My Year in Books -2023

It’s been a challenging year and books have been my escape. I’ve worked hard to stay off of social media, and somehow this extended to the blog as I sunk deeper into my books. How successful was my avoidance tactic?

My goal for the year was 50 books. I posted 80 to Goodreads (and I’m sure I’m missing some library books from the summer…)

While I’ve been remission sharing book reviews here, I’ve been more consistent with reviewing them on Goodreads – and in return, I get a lovely graphic from them that shows all the books I’ve read. Here’s my year in books for 2023!

I read a mix of books – a lot of women’s fiction (light chick lit for the win as far as escapism goes), some fantasy, some cozy mysteries (a guilty pleasure that really isn’t guilty at all), and some non-fiction – a reread of writing favorites, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones and Dani Shapiro’s Still Writing, and several books on anxiety – some helpful, some I should have DNF’d before I ever hit the 30% mark. (I’ll have a post on the anxiety related books coming soon – I have a few more to dig into.)

I’m Wearing Tunics Now by Wendi Aarons is a memoir that was a real delight; So Sorry for Your Loss was an insightful, moving book on surviving loss.

My favorite books of the year were:

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Fairy Tale by Stephen King
• Answers in the Pages by Stephen Levithan

However, if you’re looking for some really fun, light, escapist reads, check out the books by Ann Garvin & Abby Jiminez (both Ann and Abby are automatic purchases for me). Abby Waxman and Emily Henry’s books are always fun, and Jessica Rosenberg and Ciara Blume have fun series’ out this year. (They are writing beasts!) Katherine Center’s novel Hello Stranger was also a fun read.

The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue was probably the most overhyped of all the books I read and it didn’t click with me.

If you like fantasy, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries and its sequel, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Underworld by Heather Fawcett are well worth a read – these are not your cute Disney fairies, though. This is the world of the fae and they are dark and bitey and tricky, and the world building is a delight.

And in making this list, I have discovered just exactly how poor a job I’ve done at reviewing this year’s books HERE, so if any of these sound interesting, you can find my Goodreads reviews here!

My reading goal for 2024 is 50 books (again) – with the hope that I can do a little more writing and a little less escaping (yes, I read 80 books this year, so I beat my goal by more than half). Stay tuned, and check back in.

Wishing you happy reading in 2024!