#best books 2023
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MY 12 FAVOURITE BOOKS OF 2023!
I have a journal where I keep track of the books I've read throughout the year! These were the favourites of each month from January to December of 2023!
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What were some of your favourite books in 2023?
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Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther
Meet Me Halfway by Lilian T. James
The Story of Us by Catherine Hernandez
Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah
Time to Shine by Rachel Reid
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
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Happy reading!
#Favourite books#2023 reading#books#read#reading#booklr#bookish#features#bookworm#bookaholic#book blogger#book blog#on books#on reading#book list#best books 2023#my opinion#my reading#readers of tumblr#books and reading#books and literature#books and novels#Bonnie Garmus#Stephen King#K.L. Walther#Lilian T. James#Catherine Hernandez#Tomasz Jedrowski#R.F. Kuang#Becky Albertalli
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My Year in Reading, 2023
For the first time since 2012, I didn't do a GR reading challenge. In every year between 2012 and 2021, I read over 150 books. Some years it was closer to 150, some years closer to 200. In 2022, I read 83 books. In 2023, 79 books.
See, in 2022, my world broke. My brain broke. The big bad burnout turned my brain inside-out and upside-down and I lost reading. In that same long first half of 2022, I realized I had to leave librarianship. Not just my job, but my fucking career. See, I was a fiction librarian. I had this ultra-rare position that was my dream job, and reading was a part of my job. When people tell you not to make the thing you love your job, I know. I know what they're saying.
I spent the second half of 2022 living in a state of nearly constant joy. And I wasn't reading for a lot of it. If you asked me three years ago, I couldn't possibly have foreseen this turn of events. And for some of 2022, I was stressed about how much I WASN'T reading. I am trying to figure out how to express this, because it didn't feel BAD to not be reading. It felt right and it felt like I didn't want to be reading. But it also felt wrong because reading was a huge part of my life, and then....it wasn't.
I decided 2023 had to be different, in terms of how I related to reading, so I jettisoned the reading challenge and just let myself...be. Here's what I found out:
I read a lot of BL manga. I'm not a huge graphic novel OR manga fan, so this was a new and unexpected joy. This probably isn't surprising to you if you know me on tumblr through BL, but it was surprising to me. I figured I would dip into queer romance novels, but nope, it was the manga that I loved.
Danmei isn't for me. No idea why, because it seems like it'd be just my cup of tea, but it isn't. I like it, I just don't LOVE it, and right now I want to love the books I'm reading, especially if it's fiction because...
I read SO MUCH NONFICTION IN 2023. It's what my brain asked for, so that's what I fed it. It also probably contributed to my lower numbers; dense nonfiction takes a LOT longer to read than fiction/manga. I think...I'm a person who feels passionate about learning; I love it so so so much. And when my consumption habits switched to mainly frothy TV shows about men falling in love with each other, my brain was like, uh, you better feed us some facts, lady. So I did.
I...like?...memoirs? In my book club, I'm the person who hates memoirs. Memoirs that everyone loved I scoffed at. Memoirs, yuck. Except...apparently no. Apparently I like a memoir now. I guess this is maybe an offshoot of the nonfic bias but nonetheless, my brain continues to shock me and the people who know me best.
Anyway, here is a short, lightly annotated (not in order at all) list of my fave reads this year:
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Fuck yeah she doesn't miss.
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein. Oh this is the real shit, and she also doesn't miss.
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Okay, a fiction book that I devoured. Sports + love + grief = a meditation on life.
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer. I sometimes go back and read my highlights from this, because it was so fucking powerful and spoke to me so powerfully.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. I loved this in a way I don't think I can explain. Simply stunning in all the right ways.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. Video games + love + grief = a meditation on life. Fucking amazing.
Stay True by Hua Hsu. Oh jesus fuck this is sad but it is so so so so good.
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree. Cozy fantasy that isn't romance is something I need more of in my life. Yes to orcs opening bookstores and coffee shops and very little fighting.
Witch Hat Atelier, all existing volumes, by Kamome Shirohama. I've been sharing these with my 8 year-old niece and it's just the nicest little happy thing.
Vagina Obscura by Rachel Gross. Yes, please explain my fucked up innards to me. Endometriosis ftw!
Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith. Real, solid advice and real, solid evidence, and real, solid writing. Two thumbs up.
Maybe someday I'll do a post about how I've been tracking my reading since November 11, 2004. I guess we're hitting the 20th anniversary this coming year, after all.
I guess I do know one thing: I'm never NOT going to read at times. I still do love it, even if my needs and wants around it have changed. Happy New Year, all!
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Weekends at Manly ✨
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Best books of 2023, honourable mention #1: The World We Make- N.K. Jemisin
These are books that I read in 2023, not necessarily ones that were published in 2023. These are the books that I enjoyed the most, the list is entirely subjective. Honourable mentions didn't quite make the top 10 and are in no particular order.
This is the second book in the Great Cities duology (?) and it continued the brilliant work of book 1. One of the many things N.K. Jemisin excels at is really creative worldbuilding and this book took the fantastic foundation that was built in The City We Became and took it to a whole new level. The characters were great, the underlying themes were really interesting, generally this was a really good book. Unfortunately, I felt like it didn't really meet the standards set in book 1. There were a lot of very interesting elements introduced but it felt like it kind of fizzled out towards the end. I think this would have benefitted from being longer or maybe being a trilogy. Still, I really enjoyed it and would absolutely recommend the duology.
#the city we became#the world we make#great cities#books#my posts#reading#bookblr#book#my posts books#book review#best books#best books 2023#knowing me knowing queue
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Mini Book Review of Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
Originally posted in best books of January & February 2024
Goodreads Synopsis: Isa Epley is all of twenty-one years old, and already wise enough to understand that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure. After a sojourn across the pond, she arrives in New York City for a summer of adventure with her best friend, one newly blond Gala Novak. They have little money, but that’s hardly going…
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#5 star books#america#audiobook#best books#best books 2023#best books ever#best books to read#book#book review#books#books to read#canada#goodreads#goodreads review#united states
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The Best Books I Read In 2023
This is a bit of a déja-vu situation. At the beginning of last year, I returned to blogging with my best of list and then wrote a post for January in Japan. I had every intention of blogging regularly again but so many things went wrong, so many heartbreaking things happened. GLM was the date I had fixed to finally return but plans were made without me. I wish I had at least been consulted or…
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My five favorite books I read in 2023. Highly recommend them all, but Bad Cree was my tippy top fave.
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Merry Christmas! Bests of 2023
Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas! No better gift than a great book or movie rec, as stories are our human escape and reflection. Hope you enjoy what I loved most in 2023 and your holiday! Peace and Blessings, Kalisha
Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas! No better gift than a great book or movie rec, as stories are our human escape and our reflections. I’m always adding great books on Goodreads and movies good or bad on Lettrboxed all year round. Hope you enjoy seeing what I loved most in 2023 and your holiday! Peace and Blessings, Kalisha
FICTION
This was a great past year of fiction, stores and more. I…
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#NegressionSuggestsBooks#NegressionSuggestsFilm#Best Books 2023#Best Movies 2023#Merry Christmas 2023
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Merry Christmas! Bests of 2023
Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas! No better gift than a great book or movie rec, as stories are our human escape and reflection. Hope you enjoy what I loved most in 2023 and your holiday! Peace and Blessings, Kalisha
Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas! No better gift than a great book or movie rec, as stories are our human escape and our reflections. I’m always adding great books on Goodreads and movies good or bad on Lettrboxed all year round. Hope you enjoy seeing what I loved most in 2023 and your holiday! Peace and Blessings, Kalisha
FICTION
This was a great past year of fiction, stores and more. I…
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#NegressionSuggestsBooks#NegressionSuggestsFilm#Best Books 2023#Best Movies 2023#Merry Christmas 2023
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Scrape the Velvet... Best Books to Read This Summer! --Philadelphia Magazine
Wow! Philadelphia Magazine loves my book!
Great News from Philadelphia Magazine:“Scrape the Velvet From Your Antlers” by Kelly McQuain. The longtime Philly poet released his debut collection earlier this year. McQuain’s verse is wonderfully precise even as it explores life’s grim and gray areas. Lovely.” –The Best Books to Read This Summer, Philadelphia Magazine…
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#Best Books 2023#books#Kelly McQuain#Philadelphia#Philadelphia Magazine#Poetry#Scrape the Velvet from Your Antlers#Texas Review Press#West Virginia
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running around in circles. nimona and ballister. do you get it. she wakes up from a nightmare and immediately calms down when he comforts her because she trusts him. he quite literally jumps off a balcony because he knows she’ll catch him. she tells him what shapeshifting feels like. lets him bandage her leg. he’s absolutely overjoyed when he sees her again at the end. he goes from rejecting her to accepting her to begging her to come back to rejoicing when she does. not only does she come back to life but she comes back to HIM. to her HOME. SHE FINDS HIM AGAIN IN ANOTHER LIFETIME. SHE GOES BACK TO HIM ON PURPOSE. DO YOU GET IT.
#nimona#ballister blackheart#ballister boldheart#nimona movie#nimona netflix#nimona 2023#nd stevenson#my words#CHEWING ON PLYWOOD#sorry i’m incapable of talking about nimona in my inside voice it will happen again#all she ever wanted was a home and a friend and he was just that 😭😭😭#they trust each other so much……#i like the book ending too but the movie ending is just so much more soft and forgiving#how could anyone say it was anti-climactic there was literally adrenaline pumping through my body#heart pounding edge of my seat every nerve set ablaze barely keeping it together#anyway nimona clearly Did Something to my brain lmao#go read it and then watch it you won’t regret it!!!!!!!!!!#this is scheduled btw (i Think i have the best posting times for this fandom figured out)#nimona spoilers
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it’s december !!!! the cozy factor upped 10x overnight
#it’s the best winter month#studyblr#bookblr#booklr#aesthetic#books#study#reading#read#book#bujo#bullet journal#dark academia#winter aesthetic#december 2023#2023
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"The Mastery of Love" is a book by Don Miguel Ruiz. It teaches us how to have good relationships with others and ourselves. The book says we should love and accept ourselves first, so we can love others better. It talks about how to stop feeling scared or jealous and how to love and be loved. It also tells us that people show and feel love in different ways. It helps us learn how to talk nicely and set good limits in relationships.
Some lessons from the book:
To have good relationships, you need to love and accept yourself.
You can learn to overcome fear and stop it from ruining your relationships.
Real love doesn't depend on conditions. It's not about what someone does for you.
Good communication is important. You should talk honestly and nicely to others.
Understand your feelings and thoughts so you can have better relationships.
Holding onto anger and resentment hurts you. Forgiving is good for your heart.
It's okay to say no and set limits. This helps you have balanced relationships.
Love is stronger than fear. Choose love in your actions and thoughts.
Focus on the moment. Don't worry too much about the past or future.
Loving is a skill you can practice and get better at over time.
The book has short chapters with things to do and think about. It helps us use these lessons in our own lives. Read this book if you want to learn how to make relationships better and feeling good about yourself.
#bookstagram#book review#bookish#bookshelf#bookaddict#new books#book quotes#books#best seller books#books and reading#book recommendations#read in 2023#books of tumblr#books of 2023#books of the month#reading list#books books books
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superman (2023) #4 by joshua williamson & jamal campbell
#wednesday spoilers#or ig#tuesday spoilers#?#clex#clark kent#lex luthor#superman 2023#superman#this book is a gift though#far and away the best clex content in the comics in a LONG time#my personal favorite interaction of lex will always be ‘lex insisting on helping the heroes but being a MASSIVE pain about it’#so i am being fed well#thank you joshua williamson for my life 🙏#*
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Top Books of January and February 2024!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
The Traitor (Covenant of Steel Bk. 3) – Anthony Ryan
Book 1 (The Pariah) Goodreads synopsis: Born into the troubled kingdom of Albermaine, Alwyn Scribe is raised as an outlaw. Quick of wit and deft with a blade, Alwyn is content with the freedom of the woods and the comradeship of his fellow thieves. But an act of betrayal sets him on a new path – one of blood and vengeance, which…
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#5 star books#america#audiobook#best books#best books 2023#best books ever#best books to read#book#book review#books#books to read#canada#goodreads#goodreads review#united states
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