Each season of this year brought more books to read and new reasons to enjoy them. Moving into a new apartment with other book lovers and starting out at D+Q kept me surrounded with seemingly endless - and enticing - reading material. My favourite books stood out despite this abundance. 

I could read any page of this book all day and be completely satisfied, and I could re-read it endlessly and still want to read it more. The book is drenched in objects, then in adjectives, and then, more lightly, in verbs. It creates a relentless space; I want to dance in it.

There were so many books written about the future and its possibilities in the past year; this was my favourite. It is horrifying, but delicate. It devastated me so gently I nearly didn't realize that it had.

This book is absolutely stunning. In some ways this is a typical college story, but by grounding the book in Igbo ontology, Emezi fills the work with new-to-me iterations of power and change.

I have a soft spot for colourful comics. Fluorescent Mud, The Lie and How We Told It, A Western World, and Coyote Doggirl all seduced me with their use of colour. After following and laughing along with Woman World on Instagram, I was delighted by the print edition. Passing for Human surprised me with its thoughtful approach to the way family, creativity, and thoughts that gnaw at you like rats can intertwine.

Join me to discuss The Lie and How We Told It in February's Graphic Novel Book Club!

In non-fiction, I explored the ends of my anxiety. Two fun reads about the past and future internet were Life in Code and Broad Band. The former, by Ellen Ullman, is a collection of essays written over the past twenty years. Rather than seeming outdated, the older pieces in the book lend perspective to how concerns and attitudes towards digital technology technologies have evolved alongside them. The latter, by Claire L. Evans, finds that by tracing technological history through software rather than hardware, the essential role that women have played in developments come to the fore. Evans doesn't shy away from acknowledging the ways that privilege and good timing, as well as skill, were integral in many of these women's involvement in their jobs and products. Even though this book focuses on history, it is written with a mind towards current technological trends, and left me with a new understanding of my daily clicks and beeps.

Unthinking Mastery investigates how dehumanizing and decolonizing thought may be necessary companions, and offers a sharp re-reading exposing ways that colonial logic may be latent and lingering even in efforts to overcome it. Singh considers both theory and literature in her investigations, all the while maintaining a balance between appreciation and incisiveness. 

Down Girl snuck out right at the end of last year, and Manne's analysis of misogyny has been making a splash ever since. You may have seen the word "himpathy," a term Manne coins in the book to describe  "the inappropriate and disproportionate sympathy powerful men often enjoy in cases of...misogynistic behavior," as it popped up in several news articles this past year. By providing the constraint of definition, Manne offers empowering clarity throughout this book.

The following books can all be described as "smart, fun, and captivating escapist mysteries to curl up and disappear with" (a genre I didn't know I needed). I read each of these in a single (indulgent) sitting. 

I also loved: