I am still steeply behind in terms of the fraction of the books I own that I’ve actually read, but I am working on it. Here are all the books I read in 2022. My goal was 30 and then I was really behind and decided to escalate it on myself so my goal became 40. I don’t know why I did that but we’re good cause I hit it! I’m bolding and writing little blurbs for my personal favorites from this year. You can find my article recommendations here.
Undoing Drugs by Maia Szalavitz
This is a history of harm reduction and drug user activism that helped to fundamentally reshape my understanding of addiction and it was also very bracing to read about all the different characters and organizations and activists and leaders that stepped up throughout history. I know that can sound cheesy, but it really is so hopeful to think about how what started out as a dude pushing a baby stroller full of clean needles down a street and risking arrest can now be safe consumption sites all over the country. While reading about history can cause this sense of linear, inevitable narrative and the delusion that the arc of history naturally bends towards justice, this book constantly reminds you that many many many people died (and continue to die) as a result of the criminalization and stigmatization of drugs, and many people who agitated for change died without ever seeing the fruits of their labor.
The Genetic Lottery by Kathryn Paige Harden
Portrait Of A Thief by Grace D. Li
Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou
Disorientation starts off gently satirizing WMAF (White Male Asian Female) relationships and escalates to a skewering of academia and Asian fetishization that was both funny and deeply absurd to me. The protagonist starts off with pretty underdeveloped views of Asian American politics and it’s interesting albeit sometimes irritating to watch her worldview shift over time.
Ace by Angela Chen
Memorial by Bryan Washington
Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Health Communism by Beatrice Adler-Bolton and Artie Vierkant
Genuinely, I think this book is so important. It ties together a lot of different things that I think a lot of people can see—the ways that health and healthcare is tied to one’s labor productivity, the warehousing of disabled and elderly people who are then often exploited for profit, the reality that a lot of mental health is shaped by the material conditions around us—and Adler-Bolton and Vierkant use history and political theory to put forth a coherent leftist politics where the central unit and figure is not the worker, but rather the surplus. Because, as they write, under capitalism we are all treated as surplus. It can be a bit academic and dense, especially if you don’t usually read political theory, but I found it so excellent. Highly recommend.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Daddy Issues by Katherine Angel
Too Fat Too Slutty Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen
Intimations by Zadie Smith
Give People Money by Annie Lowrey
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, & Beth E. Richie
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein
Bad Sex by Nona Willis Aronowitz
Nona Willis Aronowitz is the daughter of the famous pro-sex feminist Ellen Willis, and so this book was really fascinating to me as it’s Willis Aronowitz navigating her own feminist politics and love life as well as diving into radical feminist history and her own mother’s personal and political approaches to questions of love and sex. I learned a lot and appreciated Willis Aronowitz’s candor and willingness to sit with the knotty contradictions between her feelings, self-perceptions, and politics. I think a lot of radical political writing can be very inspiring but leaves me nervous and concerned about how I’m supposed to live my life, and so I appreciated how Bad Sex is really real about those tensions.
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson
Foreverland by Heather Havrilesky
The NYTimes excerpt that spurred a lot of hate and discourse did not do this book justice. Heather Havrilesky writes with so much voice and is so outrageously real about her experience of marriage and all the neuroses that accompany it. I really enjoyed reading this. I feel like the public misconstrued Havrilesky’s point as part of enforcing the institution of miserable heterosexual marriage, but ultimately Foreverland is a very funny exploration of one woman’s marriage.
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Weather by Jenny Offill
Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv
This book is comprised of several case studies of people grappling with their mental health and the tensions between diagnoses and cultural narratives and self-preserving identities. I found their stories very gripping and I think Aviv does a good job of weaving historical debates in psychiatry with the personal nature of these cases.
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
Ain’t I A Woman by bell hooks
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
This is a short story collection about Black women, sexuality, desire, and of course, church. Every one of the nine stories was so intimate and immersive. My favorites were “Instructions for Married Christian Husbands” and “How to Make Love to a Physicist.”
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
One More Thing by B.J. Novak
Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
I’m probably biased towards lost twenty-something protagonists, but anyways Such A Fun Age was a solid fiction read. It starts off with Emira Taylor, a Black babysitter to a wealthy white child, being accused of kidnapping by a grocery store cop. The story really captures well-intentioned but ultimately self-interested white liberalism really well in the form of Emira’s boss, Alix Chamberlain. The interpersonal dynamics were so intriguing I had to keep on reading.
Not That Bad edited by Roxane Gay
Abolish the Family by Sophie Lewis
Please let me know what books you really enjoyed this year! There’s a 30-60% chance I take your recommendations, depending on who you are and how much I trust you.