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 ⭐️

1. The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

2. Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor

3. Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas

4. The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

5. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

6. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

7. Never Far Away by Michael Koryta

8. Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay

9. The Caretaker by Ron Rash

10. August Blue by Deborah Levy

11. Indiscretion by Charles Dubow

12. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

13. The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill

14. Before He Finds Her by Michael Kardos

15. Still Life by Sarah Winman

16. Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change by Maggie Smith

17. Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

18. The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

19. Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash

20. Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah

21. Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller

22. Distant Sons by Tim Johnston

23. No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

24. Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay

25. The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

26. Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon

27. An Honest Man by Michael Koryta

28. Survival Lessons by Alice Hoffman

29. Beautiful Little Fools by Jillian Cantor

30. Mother in the Dark by Kayla Maiuri

31. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You about Being Creative by Austin Kleon

32. Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan

33. The Hummingbirds' Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery

34. Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

35. The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall

36. Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered by Austin Kleon

37. The Reunion by Guillaume Musso

38. Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

39. The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro

40. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

41. Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

4.75 ⭐️

42. A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates

43. The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring

44. The Current by Tim Johnston

45. The House Party by Rita Cameron

4.5 ⭐️

46. All That Is Mine I Carry With Me by William Landay

47. The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass

48. What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson

49. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

50. The Vanishing Hour by Seraphina Nova Glass

51. What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson

52. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

53. The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

54. Holly by Stephen King

55. Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman

56. Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest To Track Down The Last  Remaining Lesbian Bars In America by Krista Burton

57. Autopsy of a Boring Wife by Marie-Renée Lavoie

58. The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger, Marc Schulz

59. What Really Happens in Vegas: True Stories of the People Who Make Vegas, Vegas by Mark Seal, James Patterson

4.25 ⭐️

60. Death Valley by Melissa Broder

61. The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

62. Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky

63. The Bear by Andrew Krivak

64. The Lost Girls by Jessica Chiarella

65. The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon

66. The First Shot: A Prequel by Liv Constantine

4.0 ⭐️

67. City of Dreams by Don Winslow

68. Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker

69. Going Zero by Anthony McCarten

70. Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

71. The Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

72. Never Finished: Unshackle Your Mind and Win the War Within by David Goggins

73. The Three-Day Affair by Michael Kardos

74. Half Light by Tayari Jones

75. Dead Even by Brad Meltzer

76. The Stranger in the Seine by Guillaume Musso

77. Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You by Karolina Rzadkowolska

3.75 ⭐️

78. For You and Only You by Caroline Kepnes

79. The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay

80. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

81. I Will Find You by Harlan Coben

82. You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz

83. Reef Road by Deborah Goodrich Royce

84. All Her Fault  by Andrea Mara

85. Codename Villanelle :Killing Eve #1 by Luke Jennings

3.5 ⭐️

86. The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz

87. After the Crash by Michael Bussi

88. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue

89. Chloe Cates Is Missing by Mandy McHugh

90. The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

91. Our Town by Thornton Wilder

92. The Takedown by Carlie Walker

93. The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni

94. The Night Charter Camaro Espinoza #1 by Sam Hawken

3.25⭐️ 

95. Spare by Prince Harry

96. Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

97. A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

98. Let the Right One In #1 by John Ajvide Lindqvist

99. Akin by Emma Donoghue

100. Cemetery Road by Gar Anthony Haywood

101. The Family Holiday by Shalini Boland

102. Yesterday by Felicia Yap

103. What We Kept to Ourselves by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

104. The Last Guest by Tess Little

3.0 ⭐️

105. Wellness by Nathan Hill

106. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

107. Dark Ride by Lou Berney

108. Red Queen Antonia Scott #1 by Juan Gómez-Jurado

109. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

110. The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay

111. You Deserve Nothing by Alexander Maksik

112. A Very Inconvenient Scandal by Jacquelyn Mitchard

113. The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

114. Sun Damage by Sabine Durrant

115. Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena

116. The Social Climber by Amanda Pellegrino

117. Nightwork by Nora Roberts

118. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

119. You Know Her by Meagan Jennett

120. The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day

121. Out of Her Depth by Lizzy Barber

122. Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

123. If I Run by Terri Blackstock

124. The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

2.75 ⭐️

125. Whiteout by Ken Follett

126. The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer

2.5 ⭐️

127. Road Ends by Mary Lawson

128. The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden

2.0 ⭐️

129. The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

130. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

131. The Last Time I Lied by  Riley Sager

132. Talking at Night by Claire Daverley

133. 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?