Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R Alban:
Another one that has to come with a caveat–this book doesn’t technically come out until early 2024, but I had the pleasure of being an early reader, and absolutely fell for this charming story of two young women in Regency London trying to get their single parents to fall in love so they themselves don’t have to find husbands, only to find love in each other.

Shadow Drive by Nolan Cubero:
I read some great crime fiction this year, but wanted to highlight this one as it felt different from a lot of what’s out there. This is the story of a small-time landlord who rents a house out to tenants who immediately start giving him weird vibes, but the deeper he looks into who they are and what they’re doing in his house, the more off-kilter his world is thrown. This is an aggressively paced book (my favorite kind of crime thriller) that never goes where you’re expecting it. And Nolan pulls off the seemingly impossible task of making a landlord into a sympathetic hero.

Non-Fiction —

Begin Transmission: The trans allegories of The Matrix by Tilly Bridges:
On its surface, this starts out as a remarkably thorough and well-documented piece of analysis, breaking down the way the Wachowskis’ iconic 1999 film and its sequels are actually about their experiences as trans women. On that level, it is wildly successful. After finishing it, I rewatched the whole series, and I take back every snarky thing I ever said about the middle two movies. They were always great; I just wasn’t ready to see how. If that was all this book was, that would be enough. But it is (not so) secretly a letter from a trans woman to cis folks laying out exactly how we are hurting the trans community and how we can help. If you’ve ever wanted to be a better ally, there are few better places I know of to start (and then go check out Tilly’s weekly trans-Tuesdays podcast/social media posts for even more of her brilliant insight)

Let me be Frank: A book about women who dressed like men to do shit they weren’t supposed to do by Tracy Dawson:
Just look at that title. If that doesn’t immediately make you want to read this book, then I don’t know what to say. This is a collection of mini-biographies about, well, women who dressed like men to do shit they weren’t supposed to. It’s told with the enthusiasm of your friend at the bar who never gets to talk about the thing they’re really excited about, but now they’re a little drunk and they’re just letting loose. Except your friend is a professional comedian who has done an unfathomable amount of research. This book is joyous and irreverent and a pure delight.

Comics & Graphic Novels

Four-Color Heroes: by Richard Fairgray
This is the story of two high-school boys in New Zealand in 2004 discovering their sexuality and finding each other against the backdrop of an extremely contentious gay marriage debate taking place across the country. It’s a story of love and comics flourishing in the face of hate, but it is also messy in the best possible way. People are messy, and this book doesn’t try to reduce that. It sands off no rough edges, but rather languishes in them, making the underlying message that much more powerful.

Under the Cottonwood Tree by Paul Meyer, Charles Meyer, and Margaret Hardy:
An all-ages story of adventure and found family steeped in folklore and told through gorgeous illustrations? Yes! More of this, all the time and forever! I don’t think I need to say anything more. Just go look at the beautiful art.

Killer Queens by David Booher, Claudia Balconi, Harry Saxon, and Lucas Gattoni:
What if the great sci-fi serials of the 1930s were a comic book, and that comic book was extremely gay? That’s Killer Queens, and it is a fucking delight. But as full of queerness as this comic is, I’m actually doing it a disservice calling it a gay comic. This is a story where the characters happen to be queer, but it isn’t about their queerness. And for my money, that’s the queer rep that we need more of.

Haphaven by Norm Harper and Louie Joyce
Another book that just seems tailor-made to perfectly tick every one of my boxes. This is the story of a girl who steps on a crack and does break her mother’s back, so then she has to travel to the land where all superstitions come from to save her. It’s a beautiful story of grief and fear and anger all wrapped up in some delightful world-building.

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So those are my favorites of the last year! I don’t know how my own website works. Can you leave comments? If you can, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What did you read this year that moved you? What made you laugh? What brought joy to your life?

Thanks for reading. Thanks for spending some small piece of your year with me. I’m sending you love from Los Angeles, and every wish for a Happy New Year! May it be filled with joy and delight and lovely books.