Best Books I Read in 2023

Substackers seem to love a best-of-list.

This year I read 33 books.

Before I highlight some of my favorites, I’ll pause for a self-congratulations. Not because 33 is a particularly high number. Actually, I’m kind of a slow reader, which embarrasses me sometimes, because I’m literally a reading teacher. I wish I could process a bit faster.

Anyway, I want to pat myself on the back for this simple reason: I kept track of all the books I read! I bought an adorable little book-tracking notebook. It was a gift for myself during the Pandemic from 1Canoe2. And since June of 2022, I’ve been tracking my books.

Without further ado, here goes, my first ever list of favorite books I read THIS year, 2023.

Best Memoir

Solito by Javier Zamora

Please tell me that if you’ve read American Dirt, you’ve also read Solito. And I’m saying this as someone who (at the risk of being canceled) loved American Dirt. But Solito is the real deal. This is a harrowing immigration memoir about an unaccompanied minor who journeys from El Salvador to the United States, bonding closely with his small, tight-knit group of fellow travelers. I read somewhere that Zamora kept a journal during his trip and that shines through in his prose. I loved the imagery and his gorgeous, youthful turn of phrase.

Best Realistic Fiction with an Urban, Modern Setting

All This Could be Different Sarah Thankam Mathews

This book is crazy good. It’s an edgy, authentic story of post-undergraduate life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It perfectly captures that new to the real world feeling. You’re an adult, sort of, and you’re waking up to this fundamental question: “What was the point of learning how to think… if all it did was burnish contempt for [those] around [you]?” This protagonist is so likable, so cynical, and so relatable in her jaded earnestness.

Best FUNNY Fiction

Ghosts Dolly Adlerton

I almost called this category chick-lit, but then I stopped myself because that felt anti-feminist and inaccurate. This book is so funny. The protagonist, Nina, goes out on a few great dates with a man she meets online but after a bit he *ghosts* her. At first—Nina, reeling—thinks about what could have possibly happened to this man… did he die? And then decides to move the hell on, and THAT was my favorite part, because the plot takes an extremely empowering turn. I love Nina for her strength; she doesn't suffer fools and thank goodness for that.

Best Historical Fiction

The Cold Millions Jess Walter

I read Walter’s book Beautiful Ruins back in 2013, and I solidly liked it. But The Cold Millions, I loved. Millions is gritty with movie-like undertones. Big time visuals. I can’t believe this hasn’t been picked up by a film studio *googling now* because it read like a script, but in the best way. I love reading about this time period—1910, the violent Labor Movement in Spokane, Washington. The novel features vaudeville acts and union busting cops and anarchists. At the center are two brothers who will break your heart into a million pieces.

Best Nonfiction Title that Explores the Meaning of Life

Why Fish Don’t Exist by LuLu Miller

So, no big deal, but I sort of made *ehem* friends with the author of this book during 2023. And because of that, I considered not putting this title on my best-of list, because I thought nobody would believe me when I say: I am so obsessed with this book it makes me a little queasy thinking about it. I have never read anything quite like it: one part memoir, one part informational, historical, scientific nonfiction, and one part investigative journalism. In Fish, Miller goes on a journey, delving head first into the life of David Starr Jordan, a man known for his ground-breaking work identifying thousands of new fish species in the early nineteen-hundreds.

Best Thriller/Mystery

The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

A good friend of mine, who happens to be the librarian at the school where I teach and a loyal reader of this Substack, gave me this book, and honey, I was smitten. This is about a writer who wins the opportunity to go on a women-only, all expenses paid, writing retreat turned competition for up-and-coming authors who specialize in horror. Winner gets a book deal! This novel maintains a perfectly suspenseful clip, but also offered some truly inspirational nuggets about the process of writing a book.

Best Book I Read for Book Club

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

James McBride is out here playing zero games with his latest novel. It takes place in Pottstown, Pennslyvania in the 1920s & 30s, in a neighborhood called Chicken Hill, which was inhabited primarily by Jewish immigrants and African Americans. Here we see the inner workings of an eclectic community on the fringe, doing its best to hold on to it’s heritage and simultaneously embrace a new world order. McBride recreates this unique moment in time and includes all of the truth and beauty and nuance you might expect.

And now, for my paid subscribers…

My All Time Favorite Book of 2023

…plus the full list of books I read this year…