2023 was a strange year for reading. I spent more time writing than reading, but then I’d feel sudden reading withdrawals and scramble to binge short audio books. (Yes, audio books count!) I read 80 books in 2023, but I felt like half the time I was reading, I was doing so half-heartedly, and as a result, I felt much of what I read lacked substance. (Could this be because I was half listening on 1.75 speed as I worked? Surely not.) And so, when I sat down to make this list, I was delighted to realize that, mixed into the fray of less-than-captivating reads, I read some excellent books this year!
One of my favorite things I did this year was joining a book club. Can you believe that never once in my life have I been part of a book club before now? It’s a book club for women, and we meet about once a month in my favorite bookstore in town to feast and chat about the book we read (and also everything else). I stalked them for a long time on Instagram before summoning the nerve to show up to a meeting last January, and I’m so glad I finally went.
I have spent nearly the entirety of my adult life discussing writing and books in groups as either a student or teacher in writing workshops and literature classes. It is so refreshing to ditch the academic rhetoric and agenda and just talk about books because I love them and think it’s fun with friends who also love them and think it’s fun. It feels too good to be true. Book Club Night has become my favorite night each month. You’ve never met more encouraging, smart, fun, and inclusive ladies than these. If you’re wondering how to make new friends as an adult, a good book club is your answer!
A quick disclaimer about this list.
The links I’m providing below are for Bookshop.org. This is a website I love because their mission is to support local bookstores. “But can’t I buy books cheaper on Amazon, you ask?” Maybe. Quite possibly. But local bookstores support authors and publishers, so I want to support them. Because I’m an affiliate of Bookshop.org, I will earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use my links to make a purchase. But of course, you can buy them anywhere, including in person at your own local bookstore which might have a cat for you to pet or a hot chocolate for you to sip.
The 15 Best Books I Read This Year
(Plus some honorable mentions, in alphabetical order by author.)
1. A Likely Story by Leigh McMullan Abramson (fiction)
Isabelle grew up in the shadow of her wildly famous father, and her life’s goal is to become a successful author just like him. But as she nears her 35th birthday, her dream seems farther away than ever. While mourning the death of her recently deceased mother, Isabelle unearths a secret about her family that will change her perception of her father and the trajectory of her career.
This was written by my real-life writing pal from graduate school, and it lived up to all my expectations. It’s about writing, family secrets, betrayal, privilege, and the dangers of fame, but it’s also about redemption and protecting those we love. It’s an invitation to revisit the ways we define success and a warning about how much we can destroy if we let vanity impact our definition. If you like stories about writing, family dramas, or fame, you’ll love this.
2. Talking at Night by Claire Daverley (fiction)
(This one gets two pictures because I couldn’t choose between them and because it’s my favorite book of the year.)
This is one of those books that I kind of don’t want to tell anyone about because it feels too personal and I want to hoard it forever. But what an absolute tragedy for you not to know about it. The plot seems deceptively simple. Will and Rosie are complete opposites who meet in high school and seem like the most unlikely pair. But gradually they become closer and closer, and their relationship seems meant-to-be until tragedy rips them apart and destroys any hope they had of a happily-ever-after. In the years that follow, they keep finding themselves drawn together and unable to disentangle themselves from what might have been.
The summary sounds like a romance novel, but I wouldn’t classify it that way. It’s a story about complex relationships, loss, grief, mental health, love, and connections. It’s understated and layered and deeply observant. I will never recover from this book, and I will re-read it over and over and be destroyed every time. This was the best book I read this year.
3. The Absolutes by Molly Dektar (fiction)
As a teenager, Nora is sent to spend a school year with distant relatives in Italy. In a brief encounter, she meets Nicola, the son of a powerful and feared aristocratic family. Though their encounter was short, it forged a lasting connection that Nora couldn’t let go of. When she unexpectedly runs into Nicola years later, that connection turns into infatuation. When Nora learns of a possible secret plot that Nicola might try to overthrow his corrupt father, she has to decide if the intimacy she longs for is worth the danger.
I got to read an early copy of this book, and I anticipated liking it because I was so impressed with the author’s first novel. I didn’t know that I’d spend the whole novel gripped with dread and unable to put it down. It’s a book about obsession, narcissism, control, and power, and it creeps over you so suddenly that you feel like you’re in the same hypnotic and dangerous spiral as the characters in the story. It’s brilliant and terrifying.
4. My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin (fiction)
This is about a college senior who has a sexual encounter that falls into the grey area between what she understands to be consensual and nonconsensual, and in the aftermath, she begins an affair with a married professor. It’s a book that grapples with our understanding of power, consent and its complexities, reputation, shame, and the ways society’s definition of these have changed over time. What I assumed would be a straightforward story like many I’ve read before about assault, affairs, and the aftermath of both was actually a far more nuanced and introspective story of gray areas, questions, difficult answers, and sometimes no answers at all. I loved this book, and I think it’s an important one.
5. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (fiction)
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist, but the problem is that her all-male team at her research lab doesn’t believe there can be such a thing. It’s the 1960s, and women aren’t scientists. The only person who takes her seriously is the Nobel-prize winning Calvin Evans. In spite of falling for him, Elizabeth refuses to marry him because doing so would mean everyone assumed her scientific discoveries were really his. Years later, Elizabeth finds herself as a single mother desperate for a job. When she’s unexpectedly offered a role as the star of a cooking show, she accepts, but only if she can teach cooking on her own terms.
This book is an unfortunate instance of US publishers really missing the mark with a book cover. I didn’t read this book for a while in spite of the hype around it because I assumed it would be a giggly romance about a scientist. It is not a giggly romance about a scientist. This is a book that deals with topics like injustice, inequality, harassment, and grief while never losing its humor or cleverness. I’ve never read a book quite like it, and I think even those who don’t love reading would enjoy it. Also, this is the author’s debut novel, and she published it when she was 65—how inspiring is that?!
6. The People We Keep by Allison Larkin (fiction)
In upstate New York, teenage April lives alone in a broken-down motorhome after her father abandons her to move in with his new family across town. She works at a diner to pay for food, is nearly failing high school, and dreams only of becoming a singer-songwriter. After a fight with her dad, she runs away from home to pursue her far-fetched dreams. It’s a deeply emotional story that somehow never gets too dark about overcoming difficult life circumstances and choosing how we define family. The summary of this book sounded a bit like a Lifetime movie, so I went in with skepticism. It ended up being a beautifully written story with complex characters that I wished lasted far longer than it did. I love this book.
7. Drinking Games by Sarah Levy (memoir/personal essays)
In her mid-20s, Sarah Levy’s life looked like the definition of millennial success. She’d graduated from an Ivy League school, gotten a job she loved at a start up in New York City, and spent her weekends at glamorous parties with a great group of friends. But secretly, she was grappling with the realization that her relationship with alcohol had become toxic and no one seemed to notice. Her life and drinking habits looked nothing like what she understood an alcoholic’s to be, but she came to realize that what society deems as “normal” can still destroy us.
Sarah and I went to college together, and though our experiences at Brown and in our early 20s could not have been more different, there’s so much I related to in this memoir. This is so much more than a memoir about drinking. Her reflections on social media, friendship, wellness culture, and living in NYC as a young adult are sharp and honest and will ring true to any millennial. Her observations about the things we accept as normal that shouldn’t be considered normal are so important. This is a brave book that’s going to change so many lives. (And it was just published in paperback!)
8. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy (graphic novel)
This is a difficult book to classify. I read the whole thing (There are very few words.) while standing in a bookstore in Portland, Maine, and I nearly wept because it was so beautiful. It’s full of tiny lessons about friendship, loneliness, fear, hope, kindness, and how cake makes everything better. The illustrations are mesmerizing. Michael bought it for me for my birthday this year, and I love it so much. I think too often about which of the characters I relate to most on any given day. (I think I’m usually the mole.) This is the perfect gift for everyone.
9. True Biz by Sara Novic (fiction)
In a sense, this is a familiar campus story about the lives of a group of boarding school students. But unlike any other campus novel I’ve ever read, this is set at a boarding school for the deaf. Charlie arrives at school as a transfer student who has never met another deaf person. February, the headmistress, is fighting to keep the school and open to repair her relationship with her wife. Austin, the beloved class favorite, doesn’t know how to react when his baby sister is born hearing into his all-deaf family. We jump between perspectives as the characters navigate crises and obstacles that entwine them.
This is not the first time that Sara Novic has introduced me to a subject that I never knew I knew nothing about. (If you haven’t read her first novel, Girl at War, add this to your list immediately.) It’s a story about injustice, first love, inclusion, disability, and overcoming obstacles. The way Novic depicts sign language on the page is brilliant. You will relate to these characters and learn something from each of them.
10. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (fiction)
Tova works the night shift as a cleaner at the local aquarium. Staying busy has always helped her cope—first with the loss of her son when he disappeared on a boat decades prior and now with the recent loss of her husband. During her long nights alone at the aquarium, Tova gradually befriends Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus. As Tova considers the possibility of moving to a retirement hope, Marcellus’s lifespan is nearing its end. Marcellus is the only one who knows what really happened to Tova’s son all those years ago, and he must find a way to let her know before their time together runs out.
I don’t often read books that I find to be feel-good stories, and when I do, I usually find them cringeworthy. But Tova and Marcellus really won me over. This is a wild concept that Van Pelt pulls off beautifully. It’s heartfelt and original and hopeful—the kind of book you need to cheer you up when things feel bleak.
11. Friends Like These by Meg Rosoff (YA fiction)
Beth arrives in New York City for the summer after being awarded a competitive journalism internship, and the city is crueler and more wonderful than she could have imagined. She is 18 years old and ready to experience her first taste of freedom. At her internship, she meets the charismatic and wild Edie who takes Beth under her wing to give her the full taste of her native city. Their friendship is quick and all-consuming, and Beth begins to realize that Edie might not have been the person she assumed her to be.
This is a gritty and honest coming-of-age story set during the AIDS epidemic about a young girl trying to navigate her first experiences of freedom, danger, intimacy, drugs, trust, and the lessons that will shape her. For two decades, Meg Rosoff has given us young adult novels that don’t flinch away from tough subjects, and this novel is no different. The dialogue is sharp and authentic, and Beth is a self-aware and intelligent character whose mistakes make her even more believable. This is a short novel, but Rosoff has the remarkable ability to pack a lot of depth into very few words. Rosoff wrote one of my favorite YA books of all time 2o years ago (How I Live Now), and I am thrilled to see that she is just as good as ever.
12. Above Ground by Clint Smith (poetry)
I was at Clint Smith’s book tour for this book in New Orleans (his hometown) the day he found out that he made the New York Times bestseller list. Do you know how hard that is to accomplish with a book of poetry? Clint Smith has the remarkable ability to draw people in with any genre. His background is spoken word poetry, so his poems have the casual feel of someone chatting with you in their kitchen. He writes about heavy things juxtaposed with poems about dancing badly with his toddlers. I could read it over and over.
13. Salvage This World by Michael Farris Smith (fiction)
Hardly anyone remains in South Mississippi in the near-future. Storms continuously ravage the coast, and there are barely any crops, jobs, or businesses left. The only people who’ve stayed are those without hope left for a better life. Among those remaining, a religious cult has captivated congregants and begun to spread violence. Jessie and her young son, Jace, are on the run from the cult, and Jace’s father is missing. She seeks refuge at her childhood home where she reluctantly reunites with her father. Rather than finding safety with her father, she has unknowingly brought the violence with her.
Michael Farris Smith captures the mysteries of the south better than almost anyone writing today, and this book kept me awake at night even more than his previous ones. He is an expert at tone, atmosphere, and characters that say an enormous amount with very few words. There are questions left unanswered at the end of the story, but this felt true to the world Smith built. If Faulkner were alive today, he’d own all of Michael Farris Smith’s novels.
14. Search History by Amy Taylor (fiction)
When her long-term relationship ends, Ana moves from Perth to Melbourne to start over. When she meets Evan, he almost seems too good to be true. But an online search reveals to Ana that Evan’s beloved ex-girlfriend died just a year prior, and he has never mentioned her. As Ana and Evan’s relationship grows, Ana dives deeper and deeper into the online life of Evan’s ex. Her constant online searching evolves into a spiral of comparison, doubt, and self-sabotage.
This is another instance of a cover misleading me. I assumed this would be a light and silly romance, and I was delightfully surprised by what I found instead. This is a sharp and intelligent novel about the complications of modern dating, the contradictions between our online selves and our real selves, and the role social media plays in our lives. Amy Taylor’s writing is unflinchingly honest and had me laughing, cringing, and horrified throughout. Reading this felt like revealing secrets too embarrassing to admit even to myself. I can’t wait to see what she writes next.
15. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Sam and Sadie met as children and bonded over their love of video games. They unexpectedly reunite in college, and before graduating, they create a videogame that will launch them to fame and change the course of their lives forever. But their brilliance, wealth, and fame won’t protect them from their misunderstandings, relationships, losses, tragedies, and the obstacles they never foresaw arising in their friendship. This novel spans 30 years and is a remarkable portrayal of the complexities and dimensions of a friendship and how it changes over time.
This is a difficult book to summarize and perhaps the most polarizing novel on this list. Many people told me it was their favorite book of 2022 (when it was published). Others disdain it. I personally found the characters infuriating, but it’s a testament to the depth of the novel that I found the characters realistic enough to be infuriated at them. And though I did not love the main characters, I thought the novel was brilliant. I haven’t seen a novel prompt so much conversation in a long time, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s worth all the hype.
And a few honorable mentions because I can’t be contained
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
This is the second book in the Ninth House series. I liked the first book more, but I’m no less riveted by this story, and I’m impatiently waiting the third one.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
This is one of the best celebrity memoirs I’ve ever read. McCurdy is a brilliant writer who handles intense topics with incredible humor. I especially recommend the audiobook, which she narrates.
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
This is a memoir about being Korean and adopted/raised by a white family. It’s a beautiful exploration of identity. (Fun fact: Nicole was the first editor who ever paid me for a story which was, ironically, about family.)
Happy Place by Emily Henry
It is hard for me to imagine an Emily Henry book not making my list. I didn’t find this one to be as strong as her previous 3, but I still found it to be such a fun story that I wished I could stay in longer. How she’s producing books of this quality at this speed, I’ll never know.
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
This is one of the most intense novels I read this year, and it completely captivated me. Though not for the faint at heart, Lisa Taddeo is an incredible writer who depicts female rage as the scariest force on Earth. I’m very excited to read her nonfiction book, as well.
