Mainly because of insomnia and time spent in hotels in July and August, this year I was able to finish reading 84 books, 49 fiction and 35 nonfiction. That is a total of 23,801 pages.
Don’t be too impressed. Thirteen of those books were children’s/YA lit, which is worthwhile for adults to read but is much easier to get through. I read 6 volumes of graphic/comic books. Beyond those, another 11 I would rank as light/cozy lit. And 4 were re-reads. That leaves 50 books not in those lighter categories.
And because I am paying a bit more attention to this now, 5 of the fiction books depicted characters who are disabled, 2 books depicted characters with chronic illness. Plus 2 non-fiction books that directly addressed disability.
Here are the books I rated as excellent and my most enjoyable reads in 2023:
Excellent Fiction
The Beatryce Prophecy, by Kate DiCamillo with Sophie Blackall (Illustrator). 2021. 256 pages. Children’s lit.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. 187 pages. Published 2018.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. 400 pages. Published 2023.
I just finished it yesterday, but I think this will end up being one of my favorites, as was McBride’s The Good Lord Bird. This might have been found in the category below (Excellent writing; difficult topic) but McBride manages to include enough humorous elements to keep the edge off.
Excellent Nonfiction
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. 184 pages • first pub 2020
Lady Justice: Women, the Law and the Battle to Save America, by Dahlia Lithwick. Published 2022. 284 pages (text). With endnotes 369 pages.
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
by John Green. 293 pages • first pub 2021.
And some others I found quite enjoyable and/or thought-provoking (there were so many - I didn’t even include all of them here):
American Grunt: Ridiculous Stories of a Life Lived at $8.00 an Hour, by Kevin Cramer. 354 pages. Published 2023.
Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus, 2022, 386 pages.
Rolling Warrior: The incredible, sometimes awkward true story of a rebel girl on wheels who helped spark a revolution, by Judith Heumann with Kristen Joiner. Audiobook 4 hours, read by Allie Stroker, Beacon Press Audio, Published 2021. 215 pages in print form.
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb. Published 2022. 338 pages.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, by Angie Cruz. Published 2022. 208 pages.
The Cruelest Month (Chief Inspector Gamache #3) by Louise Penny
311 pages. Published 2007
Jane and Prudence, by Barbara Pym. 222 pages. First published 1953.
March: Books One, Two, and Three, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, art by Nate Powell. Graphic books. Published 2013, 2015,
Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson. 416 pages. Published 2022. Children’s literature.
2023 Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winner
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz with Hatem Aly (Illustrator) 384 pages. Published 2016. Children’s literature.
Excellent writing; difficult topic
These would have been up above, but the topic matter made them a bit more difficult for me to classify as fully enjoyable. I'm a squeamish reader. These are well worth reading, all of them.
The Overstory, by Richard Powers. 2018. 502 pages. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Apeirogon, by Colum McCann. Published 2020. 480 pages.
The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell. 2022. 333 pages
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, 592 pages. Published 2016.
House on Endless Waters, by Emuna Elon, Translation to English by Emuna Elon. 2016. 309 pages.
The Watcher, by Italo Calvino. First published in Italian with the title La giornata d'uno scrutatore in 1963 in Italy.
Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan. 448 pages. Published 2017.
King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild. 376 pages (text thru page 323; the rest is end notes). Published 1998.
Some second readings
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. 464 pages. © 2020. (Pulitzer prize winner).
Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo with K. G. Campbell (Illustrator) 240 pages. Published 2013. Children’s literature.
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. 176 pages. Published 2015.
Meet Me at the Museum, by Anne Youngson, Published 2018.
My top 5 genres, from thestorygraph.com
My top five genres for 2023 were historical fiction, history (nonfiction), mystery, literary (??) and contemporary.
2 comments:
Still impressive.
I read one Claire Keegan book last year and it was excellent. I have The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store out right now.
I really liked The Overstory, and was happy that my daughter had to read it for a course and also liked it.
I am trying to pay more attention to diversity in the authors and books I read as well. It's remarkable how insidious those unconscious biases can be, and how hard to overcome.
Ah! You use Storygraph! I just learned about it this past month, seems all the cool kids use it. I installed the app on my phone to track my reading this year just for fun--I've never done it before with any fidelity.
Adding Claire Keegan to my list of people to check out now...
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