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Buckle up buttercups because this is both one of my favorite posts of the year, and one of the hardest to write.  When you read more than average, considering what your favorite titles of the year are requires a decent amount of remembering, which isn’t my best skill, and a bit of reflection, and yes darling readers, this is the new year’s reflection I prefer to have.

As is my habit, I tracked my 2023 reading on Goodreads (and heads up – we’re exploring Storygraph for 2024) and went straight there to begin my reflection.  Unlike in years past, I didn’t have a lengthy list of potential top reads of the year to weed down into a handful to discuss here.  Magically, the list just appeared.  That does mean I didn’t read a lot of five star reads this year, and that’s really ok.  I even looked back at my (as of yet unpublished) 2022 list to see if I just wasn’t as discerning previously in my list, but I think I was.  For much of the year, I didn’t feel like I had the headspace to give to those five star books that like to sit with you rent free and linger.  I needed books that kept me engaged and interested but not awake until stupid dark thirty.  It’s a fine line of things I enjoy and want to read, but also let me sleep, and after reviewing my list of read titles for the last year, I’m pleased.  In other years, I may be up in my feelings about not having a lengthy long list of favorites, but in 2023, I had the reading year I needed it to be, with lots of fun books, and that is really what matters.  If something else matters to you, please first remind yourself reading is a hobby and see if that leads you to reframe what matters, then live your best life!  “Should” is not a word I lightly allow into my reading life, and I encourage you to limit its usage in your life in general.  

Let’s chat titles I love but weren’t eligible for favorites of the year – namely rereads.  I still love The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megann Bannen as much as I did in 2022, perhaps more, but it was a favorite last year.  I’m truly pleased (so far) with my reread of the Throne of Glass series and will share more about that here soon, but I originally read (most of) those titles in 2018, so I’m leaving that for later.  Perhaps the Maas-iverse living rent free in my head minimizes the available space for others.  That’s unlikely to change and it really is ok by me.  

Now, for my favorites of 2023, these titles stayed with me.  When I saw them on my read list, I immediately was excited to think on them again and consider the ways they were a fabulous reading experience and stayed with me.  They are listed in the order in which I read them:

• Seven Days In June by Tia Williams (full review here)

A romance novel about two Black authors and a whole mess of real life (please check the trigger warnings) written with blunt sass.  Yes. Please.  I’m making notes about Williams backlist for our 2024 calendar now.  

• Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2 / Grishaverse #7) by Leigh Bardugo

While we’ve reviewed other Bardugo titles, we did not do a formal review of Rule of Wolves. And as it is the last of seven in a (loose) series, I won’t be digging in today because: spoilers.  For a reader who loves a nice bow, with all the things settled, this title is mostly everything I wanted.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love a window into what these characters look like when chaos isn’t reigning across Ravka, Ketterdam, and beyond, but Bardugo gave our merry band a just ending and I’m very pleased.  

• Signal Fires by Dani Shaprio (full review here)

Signal Fires was my third Shaprio read, my second Shaprio favorite of the year, and her first work of fiction.  Inheritance still lives rent free in my head, and that was a favorite from 2019 (please read the marketing copy and proceed with caution).  I want to say so many things about this novel, but I’m only going to say – when a bookseller calls a title “perfect fiction” just give them your money for the aforementioned book (and also, read the marketing copy because triggers abound).  

•  The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He (full review here)

Sci fi isn’t my go-to, but a great book is a great book, regardless of genre!  Layered themes, melodic writing, and a nice bow are my jam, or at least among my jams, and while I don’t always love YA, I do love when it makes me think more about the complex challenges of our world.  

•  Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (full review here)

Let’s file Daisy Jones & The Six under “titles I wasn’t interested in but now live rent free in my head” because I was wrong (see also the aforementioned Inheritance).  I (shocking no one) still haven’t watched the show, but I still want to.  

• Happy Place by Emily Henry (full review here)

Y’all, give me a second chance, forced proximity, one-bed romance and I am pleased as punch.  Dual POV, multiple timelines, snappy dialogue, characters I’d love to hang out with in real life, and I was sobbing for the last third of the book because of a big dumb mirror it was holding up for me.  I’m definitely going to reread this title, and perhaps Book Lovers after as a palate cleanser after, because I’ll need it.  

Non-fiction Honorable Mention:

• I Didn’t Sign Up for This by Tracy Dalgleish*

In this title, a couples therapist writes a book about some of the issues she sees couples have in real therapy sessions, and how she’s seen them in her own marriage.  Dalgleish shares candidly about real couples, and how she’s helped them get to the source of their issues and try to work through them, as well as how she’s seen similar issues in her own marriage and how she’s realized it and worked to address her personal struggles.  This made me feel seen, gave me some great starting places, and made me want an appointment with a solid therapist.  I’m considering a leisurely reread this year to try to put more of her advice into practice.  [Ashley here: I also read this book and it is also an honorable mention title. However, I read the book and highlighted all the book titles and authors’ works Dr. Dalgleish mentions that I have already read or was familiar with. All of them, I have read all of her best resources. This book is a fabulous title for someone needing a place to start with a bibliography of titles to allow you to deepen your knowledge when you need to.]

• The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler

I was heavily influenced by some of my favorite podcasters to purchase this book and I should just learn that if Erin H. Moon, Jamie B. Golden, and my beloved Kendra Adachi all say I need something, then I need it in my life.  Bowler’s blessings for Advent were amazing, but truly what shines in this text are the other sections that are full of blessings for this ordinary, tired, lovely, overwhelming, grief-stricken, garbage, painful, and beautiful life; and the lives of others.  I’ve truly enjoyed looking through the table of contents and selecting the blessing that felt right to me that day.  If you’re the praying sort, I’d encourage you to give this a glance, or maybe Bowler’s instagram, to see if it might be for you.  

Please let us know below what your favorite reads were in 2023, or what you think about ours!  If you have questions, our DMs are always open.

~Nikki 

*Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an electronic copy of the book.  All opinions are my own.

Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start… I almost didn’t complete my reading goal for this year… according to GoodReads. What GoodReads doesn’t know is that there are books that I pick up randomly and read sections of (sometimes half of a book!) if I’m feeling like I need the reminder, or need to recreate a certain mood in my life. It also doesn’t calculate the dozens of articles I read a week, or the hours of continuing education classes that are often times just slides upon slides while sitting at my computer. And that’s OK, because that’s not what it’s supposed to do. GoodReads is set to track the number of book titles I read in a year and it’s done a solid job of that for the past few. I’m going to continue to use it as it’s connected to my kindle and will easily update, but as Nikki said we’re also trying out Storygraph for 2024 and we’re excited to see what that holds for us here at Heart.Wants.Books. I know I love data related to pretty much anything and if I can create and collect the KPIs of my Reading Life in a digital format with charts and graphs…oh, how exciting that could be. (I’m just not ready to pay for that honor yet.)

As I was going through the 100 books I read or re-read this year, I easily chose my favorite four, two fiction and two nonfiction. The problem is that the majority of the books that have been living in my head rent free are nonfiction titles, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend those titles to the internet at large. Additionally, it’s not that I haven’t read excellent fiction titles this year, but they don’t seem noteworthy in a favorites of the year category [Nikki here: cosigned!]. Nikki said it well: I had the reading year I needed it to be, with lots of fun books and that is really what matters. I also tried to be semi-conscious of my reading mood and make space in my packed reading schedule for titles that kept being recommended via other media outlets. And, I think I have balanced my reading life well for the mixed bag that was 2023 in general. Here’s a balanced meal of book vegetables and book cake…that all still feel like cake in my heart.

• Happy Place by Emily Henry

If you haven’t read my glowing review of this book, you can find it again, here. If you want the TL:DR version, here it is:  I even messaged my sister to tell her how wrecked this book made me. It was very intense. The intensity was balanced by so much wit and sarcasm that there was also internal giggling, but that didn’t stop the tears. For the record, I am not a ‘major weeper.’ It takes a lot to get my tear ducts to activate, as my sister knows, so real human tears are a sign of big big BIG feelings. I haven’t recommended another book more this year… except for maybe…

• Die with Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins

I wrote a longer review of Die with Zero in August’s Reading Life Review Post, but the point can be summed up in a sentence: The short explanation is take care of future you but not at the expense of the you that is here now, with the people you have now. Again, I’m going to reiterate that we’re not saying future you isn’t important, but 80 year old you isn’t going to be able to physically climb Kilimanjaro. And 23 year old you probably shouldn’t add an entire Art History minor and an extra year of college tuition debt because ‘learning’s fun’ – go make that dough, Rousselle, save learning 1000+ pieces of art for giggles when you’re 80. (Ok, I do understand that I wouldn’t be a quarter as good at trivia or impressing people with random art knowledge had I not taken that minor. But, Dr. Gavin Townsend probably thought I was actually going to do something with it – like go on to that Masters in Museum Studies… He’s probably looking down on me and thinking, what a waste that architectural knowledge is to a real estate broker. But, I digress.) The point is, use the time you have wisely, give of your treasure when you can enjoy the impact that it makes, and live the life you want to live without shame or guilt or fear of not having enough in the future. I have recommended this book to so many people this year, solicited or unsolicited.

• River Woman, River Demon by Jennifer Givhan

We reviewed this thriller in September for Hispanic Heritage month and I used it as an early start to October’s witchy theme. In my review, I talked about how I had only had a few days to percolate on how much the title was haunting me and how I could only give it a 4.5 star rating because of the nature of a thriller and how I wouldn’t be surprised at the twists during a re-read. I missed the whole damn point of a re-read with that logic. The point is to revisit and learn something new, to revisit and experience the same words with new eyes and feelings. Of course I could round up to five stars because themes and ideas from this title have been resurfacing in my brain constantly since then. It’s without a doubt my favorite witchy title of the year.

• The Glucose Goddess Method by Jessie Inchauspé

Sometimes the books we read in life are dictated by some not awesome happenings. This year, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes because of my elevated A1C, the marker of a person’s average blood glucose level for the previous 3 months. Because of my PCOS diagnosis, I had been living with insulin resistance, or pre-diabetes level A1C, for at least the past decade, if not longer. Currently, I am lowering my A1C with a mixture of diet, exercise, and medication. The four habits that Inchauspé discusses in The Glucose Goddess Method are inherently simple to be done daily, but at the same time she gives so much grace for when we’re human and just can’t. Her 2022 book, Glucose Revolution is on my list for as soon as I can get it from the library and fit it into my reading schedule, and goes into more of the science behind why certain habits help lower our blood glucose levels and why living with a balanced blood glucose is probably the biggest indicator of a healthy lifestyle. She still says it’s ok to eat cake! 😉

Darling Reader, I hope you also take a little time to reflect on the past so that you can create more of what you love in the future. And I love a collection of good books that make a lasting impression and create a well-balanced reading life.

~Ashley

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