Are We Reading Twins?
Last year's 133 ranked reads - do we have any in common & would I change any rankings?
Hello! I thought I’d have a little fun and revisit my 133 ranked 2023 reads and see what has really stood the test of time and whether I’d change any rankings. The paywall has been removed from this January newsletter and I’d love to know if we have any favorites in common. I’m always looking for reading twins:)
While I’ve always given my books star ratings, I’ve never ranked them or used quarter stars until this year. So, how did this project come about? Last year, I read Sara from Fiction Matters post in which she ranked all of her books from the entire year in order of enjoyment and I was inspired to do the same, but with star ratings.
Why I love using star ratings is a topic for another post, but I will say that I find star ratings incredibly useful for myself. They help me organize my books, and quickly jog my memory in terms of being able to glance at a title and know what I thought about it. When looking back at my reading, I often forget some books and whether or not I liked them etc. With star ratings, I can look back 5 years ago and quickly see what books I loved and perhaps hated.
Check out my list and then my thoughts about what I’d change, if anything
My Top Reads of 2023
5 ⭐️
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor
Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas
The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Never Far Away by Michael Koryta
Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay
The Caretaker by Ron Rash
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change by Maggie Smith
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash
Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah
Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
Distant Sons by Tim Johnston
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay
Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon
An Honest Man by Michael Koryta
Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman
Mother in the Dark by Kayla Maiuri
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative by Austin Kleon
Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan
The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery
The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall
Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon
The Reunion by Guillaume Musso
Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon
The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
4.75 ⭐️
A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
The Current by Tim Johnston
The House Party by Rita Cameron
4.5 ⭐️
All That Is Mine I Carry With Me by William Landay
The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass
What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass
What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
Holly by Stephen King
Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman
Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest To Track Down The Last Remaining Lesbian Bars In America by Krista Burton
Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renée Lavoie
The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger, Marc Schulz
What Really Happens in Vegas: True Stories of the People Who Make Vegas, Vegas by Mark Seal, James Patterson
4.25 ⭐️
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky
The Bear by Andrew Krivak
The Lost Girls by Jessica Chiarella
The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon
The First Shot: A Prequel by Liv Constantine
4.0 ⭐️
City of Dreams by Don Winslow
Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker
Going Zero by Anthony McCarten
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper
The Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes
Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within by David Goggins
The Three-Day Affair by Michael Kardos
Half Light by Tayari Jones
Dead Even by Brad Meltzer
The Stranger in the Seine by Guillaume Musso
Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You by Karolina Rzadkowolska
3.75 ⭐️
For You and Only You by Caroline Kepnes
The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
I Will Find You by Harlan Coben
You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Reef Road by Deborah Goodrich Royce
All Her Fault by Andrea Mara
Codename Villanelle :Killing Eve #1 by Luke Jennings
3.5 ⭐️
The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
After the Crash by Michael Bussi
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
Chloe Cates Is Missing by Mandy McHugh
The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The Takedown by Carlie Walker
The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni
The Night Charter Camaro Espinoza #1 by Sam Hawken
3.25⭐️
Spare by Prince Harry
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
A Simple Plan by Scott Smith
Let the Right One In #1 by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Akin by Emma Donoghue
Cemetery Road by Gar Anthony Haywood
The Family Holiday by Shalini Boland
Yesterday by Felicia Yap
What We Kept to Ourselves by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
The Last Guest by Tess Little
3.0 ⭐️
Wellness by Nathan Hill
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Dark Ride by Lou Berney
Red Queen Antonia Scott #1 by Juan Gómez-Jurado
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay
You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik
A Very Inconvenient Scandal by Jacquelyn Mitchard
The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez
Sun Damage by Sabine Durrant
Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
The Social Climber by Amanda Pellegrino
Nightwork by Nora Roberts
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
You Know Her by Meagan Jennett
The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day
Out of Her Depth by Lizzy Barber
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead
If I Run by Terri Blackstock
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
2.75 ⭐️
Whiteout by Ken Follett
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
2.5 ⭐️
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden
2.0 ⭐️
The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Talking at Night by Claire Daverley
Nice Girls by Catherine Dang
Wow that was fun to revisit this list! I haven’t looked at it since I made it at the end of Dec 2023.
A few thoughts- 8 months later and there’s many stories that have stayed with me so much that I can quickly bring to mind characters, details, settings, feelings, etc and some I have no memory of at all. I’d probably move Strange Sally Diamond and The Marriage Portrait higher to spots 11 & 12, both those stories have really stayed with me, more so than Hello Beautiful. I would swap the Maggie Smith book Keep Moving with Alice Hoffman’s Survival Lessons.
Books (other than my top 15) that I can vividly recall and I would say have staying power for me - Holly, Rootless, Heads in Beds, The Bear, and Better Living Through Birding. It’s interesting to look at this list and think about what books I remember, it’s like reminiscing with old friends. It’s also fun to see which ones I’ve completely forgotten about - #119 and #125- couldn’t tell you what those were about 🤣.
Are we reading twins? I’d love to know, if you have a best of list and revisit it, would you change anything? What books that you read from last year have stayed with you?
I love revisiting my old books!! Funny how ratings can change based on memory. Often I'll forget books I had originally loved, and others left more of an impact on me than I expected!
Ok now that you listed Sycamore as number 2(!) I am definitely getting to it this year. Been thinking about it since you recommended it way back. So many good ones in here Renee. I found Tim Johnston through you as well and really loved The Current.