Next Chapter: a year of reading

the run down on seventy five books read in 2023.

At the beginning of 2022 I had one goal - I wanted clarity. I didn’t like the limbo I felt in my relationship at that time, and so the one goal for the year was to be all in, or all out by the end of 2022. Clarity came swiftly, which meant I had the rest of 2022 to focus on what happened next. I realised that, despite a pandemic keeping me home, I had barely picked up a book in two years. I had swallowed the lie that reading was an indulgence, and that by burying my head in a book for a few hours, I was ignoring the real world. (Even though the real world was very much “on hold” then.)

Single again, I picked up a book. And then another one. And then, I started writing my own one. At the end of 2022 I wrote myself a list of manageable (and seemingly unmanageable) goals I really wanted to accomplish in 2023. The first, to read forty books in 2023. The second? To write my own first draft.

It’s now three days left til the end of 2023; and I have mixed feedback on the goals for 2023. On one hand, I ended up almost doubling my reading goal, clocking 75 books in 2023. On the other, I am hauled up in Spain trying to finish my first draft but instead, writing to you here, reviewing every book I read this year, instead of writing the one I would most like you to read one day.

You would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t read at least one of the books listed in my year in review: particularly Lessons in Chemistry, Yellowface, Spare, The Paper Palace or How to Kill Your Family. To a lesser extent, but still flooding the market and every bookstore display table I saw is The List, Good Material, Carrie Soto is Back, Tom Lake and Hello Beautiful.

And of course - I was sucked into the Booktok trends this year, devouring Colleen Hoover’s It Starts with us AND It Ends With Us this year.

But how do we break seventy five books down?

You read that right! SEVENTY FIVE BOOKS — done and dusted. According to Good Reads, I’ve turned the page more than 21,500 times in 2023, reading through a selection of debut novels, classics, memoirs, favourite author’s back catalogues, manifestos, crime fiction, science fiction, romance and even two books from the perspective of a dolphin and an octopus. It has been a wild ride from India to Nigeria to Korea and Japan; to the jungle and the palace. Books set in brokenhearted bedrooms, at busy news desks, remote Scottish islands, tennis courts, backstage children’s TV sets, in florists, science labs, in prisons, aquariums, ballet lessons and hospitals… travelling time, bending perspectives, tackling everything from murder to domestic violence, break ups and make ups, parenting, family dynamics with the back drop of the HIV epidemic, the Covid pandemic, postpartum depression… and books translated from German, Korean, Japanese, Bulgarian (to name a few!)

Let’s do it in five bite sized chunks of 15 books.

Ready? This is a test in memory for some!

Look out for my ratings… I’ve broken down three in top 3, two more in top 5, five in top ten, and a further two that should be in that top list too… there might be a couple of honourable mentions too.. it was a great year for reading!

And also - reading isn’t selfish, it’s not an indulgence. It’s been the best gift I gave myself this year and I have loved rediscovering stories.

JANUARY - MARCH (ish)

Yinka, Where is Your Husband? Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

British Nigerian Yinka is single, and the pressure is on to marry. I howled in recognition reading parts of this. Turns out my evangelical church upbringing isn’t so far from the Nigerian church culture Yinka finds herself in here; though I felt Yinka had some self reflection and growth to go on beyond the end of this book. This was a debut novel from the author Lizzie Damilola Blackburn who felt it was her calling to write this. I’m glad it landed in my letterbox through Rare Birds Books.

Our Fathers, Rebecca Wait

***TOP TEN 2023*** Set on a remote Scottish island, this is a crime fiction that unpacks the repercussions of a family murder-suicide in which one child survives and grows up to question who he is… it is a powerful story of toxic masculinity, regret and the possibility of redemption.

Really Good, Actually, Monica Heisy

She’s a staff writer who worked on Schitt’s Creek. It’s a break up diary style first person account of recovering after it all falls apart. Unfortunately, she takes awhile to start getting better; some people LOVE this book, but it read too closely to my own 2022 diary in parts - for better and worse.

Carrie Soto is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid

The next in the series of Daisy Jones, Nina Riva, Evelyn Hugo; this is set in the world of tennis. I listened to the book as an audible while building a huge chest of drawers by myself. As such, I think of Carrie Soto regularly, and the magic of TJR who captivated my imagination in the world of sports for a weekend that I would never have thought about before. She turned me into a tennis convert with this book!

Becky, Sarah May

I bought it for the title. It’s a retelling of Vanity Fair, one of several re-imaginings of classics I read this year. Set in the terror years of News Of The World, this is a thinly veiled narrative of Rebecca Brooks rise and fall during the phone hacking scandal, and the abducted child case at the centre of it has its own uncomfortable echoes.

Unbound, Tarana Burke

***TOP TWELVE 2023*** A memoir from the woman who invented the Me Too Movement, long before we all heard about it. Such an important read, and one I encourage everyone to buy, read, keep and come back to. I’m not very good at articulating my gratitude in this area, but I am standing on the shoulders and held up by the arms of incredible Black and Asian women who were working with survivors long before I needed their help. As a white woman, I can have a tendency to bring my main character energy to my experiences. After reading this book, I was again reminded to seek out more stories from other people’s perspectives. If you want to broaden the authors you read in 2024, Unbound is a really good place to start. (Also, my name in Hebrew means “to tie” or “bind up”. Becoming unbound is my own life journey.)

It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover

Colleen drew on personal memories for this story that delves into domestic violence in relationships. There is a danger in some books in the romance fiction sector to glorify toxic qualities in a character, and I was worried that was happening before the main character cottoned on. As such, I didn’t fall for her relationship as some did, but I thought it was interesting, and I did then read the follow up.

Notes On An Execution, Danya Kukafka

***TOP TEN 2023*** I loved this story from multiple perspectives of a serial killer’s last day in prison, and the reflections of his life; as well as the women who were impacted by it. I felt the author managed the balance between giving a bad character likeable characteristics and nuance, in a way that you understood the outcome of the book as you got there.

It Starts With Us, Colleen Hoover

This is what happens when you give the people what they want. Colleen’s first in the series was good, interesting, left me with some thoughts. But then TikTok got a hold of it, begging for her happy ending. And so begins this book, right after the last book ends.

I didn't love it. It felt written for TikTok, not with the depth of the first one. Good on her - she must be making a killing from TikTok sales - but as someone who was reading without coming to it that way, I felt like I was reading fan fiction, and the audience had written this for her.

Spare, Prince Harry

Look. I went to his wedding, so I have nothing negative to say about him. He also has some anecdotes in there that I know to be true based on the people I was associating with around that time. And so, if those small things are true, it gives more credence to the whole thing in my mind. People have tried to pull this apart through excerpts, but on the whole, this is an incredibly privileged man who went through the terrible loss of losing his mum far too early and far too publicly. I hope now he has set the record straight in his own way, that he can find peace away from the limelight.

Just. Got. Real, Jane Fallon

A very easy read - a few women being conned by a man they met on a dating app. I read this on the bus, it feels like the kind of book you pick up in an airport and read on holiday.

The School For Good Mothers, Jessamine Chan

I found this very eerie, slightly handmaid tale? (Not that I have read that, so excuse the poor reference) Women blamed for not being good enough mothers are sent away to learn how to get better, in a new government run experience. I was thoroughly creeped out even after the last page.

I’m Glad My Mum Died, Jennette McCurdy

***HONOURABLE MENTION*** Child actor, living her mum’s dream for her. She writes incredibly well, and she has some pretty horrible stories to tell. I found this memoir really eye opening, and had to go watch multiple interviews with her after I finished it. It was a wild ride, and I hope she has found peace now. I definitely recommend.

They’re Going To Love You, Meg Howrey

I bought this while in Australia with little knowledge of any of it. It’s set in the dance world of New York City, at the height of the HIV epidemic. Her father is married to a really wonderful but complex man, her mother has remarried and made her own life, and she seems lost in the middle, wanting to dance or choreograph, but unsure whether she can live up to her parents former glory. Of course too, there are so many secrets.

One True Loves, Taylor Jenkins Reid

The first book I read in a jet lagged haze at the start of 2023. There is a real leap between her old writing and her new novels, but I wanted to go through her back catalogue. This one? A woman’s husband goes missing, presumed dead. She moves forward (eventually!) and meets someone else. But then suddenly, her dead husband is back and she has two loves of her life.

MARCH - MAY 2023

Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld

***TOP FIVE 2023… I think?*** I read this as an audible, set with a backdrop of SNL style TV show where the protagonist is a staff comedy writer. She’s drowning in male mediocrity at work and will her love life ever exist again? Enter Noah Brewster and a pandemic. I loved it.

All The Lovers Of The Night, Mieko Kawakami

I got this one through Rare Birds Book Club. I really struggled with this one, though it has been heralded everywhere for how it questions the double standards of women. The character is awkward, sometimes unlikeable. I realised reading this I want to read books where I like the character. This didn’t always happen, but I found her tentative steps into the real world and out of it again incredibly stressful. I feel for her in finding her way, and it is a clever book, but I did not find it enjoyable.

Still Born, Guadalupe Nettel

***TOP THREE FOR 2023*** I picked this up in Manchester, walking through the biggest Waterstones I’ve ever seen. There’s something unassuming about the deep blue cover and white lettering, but this translation was exquisite. The book tackles childlessness in women in their mid 30s, with two friends who think they probably don’t want children, and then one’s coming round to the idea and how that changes the dynamics of life and relationships. Childless women are still women, still born, still living. As someone who hasn’t been driven to chase motherhood (yet) I found this nuanced take a really interesting read. And that’s really not to say I don’t want to be a mum - I do. But so far I have only ever imagined that in the context of teamwork, and I’ve not found the right co-pilot for that adventure yet.

Access All Areas The Diversity Manifesto for TV and Beyond, Lenny Henry & Marcus Ryder

I read this while working in Manchester as a bit of a refresher - they wrote this in 2021 and my hope is we have already moved forward a little on this. Television needs to be more accessible, more diverse, inclusive and telling more stories. Needless to say, more needs to be done and this is one of the books I keep in my arsenal now to reflect on. Required reading for everyone in TV - especially those in senior roles. It will take you an afternoon.

Shy, Max Porter

The writing in this is incredible. It’s a story of a boy, Shy, 16 years old and walking out of the Last Chance school he’s been sent to in the dead of night; with a backpack full of rocks. It’s a short story, but one with lasting echoes.

I’m a Fan, Sheena Patel

Another Debut, unconventional and brought every emotion out of me. Some of it was hilarious, some was uncomfortable, some was offensive. She’s absolutely nailed it.

No one is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood

This was SO CLEVER. Stick with it, the start feels absolutely horrific if you, like me, hate the idea of going viral. In this case, they’ve gone viral on “the Portal” for writing “can a dog be twins?” - reading this and I’m a Fan so close together, while working closely with a group of influencers on a new reality show really wasn’t the best for my own inner calm. But the second half of this book explores the power and grip of social media’s tentacles.

Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano

***TOP TEN 2023*** This was the 100th Oprah Book Club pick earlier this year, and I scoured book shops to find it while I was in New York as it isn’t released in the UK until July. I ended up getting the audiobook and listened to it over a series of weekends pottering around the house. It’s a modern take on Little Women - (which is arguably a top ten most perfect book in my opinion). As one of four girls, the book resonated and the passage of time it glides through made me feel like I was part of the Padavano family. It’s warm, it’s family, I bawled my heart out… I loved it.

After I Do, Taylor Jenkins Reid

I love you Taylor, I do. But this book is my least favourite of her back catalogue. A couple decide to take a year off their marriage, no contact. I don’t care if they find each other again at the end of it, I don’t care about any of it after that. It was not redeemable, and felt a million miles away from everything else she has written. Call me old fashioned, but when it comes to marriage you’re either all in (as per the whole shebang promise you made…) or all out. If or when I ever get married, there’s no refunds or cooling off periods…. but that’s just me.

This Year Will Be Different, Dominique Bertolacci

A motivational audible, really short, and probably should be listened to in January when setting your intentions, rather than in May when you are mostly trying to get through your job. It was free on audible, and I don’t really feel like it changed my life or year in any way.

Three Women, Lisa Taddeo

Brutal, raw and an interesting study into three women’s most private lives. It caused uproar when it was published, and I wonder if coming to these things a few years after the fact feels almost redundant as the world has continued forward? I don’t think so - but there are women who have read this who have had far stronger reactions to it than me. She spent eight years speaking with these women, so it is a documentary in written form and I am lucky I spend most of my life asking people the questions other people don’t - more about dying I suppose than desire - I know once I finished reading this I wanted to talk about it with all the women in my life so she definitely captures that depth of longing and desire that only other women can relate to.

Range, David Epstein

Lucky for David, I am a jack of all trades and an absolute master of zero. I work in TV and my background is SOFT SKILLS extraordinaire. This book talks about having range, not just specialisation in skills and how that sets you up as a better problem solver. I definitely am testament to that! Another one for telly friends to read - though other careers probably would benefit too.

Cleopatra & Frankenstein, Coco Mellors

Cleo and Frank. Addiction, New York, longing, art… Seven years of writing her debut paid off - Coco Mellors has written a book I couldn’t get through a day in London without seeing everywhere. I packed this for my trip to New York and read it in the city she set it in. I did not love the characters, but she painted a picture so vivid I was sucked into their vortex. Nothing and everything happens all at once, and one particularly vivid art piece still causes a visceral reaction in me when I recount it. I am really interested in seeing what she does next.

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way, Rebecca Wait

I read this after Our Fathers - which I LOVED. This is set within a family, at a funeral, and the thread of intergenerational trauma and secret mental illness wraps around our main characters and twin sisters. It has echoes of Sorrow and Bliss, which I read last year; but unlike Sorrow and Bliss, this book didn’t stay with me in the way I know it has for others who have read it. But it had one of my favourite titles of 2023.

How To Kill Your Family, Bella Mackie

Overwritten, unlikeable main character. I didn’t love this, it felt too long, took me too long to get into it, and by the end of it I wanted to call the police myself to get rid of the character. But, some of the murders are clever, so… interesting concept. It seems to be the one book everyone has read which I find disappointing (although also an encouragement - your book doesn’t have to be fantastic if it has a jazzy title) good on Bella, she has written a highly marketable book and has sold more than one million copies. I try to learn something from every book I read, and as much as I did not love this one, it is probably one of the most successful modern novels on this list.

JUNE - JULY 2023

What About Men? Caitlin Moran

This book made me feel things — and conflicted was probably the most apt phrase. I just don’t have any answers. Do I agree with Feminism? Of course. Equality? Absolutely. Anti-racism? Again - obviously! I am trying my best to do all the work required of me to have empathy and respect for all my fellow humans - and hopefully do my best to not be a dick and stick up for someone if someone else is being a dick.

But the thing about this book is, well… it means we have to have a conversation. And well done to Caitlin for starting one. I don’t want to wade in and say - well actually about any of it, because she is at least talking about it — probably more in a “mother’s meeting, broad brush strokes” way than in a higher journalistic discussion way. (I can’t really speak from either of those points as I am not a mother or a journalist so I really should just shhh) But some of it, like the story of a friend of her’s son who was addicted to porn from pre-teen years, and his recounting of the therapy he’s had, is stuff we should be talking about more!

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, Tom Hanks

I love Tom Hanks. I love that he has written a book. But Good Reads tells me that this was the longest book I read all year. And I felt that. It was somewhere near 18 hours on audible. It’s based on set of a movie, a behind the scenes peek into the business of motion pictures… but somehow misses the oomf of what actually happens behind the scenes - which makes sense because Tom will always come to it with the understanding that the actor’s role is paramount. I will always say it is the producer! It felt like no one wanted to challenge Tom’s writing, knowing it was a sure-fire best seller no matter what it said. I felt it needed an editor with a stronger hand… but I still enjoyed it, and I enjoyed Tom reading it to me.

Time Shelter, Georgi Gospodinov

Some of the most incredible pages of writing were found in this book this year. It’s set in the future, but a future that wants to be set in the past. So clever, translated from Bulgarian and it was the winner of the International Booker Prize for 2023 - it has a dystopian twist and the way he writes about memory thoroughly wrecked me. When one person goes, so too does that memory - you need both players to remember. Grief, longing, nostalgia… it is a really clever book.

The List, Yomi Adegoke

Yomi stalked my 2021 life and wrote a book about my ex. I am sure of it. This book was everywhere and I was SO excited to get my hands on an advanced copy. I don’t know if I would have had different feelings if the main guy had been - ANYONE ELSE? - but I couldn’t get into it because all I felt from about three pages in was GIRL, RUN. She didn’t, she gave him the whole book. It was an echo of my own questions, when it felt like a very easy answer could have saved her, and us, a whole lot of pain. There’s a really interesting twist at the end though; and I did like that. Otherwise, art and life feel too close here…. whew. I am all for leaving sleeping dogs to lie these days.

You Made A Fool of Death With Your Beauty, Akwaeke Emezi

Another Rare Birds Book Club read - whew! Someone warned me I should probably not read this in public. It was spicy! But the whole dating one guy and then sleeping with his dad is very much not my type of book and I was not rooting for these characters.

Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan

This is apparently the shortest book I read this year. Claire Keegan is really something. This one leaves you breathless after the last page, wondering for Bill and Sarah and Eileen. It’s about a man finding out that perhaps all is not what it seems at the convent. Now that we know about the unwed mothers and their babies in Ireland at that time, it echoes to what may well have happened, should someone like Bill have come across that situation then.

Careering, Daisy Buchanan

It’s about the (lets call it toxic) relationship women have with their dream careers. One of those books I probably didn’t need to read, as have lived every page.

Pod, Laline Paul

*** TOP THREE BOOK 2023*** At the time, I did not think this would end up in my top three books of the year - I would never have thought I would get so into a book about dolphins and the danger of the seas. But since reading it in June, I’ve realised no other book has altered my understanding of the world and nature quite so much as having read this. There’s a certain guilt that has come from eating tuna since too. It might be time for me to watch Seaspiracy. This one has haunted me all year.

Yellowface, R P Kuang

I was so so so excited for this book to come out, it was being written about everywhere; and I follow the author on instagram and love the success this book has brought her… but I didn’t love this book. It is pacy and easy to read, but an incredibly unlikeable first person voice, another toxic workplace, and some scenes I felt were written for the screen, not the page. It’s about plagiarism, white privilege and the publishing industry.

Lessons In Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

*** TOP THREE BOOK 2023*** I read it at the insistence of everyone in Storytelling Lab. Usually, when too many people try to convince me to read something, I switch off to avoid the over-hype. But this one was delicious. A chemist turned TV chef in the early 1960s. It is the most warm, funny and joyful read - with depths of grief and pain hemmed through. You will fall in love with Elizabeth Zott and wish you could tune in to ‘Supper at Six’ - adored this.

On Beauty, Zadie Smith

It’s written as a homage to EM Foster’s “Howards End” which I have not read. I received it as part of a subscription of retellings of classics; and it follows two families who are intertwined - but mostly the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States, addressing cultural differences in both the USA and the UK, and conservative and liberal values. Zadie is a brilliant writer, and other people I know adored this book, but it wasn’t one that hugely stayed with me.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde can write. Obviously. But I had never read this, and once I did I thought, why does anyone else write anymore? Here’s a book so timeless, so perfect, that everyone else will automatically look a failure. But hey, lets not compare ourselves to Oscar Wilde. It’s a short book, and one of those ones you need to read in your lifetime.

Darling, Indie Knight

This is another contemporary retelling - this time of “The Pursuit of Love” and I loved it so much while reading it, I have notes written down saying how much I loved it, but I have had to google for a reminder of what it is about, and I still feel foggy. So lets say it is one of those ones that whisks you up in it for a weekend, as it did for me, but it is not one that stayed with me. Gorgeous cover though and I really do remember loving it, though in the mix of a lot of novels this year, I haven’t committed it to memory in as much of a way as perhaps I should have.

Fix The System, Not The Women, Laura Bates

One of those ones that leaves your blood boiling, and annoyed that as a woman, you’re not really the target audience but you’re the one who knows you should read it. One for the men in your life - it’s an examination of sexual injustice, the systematic prejudices, and a rallying cry for reform.

Sort Your Career Out, Shelley Johnson & Glen James

Shelley wrote a book! This was so exciting, and so I did it as an audible so I could hear her voice read it to me. The big thing that struck me was that my own industry doesn’t have this HR systems that Shelley and Glen wrote from, and as a freelancer, it is my responsibility to see my job as a career, not just a fun time making telly. It has helped to reframe how I interact with channels and production companies - they are a business and I am my own business - and I LOVE that she’s had a book published!

JULY - OCTOBER 2023

The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller

Another one so hyped up by the Storytelling Lab alumni, I had it on my shelf for months before I read it. She’s on the cusp of a what if moment - choosing between two men, her husband or her childhood crush. I do struggle with these decisions coming after the marriage… Perfect holiday read, or “it’s raining outside, I just want to curl up with a book”.

The Bandit Queens, Parini Shroff

A single woman can be dangerous - especially if her husband has disappeared and everyone thinks you’ve killed him! I really enjoyed being transported into this world, and the women who plot to kill off the next husband.

This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub

*** TOP FIVE 2023*** Alice can time travel; but only back to the same singular night… over and over again. She relives her 16th birthday party, trying as many different ways as a book can cover to try to make sense or change of her present life at 40.

The real take home for me in reading it was how precious time with family is. My trips back to my hometown always come with a wave of nostalgia and a question about how my life might have been, had I stayed there. This book explores every road not taken, and whether ultimately they all still lead to the same place.

I Want to Die, but I Want to Eat Tteokpokki, Baek Se-hee

It tells you something about the way my mind works, that I most liked the chapter written by her therapist. She records all her sessions and then puts them into this book, which means the therapist is up for scrutiny and applause too. It really should be the therapist’s book, rather than the author’s; and it felt a bit young for me.

We All Want Impossible Things, Catherine Newman

***TOP TWELVE 2023*** I won’t spoil it for you - but it has one of the most tender, drop-you-right-into-the-moment beginnings of two life long best friends; one facing the end of living.

I cried my way through it, as someone who carries the weight of living life with the end in mind, but the real weight came as I finished the last chapter. Finally falling asleep, I was almost immediately awoken by my mum, telling me a family member was dying.

Whether it is art imitating life or vice versa, this book, and my three weeks in Australia with family this autumn (their gloriously warm spring!) have been interwoven as suddenly I found myself in similar scenes to those I had wept over in fiction a moment before. It’s a beautiful, thoughtful book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it for its depth and vibrance and heart.

Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata

I was obsessed with this book. I read it on the plane to Australia, while everyone slept (yes I even kept my reading light on, I am sorry everyone!) It has a similar character as its lead as “All the Lovers of the Night” but this one felt more likeable, more redeemable, I was rooting for her! She has worked in the convenience store her whole life, and identifies as a Convenience Store Woman, and isn’t quite sure of who she is outside of that, or whether she should work that out.

A Life’s Work, Rachel Cusk

The publication I read of this included a 10 years on essay from the author about the backlash from this being written. It is about the agonies of motherhood, at at it time seemed to be the first one ever to question the frustrations and loneliness of becoming a parent. Woe betide me - I have heard too many friends say “nobody told me”… everyone has told me. Motherhood is difficult. Here’s (another) book about it.

So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan

Claire Keegan is one of the best authors I have discovered this year. This story is published in full here (pay wall) about Cathal, and an almost marriage, an almost life. We are the consequences of our almosts, and yet again, Claire Keegan writes in a way that feels like pebbles dropping inside you, small thuds and large ripples in how you approach your next day.

Complicit, Winnie M Li

This was a Rare Birds Bookclub must read - a fictionalised Weinstein-esque world where the antagonist is a producer complicit in allowing things to happen unchallenged. It’s dark, compelling, and really challenging in how easy it is to squirrel away your own discomfort when things haven’t been explicitly said.

Vladimir, Julia May Jonas

What on earth did I read? This was my thought over and over as I turned the pages of this book. I remember someone else seeing I was reading it and begging me to finish it so we could discuss it together. It’s a book about desire, deceit, professors and a cabin upstate.

This is Not About You, Rosemary Mac Cabe

I am glad I stuck with this one… It was gifted in exchange for a review and I feel bad that I don’t think I did that. If I did, I can’t find it anywhere. By the end of this “men-moir” Rosemary has dissected her past relationships with men on the way to finding her “one”… and I cared by the end.. but I didn’t for much of the first third. I wasn’t aware of Rosemary and she wrote as if we already had shorthand with each other on who she was and the world she came from. I’m here for everyone’s stories…. and I did enjoy where this landed… but when a writer writes with hindsight, it is hard for us as readers not to see the glaring lessons needing to be learned from the start. I was frustrated at her, for her, with her.

The Love of My Life, Rosie Walsh

An easy read, part romance, part mystery, part stalker? I recommended it to a friend who found it a waste of a read, but I enjoyed it as a palette cleanser, as I read it right after the next book, Wide Sargasso Sea.

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

My least favourite book of the year. 75 out of 75, by a mile. I just didn’t get it. It was such a short book and it took me days and days of dreaded feet dragging to get to the end of it. It’s supposed to act as a prequel to Jane Eyre… which I still have not read. Written in 1966, it just wasn’t for me. I wonder if I should try again…

Cult Classic, Sloane Crosley

This is a spin on a classic rom-com; with exes turning up all over New York City and has a bit of a sci-fi energy to it (just a dash - I am quick to say that’s not my usual go-to; but its the mystical twists in books I’ve actually really enjoyed this year).

The Librarianist, Patrick deWitt

Another Net Galley gifted read, I love love loved this book. What is not to love between a librarian, a retirement home, a life not lived, a life to unpack. There’s a sub-story within it where he remembers running away as a child… it could be removed entirely, but beyond that I really enjoyed this book.

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2023

Heartburn, Nora Ephron

*** TOP TEN of 2023*** This was the last book I read to get to book 75 in 2023. (There are days left, I may end up reading book 76 yet) but, what a book! A thinly veiled novel/memoir, doused in recipes for cooking your way through heartache. There are quotes within this book I will return to for a lifetime. Nora perfectly captures the depth of betrayal and heartache, and it was fitting to end my challenge with this book; reminded that I picked up books again in my own heartache, as a way of nourishing myself back to me; as she does with her cooking throughout this novel.

Forever, Interrupted, Taylor Jenkins Reid

This was TJR’s debut, and it’s interesting she references supernovas too. I’m taking it as a sign (for those who know, you know!) two lovers elope, without telling their families they are married. Nine days later and one is dead, and the other has to process life and a family they have no proof of being a part of yet. I really enjoyed it. There’s waves of emotions and it gives a glimpse into Taylor’s future work. Her world building and character development is sensational in future books, but this one still shows she has the skills to be my favourite writer (ok, with Claire Keegan) for 2023.

Foster, Claire Keegan

***TOP TEN OF 2023*** One of those books every person has talked about and it was usually sold out when I looked for it. Beautiful. She creates stories and characters that hurt you with how much you care, so fragile and every word she writes carries weight and depth. You can’t read Claire’s words flippantly on a sun lounger. You think a short book will mean an easy read; but her words arrest you. I had to go back to the start and read it twice, digging for clues and wanting to taste every word, knowing each has been crafted with skill I’ll spend my life dreaming for. I imagine Claire as the type of person at a party who measures her words, but who everyone is dying to have speak to them. Everything she writes is a power punch. I gifted this to friends before I even read it myself, I knew it would be brilliant.

Maybe in Another Life, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Written as two different stories - what happens if she leaves the party with her high school boyfriend, or goes home with her best friend? Life plays out in different ways and had me questioning all the lives I could have lived, while also being grateful that this is the one I have found myself settled into.

Girl A, Abigail Dean

A crime novel character study. Girl A escaped the “House of Horrors” her parents had tortured her and her siblings in with neglect. Years later, the home and memories are revisited. How does anyone move forward from it? There was one page that made me stop breathing, a sucker-punch reminder that some children have been exposed to horrors they absolutely never should have. I put the book down and wept uncontrollably.

Auld Acquaintance, Sofia Slater

Agatha Christie-esque - a whodunnit set on a remote island in Scotland on New Year’s Eve. I really loved this. Another Rare Birds Book Club pick, and timely reading this at the beginning of December. Straight away handed it off to a friend crafting her own crime novel now.

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions, Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi

Another Rare Birds Book Club pick, this book has extremely high ratings on Good Reads. The stories interweave between generations in the fall out of one experience in a boarding school in the 1980s and the women throughout their lives. Beautiful, unifying and unapologetic.

The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

This was the only re-read of 2023 - we studied this in school, I loved the film, I thought I knew it by heart. It was such a treat to read again. It is timeless and a classic for a reason.

Jungle House, Julianne Pachino

I heard Julianne speak on a panel about writing and AI and had to get her book after she read a passage. This is eerie, a science fiction story set within a South American jungle in a house ran by AI called Mother. Terrifying, could not put it down, strong recommend for something so utterly different to anything I have read before.

Tom Lake, Ann Patchett

A love story reflected on during the pandemic, told to a family of daughters by their mother who remembers a summer of dating an actor now known to the whole world. Set on a cherry tree farm, it’s cosy and gentle reading.

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry

Is there anything more gut wrenching than coming to this book after his death? Important, sobering, heart breaking. Also - one of not many celebrity memoirs written without a ghost writer. It is brutally honest and utterly destroyed me. If only.

Good Material, Dolly Alderton

***HONOURABLE MENTION*** I have been such a fan of Dolly’s journey with “Everything I know about love” being a book I read cover to cover and then put straight in the post to my best friend. I was less of a fan of her first novel “Ghosts” - but this book has been such a joy! Written from a man’s perspective after a break up, this was really fun to read and it felt like Dolly had stepped into a new era in her writing too. It’s one I’ve gifted for Christmas.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt

***HONOURABLE MENTION*** Who knew an octopus would have me so captive? Loved this story interweaving three different perspectives that all collide in a local aquarium. One from Rare Birds Book Club I will come back to, and so close to being a top 12 book of the year.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

Who knew I would get so involved in a video game novel? LOVED this. I sometimes felt a bit lost with some characters, but it is an incredibly hard world to create with words alone and the author has written something magic that made me feel a lot of feelings. Her characters are flawed, but enough that I still rooted for them, unlike some other books I read this year. There’s one moment that destroyed me, but for the most part this was a deep dive into a world I never understood, but now want to become a part of. Maybe 2024 I’ll become a gamer?

Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner

A memoir about death and grief; unpacking her connection to her Korean roots and all soaked in the comfort food of her mother’s culture. I had heard about this book a lot before I read it, and I now feel a deeper affinity to Korean food and culture - I want to understand more and taste it all!