The initial reading list has been published and I suggest you take the books and start reading!