So, let’s start with a non-spoiler spoiler: We’ll begin 2024 with Wellness by Nathan Hill. This is a good thing, as the word “wellness” suggests, maybe, hopefully, peace of mind, and a richness of health in all forms. This past year had wins and losses, and we regularly turned to books for comfort. And comfort us, they did! Still, we missed a lot of the great ones. But here is our annual wrap-up.
We would also love to hear about your favorites, so please comment below!
Let’s start with the stats. (Jennifer feels as if hers might be mildly off.)
| Category | Jennifer | Lara |
| Total books read in 2023: | 74 | 38 |
| Female authors: | 46 | 29 |
| Authors of color: | 9 | 9 |
| LGBTQ+ authors: | 1 | 3 |
| Sci fi/fantasy/magical realism books | 5 | 3 |
| Suspense/mystery/thriller books | 1 | 6 |
| Literary books | 44 | 13 |
| Nonfiction books | 40 | 7 |
| Romance/chick-lit books | 0 | 5 |
| Audiobooks | 37 | 20 |
| eReader books | 1 | 3 |
| Physical books | 36 | 15 |
What were the Top Ten Books You Read in 2023?
Lara: I am confident in my ordering of the top four. The rest could fall anywhere between five and ten.
- Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Haybeck. Weird and wonderful. I couldn’t put it down, and I hate sharks. Seriously hate.
- Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. Richly drawn. I could feel the darkness of the pub, the tension in Ireland’s streets, and the passion Cushla felt in her scandalous relationship.
- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. You had me at Meryl Streep’s audio narration. But honestly, I will read anything Patchett writes. Thankfully, everything she writes is pure gold.
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. A heartbreaking and somehow hopeful story set in Appalachia country during the ongoing opioid epidemic. I wanted to hug and shake Demon at the same time.
- The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. Even though I disagreed with Green’s review of teddy bears, I loved this collection and want more nonfiction from him.
- You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism by Amber Ruffin. This should be required listening. In addition to shining a light on blatant ignorance, they offer great suggestions for educating others to create a more inclusive environment.
- Girls with Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman. A sharp and snarky satire of the college admissions scandal.
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker. A searing look at a family of twelve children, ten boys and two girls, and six of the sons were diagnosed as schizophrenic. The pain and violence sustained by this family, the failures of the medical and mental health system, and the lies and secrecies maintained are detailed in what reads like a medical thriller.
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Not sure how my first reading of this book came as late in my life as it did, but I often think books present themselves when we are ready for them (or patiently wait when we are not) and Rachel McAdams’ narration of the audio version was such a delight.
- The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane. A marriage in turmoil. A brutal winter storm. Flawed characters with realistic dialogue? Sold. A solid follow up to Keane’s fantastic debut, Ask Again, Yes.
Jennifer: Well . . . ten. . . . I’m going to be brave and rank them.
1. James McBride’s The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
2. Harrison Scott Key’s How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told
3. Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart: A Love Story
4. Nathan Hill’s Wellness
5. Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
6. Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land
7. Dave Eggers’ The Parade
8. Kyle Minor’s How to Disappear and Why
9. Claire Dederer’s Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma
10. Steven Wright’s Harold
A little about some of my choices:
James McBride. I seriously think McBride can create a beautiful, rich, complex character out of any random soul, like the sewage digger or the super-rich snob in the mansion down the hill. He will RUN WILD with characterization. McBride ends his books so pitch-perfect. In my writing classes, I love to drone on and on about the ends—which are HARD to write. Like, it isn’t that we need everything to be crazy happy, but we crave that, well, sigh at the finale. . . Like Succession or Ozark or whatever (I revert to TV). McBride is perfect. He knows how to write the end. And another thing: his treatment of race and humanity is so kind, so true. He loves his characters.
Shark Heart is just beautiful, and Snotty Literati reviewed it here.
Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I’ve felt a visceral writing-attraction to other writers—sort of weird who gets my attention: David Sedaris! Elena Ferrante! Jenny Offill! None of them consistently, but still. I’d stick her in here too. I’m sad to say she died way too young of cancer.
I like to say that Kyle Minor discovered me! Long story short, he published my story called “Goodbye, Madagascar” in a literary journal and put in a good wordfor me later—leading to the publication of my first book, The Freak Chronicles. His latest, How to Disappear and Why, is forthcoming in 2024. I read an advanced copy and I love it.
I could tell you why I love each of the books on my Top Ten, but I’ll only highlight one more.
Harold by Steven Wright. I mean, have you ever watched Steven Wright do comedy? I have, but I guess I’d say I’ve been largely indifferent—like, he’s funny but a bit annoying. Famously deadpan. I have to mention that this book required a lot out of me—like I had to focus, had to listen carefully to every line to wrestle with it intellectually and comically—BECAUSE STEVEN WRIGHT IS PROBABLY NUTS, BUT HYPER-INTELLIGENT. And didn’t I just pull myself together over the death of another artistic nut, Sinead O’Connor? And here’s another crazy artist? Rest assured, he doesn’t seem suicidal (Thank God, “If there is a God”—a line Wright writes all the time.) No, it’s an amazing book. The big pro: there are some AMAZING lines in here that are truly dazzling. Another pro: Harold is a good kid. He’s likable. Cons: draining, kind of required a lot out of me. You know, I’m not an especially dumb reader, but I felt like Wright is in another category—and I had to work to keep up with his, well, genius.
Don’t miss Harrison Scott Key’s fabulous book.
What books ALMOST made the list, but didn’t for some reason?
Lara: I am a sucker for a memoir and really enjoyed The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing and Healing by Lara Love Hardin. Speaking of memoir, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson is fantastic. I also really enjoyed Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson and Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld.
Jennifer: John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed. Such a clever idea. He deserves some accolades for that. William Giraldi’s About Face. So close to being in the Top Ten. Sinead O’Connor’s Rememberings. I just loved it.
What books were the biggest disappointments of 2023?
Lara: The hype and Instagram love for Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things was crazy. It was a whole lot of meh for me. Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds is ending up on all the literary lists and I couldn’t connect. I also found the amount of time she spent talking about poop (which she did more graphically than even I would) to be a bit too much.
Jennifer: I think I’d have to say that I have two books on my mind, and I love the two authors—but neither book lived up to my expectations. Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake was not a winner for me, though I love her. Here’s our Snotty Literati review. And Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home was very disappointing because I’d consider Moore to be an influence on my own writing style. Just kinda off. But don’t fret too much. I also thought Barbie was overrated.
What books do you feel like you really wish you had read?
Jennifer: Do you know what? I’m okay with missing what I missed! I missed a ton. Sometimes they land on my TBR pile still.
Lara: The ones that stand out most to me are Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, and Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.
Favorite book cover?
Jennifer: Steven Wright’s Harold is pretty stunning.
Lara: Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart. It’s gorgeous. I can’t stop looking at it.
What book(s) surprised you the most this year?
Lara: On paper, Shark Heart, should not work for me. It’s everything I am against. Sharks. A main character turning into a shark. Magical realism. Ugh. No thank you very much. Then you (a bit prematurely into reading it, I might add) said I would like it. I typically think you know what I will like and not like. Thankfully, the cover was so gorgeous, I didn’t mind picking it up. And then WHAMMO, I devoured it (pun intended). So, yes, a dude morphs into a great white shark. But Habeck’s writing is stunning. She captures love, loss, loving through diagnosis and transformation so beautifully. I now want everyone to read it.
Richard Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road was another stunner. The amount of mental an emotional trauma held in one family was truly remarkable and utterly devastating.
Jennifer: Well, Steven Wright did. In a goofy way, Jinger Duggar’s memoir, Becoming Free Indeed, was a friend to me. I listened on audio at an unhappy time—so it was great. Having quit Anthony Doerr’s MAMMOTH book two times prior to actually reading it, I was surprised to love it. Brad Listi’s Attention. Deficit. Disorder. AND his Be Brief And Tell Them Everything were both really good! I read two books by Domenico Starnone, who is married to the woman who is supposedly Elena Ferrante—and they were good. Actually, his style seemed remarkably like Ferrante’s, though his prose sounds like a guy and Ferrante’s prose sounds like a girl. I liked This Is Not A Pity Memoir by Abi Morgan a lot.
Books You Shamelessly Abandoned:
Lara: I honestly don’t remember. Clearly, I felt no shame! I think I probably DNF’d five or six books this year.
Jennifer: So many, Lara. Get ready. Ben Fountain’s Devil Makes Three (shameful), Colson Whitehead’s Crook Manifesto (nominal shame), Cassidy Hutchison’s Enough (no shame), Tina Turner’s My Love Story (nominal shame), War and Peace (I abandon it every year after ten minutes), Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Chain Gang All Stars (not much shame), and Russell Banks’ The Magic Kingdom (shameful). This is a VERY partial list.
I’d like to assert that I’m still reading Barbra Streisand’s memoir, My Name is Barbra, and it’ll take me all of 2024—but I have no intention of quitting it. She’s fun.
Favorite movies? TV? Other dips into the Arts?
Jennifer: Well, I think I made it a point to not go out this year. I thought Succession was brilliant. Kendall kills me. I’d say I’m on Team Oppenheimer, though it’s probably because I liked Einstein and I think Cillian Murphy is adorable. I loved this season of The Great British Baking Show. That Wham! Documentary was pretty great. Seriously, Succession and Great British. I saw a spoken word concert with Henry Rollins!
Lara: I took in more movies than TV this year. I really liked all that I saw in the theater!
- The Holdovers
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Nyad
- Past Lives
- Barbie
- You Hurt My Feelings
- Blackberry
- Linoleum
Books not yet published that you’re excited about?
Lara: I am a little out of the loop and had to google for this. Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange, Come and Get It by Kiley Reid, Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg, Splinters by Leslie Jamison, Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley, Anita De Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez, James by Percival Everett, and Table for Two by Amor Towles are all piquing my interest.
Jennifer: I’m super excited to read a graphic novel! I’m excited about Emil Ferris’s My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two! I’m excited about Leslie Jamison’s Splinters! I’m excited about Salmon Rushdie’s Knife!
Next Up!
Join us next time as we review Nathan Hill’s sophomore effort, Wellness.
Until then… Happy Reading, Snotties!