Books of 2023

This was a year of audiobooks, thanks to parenting.

Key: a = audiobook, r = reread, asterisks for those I really loved

  1. (1/5/23) Tana French - Broken Harbor (a)

  2. (1/14/23) Tana French - The Secret Place (a) *

  3. (1/24/23) Tana French - The Trespasser (a)

  4. (1/26/23) Jenny Offill - Weather (a)

  5. (2/3/23) Sally Rooney - Beautiful World, Where Are You (a)*

  6. (2/5/23) Mohsin Hamid - The Last White Man (a)*

  7. (2/11/23) Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven (a/r)**

  8. (2/20/23) Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (a/r)***

  9. (2/23/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Maisie Dobbs (a)*

  10. (3/3/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Birds of a Feather (a)*

  11. (3/11/23) Aleksandar Hemon - The World and All That it Holds (a)**

  12. (3/17/23) Gwendoline Riley - My Phantoms (a)

  13. (3/22/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Pardonable Lies (a)

  14. (3/29/23) William Gibson - Idoru (a)

  15. (4/5/23) Charlotte Carter - Rhode Island Red (a)*

  16. (4/13/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Messenger of Truth (a)*

  17. (4/26/23) Rémy Ngamije - The Eternal Audience of One (a)***

  18. (5/9/23) Michelle Zauner - Crying in H Mart (a)

  19. (5/10/23) Betty Smith - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (r)***

  20. (5/28/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Among the Mad (a)

  21. (6/5/23) Kate Manning - Gilded Mountain

  22. (6/11/23) Jacqueline Winspear - The Mapping of Love and Death**

  23. (6/12/23) Sheila Heti - Pure Colour (a)**

  24. (6/18/23) Jacqueline Winspear - A Lesson in Secrets

  25. (7/8/23) Jo Harkin - Tell Me an Ending (a)*

  26. (7/14/23) Don DeLillo - White Noise (a/r)*

  27. (7/19/23) Colson Whitehead - Harlem Shuffle**

  28. (7/27/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Elegy for Eddie

  29. (7/28/23) Charmaine Wilkerson - Black Cake (a)

  30. (8/10/23) Vauhini Vara - The Immortal King Rao (a)

  31. (8/15/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Leaving Everything Most Loved (a)

  32. (8/19/23) Terry Pratchett - Sourcery (a)**

  33. (8/22/23) Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo - The Laughing Policeman (a)

  34. (9/7/23) Jacqueline Winspear - A Dangerous Place (a)*

  35. (9/7/23) Xochitl Gonzalez - Olga Dies Dreaming *

  36. (9/15/23) Jacqueline Winspear - Journey to Munich (a)*

  37. (9/29/23) Jacqueline Winspear - In This Grave Hour (a)

  38. (10/11/23) Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry (a)*

  39. (10/17/23) Laurent Binet - Civilizations **

  40. (10/22/23) Josie Silver - One Day in December

  41. (10/24/23) Jacqueline Winspear - To Die but Once (a)

  42. (10/29/23) Neil Gaiman - Stardust (r)**

  43. (11/9/23) Molly Mcghee - Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind (a)

  44. (11/30/23) Jacqueline Winspear - The American Agent (a)

  45. (12/12/23) Jacqueline Winspear - The Consequences of Fear (a)

  46. (12/29/23) Jacqueline Winspear - A Sunlit Weapon (a)*

Notable mentions:

Jacqueline Winspear obviously dominated this year because I listened to/read the entire Maisie Dobbs series. I really loved her, the narration/narrator was wonderful, and the story certainly never shied away from sadness but still always managed to keep some hope. All of my rereads were great, and many even more fabulous in audiobook form (looking at you, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union). The Eternal Audience of One was maybe my very favorite of the year, and Aleksandar Hemon is still a phenomenal writer. Colson Whitehead may be my favorite contemporary writer, though Sheila Heti makes me laugh so much. Terry Pratchett is just the best and I can’t wait to read Discworld to my daughter.