Best Books of 2023 and a reading challenge for 2024

Happy New Year! Although only three of my four short stories that were picked up for publication are out so far, I’m looking forward to sharing more of my work with the world in 2024. But enough about me. The main point of this post is that, in 2023, I read some wonderful books I’d like to share.

In 2023, I read a total of 113 novels. As in most years, I read the most in July (19) thanks to being off work. (Taking an e-reader on a solo trip also helped.) But I read at least a few books every month and here are some of my top titles, as well as a reading challenge to keep you motivated!

January

Challenge: Read a fun update of a classic

My pick: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting, by Sophie Irwin

This was the book I recommended to the most people this year. Using Jane Austen’s Persuasion as a springboard, Irwin’s book was a joy from start to finish. Hilarious and heartfelt, this story featured a lovable heroine figuring out how to follow her dreams and the swoon-worthy male lead who encourages her at every turn. Historically accurate? Maybe not, but I had a ball.

Bonus rec: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting, by Sophie Irwin

Although I read this one second, it was written before A Lady’s Guide to Scandal. I’ve read and seen numerous takes on Pride & Prejudice; this one felt completely fresh and fun. Starring a young woman desperate to land a wealthy husband in order to save her family and the Lord she blackmails to help her, I adored this one.

February

Challenge: Read an award-winning book

My pick: A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers

A Hugo Award Winner in 2022, this novella (and its sequel, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy) are small and gorgeous. The setting is a utopian take of the future, a world where the robots gained sentience only to wander into the wild and the more sustainable society that developed in their wake. I tried this one after a librarian recommended it to me and, although I found the first 50 pages pretty slow, I understood why it won the award as soon as the monk met the wild-built robot. It was a beautiful meditation on culture, religion, purpose, our relationship to the world, and what it means to be alive. Especially if you don’t have much time, this short book is one that will stay with you long after you’ve read the final page.

March

Challenge: Give a nonfiction book a try

My Pick: The Professor and the Madman, by Simon Winchester

Although every nonfiction story I’ve read has seen me sharing strange facts with everyone I know for weeks afterward (looking at you Gulp by Mary Roach and Gory Details by Erika Englehaupt), this one takes the cake for being the most off-the-wall insane. Which is…unexpected given that it’s about the creation of a dictionary. But it turns out one of the most prolific contributors to the fledgling dictionary was a man institutionalized after he murdered someone during a schizophrenic episode. The story only got stranger from there.

April

Challenge: Read a book that combines two genres

My Pick: Station Eternity, by Mar Lafferty

One of the more inventive science fiction books I’ve read recently and a murder mystery to boot, this book was intriguing. Mallory leaves Earth behind in a desperate attempt to get away from the murders that seem to happen everywhere she goes and winds up on a space station full of aliens with symbiotic relationships. Then more humans show up and it’s only a matter of time before people start to die….

May

Challenge: Read a short-story collection

My pick: The Tangleroot Palace, by Marjorie Liu

Considering I’ve been writing mostly short fiction in the last few years, I don’t read much of it. So, I decided to change that by picking up this collection. Although the short story I found the most thought-provoking this year was actually the take on Rumplestiltskin in Jane Yolen’s How to Fracture a Fairytale collection, I found this collection the most consistently strong throughout. “Sympathy for the Bones” was a particular standout.

June

Challenge: Read a classic with a fantasy twist

My pick: Claws and Contrivances, by Stephanie Burgis

I really enjoyed this one. Like Jane Austen with dragons, it had shades of Sense & Sensibility and Northanger Abbey in particular. Featuring a lead who tries to manage everyone around her, her lovable cast of eccentric relatives, and a bemused dragon scholar roped into an engagement against his will, this one was heaps of fun.

July

Challenge: Read a historical fiction novel

My pick: Sinners of Starlight City, by Anika Scott

Set during the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, this story about the mafia and magic follows several characters with family on both sides of the color line. Our main heroine (Rosa) is a young performer hell-bent on revenge against the man who murdered her family back in Italy. We also get to know her cousin who is desperately trying to get her baby back and begs for Rosa’s help as well as the mafia enforcer tasked with returning the cousin to her family. The setting was beautifully rendered and Scott did a great job maintaining tension while illuminating various historical events in the U.S. and Italy I didn’t know very well.

August

Challenge: Pick a book based on its cover

My pick: Charming, by Jane Linwood

What if the “Prince Charming” in all the fairytales was actually the same guy? That’s the fun premise behind this story. Whenever Charming waltzes in to save the fair maiden, he ends up stealing half their treasury and splitting before the wedding. But the women he’s conned have joined forces and they’re more formidable than he ever imagined. This one was funny and I loved Linwood’s take on the various princesses.

September

Challenge: Read a book about getting the band back together

My pick: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Chakraborty’s latest, about a formidable pirate who has to reassemble her old crew in order to find a kidnapped young woman and a legendary magical item, was a fun romp. I loved Amina and her crew–especially the wily poisoner–and enjoyed the blending of myth and adventure. While I didn’t totally enjoy the framing device of an interview, the characters and action more than made up for it.

October

Challenge: Read the first of a series

My pick: Book of Night by Holly Black

In a version of our world with magical shadows, Book of Night featured a self-destructive lead getting entangled in a deadly hunt for a missing book. I didn’t realize this one was the first in a series, so the cliffhanger came as a bit of a surprise. I’m looking forward to the next one.

November

Challenge: Read a book about friendship

My pick: Silenced, Ann Claycomb

I read this in one sitting. A story about women left living with fairytale curses after being abused by the same powerful man, this was as disturbing as it was absorbing. As the women come together to figure out how to break their curses and keep him from hurting anyone else, this story felt both timely and timeless. The fairytale pieces were worked into this in an interesting way. Violence against women is a key feature of this one, though, so be forewarned.

December

Challenge: Read a holiday-themed story

My Pick: The Wake-Up Call, Beth O’Leary

The central premise is two front desk managers working at a struggling hotel compete to try to find the owners of missing rings. Ever since last year’s Christmas party, they’ve been doing their level best to make one another miserable, but as “the ring thing” heats up, they have several surprises in store. This one was absolutely adorable and had several lines I read out loud to my family because I thought they were so funny I had to share them.

Well, there you have it! Those are some of my favorite books that I read this year. I’m looking forward to all of the wonderful stories 2024 has in store.

I wish you a year filled with wonderful books 🙂

Best books from 2021 (& a reading challenge for 2022)

It’s that time of year again, when we say goodbye to the last twelve months and get ready to “turn the page” to something new. As we welcome 2022, I wanted to look back over what I read in the past year and challenge myself for the year to come.

After all, the last few years have been tough. I know I’m not the only one who resonated with the line in The Witcher where Geralt says “I’ve lived through a whole dark age and three supposed end of days.”

A post like this has become a bit of a tradition over the last few years: 2020, 2019, and 2018, so feel free to check those out for additional recommendations.

In 2021, I read 95 books. February, fittingly, had the smallest number (5) and I read the most in July (11) when I was off work. My most frequent monthly number was 7.

January

Challenge: Read a book by an author you’ve never read before

If I Never Met You, by Mhairi McFarlane

A silver lining of the pandemic was how the local library enhanced its online presence by offering recommendations in their catalogue. That’s how I came across Mhairi McFarlane’s book. It ended up being a heartfelt and funny read about two people who never intended to fall in love. In the first part of the year, I spent a lot of time re-reading some of my childhood favorites, so this was one of the few that was new to me.

February

Challenge: Read a book that reimagines a classic

Unmarriageable, by Soniah Kamal

Kamal’s book takes Jane Austen’s classic story of Pride & Prejudice and sets it in (near) modern Pakistan. The switch breathes new life into a story that’s been reimagined time and again. The character conflicts feel appropriate and its fun to see how the familiar beats play out. Even if it’s a little confusing that this is a universe where P&P exists, Kamal’s book offered an interesting look into a culture I was fairly unfamiliar with outside of the news.

March

Challenge: Read a book set somewhere you’ve visited

Paris is Always a Good Idea, by Jenn McKinley

Especially when you have to stay where you are, reading can be a great escape. Reading about a place you’ve been also helps bring up your own (hopefully positive) memories. This book about a woman traveling to find the young men she fell in love with years ago during her first trip to Europe ended up being a moving examination about happiness, grief, and giving ourselves permission to start again.

April

Challenge: Read an author’s debut novel

Would Like to Meet, Rachel Winters

Okay, technically, I read this category a lot, since I love to read new books from the library and rarely look anything up about them. A young woman has to enact scenes from rom-coms to convince a famous (and rude) screenwriter they’re plausible so he’ll actually write one. This was funny and sweet; I laughed out loud at some of the bits in the coffee shop when the single father and his daughter the lead meets are playing “bad lip reading.”

May

Challenge: Finish reading a series

Take a Hint, Dani Brown and Act Your Age, Eve Brown, by Talia Hibbert

Okay, technically, I only read (Get a Hint, Dani Brown) in May, but I read the last two of this series this year. These novels follow the Brown sisters, who we were introduced to in Get a Life, Chloe Brown, which I read in 2020. They continue to be sweet and funny while each one highlights different conditions (be it fibromyalgia, PTSD, or autism) with tenderness and understanding. They’re also sexually explicit, so be forewarned.

June

Challenge: Read a book that came out this year

The Secret Bridesmaid, by Katy Birchall

First published in May 2021, I found this in the new book section of the library (always a fun place to check). A woman is hired to be a bridesmaid for an absolutely awful It-girl and shenanigans ensue. A good book for wedding season, this one felt like a fun British rom-com, which you may have already guessed I’m a sucker for given the fact this is the fourth British author I’ve highlighted in this list.

July

Challenge: Read a book that’s been turned into a show

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

It took some time to get this one and Crooked Kingdom from the library. After reading up on the Shadow & Bone show–I’m thorough when I get into something–I decided to skip the titular book series and focus on Bardugo’s stronger duology featuring secondary characters in the show. These YA heist books were very funny and featured complex and enjoyable characters. They also have the most dramatic pages I’ve ever seen: the first book was edged in red and the second was edged in black.

August

Challenge: Read a nonfiction book

The Intelligence Trap, by David Robson

Since I’ve already highlighted my absolute favorite book of the year in its own post, I wanted to talk about something else. Robson’s book examined how we define intelligence, how we learn, and what we can do to avoid making foolish mistakes. It was a nice one to read before starting a new year teaching, but is one I think we’d all benefit from reading. (Other nonfiction books I enjoyed this year, aside from the gorgeous Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, included Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach and World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.)

September

Challenge: Read a book set in another culture

Last Tang Standing, by Lauren Ho

Set in Singapore and Malaysia, this book was all about family expectations and personal choices as it follows a young-ish woman from a wealthy family who is still unmarried. I enjoyed this one. It feels a bit like a more personal (in that we aren’t focused on quite so many characters) and less heightened version of the Crazy Rich Asians series.

October

Challenge: Read a story featuring LGBTQ characters

It Had to be You, Georgia Clark

While I don’t usually read books set in New York–maybe it’s because I’m Californian, but I’ve never harbored any dreams about living in NYC–I made an exception. This one was a heart-warming story about a woman running a wedding planning business who loses her husband and then finds out he left half the business to his much younger girlfriend. While the two main leads undergo plenty of self-discovery along the way, one of them also learns she’s into women. This one features POV from an older gay couple as well and includes a wedding planned for a trans-woman seeking acceptance from her father. I liked this one a lot. Whether you’re part of the community or not, it’s good to read outside of the hetero-normative box.

November

Challenge: Read a classic novel you’ve never read before

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

While a childhood best friend loved the 2002 film so much that we watched it several times together, and which I recently learned featured an incredibly young Henry Cavill, I’d never read this book by Dumas. There’s a reason his works have endured: this complicated revenge story is still very fun to read. (Admittedly, the bits with the Greek slave girl the titular count essentially groomed and his male slave are disturbing and a particularly odd choice from an author whose own grandmother was an African slave in what is now Haiti.) Still, those creepy parts aside, this is a fascinating story and one of the few classics I’ve actually enjoyed. “Wait and Hope” is also a good message to take into the new year.

December

Challenge: Read a book about starting over

I loved this book by Australian author Claire Christian. Featuring a lead who is openly bisexual and struggling with grief, this is a wonderful read about figuring out what is important and choosing to take a risk. It also brought up a beautiful poem I’d never read before: Starlings, by Mary Oliver. Of the lines in that, these are the ones I’ll carry into the new year: “I am thinking now of grief, and of getting past it” and “I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.”

What were some of your favorite books this year? What do you hope to read in the coming year? I’m personally most excited for Sarah Addison Allen’s new book and for all the stories I have yet to discover.

With whatever you read, I wish you a wonderful year full of stories and all the people, food, and places you love.