For the first time since I was a kid in the local library’s summer reading program, I kept track of all the books I read in 2023. I listen to many books (which still counts, if you ask me) while in the car and doing hateful household chores, and I read most every afternoon on the beach in the warm months. In late October I noticed I was going to hit at least 52 books by the end of the year! A book a week seems like something to celebrate!
Because I’m always looking for book recommendations, I thought I’d put together my list of books to share. I put an asterisk next to the books that I couldn’t put down or that took me to places I never knew existed, both literally and figuratively.
In 2023, I went from a remote mountain village in China, to archeological digs in Egypt, to a Tuscan village, to courtrooms across the States, to summertime on the New England coast. I lived the all-consuming royal life with Prince Harry, did copious amounts of drugs and copious amounts of detoxing with Matthew Perry, lived as an old Hollywood star who married seven times, held space for the dying as an end-of-life doula, was terrorized in a Paris apartment, fell in love and had my heart broken countless times, and partied in Malibu with the young and beautiful.
The memoirs are my favorite, especially if the authors read their books, as Prince Harry, Matthew Perry, Elliot Page, and others did. But, I can also get lost in a trashy beach read, as this list reflects (don’t judge me). But some of the fiction I read was so smart and so beyond my creative imaginings that I find myself still thinking of these books and characters months later (namely the Jodi Piccoult and Lisa See novels). And while I didn’t read as much nonfiction as I have in years past, I still learned a lot about codependence, world religions, and mindfulness.
I can’t wait to see where I'll go, what I’ll learn, and who I’ll meet in 2024. Let me know which of these books you’ve read, and please tell me which books I shouldn’t miss this year!
MEMOIRS/ESSAYS
A Thousand Days in Tuscany, Marlena de Blasi*
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry*
Spare, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex*
All My Knotted-Up Life, Beth Moore
Broken, Jenny Lawson
Born With Teeth, Kate Mulgrew
Triage, Richard Russo
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, Paul Newman
These Precious Days, Ann Patchett
Heads in Beds, Jacob Tomsky
Pageboy, Elliot Page
NONFICTION
Codependent No More, Melody Beattie*
A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle*
Emotional Inheritance, Galit Atlas
The Compact Guide to World Religions, Dean C. Halverson
Walking on Egg Shells: Navigating the Delicate Relationship Between Adult Children and Parents, Jane Isay
Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar, Jessie Inchauspe
FICTION
Small Great Things, Jodi Piccoult*
Good Faith, Jane Smiley*
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid*
Fortune’s Rock, Anita Shreve*
The Book of Two Ways, Jodi Piccoult*
Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See*
The Most Wanted, Jacquelyn Mitchard*
Kitchen God’s Wife, Amy Tan
Superior Women, Alice Adams
Miss Kopps Midnight Confessions, Amy Stewart
The Saving Graces, Patricia Gaffney
Picture Perfect, Jodi Piccoult
The Social Climber, Amanda Pellegrino
Smile and Look Pretty, Amanda Pellegrino
Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six, Lisa Unger
Little Sister, Patricia MacDonald
The Paris Apartment, Lucy Foley
One True Loves, Taylor Jenkins Reed
Summer on the Island, Brenda Novak
Durable Goods, Elizabeth Berg
Famous in a Small Town, Viola Shipman
Peony in Love, Lisa See
The Little Italian Hotel, Phaedra Patrick
Summer House, Nancy Thayer
What Happens in Greece, Sue Roberts
The Inheritance, Heidi Hostetter
A Place to Land, Lauren K. Denton
The Family Next Door, Sally Hempworth
It Ends With Us, Colleen Hoover
Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng
The Summer Place, Jennifer Weiner
Mad Honey, Jodi Piccoult
Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese
The Book of the Most Precious Substance, Sara Gran
Pineapple Street, Jenny Jackson
The Wishing Bridge, Viola Shipman
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