Top Three Books of 2023
The best of what I read and loved this year.
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MY THREE FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2023
There were so many excellent books released this year. These three stood out most.
The Rachel Incident
This Irish debut novel was the best case of the couldn’t-put-it-downs I’ve had in years. Its cast of characters fully charmed me, and the drama of the plot had me gasping loudly every 50 pages. I would give just about anything to be able to go to my local bookstore and buy Caroline O’Donoghue’s second book, but it’s not here yet, so I’m just going to have to wait patiently.
Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World
This is the most ambitious memoir I’ve ever read. On its surface, it’s about misinformation, but author Naomi Klein has skin in this game: she’s constantly mistaken for Naomi Wolf, an off-the-rails right-wing conspiracy theorist. In this book, Klein rips her life apart and attempts to piece it back together. It’s messy and weird and tense. I loved every bit of it.
Yellowface
Here’s a book that’s earned every ounce of hype it’s gotten this year, Reese’s Book Club and all. It has one of the most solid premises I’ve ever heard—a white writer steals the manuscript of her late Chinese friend and sells it as her own—and the execution is even better, all the way to the end.
LET’S READ + WRITE TOGETHER IN THE NEW YEAR
My Book Club for Writers will discuss Haruki Murakami’s book Novelist as a Vocation on Zoom on January 28 at 1PM EST. The book is an excellent dive into the life of a successful novelist.
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