I read 122 books this year and I wanted to share my list as there are some flipping BRILLIANT ones. I know that some people can get weird about book challenges and talking about reading goals. For me, setting a goal keeps me on track: instead of doom scrolling on my phone or watching videos on TikTok, I’ll make time in my day to read.
People often want to know how to read more and the answer is very boring: like everything in life, if you care about it you’ll prioritise it. Some people go to the gym, some people bake, some people read. I’m also lucky in that I am my sole priority: I don’t have kids, my husband can fend for himself (and also really got into reading this year, although our book tastes are very different…), and my tiny dog is never happier than when I’m sat still under a blanket, so my life is pretty well set up for being able to read for a couple of hours every day. But I believe everyone can make a little time if they really want to: get the kindle app and have some books on your phone so you can knock out a few pages waiting for the bus, or on your lunchbreak, or before bed.
Finding books that really grab you is also the best way to get into reading: don’t feel like you have to read the classics, or whatever books everyone else is reading. Just read what grabs you: I have an addiction to self-published apocalypse fiction that most people would consider either boring, poorly-written or both, but I like it. My husband’s favourite genre is something called splatterpunk. Finding your niche is the easiest way to engage with reading and make it a pleasure instead of a chore.
So. My books of 2023.
This format isn’t rocket science but here are a few explanations anyway. The books are separated into categories, this is more for my own interest to see what genres were my most popular, but it might also be useful if you just want to skip straight to your favourite genres. I’ve tried to sort the books into most favourite to least favourite in each category, with the bolded ones being my 21 favourites of the whole year. I’ve added blurbs to the books that I felt drawn to explain, whether that’s positive or negative or just signposting things about the book I think you’ll find interesting. And lastly, if you’d like to see the books I read last year, you can see my list HERE.
Shall we dive in?
Table of Contents
NON-FICTION
- ‘And Away…’ Bob Mortimer – If you like Bob Mortimer then you will love this, autobiography. His writing is warm, interesting, and of course incredibly funny. I loved hearing about his early career and the heyday of Vic and Bob.
- ‘Doppelganger’ Naomi Klein – An absolutely fascinating book about mistaken identity online and what that means when the person you’re being confused with is the antithesis of everything you stand for. Identity, conspiracy theories, political division, personal brands, and online obsessions. This. Has. Everything.
- ‘Hey Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and The Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing’ Emily Lynn Paulson – if you’ve ever been contacted by someone you knew 20 years ago with a ‘Hey hun! Do you want to learn how to be a girl boss and make money…’ message, you’ll find this a really interesting read. It’s a book about MLMs by someone who was very successful in one: why she joined, the tactics they’re all taught to get ahead, and why she decided to get out.
- ‘Me’ Elton John – I listened to the audiobook of this because it was read by Elton and also Taron Egerton who I loved in ‘Rocketman’. This is the best autobiography I’ve ever read and I was really sad to finish it. He has had such an incredibly fun, sad, and surprising life and he’s very honest about the darker and less complimentary parts.
- ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’ Jennette McCurdy
- ‘The Good Nurse: A True Story Of Medicine, Madness, And Murder’ Charles Graeber – Now a Netflix film with Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne.
- ‘A Heart That Works’ Rob Delaney
- ‘Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine And Myth In A Man-Made World’ Elinor Cleghorn
- ‘Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim’ David Sedaris – David Sedaris can do no wrong in my eyes, so I loved this.
- ‘I Remember Nothing And Other Reflections’ Nora Ephron
- ‘Fix The System, Not The Women’ Laura Bates
- ‘When The Dogs Don’t Bark: A Forensic Scientist’s Search For The Truth’ Angela Gallop
- ‘Everything Is Washable’ Sali Hughes
- ‘This Is Not A Pity Memoir’ Abi Morgan
- ‘The White Album: Essays’ Joan Didion
- ‘The Self-Sufficiency Bible’ Simon Dawson – My ultimate life dream is to move somewhere remote and go fully off grid and be self sufficient so I gobble things like this up. It was good in parts, but some sections were so overly detailed and the recipes made it feel very disjointed. The beauty section was also filled with inaccuracies and downright dangerous advice (please don’t use raspberry seed oil as a natural sunscreen!)
- ‘The Amityville Horror’ Jay Anson – I find this story so interesting, even though I don’t believe any of it actually happened. This is the original story written with input from the Lutz family and has since been the subject of a lawsuits and a lot of accusations of fabrication and changing stories.
- ‘JonBenet: Inside The Ramsey Murder Investigation’ Steve Thomas – Another case that fascinates true crime fans, this book is written by one of the investigators on the case at the time. It has a lot of information that I hadn’t heard before but is quite biased. I’ve also noticed that a lot of these books written by policemen involved in cases seem to think we’re there to hear their life story. I want to hear about the case not sit through the details of your failing marriage…!
- ‘The Teacher’s Pet’ Hedley Thomas – I listened to the podcast of the same name a few years ago and found the story shocking and frustrating and this still stands for the book, which I listened to on audiobook. This case was a clear miscarriage of justice and it can be hard to listen to for that reason. It’s also hard to listen to due to the absolutely terrible voice actors and (again) pointless details about the author’s life, marriage, and career outside the case.
THRILLER/CRIME
This whole section has some great recommendations if this genre is your bag. Psychological thrillers can get a bit samey, especially in the wrong hands, but I would recommend pretty much all of these (apart from the bottom six…)
- ‘True Crime Story’ Joseph Knox – I was recommended this by Bethany Rutter after we spoke about the next book on this list. If you like crime thrillers but are a little bored by the traditional format, I think you’ll like this one. The story unfolds in emails, interview transcriptions, anda faux-true-crime vibe.
- ‘Murder In The Family’ Cara Hunter – Similar to above, this is a really fun format that kept me engaged with the story. The novel follows the making of a true crime documentary, and chapters are a mixture of interviews, voicemails, call sheets for the documentary episodes, reviews of the episodes, newspaper articles, pictures etc.
- ‘Summerwater’ Sarah Moss – I loved the writing of ‘Ghost Wall’ so I was keen to read more by Sarah Moss. You know the feeling you get before a storm, where the air is charged and heavy and everything suddenly feels very detailed and clear? That’s how this book felt to me. It follows 12 different people in one small area on a rainy day in a Scottish holiday park, leading up to a shocking event.
- ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Steve Cavanagh – This is part 5 of a series and I have loved every one that I’ve read. A former con-artist turned lawyer, Eddie Flynn is a clever but flawed character (aren’t they always in these kinds of books?)
- ‘The Accomplice’ Steve Cavanagh
- ‘The Guest’ Emma Cline
- ‘Forgotten Bones’ Vivian Barz
- ‘The Jigsaw Man’ Nadine Matheson
- ‘Every Last Fear’ Alex Finlay
- ‘The Liar’s Girl’ Catherine Ryan Howard – if you like thrillers, I recommend anything by Catherine Ryan Howard (including this book), but ’56 Days’ in particular.
- ‘One By One’ Ruth Ware – Ruth Ware is another author to check out if you like this genre.
- ‘Nothing Can Hurt You’ Nicola Maye Goldberg
- ‘Bad Men’ Julie Mae Cohen
- ‘Run Time’ Catherine Ryan Howard
- ‘Paper Girls’ Alex Smith
- ‘Distress Signals’ Catherine Ryan Howard
- ‘Are You Awake?’ Claire McGowan
- ‘The Charity Shop Detective Agency’ Peter Boland – This and the following three books on this list all fall under the genre of ‘cosy crime’. These are nice gentle books that follow the same lines as traditional thriller books but are less intense, less scary, and have less violence etc.
- ‘A Murder Of Crows’ Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
- ‘A Cast Of Falcons’ Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
- ‘A Mischief Of Rats’ Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
- ‘The Castaways’ Lucy Clarke
- ‘Am I Guilty?’ Jackie Kabler
- ‘The Wife Upstairs’ Rachel Hawkins
- ‘Unravelling Oliver’ Liz Nugent
- ‘The Cabin’ Amy Cross
- ‘The Resort’ M.J. Hardy
FICTION
- ‘Several People Are Typing’ Calvin Kasulke – My husband and I read this at the same time on holiday and were both doing audible snorts and ‘have you just got to the bit where…’ A man’s consciousness is somehow accidentally uploaded into his company’s Slack channel and he can only communicate with his colleagues through online chats. He is – understandably – concerned at first but he’s never been more productive, so his boss is thrilled. It’s just as strange as it sounds. This book is funny, dark, and if you’ve ever worked in any company that uses these kind of internal messaging systems you will identify painfully with a lot of the writing.
- ‘Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow’ Gabrielle Zevin – This book is really special. The blurb might not necessarily sound like your thing (a coming-of-age story about two young video game developers) but it’s just gorgeous.
- ‘My Year Of Rest And Relaxation’ Ottessa Moshfegh – I devoured this in one sitting. It’s a dark, sad, and sometimes frustrating book following a troubled but privileged woman who decides to reset her life by living under sedation for a year.
- ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ Ocean Vuong – If you need a good cry, this book is it. A letter from a son to his single, immigrant mother who cannot read. Incredibly raw and beautiful.
- ‘Sealskin’ Su Bristow – If you’re a fan of magical realism, you’ll like this. Based on the stories of selkies (mythological creatures who turn from seals into women), this is a sad story about violence, prejudice, trust, and acceptance.
- ‘Saltslow’ Julia Armfield – Written by the same author as one of favourite books this year (‘Our Wives Under The Sea‘, found in the Horror section further down the page), this collection of short stories is a great read if you’re a fan of gothic, unsettling fiction.
- ‘Strange Weather In Tokyo’ Hiromi Kawakami
- ‘Mouth To Mouth’ Antoine Wilson
- ‘Mrs Dalloway’ Virginia Woolf
- ‘We Had To Remove This Post’ Hanna Bervoets
- ‘Hot Milk’ Deborah Levy
- ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’ Delia Owens – This is probably heresy, and maybe this was just overhyped, but it just fell flat for me. The magic pixie dream girl living in the forest vibes got old very quickly.
YA and WOMEN’S FICTION
- ‘Really Good, Actually’ Monica Heisey – This book has been everywhere this year so you’ve probably already read it, but if not I’d recommend it. It’s a brutally honest look at a young person dealing with a breakup and the aftereffects. Sad, funny, cringey, relatable, horrifying, frustrating…I experienced every emotion while reading this!
- ‘I’m a Fan’ Sheena Patel – Another book that’s been everywhere in 2023, this is a book about obsession, parasocial relationships through social media, sex, love, and sadness.
- ‘Love, Nina’ Nina Stibbe – A collection of letters written from the author to her sister while the former was living and working in London in the 90s. This feels like peeking into a diary – funny, sad, mundane, but strangely compelling.
- ‘Make You Mine This Christmas’ Lizzie Huxley-Jones – I read this in the week before Christmas and loved it. Bizarrely, I read this immediately after ‘The Christmas Swap’ which was really jarring as they have an almost identical storyline! If you’re a fan of enemies-to-lovers, fake-relationship romcoms, and queer love stories, then you’ll love this. Buy it now and save it for next Christmas!
- ‘Welcome To Your Life’ Bethany Rutter – A gorgeous romance about a woman who leaves her fiancé at the alter and, in an attempt to find herself and the love she deserves, embarks on a challenge of 52 dates in 52 weeks. I really enjoyed the way this was written: the characters, the fashion and descriptions of London are all lovely.
- ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’ Casey McQuiston – Read this and then watch the Netflix film. Both are excellent, funny, heartwarming and pretty steamy!
- ‘One Last Stop’ Casey McQuiston – The same author as ‘Red, White & Royal Blue’. The book I never knew I needed: a romcom with a time-travelling element? This is like nothing else I’ve read, I couldn’t predict where it was going at all and was sad when it was over.
- ‘Lessons In Chemistry’ Bonnie Garmus – Now an Apple TV series that is on my to-watch list.
- ‘Weirdo’ Sara Pascoe – I loved this book but also spent a lot of time cringing while reading it. It veers between funny, devastating, profound, and ridiculous.
- ‘Bridget Jones’s Diary’ Helen Fielding – Reread. The sections about weight are more jarring every time I read this, but it serves as such a timecapsule to explain the internalised fatphobia and skewed ideas about food and weight that many women my age grew up with. Once you skim past those bits, this is a hilarious and warm book that isn’t diminished by having the film adaptation in your mind as you read – a rarity!
- ‘Infamous’ Lex Croucher
- ‘The Last Library’ Freya Sampson
- ‘Set On You’ Amy Lea
- ‘Exes And O’s’ Amy Lea
- ‘You And Me On Vacation’ Emily Henry
- ‘The Christmas Swap’ Talia Samuels
- ‘The Bookshop’ Penelope Fitzgerald
- ‘The Coach Trip’ Izzy Bromley
- ‘The Inheritance Games’ Jennifer Lynn Barnes – ‘TikTok made me buy it…’ and I’ll never get that time back. Why do so many YA books have an awkward, unusual, oh-so-normal girl who – for some reason – is irresistable to awkward, intense, handsome (and, of course, very rich) boys who fall over themselves to date her (after lots of wisecracking and banter-flirting)?
- ‘My Own Worst Enemy’ Lily Lindon
- ‘Went To London, Took The Dog’ Nina Stibbe – Sadly, after really enjoying ‘Love Nina’ I was disappointed by this book. It was a diary concept which I typically love, but the stories were bland and the name-dropping felt hollow when I had no idea who any of them were.
- ‘Enemies With Benefits’ Roxie Noir
HORROR
- ‘Our Wives Under The Sea’ Julia Armfield – Uncomfortable, claustrophobic, and unsettling with beautiful prose. The story alternates between two perspectives: a woman on a deep-sea mission that went wrong, and her wife waiting for her to return.
- ‘Nightmares And Dreamscapes’ Stephen King – Stephen King is Stephen King. If you like his stuff, you’ll like this short story collection.
- ‘The Return’ Rachel Harrison – This was a very creepy book. A woman goes missing for two years then suddenly reappears with no explanation.
- ‘The Haunting Season: Ghostly Tales For Long Winter Nights’ (collection)
POST-APOCALYPTIC FICTION
- ‘This Is How You Lose The Time War’ Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone – Sci-fi action romance? I’m in. Two rival agents correspond through space and time.
- ‘Widowland’ C.J Carey – I love an alternate history story. What would have happened if the English surrendered to the Nazis in 1940? In this book, women have been categorised into strict hierarchies depending on their ‘value’ (e.g. baby-making abilities, intelligence, genetics) but there are rumblings of a uprising…
- ‘Shift’ Hugh Howey– The second book in the ‘Wool’ trilogy (the first book is one of my favourites and last year was adapted into Silo, the most popular Apple TV drama of all time!). This takes a step back in the story and serves as a prequel to Wool. I love a bit of world-building so, although it wasn’t as engaging and exciting as the first book, I still enjoyed it.
- ‘Dust’ Hugh Howey– The third and final book in the ‘Wool’ trilogy. I was so sad to finish this series as I was really invested in the world and the characters. I think I’ll probably reread ‘Wool’ over and over but the others, although good, didn’t grab me quite as much.
- ‘The Kraken Wakes’ John Wyndham
- ‘The Snow’ Huw Collingbourne
- ‘Oryx And Crake’ Margaret Atwood
- ‘The After Days’ Amy Ginsburg
- ‘The Book Of The Unnamed Midwife’ Meg Elison
- ‘Q’ Christina Dalcher
FOR WORK
I read quite a lot for work this year which was fun. I would recommend most of this list (except the bottom two) if you’re interested in beauty, skin, psychology of appearance etc.
- ‘Clean: The New Science Of Skin’ James Hamblin
- ‘Skin Food’ Dr Thivi Maruthappu
- ‘Black Skin: The Definitive Skincare Guide’ Dija Ayodele
- ‘How The Body Knows Its Mind’ Sian Bellock
- ‘Skin Revolution: The Ultimate Guide To Beautiful And Healthy Skin Of Colour’ Vanita Rattan
- ‘Self-Acceptance’ Dr Harry Barry
- ‘The Skin Nerd’ Jennifer Rock
- ‘Overcoming Low Self-Esteem’ Melanie Fennell
- ‘Skintelligent’ Dr Natalia Spierings
- ‘Know Your Worth’ Anna Mathur
GRAPHIC NOVELS
These are complete volumes, not individual books.
- ‘The Nice House On The Lake (Vol.1)’ James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno – This is probably my favourite ever graphic novel. Great characters, gorgeous illustrations, creepy end-of-the-world storyline? Tick, tick, tick!
- ‘The Nice House On The Lake (Vol.2)’ James Tynion IV, Alvaro Martinez Bueno
- ‘Nimona’ N.D. Stevenson – Made into a Netflix film last year, which is also great.
- ‘Clementine (Book 1)’ Tillie Walden
- ‘The Wicked + The Divine (Vol 1: The Faust Act)’ Kieron Gillent, Jamie McKelvie
- ‘Something Is Killing The Children (Vol 1)’ James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera
- ‘Sensible Footwear: A Girl’s Guide – A graphic guide to lesbian and queer history 1950-2020’ Kate Charlesworth‘
- ‘Saga (Vol 1)’ Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples
- ‘Saga (Vol 2)’ Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples
- ‘Saga (Vol 3)’ Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples
- ‘Saga (Vol 4)’ Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples
- ‘My Friend Dahmer’ Derf Backderf
- ‘Through The Woods’ Emily Carroll
- ‘Basketful of Heads’ Joe Hill, Leomacs, Dave Stewart
- Glass Town: The Imaginary World Of The Brontes’ Isabel Greenberg
- ‘The Department of Truth (Vol 1: The End Of The World)’ James Tynion IV, Martin Simmonds
- ‘An Unkindness Of Ravens’ Dan Panosian
- ‘Once And Future (Vol.1: The King Is Undead)’ Kieron Gillent, Dan Mora
- ‘Plumdog’ Emma Chichester Clark
- The Family Trade (Vol 1)’ Justin Jordan, Nikki Ryan, Morgan Beem
What a year! I’m sticking to the same book challenge for 2024 – 120 books – as 2.5 books a week gives me a bit of wiggle room when I know I’ll be busy (March – June in particular is going to be chaos). You can follow me on Goodreads if you’d like to keep up with what I’m reading HERE.
Please leave me a comment with the best book you read last year (or your all-time favourite book) so I can add it to my wishlist.
Lex
