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 🙂

Refresh Your Bookshelf: 7 Books by Black Authors to Try

There are many ways to fight for racial equality. Protest, write to representatives, support organizations fighting the good fight, challenge racist comments/ideas…the list goes on and on. Reading books is low on the list for behaviors that make an impact.

With that said, if you’re going to read anyway, why not pick up a book by a Black author?Reading builds empathy. It’s a good way to see the world from a different perspective and tear down prejudice and unconscious bias. No culture is a monolith; books by Black authors are as diverse as the lived experiences of the people who created them.

There are, quite obviously, many great authors/books that I’ve left off of this list. This post simply includes seven interesting books by Black authors I’ve read recently. There are genres and books in here for everyone.

If you are looking for something set outside the United States: 

I was inspired to read this book after watching a TED talk by the author. Purple Hibiscus is set in Nigeria and told entirely through the eyes of Kambili, a teen girl who has grown up in the physically (and mentally) abusive household of her incredibly religious and powerful father. While a coup helps frame the narrative, there’s no question that this is Kambili’s story.

My take: I had a hard time putting this one down and a harder time getting it out of my head. I kept wanting to give Kambili a hug–she loves her father and wants to make him proud, but his standards are impossible to hit and dangerous to miss. All of the characters are complex and fully realized, the setting is evoked beautifully, and it makes for an emotional reading experience.

If you’re in the mood for Romance:

The Wedding Date starts with the rom-com setup of two people getting trapped in an elevator. Driven (Bay Area based) Alexa agrees to be (LA based) Dr. Drew’s date to his ex’s wedding. Shenanigans ensue. Frequent Flyer Miles are used. Love triumphs.

My take: I was a bit lukewarm on the B plots here, wasn’t wild about Drew, and felt there was more sex than story. The secondary characters were more likable than the leads in some ways. Since the next two books focus on the friends of the leads here, I’m game to give those a try. A lot of people love this novel, so maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for it.

If you want to read non-fiction/ autobiography: 

I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself  in high school and re-read it once I had the idea for this post. Published in 1845 when he was in his mid-twenties, Frederick Douglass tells us about his own experience of slavery in unflinching detail. (His father was rumored to be his first master. Frederick Douglass, in the words of this beautifully written Op-Ed from the New York Times, had “rape-colored skin.”) His story starts with some of his earliest memories in Maryland. One heart-breaking detail was about how his mother was hired out to a farm 12 miles away; he only saw her a handful of times when she walked back after a day in the fields to stay with him at night before having to leave again to get to the fields at dawn. Douglass takes us through his various moves as he was traded from place to place, how he learned to read, and up to his eventual escape.

My take: Despite the time it was written, the language is as readable as the subject matter is horrible. He wrote about several murders of black men and women that resulted in no criminal charges filed; it’s disheartening to see how little progress we’ve made towards equitable justice in the ~175 years since he wrote. He didn’t give details about his flight to freedom via the Underground Railroad, explaining he didn’t want to make it so slaveowners and slave-catchers could stop anyone else using the same route. This personal account is an affecting look at a time in history that still impacts the present.

If you enjoy Fantasy/ Dystopian fiction: 

The Fifth Season is set in a world with frequent “seasons”–cataclysmic events that can make regions uninhabitable for years. In this place, people called orogenes who can control parts of the earth are both feared and exploited for their talents. Taking place in three separate times, the story weaves the past and present together, introducing us to this world and the start of a new season.

My take: This is more hard-core fantasy/sci-fi than I usually read. (I tend to get a little frustrated when everything has to have a different name than what we’d call it and I don’t usually like reading dystopian fiction.) Still, this was absorbing and disturbing in equal measure. It felt a bit like The Witcher without the comedy relief. This is the first of a trilogy.

If you like Sci-Fi: 

Octavia E. Butler helped shake up the overly male-dominated Sci-Fi genre. Her book Kindred is reportedly amazing–I’ve requested it from the library–and she has a large body of work. I picked up this book since it was available at the time and it wasn’t extremely long. (The Fifth Season by Jemisin was huge and I got them at the same time.)

Dawn is about a woman named Lilith who wakes up on an alien ship orbiting Earth to find out that a) humans are virtually extinct and b) the aliens who saved her plan to create a race of human-Oankali hybrids with the humans who are left.

My take: This is fairly hard-core Science Fiction. After reading up on Butler more, it sounds like this novel wasn’t the best introduction to her work. The Oankali pseudo-sex made me uncomfortable. The setting definitely felt alien and Lilith was interesting, although she wasn’t an easy heroine to feel like you knew by the end.

If you want to read a mystery/thriller:

In The Cutting Season, a woman who manages the plantation where she spent a lot of her childhood (her mother worked as the cook) investigates a murder and uncovers long-buried secrets.

My take: This was well-written and interesting. It has elements of cozy mysteries, has suspenseful moments, and the setting was unfamiliar to me. (My sole experience in The South has been switching planes in Atlanta, Nashville, and Raleigh.)

If you are interested in something you could read and then watch:

I’ve written about Queen Sugar before. It’s about a woman who inherits a sugar cane farm in Louisiana and all of the trials and tribulations she faces while trying to build on her father’s legacy, connect with her family there, and find her own way.

My take: This is beautifully written, tragic, and ultimately hopeful. It’s also a show with an amazing cast!

 

 

Postcard from Mexico

Before last Friday, I hadn’t left the country since 2014.

But, when an old friend invited me to her wedding, I bought a ticket. The timing was finally good. The last few years have been a whirlwind–I’ve lived in four different cities across California and have held six different jobs–but now things appear to be (relatively) stable.

I packed everything I needed in one backpack.

Which was easier to handle than this, happily.

What do you really need besides toiletries, clean underwear, and a few fresh shirts? (And some dress clothes in the case of a wedding.) Besides, if you can pack everything you need in one carry-on, you don’t have to worry about baggage claim.

Monterrey was beautiful with all of its unusual looking mountains. My friend’s wedding was tons of fun. We danced from late afternoon until the bus finally left at 1am. While my Spanish is definitely rusty, I learned a bunch of new music while I danced and chatted with her friends. It was a wonderful, exhausting trip. 

The bridge and groom’s table with the dance floor in back

Traveling can be expensive and stressful. That said, I’m always glad that I’ve gone outside of my comfort zone and seen something new. I’m excited to travel more in the new year and continue expanding my world.

This trip reminded me of one of my old stories. I’ve always loved travel writing and sci-fi. One night I decided to write something that was a bit of both:

10 Travel Tips from a Resident Alien

 About the columnist: She is an artist originally from the Aratzi quadrant. After a vacation to Earth 223 years ago, she fell in love with it and eventually decided to stay. For the past 75 years she has lived in California, which she says is practically another planet anyway. She frequently writes columns to help intergalactic tourists get the most out of their visit.

1. Choose your disguise carefully. If you want to have a smooth trip to Earth, research before you go and pick whatever pigmentation is highly regarded where you are headed. In my experience, humans seem to like other humans that look like them. Some even have absurd reactions based on something as inconsequential as melanin content. (I know, I know, but you must remember that humanity is a backward race.)
2. Pace yourself when trying the local cuisine. Ask yourself the following questions: a) can you physically consume it? b) Should you? Remember that the answers are not always one and the same. There are certain places where frying is the go-to mode of cooking, but your arteries will not thank you if you choose to eat that exclusively. More than one of your fellow beings has died thinking that “all you can eat” is a challenge.
3. Don’t pollute. The humans have got this one covered. You don’t need to help damage their planet. Remember: leave no trace. Nobody should know that you were ever here.
4. When flying, remain invisible. If your cloaking mechanism is damaged, please stay away from scientific monitoring stations. When flying through inhabited areas, at the very least employ the “jitter” technique to keep any humans from getting a clear photograph of you. (If you can’t disguise yourself as a human, Divians—known here as “yetis” or “bigfoot”—have adapted this technology in an easy to wear device for disguise when out and about. My dear friend Nessie swears by it.) And, seriously, resist the temptation to pick up drunks and draw circles in fields. I know it’s fun, but you can get in serious trouble with the authorities upon returning back to your home system.
5. Don’t just stay with other aliens. If you only interact with your own species, you’re not experiencing all this destination has to offer. It’s already off the beaten path, so kudos to you for doing something adventurous. Might as well go all the way. With that said:
6. Keep your probe in your pants. We have a bad rep here already, let’s not make it worse. If you absolutely must, please use protection. There are some disgusting diseases out there that some of you can catch, which makes for an embarrassing visit to the clinic when you get home.
   
7. Try a new religion. Humans have so many! On my first visit, I was picking up religions left and right. Then I realized all of them say that their god/book/interpretation of the unknowable universe is the best. Even so, it’s an illuminating experience to visit a place of worship, whatever religion it might be. Faith is very human. So is hurting or killing each other for their beliefs, which leads me to my next point:
8. Know where to go for help. Area 51 is a good facility to start. It’s one of the best places I’ve found that’s equipped to handle crash landings. On either pole there are also emergency services. Look up contact information ahead of time. For some reason there isn’t a unified number to call, which I’m convinced is a way to keep tourists from getting help. If, however, it’s something you can handle on your own, don’t forget to:
9. Set it to stun. You’re not allowed to vaporize anyone. Sometimes humans are terrifying–if you have any doubt, check out what they do to each other in your Loneliest Planet guidebook (it’s in the section titled “AHHH!”)–but you’re still not allowed to turn them into free-floating atoms. The same applies to rampaging bears, hungry sharks, giant spiders, and teenagers. If you use your stun setting however, the creature that’s frightening you will simply wake up with a bit of a headache. As an added bonus, you won’t be brought up on murder charges by the intergalactic courts.
10. See as much as you possibly can. For all of the horrifying things that humans do to each other and the world around them, there’s a lot to appreciate here. There is so much life on this planet, from the enormous to the microscopic. Visit the bottom of the ocean where the life-forms glow, walk across the shifting sands in one of the vast deserts, trek through snowcapped mountains that scrape the sky, wander through rainforests…or simply stay for a sunset. Earth is a beautiful planet. Enjoy your time here.