my aspirations...

an introduction, looking back at my favorite reads of 2023, and what you can potentially expect from me in the future.

hello, friends old and new.

i’m excited to embark upon this new endeavor with you. nearly a year after leaving bookselling and many years of half-hearted attempts to fill the void left by the creativity and community a blog brought me in the ‘00s and ‘10s, the idea of starting something of a hybrid of those loves came to me. start a newsletter. talk about lots of stuff, but definitely talk about books.

i have no lofty goals - just to see where this takes me. i just want to write, and to share that writing with you. to read books and talk about them, and to maybe get y’all to read them and talk to me about them too! (yes, please reply to these emails and comment on the posts, i want to talk to y’all)

i chose this format because it’s intimate, but also reminiscent of blogging. i’m shouting into the void of the internet, but if i’m lucky maybe a few of you will come along for the ride with me.

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i’ve been tracking everything i read for a long time now. via various online platforms over the years, currently the storygraph, but also via spreadsheets, journals, and the notes app on my phone. also for the last few years, i’ve tried to gather my favorite reads of the year. whether it was for work when i was a bookseller, my personal instagram, or former blogging endeavors.

i usually read somewhere between 75-100 books a year. i do not say this as a brag, or as an indication that anyone else should also be reading this much - it just seems to end up this way every year. of the 80 books i read in 2023 the following were the ones that stood out.

the new life, by tom crewe: historical fiction about the writing and publishing of a seminal text on human sexuality, and homosexuality, in the 19th century - shortly before the text was published oscar wilde was arrested. this book held my attention and was a look at a book i never knew had been written. proof that queer activism is nothing new - and a reminder of the risks the generations before us undertook to gain understanding and awareness.

tell them of battles, kings, & elephants, by mathais énard: i will read any author or book recommendation john darnielle throws out - and he blurbed this book, especially shouting out charlotte mandell’s translation work. this was stunning, lush, and atmospheric. historical fiction chronicling the period michaelangelo was commissioned to design a bridge for constantinople.

saving time, by jenny odell: jenny odell has become a must-read for me. how to do nothing spurred a shift in my very being (dramatic, i know), and saving time did the same. i am hoping that as i age i can shift more and more into truly appreciating time and experiencing life without worrying about time.

recitatif, by toni morrison: i have a major confession. i’m not proud of this - but this was the first morrison i’ve read. you have to start somewhere and i’d had a review copy of the audiobook from libro.fm for awhile. it was amazing. i will now have to make my way through her catalog. i have a lot of catching up to do.

poverty, by america, by matthew desmond: desmond’s evicted is still on my tbr - but i went ahead and read poverty, by america this year. there’s a reason it was on nearly every booklist last year including obama’s favorite books of 2023. desmond focuses on the ways in which the “ordinary” middle-class american contributes to inequality and poverty citing the many instances in which the welfare in this country does not benefit the poor - but instead goes to the middle-class and the ultra-wealthy. he also explains how various laws, and both the lack of regulation and the intentional deregulation of certain things have contributed to those taking advantage of welfare in america being disproportionally, not those that need it. this was a fascinating read and landed among my other favorite books on wealth inequality in america - how to kill a city, etc.

kitchen, by banana yoshimoto: yoshimoto has long been one of my mother’s favorite authors, and for some reason or other i’d never gotten around to sitting down to read any of her work. early this year mom loaned me a nice stack of yoshimoto titles and this is the first one i read. i went in with no prior knowledge or expectations and was struck by how beautiful and calm the writing was even when something incredibly sad was taking place. i’ll be slowly making my way through yoshimoto’s work i’m sure.

the right to be lazy, by paul lafargue: lafargue is probably most famous for being karl marx’s son-in-law - and for in marx’s estimation more “marxist” than he himself was. regardless of just how marxist lafargue was or wasn’t the right to be lazy was far and away one of the most readable and accessible books of political theory i’ve read. the main takeaway of most of the essays boiling down to how valuable leisure and the right to “do nothing” is. there is also a delightful essay in which he just absolutely tears victor hugo to shreds - which is entertaining regardless of your views on hugo in my opinion.

having and being had, by eula biss: my friend michelle is literally a professional book recommender and this is something she’d years ago told me to read, but ironically my book job got in the way of me reading and i am so mad at myself for having not made time for this book sooner. a look at consumption and class through the personal essays of the author, and highly relatable. this quote from the back of the book was expertly chosen: "my adult life can be divided into two distinct parts," eula biss writes, "the time before i owned a washing machine and the time after."

borealis, by aisha sabatini sloan: i read this mostly on the tube in london this year, and there was something about reading this while in transit that felt perfect. sloan writes about blackness, queerness, art, and space in such a captivating way. while the majority of the work sees her in and out of alaska there are also mentions of her time in arizona - and i love seeing different authors’ perspectives on my home state.

other worthy mentions from this year include: leg, by greg marshall, visual thinking, by temple grandin, the anthropocene reviewed, by john green, predator, by ander monson, monsters, by claire dederer, pageboy, by elliot page, red white and royal blue, by casey mcquiston, this here flesh, by cole arthur riley, the tragedy of heterosexuality, by jane ward, turning pointe, by chloe angyal, free to obey, by johann chapoutot, and legends and lattes, by travis baldree.

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in the future, you’re likely to see a lot of lists from me. i love a list. i’ll of course be sharing more books, but i also plan on sharing things i’ve been cooking, music i’ve been listening to, and articles from across the internet that i think are worth reading. i’m also very much of the mind that urgency culture is something to push against. so while i’ll be sure to talk about newer releases and upcoming books, and other “now” topics - you’ll likely also be hearing about things that maybe slipped past your radar, and about backlist titles i love and can’t stop talking about.

thank you again, for joining me on this ride, and for seeing where it takes us.

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