I found myself in a reading slump for a large portion of 2023. I made excuses from being too busy at work (and as a result being too tired), starting a new job … to having too much going on leaving no time for reading. But when it comes down to it, I simply didn’t prioritize reading for the first ¾ of last year.

By the time August rolled around I wasn’t feeling overly confident in completing my reading goal of 24 books. With that said, no one was more surprised than I when 2024 hit and I had surpassed my this goal of two books.

And on that note, here is my 2023 reading wrap up.

The 26 Books I Read in 2023

1. The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay
2. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
3. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
4. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
5. The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
6. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce
7. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
8. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
9. The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris
10. Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales From the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
11. Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney
12. Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart
13. Every Summer After by Carley Fortune
14. Slaughter-House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
15. Adventurize Your Summer by Chris Pannell
16. Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy
17. Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
18. The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
19. The Beach by Sarah Linley
20. Middlemen by Scott Thornley
21. 10 Minutes, 38 Second in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
22. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer
23. The Billionaire Murders by Kevin Donovan
24. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue V.E. Schwab
25. Glad Tidings by Debbie Macomber
26. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

A Deeper Look at my Favourites

In no particular order.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

I am someone who is constantly worrying about the future – no matter how accomplished I feel or how much I have to be thankful for, I am always worried. My worries revolve around my career, the health and safety of my friends and family, whether I’m doing enough, whether I’m making enough memories, etc. This book is a beautiful reminder that I don’t need to have it all figured out, but that it will all work out.

“Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.”

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

Perfect for spooky season – this book genuinely kept me up at night because I was so scared. I loved it. The writing style kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through, a real page turner.

“Students from a university mystery club decide to visit an island which was the site of a grisly multiple murder the year before. Predictably, they get picked off one by one by an unseen murderer. Is there a madman on the loose? What connection is there to the earlier murders? The answer is a bombshell revelation which few readers will see coming.”

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer

This book is so beautifully written and there are so many important lessons. I read this book for a book club I am part of and found myself struggling to put it down.

“As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.”

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

This book is chock-full of beautiful quotes. This may not come as a surprise, but here is one that particularly stuck out to me.

“Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives–or to find strength in a very long one.”

I’ve heard many people say they didn’t like this book because it moved slow at parts. While that may be true, I think this was a conscious choice made by Schwab who is showing readers, in addition to telling them, just how long Addie has been around for, and how slow and mundane some of it has been for her.

“France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever – and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.”

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I know I am years late to the Hunger Games hype, but I finally get it. I saw the new movie in theatres (I’ve seen it three times now and am going for a fourth) and this is what finally hooked me in.

I love a good dystopian book and it’s been a while since I’ve read one but I absolutely loved this. Naturally, I’ve seen the movies before but appreciated that the book was told from Katniss’s point of view, so I got more of a look into her mind and thoughts. The book also made Katiniss seem younger than she is which I thought was quite powerful especially when you think of the message ‘kids can change the future’.

“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used to be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called “The Hunger Games.” The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat’s sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. Without really meaning to, Katniss becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.”

All descriptions and book covers are courtesy of Storygraph.

My goal for 2024 is to read 30 books.

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