My Favourite Reads Of 2023
Welcome to this week’s edition of Stacks & Spoons, a weekly substack for bookish girls, gays and theys, written by author Jen Wilde. If you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe here.
My reading goal for 2023 was 44 books. I made it to 37, and I’m okay with that. I read some truly great books this year. Many of them became all-time favourites.
My TBR is still miles high, but I’m trying to reframe that from something I need to do to something I get to do. I love reading, and I’m excited about the books on my shelf I haven’t had a chance to read yet – it shouldn’t feel like a chore that I’m behind on! But it’s easy to get caught up in the comparison game, especially when there are fast readers out there whose end-of-year wrap-ups are 100-200 books long (no shade to them! it’s just not me).
In 2024, I want to focus on running my own race. Not just with reading, but with writing, too. With everything, really. We’re all doing the best we can, at our own pace, on our own timelines.
Here are 12 books I adored in 2023:
Old Enough by Haley Jakobson
Scorched Grace: A Sister Holiday Mystery by Margot Douaihy
Bianca Torre Is Afraid of Everything by Justine Pucella Winans
The Luis Ortega Survival Club by Sonora Reyes
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink
Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America by Krista Burton
True Biz by Sara Novic
Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee
Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom by Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri
Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec
REMEMBER…
Contact your reps to demand a ceasefire:
Find a protest to attend wherever you are in the world.
And remember to keep sharing and amplifying Palestinian voices. Don’t stop talking about Gaza.
None of us are free until all of us are free.
ICYMI…
Previously, on Stacks & Spoons:
In My Villain Era (Setting Boundaries)
Spotify Wrapped Called Me Mentally Ill