My reading goal in 2023 was to sneak past my 2022 books total and read 135 books. With 138 books read, I just managed it. I’m proud of that! I’ve been teased about it a little, which I don’t care for. Don’t shame people for what they do or don’t read! Many experiences are valid, even if they are not our own experiences! I’m proud of what I’ve read. I had a lot of fun! I read at least two whole series, I read a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy, I picked out some weird literary stuff, I jumped into a mystery series for the first time, I listened to more audiobooks than I ever have before, I enjoyed two self-published books, and I dipped a toe back into reading history. It was all glorious.

My reading this year was also a lot. I wanted to push myself this year and I did. I don’t want to do that in the year ahead. In 2024, my reading goal is 52 books. I’ll probably pass that pretty easily, but I don’t want to rush out and have to try for 139 or anything ridiculous like that. I want to make sure reading stays fun and doesn’t feel like a chore. I think I can do that, although I am reading a collection of writing by T.S. Eliot at the moment. That isn’t helping. Regardless, this is going to be a fun year! I’m going to enjoy what I read, tell people to knock it off when they bug me about how much I read, and find some new books to love.

I do want to make a few recommendations, a few of the very best books I read this year. First, have you missed Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto? Go read them! They’re amazing! You’ll love them! Second, Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is a staggering work of memoir/history. I was blown away by it. Third, sometimes you just need a fun little sci-fi mystery. Malka Ann Older’s The Mimicking of Known Successes is a great one. Sequel coming soon! I can’t wait!

If you want to see my full 2023 list, you can check out my StoryGraph profile! Head over to the sidebar if you want to drop me a line.

Last but not least, you’ll find below my reading for the month of December. I’m trying something new with the format this month, something that I think will stick around for a while. In the past, I’ve tried ranking the books in order of preference, with a book of the month serving as an overall recommendation. Moving forward, the list will be chronological. I’m fine not ranking things. I’d rather think about how books succeed (or don’t) on their own terms, rather than making them all compete. If I hate this stab at egalitarianism and decide to go back to making the titles fight to the death for dominance, I’ll let you know. Now, without further ado, what I read in December 2023:

System Collapse, by Martha Wells

What happens when Murderbot has to deal with trauma? Book #7 in Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries series spends plenty of time tackling that question. It is, however, just as fun and funny as the earlier books. Wells, as always, does a wonderful job balancing Murderbot’s disdain for the messiness of humans with its very real ability to have friends and feel feelings. System Collapse introduces a little more complexity into a character who has grown substantially since its introduction in All Systems Red six years ago. This is a bad place to start, but it is absolutely worth reading the whole series to get to this point. I will take as much Murderbot as Wells wants to write.

Age of Ash and Blade of Dream, by Daniel Abraham

This is a tricky one. The first two books in a fantasy trilogy by Daniel Abraham (one half of The Expanse writing duo James S.A. Corey), Age of Ash and Blade of Dream don’t quite do what you might expect from the beginning of a trilogy. They do set up the world well. The city of Kithamar isn’t enormously distinct. Its concerns with class and gods will be very familiar to fantasy readers broadly. What sets the whole thing apart is that these two books take place concurrently. Characters intersect in moments and events overlap, but by and large the books depict very different aspects of the same grand fight. Neither book works entirely on its own, but Blade of Dream both provides context for Age of Ash and is a more interesting experience because of the context provided by the first novel. So, no, I’m not sure the books are great individually, but as a whole they start to come together. It will be interesting to see how the whole comes together in book 3, which unfortunately does not have a release date yet.

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

I listened to this one, which I definitely recommend. Christian Cooper, victim of the Central Park birding incident, has a fantastic voice and an enormous amount of enthusiasm. He brings both to bear in reading the book, occasionally accompanied by birdsong. Cooper’s life is fascinating (I didn’t know about his comics work!) and his writing is both thoughtful and thought-provoking. I plan to watch his birding tv series next.

Open Throat, by Henry Hoke

Yup, it’s a book about a queer mountain lion! Also a listen for me, and one I found absolutely devastating. The book is funny, too, but ultimately really, really sad. I wish I had been prepared for that, but I don’t regret reading it at all.

The Return of Fitzroy Angursell, by Victoria Goddard

The direct sequel to Goddard’s The Hands of the Emperor and just as incredibly wholesome as the first book. It’s a fantasy romp addressing trauma, change, aging, and an emperor who just wants to hang out with his best friends. I found it irresistible and I’m looking forward to reading more of Goddard’s work!

All Clear, by Connie Willis

All Clear is the second half of Blackout, which I read recently. Together, they are incredible achievements, brutal and detailed and amazing depictions of life in Britain during the Second World War. With time-traveling historians. However! After reading All Clear, I’ve pretty firmly decided that each book should have been half as long. One volume and the repetition wouldn’t have been nearly so bad. I had also figured out the twists hundreds of pages before the characters. So! Probably not a straightforward recommendation, exactly, but I don’t regret reading either book. It was very fun to finish the series and I unequivocally recommend the other two books in the series, especially Doomsday Book.

Girl Gone Missing, by Marcie R. Rendon

A very creepy mystery intended to bring attention to the large numbers of missing Indigenous women in the United States and Canada. College student and beet-truck driver Cash Blackbear is a great character and I enjoyed getting to know her. I was unable, though, to read the book for long stretches because it made me very sad. That is probably worth knowing before you read it? It is still, however, a good mystery that makes its points without being too blunt.

Flaubert’s Parrot, by Julian Barnes

Flaubert’s Parrot is not Nabokov’s Pale Fire, but while I was reading it I couldn’t help but think of that novel. Both are metafictional, offering commentary from a writer who doesn’t exist and is pretty transparently trying to process some of his own mess through his ruminations on literature. Pale Fire is both better and more impressive — Nabokov wrote the text the fictional critic is considering, while Barnes looks to Gustav Flaubert’s life and body of work — but Flaubert’s Parrot is savagely funny, taking direct aim at critics and criticism in a way that lets Barnes showboat. Even with a deep, deep streak of melancholy, Barnes’s book is enjoyable. I’ll come back to you next month, I think, having read Madame Bovary again. Barnes has inspired me.

A Single Man, by Christopher Isherwood

A single man for a single day. Isherwood’s depiction of a man processing his grief for his deceased partner is heartbreaking and beautifully written. I love the way Isherwood is able to tell the story of an entire relationship, of a life, without leaving the day when the book is set.

Rose/House, by Arkady Martine

I’m not one for horror, but Arkady Martine’s creepy locked room mystery novella is so good. I prefer her straight sci-fi work, especially A Memory Called Empire, but Rose/House was a single sitting read for me. I won’t say anything else about it. I don’t think this is one to spoil.

Strong Female Character, by Fern Brady

Brady, a stand-up comic, writes about her life with autism and her late diagnosis with frankness and clarity. The book is frequently funny, but I won’t pretend that it was an easy read. My wife and I listened to the audiobook (Fern is an excellent narrator) and we did have to take a couple of breaks. Fern did not have any easy childhood by any means and some of those passages can be really tough. It’s so good, though! One of the best books I read this year and well worth your time.

Weather, by Jenny Offill

Are you stressed about climate change? Me too! Jenny Offill did not help at all. However, her writing, with little fragments of days scattered in pieces and moments told in just a paragraph and then on again to the next, is beautiful and formally interesting. I would have enjoyed the book more if the main character didn’t work in an academic library. It is difficult to enjoy thinking about work while I am at home.