#daytripper maus the unbearable lightness of being the white book home fire never let me go

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top 10 books i read in 2022 (in the order i read them)

the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov: in the 1930s, the devil comes to moscow; chaos follows. almost 2000 years earlier, pontius pilate sentences the mild preacher jeshua to death. also: kind witches, fireproof manuscripts, the greatest love story ever told;

here by richard mcguire: the corner of a living room from 3,000,500,000 BCE to 22,175 CE, the illusion of time, the joys and sorrows of life, the magic of comic books;

lilith's brood (dawn, adulthood rites, imago) by octavia e. butler: humanity is saved from a nuclear apocalypse by a species of hideous aliens who offer an impossible deal to ensure the continued existence of life on earth. in perfect bulter fashion, tons of discussions about hierarchical structures, gender, language barriers, consent, and the vital need to embrace transhumanism;

the faggots & their friends between revolutions by larry mitchell & ned asta: somewhere in between a fairy tale and a utopian political manifesto, a sacred text from days long gone -- the story of a declining empire ruled by the fascist patriarchy, where gay men, lesbians, feminists, and drag queens live communally, produce art, have sex, and await the next revolution;

earthlings by sayaka murata: three young people become aliens to survive the horrors of modern life. provocative, utterly chaotic, equal parts hilarious and sad;

to the lighthouse by virginia woolf: the epic portrait of a family and of an artist;

nona the ninth by tamsyn muir: god is a man, the divine is most definitely feminine, eating someone is the ultimate way to say 'i love you' -- of bad puns, mismatched families, and the horror of your exes becoming besties;

dolore minimo by giovanna cristina vivinetto: the poetic dialogue between a self-born daughter and her mother-self;

the city and the pillar by gore vidal: a gay man in 1930s-40s america grapples with society's (and his own) prejudices and chases an idealized version of his high school best friend and one-time lover down a path of self-hatred and destruction;

loaded by christos tsiolkas: 24 hours in the life of an angst-ridden gay greek-australian boy as he travels through melbourne in search of drugs, an escape from responsibilities, and something resembling love.