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#year in books
ladyloveandjustice · 3 months
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My Favorite Books I Read in 2023
I read a ton of good novels last year- 36 in all (and uh, 78 manga/graphic novels, but we'll examine that in another post). Here's a link to my Goodreads year in books (the manga is at the beginning, the novels start with Siren Queen) and my storygraph wrap up.  
I reread a ton of Discworld this year, and it's as spectacular as ever. But what about new reads?
Well, here are my favorite books I read in 2023!
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In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
This is an autobiographical memoir about the abusive relationship the author went through with her ex-girlfriend. It's absolutely gut-wrenching, and at times, achingly beautiful. Machado uses the house she shared with her girlfriend, which she calls the "dream house", as a back drop. It's a place she always wanted and also a place she became trapped in, Machado's language is beautiful as she explores the relationship from different lenses-- The Dream House as Lesbian Cult Classic, the Dream House as Noir, the Dream House as Creature Feature, the Dream House as Stoner Comedy....All facets of the relationship are explored in a way that grips you by the throat and makes you remember everyone who ever tried to suffocate you-- but it also explores the hard work of moving on, of picking up the pieces, of living and embracing tenderness along with hardship.
I especially related to Machado's struggle to talk about abuse between queer lovers because of her fears of giving homophobes more ammunition...and when she says "we deserve to have our wrongdoing represented as much as our heroism, because when we refuse wrongdoing as a possibility for a group of people, we refuse their humanity", I felt that deeply.
This wasn't just one of my favorite books this year, it goes on the list of all-time favorite books. I wish I had this kind of writing style. I'll be returning to this again and again.
Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao
A middle-grade novel about a Chinese-American teen who feels a bit alienated from his heritage, which becomes a bit of an issue once he finds out the First Emperor of China has possessed his A.R. Gaming Headset. Now he needs to close a portal to the underworld with the help of other kids possessed by emporers.
This was a whole lot of fun, and often quite poignant. I was unsure if I could really enjoy middle-grade books as an adult, and this absolutely proves I can. There's a lot of really interesting Chinese history blended with action-packed fantasy, and exploration of the complicated feelings a kid can have about their own heritage . The dynamic between Zachary and Qin Shi Huang was so entertaining with the Emperor being villainous, heroic, charismatic, detestable-- and Zachary realizing how his complicated feelings about him mirror his relationship with his culture at large. There was also a lot of fun with other historical figures, and Xiran's take on Wu Zetian is a joy. (Also, if you like Yu-Gi-Oh!, you'll probably like this, since Xiran says it was one of their influences).
Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle
Rose is young woman who's raised in a fundamentalist Christian household, and she's a devout, obedient daughter. But some weird things are happening. She's seeing a terrifying demon everywhere, insects are coming out of her mouth....and she's possibly having feelings about other girls. What's going on?
Yes, this is by the Chuck Tingle who makes all those Tinglers. But THIS one... will make you tingle with fear! It's a great horror novel! It's skin-crawlingly creepy at times, but also does a great job digging into how fundamentalist dogma harms queer people, and the hypocrisy of such beliefs. The conversion camp aspect is handled tastefully, and overall it was a great spooky read that's also ultimately very affirming, cathartic, and hopeful.
Qualia the Purple by Hisamitsu Ueo
You might go into this thinking it's just a quirky yuri light novel about a schoolgirl and her crush who sees everyone around her as robots (like literally, when she looks at someone she sees a robot instead of a human). But it quickly becomes surreal queer psychological horror steeped in absolutely wild applications of quantum mechanics and thought-provoking time travel.  Some of the quantum mechanics  exposition dumps were a bit much but I deeply enjoyed having my mind cracked open by this book. 
It's one of the most interesting takes of time loop stories I've seen. But it definitely covers a lot of rough subject matter, including a relationship with a serious age gap and extremely messed up relationships, so be cautious if you have triggers.
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Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
This book follows Miri, whose wife goes missing on a deep-sea submarine mission for six months. Miri thought her wife dead, but she miraculously returns one day...but her wife has changed. She's like a stranger. She may have bought the horrors of the sea home with her.
This is a gripping exploration of grief and loss combined with a delicious, slow horror that creeps under your skin. There's excellent Lovecraftian and body horror elements to the novel, but it works very effectively as a metaphor for a loved one going through trauma, and a relationship starting to crumble because everything seems different. A moment that really stuck out to me is when Miri copes with her wife's disappearance by frequenting an online community where women roleplay as wives with husbands missing in space. The way the online drama of the community interacted with her grief was  both funny and heartbreaking. 
This is another example of a book that makes me deeply jealous with its lyrical writing, and another one for the ever-lengthening all time favorites list.
Otherside Picnic Volume 8: Accomplices No More by Iori Miyazawa
The latest entry in a series about two girls exploring an alternate dimension full of creepypasta monsters, while also falling in love with each other. See my other reviews here and here.
This volume has the payoff to a lot of careful character work and relationship building, and it was completely satisfying. In fact, it was...show-stopping. Spectacular.  Incredible. I loved the exploration of how love, sex, and romance are so different for different people and it's impossible to put it in neat boxes. The frank and messy conversation our leads have about their relationship was perfect and so was that absolutely  bonkers, wonderful finale. This is another one for the all times favorite list, and I loved it so much I wrote a extremely long review/recap here. 
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer
This was a well-researched, well-crafted, easy to read book that explores queerness (mainly homosexuality, bisexuality, trans and genderfluid expressions in animals, and even the question of if and how animals can related to gender) in the animal kingdom. Though it's definitely aimed at teens, I learned a lot from it (who knew female bonobos were such life goals) and it presented its information in a fun way. It included some interesting examinations of how proof of homosexuality and bisexuality in animals was historically suppressed and filtered through homophobic assumptions. If you want to learn a little animal science in an accessible format, definitely check this out.
Night’s Edge by Liz Kerin
The story follows Mia, a woman in her 20's living with her vampire mother. Her whole life revolves around not drawing suspicion towards her Mom. She also has to make sure to feed her Mom some of her blood every night--lest her mother fall back in with her abusive boyfriend and start hunting humans.  But when Mia meets a cute girl, she starts to dream of living her own life...
It was a really interesting use of vampirism as a metaphor for both living with a parent struggling with addiction and having an abusive parent. It's just a well-told, heartwrenching tale that got deep into the character's mindsets. I thought the ending was bit abrupt and rushed, but it did make more sense once I realized this was the first in a duology. It's a fascinating take on vampires, and I'm interested in seeing more.
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The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
This novel follows a middle-aged Muslim female pirate living around the Arabian Peninsula. She's supposed to be in retirement, but wouldn't you know it, she's lured in for one last job! I she rescues a kidnapped girl,  she'll have all the riches she needs to set her family up for life. So Amina begins her adventure of fighting demons and monsters and ex-husbands. But the job might not be all it seems.
This novel is full of all the entertaining swashbuckling action and shenanigans that any pirate story should have. It's a rollicking good time, and feeds my craving for middle aged women going on quests and kicking ass. Amina's journey is a fun, wild ride full of dynamic characters and interesting mythology!
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Juniper is friends with a successful Chinese-American author, Athena Liu, and has always been deeply jealous of her. When Athena dies in front of her, Juniper decides to steal her manuscript rooted in Chinese history and claim it as her own. But plagiarism might catch up with her...
This is a strong example of a book I thought was really well-done, but one I'm probably never going to read again. The way it depicted Twitter drama is just too accurate and I got anxiety. It did such a good job putting you in Juniper's awful shoes so you can feel the pressure close in along with her. The book's commentary on the insidious racism of the publishing industry was effective, and it made a horrible character's journey fascinating to follow. I was so intrigued yet anxious I had to force myself to finish the last few pages.
Bonus read:
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldtree
A very cute novel about an orc named Viv who decides to retire from the violent life of a bounty hunter and run a coffee shop instead. She ends up getting a lot of assistance from a succubus named Tandri...and my, is that a slow-burn coffee shop romance brewing? This book reminds me a lot of various cozy slice-of-life anime, and it's nice to be getting more of that feeling in book form. I wish there was a little more specific to the fantasy world rather than making it a coffee shop that line up 1 to 1 to a modern day shop, but it was definitely a sweet read.
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eli-zab3th · 3 months
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My 2023 Reading Year in Review!
For more details, see my Goodreads page or The Storygraph
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megsandherbooks · 3 months
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I was tagged by @appleinducedsleep to show my favourite book photos of 2023 ✨
It was interesting going back over these pictures, they do show how much I love reading with a blanket 😂
Tagging: I think most people have already done this so I don’t really know who to tag but here’s a few; @thequeerlibrarian @nat-reviews-books @nerdishfeels @lost-in-books94 and anyone else who would like to do it.
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whentherewerebicycles · 3 months
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favorite things I read in 2023:
emily tesh, some desperate glory. I’m making myself wait a couple months before I reread but gosh I really, really loved this one. GOSH every once in a while you stumble across a book that feels like it was written exactly for you and this one was for meeeeee. earth is destroyed by aliens. the last remnants of humanity live aboard a crumbling space station where genetically engineered children are raised to be super-soldiers in a militaristic death cult. the sci-fi world/history itself is fascinating but mostly this is a book about like idk cultural trauma and brainwashing and kids learning how to be human again. if you, like me, go absolutely feral over ender’s game, you will love this book.
tasmyn muir, the locked tomb series. I can’t decide if harrow or nona was my favorite but I stayed up so late reading these and my jaw was just on the floor about how thematically and structurally daring these works are. I’ve never read anything this ambitious by a relatively new-to-the-scene novelist. also I’d die for camilla and palamedes godddd rip my fucking HEART out why don’t you. I want to take a graduate seminar where we just read and analyze and write papers about these books lol.
douglas stuart, young mungo. so, so gutting. don’t waste your time with his first novel, as he was clearly still working out how to make a book. pleased to report he figured it out with the second and the results are just aaaaaa extremely painful.
naomi novik, uprooted. gorgeous, immersive folktale-inspired fantasy. my goodreads pals either loved this one or loathed it so ymmv but I really liked it. unfortunately I then went on a novik kick and read her abysmally bad scholomance trilogy which slightly soured me on her. but this one… good!
katherine addison, the goblin emperor. this was a book in which nothing much happened and yet you never wanted it to end because you liked the protagonist so much.
and a few honorable mentions:
john williams’s stoner—a reread but man it still packs a punch. so simple and yet so rich
samanta schweblin’s fever dream and grace chan’s every version of you which were stylistically very different but both kinda trippy speculative fiction that really got under my skin & freaked me out
tracy deonn’s legendborn. very solid YA with great characters although I tapped out of the trilogy—the books were a little too long and I’m not into arthurian stuff enough to feel really hooked by the magical world.
neil gaiman’s neverwhere. can you tell I was really leaning hard into sci-fi and fantasy this year lol. this was also a reread but I hadn’t revisited it since maybe high school?? a looong time ago. just a delight.
I also read a ton of books on fertility, pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and parenting, but for the most part none of them were anything to write home about apart from a silent sorrow (so good, so moving, so humane—really gave me a language and a framework for thinking about a painful human experience). I also liked how to raise a boy although at this stage in my life I felt like it was most useful as fic research lol. it gave me some great ideas for writing male characters!
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dobranocka · 3 months
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In the spirit of the upcoming New Year's resolutions, tracking my progress, and desperately trying to catch up to Marron, here are my reading stats for this year:
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Last year's are here, and to sum it up: - I've only read ten more books this year than last year, which is a bit surprising considering how much busier this year was for me personally, but on the other hand: I read and wrote a lot less fanfiction in 2023 than in 2022, so that's probably why. - somehow it's actually around 5k pages more than last year, a fit even more surprising considering I haven't read any long-ass danmeis this year??? - goodreads telling me I am very good at reading is oddly satisfying. I may be a potato stumbling through life but at least I am a literate potato.
@the-marron please show me your stats now 👀👀👀
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mfred · 3 months
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Well, I did it. Today, I met my reading goal of 190 books this year. It was a weird year of reading for me. I re-read a lot (a lot)-- AJ Downey's multiple biker series, Lisa Kleypas' Travises series, Ilona Andrew's Kate Daniels series... And I absolutely went bonkers on Theodora Taylor's backlist, reading 28 of her books. I read two books over 700 pages each, and both were biker romance novels. I picked up the Gunnie Rose series by Charlaine Harris and gave up on Lauren Gilley's Dartmoor series about 3/4ths of the way through.
I also bought a lot of books I didn't read. My unread bookshelf is almost full-- five whole rows of books I purchased with my hard earned monies, and then shelved and never picked up again. Buying books gives me such pleasure. So does reading them. But I feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of unread books in my posession. It's intimidating, the sheer number of good looking books out there in the world that I'd like to read. I've intimidated myself.
I read way more 5 star books in 2022, almost twice as much as this year's paltry selection. But I also scored more books with 4 stars than last year-- I think I was feeling generous after I found out that Amazon consider's a 3 star review to be negative. Now, Amazon can suck it, but there's also the impact to the author to consider. So I started rounding up. Grade inflation, hahaha.
It's certainly been interesting. Last year, I didn't make my goal number of books and felt really let down by that. This year, I struggled to read at all for weeks at a time, or I drowned myself in books. But I made my goal. That's not nothing.
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my year in books...obnoxious post edition
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orrr if you like https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2023/26792558 :)
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carriagelamp · 3 months
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My Year in Books, according to goodreads:
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hobbieswithhobbit · 1 year
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Hi! So, after looking at Spotify Wrapped and getting the notification for my Goodreads' Year in Books, I decided to create some graphics looking back at my Year in Books. Here they are!
What do we think?
(Info: The only app I've used to create these graphics is Canva, with data taken from my Goodreads and Storygraph. This work is original.)
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frostyreturns · 1 year
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Best And Worst Books From 2022
Top 5 Classics of 2022
5.) Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury 4/5
4.) Dracula - Bram Stoker 4/5
3.) Frankenstein - Mary Shelley 4/5
2.) The Screwtape Letters - C.S Lewis 5/5
1.) The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien 5/5
Bottom 5 Classics of 2022
5.) War Of The Worlds - H.G Wells 3/5
4.) Animal Farm - George Orwell 2/5
3.) Beren And Luthien - J.R.R/Christopher Tolkien 2/5
2.) Roughing It - Mark Twain 2/5
1.) Walden - Henry David Thoreau 2/5
Top 5 miscellaneous genre fiction of 2022
5.) The Road -Cormac McCarthy 3/5
4.) Misery - Stephen King 3/5
3.) The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson 3/5
2.) Batman No Mans Land - Greg Rucka 5/5
1.) Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay 5/5
Bottom 5 miscellaneous genre fiction of 2022
5.)  Splintercell - Raymond Benson 3/5
4.) Skin -Ted Dekker 3/5
3.) Pirate Latitudes - Michael Chrichton 3/5
2.) Skipping Christmas- John Grisham 2/5
1.) Small Steps- Louis Sachar 2/5
Top 5 Star Wars Novels of 2022
5.) Jedi Search - Kevin J Anderson 4/5
4.) Dark Apprentice - Kevin J Anderson 4/5
3.) Heir To The Empire - Timothy Zahn 5/5
2.) The Empire Strikes Back - Donald F Glut 5/5
1.) The Last Command - Timothy Zahn 5/5
Bottom 5 Star Wars Novels of 2022
5.) Dark Force Rising -Timothy Zahn 3/5
4.) Tatooine Ghost - Troy Denning 3/5
3.) Rogue Planet - Greg Bear  3/5
2.) The Courtship Of Princess Leia - Dave Wolverton 3/5
1.) Splinter Of The Minds Eye - Alan Dean Foster 3/5
Top 5 Young Reader Novels of 2022
5.) Charlie And The Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 4/5
4.) Holes - Louis Sachar 4/5
3.) The Magicians Nephew - C.S Lewis 4/5
2.) The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe - C.S Lewis 4/5
1.) A Series Of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril - Lemony Snicket 4/5
Bottom 5 Young Reader Novels of 2022
5.) Bailey SK:Swamp Monsters Don’t Chase Wild Turkeys - Debbie Dadey 1/5
4.) Goosebumps: Go Eat Worms - R.L Stine 1/5
3.) X Men Cyclops And Phoenix - Paul Mantell 1/5
2.) Of Mice And Nutcrackers - Richard Scrimger 1/5
1.) Harry Potter And The Cursed Child - John Tiffany 1/5
Top 5 comics of 2022
5.) Calvin And Hobbes: Revenge Of The Baby Sat - Bill Watterson 5/5
4.) Calvin And Hobbes - Bill Watterson 5/5
3.) Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic Omnibus Vol 2 -  John Jackson Miller 5/5
2.) Batman Hush - Jeph Loeb 5/5
1.) Calvin And Hobbes: Attack Of The Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons - Bill Watterson 5/5
Bottom 5 Comics of 2022
5.) Archie Jumbo Digest 326 3/5
4.) Amazing Spider-Man Coming Home - J Michael Straczynski 2/5
3.) You’re So Smart Snoopy - Charles Schultz 2/5
2.) Marvel Comics Digest #2 Avengers 2/5
1.) Batman Serious House On Serious Earth - Grant Morrison 1/5
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piratenami · 3 months
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My StoryGraph Year in Books
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Toward the end of every year, StoryGraph (and Goodreads) both put together your past year in books with graphics and stats.
If anyone's curious, here's my 2023 in books:
https://app.thestorygraph.com/wrap-up/2023/piratenami
I think StoryGraph has more interesting stats and info than the GR one.
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ladyloveandjustice · 1 year
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My Favorite Books I Read in 2022
I read a TON of books in 2022- roughly 62, (and 54 separate graphic novels/manga series, but we’ll cover that in another post).  You can see them all here- the print books start with Hench.
This was thanks to how I started listening to audiobooks while doing chores/working out in addition to reading, and some downtime at the office where I checked out low effort reads. So I thought it would be fun to just give some very quick overviews of the best books I read this year.
First up is:
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 This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar 
Deliciously lyrical and lovely, this novella tells the story of two dangerous women who are rivals on the opposite side of a war fought through time-travel- they taunt each other through letters and ever-so-slowly fall in love. I failed to finish this when I attempted it a couple years ago, I wasn’t in the best place and while I knew the writing was great, I had a hard time processing all the information. I’m really glad I gave it another shot with the audiobook- the narration is wonderful and drew me right in. I would to each letter and then read it in print, tasting each word again like a drop of sweet, dark syrup. It’s got a wonderful fairy-tale element despite being a sci-fi and the colorful picture it paints of time-travel and the ever shifting identities and forms the characters take on is worth getting lost in.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
I listened to this on audiobook, and it was a great experience. I still have an image in my head of huddling in bed late at night, the narration like a dark, icy wind rattling the windowpane, yet each sentence cradled me and made me feel even cozier under the covers. Based on Polish folklore, the narrative follows a girl who tires of how the villagers spurn and scorn her family for being Jewish moneylenders, so she decides to take matters into her own hands- but her business saavy and talent for multiplying silver catches the attention of some fearful supernatural beings who want to cut a deal. Her story intersects with two other women- one a princess on the run from a demon, one a girl with a family in debt and a cruel father. It’s a sharp and biting fairytale with a lush sense of a setting. I had a few matter-of-my-own-taste quibbles with the ending, but it was a wonderful winter journey.
One Last Stop and I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
One Last Stop follows a college girl new to NYC who gets in a romance with a woman who seems to be mysteriously bound to a the subway- and bound to the wrong decade when she should be in the 1970′s! This is a full on mega-cheesy, tooth achingly sweet romance, but for once it’s kinda laser-targets at my gay, awkward self, so I actually really enjoyed it. I wasn’t even bored by the sex scenes and liked reading them, which is unusual for me.
I didn’t enjoy I Kissed Shara Wheeler quite as much, but it’s still worth a mention. The protagonist is a gay girl trying to adjust to existing in a Bible-Belt school, who receives a kiss and a mysterious letter from the supposedly perfect fundie popular girl Shara Wheeler- right before Shara disappears. It’s a YA, and it does a good job capturing what it’s like to be a teen-in-denial of how much they love mess when it comes to love interests, and touches on some of the struggles being queer in the conservative area, while striking down the idea everyone should just move to New York for salvation.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
This novella tales the tale of Yetu, a member of an undersea race descended from pregnant African women who were thrown off slave ships. She is tasked with carrying the memories and pain of all the generations of her people. It’s an affecting and gut-twisting examination of generational trauma and how one copes with it- is it possible to carry all that agony, or is it best to forget? The narration was a bit dry at times, but it’s a story that stays with you.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy
Heartbreaking but at times darkly funny, McCurdy’s memoir about her relationship with her abusive mother and struggles with child stardom is worth all the hype, in my opinion. The writing is punchy  and the story is told in short vignettes that make for an addicting read/listen. McCurdy does a great job communicating the degrading horror of both familial abuse and exploitative studios, while sardonically highlighting the absurdity the abuse thrives.
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Otherside Picnic Vol 7: Funeral of the Moon by Iori Miyazawa
Otherside Picnic truly has my heart. The stories themes of healing from abuse and trauma come to a triumphant crescendo in this volume where Sorawo decides to deal with the Satsuki problem once and for all. It actually inspired me to write a whole article about the themes surrounding trauma, abuse and recovery in this series and how wonderfully they’re handled, which should hopefully be out it couple months!
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Cows. Free Mustache Rides. Barbie. Nona is impossible to spoil. I got even more hype for The Locked Tomb series after re-experiencing the first two installments in the excellent audio books narrated by Moira Quirk, and Tamsyn Muir cracked my brain open all over again. We get to see a little bit more of what life is like outside the Nine Houses in this one. I found it a little more plodding than the previous two, but it’s still a great installment of my current favorite book series. I’m probably going to listen to the audiobook version soon, which considering I only read it a few months ago, that tells you just how much I enjoyed it.
Loveless by Alice Oseman
A YA following a university girl on a journey to realizing she’s aromantic-asexual.  Her fears and feelings of alienation drive her to make some bad choices and risk losing what’s really important. This book almost felt too painfully real- I’m not aromantic, but I came to terms with being asexual in college, and struggled in a similar way. I still struggle sometimes. But while the relatability was almost painful, I felt a deep kinship with this book, and these messy, silly teens and their messy, beautiful friendships. Asexuality is still so rarely talked about and represented that I’m really glad this is out there.
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
A haunting YA horror, the story follows Mars, a genderfluid kid who was chased out of a fancy rich-kid summer camp that enforces a strict gender binary. His sister remained at the camp and hung out with a group of beautiful, popular girls nicknamed the Honeys. After she ends up dead under suspicious circumstances, Mars goes back to camp to find the truth, but now he himself is hunted. With spooky and visceral prose, some pointed and well deployed social commentary, and an A+ atmosphere, this was a great October read. 
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I’d been stinging from disappointment from some books I’d been anticipating but found myself trudging through at times, so this page-turner was a breath of fresh air. The book is about a woman interviewing a movie star from the golden age of cinema known as Evelyn Hugo, only to find that her life was full of secrets and her seven husbands are far from the most interesting relationship in her life. The prose might be too simple for some, but I think it made sense in the context of a woman narrating her life to someone, and it made it very accessible. I knew the main 'twist' of the story, but there were lots more twists it pulled off well. I appreciate that Evelyn was so flawed, and that the book wasn't afraid to let the reader wrestle with a lot of the bad things she did while still showing areas where she deserved sympathy. There were a lot of parts I wish the book could have gone more in depth with (though in the context of a woman telling her life story, it did make sense she didn't in certain areas) and that the viewpoint character was a little more developed, but overall I really enjoyed this as a quick read.
Norse Mythology By Neil Gaiman
A great primer on Norse myth- there were only a couple of these I knew in detail, with a few other I knew about vaguely, and I found it to be a really entertaining and accessible read. Probably not as useful for a Norse Myth know-it-all, but it did a good job piquing my interest.
Bonus reads- these weren’t quite five stars, but were interesting enough to be worth mentioning!
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Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
In Hell, there’s a library for unfinished stories. The problem is, the characters sometime escape their stories and cause mayhem. It’s up to Hell’s librarian to wrangle them. This had a killer premise and likeable characters, but I found the narrative a little detached and thought it tried to do a little too much at once. Still definitely worth checking out for fans of stories about stories.
 Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
I read Dracula this year, but I found the classic lesbian vampire story held together a bit better overall, even if the ending was really anticlimactic. I loved the titular vampire. You can check out my reactions here!
T.J. Powar Has Something to Prove by Jesmeen Kaur Deo
This was a really sweet little YA story about an Indian-American girl dealing with the stigma around her body hair. I did find the debate parts a bit dull though, despite the fact I was in debate in high school
Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
 A story steeped in Jewish folklore where two siblings inherit a Baba Yaga house. I found the middle a bit of a slog (and there were a few characters who didn’t have a real reason to be there) but the ending came together really well.
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
A temp worker in the henchmen-for-supervillains business gets injured by a hero, and nursing a grudge, uses her statistics know how to destroy the superheroes in creative ways. Her talent catches the eye of the premiere villain, and she gets in deep. It was a really creative concept and biting look at the gig economy and the world of celebrity, and I enjoyed a lot of it! While the heroes are assholes, the stuff the villains do to them (and especially their families) can get pretty uncomfortable, which I found interesting in a morally-grey way but I did wonder about the weird fixation the book had with kidnapping children. I know it’s a go-to for supervillains, but it’s still weirdly overused. And while I don’t mind body horror, the ending was so fixated on it that I actually had to flip ahead to get through it, it was so repetitive and a little bizarre. Still, it stuck in my head and I’m down for a sequel.
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It was a good year in books and I’m looking forward to the next one!
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aimmyarrowshigh · 3 months
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My GoodReads Year in Books, 2023
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worm-priest · 3 months
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I decided to do something fun for the end of the year and made a chart of all the books I've read in 2023.
Some of the books are polish and don’t have a translation. Also if you’re wondering why the priory of the orange tree is on there twice it’s because in Poland the book was split into two parts ^^
I’ve put my favorites under the cut
☆ A tale for the time being
☆ Bunny
☆ The trial
☆ This is how we lose the time war
☆ Perfume
☆ Fight club
☆ Ring
☆ Hidden Valley Road
☆ The outsiders
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bermudianabroad · 3 months
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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.)
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queerhawkeyes · 3 months
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2023 reading recap
in reviewing my year in books, it seems like most everything was kind of so-so, with far less stand outs than previous years. I also read less than I wanted, mostly because graduating law school, taking the bar exam, and starting a full time job as a staff attorney was rather time consuming. that said, my top five books this year:
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz (contains an extremely accurate depiction of Vermont's beloved/beloathed RutVegas, and was one of three mystery/suspense novels about novels I read this year, the other two being Who is Maud Dixon? and The Writing Retreat)
Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang (funny, gross, self optimization but make it body horror and racism)
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather (queer space nuns against imperialism)
The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon (frankenstein but the horror is actually the history of eugenics in Vermont and also psychiatry, not the monsters)
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots (Nimona but with even more villains and more queerness and more disability)
interestingly, the last three were all December reads. Hench was possibly my favorite book this year--highly highly recommend.
my goal for 2024 is to read more weird creepy queer horror. if you have any recs, please share--the creepier the better.
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