Best Reads of 2023

 My Goodreads goal for the year was 100 books. With about a week left of the year, I'm sitting at 80. Not too shabby. I decided to dig into my ratings of these 80 books and post some of my favorites here.

These reviews are meant to be vague--I don't want to spoil anything!

The First Book of the Year

The first book I read this year was All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle. A lonely older man in London, cut off from his community after the death of his wife, sets out to create new friendships in order to impress his soon-to-visit daughter. 

But instead of finding the people to fill the roles he's made up for her in their weekly phone calls, he finds friendship and love in unlikely places--a young single mum and her toddler daughter, a delivery driver, and more. 

Filled with humor, and empathy for the lonely people of the world, Hubert's story was both heartbreaking and delightful. There are a few heart-rending twists in the story, so have a hanky handy. I gave this five stars on Goodreads.

The One that Everyone Read

I usually prefer to read on paper or Kindle, not listen to audiobooks, simply because I get distracted with audiobooks. Disclaimer: I fully believe that audiobooks qualify as reading; it's just not a form of reading that is best for my style of retaining information, unless I'm in the car, or on a long flight, as I was for much of my listening to this book.

Hoooboy, where to even start? If you've read Spare by Prince Harry, you can understand my plight. I like Harry and Meghan. I admire how they've stepped away from the nonsense to protect themselves and their children. And Harry's story, while shocking, isn't truly surprising in the long run.

This book is filled with lots of juicy insider bits, but it's also a story of a man who grew up in a fishbowl while navigating childhood, puberty, adolescent shenanigans, and the death of a beloved mother who adored him.

My friend Sarah originally thought it a bit odd that a now thirty-something man refers to his mother as Mummy still, but I don't. When my mom got cancer, I was 39; and suddenly, I was thinking of her as "Mommy" and "Mama." Since she died, I have a tendency to think of her as "Mama" a lot. It's like that little Meg inside me has come forward to loudly protest losing her mommy. It doesn't surprise me that a guy whose mom died when he was just a boy would be stuck on "Mummy." 

I gave this one four stars. It was very engaging, but a bit long. 

The One That Made Me Laugh and Cry

I had been meaning to read The Guncle by Steven Rowley for a while, and finally got to it on my summer break. 

I was expecting a light-hearted and silly romp...and yes, there is some of that. But this book is also a study in deep grief and how we keep living after losing someone who is so very important to us. 

Rowley does a brilliant job of exploring how loss affects us, and how we act out, shut ourselves off, and everything else. I laughed at the silly parts, of course, but this book also made me cry--in a good way. Truly a lovely, lovely story. 

Sarah has informed me that a sequel is coming in 2024. Sign me up! 

The First in a Series I Can't Wait to Devour

A book that brings together some of Jane Austen's most beloved characters after their happily-ever-afters? And the death of one of the most hated cads in Austenland? Yes, please. Oh, and we're adding children of these beloved characters as the intrepid investigators? Tell me more.

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray, and its sequel The Late Mrs. Willoughby, are delightful. Written with a splash of Austen-esque language, and featuring a neurodivergent character in the lead, with a sympathetic love interest, these stories give us a new twist on the many Austen-inspired books out there. A third book, The Perils of Lady Catherine DeBourgh, is set to be released in 2024. I can't wait.

The Airport Purchase

I purchased The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune at the Lisbon airport on a layover on the way home from Barcelona. I had finished listening to the audio of Spare, and needed something for the long flight back to San Francisco.

This book is absolutely charming. There are magical beings, a spot of romance, and plenty of wry British humor. 

The YA Romance 

Talia Hibbert's Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute checks a lot of my boxes:

• Smart heroine who takes no crap
• Smart hero who the heroine really...wants...to...hate.
• A very real, very empathetic depiction of anxiety and OCD
• A best-friends-to-enemies-to-friends-again-to-in-love plot
• Plenty of humor

I gave this one five stars on Goodreads. I tend to enjoy a lot of YA anyway, but this one was above and beyond. 

The Best Autobiography

While Spare was juicy, it doesn't hold a candle to what Jennette McCurdy gave us with I'm Glad My Mom Died. Yes, the title is shocking. The cover photo, too. But that is nothing compared to McCurdy's life of growing up with the Stage Mom From Hell. 

Forced to diet recklessly, sexually abused in the name of "health," and gaslit for years, McCurdy has had to do a lot of work in her adult life to undo the damage her mother caused. Yet, she still loved her mom, and she still reckons with missing her. The story is heartbreaking, and be warned, the talk of her eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia) are absolutely graphic and harrowing. This book is not for anyone who struggles with depictions of eating disorders. 

Still, it's an important autobiography. McCurdy has worked hard to carve out a place in the world where she feels comfortable, healthy, and happy. And while her story is absolutely shocking, she tells it with a twist of wry sarcasm that makes it slightly more bearable. She's done the work and she continues to do the work to heal. I can't say I "enjoyed" this book, but I appreciate it.

The Classics

I made it a summer break mission to read some classics I had not read in my school days. Books I read included:

• The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway): Four stars--very gripping, a bit tedious in parts, but I suppose being at sea with a massive fish would be tedious, too.
• The Maltese Falcon (Dashiel Hammett): Four stars--a really great detective novel. I watched the movie years ago.
• The House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros): Five stars--it was not what I expected, with it's short, choppy chapters, but I really loved the depiction of growing up Latino in Chicago.
• Maus--Volumes 1 and 2 (Art Spiegelman): Five stars for both--brutal, but brilliant. 
• A Room of One's Own (Virginia Woolf): Four stars--this one was bearable. I also attempted To the Lighthouse and had to stop. Just as I couldn't stand Mrs. Dalloway when I read it in college, I couldn't stand Lighthouse. I am just not a fan of Woolf's fiction. 
• The Alchemist (Paolo Coelho): Five stars--people seem to either love or hate this book. The people who love it often seem to see it as some sort of guide to life. The people who hate it see it that way too. I didn't read it that way. I simply read it as a fun adventure story, and not a parable. As a fun story, I loved it.
• Farenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury): Three stars--well-written? Yes. Thought-provoking? For sure. Timely? Absolutely. And neither hugely engaging nor totally boring for me. A sold three stars.
• And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie): Five stars--this was a re-read for me. I read it in high school and loved it. I thought I remembered it well, but on this re-read, I realized I'd forgotten a lot of details. Ms. Christie was a fabulous writer. A goal for 2024 is to read more of her works (I've also read Murder on the Orient Express but haven't delved deeper into her prolific list of books). I'd also like to read some biographies about her.

What were some of YOUR favorite books this year? Please feel free to comment. 😀