My Favorite Books of 2023
If you have been following me on the Instagram, you have seen me share the books I’ve read throughout 2023.
There’s an entire highlight dedicated to them! Check it out —>
My goal was 71. I didn’t think I would hit it because I found it impossible to read for ten weeks while I was manic at the beginning of the year. What a crazy time. But I did it! (I read 86.)
Here are my favorites:
This is the only book that will be ranked, my absolute favorite from last year.
The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
I have loved everything Haig has written. This book is “a collection of little parcels of hope.”
Like this one:
“You have survived
everything you have been through, and you will
survive
this too. Stay for
the person you will become.
You are more than a bad day,
or week, or month, or year, or even decade. You are a future of multifarious possibility. You are another self at a point in future time, looking back in gratitude that this lost and former you held on. Stay.”
I’ll be honest: I have highlighted and sticky tabbed almost every page in this book.
The Comfort Book showed up in my life when I was in the middle of my mental health breakdown at the beginning of the year, and it helped me get through it.
Now, the rest in no particular order:
⚡️ Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar is a novel that had me constantly googling because I couldn’t believe the serial killer in the book was fiction.
⚡️ Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica. It is not for the faint of heart but has many highlightable sentences. It’s disturbing. Read the synopsis for triggers. It has stuck with me all year.
⚡️ Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson - It's so well written.
⚡️ Happy Place by Emily Henry is what I call a palate cleanser. Light-hearted and easy to read, Emily Henry is one of my favorite writers.
⚡️ Unprotected by Billy Porter - I think he is a god among men, plain and simple. Please listen to the audiobook.
⚡️ All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Crosby - has quickly become one of my favorite writers, and this book made me read everything he has written. All excellent.
⚡️ Yellowface by R.F. Kuang is another dark humor palate cleanser. However, it also explores diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation at the same time.
⚡️ A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of a Tragedy by Sue Klebold came out a few years ago, and I finally decided to read it. Ughhhh… I just wanted to hug her the entire time I listened to it: excellent writing and a deeper look at Columbine from another viewpoint.
⚡️ Yearbook by Seth Rogen - thinking about his shroom story still makes me laugh. And he narrates it!
⚡️ Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi - dark, again check for triggers, horror, supernatural, loved it.
⚡️ Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll is a fascinating fictionalized twist on the Ted Bundy murders based on facts. It also had me constantly googling.
⚡️ Holding Space: On Loving, Dying, and Letting Go by Amy Wright Glenn - this book got me excited about my upcoming death doula training. Again, triggers.
⚡️ King: A Life by Jonathan Eig is the longest book of the year, and I listened to the audiobook. In my opinion, it has excellent research and writing.
⚡️ The Little Liar by Mitch Albom is his First World War II story, and I couldn’t put it down.
⚡️ What You Are Looking For is at the Library by Michiko Aoyama - a Tournament of Books contender. While the translation from Japanese was a little clunky, the little intertwined stories were cute and heartwarming.
