best of the year

• The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman ★★★
• The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa ★★★★
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart ★★★
• The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson ★★★★
• The Darkness Manifesto: On Artificial Light and the Threat to Our Ancient Rhythm by Johan Eklof ★★★
• The Descent of Monsters by Neon Yang ★★★
• Passing by Nella Larsen ★★★★
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding ★★½
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro ★★★
• The Invisible Man and His Soon-To-Be-Wife, Vol. 1 by Iwatobineko ★★★★
• Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski ★★½
• Wilder Girls by Rory Power ★★★★
• The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica by Naira de Gracia ★★★★
• Sea Change by Gina Chung ★★
• The Red Book of Farewells by Pirrko Saisio ★★★
• Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura ★★★★½
• This is Not Miami by Fernanda Melchor ★★★★
• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James ★★½
• Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha ★★★
• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel ★★
• To Name the Bigger Lie: A Memoir in Two Stories by Sarah Viren ★★
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara ★★★½
• Snapdragon by Kat Leyh ★★★★
• The Road to the City by Natalia Ginzburg ★★★
• Revolutionary Girl Utena, Vol. 2: To Plant by Chiho Saito ★★★★
• Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 1-4 by Julietta Suzuki ★★★★
• Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino ★★★★
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (reread) ★★★
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman ★★★
• The Castle by Franz Kafka ★★★★
• The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig ★★★
• The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek ★★★★
• Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon by Chuck Palahniuk ★★
• People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami ★★★½
• The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service, Vol. 8 by Eiji Ohtsuka & Housui Yamazaki ★★★★
• White Fang by Jack London ★★
• Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle ★★★
• Hotel Iris by Yoko Ogawa ★★★★½
• The Selected Poems of Anne Sexton by Anne Sexton ★★★★½
• Beowulf by unknown author, Seamus Heaney translation (reread) ★★★½
• The Sentence by Louise Erdrich ★★★½
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
• Ghost and Horror Stories of Ambrose Bierce by Ambrose Bierce ★★★
• The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (reread) ★★★★
• Deluge by Leila Chatti ★★★★
• Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo ★★★★
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang ★★★★½
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery ★★★★½
• The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd ★★★