{"id":531,"date":"2023-12-30T17:46:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-30T21:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/?p=531"},"modified":"2024-08-23T10:15:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T14:15:38","slug":"my-2023-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/30\/my-2023-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"My 2023 Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of my favorite year-end traditions over the past 5 years or so has been reviewing all of the books I read in a year and giving out awards to some of my favorites. To be perfectly honest, 2023 wasn&#8217;t a great year for me, all things considered. In fact, one book I read used the phrase &#8220;circus of disasters,&#8221; which I joked was a great description for this year as a whole. Because of the hard circumstances, I read fewer books this year than the past couple, and not as many books stuck in my mind or stayed with me as in years past. So it&#8217;s been a fun reminder to go back over the books I read and remember how much I enjoyed many of them! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Below are my various Book Awards categories, in which I allow myself to name up to 3 books (generally listed in order of my liking), instead of choosing just 1 favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you are someone who loves books and would like to hear about some of the 88 books I read this year, please enjoy this year-end recap. As always, feel free to share your favorite books from this year with me in the comments, either here on the blog or on social media!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Steph&#8217;s 2023 Book Awards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Top 5 favorite books I read this year:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Babel: An Arcane History&nbsp; (R.F. Kuang)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Last Binding trilogy (Freya Marske)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Dutch House&nbsp; (Ann Patchett) <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Iron Widow&nbsp; (Xiran Jay Zhao)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Age of Madness trilogy&nbsp; (Joe Abercrombie)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Favorite nonfiction book:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ten Steps to Nanette&nbsp; (Hannah Gadsby)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All My Knotted-Up Life&nbsp; (Beth Moore)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Killers of the Flower Moon&nbsp; (David Grann)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Favorite romance:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Emma Project&nbsp; (Sonali Dev)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Very Merry Bromance&nbsp; (Lyssa Kay Adams)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Romantic Comedy&nbsp; (Curtis Sittenfeld)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Most surprising:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy&nbsp; (Megan Bannen)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Psalm for the Wild-Built&nbsp; (Becky Chambers)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yumi and the Nightmare Painter&nbsp; (Brandon Sanderson)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Made me laugh the most:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Blacktongue Thief&nbsp; (Christopher Buehlman)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tress of the Emerald Sea&nbsp; (Brandon Sanderson)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Beyond the Wand&nbsp; (Tom Felton)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Most disappointing:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>the entire Stay a Spell series&nbsp; (Juliette Cross)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Promise of Fire&nbsp; (Amanda Bouchet)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Million to One&nbsp; (Adiba Jaigirdar)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Most Thought-Provoking:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Chain Gang All Stars&nbsp; (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All My Knotted-Up Life&nbsp; (Beth Moore)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Beartown trilogy&nbsp; (Fredrik Backman)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Classic I read this year: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Northanger Abbey&nbsp; (Jane Austen)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Favorite Re-Read:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Red White and Royal Blue&nbsp; (Casey McQuiston)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Percy Jackson&nbsp; (Rick Riordan) &#8211; I\u2019m enjoying reading this series to my sons!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cEveryone shut up, I\u2019m reading!\u201d award:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[books I binge-read and perhaps ignored other responsibilities in favor of]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ninth House and Hell Bent&nbsp; (Leigh Bardugo)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Truly Devious series&nbsp; (Maureen Johnson)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Stolen Heir&nbsp; (Holly Black)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5 Books that are living rent-free in my head:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Five books <em>that I haven&#8217;t already mentioned<\/em> that still cross my mind often &#8211; for better or worse]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Heart\u2019s Invisible Furies&nbsp; (John Boyne)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The World We Make&nbsp; (N.K. Jemison)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tom Lake&nbsp; (Ann Patchett)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cloud Cuckoo Land&nbsp; (Anthony Doerr)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Migrations&nbsp; (Charlotte McConaghy)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Book I\u2019m most excited to read in 2024:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Pairing&nbsp; (Casey McQuiston)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Heavenly Tyrant&nbsp; (Xiran Jay Zhao)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Prisoner\u2019s Throne&nbsp; (Holly Black)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let me know your favorite books of 2023! Maybe they&#8217;ll appear in my 2024 favorites \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my favorite year-end traditions over the past 5 years or so has been reviewing all of the books I read in a year and giving out awards to some of my favorites. To be perfectly honest, 2023 wasn&#8217;t a great year for me, all things considered. In fact, one book I read used &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/30\/my-2023-book-review\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">My 2023 Book Review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","with-featured-image"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa85Nh-8z","jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Screenshot-2023-12-30-4.27.45-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.faithfictionandfeminism.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}