Sunday, December 31, 2023

My 2023 Reading List

Now that New Year's Eve has arrived, with only a couple of hours before the ball drops, it's safe for me to post my list of books I read this year. I don't think I'll have time to read one more. I fell a few short of my last year's total (86), but I also completed (and published) my dissertation this month, so I think I'll give myself a pass. 

Compiling the list I am reminded pleasantly of books I loved, and occasionally I have trouble remembering the plots of one or two. Some of the books on the list (especially the poetry) are written by friends. I suspect I may have failed to add a few poetry collections or chapbooks that I read. 

Over the next day or so, I will give some brief reviews of my favorites. I look forward to comparing my lists to those of other readers whose taste I trust. (You know who you are.)

2023 Book List

1. Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead

2. Louse Penny, World of Curiosities

3. Rick Bragg, The Best Cook in the World

4. Kimberly Belle, The Marriage Lie

5. Dana Malone and Laura Suzanne, Mother, Grave, Ghost (poetry)

6. Fredrick Backman, Us Against You

7. Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

8. Annie Lyons, the Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

9. Fredrik Backman, The Winners

10. Patti Callahan, Once upon a Wardrobe

11. Stanley Tucci, Taste: My Life through Food

12. Matt Haig, How to Stop Time

13. Aanchal Malhatra, The Book of Everlasting Things

14. Rachel Joyce, Maureen

15. Jane G. Garrett, My Fractured Life

16. Jennette McCurdy, I’m Glad My Mom Died

17. Andrew Sean Greer, Less Is Lost

18. Ana Reyes, The House in the Pines

19. William Kent Kruger, The Levee

20. Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful

21. Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire

22. Jeanette Walls, Hang the Moon

23. Donna Tartt, The Secret History

24. Kevin Wilson, Now Is Not the Time to Panic

25. Wayne Flynt, Afternoons with Harper Lee

26. Gin Phillips, Family Law

27. K.B. Ballentine, Spirit of Wild (poetry)

28. Charles Frazier, The Tracker

29. Clyde Edgerton, Walking across Egypt

30. Tom Hanks, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture

31. Luis Alberto Urrea, Goodnight Irene

32. Ada Limon, Carrying (poetry)

33. Elizabeth Letts, Finding Dorothy

34. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

35. Ian McEwan, Nutshell

36. Lynda Rutledge, West with Giraffes

37. Elizabeth Berg, Earth’s the Right Place for Love

38. Hendrik Gruen, Two Old Men and a Baby

39. David Brooks, The Road to Character

40. N.T. Wright, After You Believe

41. William Martin, The Lincoln Letter

42. John McPhee, Tabula Rasa, vol. 1

43. Raymond Carver, What We Talk about When We Talk about Love

44. Ann Patchett, Tom Lake

45. Wiley Cash, When Ghosts Come Home

46. Christine Galib, Etched in Stone

47. Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy

48. J. Ryan Stradel, Kitchens of the Great Midwest

49. Jessica George, Ma’ame

50. Matthew Mumber, Attending (poetry)

51. Kevin Wilson, Perfect Little World

52. Hadley Vlahos, The In-Between

53. Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married

54. Lisa See, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

55. Kevin LeMaster, Mercy (poetry)

56. Dolly Parton & James Patterson, Run Rose Run

57. Lindsay Lynch, Do Tell

58. Geraldine Brooks, Horse

59. Annabel Smith, Whiskey and Charlie

60. Melody Wilson, Spineless: Memoir in Invertebrates (poetry)

61. Ron Rash, The Caretaker

62. Thrity Umrigar, Honor

63. Richard Osman, The Last Devil to Die

64. Linda Parsons, Valediction (poetry)

65. J. Ryan Stradel, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

66. Sheila Johnson, Walk through Fire

67. Dolly Parton, Songteller

68. Lydia R. Hamessley, Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton

69. R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

70. Scott Owens, Prepositional (poetry)

71. Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post

72. Ammon Shea, Reading the OED

73. Ken Follett, The Armor of Light

74. Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows

75. Sigrid Nunez, The Vulnerables

76. Charlie Lovett, The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge

77. F. Lagard Smith, ed. The Chronological Daily Bible


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