My Top Reads of 2023 (So Far)

I usually read around 50 books a year, give or take.

I like to think this sum total breaks down to a diverse literary array: assigned classics for my college courses, page-turning thrillers, chart-topping bestsellers, nonfiction hyperfixation reads, etc.

Though, when I took a gander at my recent reads, I noticed one clear commonality: women! Unknowingly, I've been reading almost exclusively women authors this year, and the books I enjoyed most are a bit intense, to say the least.

I've always been drawn to darker stories. Not because I'm all about seeking out doom and gloom at every turn. It's more so the fact that if a story doesn't unsettle me or even stump me in some way, it tends to fade out of my mind pretty quickly. That post-read plot amnesia hits hard! I often find myself thinking: 'I couldn't tell someone much about what I just read, but I can try and describe the vibe.'

Per this revolving door phenomenon in my brain as I hop from book to book, the stories that do nestle their way into my mind and linger long after the last page are, by default, deemed some of my favorite reads.

Today, I figured I'd introduce five of my favorite books I read this year. Though we've passed the halfway checkpoint for 2023, I have a feeling that fall will pass by in a blink (as it always does) and then I'll be far too lazy to do a bookish year-in-review during finals season.

So, without further ado, here's a little bit about my top picks. I hope some of these titles strike your fancy and find a special place in your busy reader's brain too!

1. A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

A female serial killer and food critic recounts and rehashes her past while in prison. Oh, and did I mention she kills and eats men?

Let's just say that premise swiftly got my attention and locked me in for one gritty, gory ride. In my experience, some horror-adjacent reads lack nuance, but this novel is unflinching yet tasteful (pun intended).

Summers' prose is so damn sharp and captivating. Her femme fatale protagonist is delightfully terrifying and the satirical nod to foodieism is just the cherry on top of a brilliantly executed novel.

Here's a little snip-it to get a sense of the author's style:

Over trays of Bonnie Bell Lip Smackers and mountains of cooling fries, I learned that being female is as prefab, thoughtless, soulless, and abjectly capitalist as a Big Mac. It’s not important that it’s real. It’s only important that it’s tasty.

2. The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

The Little Friend gets overshadowed a bit by the authors' other more widely-known novels (The Secret History and The Goldfinch).

Let me just say outright: I'm under the impression that Donna Tartt creates masterpieces. The time, care, precision, and passion that go into her stories have made them modern classics that stand above the rest as the highest form of literary art.

That said, like most classics, you have to be in the right headspace to read them. I devoted a whole month to The Little Friend because I had to steadily move and evolve with this young protagonist. Admittedly, I had to temper some impatience along the way. Though the vivid, transportive narration never falters, Tartt purposefully plays with and subverts the reader's expectations for a mystery novel.

In short, the story opens with the suspicious death of a young boy named Robin not far from his front door. This inciting incident, unsurprisingly, led me to expect that the aim of the novel would be slowly uncovering the truth behind the suspected murder.

However, the final pages drop you off unexpectedly, leaving you to examine and reexamine conversations, with only a hint of an answer. The identity of Robin's murderer remains a question mark, but you feel emboldened to come to your own conclusions after an intricately layered journey.

So, fair warning, if you need closure at the end of a book, this may not be your cup of tea.

3. Godshot by Chelsea Bieker

Religious trauma led me straight to this 2020 release. I knew immediately from reading the blurb in Barnes & Noble that it would be right up my alley.

For starters, the themes are very heavy, and the drought-stricken setting is stifling from start to finish. However, if you're interested in a story that dives into cult brainwashing and the intersection of women, religion, and sexuality, this may be your speed.

I was most struck by how the author communicated a young woman's disillusionment with the church. As someone who spent years deconstructing my teenage religious fervor, this just hit home for me in a way I could scarcely communicate with words.

The church revealed itself to me then. Creaking wood planks, peeling and hot. Trinity Prism in the rafters, long in the face. The cheap common glitter, no specimen of heaven. Vern in a polyester robe fraying at the edges. I saw everything exactly as it was, dark and dirty, the people covered in filth, farm-beaten and raw, their deadened searching eyes, desperation.

In all, I would describe this as equal parts dazzling and terrifying. Don't let the glittery cover throw you off, this is a dark and at times uncomfortable read whose plot rests heavily on fraught mother/daughter relationships.

4. When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone

Speaking of religious deconstruction, this hallmark read on ancient matrilineal "goddess" cultures sat on my shelf for a while and I finally picked it up this summer. I approached this anthropological story as you would a textbook because it is very dense.

Though Stone's research is well organized and segmented into chapters, it's certainly not light reading. I found that the art history course I took during my undergrad actually helped me a lot in understanding the context of the author's findings.

Thus, as a learning experience, this book perfectly set the foundation for my pursuits in graduate school. Further, on a personal level, I quite literally could not stop thinking about what it would've meant for me to have known this information as a young woman!! I am still overcome by how little this information is known in society as a whole. It's truly life- changing.

In sum, if you want a thorough history lesson to fuel your feminist fire, definitely check out this classic.

5. Old Babes in the Wood by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood's latest short story collection is a show-stopper in my eyes. Largely because it's so effortlessly experimental.

Some highlights include the philosopher Hypatia speaking from the afterlife, a snail's soul put in a human body, and an interview with George Orwell's ghost!

I always adore short fiction as a medium and this was such a nice palate cleanser for me this year amidst some truly behemoth reads. Atwood is whimsical and folkloric yet sharp in her insight into very tangible themes of aging, relationships, memory, and loneliness.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the collection:

Will it be nothingness or sunrise? Or both, but in what order? And could they perhaps be the same?

In all, if you want stories from a master author that read like poetry, check out Atwood's latest!

/

Last Year's Top Reads :)

• O Beautiful by Jung Yun
• The Fire Is Upon Us by Nicholas Buccola
• Now You Know It All by Joanna Pearson
• All's Well by Mona Awad
• We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

/

Happy reading, friends!

Please comment some of your favorite reads of the year (or years past) below!