Bryan Washington’s 10 favorite books of the decade

As part of The A.V. Club’s best of the 2010s coverage, we asked some of our favorite authors to share their 10 favorite books of the decade. Next up is Bryan Washington. Washington’s debut, Lot, a collection of linked short stories set in Houston, traces the coming of age of a young gay man, the son of a Black mother and Latino father. In The A.V. Club’s review, Rien Fertel writes, “Lot manages to squeeze a whole world of cultural, political, and social issues into the macro-microcosm that is the place nicknamed Space City: racism, poverty, violence, drugs, gentrification, AIDS, the War On Terror, and anti-immigrant conservatism.” Washington has also written lovingly and astutely about food and its intersection with race, class, and queerness for publications like The New Yorker and BuzzFeed. This year he was named a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree. Here, in his own words, are his favorite books of the 2010s.
Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex And Nigerian Taste Buds by Yemisi Aribisala (2016, Cassava Republic)
I’ve never read food writing like Aribisala’s. She altered what I thought a meal could look like on the page.
My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame (trans. by Anne Ishii, 2017, Pantheon)
Tagame shifted how I see narrative on the whole, let alone art in general, and this series was a delight and a marvel. I love it so much.
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli (2017, Coffee House Press)
For about a year, all I did was buy this book to give to everyone within arm’s reach.