Annnnndddd the winners are…
- Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
This is arguably my favorite book of the year. I have never read a single book like this. My friend read this book per my suggestion (shoutout to the real ones), and when discussing it, I compared it to the Barbie movie and how the line between Barbieland and the real world gets blurred, and you’re kinda like “what is going on,” and that’s the vibe of this book, a blurring of worlds. It’s written in screenplay format and critiques the role of Asian Americans in media (the parts they’re offered, how they’re portrayed, etc.). You should read this. - The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter
This is also arguably my favorite book of the year, although I think Interior Chinatown edges it out for the mere fact that I’ve read books in the same vein as this before. This is a book for the Ottessa Moshfegh, Mona Awad girlies, those savage contemporary woman-protagonist books that are very trendy. It’s a brutal surrealist portrayal of womanhood, and the plot is that the protagonist, Cassie, is born with a literal knot in the middle of her abdomen, and it follows her as she navigates a world that is disturbing in ways both familiar and not. The most visceral image is surprisingly not her knot, but the meat landscape that her family members work in. Literal meat valleys. Meat caverns. Meat mining. It’s creepy. It’s weird. It’s really profound. - My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
I blew through this one in two, maybe three sittings. It’s about a teacher-student relationship, so you know the atmosphere and content that goes along with that. The book vacillates between past & present and dips into the 2017 Me Too movement as the present unfolds. This one got a bit of attention and with good reason. - Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaskan Wilderness by Robert Specht
My dad has told me and my family for years to read this book, and he was so right. Based on the real life of Anne Hobbs, this book is a fun backcountry adventure. Dogsled chases! Negative 60 degree temperatures! Casual racism! For being published in the 70s, this book is surprisingly progressive and tackles some provocative issues (AKA do Indigenous people deserve to be treated as humans). - Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Let’s be honest, you probably already know about this book. It’s incredible. I think it’s a TV series? A movie? Anyway, it’s about a post-pandemic world, so trigger warning for that. But the pacing and plot is impeccable, and it’s a super smooth, fun read. - They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
HANIF. Ugh, he can do no wrong. One of my favorite contemporary writers. His style is so unique, intricately weaving together pop culture with intimate thoughts and experiences. Take this passage for example: “… I wonder what it must be like to trust a stranger with your undoing in the way that The Weeknd asks us to. What it must be like to feel briefly full without considering if any emptiness might follow.” Like, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If you’ve never read Abdurraqib, honestly what are you doing. I sometimes consider moving to Ohio just to be in the same state as his greatness. Also, him and Lucy Dacus are pals? Say more. - Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri
Memoir-ish? YA-ish? Funny, endearing, painful, a really great story about a young immigrant’s experience. Also, I feel like every book I read about Iran desperately makes me want to visit (Song of a Captive Bird anyone?). The heady aromas, lush florals, rich pastries, sign me up. - All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
This is also a young immigrant experience, although these protagonists are from Pakistan. Classic YA right here. I read the final 200 pages in one sitting and totally cried. - Crush by Richard Siken
I wasn’t up on my poetry game this year, but this was a standout. It’s gorgeous, full of love and longing and richness. As one reviewer on Goodreads wrote, “reading gay poetry that makes me want to launch myself into the sun just to feel something, part 2.” - Verge by Lidia Yuknavitch
Yuknavitch’s memoir The Chronology of Water is one of my all-time favorites, and this short story collection is also as lovely and unhinged. - The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
On one hand, unspeakable that I let this sit on my Kindle for several years unread, on the other hand, I’ve read it now and I can never read it again for the first time. This is also up there as one of my absolute favorite books of the year. It takes place during the AIDS crisis in Chicago and follows a friend group through the years as they slowly die. It is heart wrenching and tragic and you know how it ends but the whole book I was praying for some desperate twist to happen because my god. The book is also meticulously researched and offers a unique setting compared to so many AIDS-focused books that take place in New York. - Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower by Brittney Cooper
I was surprised at how much I loved this book. Super smart and insightful, Cooper intertwines theory and big ideas with relatable lived-experiences, and it felt novel. - Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
This collection of essays is the funniest thing I read all year. Samantha Irby is a Black woman in her 40s who talks about being a lesbian, being Black, and being a writer who is kinda famous but also kinda not. Her brutal honesty and candor is indescribable. - The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
This book was wildly popular, and it’s probably because it’s a perfect novel. Honestly, no notes. The story is about twin sisters who lose contact with one another. Both are Black, however, one decides to pass as white, and it follows their individual journeys as well as their children’s. - Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World by Barry Lopez
Barry Lopez was an adventurer, a writer, an activist, and so much more. This is a collection of some of his essays, an at once soulful and melancholic love letter to nature and all the wonder within it, and all the wonder that we are losing.
Other really good reads from the year:
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
Jesus & John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes DuMez
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
People in Parks 