Reading

I was a voracious reader when I was younger, disappearing into worlds built from words on the page. I’m still a keen reader today — a hobby I turn to to escape from digital worlds built from data.

* = Books I loved

2025 Reads

The Story of a New Name, Elena Ferrante*
The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Elena Knows, Claudia Piñeiro (trans. Frances Riddle)
*Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072, Eman Abdelhadi, M.E. O’Brien
*Oblivion: A Memoir, Héctor Abad Faciolince
Who Wants To Live Forever, Hanna Thomas Uose
*Technocolonialism: When Technology for Good is Harmful, Mirca Madianou
Flux, Jinwoo Chong
*Abolish the Family, Sophie Lewis
First Love: Essays on Friendship, Lilly Dancyger
*My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante
Enter Ghost, Isabella Hammad
Best of Friends, Kamila Shamsie
Aggregated Discontent: Confessions of the Last Normal Woman, Harron Walker (ARC)
*A Little Luck, Claudia Piñeiro (trans. Frances Riddle)
The Loneliness Files, Athena Dixon
The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Martyr!, Kaveh Akbar
Disorientation, Elaine Hsieh Chou

2024 Reads

Body Work, Melissa Febos
Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance, Jesse Wente
*Trespasses, Louise Kennedy
The Pachinko Parlour, Elisa Shua Dusapin
*The Women Could Fly, Megan Giddings
The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture, Courtney Thorsson
*Shubeik Lubeik, Deena Mohamed
Here After, Amy Lin
*Writers & Lovers, Lily King
The Union of Synchronised Swimmers, Cristina Sandu
*I Never Said That I Was Brave, Tasneem Jamal (ARC)
White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa, Susan Williams
Aftershocks, Nadia Owusu
The Italy Letters, Vi Khi Nao (ARC)
Stay with Me, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
*Kindred, Octavia E. Butler (re-read)
*In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado
*Still Life with Bones, Alexa Hagerty
The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center, Rhaina Cohen
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
*You Are Here: A Novel, David Nicholls
Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation, Camonghne Felix
*Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
A Perfect Day to Be Alone, Nanae Aoyama
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein
Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner
Erasure, Percival Everett
*I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman
*Poor Things, Alasdair Gray
Face, Joma West
Penance, Eliza Clark
Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
Whites: On Race and Other Falsehoods, Otegha Uwagba
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Cho Nam-joo
*I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid
*Fugitive Feminism, Akwugo Emejulu
*Nervous Conditions Tsitsi Dangarembga
Wellness, Nathan Hill
*Minor Detail Adania Shibli
*Body Friend, Katherine Brabon
*Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, Suleika Jaouad
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw
What You Are Looking For is in the Library, Michiko Aoyama
In Every Mirror She’s Black, Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström
*I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy
A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging, Dionne Brand
Kala, Colin Walsh
Wound, Oksana Vasyakina
Unattached: Thirty Essays On Singlehood, Angelica Malin
Noughts & Crosses, Malorie Blackman
*How Kyoto Breaks Your Heart, Florentyna Leow
Heartburn, Nora Ephron
The Late Americans, Brandon Taylor
Weasels in the Attic, Hiroko Oyamada
The Electricity of Every Living Thing, Katherine May
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston

2023 Reads

Brown Girls, Daphne Palasi Andreades
*The Man of Her Dreams, Sarra Manning
Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir, Akwaeke Emezi
On Friendship, Ray Pahl
Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
Adulthood Rites, Octavia E. Butler (re-read)
Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Talia Hibbert
Big Swiss, Jen Beagin
Brick by Brick: How We Build a World Without Prisons, Cradle Community
*Intimacies, Katie Kitamura
*Capitalism: A Ghost Story, Arundhati Roy
The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki
Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance, Moya Bailey
Silver Sparrow, Tayari Jones
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
*Kitchen Banana Yoshimoto
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, Amanda Montell
Yellowface, R.F. Kuang
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, Pema Chödrön
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
The President and the Frog, Caro De Robertis
Wahala, Nikki May
Difficult Women, Roxane Gay
*Arrangements in Blue: Notes on Love and Making a Life, Amy Key
Manhattan in Reverse, Peter F. Hamilton
*Love Marriage Monica Ali
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May
Breasts and Eggs, Mieko Kawakami
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love bell hooks
Everyman, M. Shelly Conner
*The Three-Body Problem, Cixin Liu

2022 Reads

*The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, Ruha Benjamin
God Help the Child, Toni Morrison
*Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
*Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria, Noo Saro-Wiwa
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, Jon Ronson
Memorial, Bryan Washington
Black and Female, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler
Open Water, Caleb Azumah Nelson
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, Akwaeke Emezi
Thick: And Other Essays, Tressie McMillan Cottom
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir, Dolly Alderton
Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Toshikazu Kawaguchi
*The Fall and Rise of the Amir Sisters, Nadiya Hussain
We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True, Gabrielle Union
*On Beauty, Zadie Smith
Intimations, Zadie Smith
The Terrible, Yrsa Daley-Ward
bone, Yrsa Daley-Ward
*Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, Ronan Farrow
*Ayiti, Roxane Gay
The How: Notes on the Great Work of Meeting Yourself, Yrsa Daley-Ward
*Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto, Legacy Russell
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, Audre Lorde
Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters
Earthlings, Sayaka Murata

2021 Reads

*The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence ,The Care Collective
*The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett
The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Money: A User’s Guide, Laura Whateley
Assembly, Natasha Brown
Ghosts, Dolly Alderton
Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney
Take a Hint, Dani Brown, Talia Hibbert
*Party of Two, Jasmine Guillory
Who’s Loving You: Love Stories by Women of Colour, Sareeta Domingo
*The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul Douglas Adams
Such a Fun, Age Kiley Reid
The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, Audre Lorde
Luster, Raven Leilani

2020 Reads

Symona’s Still Single, Lisa Bent
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close, Ann Friedman, Aminatou Sow
The Mothers, Brit Bennett
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold, Bolu Babalola
My Sister, the Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, Mikki Kendall
The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
The Princess Trap, Talia Hibbert
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata
All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Brittney Cooper
Everything, Everything, Nicola Yoon
*How to Fall in Love with a Man Who Lives in a Bush, Emmy Abrahamson
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy O’Neil

2019 Reads

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
Oh My Gods, Alexandra Sheppard
Small Great Things, Jodi Picoult
Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams
*Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie
I’m Fine and Neither Are You, Camille Pagán
The Proposal, Jasmine Guillory
Am I Ugly?, Michelle Elman
The Multi-Hyphen Method: Work less, create more, and design a career that works for you, Emma Gannon
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, Emily Nagoski
Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person, Shonda Rhimes
Becoming, Michelle Obama

2018 Reads

The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left, Ed Husain
What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflower’s Guide to Why You Are Already Enough, Chidera Eggerue
*The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, David Lagercrantz
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxane Gay
Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
The Wedding Date, Jasmine Guillory
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge
*The Girl in the Spider’s Web, David Lagercrantz
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, Cheryl Strayed
Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human, Matt Ridley
Swing Time, Zadie Smith
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
*Woman at Point Zero, Nawal El Saadawi

2017 Reads

Let’s Take Berlin: Essays on Expat Life, Jessica Guzik
*Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found, Cheryl Strayed
The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

2016 Reads

The Martian, Andy Weir
Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, Stuart M. Brown Jr.
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends, on It Kamal Ravikant
The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
20-Something, 20-Everything: A Quarter-Life Woman’s Guide to Balance and Direction, Christine Hassler
*Brick Lane, Monica Ali
Finding Audrey Sophie Kinsella
*Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck

(Year) Unknown

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Wild Irish Heart, Tricia O’Malley
Jemima J, Jane Green
Little Black Book: A Toolkit For Working Women, Otegha Uwagba
This Lullaby, Sarah Dessen
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest ,Stieg Larsson
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
My Favorite Husband, Pam McCutcheon
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
GIRLBOSS, Sophia Amoruso
Lean in: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg
Would I Lie to You, Cecily von Ziegesar
A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Ann Jacobs
Love, Lies & High Heels, Debby Conrad
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, Mark Manson
Matilda, Roald Dahl
The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
Nine Lives, Tom Barber
Fifty Shades of Grey, E.L. James
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
On Becoming Fearless: …in Love, Work, and Life, Arianna Huffington
Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
*The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Cafe, Jenny Oliver
James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
The One You Love, Paul Pilkington
The Cupid Effect, Dorothy Koomson
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
Doctor Faustus: The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend, Thomas Mann
Can You Keep a Secret?, Sophie Kinsella
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison
*The Unexpected Joy of Being Single, Catherine Gray
The Best Thing I Never Had, Erin Lawless
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ann Brashares
Normal People, Sally Rooney
The Help, Kathryn Stockett
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Bigamist: The True Story of a Husband’s Ultimate Betrayal, Mary Turner-Thomson
The Wedding Date, Jasmine Guillory
One Day, David Nicholls
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
Confessions of a Shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella
Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
Pear Shaped, Stella Newman
How To Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lionel Shriver
Lilith’s Brood, Octavia E. Butler
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Beloved, Toni Morrison
My So-Called (Love) Life, A.L. Michael
She’s Gotta Be Mine, Jennifer Skully
*The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, D. H. Lawrence