Hello and welcome to my very favorite post of the year! I know it’s supposed to be ten books but these are my rules and I live to break them. Making rules for myself and then breaking them immediately is what I’m best at. You could say it’s my calling. So, this year I’m doing lucky thirteen, which is very close to ten, you know. I mean, it’s practically ten. It’s ten adjacent. It’s ten plus three. Cool math, bro. What I’m trying to say (write) is that I read sixty books this year (here’s my goodreads challege if you’re interested in even more recs from 2023) and I’m about to count down the ten best novels and the three best nonfiction books for you. I’m about to rock your face off. With books.
(If you need more book recommendations, check out my past book posts from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 or -heyyyy- 2012. )
Let’s go!
First, fiction:
- The September House by Carissa Orlando: Wow, this book is clever! And fun! And gory! It’s a lot of things rolled into one but it’s also not like anything you’ve ever read. Takes the horror genre to new, exciting places in a twisty, unputdownable way. Big thanks to my pal, Drew, for recommending it.
- Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng: I read this in January and I’m still thinking about it. Everything Ng writes is beautiful but this one really got to me in a way that’s clearly stuck. It’s a dystopian tale about love, loss, and family but I think at its heart it’s an ode to storytelling itself. Loved!
- Holly by Stephen King: Holly Gibney is my favorite King character, which is saying a lot considering my level of Stephen King fandom. (Sorry, Oy!) The way he writes her, I suspect she’s King’s favorite as well. She’s odd and smart and plucky. She’s a classic final girl with spreadsheets. The story in this is fun as hell too. The serial killer reveal filled me with nothing short of delight. I recommend reading all three books in the Bill Hodges trilogy and If It Bleeds first just because they’re all wonderful and provide some background but it stands alone as well.
- Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk: My friend Molly sent me this one and I’m so glad she did. Thanks, Molly! Goodreads calls the novel a “thriller cum fairy tale.” I have no clue how to describe its genre so I’m gonna go with that too. The main character is an astrology and animal obsessed older woman who lives isolated in the woods, a narrator after my own heart. I can’t tell you much more without spoiling this lovely, quirky book for you so I’ll just say it’s delightful and I bet you’ll dig it.
- Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: Ooof this novel! A work of art. Kuang takes a hateable narrator and a frustrating story arc and somehow makes the whole thing super compelling. By the end, you’re literally rooting for the narrator to fling herself off a roof. Recommend!
- Kill Creek by Scott Thomas: My pal Edi recommended this because she knows I love that spooky stuff and she was right, I loved this! I spent a couple of enjoyable October days curled up in my big reading chair just devouring this thing. The premise is ‘haunted house with a twist.’ Four famous horror authors are invited to spend the night at a haunted house (in the middle of nowhere, natch) for promo purposes. Then shit pops off because of course it does.
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: Did you read the Dickens novel, David Copperfield, in school? Well, this is like if David grew up in modern day Appalachia instead of Victorian England. I’ve never read any Kingsolver before this book but now I want to because this novel was both entertaining and heartbreaking, totally my jam. With themes of poverty, classism, and everyone’s need for a home, the novel manages to hold you in its grip for over 600 pages. Epic! I think Dickens would approve.
- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt: I read this one while on a beach vacation and it was the absolute perfect book to dive into. It’s about an old woman who gets a job as a night janitor at an aquarium and becomes besties with a giant octopus named Marcellus. Sweet, compelling, impressive, an absolute delight of a debut novel. I can’t wait to ingest whatever tale Van Pelt comes up with next.
- Sweet Girl by Travis Mulhauser: Would you believe I read this in one sitting? I mean, I got up to pee and get more coffee but once I started it, I couldn’t stop. It’s 240 pages of gritty plot with a dollup of humor. The main character is a tough 16-year-old girl you can’t help but fall in love with. Thanks so much to my friend Kim for recommending this to me.
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: I’m going to a holiday book exchange and guess what book I’m bringing? That’s right, this one! Because I think literally anyone will enjoy this novel if they give it a chance. It’s so compelling, so fun, and so unforgettable, y’all. An aging movie star (yes, Evelyn Hugo) decides to tell a journalist the truth about her love life and it is a RIDE.
Now, to the nonfiction!
- Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby : Full disclosure: I love Samantha Irby. I think she’s a genius. This entire list could just be me ranking her books, although that would be torture for me because, look, they’re all incredible. I read three this year alone and, honestly, I could’ve slotted in Meaty or Wow, No Thank You here instead of Quietly Hostile but this is the most recent one so it wins. She’s simply the funniest and the grittiest essayist in the game and her latest offering made me laugh and cringe so hard I broke myself and LIKED it. Break me again, Samantha Irby!
- Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different: I highly recommend this if you’re a writer or a creative person. Part practical advice, part memoir, the book is both entertaining and inspiring. Palahniuk’s refrain throughout is “if I were your teacher, I’d…” and then he drops some wisdom on you. By the end it truly feels like he IS your teacher and you’ve just taken the world’s best writing class all for the price of a paperback.
- In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet: TBH, I picked this up because of the title and because the introduction was written by Carmen Maria Machado. I didn’t expect to be as moved by it as I was. A very good, extremely educational read.
Honorable Mentions:
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (one of the most unique novels I’ve ever read), Rouge by Mona Awad (all her books are amazing), Room to Dream by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna (a must for Lynch fans), and two REALLY GREAT romance books that I almost and really should’ve given their own section but I ran out of time: Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman (fun, relatable, unputdownable) and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (technically romantasy, not romance, but there’s way more horny stuff than dragon stuff in this book so I’m counting it as romance. There’s even horny dragon stuff.)
And that’s it for me. I hope your holidays are magical and your ‘curling up with a book’ time is uninterrupted. Happy Reading!
xo, Kendra