9 Favorite Books I Read in 2023
Our annual Books on GIFt guide includes 8 novels and 1 nonfiction work, plus independent bookstores and publishers where you can buy them.
Where did the year go? How can it be almost 2024 already? Donna and I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season full of friends, family and fun. We also hope you’re taking time to recharge—and to read great books! To that end, here are my favorites from the past year. I hope you’ll find some that you’ll want to give to a loved one, or to treat yourself. Here’s the list:
Fiction
'Boulder' by Eva Baltasar
Two women fall in love in Chile before moving to Iceland where their relationship takes a chilling turn. ‘Boulder’ is a brilliant and brisk exploration of the power dynamics within a relationship, and how they shift when children are added to the mix. Punchy, gripping and fast-paced—and only 105 pages—you’ll fly through it like I did.
My rating:
'Possession: A Romance' by A.S. Byatt
After a love letter is discovered in the 1980s among some old papers belonging to a Victorian-era poet, two academics embark on a journey to investigate its origin and meaning. The pair, Roland and Maude, pore over poems, books, letters and other documents searching for clues like they’re in a super-intellectual episode of ‘Scooby-Doo.’ As they learn more about the romantic relationship revealed in the documents, they also uncover truths about themselves. ‘Possession,’ whose author recently passed away, is a feat of writing that is smart and fun, and I couldn’t put it down.
My rating:
'Trust' by Hernan Diaz
‘Trust’ explores and explodes the myths of wealth, particularly the one about the self-made man, and shows that the key to financial success often is less about individual genius and more about catching a few lucky breaks—and having access to grandpa’s money. The book is beautifully written and fascinatingly constructed. I was entertained, outraged and enlightened.
My rating:
'Middlemarch' by George Eliot
Dorothea Brooke is a young 19th-century woman from a wealthy family in the English countryside who’s determined to expand her intellectual horizons and use her privileged status to help people. Her actions kick off all sorts of drama, and we see characters contend with, and gossip about, financial mismanagement, public shaming, grief, bad marriages, murder, slander and blackmail. Eliot offers a clear-eyed understanding about how much of adult life is shaped by failure and crushed dreams, and does so with humor and pathos. It’s 853 pages—a perfect length for a cozy read in winter months.
My rating:
'Sweet Days of Discipline' by Fleur Jaeggy
‘Sweet Days of Discipline’ is set among teen girls at a Swiss boarding school, and is a sharply written exploration of obsession and its consequences. It delves into the quiet miseries, loneliness and longings of young people, and shows how those feelings never really go away. And it reminds us that relationships, however brief, can have powerful and lasting effects on our lives. It’s a terrific novel—and just 101 pages!
My rating:
'Free Food for Millionaires' by Min Jin Lee
‘Free Food for Millionaires’ follows Casey Han, the hardworking and headstrong daughter of Korean immigrants, who in the early 1990s has just graduated from Princeton. Through her own struggles and those of people around her—a close friend goes through a heartbreaking divorce, and her mother has a life-threatening ordeal—Casey learns many life lessons. Among them are that hard work is no guarantee of success or happiness, that traditional definitions of success don’t work for everyone, and that forgiveness and grace are possible.
My rating:
'The Bell' by Iris Murdoch
A group of people look to escape modern life by forming a quiet religious community adjacent to a Benedictine nunnery. But their solitude is disturbed by the consequences of secrets and scandals that play out as the nuns prepare to install a new bell at their abbey. ‘The Bell’ offers a fascinating exploration of religion and sex, as well as of the tragic and cathartic experiences we endure as we try to figure out our true selves. It’s beautifully written—harrowing and humorous.
My rating:
'True Grit' by Charles Portis
‘True Grit’ is a thrilling, action-packed and beautifully written masterpiece that follows a 14-year-old girl in the Old West who’s out for justice after her father is murdered. I loved it. Donna Tartt loved it. You’ll love it. They’ll love it.
My rating:
Nonfiction
'We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America' by Roxanna Asgarian
Two women drugged and killed their six adopted children and themselves when they drove off a cliff in Northern California in 2018. The story got national attention, primarily focused on why the married white couple did such a horrible thing to the children. Little was known about the two groups of three siblings, who were Black and mixed-race and between the ages of 12 and 19. ‘We Were Once a Family’ tells their story. What shines through in this brilliantly reported and riveting book is the humanity of the children, and the people who loved and lost them. I learned a lot, and you will, too.
My rating:
Recent pickups:
‘The Long Form’ by Kate Briggs
‘The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington’ by Leonora Carrington
Both were purchased during the annual sale at NYRB Classics. Books on GIF does not solicit review copies. We feature books we purchase at independent bookstores around New York City or on our travels, or were borrowed electronically from the Brooklyn Public Library.
What’s next?
Before you go:
ICYMI: Review #221
Read these: Looking for more ideas? Here are some recommendations from past BoG gift guides:
From 2022: The highlights include ‘My Volcano’ by John Elizabeth Stintzi, ‘The Secret Lives of Church Ladies’ by Deesha Philyaw, ‘A Tale for the Time Being’ by Ruth Ozeki, 'I Will Die in a Foreign Land' by Kalani Pickhart, 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt, 'Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks' by Chris Herring and 'A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance' by Hanif Abdurraqib. Read the full guide here.
From 2021: The highlights include 'If on a winter's night a traveler' by Italo Calvino, 'The Hearing Trumpet' by Leonora Carrington, ‘The Transit of Venus’ by Shirley Hazzard, ‘Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman, 'The Passion According to G.H.' by Clarice Lispector, ‘Hurricane Season’ by Fernanda Melchor, ‘The Sea, the Sea’ by Iris Murdoch and 'Interior Chinatown' by Charles Yu. Read the full guide here.
From 2020: The highlights include ‘The Book of X’ by Sarah Rose Etter, ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo, ‘Family Lexicon’ by Natalia Ginzburg, ‘Passing’ by Nella Larsen, ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry and ‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’ by Olga Tokarczuk. Read the full guide here.
From 2019: The highlights include ‘The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish’ by Katya Apekina, ‘In the Distance’ by Hernán Díaz and ‘Eileen’ by Ottessa Moshfegh. Read the full guide here.
From 2018: The highlights include ‘Pachinko’ by Min Jin Lee, ‘Salvage the Bones’ by Jesmyn Ward and ‘My Boyfriend Is a Bear’ by Pamela Ribon and Cat Farris. Read the full guide here.
From 2017: The highlights include ‘The Moor’s Account’ by Laila Lalami, ‘The Dud Avocado’ by Elaine Dundy and ‘First, the Raven: A Preface’ by Seth Rogoff. Read the full guide here.
If you enjoyed this newsletter:
Thanks for reading, and thanks especially to Donna for editing this newsletter!
Until next time,
MPV
I’ve had my eye on Boulder 👀 now I know!
What a list!!!!!! I’m rereading Possession right now and loving it.