2023 was my best year of reading yet! I read 268 books last year. This up from 232 books in 2022.
2023 Reading Stats
The vibe of my reading year was largely emotional, reflective, and dark, but as you can see there’s a wide range and a good mix of moods.
I read about 80/20 fiction vs. non-fiction and my format of choice is print with about 1/3 of my reading being audiobooks.
2023 Standouts & Shoutouts
I find it very challenging to choose favorites always and with all things, books are no exception! I read 268 books last year across many genres, it’s hard to select just a few favorites! I prefer to review my year of reading with the goal of identifying two categories:
Standout books (Basically favorites by any other name.) These are stories and characters that have really stayed with me, excellent overall reading experiences, books I continue to recommend often.
Shoutout books: Reads that I really enjoyed and think deserve more attention than they received!
On The Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel
Loosely inspired by a series of unsolved murders in Chillicothe, Ohio On the Savage Side is the beautifully tragic story of twin sisters, beginning in 1979, navigating a world ravaged by poverty, addiction, violence, and loss as told with author Tiffany McDaniel’s trademark prose.
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Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard
A poignant, compassionate, and deeply touching family saga beginning in 1969 and spanning four decades including cultural touchstones along the way. An intimate look at family, motherhood, and the beginning, middle, and end of a marriage. A story about love, forgiveness, and transformation woven with little stories and human moments the way real life is. I was utterly captivated by this achingly beautiful novel.
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The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland
A brilliant work of autofiction centering two sisters who are carrying pregnancies and not at different points in the story incorporating the experiences of other women they encounter lending a sort of interconnected short story format. Hogland’s characters show pregnancy is anything but black and white, it’s an experience painted in every shade of gray imaginable, the most intimate and extraordinary and common experience to be lived.
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Zorrie by Laird Hunt
An extraordinary story of a very ordinary woman from a small town in Indiana whose life spans much of the 20th century. An enchanting novel with an outsized impact (161 pages in length) Zorrie’s story, one of tragedy and bliss, survival and resilience, love and loss, as most are, infuses beauty and grace into the mundane.
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Greenwood by Michael Christie
An exceptional family saga spanning 1908-2038 and 4 generations of the Greenwood family whose roots are inextricably entwined with the forests which sustain them. From an empire built on clear cutting forests to a dendrologist living among some of the last surviving old growth trees, Greenwood is a story of interconnectedness and rebirth.
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The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
A teenaged servant girl flees 17th century Jamestown for the surrounding wilds with little more than the clothes on her back. The Vaster Wilds is a survival story in the traditional sense whose themes explore ideas of feminism and faith, colonization in various forms, the stories which shape our understanding of the world and our reality, and the ways keepers of those stories also contour our perception.
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Wellness by Nathan Hill
The story of a couple and a marriage, yes, but it’s really the story of the evolution of our culture, and really our very reality, over the last 20 years; what it is to live in modern times. Information constantly streaming, stories we tell to and about ourselves, a society always striving for more, new, better, best. Well written and an incredibly fascinating mix all packaged up within characters and a story that are compelling and recognizable.
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Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
This manifesto posits poverty in America, something impacting more than 1 in 9 of us, is not an unfortunate byproduct of our system or a choice made by individuals who just won’t bootstrap harder, but rather a reality by design: some are intentionally kept small so that others can prosper. In other words, ours is a system of exploitation. Desmond outlines how the structure is skewed and what can be done about it.
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Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
A town an its people are consumed by a delicious apple with a long and deadly legacy. A delicious and complex read not unlike the apple at its core. Rich with historical and social commentary, relevant to past and current events, a mysterious and suspenseful plot that moves quickly thanks to multiple points of view, and bonus gift with read: a lot of actually interesting facts about apples.
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North Woods by Daniel Mason
Centuries of history as told by the various inhabitants of a single house standing in the remote north woods of Massachusetts from its 17th century construction by young Puritan lovers absconding from their settlement right up to near present day. Well knit interconnected stories spanning hundreds of years shape the narrative.
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You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham that Changed America by Paul Kix
Narrative non-fiction detailing the 1963 direct action campaign to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama during which Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested, jailed, and penned the now infamous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” The events of these 10 days changed the trajectory of history forever and Kix’s account brings this history to life.
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The Deluge by Stephen Markley
An epic speculative CliFi dystopia following a cast of characters who intersect at various times and in various ways as they navigate the fallout of climate change. Spanning more than 3 decades and impressive in scope alone The Deluge is also well researched and crafted with developed characters and remarkably believable speculative elements.
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The Endless Vessel by Charles Soule
Set in a near and familiar future where humanity is bearing the weight of darkness in many forms a new pandemic called “The Grey,” a sort of deadly depressive malady, is spreading and no one knows how to stop or reverse it. A climate change scientist finds herself on an unexpected quest through time and space where she will discover the secret to survival. A unique blend of genres, an entertaining and approachable adventure, and a philosophical exploration of existence, connection, happiness, and finding hope amidst darkness.
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Talking At Night by Claire Daverley
An emotional romance about two people who meet as teens. Will and Rosie have undeniable chemistry and the beginnings of a blossoming romance until tragedy strikes, tethering them together and pushing them apart for decades as they come of age while grappling with grief and life. Beautiful, melancholy, and deeply affecting.
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Mother in the Dark by Kayla Maiuri
A quiet yet gripping saga about a working class Boston family. Complicated relationships, complex dynamics, particularly the relationship between mothers, daughters, and sisters, and the ties that hold us. A poignant look at the impact of growing up beneath the specter of mental illness.
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The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
The Rachel Incident is told from an adult Rachel’s present day perspective about a 2009 incident that happens as she’s graduating college featuring a complex romantic entanglement involving Rachel, the college professor she has a crush on, her roommate, James, her college professor’s wife, and eventually a man Rachel begins dating. But truly the narrative swirls around the intense and platonic friendship between Rachel and James, the real love story at the center of this novel; a kind which can only exist at a certain time in your life. Brilliantly crafted, compelling, and oddly nostalgic.
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Time’s Mouth by Edan Lepucki
A multigenerational saga chronicling three generations of one Californian family from the founding of a 50s/60s matriarchal Commune in the woods turned cult to seeking a more traditional life in 80s/90s LA and coming full circle in the new millennium. Told with elements of magical realism and a hint of dark fairytale.
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Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano
When his sister goes missing a sports journalist Harper tracks her to a small island off the coast of Wisconsin inhabited by a tiny, insular community perplexingly stuck in the 90s. The eerie and accessible narrative is enhanced by “found footage” containing diary entries, text threads, interviews, and articles throughout. An excellent balance of horror, humor, suspense, and deeper themes.
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The Peach Seed by Anita Gail Jones
A multigenerational family story spanning many members and across time, even offering glimpses back to their patriarch in late 18th century Senegal who is captured, enslaved and brought to America. Throughout all and central to the story are the family’s talisman: monkeys carved from a peach seed. I appreciate the bits of history incorporated throughout the story.
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The Shore by Katie Runde
The Dunnes don’t just visit the Jersey Shore, they live there year round and run a vacation rental business using their properties to make other people’s vacation dreams come true, but this year, as the season winds down, the family is in tumult as their patriarch descends further into illness with a terminal brain tumor. His business partner/wife and their two teenaged daughters are trying to juggle the family business, caretaking, the impending loss of their husband/father, and, for the girls, being teenagers with very adult responsibilities. Inspired by experiences of author Katie Runde’s life and very well done.
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The Possibilities by Yael Goldstein-Love
Hannah, a successful horror novelist struggling with new motherhood. Those around her think she may be in the midst of a challenging transition, but Hannah’s anxiety is so immense she starts experiencing blips where it seems to her as though her baby is missing. When he disappears from his crib one night and she’s not the only one to experience the loss, she knows she must find him, even if that means testing the bounds of the universe as we know it.
An incredible blend of literary/speculative sci-fi/suspense thriller, motherhood, multiverse, heroine’s quest, Jewish representation, written by a Jewish author with a background in parent-focused psychotherapy. I just adore the way Goldstein-Love applies a sci-fi lens to explore the disorientation and multitudes of motherhood.
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Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine
An actress rapidly approaching middle age is desperate to be pregnant. Just as her star is rising so too does Anna succeed in getting pregnant after an arduous IVF journey, but her dreams soon turn to nightmares beginning with a stalker breaking into her apartment and later strange pregnancy symptoms: Is Anna hysterical, or is something seriously wrong?
A feminist update to Rosemary’s Baby I just loved this sinister exploration of pregnancy as well as the all too real horror of rampant misogyny in pregnancy care; layered and thoughtful and so well done.
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And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott
A few weeks into motherhood, Alice, a young Mohawk woman, is struggling despite appearing to have it all. She can’t seem to do anything right when it comes to caring for her baby, is haunted by her mother’s recent death, and then begins hearing voices.
A bold, smart blend of horror and speculative sci-fi incorporating so many layers: motherhood, mental health, indigenous culture and experience, racism, and traditional storytelling. The writing style is almost conversational, irreverent and funny at times, heartbreaking at others.
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The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis
A rich, engrossing, layered, multigenerational family saga about parents and children, liberation and legacy. Three generations of one Black family are seeking home and community, freedom, and self-determination in a variety of ways. Author Ayana Mathis interweaves fictionalized versions of history into the story with a Black owned town in Alabama as well as a commune in Philadelphia.
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The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World by Max Fisher
A very compelling look at the negative implications of social media from the way it taps into our psychology to make us slaves to our feeds to the way these platforms have been used to foment genocide and other violence with no responsibility taken or changes made on the part of the private companies who own them. The division and extremism bred by social media algorithms are not merely an unfortunate byproduct but are instead features upon which these companies’ profit models are predicated upon. One of the scariest books I’ve ever read and one I can’t stop thinking about.
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I Could Live Here Forever by Hanna Halperin
A breathtaking page turner about star-crossed lovers Leah and Charlie whose relationship is messy, codependent, and exhilarating. Leah is a MFA student leaving behind complicated family dynamics and Charlie struggles with drug addiction. I couldn’t put this book down.
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Not Alone by Sarah K. Jackson
Set five years after a microplastics storm caused a mass extinction Katie is holed up in her apartment with her son born after the storm. But Katie’s health is deteriorating forcing them to leave the safety of their apartment on a cross country trek and the hope they may be able to reunite with Katie’s fiancé, once thought lost to the storm. A quietly captivating apocalyptic novel, a deeply character driven meditation on motherhood, hope, love, and resilience.
That Bookish Life 