Favorite books
I read 50 books in 2023, and happy to report that I enjoyed quite a lot of them! This I think is largely due to the fact that I read majority books by queer authors and/or that have queer central characters. And just like in the past couple pandemic years, I read a lot of them via audiobooks from the library.
Chouette, Claire Oshetsky, 2021
Woman gives birth to owl baby. Hilarious and heart-wrenching chaos ensues.
The Thirty Names of Night, Zeyn Joukhadar, 2020
One mysterious bird and three generations of history beautifully told
I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid, 2016
Oh, the horror of overthinking everything until it’s too late…
The Call-Out, Cat Fitzpatrick, 2022
Sonnets and salacious queer gossip, yes please!
The Vegetarian, Han Kang, 2016
Just let the woman be a vegetarian and turn into a tree, goddamnit!
A Natural History of Transition, Callum Angus, 2021
Apparently something about humans giving birth to non-humans really resonated with me this year
Honorable Mentions (so many):
X, Davey Davis, 2022
Shadow Life, Hiromi Goto, 2021
Freshwater, Akwaeke Emezi, 2018
The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin, 2018
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid, 2017
2022 saw the return of the Boston Book Festival after a two year hiatus, and I enjoyed going back to that. Plus, I went to the Boston Art Book Fair for the first time and got to bask in indie press heaven and buy way too many zines (mostly about cats).
I also did a major clean-out of my books this year, cutting my collection down to about a third. I like having a lot of books around (sorry Marie Kondo), but I realized that I’d become daunted by the physical weight of their accumulation. Like, do I really need to keep all those 10-year-old media theory books from undergrad? I actually feel a lot lighter now, and my book collection feels more intentional and truer to my current tastes and interests.
Favorite movies
What a relief to be able to go back to the movies! Not coincidentally, most of my favorite films this year I saw at local theaters. I even got to go to a queer film fest! I’m realizing that even though I rarely watch them, I do really love movies if I’m part of an audience. At home, I’m just too distractible! Overall I watched 23 movies this year.
Moonage Daydream (2022)
This movie was made for me. So much so, I wrote about it.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Couldn’t have asked for a more fun movie to bring me back into movie theaters.
The House (2022)
The dancing bug scene is everything. EVERYTHING I TELL YOU!
Tár (2022)
Seeing this with a very reactive audience only the experience more unhinged.
Honorable Mentions:
Esther Newton Made Me Gay (2022)
CODA (2021)
Minari (2020)
Wolfwalkers (2020)
It’s also worth mentioning that during the fall, I went on a horror movie binge to coincide with a horror writing class I was taking. I caught up on classics like The Birds, Insidious (and Insidious: Chapter 2), and Hereditary. I caught bits of Jaws and Friday the 13th and watched some Irish changeling horrors like The Hole in the Ground and You Are Not My Mother. Plus I saw Nope in theaters.
And turns out I still don’t really care for most traditional horror movies all that much? Like, is it weird that I was rooting for the seagulls in The Birds? And Insidious’s “Bride in Black?” Cringe and kinda problematic, yeah? I reflected on my personal qualms with horror films a bit in this blog post.
Favorite TV shows
“Are you watching Severance?” “Kendra, this show was made for you.” “I’m watching this show and it made me think of you.” Ok, when this many people reach out to tell me about a show, I’ll bite! Though overall I did watch less TV this year than in the past two years—the result of me getting out of the house more, thank goodness.
Severance (Season 1, 2022)
Ok, the people were right. This show was by far my fave. Waffle party!
Stranger Things (Season 4, 2022)
Will forever remember Vol. 2 getting me through having Covid.
Our Flag Means Death (Season 1, 2022)
Gay Blackbeard. Enough said.
The Andy Warhol Diaries (Mini Series, 2022)
Loved the personal angle and all the archive footage.
Honorable Mentions:
Station Eleven (Mini Series, 2021-2022)
Russian Doll (Season 2, 2022)
Search Party (Season 5, 2022)
Legendary (Season 3, 2022)
Another 2022 revelation—I don’t really enjoy most reality TV. At least not right now. Early on in the pandemic, watching other people’s “realities” I think provided some comfort and catharsis. Now, I don’t feel myself getting much out of them and find myself distracted with other thoughts and projects while watching. The exceptions of course being a few competition shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Circle. And if there’s something gay on, I’m still usually down to give it a try.
3 reading and watching goals for 2023…
Find a new comics series to binge or catch up on. I’m still in a drought!
Get out to the movies even more (Covid levels permitting).
Consume all the queer books, movies, and shows because life’s too short and I’ve already spent too much of it on cishet narratives! Yay!