MP top 9 books for 2023

If you’ve been following along, you might remember my sisters challenged me to read 50 books this year. As I watched them all exceed 50 reads around October, I stayed the course and made it to 51 and a 1/2 (there’s still a few days left of 2023).

That is a lot of books (not humble bragging) - so I divided and conquered this challenge - I consumed about 50% audiobooks and split the other half between bound books and my kindle (which is a great way to use the library also!) Having a commute this year for work, the audiobooks really helped pass the time in traffic.

In terms of choice - it was purely intuitional and also what showed up in my library cue, or a book any of my sisters read and liked enough to tell me about, or books suggested to me by readers and writers on Substack, or books by people I knew through my community.

I leaned toward 3 general types of books (with an understanding of overlap)

Memoir
Fiction
Non-fiction/Biographical/Informational

Often I would be listening to a book and also reading 1-3 others. This is something I learned about myself because it is a little like channel surfing - sometimes you need to change the subject. :)

my 9 favorite reads this year, in no particular order

I learned so much and made so many discoveries and I think it helped me form in my own writing in a new and exciting way, so I highly recommend this! I loved every book I read, even when I didn’t like the book, because I thought of how the authors created something that became alive in my head, causing me to consider my own story and access memories I had long forgotten, or also create new pathways of understanding and ideas to make sense of it all.

Top 3 Memoirs:

Stash: My Life In Hiding by Laura Cathcart Robbins (Atria, 2023), a ‘quit-lit’ memoir about a mother who finds herself addicted to Ambien while attempting to maintain an upstanding life married to a well-known film producer. More thriller than memoir. I thought this was so well written - I devoured it.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (Atria, 2023), a divorce memoir about what it takes to have a career and a family, while maintaining integrity. This takes place in Columbus, OH, where I lived for a long time so it hits very close to home for me (literally) and I love how Maggie tackles what happens when we make ourselves too small. Check out her Substack too - it’s fantastic.
Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (Crown, 2023) - Lu! There’s always so much I wanted to know about you - and we get a big helping of her backstory - most of which I did not know. The Audiobook is narrated by her and I LOVED hearing it in her voice.

Top 3 Fiction

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Dial Press, 2023) - a book about 4 sisters set mostly in Chicago, loosely modeled off the Little Women Story - takes place in the early 80’s. The characters are so crystal clear. I read this quickly on my kindle and I stayed up way too late one night to finish it, sobbing my face off, begging the book not to end.
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin (Henry Holt, 2023) - a story that takes it back to college in the late 90’s and what happens to Isabel as she prepares to become an adult. I was introduced to the author through the Gateless program, and have fallen deeply in love with her writing. This book evoked some memories for me that have opened up some time capsules. Daisy has a great Substack too called ‘Girls with Feelings.’
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Harper, 2023) - another sister story! (Am I biased?!?) These 3 sisters are engaged in a story being told by their mother about what happened before they were born. This author! I listened to this one on Audible and none other than Meryl Streep is the narrator. She does such a delightful job, and embodies each character so specifically. The reader gets to know everyone on a personal level. Another one I did not want to end. I stubbornly took a break after this one got done, so I could spend more time with it in my mind!

Non-Fiction/Biographical Etc (anything goes category)

Communion: The Female Search for Love by Bell Hooks (William Morrow, 2002) - This is the only ‘older’ book on my list, and I’m so glad I found my way to it 21 years later. It still holds up. This is almost a memoir, but I think in Hooks’ storytelling, she is also teaching us how to be women. The themes from ‘You Could Make This Place Beautiful’ are in congruence with this book, and in a complementary way. It helped me to take a look at my mother’s generation, and what it may have been like to become a woman then, and how the concept of FEMINISM is ever-evolving. Hooks talks about female breakups too, and it helped me heal from some friendships of mine that have fallen out in the past. My copy has so many quotes underlined and folded over. I might read it again next year.
To Anyone Who Ever Asks: the Life, Music and Mystery of Connie Converse, by Howard Fishman (Dutton, 2023) - Whew - this book is a rabbit hole. I was unaware of Connie Converse before reading this and I knew the author as a musician acquaintance in NY from when I lived there. This is more than a mystery trying to be solved - which it engages the reader deeply to - but it is also a tribute to anyone continuing to try to be an artist of any kind. Fishman examines his own relationship with art and creation as well, and it folds very well into his quest for what happened to this trailblazing woman who wrote and recorded her own songs at a time (late 40’s, early 50’s) when no one else was. Her music is a kindred spirit to an artists’ loneliness when they are wondering, is it worth doing?
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin 2023) - I have to admit that this book sat on my bedside table unfinished for about 8 months and then I finally dove in and sped read it. I had a love/hate relationship with it because it talked to me about the doubts and fears I have as a creative person. It broke down barriers and gave simple inspiration to keep on going and see a project to its true end, rather than hastily completing something before it is really done, just because I want it to be.