2023 was a fabulous reading year.
When I started seeing all your posts about best and favourite books of the year, I knew I was going to be in trouble. How could I possible pick just one book? So I started making a list of the books that moved me in some way, opened my eyes in others or have stayed with me as treasured reading memories. The list ended up being an impressive 23 books long. The number was too serendiptious to ignore – I give you my 23 favourite and best books of 2023.
To make life easier for all of us, I will split the 23 titles across Australian fiction, classics and non-fiction books and international fiction.
Earlier this week I presented:
- My SEVEN favourite Australian fiction titles for 2023
- My SEVEN favourite Non-fiction and Classics for 2023
Today we have the final NINE books – all international authors and all memorable in their own way.
Not everyone will enjoy the lush prose in Victory City, but I loved.
It became one of my #slowreads where I savoured every moment of Rushdie’s extravagant, epic story-telling. I slowed right down during the second half of the book in particular because I did not want my time with this story to end. I enjoyed it so much that I also struggled to know how best to write about it.
Rushdie is asking us to recognise that the truths we hold to be self-evident are simply stories, part of the myth-making process we all engage in, part of the narrative that makes us who we are.
This is so much more than a romance between a young Catholic teacher and an older married Protestant barrister during the Troubles in Northern Ireland circa 1975.
Kennedy builds the tension deliciously, dreadfully throughout the novel. Even though you suspect how things are going to play out, when they finally do, it is still a huge shock.
Like me, Kennedy is also bemused by the fact that her 1970’s childhood experiences are now called ‘historical fiction’.
For Catton, idealism infects each of her characters, for good and bad. We see how it influences their choices and actions. Like Macbeth and the witches prophecy about Birnam Wood that led him to feel secure and safe from harm or disaster, all the Birnam Wood characters become over-confident, getting caught up in their own way of seeing the world. Self-delusion sets in and before long they are believing in and justifying their own bullshit. None of them are prepared for the moment when “the wood began to move“.
As you would expect from the Shakespearian allusion, Birnam Wood is a tragedy – a fast-paced, literary thriller that has you burning through the pages late at night to find out what will happen. Full of complicity and compromise, dirty deals, ambition and corruption. Catton shows us that big tech, big data and algorithms are not about making our lives better or safer, but about making a few people very rich and powerful.
It took Crooks sixteen years to write this very personal story about growing up Jamaican in Southall, London during the early 1980’s. She describes it as a ‘fictionalised account of my life‘ which she ‘recreated from memory and imagination‘. It comes complete with an extensive reading list and the almost obligatory playlist.
From page one you are in Yamaye’s world. It’s fast, urgent and vibrant. It’s also a rather scary place to be. Politics, violence and exploitation are part of daily life. This could and did make for some tough reading in places, but it was worth it.
The energy and intensity of Fire Rush was like a huge adrenalin hit and Crooks’ writing was mesmerising.
Cheri | Jo Ann Beard
This was very much a case of cover love. I knew nothing about this novella or the author, but I was instantly drawn to the Richard Diebenkorn art.
Cheri is based on Cheri Tremble’s cancer journey as told to Beard by one of her daughters and then reimagined by Beard.
Cheri’s story is heartbreakingly sad, but this is also a story about love and courage. Her family – her daughters, sister and brother-in-law – who went with her as far as they could, displayed incredible stoicism. Cheri was conscious of how her decision was impacting on those around her, and she suffered doubts and existential angst at times. Ultimately though, her conviction to end her life with as much grace and dignity as possible kept her focused. These are the moments where Beard’s writing soars, as she imagines and then describes the love and fear, the determination and acceptance they all felt.
Lessons in Chemistry | Bonnie Garmus
One of the surprise favourites of the year. I was expecting to not like this book, instead it became an obsession.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it, wondering what was going to happen next. Did I really sit up after midnight one night, frantically reading this book? Did I really turn the light on again way after midnight to keep reading because I couldn’t get this book out of my head enough to sleep?
Yes, I did.
The Vaster Wilds | Lauren Groff
I responded wholeheartedly to this moody, hypnotic, hallucinatory story, along with Groff’s lyrical, visceral language and the fascinating protagonist she created.
The Vaster Wilds is one woman’s frenetic escape from civilisation, full of existential angst and fever-dreams brought on by solitude, illness and trauma. As Lamentations fled her would-be pursurers from Jamestown, bears, wolves and native tribes, Groff kept the pace moving with flashbacks to England, her time on the ship to America and the disintegration of civilisation in Jamestown.
Demon Copperhead | Barbara Kingsolver
Every now and again, an adaptation comes along that blows your sock off. A reimaging that redefines the genre, sets the bar that little bit higher, or modernises the story in an imaginative, meaningful way.
That’s what Kingsolver does with Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.
She soars to great heights as her story takes us away from the poverty stricken slums of Dickensian London into the hillybilly hinterlands of Appalachia where institutional and intergenerational poverty rules. How does a young boy have any chance of becoming a good man in a cruel world with very little guidance, in any era? Kingsolver takes us into Demon’s world of grinding poverty, foster care homes, drugs, alcohol and abusive adults. She shows us how easy it is for these kids to fall through the cracks of every system designed to rescue them, a system where the only salvation or redemption is yourself? Or as Kingsolver declares, ‘what matters in a story is the heart of its hero.‘
In the end it comes down to individual personality and luck. Demon has both.
If I had to pick just one favourite for the year, it would probably be Tom Lake.
It ticked all the right boxes at just the right time.
Tom Lake will not suit everyone’s reading tastes or mood, but if you are one of the fortunate ones who it does enchant, you’re in for a storytelling treat.
Patchett gives us a story about storytelling.
She shows us how we all reframe the stories of our own lives. She shows us how what we think we know about our parents’ lives and what really happened can be two completely different things. She shows us how the stories we tell our kids about our pasts and what really happened (and what we don’t say or gloss over) can also be two completely different things. Yet still faithful to the truth. She shows us the unintended consequences of the choices we make, along with the possibility of the other lives we might have lived.
- I make no apologies that so few male authors made it onto my three ‘best of’ lists. I spent the first half of my life reading books predominantly by men, it is only fair that the second half features more books written by women.
- In 2023 I read 74 books – plus 15 books for children and young adults – plus 2 books of poetry – and I listened to one audio book. I also read 28 short stories.
- 17 of these books were in translation and another 6 were books written by First Nations authors. Outside of Australia, most of my books were written by UK-based authors. My preferred genres were (again) Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Memoir & Biographies and Classics.
- I have now followed Cathy & Kim’s example by creating a dedicated instagram account for books. My new handle on Instagram is @this_r_e_a_d_i_n_g_life.
| This post was written on the traditional land of the Wangal clan, one of the 29 clans of the Eora Nation within the Sydney basin. This Reading Life recognises the continuous custodianship & connection to Country of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for the lands, seas & skies on which we live. They are this nations first storytellers. |
This Reading Life 
I’ve read five of your list and thought that some of them were good, but the only one of these on my list is going to be Tom Lake. I heard Lessons in Chemistry is good. I haven’t read it yet.
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Quite a few of the books on my list this year were ones that divided readers. Including Lessons in Chemistry! I’ll be curious to see how you go with if you decide to add it to your 2024 reading schedule.
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So will I.
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Count me in as one who liked Victory City. I really really liked it.
(As you probably know) Rushdie has a new one coming out this year, I think it’s called Knife, and yes, it’s about that attack.
Though I haven’t yet read them all, I have bought every one of his books since the fatwa, it was the best way I could think of to show my support.
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I haven’t got on with his more recent books (Quichotte, The Golden House) so I was a little nervous about Victory City. I’ve still a got a couple of his earlier books on my TBR too, including his chn’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
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I’ve only read a couple of these, but Demon Copperhead is up this month. Great list.
I admire your energy being able to manage two Insta accounts. I should post more of my book stuff there. I have occasionally done covers of what I’m reading, but would just mix it up with my existing account, which is messy I know!
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I’ve been happy to do that in the past, but last year I made my main insta account private after getting a weird influx of russian girls in bikinis & buff eastern european dudes following me.
Lately I’ve been wanting to do more with my book posts (more about that later), but I can’t because of private account restrictions about sharing, hashtags and reposting. The only solution was a new account. I’ll see how I go!! It has been so far whilst still in holiday mode – the hard part will be going back to work 🙂
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The Luminaries put me off Catton for life. Although I like the sound of your synopsis of Birnam Wood, my experience is that books which are riffs on another more famous book involve great whacks of look at me, look how clever I am, and I don’t read them.
If I must select one on your list to be tempted by then I’d say Fire Rush.
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We will to agree to disagree about The Luminaries, but I do think that Fire Rush is one that you would enjoy too.
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Always interesting with statistics. I see you have a couple of books that is on my list to read; Lessons in Chemistry, Tom Lake, Demon Copperhead and books by Lauren Groff.
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Wow – if you read those 4 books this year, you’ll have a great reading year!!
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Nice!
I was hesitating on this one by Rushdie, but you convinced me.
Here are my 3 posts (you will see the 2 other links at the top of this one):
my favorite books, my stats, and fun with titles:
Happy New Year of reading!
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HNY – sorry for the late reply, but a not-nice dose of Covid saw me out of action for a few days. I did try to leave a comment on your posts but I think they may have got sucked into the spam folder. The latest WP update seems to be wrecking havoc with logins and comments.
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sorry Covid got you. Have been sick for 2 weeks, not Covid nor flu, but very nasty too.
Thanks for your comments: I’m sure everything is fine, it’s usually because I’m late at moderating and accepting them. I do not have it posted automatically, so I be sure to read the comment and visit the blogger. And I am slow right now
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Oh I hope you feel better soon too.
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At first with Birnham Wood I was thinking “hmmmm, okaaaaay”. I mean, I’m all for character development but well past the halfway mark even I was starting to get antsy. And then, everything tilts and spills and phew, as you know, what a ride. That must have taken a very sharp editorial eye (and no surprise given her earlier work and experience with structure). I ended up unexpectedly enjoying it every bit as much as her other books.
Your list is immensely appealing: those I’ve also read I also really enjoyed and many of them are also already on my TBR. (Although Rushdie is a massive gap for me, other than essays and interviews.)
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It does suck you in, doesn’t it? And I hope you try the Rushdie, both Lisa and I were hugely impressed.
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I should add him to my 2024 list which is still in progress; I bought The Satanic Verses in hardcover…but I’ve only read essays and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. Even though I know his work is accessible, I still feel intimidated somehow…
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Biggest overlap so far as I, too, included Fire Rush and Demon Copperhead!
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Both extraordinary reading experiences!
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