My Most-Worth-Writing-About-iest Reads of 2023

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Abraham Lincoln and his son Willie.

I’ve read 46 novels this year. A bit under my annual goal of one a week, but I certainly met my annual goal of experiencing all kinds of emotions through literature. Here’s what I call my “-est list” for 2023:

Weirdest book I read: George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, which I finished a few days ago. Written more like a play than a novel, it features a chorus of ghosts stuck in purgatory as President Lincoln’s deceased 11-year-old son Willie arrives among them in 1862. Original, moving, darkly humorous, choppy, repetitive, and many other adjectives. Plus some impressive invented language.

Saddest book focusing on many characters: Leon Uris’ Mila 18, the historical-fiction novel about the Jewish uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto — and the Nazi crushing of that doomed uprising after some early against-all-odds success. Heartbreaking.

Saddest book focusing on a small number of characters: Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. Such a downer of a novel but so well-written. Some warm moments amid the inhumanity, with much of that inhumanity “courtesy” of the vile powerful against the powerless.

Funniest book: Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, which includes plenty of satirical commentary about religion and more.

Most escapest…oops…escapist book: John Grisham’s Playing for Pizza. Football in Italy! Where a disgraced NFL quarterback goes to play when no other QB job is available. (Football as in American football, not soccer.)

Dual-timeline-iest book: Barbara Kingsolver’s Unsheltered, by the brilliant author who hasn’t lost a step in 35 years of novel writing. Unsheltered focuses on two sets of characters living in the same place, more than a century apart. One of my favorite books read this year.

Sympathize-with-the-protagonist-the-mostest book: Several Kristin Hannah titles were in the running for this, but I’ll go with The Four Winds and its beleaguered Elsa Martinelli as she lives “the life of Joad.” (The novel’s story line has some deliberate similarities to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.)

Subtlest book: Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night. A low-key but never boring work about a woman and man who briefly find happiness together late in life. Haruf’s Plainsong, which focuses on a wider, intergenerational array of characters, was a close second in poignancy.

Don’t-bring-this-to-a-block-party-iest book: Joy Fielding’s compelling Cul-de-Sac, about harrowing stuff that happens in and between the families on one suburban Florida street.

Clunkiest book: Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Liked the intricate plot. Didn’t like the often-awkward writing.

Longest book: J.K. Rowling’s The Ink Black Heart, the sixth installment of the series starring private investigators Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott. Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith) rambles on for more than 1,000 pages but I mostly loved it — as I also loved the first five novels in a series that skillfully combines mystery/thriller elements and interpersonal dynamics.

Newest book: Lee Child and Andrew Child’s Jack Reacher-starring The Secret — which I just read, two months after it was published in October 2023. Few mystery/thriller books ratchet up the tension like those in the Reacher series do, and the latest novel (number 28) is excellent.

Oldest books: Georgette Heyer’s 1925 Simon the Coldheart and Vicki Baum’s 1929 Grand Hotel. Reminds me that I should have gotten to some novels from the 1800s last year, or did I read most of the 19th-century ones I’m going to read in the decades before 2023 rolled around? šŸ¤” Nah, this year was just a blip… šŸ™‚

Novels you read in 2023 that left the most impression on you? And…Happy New Year!

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — a 2023 year in review about a very newsworthy 12 months in my town — is here.

117 thoughts on “My Most-Worth-Writing-About-iest Reads of 2023”

  1. Dear Dave
    From all the books you mention I have only read Prachett’s and Rowling’s Book. The newest Rowling book is even longer and an editor would have better shortened it. Actually I had look into “The Secreet”. Well, Lee Child writes always the same. Writing together with his son doesn’t help.
    Thanks for your ideas about these books
    The Fab Four of Cley
    šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚

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    • Thank you, Klausbernd! I agree that J.K. Rowling tends to ramble on, though I still love her Cormoran Strike/Robin Ellacott series. I also agree that Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels tend to be formulaic, but, again, I like them anyway. šŸ™‚ It’s true that the recent books written with his younger brother Andrew don’t feel that different than the earlier ones Lee wrote solo.

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  3. Excellent topic Dave, please allow me to write about the book published a couple of years ago.
    It is my opinion only , but America is facing an extremely dangerous phase , so please bear with me.

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  4. Late to the party, but here’s my most memorable book of the last little while, maybe or maybe not read this very year–it’s been a bit of a blur. Also,I’ve written about it before,but I go on:

    “Chaos and Night”, by Henry De Montherlant. It’s an insightful character study of Celestino Marcilla, an old anarchist who fled Spain after its civil war and landed in Paris, where he has lived among strangers he does not care to know, and a few associates he mostly finds wanting.

    His knowledge of the City of Light is limited to the few blocks and squares near his apartment, despite having now spent decades in exile. He writes articles about politics at once sweeping and obscure that he files away more often than he sends them anywhere,takes offense effortlessly in any conversation, all of which he sees as political, however mundane.

    He suspects his few associates of plotting against him, shuns them on the slightest pretext,and accepts their company and assistance when in need, also on slightest pretext. The death of a relative in Spain, and the prospect of a needed inheritance propels him to the old country, where he meets his most implacable and feared adversary– death– but not before attending the most gruesome of bullfights, made worse by way of fevered hallucination.

    As a curmudgeon who seldom leaves his immediate neighborhood, has political opinions leftier than most, and has few friends, I found entirely too much of Marcilla in myself as I read. In my defense, and unlike the old anarchist, I detest bullfighting.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! A really impressive description of “Chaos and Night” and its protagonist, with quite an ending to your comment. (I share your dismay with bullfighting and anything else that harms animals.) Celestino Marcilla sounds like a VERY memorable character. I looked up when the book was published, and see that it was 1963, when the author was in his later years himself.

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      • Also intriguing, at least a little: the author is French. But I wonder if there’s any better Spanish portrait of such an incorrigibly Spanish type. (I say, having a trip to the old country under my belt and not much more than heritage and a few novels beyond that by which to judge).

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        • Interesting! But not an unprecedented phenomenon (an author from one country writing convincingly about a character from another country). šŸ™‚

          I’m trying to think of novels I’ve read by authors from Spain — “Don Quixote” is the only one that immediately comes to mind. (I’ve certainly read quite a few authors from Spanish-speaking countries: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Mario Vargas Llosa, Laura Esquivel, etc.)

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  6. Hi Dave,

    Great to see two of my favourites on here (ā€œA Fine Balanceā€ and ā€œOur Souls at Nightā€).

    I had a rather disappointing end to 2023 with lots of unlikeable characters, but not in the fun way you were talking about last week. I started to despair that there were no good books left for me to read and Iā€™d have to wait until the next Dave Astor release before finally finding another good one. But then I picked up my second Daphne du Maurier after loving ā€œRebeccaā€ many years ago. ā€œThe Loving Spirit” is a quirky novel that somewhat reminds me of L.M. Montgomeryā€™s ā€œThe Blue Castleā€ which I read in 2023. Mmm, talk about unlikeable but enjoyable characters!

    Susan

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    • Thank you, Susan! I really appreciate you recommending Kent Haruf’s work; I ended up reading four of his novels in 2023. A superb writer in his low-key way.

      Sorry about your bout with unlikable characters.

      Interesting that “The Loving Spirit” (which I haven’t read) somewhat evokes “The Blue Castle.” I LOVE that L.M. Montgomery novel.

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  7. Yes, “Cul-de-Sac” left a big impression.

    I’m glad you found a category for Fielding’s work.
    I think this New York Times best selling author’s work is left out of many deep discussions about writing & authors, due to the fact that she writes about ordinary people in contemporary settings.
    No one brings terrifying, heart breaking and bizarre happenings out of the ordinary like she does.

    I must say that Roberta Eaton Cheadle’s book, “A Ghost and His Gold”, left a huge impression on me.
    The story is filled with man’s inhumanity to man, all the while creating empathy for individuals.
    The historical research is brilliant.

    Happy New Year Dave!

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  9. Hi Dave, a great selection of books read in 2023. I read some fabulous books too. A few are as follows: The Green Mile by Stephen King, The Frozen Hours, To Wake the Giant and The Eagle’s Claw all by Jeff Shaara, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, The Museum of Ordinary People by Mke Gayle, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I am currently reading The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson which is also excellent.

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    • Thank you, Robbie! A terrific bunch of books you read in 2023! (I’ve read four of them in previous years — “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Rebecca,” “The Road,” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” — and “The Sealwoman’s Gift,” “The Green Mile,” and “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” are on my active future list. šŸ™‚ )

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  12. Love your ‘est’ list here, Dave! Any list of books is a hit with me and enjoyed these unusual categories! The Four Winds was terrific and my husband is a huge fan of Terry Pratchett and read all his books (including the new one of his previously unpublished short stories). I’ve never read any of J K Rowling’s new books as Robert Galbraith but you’ve given me an impetus to give them a try. A great post which has me adding many books for 2024. Happy New Year!

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    • Thank you, Annika! Glad you liked the post. šŸ™‚

      “The Four Winds” was indeed terrific! It’s hard to choose my favorites of Kristin Hannah’s many great novels, but “The Four Winds,” “The Great Alone,” and “The Nightingale” might be the narrow winners.

      “The Cuckoo’s Calling” is the excellent first book in J.K. Rowling’s crime series — which, like her “Harry Potter” series, starts with somewhat shorter novels before going lonnnggg. šŸ™‚

      Happy New Year to you, too!

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  13. Happy New Year, Dave. What a fun list to read! I agree with you about LINCOLN IN THE BARDO being very weird, about the poignancy of OUR SOULS AT NIGHT, and about THE INK-BLACK HEART being too long, even though I still enjoyed it (and THE RUNNING GRAVE is better.) What I most wanted to comment about, though, was how much I love Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. You mentioned finding SMALL GODS funny; I think his books only get better (and funnier) as the series goes along. A mini-series within the series is the set of eight books about the City Watch, which starts with GUARDS, GUARDS and continues with MEN AT ARMS. Give them and their sequels a try!

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    • Thank you, Kim, and Happy New Year to you, too!

      Nice that you’ve read a number of the books mentioned in the post. šŸ™‚

      I definitely should read more of Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” series — including the even funnier ones — but the sheer number of books in the series is a bit intimidating. šŸ™‚ What a prolific writer he was. Will look for “Guards, Guards” and “Men at Arms.”

      I’m very much looking forward to continuing J.K. Rowling’s Strike/Ellacott series with “The Running Grave”!

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  14. Read Lincoln In The Bardo some time back. I must say I like the concept of the Bardos, and the idea that there are hungry ghosts (both according to Tibetan Buddhism). It was this concept of the Bardos which led me to explore the Bardo Thodal and/or TIbetan Book Of The Dead with preface by Jung. Re: other books for 2023, I think Foe by Ian Reid was weird and somewhat difficult to follow, which I consider the one book that stood out for me in 2023. It’s currently been made into a movie, so I’ll definitely have to watch it. I guess slow rolling dread kinda describes my entire experience of the past year. Hope 2024 is a brighter one. Happy New Year to all. Susi BTW, the following is rather lengthy but it is beautifully narrated by Leonard Cohen re The Between or Bardo. Watch at your leisure: https://youtu.be/ZA9XhiK6JLk?si=T7rZDOlqrL-AYjz_

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      • Thank you, Susi! Yes, the “bardo” is a fascinating concept, with one online definition describing it as “a state of existence between death and rebirth, varying in length according to a person’s conduct in life and manner of, or age at, death.” Brilliant of George Saunders to turn it into a novel, albeit a strange novel. šŸ™‚

        Happy New Year to you, too, and wishing you a better 2024!

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  15. That’s an impressive list and amount of reading, Dave! I used to read 4 books a month, but a health setback has reduced that to 4 books a year. Last year’s books were, There’s A Cat Hair In My Mask: How Cats Helped me Through Unprecedented Times, by Mollie Hunt, who usually writes cat mysteries. This is realistic nonfiction about coping with the pandemic, and I found it fascinating. I read two books in a series, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, and The Witches of Moonlight Ridge, charming mystery stories set in an Appalachian area in the past. Although children are the protagonists, these aren’t for children IMO; they convey the surrounding culture and natural world. And, the second book mentions panthers aka painters, sometimes reported as being in the southeast mountains, usually in earlier times. So, of great interest to me. The 4th was James Lee Burke’s Flags on the Bayou. Trigger warning: It’s a great book, but rough on sensitive readers. It has Burke’s lyricism and eloquence about the natural world, but the action is troubling.

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    • Thank you, Leah! Sorry you aren’t able to read more these days, but the four books you mentioned sound very interesting (based on your excellent descriptions). Love the subtitle of one of them: “How Cats Helped me Through Unprecedented Times.” Cats can definitely do that. šŸ™‚ My kitty was a great companion during the height of COVID (and still is).

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  17. For a moment, I thought we overlapped, Dave. “Cul De Sac” is a medical thriller by Bradley Lewis, about the dark world of vaccine research. Not Covid, rather pediatric AIDS. I still wouldn’t bring it to a block party.

    I might give “Unsheltered” a look.

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  18. I like some of your categories, Dave! Lincoln in the Bardo definitely can be described as weird. And calling The Da Vinci Code “clunky” is almost a compliment. šŸ˜‰
    Recently I read White Tears by Hari Kunzru. The narrator appears to become unreliable after the halfway point, leaving the reader to figure out why. It was interesting, especially to those who know anything about old blues music.

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    • Thank you, Audrey! Yes, “Lincoln in the Bardo” is weird indeed and — ha šŸ˜‚ — to say the writing in “The Da Vinci Code” is clunky is being generous.

      “White Tears” sounds interesting. Unreliable narrators can of course be kind of risky — making for either an amazing or a frustrating reading experience.

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  19. I love Mila 18 and Leon Uris is one of my favorite authors. Richard Paul Evans is number 1 on my list.Just read Kristin Harmel’s The Forest of Vanishing Stars and I gave it ā­ļøā­ļøā­ļøā­ļøā­ļø. Also loved Island Song by Madeleine Bunting.

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    • Thank you, Arlene! “Milo 18” is so good, albeit of course horribly depressing. I’ll definitely have to try another Leon Uris novel at some point. And I appreciate the mentions of those other authors and novels!

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  20. Best fiction I read this year

    Nicholas Nickleby for its brilliant depicion of a provincial theater troup and a surprisingly realistic (for Dickens) account of childbirth.

    It Falls Gently All Around. Debut short stories set in Biloxi, Mississippi today by Ramona Reeves

    Rebellion by Joseph Roth. Set in the 1920s, tells the tragic story of a common man.

    The Flowers of Buffoonery by Osamu Dazai. Not to everyone’s taste I’m sure, it’s a story of recuperation from attempted suicide. The author is a bit of a cult figure in Japan. I found it haunting and exquisite.

    The House of Doors, by Tan Twan Eng. Set in colonial Malaya, this somewhat mannered but beautifully written historical novel features Somerset Maugham as a character.

    Misericordia, by Benito Galdos. This is the best novel I read this year. It takes place in late nineteenth-century Madrid among poor people. The characters, dialogue and settings are vivid, and it makes you believe that real sainthood is possible.

    Rebeom.

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      • Thank you, Jean! I’m impressed with your varied, excellent reading in 2023!

        I read “Nicholas Nickleby” during my Dickens frenzy years ago, and liked it a lot. Ditto for Joseph Roth, who should be better known. But you most grabbed me with your description of “Misericordia,” which is definitely now on my to-read list. Sounds amazing.

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  21. A brilliant and insightful post for this Sundayā€™s discussion, Dave! You continue to inspire me to open books that excite, entertain and challenge me.

    As December 31 approached, I reflected upon the reading experiences I had in 2023, with the view of how did the books I read impact and influence my life. I asked myself – how did I integrate new knowledge within my daily activities? This year I have undertaken a huge project that will take me all year to finish (2023ā€™s project was J.R.R. Tolkienā€™s Silmarillion) – Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I can barely pronounce his name, so I am certain that I will be challenged by the play. There are so many subtleties and nuances that will take me back in history to understand social conditions and political nuances.

    Thank you for an amazing year of ā€œreadingā€ conversations. Hereā€™s to a new year 2024 – ready…set…go.

    But before I go, I have to leave you a quote (translated) from Faust:

    ā€œAs soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.ā€ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part

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  22. George Saundersā€™ Lincoln in the Bardo is, indeed, a very weird novel. It came to my attention when it won the 2017 Booker Prize. I enter the New Year immersed in the emotional rollercoaster ride of Barbara Kingsolverā€™s Demon Copperhead (2022). It’s the longest novel and my top pick for 2023. I look forward to reading Unsheltered in the New Year. The scariest novel I read in 2023 is The Lost Village by Swedish author Camilla Sten (2019), translated by Alexandra Fleming. Very unsettling story with echoes of the Reverend Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre (Guyana, November 1978).

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! Yes, “Lincoln in the Bardo” is in a world of its own.

      Another enthusiastic recommendation for “Demon Copperhead”! I can’t wait to read it. I look for that Pulitzer-winning novel every time I visit my local library, but the copies are always all checked out. I better reserve or buy it in 2024. šŸ™‚

      “The Lost Village” DOES sound very disturbing and intense.

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  23. I agree with you about Our Souls at Night. (I did not expect that ending, although I believed it.) I also agree with you about how clunky The DaVinci code is. In fact, after all the hype, I was shocked when I read it. Two books tied for most genre-blurring-est: A Wake for Josephine by Kenneth Robbins and Asunder, baby by Steven Baird. A Wake for Josephine is a poetry collection that also includes drama. Asunder, baby is a short fiction collection that blurs the line with poetry. Our Wolves by Luanne Castle is the most juxtaposition-est poetry collection. It’s a constantly moving presentation of perspectives and literary/cultural expectations. The most emotive and thought-provoking poetry collection I read last year is Restless for Words by DeWitt Henry.

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  24. That’s an impressive list, thank you for sharing it, one novel that I read and enjoyed was Snow Flower and Secret Fan by Lisa See. I borrowed it from the library as an ebook, I thought it was very honest, brutal at times yet still intriguing. I highly recommend it

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    • Thank you, Bill! Glad you loved “Lincoln on the Bardo”; I guess my reaction was more liked than loved, though I found the originality amazing.

      Your blog on religion and other matters is excellent, and I enjoy when you discuss books.

      Happy New Year to you, too!

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  26. I have just now added Barbara Kingsolverā€™s Unsheltered to my TBR list. I love her writing and am surprised I haven’t read this one. I agree with A Fine Balance, a book I read about 15 years ago and loved. It is heart-wrenching, but I could not put it down. I would wake up 15 minutes earlier every morning so I could read a bit. The best book I read this year was Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

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