#2023 in books

[ashmouthbooks]

2023 in books

better late than never, right?

2023 was a relatively slow year for me in bookbinding, but I still made 30+ books. (ask me how much time I spent on my other hobbies and it becomes clear why books were fewer.)

A5 books

the first A5 of the year was an entry for a bookbinding competition (which I didn't win), where the theme was climate change. I had a lot of fun putting it together and it was the first time I made an A5 tête-bêche book - I usually do these A6 or A7 size.

this was also the year I decided to start a collection of menocchio fics, which also led to experiments with printing directly onto bookcloth to get titles on the spine

what's fun about bookbinding is that you can Just Make A Book, but you can also Get Ideas And Run With Them with it. which is how I wound up with this black on black book. destiel necromancy fic, because of course it is

going back to something more colourful...Ulysses. not the James Joyce one, the slowburn 00Q one. named for a Tennyson poem.

final A5 book of the year is my Renegade Exchange book, which I bound for Silent Sun Press - a Crowley-centric genfic with outsider POV, so naturally I went for TV!Gomens colour schemes

A6 and A7 books

I started the year ambitiously - in addition to entering a competition, I started my urchin specials project. thus far I've still only bound these first three books for the project, but I plan to do more. first dustjackets as well!

I continued with the no-glue pamphlets and did three

I joined the Tiny Books Exchange, and as a proof of concept - before I typeset an A7 sized tête-bêche - I did a little tête-bêche of the two Temeraire fics I wrote for yuletide once upon a time

then followed of course the Tiny Book I bound for the exchange - my copy (test & proof of concept, bottom), the giftee copy (green, top right), and the author copy (blue, top left)

I typeset a lot more than I bind - I have plans to bind so and so, so I typeset it, but don't always have the time to bind it right away. so I have folders full of typesets ready to go at a moment's notice. this one was typeset a whole year before I bound it

are these paperbacks or just very slim hardbacks? I call them paperbacks as I used 0.5mm boards and they have no spine, but ymmv

this one definitely is a hardback - with slightly thicker boards, a spine, and two fics in one book. I do love those tête-bêches

at my work we have a lot of deliveries wrapped in this nice recycled brown paper that was just going into the recycling bin, and I thought: why not make books out of it? so I played around with it (and my printer) and came up with a neat aesthetic for paperbacks with breakaway spines (using 0.5mm boards)

will I ever stop with the tête-bêches? no. also this one has endpapers made from SEAWEED. how cool is that?

the last A6 of the year is this little collection of my own stories for a tiny Danish fandom. detectives and trauma, but make it about food? yes. food and cooking themed endpapers and cover papers, and the dustjacket has fake coffee stains on it. perfect

and that is all, folks. I did a lot of different styles and types of binding this year, I had fun with it, I learned a lot, and I'm happy with what I've created.

[the-knights-who-say-book]

i always meant to make a final 2023 poll to wrap up all my monthly reading polls and uh. oops. well into 2024 now. better get on that

*aka: all these options are the books tumblr voted as the best one i finished each month

[salvadorbonaparte]

2023 in Books

I didn't have a lot of time/energy for leisure reading but here are the books I finished this year

The First Man in Rome - Colleen McCullough - I listened to the audiobook because it was narrated by David Ogden Stiers but the book is really good and now I kinda want to read the whole series (but unfortunately the others aren't narrated by him)

Minificciones - Erica Engeler (eds.) - A collection of very short stories from Latin America which I read in an attempt to get back into reading and improve my Spanish, some of the stories were really good and I'd love to read more Latin American lit next year

Dead Collections - Isaac Fellman - A book that sounds like a fake book someone would make up on tumblr but it's real and I loved it, I bought it in Gay's The Word in London, it's about a trans Jewish vampire archivist who falls in love with the widow of a television writer/producer and they figure out they were in the same fan community in the 90s and vampirism is treated as a chronic illness

Abaddon's Gate - James S.A. Corey - I am still making my way through the Expanse series one audiobook at a time and I liked this one but I kinda miss some of the characters from the second book

11/22/63 - Stephen King - I really loved this one, I listened to the audiobook because it was narrated by David Nathan, I already find the whole JFK assassination thing interesting so this was great because it's part sci-fi and part historical novel but it's also silly in a very Stephen King way (crossover with It, you can only time travel through a diner in Maine), the time travel rules were cool, the ending was silly but I'm used to that from him and it actually worked for me, I kept repeating phrases from the book for days after reading it and binge watched the series too

Poems on the Underground - Benson et al. (eds.) - Found a used copy in a charity shop and you know I love poetry and the London Underground

If I Understood You, Would I have This Look On My Face - Alan Alda - The third Alan Alda book I read, honestly he makes me believe improv theatre can save the world, would recommend this to anyone who wants to be a better communicator

Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir - Very different from what I expected but I liked it and will read the other ones too

Nutcracker and Mouse King - E.T.A Hoffman - the audiobook was free and I enjoy the ballet based on it so why not, right

[we-artemis-atenea]

Books read in 2023

Book tracker by @jasmineandviolet

[shallicomparetheetolagrenouille]

2023 in books

Solo dopo averlo comprato mi sono resa conto che l'immagine in copertina fosse un piatto rotto.

Non so se avrò mai la forza di rileggerlo tutto dall'inizio alla fine - ci sono racconti e poesie e lettere tutti incentrati sui terremoti, la maggior parte nel centro Italia, ma non sempre, e non sempre nello stesso secolo. Mi sono identificata nelle persone che morivano lentamente sotto le macerie, nelle persone sopravvissute che hanno perso qualsiasi cosa - sicurezza, amore, ricordi, il posto in cui tornare - nei ricostruttori, nei delusi.

Le immagini sono strazianti, taglienti ed evocative. Bellissimo libro, ma ci vuole forza a leggerlo.

[stefito0o]

Considering I only finished like 3 books from September to December I am happy with how I did in 2023 😊

[alwaysmychoices]

My yearly 2023 Book Stats, brought to you by Canva, Storygraph, and Kindle Unlimited

[bermudianabroad]

2023 Reading Roundup

Everything what I read in 2023

I read a whole bunch.

Heartily Recommend Visceral Bleh Reread *Audiobook*

Fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (where is the fucking humidity in your swamp, Delia??)

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

Lot by Bryan Washington

Mr. Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

Trust by Hernan Diaz

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan

It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantell (but everyone is called Thomas)

Verity by Colleen Hoover (awful but wacky and hilariously awful)

Katalin Street by Magda Szabo

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Animorphs #24 The Suspicion by KA Applegate (a trip)

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

The Island of Forgetting by Jasmine Sealy

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Trio by Johanna Hedman

At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Silence by Shusaku Endo

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Babel by RF Kuang (was so disappointed by this one)

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen

The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles by Giorgio Bassani

Must I Go by Yiyun Li

The 1,000 Year Old Boy by Ross Welford

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel

Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow

The Whirlpool by Jane Urquhart

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno

Yellowface by RF Kuang

The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani

The Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

Game Misconduct by Ari Baran

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Uprooted by Naomi Novik (sorry Naomi :/ )

The Foot of the Cherry Tree by Ali Parker

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Matrix by Lauren Groff

The Twilight World by Werner Herzog

Wild by Kristen Hannah

*The Fraud by Zadie Smith*

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham (weirdly, one of the best depictions of a marriage I’ve read)

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abdulhawa

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather

The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

Animorphs: The Hork-Bajir Chronicles by KA Applegate

Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

Animorphs #13 The Change by KA Applegate

Animorphs #14 The Unknown by KA Applegate

Animorphs #20 The Discovery by KA Applegate (snuck in two more under the wire… #20 is when shit REALLY kicks off. From there it gets darker and darker).

Poetry

Black Cat Bone by John Burnside

Women of the Harlen Renaissance (Anthology) by Various

The Analog Sea Review no. 4 by Various

The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

Non-Fiction

Besieged: Life Under Fire on a Sarajevo Street by Barbara Demick

Atlas of Abandoned Places by Oliver Smith

Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Wanderers: A History of Women Walking by Kerri Andrews

City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth Century London by Vic Gatrell

The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance by Geoff White (fully available as a podcast)

The Entangling Net: Alaska’s Commercial Fishing Women Tell Their Stories by Leslie Leyland Fields (very niche but fascinating. Transcribed interviews)

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi

Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H.

Freedom by Margaret Atwood (just excerpts from novels repackaged)

*Born a Crime by Trevor Noah* (Noah’s narration is superb)

The Slavic Myths by Noah Charney and Svetlana Slapšak (was expecting stories, but it was mostly academic essays)

Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels

Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco

The Way of the House-Husband, vol. 1 by Kousuke Oono

SAGA vol. 1-6 by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughan

Top of the Top:

Born a Crime was probably my favourite non ficition, and most of that probably is due to Trevor Noah's narration skills. It was very entertaining and heartfelt.

Less uplifting but just as gripping in a different way was Empire of Pain. Excellent book that went deep into the why and what and hows of Purdue Pharma. Anger inducing.

Lazarus Heist is great and available as a podcast. The book is more or less the podcast word for word.

Fictionwise: I read Trust at the start of the year and it was a bit soon to declare as favourite of the year, but it's stil made the final cut. Just very imaginative and intriguing. Just my kind of MetaFiction. Clever without being cleverclever.

Demon Copperhead I read right off the back of Empire of Pain so maybe that coloured my experience. I've not read any Dickens so loads of references no doubt flew past me, but the language was acrobatic and zingy. I loved it.

Wrapped up the year on a high with North Woods. That was so unexpected and entertaining. Again with the playful language, memorable characters and a unique approach to tying all the various stories together. One that sticks in the mind and makes the writer in me wonder how I can replicate his style (with my own personal twist of course.)

[theladyofbloodshed]

My reading has been super slow this year because I cannot find a series to sink my teeth into that consumes me for months. Follow me on my bookstagram

[bakedbookworm]

2022 christmas haul🍄

[authorjacobfloyd]

SCATTER by Mindy MacFarlane

This review comes ten days after I finished reading the book, which is regrettable because a lot of the emotion I felt and symbolism I picked up on have withered from my memory. I can say, however, I remember enjoying it very much. Whenever I found the time to sit down to read Scatter, I became engrossed. The story is fascinating and the flow of the narrative seamless. I ended up one night…

[julianplum]

🧡 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟✨ // for day 3 of folktale week 2023: sea! // gouache on paper

a little study of scales, texture, and light for a larger project I'm working on! also made this one into wrapping paper because I CAN'T be the only one who wants to wrap fish presents for people????

[nedlittle]

it drives me bonkers the way people don't know how to read classic books in context anymore. i just read a review of the picture of dorian gray that said "it pains me that the homosexual subtext is just that, a subtext, rather than a fully explored part of the narrative." and now i fully want to put my head through a table. first of all, we are so lucky in the 21st century to have an entire category of books that are able to loudly and lovingly declare their queerness that we've become blind to the idea that queerness can exist in a different language than our contemporary mode of communication. second it IS a fully explored part of the narrative! dorian gray IS a textually queer story, even removed from the context of its writing. it's the story of toxic queer relationships and attraction and dangerous scandals and the intertwining of late 19th century "uranianism" and misogyny. second of all, i'm sorry that oscar wilde didn't include 15k words of graphic gay sex with ao3-style tags in his 1890 novel that was literally used to convict him of indecent behaviour. get well soon, i guess...

[myclutteredbookshelf]

Well, I figured I'd join in on the fun.

[bibliophileiz]

2023 in Books, Part 1

I honored my New Year's Eve tradition of ranking the books I read throughout the year. This time I decided to split up the children's and YA books from the books for adults, because I don't think it's quite fair to compare them when they have two different audiences and often two different goals (and also when I so strongly prefer books for adults). It's like comparing apples and oranges. So here is Part 1: The Books for Young 'Uns.

As usual, this list is ranked strictly by personal preference, not by quality of writing or story, and they're based entirely on how I'm feeling right now. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, so the list might be different next week. Cover images taken from GoodReads.

6. How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason Dates Read: Jan. 26-29 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: I think it’s Sleeping Beauty in space? Maybe? One-sentence review: I remember next to nothing about this book but here was what I said on GR: It was kind of like if Princess Leia was an amalgamation for western fairy tale princesses and her life was being narrated by lemony snicket as a historian.

5. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan Dates Read: I didn’t record it but it was early this year. GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: A woman named Sarah arrives in the prairie in the 1800s to decide if she wants to marry a widower with two children. Told from the oldest daughter’s point of view. One-sentence review: This isn’t fair for a children’s book, but I really wanted the adult version of this story, from Sarah’s point of view.

4. Eleanor by Kristiana Gregory. Part of the Royal Diaries series Dates Read: April 2 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: A fictionalized account of Eleanor of Aquitaine’s life as a teenager, covering the death of her father and ending with her marriage to Louis, future king of France. One-sentence review: Eleanor and her sister, Petra, are great fun, and Gregory does a fantastic job of foreshadowing the things that are going to be important to Eleanor, like chivalric ideals and patronage of the arts, but like many of these Royal Diaries books, it focuses on the least interesting part of this extraordinary figure’s life.

3. The Great Railroad Race: The Diary of Libby West by Kristiana Gregory Dates Read: Dec. 31 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: The diary of a teenage girl who’s family moves west so her journalist father (and unofficial editor mother) can cover the great railroad race between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies. One-sentence review: I loved this because there were so many 19th Century journalists.

2. Voyage on the Great Titanic: The Diary of Margaret Ann Brady by Ellen Emerson Dates Read: Nov. 11 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: English orphan Margaret Ann keeps a diary of her trip on the Titanic after she is chosen to be a first-class passenger’s companion on board the ship. One-sentence review: Like all good Titanic stories, this book delves right into the class divisions that resulted in so many third-class passenger deaths – Emerson does not talk down to or whitewash history for her readers just because they’re children.

1. The Falling in Love Montage by Ciara Smyth Dates Read: July 28-Aug. 8 GoodReads Rating: Three stars Summary: Jaded Irish teenager Saoirse falls for romantic English girl Ruby, who tries to win Saoirse over with romantic comedy tropes. Review: This book has what all YA comedies have: a spunky narrator, a likeable love interest, fun side characters, and witty banter. That’s really all this one needed, but Smyth went one step beyond by writing a subplot involving Saoirse’s mother’s dementia and her father’s remarriage. Smyth handles the plot realistically, walking a tricky tightrope between handling the dementia sensitively while also writing Saoirse’s teenage angst—which can be pretty self-indulgent in a typical adolescent way. Saoirse worries about her mother, resents her father, and fears that one day she too will get early-onset dementia, which is why she is reluctant to fall in love or go to university. With help from old friends and new, her future stepmother, and of course Ruby, Saoirse comes to learn that planning a future around not having one is no way to live.

I had to pause this book several times (I was listening to the audiobook—and I’ll take this opportunity to give narrator Alana Kerr Collins a shout out because she was great). For personal reasons, I have a hard time reading about dementia and Alzheimer's in fiction, so it was this book was pretty emotional for me. But overall, the message was one of hope, and it was by far the best book I’ve read for children and teens in a while.

I'll post the rest of my books later today, as Part 2 is going to be longer and I want to go to bed.

[shallicomparetheetolagrenouille]

2023 in books

I am so glad I finally read a collection of her poems, though she probably would rather nobody ever saw them, touched them, modified them, interpreted them.

What is said in the preface is true: they are not all easy to understand or read, but I see that as a good thing. She is the one that kept the core meaning, in the end, only she can really know what she meant that day, on that torn page or on the other side of an old letter.

The translations are also very good, I was lucky to pick up her work as translated in this version.