2023 was not a great reading year for me. I only got to about half of my usual count, which is disappointing. I had a lot going on, so it is what it is. Most of the books I was able to finish were great, so let’s go ahead and dive in!
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Fiction
Bonnie Garmus
3.75/5 cats
I picked this up on a whim, because it was in stacks all around Barnes & Noble, due to being popular. I can still recall how strange it felt to pick up a fiction book I knew nothing about, and this book didn’t disappoint. Be warned, there is a sexual assault flashback toward the beginning. Rather unfortunately for me, I read that the night I was doing a sleep study away from home, and it did not help. Otherwise, the rest of the book was really interesting, and super well-written. Funny and smart, and different. If you, like me, are hesitant on fiction, this is a solid read.
William Goldman
3/5 cats
We’ve had this book for years, in the ‘Todd and Lindsay will read this together’ pile that we absolutely never think about. I needed a break from my nonfiction, and this was a fun and easy read. It read SO similarly to the movie, it was crazy, but kinda delightful? But there was also more background on all of the characters, so their motivations are much more clear and understandable. Hated the “sequel” preview in the back, though.
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England
Brandon Sanderson
3/5 cats
You didn’t think I’d have a yearly booklist without BrandySandy, did you? I picked this up, largely due to the title, as my autumn read. It read like a YA, so it was easy to get through, which I needed. However, that same point made it a bit kitschy, as well. The protagonist being excited about (NO SPOILERS) what he guesses his job had been (in a sort of hero-worshipy way) was something I couldn’t connect or empathize with either. In the end, I think it worked out pretty well, though, and I’m not sad to have read it. It was a little different, and gave me that ‘I finally finished a book’ high I needed. Also, it had some funny bits.
Sophie Irwin
5/5 cats
This is the book of the year for me, hands down! When browsing for the books on my list, the title caught my eye, and the blurb on the back didn’t made me want to roll my eyes down the hall, like most fiction—sometimes even the ones I like—does. So, Todd suggested I go for it, and I am so glad I did. I cannot think of another book I’ve read, though that could be my memory failing me, with an actively shy protagonist. And I’ve lamented this absence for years! As a shy person, there’s just a different way you are than those who aren’t shy. Knowing what the protagonist actually thought—which was a lot—versus how people viewed her based on what actions, or inactions, she took was great. The characters were vibrant, and lovely. And the plot had several twists I never saw coming—and I thought I knew what was coming. From the start, the book was brilliant. The author is obviously intimately acquainted with Jane Austen’s style, and takes that and builds on it, making it funnier and even more absurd. When I was about 1/3 of the way though, I found myself so invested and in love the with characters, I was sad to ever have it end. But then I was delighted when I realized how much was still left. I devoured the last half in mostly one go, staying up way too late. Irwin has one other book, though I don’t know if I could love it as dearly as this on, but I think I’ll give it a shot. If you are familiar with Jane Austen in any way, even if it’s just movie adaptations, I highly, highly, highly recommend this book. I will be rereading it.
Nonfiction
Marie Kondo
4.5/5 cats
Though not as vital as The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Kurashi at Home was a useful and wonderful way to start the year. In this book, Kondo has you divide your day into segments, much like I’ve suggested on this blog before—great minds, right?—and build joy into your routine. What can you do to make each part of your day feel good? She has so many good ideas for how to approach this, especially as a parent; as well as recipes. Sadly, I only managed to sort out my morning, but, as I’m making a big goal to get my life more balanced this year, maybe I’ll be able to move onto the other parts of the day, to make them more thoughtful and lovely.
Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
4/5 cats
Dan Siegel is such an amazing resource. I had started this book at the end of 2022, but finished it at the start of 2023. You may already know him from The Whole-Brain Child, where he talks about how a child’s brain works, how their emotions effect their actions, and how to parent effectively with this knowledge. This was a great read for me, especially after reading No Bad Kids by Janet Lansbury the previous year, which I enjoyed, and taking a workshop on setting boundaries. I was looking for solutions on how to juggle letting my son just be a little guy, but also having boundaries, and then responding in a way that would be useful for both of us. I’m still working on it. But you really can’t go wrong with this book.
Randall Munroe
4/5 cats
I bought this for my husband after he mentioned wanted to read it while we listened to a podcast where Munroe (xkcd) was a guest. Then, I decided to read it after he did, and it was really fun. Did I understand all the science? Not even close. But it was a very different nonfiction to what I usually pick up, so it still fell like a shift. The questions are absurd, and the illustrations always amusing. I have What If, the original, in my stack of books-to-read.
Jeff Speck
5/5 cats
The forward to this book massively slogged me down, and made it so difficult to make progress, I think I may have eventually said “heck it!’ and skipped it. The book itself was outstanding! If you want to know how you can actually improve cities and towns anywhere, this book has pretty much all the answers. Not that there aren’t other books that do, too—Jeff Speck references several—but this book will leave you very well-educated in this. I know: it sounds kinda dry. But I promise it is not. You live in a place, right? How can that place become better for everyone living there? If you have any sort of affinity for urbanism—wanting good, livable places that aren’t 100% car-dependent—you’ll know there are tons of highly, highly, highly uneducated people out there with poor opinions who also don’t want anything to change, for reasons that are unfounded. And after absorbing the information here, you’ll know every argument, and the real fix.
Michelle Zauner
4/5 cats
I had this book on my radar, but after my best friend read it and highly recommended it, I cruised through it. One of the most interesting parts, to me, was how similar a writing voice I felt the author has to myself. As an enneagram 4, I assume I’m pretty much entirely unique and unreplicatable. Zauner is very different from me, but expressed herself so similarly. The themes she restless with are so personal, but also had a universal vulnerability. My bestie and I found lots, and lots of different parts to mull over, and liken to each of our lives. It was a great memoir.
Casper Ter Kuile
3.75/5 cats
You may or may not have noticed I have a section on this blog for Rituals, so I was excited to pick this book up. I was instantly drawn in. Ter Kuile has a unique background, and brought in so many personal stories and antidotes, it really helped me think about what parts of my life I could ritualize. Plus, he’s a good storyteller, so sharing his memories conveyed the good feelings he was trying to help you tap into with ease. I was ready to give this book 5 stars, and sing it’s praises from the rooftops. However, toward the end, he has a section that’s basically “live like you’ll die tomorrow’. As someone with anxiety, and a fear of death complex—among other things—who got to hear that message in Church all the time growing up…I despise it. Maybe it’s helpful to people who are allergic to introspection. But if I lived like that, I’d never live. I get that it’s meant to be like “ensure you live each day well”, but it never comes across that nicely. And I hated that so bad I almost didn’t finish the book. Live a good life; try not to throw your time away. But if you have any mental or physical health challenges, that messaging just feels depressing. It was so close to a ‘favourite book’. Still worth reading, if you are okay with the bit I wasn’t good with.
Rupi Kaur
4/5 cats
I’ve read Kaur before, and this book was really lovely, too. Again, I find breaking up self-help, or similar, and parenting books with other non-fiction to be really refreshing. There were so many lovely lines that made me pause and slow down to really chew on them, and think about my own lived experience, and thoughts.
Neylan McBaine
3/5 cats
I wrestled with this book. Had I read it when it was published in 2014, I think I would have loved it, and eaten it up. However, almost a decade later, it was an emotional rollercoaster for me. At first, I was kind of skeptical of her insistence that things were totally doable to make womens roles in Church more equal, or there were ways women could be better heard and valued. Then, I started to get excited, “Yes, these are small and practical things!”. Then, I was overwhelmed, because the work required to get there is so difficult, and impeded. So I was left with complicated thoughts: those are great ideas. But will they get done? Can they get done? Do I expend energy (I don’t have) with this attempt at change? Later in the year, news broke that women in California has been doing one of McBaine’s suggestions, with the full support of local male leadership, for about 10 years—sitting on the stand at meetings—and they were told to stop just recently by someone higher up. So simple, meaningful, unobstructive change is ~not allowed~.
Natalie Franke
2.5/5 cats
This isn’t a low rating because the book doesn’t have good ideas, or isn’t written well—it is a good book. I was excited to pick it up, because community has been a huge focus of mine in recent years. However, as someone who has read some about that already, and has worked hard to implement it in my own life, and who has puzzled on these thoughts for a good while now, it just didn’t offer me a lot. If you are struggling with a competitive mindset, or maybe just feel trapped in a competitive world, this book will probably help you out a lot! I was just not in that space, and hadn’t been for years, so I came hoping for more research on the benefits of community, and ideas on how anyone can create stronger ones. This was more focused on creating community in industry, and unlearning a competitive mindset.
My overall #1 book recommendation from this list is A Ladies Guide to Scandal.
Tell me your favourite books you read in 2023, so I can add them to my list!
