The Books That Defined My Decade

The 2010s are over, and in my latest Book Riot video (did you know I make videos weekly on that channel now?), I wanted to reflect back on my decade in reading. I picked a favourite book of each year, as well as a whole bunch of runners-up. Of course, most of them are bi or lesbian.

Books mentioned, with non-Lesbrary books crossed out:

Titles have an Amazon Affiliate link: if you click through and buy something, I get a small percentage.

2010:

• The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (review and discussion)
• Two or Three Things I Know For Sure by Dorothy Allison (review)

2011:

• Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature by Emma Donoghue (review)
• The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson (review)

2012:

• The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (review)
• Miss Timmins’ School for Girls by Nayana Currimbhoy (review)
• The Last Nude by Ellis Avery (review)

2013:

• Nevada by Imogen Binnie (review)
• The Collection edited by Tom Leger and Riley Macleod (review)
• Fist of the Spider Woman edited by Amber Dawn (review)
• The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan (review)
• The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez (review)

2014:

• Tamora Pierce, including the Circle of Magic series (review)
• Adaptation (review) and Inheritance by Malinda Lo (review)
• Prairie Ostrich by Tamai Kobayashi (review)
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

2015:

• Bodymap by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha (review)
• The Truth About Stories by Thomas King
• Falling In Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson (review)
• The Summer We Got Free by Mia McKenzie (review)
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker (review)
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
• Sailor Moon manga

2016:

• Sexual Fluidity by Lisa Diamond (review)
• The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg (review)
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
• Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
• When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai (review)

2017:

• Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom
• Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado (review)
• Everfair by Nisi Shawl (review)
• Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty
• Sugar Town by Hazel Newlevant (review)
• Hunger by Roxane Gay (review)

2018:

• Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro
• Ragged Company by Richard Wagamese
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (review)
• How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake (review)
• The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
• Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
• As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman (review)
• All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell (review)
• Space Battle Lunchtime by Natalie Riess (review)

2019:

• Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (review)
• Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado (review)
• This Is What it Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow (review)
• Once and Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy (review)
• Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink
• Gnarled Hollow by Charlotte Greene