Struggle year.
- The Hard Crowd — Rachel Kushner
- Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head — Warsan Shire
- The Fire Never Goes Out — N.D. Stevenson
- Lurkers — Sandi Tan
- Delilah Green Doesn’t Care — Ashley Herring Blake
- Elite Capture — Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
- Open City — Teju Cole
- Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History — ed. Briar Levit
- Catstronauts: Mission Moon — Drew Brockington
- Catstronauts: Race to Mars — Drew Brockington
- The Night Eaters, vol. 1 — Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
- From From — Monica Youn
- *The Selected Works of Audre Lorde — ed. Roxane Gay*
- The Magic Fish — Trung Le Nguyen
- The Book of Goose — Liyun Li
- Mary Poppins — P.L. Travers
- Zachary Ying & the Dragon Emperor — Xiran Jay Zhao
- *Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands — Kate Beaton*
- Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret — Judy Blume
- Annihilation — Jeff Vandermeer
- Clementine: Book One — Tillie Walden
- Coming Back — Jessi Zabarsky
- *Bliss Montage: Stories — Ling Ma*
- *Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer*
- Yolk — Mary H.K. Choi
- Vern: Custodian of the Universe — Tyrell Waiters
- Two Tribes — Emily Bowen Cohen
- Iron Widow — Xiran Jay Zhao
- The Summer Book — Tove Jansson
- Séance Tea Party — Reimena Yee
- When You Trap a Tiger — Tae Keller
- Gods of Want — K. Ming Chang
- The Heartless Troll — Øyvind Torseter
- I was Born for This—Alice Oseman
- Billie the Bee — Mary Fleener
- *Into the Riverlands — Nghi Vo*
- Mammoths at the Gates — Nghi Vo
Stats: Comics/Written word: 13/23…..Fiction/Nonfiction: 26/13…..two were audiobooks….. one was an epic re-read.
Entries in bold indicate that I especially liked the title, and think you would like it too!
I had no plan this year. In November 2022, I was laid off from my job in publishing and I’m stillSTILL trying to find fitting, sustainable work. And in April, a yt woman, upon finding out I was jobless, flexed her power over me exactly because I made her feel bad about her racism, and I had to flee Brooklyn. So I’ve been out of stable housing as well.
So I’ve been more than a little distracted from my reading goals.
I guess I’m highlighting just five, because if it’s a Top Ten then that’s like a third of this freakin’ list.
Book of the year was probably Braiding Sweetgrass. I dunno. I’ve had a hard time concentrating, spending a lot of energy trying not to stare into a gaping maw of oblivion. But Braiding Sweetgrass is deffo worth the hype.
Other media:
Film: Glass Onion; Wendell & Wild; Shirkers; Dune; The Menu; Confess, Fletch; Crazy Rich Asians; In the Mood For Love; This is Where I Leave You; American Hustle; Charlie Wilson’s War; 사도; A Man Called Otto; Nimona; Annihilation; Oxygen; Stalker (Tarkovsky); Nannie McPhee; The Hunger Games Trilogy (rewatch); The Muppets Haunted Mansion; Holiday Road; Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon’s Heart; NOPE; Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget; The Mario Bros. Movie; Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse
TV: The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos; Bad Vegan; Derry Girls; The Last of Us; The White Lotus (seasons 1 and 2); Shadow & Bone; Vox Machina; Sonic Prime; Dead to Me; You (Netflix); Letterkenny; The Law According to Lydia Poët; The Diplomat; Bluey; The West Wing; The Ultimatum: Queer Love; Queer Eye More Than a Makeover; Survival of the Thickest; Bill Nye Saves the World; Doogie Kalealoha; Once Upon a Time (ABC); Fishing With John; Doctor Who Specials on Disney+; Our Flag Means Death season 2; Scavenger’s Reign; Beef
Podcasts: Cancel Me Daddy; The Retrievals (NYT); Normal Gossip; Dear Alana; Straightiolab; The Kids of Rutherford County
Other internet things: Sister Minnie is unsubscribe; Hadestown; “slime tutorials”; Merv the Pet; Merlin by Cornell; MorseMania; Bobby Fingers
Videogames: MarioKart 8 Deluxe; The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap; Zelda II: Legend of Link; Earthbound; Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom… hmm maybe a pattern here…
Other things, put cryptically: official surname change; knitting selbu and sanquhar; a driver’s permit; getting boned out of MoCCA; Boston with the Scotts; WIIIINNAAAAYYYYYEE; Strawberry Rhubarb Pie… it’s not a contest; #Ducknestgate; Aunt visit; I can run three miles; Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book; Von Maur; RIP Purl; a French manicure; a new wallet; a new backpack; a new computer; Lazy Cat Cafe; A Christmas Carol @ Geva Theatre; Roots ‘n Ruckus Festival last day
Lots of good stuff… still a shit year though.