The books I read in 2023

I usually do two book posts a year so they won't be so long, but when I got to mid-2023, I didn't have many and thought I'd have a shorter than normal list this year. That did turn out to be true, but I still have 16 to share with you. Overall, I am not sure it was as good of a reading year - I had several books that were just okay and a few that I barely remember now, but there are some highlights in the list. I will share in the order I read them. 

1. Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone - Diana Gabaldon - I am an Outlander fan and have read all the books. I started this one later in 2022 and it took me several months to finish as it was a really meaty book. I enjoyed the storyline and am looking forward to her wrap up of this story in the next book, which I believe is intended to be the final story in Claire and Jamie's story. This one didn't grip me as much as a few of the earlier books, but I still really enjoyed reading it. 

2. The Maidens by Alex Michaelides - my mom loaned this one to me as she wound up with two copies. It was a murder mystery, which isn't my favorite genre. It was a good book, not a great one - the writing was good in that you didn't want to put it down at the end of a chapter, but in the end, it was fairly predictable. I passed this one on to my daughter and she devoured it, but she also really likes true crime/murder mystery. If that's your genre, you would probably enjoy this one more than I did. 

3. A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil - this one had been on my list to read for a while. A mom of a young daughter is in a car accident and when she comes to after the accident, everything about her life is different - she's not married, not a mom, and doesn't live in the house she thought she lived in. It was such an interesting story and I wasn't sure which storyline was the truth through most of the book. I would recommend this one if you haven't read it yet. 

4. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - I've read a few of her novels and this one was just as good as the others. It starts in the Texas dust bowl during the Great Depression. The family finally decides to head west and this book covers their journey to California and life there as sharecroppers. It was a great historical fiction piece and you could really imagine the grit of the  dust, the poor conditions in the sharecropper camps and the scenery along the way. Highly recommend this one - one of my favorites for the year. 

5. The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg - I think this was my favorite book for the year. It is about Arthur, a widowed man who visits his wife's grave every day. He befriends a young girl who hangs out in the cemetery and the story tells how their relationship grows and how Arthur learns to move on from his wife's death and find some happiness in his live. This book reminded me a bit of A Man Called Ove and if you liked that one, you will probably like this one too. I really enjoyed it and I bawled when it was over - you know it is a good book when you are sad to see it end. 

6. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett - I've had this one on my library "to read" list for ages and it finally showed up as available, so I snatched it up. I have heard so many people rave about this book and I was really looking forward to it. However, it was just okay for me. It covers several decades of the lives of a brother and sister who grew up in The Dutch House. I enjoyed the imagery of the house, but the story never really gripped me. Maybe it was because I read this after such a sweet book and this was more depressing, but I am not sure I'd rush to pick up another book by this author. 

7. The Judge's List by John Grisham - Another one from my mom, she passed it on to me and said it was great. It has been a long time since I read a Grisham novel and this one reminded me of the others in his style, suspenseful ends of chapters, and the set of characters. It was a good quick read but not sure I will put Grisham near the top of my list again anytime soon - I felt like it was a little too predictable and a little too spot on with his formula. 

8. Effortless by Greg McKeown - I was a big fan of Essentialism by the same author, which I read on the advice of my supervisor many years ago - it has been one of the biggest influences on my work and making sure I focus on the right things. A friend shared Effortless with me and it builds on Essentialism. I read this one on a plane to New Jersey for a work meeting and couldn't devour it quickly enough. What a great read to help you think about how you get the right things done with the right amount of effort. I really enjoy McKeown's take on business and really enjoyed this one. If you find yourself wondering if you're spending your time on the right things, I highly recommend his books. 

9. The Other Black Girl by Zakiyah Dalila Harris - I read this just before the TV show based upon it came out, thinking I'd read it and then watch the show. This book is about a woman who is the only black woman in her office until a new woman starts who is also black. They form a quick friendship but then things start to get weird and she begins to question herself. There was a lot in this book that I missed, I think because I am a white woman and have a very different life experience. I wanted to like this one more than I did, but the end just left me scratching my head - I wasn't even sure what really happened. 

10. The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman - I picked up this one to read while on our summer vacation and it was a great summer vacation read. This book follows twin sisters, one of whom is living in an institution (Willowbrook) and the other who thought she had died. When she learns her sister is alive, she goes to visit but is mistaken for her twin who has run away from the institution and is put into the institution. It is a riveting tale of what life might have been like in the 70's in a place like this. There is a mystery that follows the story line and you are rooting for Sage to solve the mystery, find her twin sister, and get out. It was a gripping story and a fairly quick read. I recommend this one as a good travel/beach book. At the end is a short history of what really happened at the institution in the 70s, and it was quite disturbing to learn that a fair amount of the story was based on fact. 

11. White Ivy by Susie Yang - This was a twisty novel about a Chinese-American woman who is caught between the man she thinks she should marry and the one she thinks she loves. It was an interesting look into experiences of first-generation Americans and wealth - both long time wealth and new wealth. I really did not like the main character and cringed as she made one bad decision after another. I am not sure I would recommend this one, but I am not sure if it is because I didn't like the story that much or because of how much I did not like the protagonist! 

12. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson - I had read another book about the Kentucky pack horse librarians a few years ago and several people recommended I read this one too. It was set in a similar location and time, but the main characters were very different. I enjoyed reading about this new character, but didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one, maybe because I had already read something somewhat similar. A good read, but not one of my favorites from the year. 

13. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - my son read this in school and passed along this book to me which I had never read as part of my schooling. It was a very quick read about two men who are traveling from farm to farm for work and such a sad story - if you have never read this, it's a good one to fit in between lighter books as it is quite heavy. 

14. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn - this is another one that I have had on my list for a long time and it finally came available through the library. This is right in my wheelhouse of favorite genres - historical fiction set during a time of war - and it didn't disappoint. I so enjoyed the story of a woman who was a spy during World War I mixed with a current-day challenge after World War II. The story was well written in past and present and doled out clues and background information throughout to really keep you interested. It's no surprise to me that this book was a hit, I really enjoyed it. 

15. All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers - my daughter bought this one when we were on our summer vacation and read it in a day! She passed it on to me to read and it took me a little longer ;) This is the story of a journalist who returns to her hometown as a young girl goes missing, in a very similar way to how her childhood friend went missing 20 years earlier. There were a lot of twists and turns in this book and I thought I'd figured it out several times, but was wrong with all of them! It was a mostly satisfying ending in that the main mystery is solved, although the author leaves you with quite a cliffhanger. I enjoyed discussing what we think happened after the last page with my daughter but kind of wish the author had put a post-script on the book to explain. It was a good one and if you enjoy true crime/mystery, you'd probably like this one too. 

16. Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano - What a great book to wrap up my year. This one had also been on my list for a long time and it was a tough read. It follows Edward, the only surviving passenger of a plane crash. The book flips between the flight and Edward's life after the flight. As you can imagine, he has a lot of grief (his whole family died in the crash) and struggles to understand why he survived when no one else did. It was a really touching story of how someone figures out how to go on. I really enjoyed this one too. 

That's it for the year - I've just started a new book but won't finish it before we get to 2024. Overall, I read more mystery/suspense than normal this year and think I will pepper in a few books like that next year, but spend more time on my favorite historical fiction genre. I maintain a list of books to read and have over 20 on it, plus I have another loan on my bedside table to read after the current one - I am glad there is no shortage of books to keep me engaged. Please let me know your favorite read from the last year and whether you've read any of the books that I read.