Another year of reading in the books (ha)! You know how I say that reading is a stress reliever for me? Well, the fact that I read 136 books this year goes to show that I’ve had a stressful year. Usually, I barely break 100. I’ve picked some favorites, and included the full list of what I read below. I always love recommendations, so tell me what you loved this year. Here’s to a great year of reading in 2023!
Fiction favorites:
Nonfiction favorites:
Other favorites:
The full list…
Fiction:
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
Little Darlings by Melanie Golding
The Pessimists by Bethany Ball
November 9 by Colleen Hoover
The Girl Before by JP Delaney
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner
The Every by Dave Eggers
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Garvin
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth
Pure Colour by Sheila Heti
Bright Burning Things by Lisa Harding
The River by Peter Heller
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories by Hilma Wolitzer
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Wayward by Dana Spiotta
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
To Be a Man: Stories by Nicole Krauss
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Men Without Women: Stories by Haruki Murakami
The People We Keep by Allison Larkin
Best Years of Your Life by Jen Craven
Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Kismet by Becky Chalsen (advance copy; releases in 2023)
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard
The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth
Verity by Colleen Hoover
The Foulest Things by Amy Tector
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Take My Husband by Ellen Meister
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The Position by Meg Wolitzer
Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
We Are the Light by Matthew Quick
Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli
The Guest by Emma Cline
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
The End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid
Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott
We Do What We Do in the Dark by Michelle Hart
The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams
Nonfiction:
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Commitment and the Language of Human Experience by Brené Brown
The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning by Paul Bloom
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
Classic Krakauer: Essays on Wilderness and Risk by Jon Krakauer
Open by Rachel Krantz
Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma by Galit Atlas
In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz
Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister
Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie Helgoe
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski
Pure Land: A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures and the Search for Heaven on Earth by Annette McGivney
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
The Art of Receiving and Giving by Betty Martin
All About Love by bell hooks
Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey by Florence Williams
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom
Ambitious Like a Mother: Why Prioritizing Your Career is Good for Your Kids by Lara Bazelon
I’ll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlife and Motherhood by Jessi Klein
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain
The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips
This is Not a Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan
Becoming the One: Heal Your Past, Transform Your Relationship Patterns, and Come Home to Yourself by Sheleana Aiyana
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities by Diana Leaf Christian
The Divorce Colony by April White
Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett
Hello, Molly!: A Memoir by Molly Shannon
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality by Jane Ward
Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward by Elizabeth Ford, MD
The Fixed Stars: A Memoir by Molly Wizenburg
The Empath Experience: What to Do When You Feel Everything by Sydney Campos
Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses by Sarah Fay
This Story Will Change: After the Happily Ever After–a Memoir by Elizabeth Crane
Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met my 35 Siblings by Chrysta Bilton
Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk
Emotional Labor: The Invisible Work Shaping Our Lives and How to Claim Our Power by Rose Hackman
Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood by Moyra Davey (editor)
Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown’s Cult Classic by Eliza Smith and Haley Swanson (editors)
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Forget “Having It All”: How America Messed Up Motherhood–and How to Fix It by Amy Westervelt
Stranger Care: A Memoir of Loving What Isn’t Ours by Sarah Sentilles
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg
Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery by Catherine Gildiner
Do Parents Matter?: Why Japanese Babies Sleep Soundly, Mexican Siblings Don’t Fight, and American Families Should Just Relax by Robert LeVine and Sarah LeVine
And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meaghan O’Connell
A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
When She Comes Back: A Memoir by Ronit Plank
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World is Still the Least Valued by Ann Crittenden
Other:
A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader by Maria Popova (editor) and Claudia Bedrick (editor)
Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry and June: From “A Journal of Love”: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931-1932
Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures by Mary Ruefle
The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures and Pieces by Courtney Cook
Journal of Solitude by May Sarton
Poetry:
New and Selected Poems, Volume One by Mary Oliver
I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy by Hafiz (Daniel Ladinsky translator/interpreter)
Selected Poems by E.E. Cummings
The Carrying by Ada Limón
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón
The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy, edited by James Crews
What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer