My Favorite Books Read In 2023

So here's the thing. I've read a lot of books this year. 130, to be exact. But not all of them were...good. I read a bunch of books that I consider "good with caveats" books, a bunch of middling books, and then some absolute shits. But we're not here about the dumpster fires, we're here about the ones I actually like.

 

This is a great place to kick off 2024, considering I'm diving into a reading challenge for January and February. Each book is broken down into a personal category that I use on my spreadsheet, which does not reflect every genre a book could fall under (e.g. Legends & Lattes falling under both "second world fantasy" and "romance" or Snow White with the Red Hair also falling under both). I chose what I believed to be the stronger presence of any particular category to determine where the book goes. Every book here has earned either a 9 or 10 on my spreadsheet.

NONFICTION

• 101 Kinky Things Even You Can Do | Kate Sloan
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants | Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America | Marcia Chatelaine
  
• On Writing and Worldbuilding | Timothy Hickson (volumes 1 & 2)
  
• Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story | Ursula K Le Guin
• The Little Book of LGBTQ+: An A-Z of Gender and Sexual Identities | Harriet Dyer
  
• White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better (With a Guide to Start the Unlearning) | Regina Jackson, Saira Rao
  

SECOND-WORLD FANTASY

• Legends & Lattes: A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes | Travis Baldree
• Magic: The Hidden Planeswalker | Mairghread Scott, French Carlomagno, Fabiana Mascolo
  
• The Witch's Throne | Cedric Caballes (volumes 1 & 2)
  

SCIENCE FANTASY

• Gideon the Ninth | Tamsyn Muir (first of The Locked Tomb series)
  

OCCULT, MAGIC, OR SPIRITUAL

• The Lore of Old Elfland: Secrets from the Bronze Age to Middle Earth | Linda Raedisch
• The Magic of the Moon | Haven (zine)
  

MYSTERY, THRILLER, SUSPENSE, OR HORROR

• Frankenstein | Mary Shelley
• Mister Magic | Kiersten White
  
• None of This is True | Lisa Jewell
  
• Straight | Chuck Tingle
  
• The Children on the Hill | Jennifer McMahon
• The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein | Kiersten White
  

EARTH-BASED FANTASY, SUPERNATURAL, OR PARANORMAL

• Codex Black: A Fire Among Clouds | Camilo Moncada Lozano, Angel De Santiago
• The Chalice of the Gods | Rick Riordan
  
• The Sun and the Star | Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro
  
• The Trials of Apollo series | Rick Riordan (5 books)
  
• Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor | Xiran Jay Zhao
  

ROMANCE

• How (Not) to Ask a Boy to Prom | S J Goslee
  
• Red, White, & Royal Blue | Casey McQuiston
• Shark Heart: A Love Story | Emily Habeck
• Snow White with the Red Hair | Sorata Akiduki (volumes 1-12)
  

BIOGRAPHY OR MEMOIR

• Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States | Samantha Allen
  

HEALTH OF ANY SORT

Nothing good in this category this year.

SUPERHERO OR EARTH-BASED SCI-FI

• Dreadnought / Sovereign | April Daniels (duology)
  

CONTEMPORARY OR HISTORICAL

• Anxious People | Fredrik Backman
  
• Lady Tan's Circle of Women | Lisa See
• The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen | K J Charles
  

ANIMAL-FOCUSED

• Dogtown | Katherine Applegate
  
• Odder | Katherine Applegate
• The Complete Chi’s Sweet Home | Konami Kanata (part 1)
• The One and Only Ivan / Bob / Ruby | Katherine Applegate (3 of 4 books in The One and Only Family series)
  

RELIGIOUS TEXT

• Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God | (translated by) Swami Prabhavananda, Christopher Isherwood
• The Aeneid | Virgil