My favorite books of 2023

Written By Court

Hello! I’m writing this on New Years Eve but I’m sure I won’t finish or hit publish at least until tomorrow. My tradeoff is that instead of writing this post (which seems to be the only reason I have this website :), is that I finished my last book of the year today, right after a nap. And then I took the kids — total Marylanders — to have crab to celebrate NYE, and we topped that off with some Jeni’s ice cream. We’re closing out 2023 in the right way.

Let’s get to books! I had a weird reading year (see Storygraph chart wayyyy below). I would get in to a flow of reading, and then a rut (thinking I’d never get out of it), but then… I’d get out of it and into several delicious new books. This was also a big audiobook year for me. Before 2023, I’d never really gotten into them (though I think they are equivalent to physical books - they both engage the same part of the brain); I might have read one or two in that format. But early this summer I got into a minor car wreck, was concussed, and when I eventually went to the doctor, she told me no screens for several days. I countered with reading, and she said nope. This resulted in me lying on my couch for several days staring at my ceiling and listening to many wonderful stories.

Okay, now we’ll get to specific books! Speaking of a weird reading year, I’m having trouble naming my favorite book of the year, so here are my top 3 (in no particular order):

  • The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (literary fiction📓). I saw someone reading this doorstop of a novel at our neighborhood pool, and she told me she couldn’t put it down. I started it on my kindle, and then ignored almost everything in my life to keep reading it. It’s an epic story of a family cursed to have at least one person each generation to die by drowning. The book was good for my soul, helping restore my faith in humanity, reminding me to hold on to hope. I needed it. With the state of the world right now, maybe you do, too.

  • Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang (literary fiction📓, historical📜, fantasy🧙🏼‍♀️). You’ll see that another of her books is on my list below (and it’s completely different and completely wonderful), and somehow she writes these incredible books (at age 27!) while pursuing her PhD at Yale. Now that I’ve made myself sound totally old and jealous, I can share why this book made the list. WAIT SHE JUST FINISHED HER NEXT BOOK ON 12/31/23, SO I AM BOTH EXCITED AND JEALOUS (AGAIN), BUT MOSTLY EXCITED. I’m not sure what description would have led me to pick up this book - I read it because I loved Yellowface, which I read first, and then I loved this one more - but it didn’t sound like my jam at first. Here’s a description that might have worked for me: It’s a historical fiction/fantasy mash up. It’s like if Harry Potter were written for grown-ups and actually grappled with racism and colonialism (and wasn’t written by a bigot). It’s magical and a reminder to fight for justice. We need that right now, too.

  • You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith (nonfiction📔, memoir🪞). Author Maggie Smith (not the dame) became famous after her poem Good Bones went viral (for good reason; also fair warning that the poem is a punch-in-the-gut-then-a-hug type of poem). As that poem went viral, her marriage started (continued to?) fall apart; her then husband is jealous/intimidated by her success (sound familiar?) and cheats on her. Her writing is beautiful, she is vulnerable and funny, and she looks right at grief and pain and finds joy. I needed that.

Followed closely by these gems:

  • The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (literary fiction📓, historical📜) - this is the book that I had to finish on NYE. I’ll read anything by James McBride - I love his writing so much. It’s the story of Black and Jewish communities in the Chicken Hill neighborhood of Pottstown, PA, in the 1930s; it’s honest and depressing and uplifting. Obama loved it, and I just found this blurb that really articulates my experience better than I can: “I keep thinking every time I read one of his books, 'That's his best book.' No. THIS is his best book." --Ann Patchett

  • The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei (contemporary fiction📗, science fiction🧪, dystopian🚫🌎). I recommended this to a friend recently and she shared back that someone had described it online as Among Us fanfic. YES! If that doesn’t grab you, the Associated Press described it as “smart, emotionally mature, quick-paced climate fiction space whodunit.” I don’t have a good emoji for that genre, though.

  • Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See (literary fiction📓, historical📜). 15th Century China, and Yunxian is being raised by her grandparents. Her grandmother is one of very few female doctors in the country, and she is training Yunxian on the Four Examinations (looking, listening, touching, and asking; which male doctors cannot do with female patients). It’s a story about women, traditions, family and friendship. I loved it.

  • Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (fantasy🧙🏼‍♀️ + romance😘 = romantasy!). It seemed like everyone was raving about this book, for good reason! A war college, dragon riders, romance. Main character Violet Sorrengail isn’t supposed to survive the Riders Quadrant; with her frail, brittle body and small size, what dragon will bond with her? (The sequel, Iron Flame is already out, and I didn’t love it nearly as much as this first book.)

  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (contemporary literary fiction📓, thriller🔪, satire🙃). Not only is she an amazing writer, she has RANGE. Aspiring white author, June Hayward, steals her friend Athena’s novel about Chinese laborers during WWI after Athena’s freak death. June becomes Juniper Song and is ambigious about her ethnicity, and the book becomes a best seller. "A darkly satirical thriller about greed, truth, identity, and art--and who a story really belongs to. Reading Yellowface was like riding a roller coaster with no safety belt. I screamed the whole way through!" -- Peng Shepherd, author of The Cartographers

  • Ghost Girl, Banana by Wiz Wharton (literary fiction📓, historical📜, mystery🔍). Not enough people are talking about and reading this book! Sisters Lily and Maya get letters that they have inherited half a million British pounds sterling each, as long as they go to Hong Kong to sign the papers personally. Maya, who remembers their mother, seems indifferent to the offer, but Lily is determined to claim the reward and find out more about her own identity. This was one of the books that got me out of a reading rut.

  • Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman (contemporary literary fiction📓, mystery🔍). I’ll read anything Elinor Lipman writes, and this was a fun, smart read. Lawyer Jane Morgan is sentenced to 6 months of house arrest after a neighbor sees her having consensual sex on the roof of her NYC apartment. Jane’s doorman lets slip that she’s not the only ankle bracelet wearer in the building…

  • Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny (contemporary literary fiction📓, short stories🥞). Speaking of reading everything someone writes, GAH KATHERINE HEINY. She’s the genius behind Standard Deviation (best of 2017 for me), which is why I willingly searched out a book of short stories (not usually my genre). The stories are funny and kind and sharp, and dammit now I want to read this book of short stories again.

  • Sparks! Volume 1 by Ian Boothby (middle grade🚌, graphic novel💥). Recommended by Liberty Hardy (as so many of these are), and delightful! Ox enjoyed it as well, which is saying something, because his tweenager self loves to hate what I love right now. Sparks is a super hero dog, but he’s actually two cats in a mechanical dog suit :)

  • Maureen by Rachel Joyce (contemporary literary fiction📓). I LOVED The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and was slightly disappointed in the sequel? companion? follow up? book The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. Good news, you don’t have to read that book to love this story. We finally get to hear Harold’s wife, Maureen’s, side, and I had no idea I wanted to. Heartbreak and healing and forgiveness. So good.

  • Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn (fantasy🧙🏼‍♀️, young adult🎬). The wonderful follow up to 2020 fave Legendborn, and I’ll continue to read Bree’s journey of discovering her power.

Honorable Mentions - these were great (4 star reads), but not so great that I want to write long blurbs for them. ALSO THIS PART OF THE LIST IS FUCKING LONG, so you’re welcome and sorry. I read 110 books in 2023, and I’m glad so many were good!

Maybe next year?

  • Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I listened to this on audiobook because it was read by Meryl Streep, and I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it, either, but considering how much I ADORED The Dutch House, I think I’ll try reading the physical version and see if that changes my mind.

Speaking of next year, every year I do this thing where I’ve reserved books at the library, and keep punting the holds for the books I’m most excited about (see The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store above) until the end of the year when our office is closed for two weeks. Problem is I’ve done that with too many books, and then I have hard choices to make. I’m also looking forward to reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (already started it), Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina, Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo, The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, and Shark Heart by Emily Habeck.

P.S. Birdie just asked me how I was still working on writing this. Thanks for taking the time to read it and motivating me to look back at the wonderful reads of 2023!

P.P.S. Here’s that graph for you data nerds:

Court
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My favorite non-book media & stuff of 2022