33 Books of 2023
In the interest of keeping things simple, and recommending to others the way I like to receive recommendations—read it or don’t read it—I am giving you three lists this year.
On the left (or if you’re on your phone–at the top) is a list of the books I read this year that I would recommend (great news, more than half!) You’ll find books about families, relationships, having money and not having money, and as usual I enjoy a little sprinkle of the supernatural.
On the right (or after the first list) are the books I would not recommend. Reasons include but are not limited to: terrible writing, total lack of plot, cliché overload, and general bad vibes. I do always finish a book though, I really can’t help it.
Below all that I’m also including the books I read this year that were all about becoming a parent. (Big year!) Scroll to the bottom for those gems!
Books I would recommend:
Hammer
Joe Mungo Reed
Our Missing Hearts
Celeste Ng
We All Want Impossible Things
Catherine Newman
Brown Girls
The Measure
Nikki Erlick
In Five Years
Rebecca Serle
Romantic Comedy
Curtis Sittenfeld
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Gabrielle Zevin
Happy Place
Emily Henry
Big Swiss
Jen Beagin
One Italian Summer
Rebecca Serle
Circe
Madeline Miller
A Perfect Vintage
Chelsea Fagan
Olga Dies Dreaming
Xochitl Gonzalez
Pineapple Street
Jenny Jackson
Homecoming
Kate Morton
Spare
Prince Harry
American Midnight
Adam Hochschild
Books I wouldn’t recommend:
Mademoiselle Revolution
Zoe Sivak
The Great Passion
James Runcie
French Braid
Anne Tyler
One True Loves
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Flux
Jinwoo Chong
Greek Lessons
Han Kang
The Bookshop On the Corner
Jenny Colgan
Gilt
Jamie Brenner
Brother of the More Famous Jack
Barbara Trapido
Acts of Service
Lillian Fishman
In the Land of Men
Adrienne Miller
Books for becoming a parent:
Equal Partners — Kate Mangino
This was essential reading for my marriage this year. Even though we feel proud of the relationship we have built, there was so much to learn and it opened up a lot of dialogue for us ahead of becoming parents. Both in terms of the practicalities of how we manage our household, but also highlighting some of the things that can go unspoken or assumed and trying to break those habits.
Expecting Better — Emily Oster
This book made me feel better about a lot of the narrative and myth surrounding pregnancy. Oster collects and interprets real data in areas that even the medical field has been reluctant to come to conclusions. I read it through once and then referenced some sections again and again to settle my mind as we got closer to the due date–instead of relying on late night Googling.
Cribsheet — Emily Oster
This one was slightly less valuable to me once baby arrived, but it still felt like a good primer to read before he was here! As Oster mentions many times, parenting is a balance between emotion and common sense, and sometimes data doesn’t always mix well with emotion. Still helpful to read and have those baselines to have in the back of your mind as you come up to decision making crossroads.
Bringing Up Bébé — Pamela Druckerman
This was pure voyeurism and less practical parenting advice, at least for me, and at least for the newborn stage. Perhaps if I had read it when it was first all the rage ten years ago, it would have felt more like a handbook than a piece of entertainment, but I do feel like the parenting pendulum swing in the last decade has gone so far into the Instagram realm and now back again that this feels slightly fossilized in the early 2010s. But who knows, when we’re in those tough toddler years, maybe I will crack this puppy open again!