books (2018-present)

↩

transcribed from my journals the past few years, incomplete, but mostly here. best viewed on desktop!
updated as of 1/25/2026


2026

1. drive your plow over the bones of the dead / olga tokarczuk (f 1/3) ~* i enjoyed this book a lot but it was a true jump scare to google olga tokarczuk after reading and see that she has white people locs and microbangs.

2. moomin: the complete tove jansson comic strip, vol. 01 / tove jansson (1/4) * a perfect book! continuing my tove obsession...every child and adult should read this i think. i came to it late after years of proximity to true moomin fandom from j, admiring comic strips in passing, reading tove's adult work with admiration, and i'm sooooo excited to read the rest...

3. leaving richard's valley / michael deforge (b 1/6-still reading)

4. miss ruki / fumiko takano (f 1/15) * gorgeous breezy funny manga can't wait to read more of her work

5. why are people into that? / tina horn (f 1/22, courtesy of amy)

6. sun city / tove jansson (b 1/24, still reading) *


2025

1. extinct: a compendium of obsolete objects, in progress -> had to return to library.... but maybe i'll get through the ebook later

2. love in a fucked up world / dean spade (finished 2/12)

3. territory of light / yuko tsushima (finished 3/2)

4. rejection / tony tulathimutte (finished 3/5)

5. women's hotel / daniel lavery (finished 3/10)

6. constructing a nervous system / margo jefferson (finished 3/26ish) *

7. a process of drastically reducing one's expectation / gabby schulz (finished 4/2)

8. my lesbian novel / renee gladman (f 4/25) *

9. wildcat dome / yuko tsushima (f 5/8) *

10. mild vertigo / mieko kanai (f 5/20) *

11. girlfriends / emily zhou (f 5/22)

12. confessions of the fox / jordy rosenberg (f 6/28) *

13. after work / helen hester and nick srnicek (f 7/12)

14. world of interiors / aurelia guo (finished 8/10)

15. how do i look? / sennah yee (finished 7/30) i read this standing in drawn and quarterly in montreal (beautiful lovely bookstore) after seeing a blurb from mitski. did not buy it. bought firebugs and wake up pixoto and a few other books. very 2017 but i could appreciate it for what it was.

16. salvage / dionne brand (finished 8/4) *

17. wake up pixoto / weng pixin (finished 8/11) *

18. model home / rivers solomon (finished 8/16) * scared the shit out of me, but the warmth beneath kept me going as a horror wimp

19. the word book / mieko kanai (finished 9/6) milky dreamy book, made me think mieko kanai might be kinda gay for women? in a lightly misogynist way? i hope so.

20. firebugs / nino bulling (f 9/8) reheating stone fruit nachos a little (not derogatory). gorgeously drawn and moving. no such thing as too many queer trans love/breakup comics

21. attention seeking / adam phillips (9/17 - ongoing)

22. cannon / lee lai (f 9/20) * perfect book. so real. met lee and she's so friendly and sweet :~) an inspiring biker, cartoonist, and comrade

23. you & a bike & a road / eleanor davis (f 10/4) *

24. the lie and how we told it / tommi parrish (f 10/6) beautifully painted, lush lush colors. short and sweetly sour.

25. i ate the whole world to find you / rachel ang (f10/9)

26. men i trust / tommi parrish (f 10/15)

27. let's not talk anymore / weng pixin (f 10/15)

28. soledad brother / george jackson (october to 12/29) *

29. my picture diary / maki fujiwara (f 12/3)—brief thoughts here

30. fair play / tove jansson (f 12/14) * loved this very much! a beautifully spare and instructive set of stories about being in relation. in particular a refreshing read about being in a long-term partnership with another artist-writer after the previous heteropessimism-inducing one (maki fujiwara + yoshiharu tsuge). thank you finnish lesbians, thank you tove + tuulikki. this inspired me to read a lot more about tove's relationships and her time on the island that she lived with tuulikki pietila, which are documented on the moomin website. i especially wanted to find a movie they'd made together / that tuulikki had made, "traveling with tove," but it seems not findable.

31. i remember / joe brainard (f 12/20)

32. TOAF / renee gladman (f 12/24)

33. the premonition / banana yoshimoto (f 12/28)


2024

1. palimpsest / lisa wool-rim sjoblom

2. what can a body do: how we meet the built world / sara hendren

3. neotenica / joon oluchi lee

4. familiar face / michael deforge *

reread of girl town / casey nowak

5. asleep / banana yoshimoto *

6. trust exercise / susan choi *

7. my education / susan choi

8. how do we relationship? / tamifull (manga - finished early june)

9. fan fiction: a satire / tavi gevinson (zine - finished june 13)

10. concerning my daughter / kim hye-jin * (finished july 4)

11. fish in exile / vi khi nao * (finished july 15)

12. adversary / blue delliquanti (read at silver sprocket 7/16)

13. she would feel the same / emma hunsinger * (bought from silver sprocket, read 7/16)

14. syllabus / lynda barry * (read 7/30)

15. the changeling / joy williams * (finished 8/10)

16. alien daughters walk into the sun / jackie wang * (finished 8/14)

17. fang si-chi's first love paradise / lin yi-han (finished 8/31)

18. hit parade of tears / izumi suzuki (finished 9/9)

19. a wizard of earthsea / ursula le guin * (finished 10/12)

20. little fish / casey plett (finished 10/14)

21. a dream of a woman / casey plett * (finished 11/9)

22. next year for sure / zoey leigh peterson (finished 11/12)

23. so many olympic exertions / anelise chen (finished 12/1)

24. the summer book / tove jansson * (finished 12/24)

25. mrs caliban / rachel ingalls * (finished 12/30)


2023

1. how to get over the end of the world / hal schrieve ~*

2. all this could be different / sarah thankam mathews ~*

3. matigari / ngugi wa thiong'o

4. activities of daily living / lisa hsiao chen *

5. blockchain chicken farm / xiaowei wang (unfinished)

6. backyard adventurer / beau miles (lol)

7. goodbye things / fumiko sasaki (random minimalist book)

8. what it is / lynda barry * (unfinished, still revisiting)

9. the sucker / elle shivers *

10. the ex-girlfriend of my ex-girlfriend is my girlfriend / maddy court

11. boys weekend / mattie lubchansky

12. america is not the heart / elaine castillo *

13. the man without talent / yoshitaru tsuge

14. the secret to superhuman strength / alison bechdel

15. moms / yeong-shin ma

16. stone fruit / lee lai *

17. roaming / jillian tamaki *

18. idlewild / james frankie thomas ~*

19. after accountability / pinko

20. make the golf course a public sex forest (unfinished)

21. left hand of darkness / ursula k. le guin *

22. polysecure / jessica fern

23. magic fish / trung le nguyen

24. just ride / grant petersen (random instructional bike book)

25. skip to loafer / misaki takamatsu (read throughout the year with loves)


2022

1. [redacted] manuscript for work

2. long live the tribe of fatherless girls / t kira madden

3. the graphic design idea book (random library speed-read)

4. bread & wine: an erotic tale of ny / chip (samuel) delany & mia wolff

5. skim / jillian & mariko tamaki

6. the call-out / cat fitzgerald %

7. detransition baby / torrey peters

8. black ball / theresa runstedtler %

9. search history / eugene lim *

10. the days of afrekete / asali solomon

11. making comics / lynda barry (unfinished, still revisiting)

12. of forests and of farms / adjua gargi nzinga greaves (unfinished)

13. super mutant magic academy / jillian tamaki *

14. outline / rachel cusk

15. the deep / rivers solomon

16. laura dean keeps breaking up with me / mariko tamaki & rosemary valero o'connell

17. boundless / jillian tamaki

18. alone in space / tillie walden

19. convenience store woman / sayaka murata

20. tokyo tarareba girls / akiko higashimura *

21. transit / rachel cusk

22. lesser known monsters of the 21st century / kim fu *

23. chinatown pretty / andria lo & valerie luu (picture book read in kinokuniya)

24. kimiko does cancer / kimiko tobimatsu

25. slip, a graphic novel / marika mccoola & aatmaja pandya

26. the secret history / donna tartt

27. are you listening? / tillie walden

28. the dispossessed / ursula k. le guin *

29. kudos / rachel cusk

30. through the arc of the rainforest / karen tei yamashita *

31. bliss montage / ling ma

32. at the wrong end of the telescope / rabih alameddine *

33. blank canvas / akiko higashimura *


2021

1. calamities / renee gladman

2. overcoming harm ocd / jon hirshfield

3. wow, no thank you / samantha irby

4. trans girl suicide museum / hannah baer

5. braiding sweetgrass / robin wall kimmerer (unfinished)

6. prisoners' inventions / angelo

7. women's house of detention / hugh ryan %

8. sex fantasy / sophia foster-dimino *

9. sorrowland / rivers solomon *

10. pamela, a novel / pamela lu 

11. everyone on the moon is essential personnel / julian k. jarboe *

12. several people are typing / calvin kasulke

children's book intermission: corduroy, stellaluna, and verdi with ty (10/1/24)

13. night bus / zuo ma

14. so long a letter / mariama ba (unfinished)

15. darryl / jackie ess *

17. nevada / imogen binnie

17. cassandra at the wedding / dorothy baker *


2020

my record of this year is particularly incomplete....who knows what was read this year

1. wayward lives, beautiful experiments / saidiya hartman (not sure if i finished)

2.   pet / akwaeke emezi *

3.   dirty river (again?)

4.   sexual citizens / shamus khan and jennifer hirsch

5.   we are never meeting in real life / sam irby

6.   meaty / sam irby

7.   luster / raven leilani

8.   homunculus / joe sparrow (gift from ken)

9.   fanlee and spatzle make something perfect (gift from ken)

10.   an unkindness of ghosts / rivers solomon *

11.   leave the world behind / rumaan alam #


2019

1. the story of the lost child / elena ferrante (not sure if i finished)

2. the lake / banana yoshimoto *

3. the friend / sigrid nunez

4. this one summer / jillian tamaki + mariko tamaki

5. trumpet / jackie kay (unfinished)

6. snotgirl / brian lee o’malley and leslie hung

7. kindred / octavia butler

8. department of speculation / jenny offill

9. loving in the war years / cherrie moraga %

10. thomas and beulah / rita dove %

11. silver sparrow / tayari jones

12. bread out of stone / dionne brand * (started in 2018, finished in 2019)

13. freshwater / akwaeke emezi (started in 2018, mostly read / finished in 2019)

14. patsy / nicole dennis-benn

15. revolutionary mothering / ed. alexis pauline gumbs

16. girl town / casey nowak

17. selfcarefully / gracy obuchowicz (i don’t remember reading this. but apparently i did at wendy's subway)

18. my lesbian experience with loneliness / nagata kabi *

19. my solo exchange diary pt 1 and 2 / nagata kabi

20. normal people / sally rooney

21. dirty river / leah piepzna-samarasinha *

22. how to do nothing / jenny odell

23. meal / blue delliquant and soleil ho

24. you too can have a body like mine / alexandra kleeman (couldn’t finish..)

25. no family history / kristen mccormick %

26. love enough / dionne brand (not sure if i finished)

27. napkin / carta monir *


2018

1. what we lose / zinzi clemmons

2. what about the rest of your life / sung yim *

3. the mothers / brit bennett

4. here comes the sun / nicole dennis benn *

5. my brilliant friend / elena ferrante *

6. parable of the sower / octavia butler *

7. parable of the talents / octavia butler

8. the story of a new name / elena ferrante *

9. those who leave and those who stay / elena ferrante

10. sula / toni morrison (unfinished)

11. nimona / nd stevenson

12. big kids / michael deforge *

13. the untelling / tayari jones *

14. annie john / jamaica kincaid *

15. embroideries / marjane satrapi

16. an american marriage / tayari jones

17. cereus blooms at night / shani mootoo *

18. heads of the colored people / nafissa thompson-spires

19. kitchen / banana yoshimoto *

20. the incendiaries / r.o. kwon

21. what it means when a man falls from the sky / lesley nneka arimah



* really liked

% read for a class, or for work

# actively disliked

this color indicates a comic, graphic novel, manga, or other primarily graphic work

font credits: hershey futura light (updated 3.2025 for readability from dear bianzhidai)