I thought it might be too early yet to make the list, but Obama shared his yesterday so…
1. The End of a Cigarette — Marcus Jade (I said it’d be my first book of the year and yeh girl did it)
2. The Magical Language of Others — EJ. Koh
3. The Invention of Love — Tom Stoppard
*4. Slave Play — Jeremy O. Harris
5. Red at the Bone — Jacqueline Woodson
*6. Upgrade Soul — Ezra Claytan Daniels
7. If Beale Street Could Talk — James Baldwin
8. Are Prisons Obsolete? — Angela Y. Davis
9. Grapefruit — Yoko Ono
10. How to Be Accountable — Joel Biel and Dr. Faith G. Harper
*11. Talking to Strangers — Malcolm Gladwell
12. Shame Shame Go Away — Jess MacCormack
*13. Crying in H Mart — Michelle Zauner
14. IDW Sonic the Hedgehog vols. 1–8 (Ian Flynn)
15. Witchlight — Jesse Zabarsky
16. Get Over It — Mary Shyne
*17. White Girls — Hilton Als
18. The Hard Tomorrow — Eleanor Davis
19. Meat & Bone — Kat Verhoeven
20. Kingdom Cons — Yuri Herrera
*21. Signs Preceding the End of the World — Yuri Herrera
22. The Transmigration of Bodies — Yuri Herrera
*23. The Chosen & the Beautiful — Nghi Vo
*24. Bug Boys vol. 2 — Laura Knetzger
25. Sex Criminals vol. 6 — Matt Fraction, Chip Zdarsky
26. Harriet the Spy — Louise Fitzhugh
27. Hot Dog Taste Test — Lisa Hanawalt
28. Beautiful World, Where Are You? — Sally Rooney
29. Art Forum — César Aira
*30. In the Dream House — Carmen Maria Machado
*31. Iron Widow — Xiran Jay Zhao
32. Comet in Moominland — Tove Jansson
33. Kim’s Convenience (original stage play) — Ins Choi
34. A Field Guide to Getting Lost — Rebecca Solnit
35. Finn Family Moomintroll — Tove JanssonEDIT: Snuck in a 36th one. A Separation—Katie Kitamura
Quantifiable:
Fiction/Nonfiction: 20/15
Comics: 10… huh that’s a lot less than last year. Probably because I begged my boss to stop making me lead a graphic novel book group.
(Though if you count all those Sonic comics into their separate volumes, it means I actually read 17 comics, raising the overall total to 43!)
Titles with asterisks are my top picks, which means I think YOU should read them and would really like them!
Non-quantifiable:
Top ten was kinda hard to pick, because I enjoyed pretty much all of these books. (Well, not all of them. I paid my Rooney reading debt, and I don’t have to read any more of her stuff for the rest of my life. I guess I’m glad to have read it, as a study in relevancy.)
Anyway, to get a list of books that are all good/fun, you have to abandon a lot of books. I abandoned a ton this year simply because I wasn’t feeling them, which is why I’m not doing a Notable Abandoned section this year.
My book of the year: whole-heartedly it’s The Chosen & the Beautiful. A rewrite of the Great Gatsby centering on Jordan? Who’s now a queer Asian-American Adoptee?? Is Vo spying on me??? It was even better than I could have hoped for. At first I wondered if changing the identity of Jordan so drastically would come off as too gimmicky, but about 100 pages in it turns into its own beast and burns until the very end. It’s the 1920s decadence with a magic system!
Another notable book thing, above: enjoy this pic of me at Hallowe’en in my Bug Boys costume.
Another other notable book thing: perhaps this isn’t fair, but it is my opinion:
Bonus: a non-comprehensive list of non-book things that sustained my soul this year!
TV/series… I know I’m late on some of them
Centaurworld — This is the greatest thing I’ve seen in years.
Fleabag season 2
Pui Pui Molcar
Ingenuity of the Househusband (the live-action, not the anime)
Never Have I Ever
Cobra Kai
Scissor Seven
Kim’s Convenience (yeah yeah)
City of Ghosts (pretty much anything by Elizabeth Ito)
Film… I really should start noting movies as I watch them
TITANE!!! FILM OF THE YEAR!!!
Legally Blonde lol
Youtube started posting free movies and a lot of them are GOOD
Raising Arizona
Thelma and Louise
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Online
Youtube (eh, I’m not linking these. Go find them yourself if you’re so curious):
BREADTUBE!!! esp. F.D Signifier and PhilosophyTube
Claire Saffitz baking, snarkily, while her video editor relentlessly makes fun of her
Worthikids (esp. Big Top, Xylophone, Dried Up Old Bones)
The Clockwork Elves by Nick Cross
Vaccines: a Measured Response by HBomberguy
Envy by Contrapoints (who likes my account name she said so in a gaming stream)
Other:
I quit facebook!
Games…
I didn’t play or buy too many but Griftlands and Dr. Mario were integral to surviving my year. LOOOOOVE Griftlands, and I think I’m just addicted to Dr. Mario. Hey, you know I’m not the only one.
Other:
Greenlight unionized!
I PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOAN
Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
Brooklyn Folk Festival
Right to Repair movement
Every time Spike Lee stopped by the bookstore
#Doggust
WEPN collab
I should go outside more, huh?