Every year I set a reading goal and hope to beat it, and every year I wish I had a list of books that would suck me in or teach me something or leave me feeling excited for the next read. And every year I read the “Best of” lists and hope for the best. So here’s one more!
These were my top 20 favorite books read in 2023 (not necessarily published in 2023!). Enjoy!
- Tom Lake — Ann Patchett
- A Wolf at the Table — Augusten Burroughs
- Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar — Cheryl Strayed
- Descended from a Travel-worn Satchel — Chris LaTray
- One-Sentence Journal: Short Poems and Essays From the World At Large — Chris LaTray
- Foster — Claire Keegan
- This Time Tomorrow — Emma Straub
- Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason — Gina Frangello
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art — James Nestor
- Braided Creek — Jim Harrison, Ted Kooser
- Girl in Pieces — Kathleen Glasgow
- Body Work — Melissa Febos
- This Is Happiness — Niall Williams
- A Little More about Me — Pam Houston
- Contents May Have Shifted — Pam Houston
- My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies — Resmaa Menakem
- The Thursday Murder Club (Series) — Richard Osman
- The Creative Act: A Way of Being — Rick Rubin
- When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice — Terry Tempest Williams
- The Rabbit Hutch — Tess Gunty
I’ve also created a Bookshop account to make finding these easier (although some of them were not available there) and to (hopefully) get a small kickback if you decide to purchase any of these there. As always, thanks for reading and cheers to 2024!
As a quick – how’d you come to these twenty? – well, I took my list of everything I read in 2023, deleted anything I didn’t rate 5 stars, then deleted anything that was specific to writing (I read quite a few craft books this year) and then I cheated and made The Thursday Murder Club Series a selection when it’s really four books LOL. Then I listed them in alphabetical order by author first name because that was the easiest way to order them with the info I had to work with (an export from The StoryGraph).
Sunday Dutro, Author - Official Site 
Maybe there isn’t space & time but I’d love a brief synopsis of what you choose each of these books.
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hhhhmmmm…I’m smellin’ what you’re steppin’ in. Let me see what I can do as the day plays out and I see what kind of time I have.
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LOL!! Not quite what I meant. I was wondering if it was characters, plot, style of writing, subject, storyline (guess that would be plot) – what stood out for you. But I can probably go back & find where you reviewed them & get that info.
Sounds strange perhaps but at this point in my life I sometimes hesitate to read books I can’t get a good “feel” about. I have a habit of forcing myself to complete a book once I start so I’m careful what I start. Maybe I just need to get over that LOL.
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Yeah, I looked at the list of 20 and said, nope, not gonna take an hour to write about each one. HA! I, too, used to read every book I picked up to the bitter end, even if I hated it…and then I asked myself why? There are SO many good books out there. Even if I only read the BEST books published I’d have a longer list than I could read before I die. Why am I wasting my precious time on a bad book? So now, if I’m not into it, NEXT! 😃
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