2023 is now in the books (so to speak) and it's time for my yearly wrap up. This year I am doing things a little differently. One of my goals this year was to blog about books on a monthly basis and I pretty much managed to do that. Since most of the books I read already have a brief write-up on my blog I don't intend to list them all in one place. Feel free to scroll through back posts on my blog to read about all the books I read (or at least most of them). In this post I will do a roundup of my favorites along with some general thoughts. But I will try to link to the blog posts where I talk about the individual books so that you can click through if you need more information.
STATISTICS GENERALLY
In 2023 I read a total of 73 books which is much fewer than I read in the last two years but is a much more manageable number for me. I think part of the reason there were fewer books was because I read fewer series this year and also I tried to read longer books.
I read 44 books from the library (almost all on the Libby app), 24 on my Nook app (although some were books I bought in previous years but didn't read until 2023) and 5 in physical book form.
In terms of diversity, I read 51 books by female authors and 22 books by male authors (I counted Charles Todd as male even though it was a mother-son writing team). I didn't research the background of all the authors but, unfortunately, it looks like only 7 were written by people of color. I don't think I read any books in translation this year - I generally don't read much translated work.
In terms of genre, I only read two non-fiction books and both were memoirs. Of the fictional works, it seems that 44 were mysteries (although some were hard to categorize). I also read about 35 works of historical fiction. I do count historical mysteries and any book set more than 20 years in the past in this category.
HOW I JUDGE BOOKS
Before I get into the books, I thought it would be good to talk about how I judge books. Earlier this year I wrote about Nancy Pearl's "Four Doorways" into a book. She wrote:
It seems to me that all works of fiction and narrative nonfiction are broadly made up of four experiential elements: story, character, setting, and language. I call these “doorways,” because when we open a book, read the first few pages, and choose to go on, we enter the world of that book. And I’ve come to believe we can help readers better choose their next book by looking at the proportion of these four elements.
A book with story as its biggest doorway is one that readers describe as a page-turner, a book that they can’t put down because they desperately want to discover what happens next.
A book with character as its biggest doorway is a book in which readers feel so connected with the characters that when the book is over they feel they’ve lost someone dear to them.
Readers of novels in which setting is most prominent say things like “I felt like I was there,” or, as one man told me, “When I finished Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop, I immediately made plans to go to New Mexico—I had to see for myself where it took place.”
A book in which language is the major doorway leads readers to utter sentences like “I read more slowly because I wanted to savor the language” or “I’m not even sure what the book is about, but I loved the way the author wrote.”
I fall into that last category. A book doesn't rise to "great" in my mind unless I fall in love with the way the author wrote it - her language, the way she structured the story. This means that a lot of really good books, that other people rate as "great", are just on my "it's ok" lists and not on my "great" lists. Keep this in mind if you are looking for books to read. You may not read the same way I do and you may need a different doorway to be the major doorway. As a general rule, if you are looking for page turners, I am not the person you should be looking to for recommendations. I do really like books with a strong sense of place and good characters, but writing is the top criteria for me.
MY "BEST" BOOKS
These are books I enjoyed the most (in no particular order) and/or stayed with me the longest. It goes without saying that to make it onto this list, I had to really like the way the book was written.
The Fraud by Zadie Smith. Although this is historical fiction, set in the 1800's, Smith makes it very relevant for our populist times. It involves a trial to determine if a man is the real heir to a fortune or is just a fraud. Many, many people believe him even though his story is farfetched. For the people who want the writing to be their doorway into the novel, this is a great one. There is an interesting but somewhat convoluted plot, and the two main characters are very well drawn, but mainly it is the writing that stands out for me.
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. This novel takes place in the same fictional universe as Strout's Lucy Barton books but can be read alone, as Lucy is not a character in this novel. Strout places character building above plot in her novels, although this one does have a messy, chaotic plot. This is not a novel for those looking for a page turner, but for those who like slow character builds, this is a good one. And the writing is outstanding.
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead. Again, if you are looking for a page turner, this is not for you. This is a novel about a place (Sag Harbor) at a specific time (the early 1980's) and the black community that summered there. The story meanders along just like summer vacation meanders along. But if you remember the 80's you will enjoy this novel even if you are not black and never set foot in Sag Harbor.
Rose Nicolson by Andrew Grieg. The main character, William Fowler, is a young man from Edinburgh in the late 1500's who leaves home to attend St. Andrews University where he makes friends and has adventures. This one does have a good plot in addition to well drawn characters and good sense of place. If you like historical fiction set in this time period, you should like this novel.
The Bookseller of Inverness by S. G. MacLean. Iain MacGillivray survived the Battle of Culloden and is now keeping his head down as a bookseller in Inverness, but the locals keep pulling him into rebellion. The plot is sometimes a little farfetched (but it does move along). I liked it mostly for the characters and sense of place. Again, if you like historical fiction set during this period you should enjoy this.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. This seems to be the novel of the year and I was afraid it was over-hyped but I did very much enjoy it. The main character, Lara, is telling her grown daughters the story of how she had a relationship long ago with someone who became a famous movie actor. She tells it at her own pace and there are a couple of (to me) unexpected twists in the story. There is a plot but this is not really a plot-driven novel; I would say it is mostly character driven. I like it for the way she structured her story, with natural pauses and breaking points in the story that fill in what the characters are doing in the present time. Set on a cherry farm in Michigan, it also has a good sense of place.
The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken. This is a very short little book about a woman on a trip to London where she remembers her recently deceased, larger than life, mother. She evokes a London I know and I really enjoyed her writing.
I also have a couple of Honorable Mentions. I enjoyed these books but in each case felt that they were too long and maybe could have used an editor who said so.
Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris. This is the story of two men who signed the death warrant for King Charles I and were later hunted down by Charles II and his men. They escaped to North America. This is primarily a plot-driven novel but also has, in some places, a great sense of place. Harris really creates the world of New England in the 1600's - the sense of expansiveness but also the stifling nature of the communities. The story is, at times gripping, but sometimes the action slows down. This may be because it is a true story and that is the nature of life.
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. A story told in two time periods. In the modern period two academics work on translating household records and documents from a Jewish household in the London of the 1600's. The other part is the story of the woman who lived in the 1600's. I really liked this novel but it is VERY long and parts of it are excerpts from correspondence regarding philosophy that I found tiresome. Trust me, if you skim over those parts you aren't losing any of the plot and I didn't think they added much to the characterizations.
NEW (TO ME) MYSTERIES
As usual, I read a large number of mysteries this year, most of which were continuations of series I've been reading over the years. You can check out my 2022 end of the year summary for descriptions of those series. This year I did read a few new (to me) mysteries that I enjoyed:
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett. This novel is structured as a series of transcripts of audio files found on an old iphone done by specialist transcription software (including the mistakes that the transcription software makes). Some people may not like that but I really did. Interestingly, I also read her other novel, The Appeal, this year which also is structured with documents and I didn't really like that one.
The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death, both by Anthony Horowitz. Horowitz makes himself a character in these mysteries which is very meta but I found it enjoyable.
The Benevolent Society of Ill Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman. A Jane Austen-like setting but the main characters are middle aged spinsters who solve crimes. My only complaint is that it reads like inter-connected short stories instead of one novel.
The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair. Set immediately after WWII in London, two women set up an agency to introduce eligible women and men, but when one of their clients is murdered they must solve the crime in order to protect their business. This will be a series and I will read more.
Jane Harper's Aaron Faulk Series set in Australia. This includes The Dry, Force of Nature and Exiles, Very plot driven with a great sense of place.
NONFICTION
As I said above, I only read two non-fiction books this year. One of them was Chita, by Chita Rivera. If you are a theater nerd, I recommend this.
