2023: The Year of 60 Books

Hello, fellow readers and bibliophiles! It's somehow that time again, the most wonderful time of year...my end-of-year reading recap!

Since I started tracking my reads by year, I usually hit around 40 books. But this year, I was able to devour over 60!

From thrillers to historical fiction to celebrity memoirs—including my first complete audiobook listen, thank you Britney Spears & Michelle Williams—I read about 5 books a month on average this year.

Many of my 2023 reads were inspired by my amazing workplace book club through the employee resource group Women@Disney. Via a Slack channel 1,000+ readers strong, I enjoyed many a book recommendation and animated discussion thread.

As always, here are some fun learnings from my reading year:

• I love a good memoir, especially by a celeb! Shout outs to Britney Spears, Elliot Page, Viola Davis, Prince Harry, Glennon Doyle and Ashley C. Ford.
• Collections of fictional short stories are rarely my thing. Not never (Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions was fantastic) but I am often left underwhelmed by short stories that feel disjointed. Neither The Haunting of Hajj-Hotak nor Cat Brushing did it for me this year.
• My brain was happily challenged by deeply researched and endlessly illuminating nonfiction titles: "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People; The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness; Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind; and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
• Re-reads are great for a comfy dip back into favorite waters, and a fresh take on beloved titles! This year I revisited (and re-loved) You Are A Badass; Queenie; and A Knight in Shining Armor.

Below are bite-sized reviews of some of my absolute favorites from this year, plus the complete list of all the books I read!

• How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jana Casale: Searingly relatable tale of three 30ish women navigating and surviving a male-dominated world. Girl power energy.
• Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford: Honest, heartbreaking, remarkable coming-of-age memoir of a girl experiencing love, abuse, joy, depression, hope and growth, bookended by stories of her father upon his release from prison.
• Babel by R.F. Kuang: Speculative fiction meets magical realism through the lens of a young Chinese man in a world where translation, silver and colonialism reign supreme. Think Harry Potter, if Harry Potter was socially conscious, actually diverse and just all around smarter and cooler.
• "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon: This extensively researched, soulfully written collection of articles challenges the societal and "scientific" standards of shame, blame and oppression to unlock the humanity and compassion required to fight for and live in a just world.
• Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld: This superbly written and excellently paced novel examines: What if Hillary never married Bill? Well, she runs for president three times and...I won't spoil the rest. It's too good to not read for yourself.
• Is It Hot in Here (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? by Zach Zimmerman: Funny, fast collection of essays about leaving religion; Korean spas; teenage angst at the mall; love and sex in Paris; cats; dating Satan; and many more topics ranging from totally real to completely zany.
• The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke: An extraordinary memoir of unexplainable chronic health issues, interwoven with a plethora of stats, studies and interviews, resulting in a compelling and relatable story of one woman's health and quest for answers.
• The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff: Laugh-out-loud humor brightens heavy themes of abuse, murder and casteism. It's made all the sweeter with friendship, feminism, perfect characters and lightning-fact pacing. I loved this book so much, not least because I had little idea what would happen next.
• The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff: An utterly captivating, vivid, suspenseful tale of a girl attempting to survive alone in the wild, after fleeing the colonial fort where she faced famine, disease and certain death. At times grotesque, hopeful and breathtaking. A love letter to perseverance, nature and the human need for companionship.

Books listed in chronological order of when I read them. Bolded titles are my 5-star rated!

1. How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jana Casale
2. Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
3. Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
4. Cat Brushing by Jane Campbell
5. Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi
6. Hurricane Girl by Marcy Dermansky
7. Babel by R.F. Kuang
8. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
9. Spare by Prince Harry
10. People Person by Candice Carty-Williams
11. The Haunting of Hajj-Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai
12. The Four-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
13. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
14. "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon
15. The End of Men by Karen Rinaldi
16. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
17. Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi
18. The Guncle by Steven Rowley
19. The Latinist by Mark Prins
20. The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
21. Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
22. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
23. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
24. All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
25. Wifey by Judy Blume
26. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
27. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Kline
28. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
29. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
30. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
31. Is It Hot in Here (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? by Zach Zimmerman
32. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
33. And Then He Sang A Lullaby by Ani Kayode
34. Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
35. Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
36. Happy Place by Emily Henry
37. The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O'Rourke
38. Queenie by Candace Carty-Williams
39. The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
40. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
41. Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey
42. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
43. A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux
44. Pageboy: A Memoir by Elliot Page
45. Once More with Feeling by Elissa Sussman
46. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
47. Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling
48. Daydreams by Laura Hankin
49. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
50. Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
51. The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
52. Velvet was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
53. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
54. The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
55. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
56. Untamed by Glennon Doyle
57. The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander
58. All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
59. Prom Mom by Laura Lipman
60. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
61. Finding Me by Viola Davis