Best Books of 2023

[Anonymous]

I haven't quite finished it, but so far I'm absolute loving Yellowface. Best book I read this year that came out this year...unless the ending is horribly disappointing but I doubt it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In nonfiction: Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond

agree, highly recommend!

[Anonymous]

Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea
Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago
My Father's House by Joseph O'Connor
Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary
The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
The Lookback Window by Kyle Dillon Hertz

I believe the last two are debut authors.

[Anonymous]

I checked out Bandit Queens based on the recommendations from this thread and absolutely couldn’t put it down. I have not been up for anything more than fluff in a long time but really enjoyed this. Thanks for recommending

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I checked out Bandit Queens based on the recommendations from this thread and absolutely couldn’t put it down. I have not been up for anything more than fluff in a long time but really enjoyed this. Thanks for recommending

Ooooh yay, I bought it based on recs here too but haven't gotten to it yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide was delightful! I read the book and then listened to the audiobook.

The Bandit Queens was excellent. I really did laugh and cry and read it again.

Thanks for these recommendations! I really loved both of these books. I listed to the audiobooks of both of them. Anyone have any recommendations of other books like these one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton: Ecological thriller with a shocking, cinematic ending

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy: Set during the 1970s Troubles in Ireland, a doomed love story

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai: A Gen X woman returns to her all-girls boarding school and reflects on a friend's mysterious death and how the #metoo movement has changed her view of her teen years



Tom Lake by Ann Patchett: lovely book set on a cherry farm in Michigan during Covid. The mother tells her adult daughters about her life before marriage

Homestead by Melina Moustakis: set in Alaska as it's becoming a state, this is the story of whether a marriage of convenience can turn into love

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff: a young woman escapes from a dying early American colony - the story of her navigation of the early American landscape

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng: Set in Penang 1910s-20s, British Author Somerset Maugham visits friends to spend some time recuperating from illness and hears the woman's story. Hard to sum up but I really loved this one.

Birnam wood was my most disliked book of the year. Unlikable, unrealistic characters, with so much stilted weird dialogue. The entire relationship between the two female protagonists was stilted and weird, they spoke in woke feminism rants to one another all day long? It was so annoying!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I checked out Bandit Queens based on the recommendations from this thread and absolutely couldn’t put it down. I have not been up for anything more than fluff in a long time but really enjoyed this. Thanks for recommending

Ooooh yay, I bought it based on recs here too but haven't gotten to it yet.

I read it based on DCUM recs, too. What a fun read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have discovered what whatever the Goodreads readers love, I hate. They lost their minds for the Midnight Library and Lessons in Chemistry and I don’t think I’ve ever hated two books more

Haha, I am with you on these!

[Anonymous]

The Fraud, by Zadie Smith