What Should I Read This Week? (And other important literary digressions)
My day always gets 10% better when I check my phone and see I have a Libby notification telling me that one of my books has come off hold. (I strongly believe that the Libby + E-reader combo is as essential to Peace Corps service as a pair of Chacos). Still, as someone with a to-read list that can feel endless, I know how tricky it can be to find your next great book, so here’s a list of 10 stories I read in 2023 that really stood out to me. I hope that one of them stands out to you as well (also, NYT book review column, if you’re reading this, please hire me ❤).
Best Fantasy Series to Read Until COS: Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb (start with with the book Assassin’s Apprentice)
I would be remiss if I didn’t recommend this book (and the rest of the series). Fitz is probably The Character™ of all time and Hobb’s world building is beyond mind-blowing. Assassin’s Apprentice follows the story of Fitz, the bastard child of Prince Chivalry Farseer, who is given up by his mother as a young boy and goes on to become an assassin in training in his family’s court. There are over FOUR series that take place in the same Robin Hobb Cinematic Universe so you can easily stay hooked on these books for the next two years.
Best Sports Book: Beartown by Fredrik Backman
To be totally honest I don’t know anything about hockey. I only started reading this book (book #1 in the series, followed by Us Against You and The Winners) because I really liked Backman’s other book, A Man Called Ove and IMO the Swedish writer can do no wrong. This story, about a tiny, fiercely loyal hockey town located deep in the woods, is similar to Ted Lasso in the sense that it turns out to be about a lot more than just sports -- I truly believe that Backman is one of the best when it comes to writing about the human condition and the characters he creates are absolutely unforgettable. I can guarantee you WILL start to love and hate hockey even if you don’t already know the rules of the sport!!
Best Morally Gray Characters: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
This fantasy story about a found-family group of thieves in a magical, Venice-inspired city, had me in a CHOKEHOLD. Locke Lamora (who really does lie a lot) is so wonderfully devious that you never know what he’s going to do next, except that it will probably involve lots of criminal activity. When a mysterious assassin starts taking out all the biggest thieves in the city, Locke has to figure out who it is and what they want before he and his friends wind up next on their list.
Best Scary Stories Collection: Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
This anthology features 20+ short stories by Indigenous authors, ranging from genuinely keep-you-up-at-night creepy to bizarrely humorous to heart wrenching. I really enjoyed the difference in writing styles, and some of these stories have definitely stuck with me over time. If horror interests you, I for sure recommend this collection.
Best Classic Lit: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
I strongly believe this book should be required reading for EVERYBODY because it’s so incredibly good. It’s semi-autobiographical, following Smith’s childhood growing up in the early 1900s in the Brooklyn tenements, and it really feels like you’ve been dropped directly into that time period with the author. If you don’t like classic lit, don’t let that put you off this book — Smith’s writing is a breath of fresh air that I believe everybody can enjoy. This book was popularized when it was handed out in pocket-sized versions to American soldiers in WWII: one Marine said, “I can’t explain the emotional reaction that took place in this dead heart of mine… A surge of confidence has swept through me, and I feel that maybe a fellow has a fighting chance in this world after all.” :,)
Best Emotional Rollercoaster: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
This book starts out with a sixteen year-old girl getting kicked out of her very religious and conservative Irish small town when it’s discovered that she’s pregnant. The rest of the story follows the life of her son, spanning over SEVENTY years of history, as he is adopted by an eccentric and somewhat infamous wealthy family, befriends a charismatic student at his school who goes on to be kidnapped by the IRA, moves to Amsterdam, the United States, and then back to Ireland. The narrator has such a witty sense of humor that I was laughing out loud on the guagua until I think some passengers were genuinely concerned. (It also made me cry on the same guagua.) Boyne addresses some of the darker parts of Irish history, creating a portrait of a conflicted young man and his equally conflicted country.
Best Doomed Polar Expedition: A Kingdom Of Ice: The Grand And Terrible Voyage Of The USS Jeanette by Hampton Sides
Who doesn’t want to vanish into the impassable expanse of polar ice with the lads? This nonfiction account of the naval journey of the USS Jeanette, which began with the intention of charting the North Pole and turned into a desperate struggle for survival, was way more gripping than I thought it’d be, and read more like a thriller than a research project. This book has it all — an eccentric millionaire newspaper publisher, a captain obsessed with the elusive North Pole (there were some WILD theories back then), dubious map-makers, romance, madness, and a thousand-mile trek through some of the harshest conditions imaginable in the wilderness of Siberia.
Best Book to Read When You’ve Got Nothing But Time: The Overstory by Richard Powers
This Pulitzer Prize winning story follows a whopping number of characters over the span of about two-hundred years as their lives are irrevocably changed by their relationship to nature, specifically to trees. This book is equally a vindication of how America’s spectacularly diverse forests were destroyed by greed, disease, and the lumber industry; and an emotional, expansive story of how strangers’ lives can be connected by the thinnest of threads. It’s definitely a brick of a book so I recommend reading this over vacation when you have nothing else going on and need something to pass the time.
Best Book Highlighting A Palestinian American Author — Evil Eye by Etaf Rum
This story closely follows the life of Yara, a Palestinian American woman, and her relationship with her husband, children, and parents, as well as with herself; especially her career, ambitions, and frustrations. After being put on probation at her job at the local college and encouraged to go to counseling (all for responding to a coworker’s racist comment), Yara begins to confront troubling feelings of un-fulfillment, as well as memories of a childhood splintered by her parents’ fractious marriage. Yara’s journey to figure out what she really wants from life (and for the lives of her two daughters) was incredibly powerful and moving, and explored aspects of womanhood that I feel are often overlooked in contemporary literature.
Best Book To Read Instead of Charles Dickens — Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Loosely based on the Dickens’ novel, David Copperfield, Kingsolver brings the classic tale of poverty and hardship to the present, specifically to small-town Appalachia as it grapples with the beginning of the opioid crisis. While the premise of the story might sound depressing, the main character, a young boy named Demon, has a dry, inspiring sense of humor that will make you want to root for him no matter what. I started this story knowing nearly nothing about it, and it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year. Demon is such a unique character and his determination to survive in a world that could care less about him makes this book impossible to put down.
BONUS ROUND: Best Thriller You Won’t be Able to Stop Reading: The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
A devoted music student’s life is changed forever when he finds out that his family’s heirloom violin might be a priceless instrument worth millions — but things take a dark turn when the violin mysteriously goes missing. Ray, an incredibly talented player, faces extreme challenges — he’s discriminated against for being a Black man in America, several powerful players are determined to take ownership of the violin that has belonged to his family for decades, and nobody can figure out how his violin was stolen, or by whom. Eventually, Ray is forced to take the investigation into his own hands to recover what rightfully belongs to him and his family. This story was a wild ride and I’m pretty sure I read it all in one day. If you’re looking for a story that will drag you in and keep you engaged for hours, I can’t recommend this enough.
Thanks for reading my reviews! I hope you found a book or two you liked :-) If you didn’t, here’s a link to some more recommendations…
