January-June

I bring doom into the conversation to show that it is a place to begin, not to end. —Johanna Hedva, How to Tell When We Will Die

What If the Invader Is Beautiful by Louise Mathias

How To Tell When We Will Die by Johanna Hedva

Health and Safety by Emily Witt

Good Girl by Aria Aber

Us Fools by Nora Lange

What It Is by Lynda Barry

Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites by Xochitl-Julissa Bermejo

The Harder I Fight the More I Love You by Neko Case

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

It is not so hard to believe, even during the worst of things, that courage is the most potent contagion.—Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Ripcord by Nate Lippens

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

A Room With a Darker View by Claire Phillips

Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg by Emily Rapp Black

Audition by Katie Kitamura

The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza

Barbara by Joni Murphy

Saving Time by Jenny Odell

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (reread)

Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth, trans. Charlotte Barslund

It’ll be fine, I said, the darkness reached my bone marrow, penetrated it and spread out, I had sacrificed enough.—Vigdis Hjorth, trans. Charlotte Barslund, Will and Testament

With code NEWYEAR you get 50% off books at Northwestern University Press through January 3, 2026. Order Excavation, Hollywood Notebook, and Bruja now!

July-December

Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard

Permission by Elissa Altman

The Dry Season by Melissa Febos

The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity by Sarah Schulman

Love In a Fucked Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up and Raise Hell Together by Dean Spade

Murmur in the Inventory by Erica Lewis

Sound Museum by Poupeh Missaghi

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

If Only by Vigdis Hjorth, trans. Charlotte Barslund

Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

My Documents by Kevin Nguyen

Herculine by Grace Byron

Terry Dactyl by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

The Four Spent the Day Together by Chris Kraus

Silence and writing are, if not quite the same thing, then allies—each a misdirection of the unspeakable, and each a way of holding on.—Miriam Toews, A Truce That Is Not Peace

A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Khadijah Queen

The Present by Emily Kendal Frey

The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam by Lana Lin

Poppy State by Myriam Gurba

Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future by Jason Stanley

Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu

Thanks for being here. Wishing you all the reading time you desire in the new year!

my books are waiting to be read by you