2023

The Books I Read in 2023

1. On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous (12/29-1/10)

2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation (1/10-1/22)

3. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (1/26-1/29)

4. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (2/2-5/8)

5. Which Witch (4/27-5/12)

6. A Little Life (2/25-5/26)

7. Tell Me I'm Worthless (4/27-5/28)

8. Sea of Tranquility (6/11-6/23)

9. The Fiancé Farce (5/26-7/1)

10. The Sea Beast Takes a Lover (7/2-7/19)

11. Educated (6/23-7/24)

12. Misery (08/04-08/30) 

13. My Year of Rest and Relaxation (08/21-09/15)

14. Winner's Take All (09/13-09/29)

15. Girl on the Train (10/12-10/15)

16. Dear Martin (10/17-10/19)

17.  Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (10/30-11/2)

18. Wayward Pines (10/16-11/2)

19. A Walk in the Woods (10/28-11/19)

19. Ice Pick Surgeon (11/26-12/06) 

20. The Spiderwick Chronicles - The Nixie's Song (11/28-12/16) 

21. The Man in High Castle (12/15-12/31)

Thoughts

On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous 

• "The truth is none of us are enough enough. But you know this already" (pg 176) 

My Year of Rest and Relaxation 

• I liked it so much I read it twice in one year
• Atmospheric

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing 

• Funny, poignant to the moment, creative, unique, liked the characters, like a lot
• I plowed through it

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven 

• Depressingly real
• Very beautiful 
• Loved the conversation about time, perceptions of time, generational and cyclical experiences
• Short story collections are usually hit or miss
• Liked how they connected 

Which Witch 

• Cute, enjoyable

A Little Life

• Unnecessarily grotesque and excessive in its pain and misery
• After finding out more about the author and her intentions, I find it uncomfortable
• That being said I did really really like most parts of it
• Vivid, alive, loved the writing style
• Length forced you to spend so much time with these people
• Can’t know if I loved it but I loved the depictions of connection and friendship and family and people knowing and loving each other through time and space
• Felt Malcom was pointless as a character either explore him more or cut him out 
• Willem was unrealistic but lovable, too perfect with no flaws
• JB was very real and easy to imagine to me; I found him interesting 
• I loved the names of all the characters
• Deeply unrealistic that they all ended up wildly successful and rich
• Some sayings were just so profound and true 
• "He was capable of joyfulness. That life was honied" 

Tell Me I'm Worthless

• I still think about this book all the time
• So unique, truly nothing like it, in that way it is amazing
• I don't know if I loved it or if I was horrified
• Hard to read
• End was impactful 
• Entire thing was holy shit
• Fascism, cyclical violence, self-hate, hate of others either due to self-hate, due to political hate, or due to distancing from other groups

Sea of Tranquility

• Trying to be self-aware
• Not much happened at points, dragged a bit
• “Anything is possible. It's hard to know what we know sometimes."
• Some very good points
• The end of the world is a continuous process and we really do believe that we’re always living at the actual end of the world
• Bureaucracy is an organism that wants to continue living
• I didn't care about the character of Olive enough and I'm not sure why? 
• She didn't have enough personality or inner world apart from being a writer and mother
• Ending is somewhat like Camus - I don't regret anything and now I'm in prison
• I liked seeing Gasbury grow up and I liked the ending

The Fiancé Farce 

• Delightful lesbian romance

The Sea Beast Takes a Lover

• Overly angsty and impersonal
• Poorly written female characters
• Weird and edgy in a bad way
• I could tell the guy had just finished his MFA

Educated

• Very impactful read, amazing memoir

Misery

• Great introduction to King
• Disturbing in a simple, understandable, psychological way

Winner's Take All 

• I read this at the right time in my life
• Helped give me some confirmation of what I'd suspected and steer me in better directions
• I wish everyone understood the principles outlined in this book

Girl on the Train 

• Liked the split POV, love an unreliable narrator, loved Rachel as a character
• Twist wasn't that dramatic, was a little slow at times
• Anna's character was flat
• Ending was a bit rushed, not enough fear

Dear Martin

• Absolutely buck-wild
• So so cringe, clearly a millennial woman trying to write teenagers
• Can tell its a woman writing a young man, weird unnecessary comments on women's bodies
• The racism is so overt and unrealistic
• Intense unexpected tonal shift toward middle
• Jared character was so poorly done
• Message did more harm than good

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

• I had never heard of this man until he passed away and it was eerie but impactful to read the story of someone I never knew of
• His rawness and vulnerability are so admirable
• Almost breaks your heart
• Good explanation of addiction and the misery of one's own design

Wayward Pines

• Decently entertaining, liked the mystery but definitely not enough to continue the series
• Too many long chase scenes

A Walk in the Woods 

• Made me want to hike AT and avoid AT
• Made me aware of how little I knew about it

Ice Pick Surgeon

• Right up my alley, educational and entertaining and ethically fraught 
• Appendix had lots of good ideas about crimes in space
• Loved the scientific fraud parts

The Spiderwick Chronicles - The Nixie's Song

• Read in two chunks
• Florida ecology for kids, very charming

The Man in High Castle 

• Loved the way they talk and what it means 
• Made me think very deeply about a lot of things, WW2, culture society
• Liked discourse on disgust, self-disgust, the projection of disgust, and cognitive dissonance
• Ending was a little off
• Very good and well-thought out
• Liked the mystery and split POV

Longest to read: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven & A Little Life (3 months each)

Shortest to read: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Girl on the Train, Dear Martin (3 days each)

Books I Started then Didn't Finish and Why (There were a ton this year)

Braiding Sweetgrass 

• Started in January 
• Read 70%
• Great book but long and had to return to library 
• Quote - 'Here are the ones who know how to say thank you'

Crime and Punishment

• Started in January
• I lost momentum 

Beyond Freedom and Dignity 

• Started in May
• Don't have enough patience for nonfiction nor something so academic 

The Running Man

• Started in June
• Kind of dull 

Unearned Pleasures 

• Started in September
• Extremely dull short story collection

Birds and Us 

• Started December
• Too historical, not enough bird
• Audiobook narrator's voice made me sleepy

Books I Started, Got a Little Into, and Will Be Finishing in the Future

• Entangled Life
• Walden Two
• Song of Achilles
• Siddhartha