Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Posting early but feel free to answer right away or later:

What are your favorite books - up to three - of those you read in 2023?

Favorite Books for 2023
-Tom Lake by Anne Patchett, especially, the audiobook narrated by Meryl Streep
-Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
-She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

My favorites for 2023 are:

Maiden of the Needle, Vol. 1 (light novel) (Maiden of the Needle

Raven of the Inner Palace (Light Novel) Vol. 1 series

Villains Are Destined to Die, Vol. 1 series

Demon Copperhead
The Running Grave
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

1. Victory City by Salman Rushdie - 5* - My Review
2. Vintage Contemporaries by Dan Kois - 5* - My Review
3. In Ascension by Martin MacInnes - 5* - My Review

The General and Julia 5 stars

Assassin's Fate 5 stars

Girl in Hyacinth Blue 5 stars

Narrowing the remit just to books both published & read in 2023:
Open Throat - Henry Hoke (my #1 with a bullet)
Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
tied for third: Death Valley - Melissa Broder &
Lone Women - Victor LaValle

It's incredibly difficult for me to limit this to three. I read so many great books in 2023! But if I MUST pick three, I'll take these:

1. Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century
2. Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World
3. Black Swan Green

Dixie wrote: "It's incredibly difficult for me to limit this to three. I read so many great books in 2023! But if I MUST pick three, I'll take these:

1. [book:Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the T..."

I also loved Black Swan Green, apparently it's partly autobiographical but still has the magical realism often found in David Mitchell's work.

Sticking to 3, I'd have to say The Remains of the Day, The Rage of Dragons, and Starless.

A tough call to make though because some of the books I rated the highest at the time aren't the ones that stick with me now.

I can pick 2, but I have about 20 books that I can't decide between for book 3.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

@Kendra - my husband read both of your favorites this year also, and I would guess they are also in his “tops” list. Glad you love them!

My top three would probably be To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, Th Bone Ship’s Wake by RJ Barker, and All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby.

Demon Copperhead
Behind the Seams by Esme Young

Three?! I don't know if I can keep it to three. LOL.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Holly by Stephen King

Misty wrote: "Three?! I don't know if I can keep it to three. LOL.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by [author:Shan..."

I was going to say the one best book, but I knew that was impossible!

I'll narrow this down from my top six by not including rereads even though they might edge out new reads but I am leaving out one book I'd prefer to add, but three is three!

All the Dangerous Things (which was a big surprise since I don't normally give 5 stars to this genre)
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
The Ways of White Folks

Three very different books for me:

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

Die Anomalie

The Song of Achilles

Crook Manifesto by Colson
Whitehead

by Rebecca Makkai

by Abraham Verghese

And there were at least three more that I could have chosen!

Demon Copperhead
Giants in the Earth
The Covenant of Water

Books that made me cry more than once, like literally bawled, not just teary-eyed, turn out to be my favorites:
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (my review) and
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (my review).

Honorable mentions, books that blew me away:

My Daisy Jones review
My Muse of Nightmares review

Robin P wrote: "I was going to say the one best book, but I knew that was impossible!"

LOL! Yep!

Robin P wrote: "I was going to say the one best book, but I knew that was impossible!"

I'll say it is! Even limiting it to three was difficult and I give out very few 5 star ratings.

Bookshops & Bonedust

System Collapse

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

1. No Land To Light On by Yara Zgheib
2. Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
3, Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

The Great Believers
The World Played Chess
American Dirt

Favorite fiction of the year: What Moves the Dead

Favorite nonfiction of the year: Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes

I only had one five star read for this challenge in 2023, which seems quite poor! So that was my obviously favourite - The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss. It's such a weird and beautiful book. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

I listened to the audio of Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid for a side read and gave it five stars. I do think I probably enjoyed it more because of the people who did the audio rather than the writing, but it still counts as a favourite of the year.

For my third, I think I'm going to go for Gobbelino London & a Scourge of Pleasantries by Kim M. Watt, it was fun and I love any book with a snarky talking cat. Most of my other four star reads were reliable authors I'd read a lot before, so it was nice to find someone new.

The Winners
The Covenant of Water
Pride and Prejudice

Fiction and overall best
Horse I gave her People of the book five stars and liked this one even more

Audio: The Crystal Cave I gave two of the three in the series five stars. Narrated by Perkins we're swept back to Merrie Auld England and the Arturian Legend

New Favorite Series: Slow Horses I didn't give the first one five stars but gave them to at least three others. Smart writing, compelling characters and snarky humor. I'm very much looking forward to the ninth book hopefully in 2024

Annnd I'm quite pleased with myself for sneaking so many extra books into a three book limit. I did read them all this year :)

I also just started the SLOW HORSES series… loving it so far!

Lizzy wrote: "I also just started the SLOW HORSES series… loving it so far!"

They get better and better as you learn about the characters. Lucky you for starting them!

Road to Perdition: The New, Expanded Novel by Max Allan Collins

Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

I have one or two more that are 5 star. I don't give a five-star rating often

I did a ladder (like for March Madness) and came up with:
Beartown by Fredrik Backman.

Second runner up: Greenwood by Michael Christie