Friends,
2023 was a great year for me for reading, I read 130 books. It helped that I moved cities and swapped my weekend routine from visiting the newest exhibitions and restaurants in London to reading on a bench by the sea. (Henceforth known as my Burn Out Era). I slowed the fuck down, switched off my phone, took up meditation again, and spent my weekends walking on the promenade and reading. Here’s a list of my favourite books, the ones I’ll be re-reading in 2024, those that everyone was raving about and I thought were meh, and the books I’d gladly never read again1.
PS: I’ve been making an effort since the pandemic to diversify my reading (absolutely no airport books), buying instead from my local independent bookshop. Of the 130, I read 96 books by women (73%), 34 by men (27%). 11 of those reads were translated works (my genre to focus on in 2024).
❤️🔥 Favourites
Marzahn, Mon Amour - Katja Oskamp2
Innards: Stories - Magogodi oaMphela Makhene
Still Born - Guadalupe Nettel
Mothers, Fathers, and Others: Essays - Siri Hustvedt
The Story of Art Without Men - Katy Hessel
I Who have Never Known Men - Jacqueline Harpman
Siblings - Brigitte Reimann
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age - Katherine May
White Trash - Terry Angelos3
🥳 Good fun
Whatever you Do, Don’t Run. True tales of a Botswana Safari Guide - Peter Allison
Lolly Willowes - Sylvia Townsend Warner
Orwell’s Roses - Rebecca Solnit
Lucy by the Sea - Elizabeth Strout
Arrangements in Blue - Amy Key
Down Girl: the Logic of Misogyny - Kate Manne
Memoirs of a Woman Doctor - Nasal El Saadwi4
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma - Claire Dederer5
The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
North Woods - Daniel Mason
😑 Not a fan
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin
The Girls - Emma Cline
August Blue - Deborah Levy
Yellowface - R.F. Kuang
A Very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir
😭 Why did I read this
The Architecture of Happiness - Alain de Botton
Atomic Habits - James Clear
I’m a Fan - Sheena Patel
Greek Lessons - Han Kang
Work Like a Woman - Mary Portas
Any books I don’t want hogging space on my bookshelves I now donate to this wonderful charity.
I shared my two favourites of 2023 (of which, this was one) here:
I feel so lonely for disliking Tomorrow x3 and not being able to get more than 20% into Yellowface. Nice to see I’m not alone! What great lists, I’m going to have to add some to mine!!
Great lists. I loved the Siri Hustvedt too and The Story of Art Without Men was in my top ten for last year. I really must bump Braiding Sweetgrass up my to read pile. So many people I admire love it. Orwell's Roses was one of my books for last year I think. My first Solnit and led me to buy but not yet read more by her. I'm about half way through North Woods now and savouring it. Also read Lolly Willowes last year (I think) and again bought more by her but haven't read them yet. I'll keep my eye out for more of your best. I think our interests cross in many places. I'm attempting to buy less and read more of my staggering backlog this year, but I also plan to join the library so I may find some of your recommendations there. x