The 5 Best Books I Read in 2023
Video games, guerrilla gardeners, secret art projects, late night TV writers, and our insatiable appetites. Plus superlatives!
Welcome to So Relatable, a bi-weekly newsletter that helps creative folks improve their craft, achieve their goals, and eat better snacks. I’m glad you’re here! ✨
I spent the last two weeks serving as a juror on a murder trial. (Sorry if that was not the opening you were expecting!) It was a very intense experience which I’m still processing, and will definitely write about at some point. For now, I’ll say this: sitting in a courtroom, listening to testimony, examining evidence, hearing from experts and witnesses and lawyers, made one thing clear. Justice, like so much else, boils down to who can tell a better story.
Which is a very awkward segue into one of my favorite newsletter issues of the year: the best books I read over the past 12 months.
Overall, 2023 was a good year for my TBR list. There were a few standout books (including a new all-time fave), a few disappointments, and a whole lot of page-turning. Reading remains my favorite hobby, and there’s no greater feeling than being in the middle of a good story.
In 2023, I read 30 books. 27 were written by women, eight were written by BIPOC, seven were written by non-American authors, and most were published within the last three years. In terms of genre, I read 23 novels, one memoir, two YA books, one essay collection, three nonfiction books, and nine book club picks. I read the most books in September (four) and the least in March (one). I don’t track my DNFs, but I definitely don’t finish every book I start. Life is too short to read a book you’re not into.
To see every book I’ve read since 2012, check out this spreadsheet. For this year’s top 5 (and superlatives!), keep reading.
The 5 Best Books I Read in 2023
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin. Two best friends build a business based on their shared passion for designing video games. A moving and inventive book about work, friendship, art, and love. Forget 2023—this book is now officially one of my all-time favorites.
Birnam Wood, Elizabeth Catton. An eco-thriller about a guerrilla gardening group that strikes a deal with an evil billionaire who has ulterior motives. Lush, long passages, deep character dives, and a great twist at the end.
Now Is Not the Time to Panic, Kevin Wilson. In pre-Internet times, two kids make a poster that goes viral, changing the world and themselves. Another book about art, friendship, and coming of age, with the added bonus of Wilson’s signature humor.
Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld. An unlikely romance between a plain Jane TV writer and a smoking hot musician slowly unfolds. This book was sweet yet biting, funny yet smart, swoony yet thoughtful. I don’t read a ton of romance, but I’ll immediately pick up anything Sittenfeld writes.
Milk Fed, Melissa Broder. A woman with an eating disorder falls in love and lust with a fat orthodox Jewish woman. The descriptions of food and sex are equally graphic, and as a result I devoured this engrossing book in three days. (Pun intended.)
2023 Superlatives
Most Tense: The Guest, Emma Cline
Coziest Read: Tom Lake, Ann Patchett
Most Inspiring: Refuse to be Done, Matt Bell
Guiltiest Pleasure: Scammer, Caroline Calloway
Most Unique: This is How You Lose the Time War
Deepest Thoughts: How We Show Up, Mia Birdsong
Most Uncomfy: Everything’s Fine, Cecilia Rabess
Most Effervescent: Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus
Best Airplane Read: One Italian Summer, Rebecca Serle
Snack Break
One nice thing about serving on a murder trial in a small city is that I knew one of the other jurors through some volunteer work. We weren’t able to talk about the case during the trial and then everyone went home right after the verdict, so we never got to discuss our feelings, of which we had many!
To remedy that, she came over yesterday, I made us a cheese plate from Trader Joe’s (my favorite form of therapy) and we processed for over two hours, discussing everything from witnesses and evidence to prison reform. It was much needed and so appreciated. They really need to offer some kind of post-court support to jurors involved in murder trials.
Relatable Recommendations
Watching: Jury duty + holiday stress means we’ve watched a lot of ER over the last two weeks, and somehow we’re still only on season 4. This is a good problem to have.
Clicking: Need more book recommendations? I contributed to this list of favorite 2023 reads curated by the inimitable
. A great way to stack your 2024 TBR list!Growing: We started tomato seeds in our shed, and they’re already taking off. One thing I’ve learned from the last two years of gardening is that the sooner you start your seeds, the better. Everything we planted directly in the garden is limping along and/or was eaten by rabbits. So it goes.
Eating: Terribly, thanks for asking. Hoping to reacquaint myself with vegetables this week.
Feeling: Grateful for the opportunity to do my civic duty, and heartbroken for those who have lost loved ones, both to violence and to prison.
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👋 About Me: I’m Chrissy Hennessey, an enthusiastic snacker and native New Yorker living in coastal North Carolina, where I stayed after earning my MFA in 2014. My writing has appeared in a decent number of journals, I’ve received fellowships to some fancy residencies, and I’ve written three novels, all currently unpublished! This newsletter is a passion project I started in 2019 as a way to connect with readers and writers, share my creative journey, and build a community. Thank you for being here!
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I've been meaning to read TTT since it came out. It's about time I got to it. And that opening line had me 😲
*Jotting down book recommendations*
I've been trying to expand my reading horizons so definitely going to check out some of those books! Also as a certified cheese lover that cheese plate looks absolutely amazing - I'm assuming that's goat cheese but can I ask what crackers you used? I might need to make a trip to Trader Joe's this week...