The books I read + loved in 2019.

Note: Books listed are not stack-ranked within their categories.

Top five!

• The Folded Clock…Heidi Julavits
• Trick Mirror…Jia Tolentino
• How to Do Nothing…Jenny Odell
• A Place for Us…Fatima Farheen Mirza
• Trip…Tao Lin

Honorable Mentions

• White Fragility…Robin DiAngelo
• The Recovering…Leslie Jamison
• Normal People…Sally Rooney
• The Moon is Almost Full…Chana Bloch

Books You Could Gift to Almost Anyone! They Are So Good and Versatile!

• How to Change Your Mind…Michael Pollan
• Good Talk…Mira Jacob
• Why We Sleep…Matthew Walker
• Am I Overthinking This?…Michelle Rial**

In 2019 I Remembered That I Fucking Love Novels!

• There There…Tommy Orange
• Parable of the Sower…Octavia Butler
• Little Fires Everywhere…Celeste Ng
• Conversations with Friends…Sally Rooney
• Juliet the Maniac…Juliet Escoria
• LaRose…Louise Erdrich
• Homecoming…Marilynne Robinson
• The Female Persuasion…Meg Wolitzer
• Paper is…

In my seventh-grade school photo, I’m wearing lipstick that’s almost brown, a la ’90s-era Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Lopez, and Kate Moss. My friend Arielle, a grade above me, had shared it with me the morning before our photos were taken.

When my mother finally received the picture, she must have been upset, despite her outwardly understated reaction. I hadn’t asked permission, or told her what I’d done, and it was the first school photo where I was wearing noticeable makeup. I don’t remember if she told me outright that it looked ugly (this seems out of character) or…

The books I read + loved in 2018.

Note: Books listed are not stack-ranked within their categories.

Top five!

• Pachinko…Min Jin Lee
• Motherhood…Sheila Heti
• Heart Berries…Terese Marie Mailhot
• The Idiot…Elif Batuman
• Tonight I’m Someone Else…Chelsea Hodson

Loved these ones IMMENSELY also

• 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write…Sarah Ruhl
• The Book of Mutter…Kate Zambreno
• Jell-O girls…Allie Rowbottom
• Things Are What You Make of Them…Adam J. Kurtz
• Heavy…Kiese Laymon
• Chasing Old Haunts…Jessie Knoles
• The Sarah Book…Scott McClanahan
• In Their Faces A Landmark…McSweeney’s
• Her Body and Other Stories…Carmen Maria Machado
• madness…sam sax
• Sister Love: The Letters Of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989
• Heroines…Kate Zambreno
• My Body is…

Power Trip

A weekend night in Berkeley, in the very early 2000s: Groups of students roamed the south side of campus, wandering in and out of parties in the frat houses lining Piedmont, Bancroft, and Channing, those giant, multistory homes with their front porches and leather couches and white, oversized Greek columns. Vodka, beer, boxed wine, gin, rum, tequila — the smell of alcohol was everywhere; sometimes, later in the night, so was the smell of vomit. Men stood on balconies drinking from red cups and heckling passersby. Women walked and laughed together in small groups, aware of being watched; we wandered…

The fall I was 17, I lived in Paris and read just over 90 books. I was working as an au pair for a newborn, which gave me plenty of hours when I had to be quiet, stay inside, and pass the afternoons alone. It was 2005, so I wasn’t yet spending endless time on the internet; I didn’t have a laptop or a smartphone. I had very few friends in town. I read books that I loved and others that I didn’t very much enjoy. But even if I hated the book, I forced myself to finish it. I…

One of my goals in 2017 was to read 52 books. By the end of the year, I’d significantly exceeded that number, as you already know from the super subtle title of this long-form listicle. More important than goal achievement though, hanging out with all those words and characters was wonderfully fulfilling.

I talk to a lot of people who say they want to read more but struggle with how to make that happen, especially while working full-time and not becoming a total hermit. …

The books I read + loved in 2017.

Note: The books listed are not stack-ranked within their categories.

Top six!

• The One Who Is Not Busy…Darlene Cohen
• PERSON/A…Elizabeth Ellen
• Homegoing…Yaa Gyasi
• All the Birds in the Sky…Charlie Jane Anders
• The Untethered Soul…Michael Singer
• Too Much and Not the Mood…Durga Chew-Bose

Loved these ones IMMENSELY also

• The Principles of Uncertainty…Maira Kalman
• Everyone’s A Aliebn When Ur A Aliebn Too…Jomny Sun
• There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé…Morgan Parker
• The Golden Compass…Philip Pullman (reread)
• The Subtle Knife…Philip Pullman (reread)
• Caca Dolce…Chelsea Martin
• Hunger…Roxane Gay
• 300 Arguments…Sarah Manguso
• Bone…Yrsa Daley-Ward
• Abandon Me…Melissa Febos
• The Wrong Way To Save Your Life…Megan…