Read Women discussion

So here we are. Looking forward and looking back as we close out 2023. What were your favorite reads written by women? Top 5, top 10, Best #WiT, Best overall. Share your best reading experiences in whatever way strikes your fancy.

+ if you have written a 2023 Year in Review, feel free to share a link to it here.

Disappointments or warn-off-of posts are welcome, too : )

for members unfamiliar with the "Year in Review" threads, here's a link to the current one https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

My 2023 Favourites

Contemporary
Foster
Small Things Like These

20th Century Classics
The Weather in the Streets
Cassandra at the Wedding
The Hiding Place: Picador Classic
The Living Is Easy

Victorian
Red Pottage

Favourite WIT
All Your Children, Scattered
The Summer Book
The Door
Is Mother Dead

These were all 5-star reads for me:
This Is How We Love by Lisa Moore
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Notes on a Silencing: A Memoir by Lacy Crawford
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett

These were this year's duds (they all just happen to be WiT):
Madness Treads Lightly by Polina Dashkova
Wolfskin by Lara Moreno
The Lake by Perrine Leblanc
Saha by Cho Nam-joo

Thanks for sharing those Susan!

I'm reading A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom right now and enjoying it.

Here are my favorite reads of 2023:


Helen Zia made an otherwise daunting historical account approachable with this wonderful book. It's heavy with history & facts, but Zia mixes in personal accounts which make it manageable. And her writing is lovely.


This is a Japanese Translated YA novel. It's magical realism, which I normally don't enjoy - but Mizuki Tsujimura's story-telling is so good, and the underlying mental health undertones make it a great fit for YA or adults.


Written like a memoir, but fiction, this was a gut-wrenching story of survival in Syria in recent war-time. Probably the saddest book I've ever read, but Zoulfa Katouh writes so beautifully. I will read anything she writes, ever.


Another very sad, very beautifully written memoir.


Ok - and another! I have a favorite genre apparently. This was a bold and beautiful memoir.


This was a powerful and intriguing exploration of ancestry, mental stability, trauma, inner turmoil and more. I loved the way each chapter was written from a part of the main character's fractured self.

Lindsey wrote: "This was a powerful and intriguing exploration of ancestry, mental stability, trauma, inner turmoil and more. I loved the way each chapter was written from a part of the main character's fractured self..."

I loved freshwater, one of my favourites of all time. I like your description Lindsey. I sort of enjoyed lonely castle until the ending which ruined it for me.

I'm looking forward to reading Hijab butch blues and know my name off Susan's list.

My favourites this year:

Rereads of old favourites during a reading slump:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Break by Katherena Vermette

New to me 5/4.5 star reads:
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler
From Caucasia, With Love by Danzy Senna
Hello Mum by Bernardine Evaristo

I've just realised all of these except the 2 Vermette are black women authors. Vermette is an indigenous author so these are great for next year's challenges!

Top Books of my 20 5-star reads
All Your Children, Scattered
Happiness Falls
Night Birds and Other Stories
One Hundred Twenty-One Days
Ten Steps to Nanette
The Bedlam Stacks
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The Last Brother
The Living Mountain
'Trifles' and 'a Jury of Her Peers'

Top WiT
All Your Children, Scattered
One Hundred Twenty-One Days

Best Overall
Unable to choose

Biggest (Good) Surprise
'Trifles' and 'a Jury of Her Peers'

Biggest "Oooof" (glad that's over)
This is How You Lose the Time War

Book that stayed with me the longest
Every last one of them. For so many reasons. I would have to measure any difference in half hours.

YE Review stats for women authors:
75 books by women (73% of my total reading)
51 authors new-to-me, of which 8 are debuts
2 books banned
10 books translated
9 books for my "world challenge"
20 books diversity-related (author has different ethnicity, religion, race, ability challenges than me)
Avg Rating 4.0

Genres: 49% mystery/thriller; 21% fiction; 11% historical fiction; 7% nonfiction (highest ever!); 5% fantasy/magical realism; 3% memoir; 3% dystopian; 1% horror.

Media: 41% paper/hard cover (did not meet my library-purge goal for this year); 44% eBook (the reason I didn't reach my library-purge goal); 15% audio

Location: US 45%; England/Aus/NZ/Canada 29%; All Others 26%

Oh my goodness. I had such a good year in books (which is really good because the rest of the year kind of sucked - hard).

5 Star Reads
Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Becoming by Michelle Obama
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Denver Noir ed. by Cynthia Swanson
The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty
The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
The Silent Ones by K. L. Slater
Safe With Me by K. L. Slater
Liar by K. L. Slater
Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia by Anita Heiss
A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History by Bridget Quinn
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
Blink by K. L. Slater
Finding Grace by K. L. Slater
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
Savage Conversations by LeAnn Howe
Girl Gone Missing by Marcie R. Rendon
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Frontier Grit: The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women by Marianne Monson
Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Worthy Mind: Transform Your Mindset. Strengthen Self-Worth. by Meadow DeVor
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona LaDuke
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems by Joy Harjo
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
A Shadow Crown by Melissa Blair

11 of these 5 star reads came from my #20BooksByIndigenousWomen challenge
11 are fantasy/romantasy
9 are non-fiction
2 are books of poetry and 1 is a play

Favourites in 2023:

Classics:
The Lais of Marie de France
The Book of the City of Ladies
Brokeback Mountain
Mary Barton
Black Beauty

Modern:
Hijab Butch Blues (NF)
The Shadow of Perseus (Mythology)
Mr Loverman
Ada's Realm
The Master Butchers Singing Club
How Beautiful We Were (in G)

Mysteries by E.C.R Lorac and others from the Golden Age, and Historical Mysteries
And Then There Were None

Middle Grade NF:
Nearly everything by the Rebel Girls

Romance:
Black Sheep and others

Nonfiction:
The Sixteenth Century in 100 Women
Margarete von Österreich: Diplomatin der Renaissance (German)
Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music
Vom Verschwinden der Arten (G)
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think (in G)

A book that I couldn´t get into, and that didn´t move me at all:
H is for Hawk
An only okay NF:
I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life

The highlights of my year were:

Tsitsi Dangarembga's trilogy:
Nervous Conditions
The Book of Not
This Mournable Body
-gave me all the feels. I just found this exceptional, powerful, and unique.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo - what a beautiful celebration of life and gorgeous writing

The Chilli Bean Paste Clan by Yan Ge - gave me a special kind of warm fuzzies I long for. It reminded me of reading Joy Luck Club in high school and seeing for the first time something like my family's culture in a book. (Although I'm not Chinese, I'm Vietnamese American...)

Minor Detail by Adania Shibli I loved this too- unique, beautiful and haunting, one of my 5 star reads. But somehow it tends to escape my memory when I reflect on the year in books. Perhaps just because it is both quiet and very short.

Jen wrote: "The highlights of my year were:

Tsitsi Dangarembga's trilogy:
Nervous Conditions
The Book of Not
This Mournable Body
-gave me all the fe..."

Thanks for the comment on Yan Ge's novel, I was thinking of picking up a copy, I really liked Strange Beasts of China

Michaela wrote: "Favourites in 2023:

Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music"

Thanks for mentioning this one! I am a classical musician and composer, and my area of expertise is women composers. I have never heard of this particular book though, so I am anxious to get my hands on it now.

Misty wrote: "Thanks for mentioning this one! I am a classical musician and composer, and my area of expertis..."

Misty, I really enjoyed reading this. It tends to focus more on the lives of the women and the obstacles they faced in their lives. It does mention the styles of music they were composing but it is not particularly technical. So you might only find it useful as a guide to searching these particular women and finding out more about them.

I have made a Spotify list for the composers that were included and have really enjoyed listening to the works.

Liesl wrote: "It does mention the styles of music they were composing but it is not particularly technical. So you might only find it useful as a guide to searching these particular women and finding out more about them."

Good to know! That's actually perfect, as I am already pretty familiar with all of these composers. I love learning more about the composers themselves. Thank you!

Apparently I have been very sparse with my ratings this year. My Best of list is:

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (Non-fiction)
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
Sisters by Daisy Johnson
The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey
Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music by Anna Beer
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

I am thankful to say that I didn't have any DNFs or any works that I hated.

I have to make a very late addition to my list: Know My Name by Chanel Miller. Absolutely phenomenal is all I can think of to say in words. It's a memoir of sexual assault. I listened to the audio narrated by the author and was blown away. Very highly recommended. I was on the fence about it until I saw it on a list on this very post - thank you Susan

I’m glad you enjoyed it, Hannah! It really is a fantastic book - one of the best memoirs I’ve read.

I read a lot of good books this year, but apparently I was kind of chintzy on the marks (ha, ha...).

The 5(or 4.5)* reads were:

Exiles by Jane Harper (#3 in the series, really should be read in order)
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (unbelievably excellent, but approach with caution due to harsh - but not surprising - content)
The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths (another series that must be read in order)
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson (I know I am late to the party on this one, but I can't say enough good things about it)
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (the audiobook vaulted this into 5* realm)
A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark


Special 'new to me' author mentions (they were 4*, but more importantly I know I will be reading more of their work):
Alice Feeney
Seanan McGuire
Nghi Vo

and finally, the clunker:
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - for some reason I did rate it 2.5*, but really it was a waste of my time.