Five of My Favorite Books from 2023
Plus the list of books I plan on reading in 2024
I read 25 books in 2023, about half as many as I set out to read, half as many as I normally read in a year, but there you have it. It is what it is. I did have a chance to read some all-time favorites this year—here are five works of fiction that I enjoyed immensely. Maybe if you’re looking for that last-minute gift for the reader in your life, this will help:
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down by William Gay
I don’t normally carve out much space for reading short stories, but this year two collections of short stories made my final five, and this particular collection was perhaps my favorite book of the year. Gay’s use of language is beautiful, and, set in rural Tennessee, there is a tension between the exquisite nature of the story-telling and the brutal decisions of the characters that sets this short-story collection apart from almost anything else I’ve read for a long time. Not for the faint of heart.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
This story of twins, orphaned when their mother dies giving birth to them and their father flees his sadness, all takes places within an Ethiopia on the edge of revolution. It’s epic tracing of one family hearkens back to A Prayer for Owen Meany or Duncan’s The Brothers K, two of my top-three books of all-time. This is my first Verghese, but I have two more of his books queued up for 2024.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
I have no idea why I loved this book so much—it’s pace was slow as molasses and the main plot point is revealed to you early within the first 50 pages. But Tartt’s writing is so engaging, her characters so well-written, that I found it hard to put down. Another author whose works I’ll explore further in 2024.
Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman
Another book of short stories, though the stories are linked and span hundreds of years, and the characters each have a connection to the same Massachusetts house. I’ve read short stories that are all connected by characters (Olive Kitteridge), but I don’t think I’ve read a collection like this where all the stories are connected by a specific place. This was my first Hoffman read, but it won’t be my last.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Not sure what I could write here that millions of others haven’t already written about Kingsolver’s epic. This was another of my favorites this year that was set in southern Appalachia. What amazed me the most was Kingsolver’s ability to combine an unforgettable, almost classic-feeling character with a modern-day epidemic (opioids). A tough but incredible read. Also not for the faint of heart.
And now for my reading plan for 2024 (the first six are books I’ve already started and hope to finish in January). The remaining 31 books are listed in no particular order: