Top 10 Reads 2023

While COVID was no longer an excuse to stay indoors and read all day — a well timed redundancy meant I had a few unplanned months of free time, and many more hours for reading. With a new job starting in 2024 — I’m enjoying the last few weeks of reading indulgence. Here’s this year’s spreadsheet of everything read with various data points (here).

Like in previous years, I like to do a bit of a data drill down and look at some of the stats:

2023 was once again a very diverse year: For those that know my reading, my personal goal is to read from as many countries as possible (defined by place of birth of author).

While I wasn’t able to crack 20 countries (only 17 — thank goodness for ‘Afterlives’ by Zanzibar author Abdulrazak Gurnah), I managed to get US novels down to nearly 25%. Happy to see that Australian Authors were the second highest along with those from the UK.

It was gender neutral this year: while the last few years have been dominated by female writers (I even made a note that I probably needed to balance it all up a bit) — exactly 50% of my reads were from men and 47.5% from women. Akwaeke Emezi’s new release ‘You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty’ was my only read from a non-binary author — and as far as Nigerian romance novels go — wasn’t bad!

27,908 pages read; that’s an average of 76 pages a day — and approx 345 per book. The shortest was ‘Sky’ by Max Porter — 122 pages and still managed to baffle me (my notes tell me it was about a young troubled boy who likes drum n bass and then finds some dead badgers..!?). At 715 pages, the beautiful ‘The Covenant of Water’ by Abraham Verghese was a worthy follow up to his masterpiece ‘Cutting for Stone’ — but lost a mark as I did feel it needed a slight edit.

New releases FTW: Trying to get a balance between new titles and older classics, 32% of the books read were published in 2023 and another 32% from 2022. Oldest was the 1954 ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ from Nigerian Amos Tutuola. Unfortunately, it was also one of my DNFs — the spiritual imagery of Western Africa going beyond my realm of comprehension. Another oldie was ‘The English Patient’ by Michael Ondaatje. Written in 1992, it’s taken me this long to get to it — and was well worth it. Need to spend more time with these missed classics.

DNF: I’m getting better at giving up…. Apart from ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ others that didn’t make it to the finish line included ‘This is How You Lose the Time War’ (great idea; secret agents fighting across multiple dimensions — ended up as boring as a slow chess game), ‘Checkout 19’ (No idea why I even picked this up — even the overview sounds boring), and ‘Silver Nitrate’ by acclaimed Mexican author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A great premise — but a delivery that bored me so much — that was the horrific part. (I’m also turned off reading anything else by this author… anyone else?).

Here they are — Top 10 of 2023 in no order whatsoever.

‘Horse’ by Geraldine Brooks (Female, Australia)

Published 2022, 401 pages

I’m a latecomer to Brooks, but have decided I’m addicted to anything she writes. While this is a story of a horse, and the relationship it has with an enslaved man in 1850s Kentucky, it also is much more than that. If you want something with great characters, deep history and a story that won’t let go — try this one. The research she does for her books is astounding.

‘Demon Copperhead’ by Barbara Kingsolver (Female, USA)

Published 2022, 560 pages

I think everyone can agree that this has been the most beautifully traumatic book of the last few years. There are those who have struggled to keep going. “Just get to the end… (we say) “we promise there is redemption!’. And so is the story of Demon, set against the backdrop of southern Appalachia in the USA. Trailer trash meets opioids, meets some beautifully broken characters. This one will stick with you for a long time.

‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ by John Boyne (Male, Ireland)

Published 2017, 582 pages

Thanks to the fate of a Street Library, this treasure from Boyne has made it into my Top 10 — it’s also become the most recommended (and enjoyed) book from those I’ve passed the title on to. Boyne’s books tend to follow a similar theme of gay fiction that bumps up against the challenges of the Irish Catholic establishment. However in this book, we meet Cyril Avery and his tale of self discovery is more darkly humorous and wickedly quirky than Boyne’s others.

‘Limberlost’ by Robbie Arnott (Male, Australia)

Published January 2022, 240 pages

Not sure I have a Top 3 for the year, but Limberlost would be there. For some people this would be a book about nothing, but for me — I was lost in the summer of Ned. There are too many spoilers, but if you could just hug a book, and be warmed by its cast of characters, ready to cry when they cry, and ready to dream when they dream — then take this one.

‘Old God’s Time’ by Sebastian Barry (Male, Ireland)

Published March 2023, 272 pages.

Irish literature seemed to be my thing this year, and gosh it was a depressing bunch of books. For this one, it was once again a mix of absolute horror mixed with the most delicate and beautiful writing. For this story, Barry focuses on retired policeman Tom Kettle who is pulled into his dark past. Once again, a harrowing narrative is suffocated with such beautiful writing that you can’t help but be sucked in. Just don’t pick this one for your beach holiday read like I did.

‘All the Pretty Horses’ by Cormac McCarthy (Male, USA)

Published May 1992, 302 Pages

When Cormac McCarthy died in June, he was hailed as one of America’s greatest writers. While I’d read ‘The Road’ with everyone else, as well as his more recent novels — I realised I’d never read his first acclaimed book, and the first in his Border Trilogy series. I read all three this year, but ‘All the Pretty Horses’ has stuck with me; the ultimate Western story, stripped bare, but with such rich detail and scenes that will stick in your guts. While I often dismiss American writers, McCarthy has truly captured a moment in time, and carved out something that you really need to read.

‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ by Shehan Karunatilaka (Male, Sri Lanka)

Published August 2022, 386 pages

As the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize, this was always going to be a weird read. Based on the premise of our hero Maali Almeida waking up dead — and having seven moons to find his killer, what unfolds is more of a gangster whodunit set in 1990s Colombo, Sri Lanka. Yes there are ghosts and ghouls, but also politics and gamblers, goons and nutcases. Stick with it, and be rewarded with a book like no other. It’s novels like these that prove how important it is to read out of your comfort zone, and plunge head first into a story you’ve never experienced before. A very worthy Booker winner.

‘Once There Were Wolves’ by Charlotte McConaghy (Female, Australia)

Published August 2021, 258 pages

Probably the most left field of my Top 10. A relatively unknown Australian author. A book about rehoming wolves into the remote highlands of Scotland. Maybe it was just the right book at the right time, but the unfolding narrative about both the wolves as well as the uncovering of the protagonist’s past was just spellbinding. Probably not brilliantly written, but if a Top 10 is a book that just sticks with you for being a little different, this was a strong contender.

‘Prophet Song’ by Paul Lynch (Male, Ireland)

Published August, 2023, 320 Pages

My second Booker Prize (2023 Winner) and continuing with my Irish trend for the year, Prophet Song was also the last book completed in 2023. Here we have an Ireland in trouble, slowly disintegrating into a war zone. This is the story of one woman (mother, wife and daughter) and what she must do to survive. A bit like The Road meets Handmaid’s tale. The slow narrative style (and lack of speech marks) will annoy some, but this was a book that really buried itself into your mind. With the current turmoil in the Middle East, I often thought that this is just a smidge of what a life turned inside out could feel like.

‘Nothing to See Here’ by Kevin Wilson (Male, USA)

Published October 2019, 288 pages

This is now the book that I’m going to recommend to anyone and everyone, and I challenge you not to enjoy. Maddison and Lillian are two old high school roommates. Then Maddison asks Lillian to step in and help look after her step kids — well that’s when the magic of this book kicks in. You see — the step kids just happen to have an affliction where they suddenly catch on fire. Take this crazy plot twist in your stride, and enjoy this beautiful book of self and family discovery.