My Year in Books: 2023

In April of this year, I decided I would get back into reading. I used to read a lot back when I was a kid - before high school and college took the joy out of it for a while - but in April I decided I needed to read way more if I ever wanted to be a good writer.

I originally set myself a goal of 50 books for the year. By July, I had reached that goal, so I modified the goal to 100. Unfortunately, I hit a bit of a major reading slump in October and November, so I only managed 90 books, which I still think is pretty good.

I'll show some quick stats, then move on to my favorite and least favorite books of the year.

Here are my stats according to StoryGraph:

90 books, 29,440 pages. Average star rating: 3.57 stars

Genre:

• Fantasy: 37 books

• Thriller: 19 books

• Historical: 14 books

• Mystery: 13 books

• Horror: 12 books

• Science Fiction: 10 books

• Contemporary: 9 books

• Romance: 8 books

• Crime: 8 books

• LGBTQIA+: 7 books

• Literary: 6 books

• Dystopian: 3 books

• Classics: 2 books

• Race: 1 book

• Magical Realism: 1 book

• True Crime: 1 book

• Health: 1 book

• Business: 1 book

Moods:

• Mysterious: 44 books

• Adventurous: 43 books

• Dark: 39 books

• Tense: 25 books

• Emotional: 19 books

• Lighthearted: 11 books

• Reflective: 10 books

• Funny: 9 books

• Hopeful: 5 books

• Challenging: 4 books

• Inspiring: 2 books

• Informative: 2 books

• Sad: 1 book

Type:

• 62 novels (fiction)

• 1 novella

• 15 short stories

• 2 nonfictions

Languages:

• English: 87 books

• French: 3 books

Pace:

• Fast: 26 books

• Medium: 55 books

• Slow: 8 books

Page Number:

• <300: 27 books

• 300-499: 55 books

• 500+: 8 books

Age Range:

• Adult: 60 books

• Young Adult: 19 books

• Middle Grade: 1 book

Clearly, my goals for next year are to read 100 books and read more books in French.

Now, onto my best books of the year, most surprising books, most disappointing books, and worst books of the year.

Most Surprising

My most surprising books are those where I went in thinking I wouldn't really like the book only to think they were great, or books I thought I would like only for me to end up liking them so much more than I thought I would. In no particular order:

• You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi: I did not expect to like this book so much. I'm generally not a romance person, but the beautiful writing sucked me in, and the plot and themes explored were also enjoyable to read.

• One Last Stop by Casey McQuinston: Similarly to the other romance book on this list, I didn't expect to enjoy a romance so much. With this book, it was more the non-romance plot that drove my enjoyment, but it was a lot of fun.

• And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed: I think I was so pleasantly surprised by this book because it was one of the first ones I read on my reading journey, but that doesn't change the fact that I was surprised by how pretty the writing was. The story was also quite good.

• Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé: I had a suspicion I would like this book just from the description, but from the first few chapters I had no clue I would end up enjoying it so much. Definitely one of the more surprising books I read this year.

• Sing Me To Sleep by Gabi Burton: This is a book I picked up because I saw it was about to be released on Twitter. I saw the synopsis and though 'huh, that could be interesting'. Then I started it and I couldn't put it down. Not only that, but it's stuck with me.

Most Disappointing

In contrast to my most surprising books, my most disappointing books are those I thought I would really like and then...didn't. In no particular order:

• Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett: I had read a few Discworld books before this one, and I had enjoyed all of them a lot. But this one underwhelmed me. I've read more Discworld books since and have enjoyed those as well, so it's not Discworld as a whole, it's just this one.

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo: I feel like I was promised things and never delivered them with this book. I didn't get the big murder mystery I was hoping for - it was sidetracked by a lot of things - and the dual POV/timelines just made everything so confusing. I was hoping for more.

• Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang: I was promised magic and dark academia and a poignant discussion on imperialism. Instead, I got a magic world that is exactly the same as the real version, lots and lots of boring translation lectures I already suffered through when I took translation classes in college, a shallow discussion of imperialism that doesn't even touch on internalized racism and romanticizes China (also an imperialist power at the time), and on top of that, absolutely no character development and a condescending authorial voice. Very disappointing.

• The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton: I thought I would get more of a thriller. Instead, there was a lot of detail about the job, and traveling, and not a lot of the fun 'thriller from the POV of the stalker' I was promised. Even the climax of the story was boring (and it made no sense).

• The Winter Knight by Jes Battis: From the synopsis, I thought I would love this book. Modern-day Arthurian legends? A murder mystery? Yes, please. But every time something exciting happened in the plot, the POV character would rip themselves away from the action to reminisce on some boring thing that happened in their past. Additionally, one of the main POV characters defined himself exclusively by his sexuality and his autism. Both those things drive me crazy. Lastly, way too many pop culture references.

• Yellowface by R. F. Kuang: Another R. F. Kuang book; clearly her writing isn't for me. And trust me, I'm not picking up another one after this. I thought it would be fine, since it's a completely different genre, and everyone was raving about it, but I was wrong. It started off great, and I was genuinely laughing at some things, but Kuang tried to stretch it out too much and it got boring. Also, it felt like she was trying to invalidate all legitimate criticisms of her own works by having her racist character parrot those criticisms. I didn't appreciate that. Saying that a book is boring is not the same as being racist.

Worst

From least worst to most worst:

• The Ivies by Alexa Donne: It was bad. The plot was shoddy at best, the motive sucked, she tried to shoe-in some 'wokeism' where it didn't fit and without really understanding what her argument/deeper point was...it wasn't great.

• Verity by Colleen Hoover: It was mostly a romance, and a bad one at that. The 'thriller' part was predictable, and the excerpts from the manuscript were very dumb.

• The Night and Its Moon by Piper CJ: This was boring, and tried to hard to have purple prose. It was rife with anachronisms, and according to people online, partially plagiarized The Witcher (the game I think). There were logic issues and some issues with racism. That being said, with a little more education and some development of writing skills, the author could be good one day because I definitely saw promise in some places.

• The Winter Knight by Jes Battis: Yes, this is on two lists because it was that bad. I really, really did not like this book. And unlike Piper CJ's book, this is not the author's debut. He's got many books under his belt, so I can't even see promise. His writing and his characters are not for me.

• You Shouldn't Have Come Here by Jeneva Rose: This was not a thriller, it was a romance and it was even worse than Verity. It's an insta-love romance (hate those) with a twist that does not make sense with the narrative choice the author makes before the twist.

• 7 jours à River Falls by Alexis Aubenque: This was definitely the worst book I read this year. It was terrible, in a way that the long rant I wrote about it can't even cover. Beyond the stupid plot, let me just say that Aubenque should not write stories with American characters set in the United States if he hates the United States so much. He does not understand the US, his writing betrays contempt for the US, and frankly, I don't want him to write about (or visit) my country.

Best

And finally, in ascending order, the best books I read this year:

• Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (honorable mention): This was one of four thrillers that left me genuinely scared. I should not have finished it so late at night.

• When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole (honorable mention): This is another one of the thrillers that left me genuinely scared. It got so scary near the end that I had to put it down a few times and reset.

• Ascension by Nicholas Binge (honorable mention): While this thriller didn't necessarily scare me the way the others on this list did, I apparently love sci-fi thrillers and this was no exception.

• Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé: Yes, it's on a second list. I just really enjoyed it. It's one of the thrillers I read this year that genuinely had me scared.

• Sing Me To Sleep by Gabi Burton: Again, yes it's on a second list. I really liked it, okay? Maybe it's because I haven't read any other stories with fairies, but I thought it was really good.

• Surface, Olivier Norek: A cop story with an interesting premise and a good twist. I liked that the main character was rediscovering herself and learning to like living again.

• The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty: This book is here mainly to represent the Daevabad series as a whole, which I read this year and loved. In fact, I loved it so much that the series has made it onto my all-time favorites list even though no individual book would make it onto the list.

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: This book made me cry. I've heard some genuine and insightful criticisms about it (like the book feels the need to prove that the guy who was shot was a good person, and it appeals more to white people than black people) and those are good criticisms. But it still made me cry.

• La Gloire de mon père, Marcel Pagnol: A very cute slice of life with vignettes of provincial life when Pagnol was a child, ending (of course) with the famous hunt and his father's glory. Great book.

• The Professor and the Housekeeper by Ogawa Yoko: I picked up this book because a negative review online said it had too much math and baseball in it, and I thought 'well those are two things I like'. I'm so glad I did read it because it was a beautiful story and I loved it.

• The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin: I realize the author is problematic (and possibly brainwashed by his government), but he wrote a great story. Hopefully next year I can finish off the series. I loved the little history lesson, I loved the three-body problem video game, and of course: aliens.

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: The writing was beautiful, the mystery was intriguing, and by the end I was genuinely scared. I really loved this book.

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: I thought the story of the existential crisis - and two completely different intelligent species coming together and overcoming their communication issues to solve it - was brilliant. Great story, and the ending was cute.

And there you have it! I feel like despite some of the bad and/or disappointing books I read this year, I read a lot more good books, so overall this has been a good year in reading.