- XX by Rian Hughes was without a doubt my favorite read of the year. Just such a phenomenally creative work of fiction, drawing on his design background but also featuring stellar storytelling.
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino, based on his own movie, not an adaptation but a novel in its own right, sort of like reading the Princess Bride versus watching it.
- The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling, whom it is quite fashionable to despise these days, but me I still cherish her, especially as she continues to write excellent material.
- Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, which is not The Corrections, the book for which he is known (although I snatched up a copy of that to read later, naturally) but a vivid exploration of the consequences of the circumstances in which we grow up.
- Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, a graphic novel I should have read a long time ago, and the pandemic finally helped make it happen.
- The Hemingway Stories by Ernest Hemingway, a collection put together for a TV documentary, which helpfully let me continue my far-too-late discovery of his genius.
- Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin, which was my far-too-late introduction to a more recent literary genius.
- Tuki: Fight for Fire by Jeff Smith, his third major comics work finally in print.
- Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan, in which I finally read her brilliance, too.
- Hawkman, Volumes 1-4 by Robert Venditti and various, in which I finally read the complete modern seminal classic.
It was a very good reading year.
