The 2023 Book Review

2023 was kind of an average year of reading - as in, a lot of average, just-okay books. The year itself felt very long, in reading terms, in that I forgot about books I had read earlier in the year, and was surprised to remember I had read them only in this past calendar year. Unlike 2022, I didn't re-read too many books, nor did I listen to many audiobooks (which, in 2022 was the format of most of my re-reads). 2022 was a year of comfort re-reads, and 2023 was instead a year of many a new book, but a lot of very average, 3-star reads. I read a lot, but there weren't as many stand-out reads as some years. C'est la vie, I guess.

Without much further ado, let's jump in (if I don't capitalize on this burst of motivation to write this post, I never will, and poor 2023 will be lumped in with next year's review!). 

Disliked

First of all, it is noteworthy that when I arrive at this first category, nothing springs to mind. That doesn't mean there weren't any stinkers, just not so many strong ones like some years (don't get me started on It Ends With Us or The Ladies of the Secret Circus again - the fact that these two books immediately spring to mind years after reading them conveys just how truly awful they were!).

I didn't have any books that I disliked that much. Perhaps a first in the thirteen years or so of these book reviews!

Resounding Meh

Okay, several resounding Mehs come to mind, however! What's a "Resounding Meh" book, and how does it differ from Disliked? Well, it was fine...just fine. Likely overhyped, and therefore, I either read it with too high of expectations or, I read it with too critical an eye. Or...it just wasn't that good. Sometimes a book can just be not that good, despite the hype.

Fourth Wing and Iron Wing by Rebecca Yarros *ducks as projectiles fly at my head across the internet*

Look, these books were fine. They were entertaining, they were page-turning at times, but given all the hype...they were fine. I like fantasy, I like new spins on worlds with dragons. I don't like gratuitous violence (of which there was...a lot in these books). But the gushing! Oh the gushing! on podcasts and social media about these books - it was a *bit* much.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

I could not stop reading this book - and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it - until about the last third of the book. And then I started laughing because it was ridiculous and no longer believable. Imagine the worst things that could happen to a young, orphaned boy - the w o r s t - and then double it - no, triple - no quadruple it! and you have A Little Life. It got to the point where I couldn't see the point any more. It's compulsively readable, but it felt merely voyeuristic. I read a review that Yanagihara is really hard on her LGBTQ+ characters (as in, she puts them through extremely difficult situations to an unnecessary amount), and that is very, very true of A Little Life. I think there's value in the story, but I think she needed to scale back the torture of her main character just a bit to actually get the point across. It was a compulsively readable book that left me feeling a bit empty when I was done.

Favorites of 2023 (in no particular order)

Love and Saffron by Kim Fay

This was a sweet book about female friendship. It's an epistolary novel, which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I love this format. The main characters, a younger and an older woman, strike up a friendship in letters in the 1960s via the column that one of the women writes in a magazine. They exchange recipe and spices, and slowly start to share about their lives. It's a quiet book, and for me, it was the right book at the right time. 

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

I can't quite explain why this book was one of my favorites of the year. I think it reminded me of books written in the Gilded Age à la Edith Wharton, or even a little older, like George Eliot. The main character is not entirely likable, and yet you find yourself routing for her nonetheless. She is a young woman trying to make her way in New York in the 1990s (or, as my students would say "The late nineteen hundreds" *shudder*), the daughter of Korean immigrants who want only the best for their daughters. It's a very wise book in a way I wish I could articulate better. Casey makes a lot of mistakes, but keeps trying to better herself. I think I liked it because it combined the quaint wisdom and charm of books a hundred years older, with the struggles of being an immigrant in America. I liked this much better than Pachinko - also good. Free Food is not as devastatingly heartbreaking as Pachinko.

The Course of Love by Allan de Botton

Is it a novel? Is it a self-help book? Is it it a psychology book? This little work combines all three. It follows the main characters as they meet, fall in love, marry, have children, have an affair, and stay married. It's all about falling in love, and choosing to stay with one's partner once the initial glitter and newness of romance fades. I plan on gifting this book to newly married couples. I don't agree with everything in it, as it's written from a secular point of view, but I think it has a lot of wisdom to offer people in committed romantic relationships.

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

This book is a retelling of Antigone, set in 2015 at the height of ISIS. You don't have to be familiar with Antigone to read it. It's an extremely thought-provoking book, as can be expected by any work that tackles the themes of Antigone through the context of Islamic extremism. 

The Secret Life of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

The main character, Hazel, lost her young sister, Flora, years ago during World War 2 when they were staying in Oxford during the Blitz. Her sister was presumed drowned in the river, and her body was never recovered. Years later, Hazel discovers a book that tells the stories she told her her sister as a child, leading her to wonder if Flora is still alive. 

I probably would not have picked up this book on my own, but I read it with my book club. It was really a beautiful story. I listened to the audiobook, which I highly recommend.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

For some reason I've never picked up anything by Enger, and I now know I was missing out. This is the story of a family trying to escape horrible tormentors in their small town, which leads to the arrest of the oldest brother. It's a story about faith, family, and miracles. I can't really remember the exact details as I write this, as it was one of my first reads of 2023, but the feeling of hope, wonder, and miracle has stayed with me. Fans of Wendell Berry, Marilyn Robinson, and Kent Haruf would probably enjoy this (and have probably already read it as it's not a new book).

Honorable Mentions

In 2022, I read a ton of re-reads for comfort or for kickstarting reading slumps, but 2023 was the year of the mystery or legal thriller for combating reading slumps. None of these books were my favorite books of the year, but I've enjoyed the sum of the whole of these series:

Aaron Falk series, by Jane Harper - start with The Dry

Aaron Falk is a Federal Police Investigator who returns to his hometown for a funeral, haunted by a terrible loss many years earlier. He gets caught up in an investigation of the death of his friend, which leads, of course, to many answers about the previous tragedy.

Rockton series, by Kelley Armstrong - start with City of the Lost

Casey Duncan and her friend find refuge in an off-the-grid town deep in the Yukon for people who need to get away from their past for a time. Casey becomes the town detective, and is immediately tasked with solving a horrific murder. These books aren't particularly well-written but the stories are pretty good. The "locked room" aspect of the residents of the town being the most logical suspects because there is no one else (or is there?) makes it particularly engrossing. Everyone - everyone - has secrets, and Casey has to unravel as many as she can to solve the murder.

Looking ahead to 2024, I want to read more non-fiction, more backlist, more works-in-translation, and more authors of color. Of course, if I'm being honest, I always want to read more non-fiction, more backlist, more works-in-translation, and more authors of color, and I usually don't read as much in these categories as I would like. But, better to have the desire to do so, and actively seek out diversifying my reading and not quite meet my goals, than not attempt it all! Of the 7 books I have read so far, only one of them fits those categories (backlist) - so I have some work to do. 

2024 is going to be another year of big transitions. 2022 - a big transition year - was all comfort re-reads, so I might be in for another round of re-reading Lord of the Rings and the Miles Vorkosigan series and James Herriot. And if so...that's okay! 

What was your best read or reads of 2023? What are you looking forward to reading in 2024!

Happy reading, friends!