Fiction Books I read in 2023

Books among the best I’ve ever read:

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin - recommended by a friend, and subsequently I’ve recommended it to as many people as possible. I know this is a trite recommendation as it is now super popular. (I now keep a count of all the people I’ve spotted watching on the London Underground, and it’s in double digits). It’s popular for a reason. Different people seem to enjoy it for different reasons. I’ve seen lots of people talk about how it “gets” video games, but as someone who doesn’t enjoy video games, this was something I missed. For me, this was a story about friendship, love, and the passage of time. [Aside, I started reading Demon Copperhead based on Vicki Boykis’ post and I’m sure that had I finished it before the new year it would also be here]

Extremely good

• Astonish Me Maggie Shipstead - recommended by a friend. Hard to put into exact words what’s so special about this book without spoilers, but this was an extremely special book. I would loved it to have been a bit longer.

• Exciting Times and The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan - both recommended by a friend. Naoise Dolan writes in a very similar style to Sally Rooney, who I also love. Very enjoyable reads.

• Naomi Novik’s The Scholomance Trilogy (#1, #2, #3) - this was all over my Twitter feed in ~January last year. At the time I thought they’d be higher on my rankings for best books this year, but I’ve read so many other excellent books this year that they don’t stand out as much as they did at the time. Still the best fantasy I read this year, and still very highly recommended.

• Uprooted Naomi Novik - another entry by Naomi Novik. I think I’ve now read all her books this year (spread over different rankings). This one was recommended in a Ross Douthat column at some point. Thoroughly enjoyable. There was much debate among my friends about how Novik writes her relationships (across all the books, but in particular Uprooted and Spinning Silver). I don’t think it is her strongest suit, but this book was fantastic nonetheless.

Very good

• Fleishman Is in Trouble Taffy Brodesser-Akner - recommended by a friend. Somewhat depressing take on relationships (or perhaps marriage(?)). Tough call between “Very good” and “Extremely good”

• The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer #1) Viet Thanh Nguyen - Kris Abdelmessih. I went into this book pretty blind, but thoroughly enjoyed it. I am now really looking forward to the HBO series which will come out this year. Kris’s notes linked above are also worth a read.

• Vladimir Julia May Jonas - I read this a year ago, and I’m not sure exactly who recommended this to me, I guess it appeared on someone’s best books of 2022 list.

• The Beginners Anne Serre - Tyler Cowen’s best books of 2021 list. Comparing that list (where I think many of the books are fantastic) to his best books of 2023 suggests this was a very weak year for fiction.

• I Have Some Questions for You Rebecca Makkai - recommended by Ava.

• Seating Arrangements Maggie Shipstead - recommended by a friend. Very entertaining, although I found the characters less compelling than in Astonish Me.

• No One Is Talking About This Patricia Lockwood Jeremiah Johnson of the New Liberal Podcast somehow has a high impact on my reading. His biannual book recommendation podcasts have sold tens of books, and one tweet he had about a Carly Rae Jepson album has turned me into an enormous fan. This book is extremely online but very entertaining.

  

• Curtis Sittenfeld - American Wife, Romantic Comedy - a friend recommended me a bunch of her books this year, and these were the pick of them. Prep could also make a strong case for being here, as could Eligible, but I’m trying to be a bit more decerning.

• Spinning Silver Naomi Novik - another Naomi Novik book.

Good, but maybe not quite worthy of a recommendation?

• Heartburn Nora Ephron - recommended by a friend. Very intense book, and probably objectively very good, but didn’t grip me the way some of the other books I’ve read in this category have.

• Transcription Kate Atkinson - recommended by a friend. Possibly went over my head. I didn’t love the “twist” for some fairly concrete reasons, and I found myself constantly confused by one of the characters. (They seemed to not fully make sense in a way I can’t explain without spoilers).

• Deborah Levy - The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography and Things I Don't Want to Know - recommended by a friend as something relevant to a conversation we were having. Short enough to whizz through and very interesting.

• Bunny Mona Awad - another Jeremiah Johnson recommendation. This was great, although a bit weird. Probably a strong recommendation for some people and a hard no for others.

• Trust Hernan Diaz - recommended by a friend, but also on Tyler’s best books of 2021 list. Very good, but I didn’t find it as compelling as everyone else seemed to.

Mind Candy

Cosma Shalizi has this “mind candy” description to describe a certain kind of book. I’m not sure if I’m using it exactly correctly, but I think it applies to these books. They are all really fun, and I would definitely ‘recommend’ them, but I’m not holding them up as great books because of that. (Some of them were as enjoyable as books in the “Extremely good” category).

• Several People Are Typing Calvin Kasulke - another Jeremiah Johnson recommendation.

• Curtis Sittenfeld - Prep, Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice, Rodham - along with some of her books I’ve put in other categories. I didn’t understand the hate Rodham got. I found it more enjoyable than most reviewers seem to have. (Although I think it’s the worst of hers that I’ve read, that’s a high bar).

• Robert Galbraith The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike, #7) - I will probably continue to read everything she writes.

• Naomi Novik - His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1) and the rest of the series - extremely fun. Napoleonic wars + dragons. The only real downside is the later books go off the boil a bit. Probably worth giving up somewhere around Book 5?

Meh

• Babel R.F. Kuang - recommended by a friend. I don’t understand the love this book and its author gets. This was extremely average.

• Katherine Addison - The Goblin Emperor (The Goblin Emperor, #1) - recommended by Ross Douthat. The book was fine but just didn’t have enough to keep me reading the rest of the series.

• The Wandering Inn (The Wandering Inn, #1) Pirateaba - recommended by Andrew Walker. I understand why people love it, but it just isn’t for me.

• The Passenger (The Passenger, #1) Cormac McCarthy

Actively bad

• The Netanyahus Joshua Cohen - recommended by Stephen Bush who should get a special prize for not only recommending this disappointing book, but also recommending another book I failed to finish.