Thanks, Brian! That one’s high on my list. I really love Ottessa’s work. I’ve reviewed all her other books, so it’s inevitable that I do Lapvona too lol.
Thanks, Sarah! Ubik is my favorite Philip K Dick book and I’ve been meaning to reread it to do a newsletter about it. Maybe this year. I’m glad you enjoyed it. And the Women Talking movie is high on my list to see.
Milk Fed Milk Fed Milk Fed! I feel like it’s all I ever want to tell people about and it’s so delightful whenever someone reads it. Queer and Jewish and about addiction and mother pain—it’s perfect. I also loved The Reading List, and read some amazing YA: Six of Crows, Pet, Bitter and the graphic novels Messy Roots and Invisible. There’s so many good books out there.
Thanks, Danielle! I’ve seen Milk Fed everywhere but had no idea what it’s about. I’m intrigued! I’m hoping to get to some more YA titles this year too. There are so many great books indeed!
Thanks, Andrea! These books look really great. I will check them out. I read Circe a few years back and had been meaning to try the Achilles book. Same with work by Emily St John Mandel. And Killers of a Certain Age looks interesting too.
I loved my first Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, and I'm also fully convinced that Rent Boy by Gary Indiana is the perfect novel! Short, but could never be called sweet.
Thanks, Ruthie! My first Edith Wharton was Ethan Frome back in high school and I didn't get through it. But I've always wanted to come back to her work. Glad to hear about Rent Boy, too. I'll check that out! Hope all is well with you!
Thanks, Laura! I hear you about it being difficult to choose. It was hard for me to pick 7 for this year lol! These titles look really good. Very intrigued by Lote. Have also been meaning to read an Alexander Chee book. Cheers!
My favorite was Trust by Hernan Diaz. I also loved Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout and French Braid by Anne Tyler. I think I was mostly about domestic drama this year!
Thanks, Kate! Trust is tops on my list. I’m just waiting for it to come out in paperback and then I’m all over it. I loved In the Distance so much. Someone told me they shared my review of it with him. I hope he got a laugh. I will check out the other titles as well. Cheers!
It feels so normie to say, and it's not like they need the extra exposure, but I still loved Lesson's in Chemistry (almost hits the high bar of Where'd You Go Bernadette) By now I'm all too familiar with Zevin's bookish brand of emotional manipulation, but I still loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I guess I'm just a fan of more than a little bittersweet in my books.
Thanks, Daejin! It's OK to like what you like! There's no such thing as too normie here at BoG. I've heard nothing but good things about the Tomorrow x 3 book. I want to check it out in the new year, for sure. Cheers!
It's so hard to pick the "best" when I know I will remember some for reasons having nothing to do with "best" or how much I liked then. Here are the top four: "Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death," by Bernd Heinrich, "Small Things Like These," by Claire Keegan, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," by Gabrielle Zevin, "In Love" by Amy Bloom.
I just wanted to add: I loved Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We Were Briefly Gorgeous." I read it a couple of years back and it will remain among my top ten of all time.
I loved Alexander Chee's 'How to Write an Autobiographical Novel,' and so many others... 'Forward' by Andrew Yang was a surprise hit for me. 'SuperIntelligence' by Nick Bostrom felt extremely relevant with the advent of ChatGPT. Micro memoirs sounds awesome! Need to grab that!
Thanks, Charlotte! And welcome! I need to read Alexander Chee ASAP. And I haven't read a futurist-type book in a long while. Not since a Virginia Postrel book back in the day. Time to get something like that in the mix. Cheers!
This is definitely some amount of recency bias but I finished UnMask Alice in a Day on Christmas Eve and enjoyed it. I definitely had a bunch of others but loved it.
Thanks, AI! This book rings a bell, but can’t place where I’d heard of it. Did you tell me about it before? Or maybe it was on a podcast or something? Either way, I haven’t found a book I could finish in a day in a long time. Could really use one. I’ll check this out. Cheers!
The Author was on You're Wrong About (the podcast), it's about Go Ask Alice, the 70s drug panic book. The podcast episodes are good, I think Carmen Maria Machado was on an episode.
Anyway good podcast, good book. Definitely recommend it.
This year I was introduced to Ruth Ozeki and devoured "The Book of Form and Emptiness" and "Tale for the Time Being." "Night of the Living Rez" was also very very good <3
Thanks, Kira! Happy New Year! I loved Tale for The Time Being. Form and Emptiness is on my list for this year, but I need to whittle down my pile to a manageable size first!
'Lonely castle in the mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura' it read like a fairytale and definitely brought me joy and tears just the same, 'We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson' was a book I got into without knowing anyyyything and it did not disappoint, amazing plot with a very interesting narration. 2022 was a great reading year for me and I also got to know more about my reading preferences too!!
My favorites were Matrix by Lauren Groff, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zahner and This is Not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch by Tabitha Carvan. But I can't NOT mention John Irving's newest book, The Last Chairlift. He's my all-time favorite author and it's probably time for me to go back and read his earlier works again. They're like old friends! I'd love to see a Books on Gif about The Hotel New Hampshire or my all-time favorite, The World According to Garp.
Thanks, Kim! I've heard a lot of good things about H Mart and it's on my list. I read Groff's Fates and Furies a few years back and really enjoyed it. I've been meaning to return to her work. Garp has been on my list for a while. I have been keeping an eye out for it in second-hand book stores because I feel like for that book, you need a well-worn copy. Cheers!
Ever since you mentioned GEB, I can feel my copy staring at me from the bookshelf. Maybe this is the year to finally tackle it?
I loved Lapvona.
Thanks, Brian! That one’s high on my list. I really love Ottessa’s work. I’ve reviewed all her other books, so it’s inevitable that I do Lapvona too lol.
My Year & Eileen got me through one of my darkest recent turns. Dr. Tuttle made me guffaw.
Have you read any of my Substack work?
I also fell in love with Elizabeth Strout.
Not yet.
I really enjoyed both of those books. Particularly Eileen. I think they are turning it into a movie. Glad those books helped you!
There were so many! The Four Winds, The Silent Patient, Now What?, The Making of Biblical Womanhood.
Thanks, Sarah! I’ll check out those titles.
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Thanks, VT! I’ve been meaning to read Doerr for a while. I’ll check it out.
One of my favorites that I read this year was Ubik by Phillip K Dick. Incredibly strange and smart.
Also Problems by Jade Sharma, Women Talking by Miriam Toews (which I believe is coming out as a move soon!)
Thanks, Sarah! Ubik is my favorite Philip K Dick book and I’ve been meaning to reread it to do a newsletter about it. Maybe this year. I’m glad you enjoyed it. And the Women Talking movie is high on my list to see.
Milk Fed Milk Fed Milk Fed! I feel like it’s all I ever want to tell people about and it’s so delightful whenever someone reads it. Queer and Jewish and about addiction and mother pain—it’s perfect. I also loved The Reading List, and read some amazing YA: Six of Crows, Pet, Bitter and the graphic novels Messy Roots and Invisible. There’s so many good books out there.
Thanks, Danielle! I’ve seen Milk Fed everywhere but had no idea what it’s about. I’m intrigued! I’m hoping to get to some more YA titles this year too. There are so many great books indeed!
SO many good books this year! My top five were Sea of Tranquility, Song of Achilles, I Am I Am I Am, Killers of a Certain Age, and Chilean Poet.
Thanks, Andrea! These books look really great. I will check them out. I read Circe a few years back and had been meaning to try the Achilles book. Same with work by Emily St John Mandel. And Killers of a Certain Age looks interesting too.
I Loved Killers of a Certain Age.
I loved my first Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, and I'm also fully convinced that Rent Boy by Gary Indiana is the perfect novel! Short, but could never be called sweet.
Thanks, Ruthie! My first Edith Wharton was Ethan Frome back in high school and I didn't get through it. But I've always wanted to come back to her work. Glad to hear about Rent Boy, too. I'll check that out! Hope all is well with you!
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers made me feel more seen than any book has in a very long time.
Thanks, Alex! I love when books make us feel seen. I’ll definitely check out this book.
Impossible to pick but here are the five I can't stop thinking about: Lote, Edinburgh, Greenland, All This Could Be Different, A Minor Chorus.
Thanks, Laura! I hear you about it being difficult to choose. It was hard for me to pick 7 for this year lol! These titles look really good. Very intrigued by Lote. Have also been meaning to read an Alexander Chee book. Cheers!
My favorite was Trust by Hernan Diaz. I also loved Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout and French Braid by Anne Tyler. I think I was mostly about domestic drama this year!
Thanks, Kate! Trust is tops on my list. I’m just waiting for it to come out in paperback and then I’m all over it. I loved In the Distance so much. Someone told me they shared my review of it with him. I hope he got a laugh. I will check out the other titles as well. Cheers!
Thanks, Courtney! Moving with books is brutal.
It feels so normie to say, and it's not like they need the extra exposure, but I still loved Lesson's in Chemistry (almost hits the high bar of Where'd You Go Bernadette) By now I'm all too familiar with Zevin's bookish brand of emotional manipulation, but I still loved Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I guess I'm just a fan of more than a little bittersweet in my books.
Thanks, Daejin! It's OK to like what you like! There's no such thing as too normie here at BoG. I've heard nothing but good things about the Tomorrow x 3 book. I want to check it out in the new year, for sure. Cheers!
It's so hard to pick the "best" when I know I will remember some for reasons having nothing to do with "best" or how much I liked then. Here are the top four: "Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death," by Bernd Heinrich, "Small Things Like These," by Claire Keegan, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," by Gabrielle Zevin, "In Love" by Amy Bloom.
Thanks, Elizabeth! Another vote of approval for Tomorrow x 3! I'll have to read it for sure. The other titles look great, too! Cheers!
I just wanted to add: I loved Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We Were Briefly Gorgeous." I read it a couple of years back and it will remain among my top ten of all time.
I've been wanting to read the book for years. Now that Donna's read it, and really enjoyed it, I'll have to get it onto the calendar for 2023.
I loved Alexander Chee's 'How to Write an Autobiographical Novel,' and so many others... 'Forward' by Andrew Yang was a surprise hit for me. 'SuperIntelligence' by Nick Bostrom felt extremely relevant with the advent of ChatGPT. Micro memoirs sounds awesome! Need to grab that!
Thanks, Charlotte! And welcome! I need to read Alexander Chee ASAP. And I haven't read a futurist-type book in a long while. Not since a Virginia Postrel book back in the day. Time to get something like that in the mix. Cheers!
This is definitely some amount of recency bias but I finished UnMask Alice in a Day on Christmas Eve and enjoyed it. I definitely had a bunch of others but loved it.
Thanks, AI! This book rings a bell, but can’t place where I’d heard of it. Did you tell me about it before? Or maybe it was on a podcast or something? Either way, I haven’t found a book I could finish in a day in a long time. Could really use one. I’ll check this out. Cheers!
The Author was on You're Wrong About (the podcast), it's about Go Ask Alice, the 70s drug panic book. The podcast episodes are good, I think Carmen Maria Machado was on an episode.
Anyway good podcast, good book. Definitely recommend it.
Yes! That must have been it because I love that podcast. Thanks!
This year I was introduced to Ruth Ozeki and devoured "The Book of Form and Emptiness" and "Tale for the Time Being." "Night of the Living Rez" was also very very good <3
Thanks, Kira! Happy New Year! I loved Tale for The Time Being. Form and Emptiness is on my list for this year, but I need to whittle down my pile to a manageable size first!
'Lonely castle in the mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura' it read like a fairytale and definitely brought me joy and tears just the same, 'We have always lived in the castle by Shirley Jackson' was a book I got into without knowing anyyyything and it did not disappoint, amazing plot with a very interesting narration. 2022 was a great reading year for me and I also got to know more about my reading preferences too!!
Thanks, Sahaab! I'll check out those titles. Glad 2022 was a good reading year. Hope 2023 is even better!
My favorites were Matrix by Lauren Groff, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zahner and This is Not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch by Tabitha Carvan. But I can't NOT mention John Irving's newest book, The Last Chairlift. He's my all-time favorite author and it's probably time for me to go back and read his earlier works again. They're like old friends! I'd love to see a Books on Gif about The Hotel New Hampshire or my all-time favorite, The World According to Garp.
Thanks, Kim! I've heard a lot of good things about H Mart and it's on my list. I read Groff's Fates and Furies a few years back and really enjoyed it. I've been meaning to return to her work. Garp has been on my list for a while. I have been keeping an eye out for it in second-hand book stores because I feel like for that book, you need a well-worn copy. Cheers!
Every time I find a used copy of Garp, I buy it. I've given it to so many people as a token of my love!