My reading goal for 2023 was 75 books. I spent a lot of time over the summer reading literary magazines, so I just eeked out the last books to hit my goal. This list features favorites from what I read in 2023, but not all were published last year.
The Barter by Siobhan Adcock: This book was recommended to me by a list of ghostly books I read in The Writer (it could have been Poets & Writers Magazine, but now I can’t find the original list). Haunted house books are one of my favorite subgenres, and The Barter features plenty of chilling, memorable images of haunting. It also blends two time periods to create a moving portrait of what and how women sacrifice for their families, spouses, and children. Perhaps the story sometimes drives at the theme a little hard, but I thought the result was still an affecting, spooky read that built strong characters and a mommy horror story that spoke to me in this phase of life without being as scary as, say The Babadook.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due: Another horror novel I was impressed by this year was The Reformatory, which I was lucky enough to have an advanced copy of shared with me. The Reformatory reminded me of Stephen King in its depiction of young people, the large scope of the story, and the sensitivity of the characters. The novel takes on themes that King is probably not the best person to write about, though. The story takes place in Florida in 1950, delving deep into issues facing Black people under Jim Crow through the plight of the Stephens siblings after twelve-year-old Robbie is sent to a very haunted juvenile detention center. The ghosts are not nearly the scariest part of the story, and I held my breath often while reading, worrying over what would happen to Robbie and his sister, Gloria. This book is beautifully written, scary, and emotionally gripping.
The Loneliness Files: A Memoir in Essays by Athena Dixon: This book was one of the big nonfiction releases on my radar this year, partly because it popped up on so many lists and partly because I am also working on a memoir in essays. I was surprised by the variety of subjects in the essays Dixon included in the book, and moved by how she connects her own experiences of loneliness to, for example, Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel or Jordan Peele’s film Us. Like in any book of essays, some were more compelling to me than others, but I especially enjoyed “I Was in Love with Jake Sisko,” “Double Exposure,” “Ghosts in the Machine,” and “Auld Lang Syne.”
On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen: I listened to this as an audiobook and it was a fascinating companion while working in the garden this summer. In the book, Loehnen lays out a history of the seven deadly sins and how their gendered cultural depictions have led women to deny ourselves power, pleasure, and rest. Her argument is both fascinating and invigorating. I found myself saying, “Hell yeah!” to myself a lot while I listened.
Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua: I read regularly about climate change and solutions to mitigate the looming climate disaster. There is a lot of doom and gloom and also a lot of denial or delay tactics out there. I value how this collection of essays cuts through the noise to provide a clear voice about the stakes of the problem and how to frame how we talk about climate action around the possibility for the future rather than despair that we can’t do anything (because we can). Solnit’s “Difficult Is Not the Same as Impossible” lays this shift out cogently. “From Destruction to Abundance” by Leah Stokes also stands out for its wealth of information (Stokes’s podcast A Matter of Degrees is a great listen, by the way). “What to Do When the World Is Ending” spoke to me as a fellow parent of a small child (I referenced this essay in “Sick Days”). “Full Narratives of Love and Hope” movingly engages indigenous perspectives on climate action.
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America by Heather Cox Richardson: For me, Heather Cox Richardson’s substack Letters from an American, is required reading. Dr. Richardson is a political historian who puts the day’s news into a longer historical context. Because I have been reading her letters since March 2020 and watching her weekly politics chats, a lot of what is covered in the book was a bit of a review. It was still helpful to read it all compiled together in short, accessible essays and the middle section on the Trump Administration was a pageturner even though we just lived it. I highly recommend this book to those interested in American politics or concerned about our democracy. Also, her Substack.
Gold-Fated Family by Jody Pritzl: I am a bit biased here because I volunteer at the Molly Brown House Museum, but this book about J.J. Brown and the gold fortune that made the Brown family famous was a great read. During the pandemic, Jody had some questions about the gold mine and the Browns’ wealth, so she dug into the archives to find answers. Her book changes how we understand the Browns’ finances and how they functioned as a family while humanizing J.J., who was so private we did not know a lot about him before now. The story is a bit of a rollercoaster and includes plenty of human drama alongside the history.
Honorable Mention:
In brief, all of these are nonfiction books that include so much information that my brain could hardly keep up.
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk
How to Speak Whale: The Power and Wonder of Listening to Animals by Tom Mustill
The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy by Moiya McTier
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Young
Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World by Eve Rodsky
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
The Rediscovery of America provides a comprehensive, dense history of the United States that counters the Eurocentric histories most of us got in school. How to Speak Whale opens with an incredible account of the author having a whale land on him while he was kayaking. The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy frames its narrative from the Milky Way’s perspective, which I thought was very clever. An Immense World gives a mind-blowing account of how our limited set of senses define how we experience a world where animals, with their own umwelts, experience things sometimes entirely differently. Find Your Unicorn Space gave Julio and me an important shorthand for ensuring we both get space for the activities that make us feel most balanced and fulfilled. How to Do Nothing feels like a must-read for those continually told to “build their platform.” I think about the insights often, especially when I feel pulled to post on social media for seemingly no reason, like opening the fridge when I’m not hungry.
What was your favorite book this year? Let me know below.
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