The Curator: everything I read in 2023

The good, the bad, and the book club

A couple of weeks ago I shared with you my top ten books of 2023. I think it is very important you also hear about the books I hated.

Someone recently made the point that individual book taste is the single most important factor when accepting a book recommendation. If you don’t know what books I would burn for warmth, how do you know if we have similar tastes? The picture, as it stands, is incomplete.

I encounter this the most on Bookstagram. If I am considering a book rec from a book friend, I need to know their book vibe. Are we doing genre or lit fic or both? Where do they fall on the Romance-to-horror axis? Do they hate cats? Red flags include “not getting” The Secret History, only reading from Reese’s book club, or loving Riley Sager

Now that I am sharing with you all this personal information that also happens to be public on Goodreads, you can really start to understand if you trust my reviews. Fun!

I also forgot to tell you that all the book awards I passed out two weeks ago to my top ten 2023 reads were made up. I picked my favorites and then made up superlatives that fit what I had on the list. I need you to know that so you know my top books are the top books, regardless of what category they might fall into. Everything is made up and nothing is real.

So anyway, enjoy this giant list of books! Cheers 🥂

---

Every Book I Read in 2023

Lifetime Shelfmates🖤

Just a lil reminder or if you are new here, these are my top reads of 2023. Notably, I read all of these mostly in physical form except for I’m Glad My Mom Died, the only audiobook in the top ten. That probably says more about me than the quality of any given audiobook.

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

• No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

• I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

• The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis

• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

• Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

• North Woods by Daniel Mason

• Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

Friends With Benefits 😘

Excellent writing, compelling stories, maybe a tiny thing missing or minor qualm that kept them out of the top ten. The Secret History was a reread so it wasn’t on the ballot for Top Ten due to double jeopardy.

• Trust by Hernan Diaz

• Heartburn by Nora Ephron

• The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

• Triptych by Karin Slaughter

• Still Life by Louise Penny

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt

You Can Sit With Us 🎀

A group of solid reads. They showed up and kept me company. They brought me joy or made me think. They are always invited to the cookout (but maybe not to the intimate dinner party).

• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

• Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

• Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

• Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

• Psycho by Robert Bloch

• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

• My Body by Emily Ratajkowski

• Educated by Tara Westover

• I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

• Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

• Mindhunter by John E. Douglas

• The Godfather by Mario Puzo

• The Killer Across the Table by John E. Douglas

Books I Would Let Stay the Night 👌

Ok, these might not be objectively good books, but they sure as hell were entertaining. Most are memoirs so perhaps I just don’t know what makes a good memoir.

• Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison

• Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom

• The Night House by Jo Nesbo

• Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar

• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

• Open Book by Jessica Simpson

• Strip Tees by Kate Flannery

I’m Not Mad I’m Just Disappointed 🙎‍♀️

Look, listen. ALL of these let me down. They weren't completely unfortunate, but they fell flat, missed out, or didn’t meet my expectations (perhaps because of hype). I wouldn’t not recommend them but I would have to know you pretty well to give any of these serious bankrolling.

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

• Babel by R.F. Kuang

• The Crow Girl by Erik Alx Sund

• The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

• Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

• Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

• Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

• Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

• Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

• The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

I was Swindled 🏴‍☠️

The first two on the list are the unfortunate consequence of book club - letting other people dictate my reading choices is just never going to work. The last was an unfortunate side effect of nostalgia and *magical* marketing. Mad Honey was so bad I still haven’t published my scathing review because I’m afraid of Mr. Karma.

• Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult

• Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey

• Mister Magic by Kiersten White

And that’s my entire reading year distilled into a few lists. It’s humbling to see it all written out, to examine my personal choices and notice my own biases. This year I hope to avoid the swindles and focus more on the lifetime shelfmates, but sometimes you gotta kiss some frogs that happen to look like a good book.

If you have any thoughts or opinions about a book on this list, I would love to hear them - even if you think I’m batshit wrong 🙃.

---

READING →

• Still lugging The Stand around the house and then mostly reading it on my Kindle because re: kittens but holding a big fat floppy 1,000-page book in your hands is severely underrated.

• I also started The Creative ACT by Rick Rubin like everyone else who listens to Huberman Lab podcast and now I just want Rick Rubin to read me bedtime stories for the rest of my life.

WATCHING →

Not Saltburn.

But really I must watch Saltburn because I feel left out. And then I’ll rewatch Tom Ripley.

On Christmas break, we started Schitt’s Creek over from the beginning and I forgot how much of a joy this series is. I’ve even started co-opting David’s “chic goth” look as much as possible without getting side eyes from my coworkers.

---

NEW BOOKS →

include a story about generational trauma, an ex-cop trying to rescue a young girl by battling ex-cons, and a thriller all the book clubs are clubbing.

BOOK NEWS →

• The Millions continues to tell us what books will be important this year. They are rarely wrong.

• The story of Brittany Watts makes me want to scream and throw up and up my monthly donation to Planned Parenthood.

• The best memoirs of 2023 according to Vulture. Looks like I missed out on a few.

RESTACK OF THE WEEK →

The post may be “for” writers, but I think we also need to get comfortable as readers with weird little freak narrators (or characters in general). I have zero desire to date fictional characters so why not make them as interesting as possible?

Why Your Narrator Should Be a Weird Little Freak

AND CATS →

Because I think we all wish we could be this cute and furry.

Rizzie as a no-nonsense train conductor and Minnie as a lion surveying her land

LET’S CHAT →

• What is your reading red flag?

• How do you feel about the books you read in 2023?

• Which book that I loved did you hate? (None because my taste is perfect).

---

In Case You Missed It

The Curator: Book Movies for the Holidays

The Curator: Romanticize Your Reading Life

The Curator: Romanticize Your Reading Life

---

This newsletter contains affiliate links. If you purchase using one of the links above, I will earn a baby-sized commission at no cost to you. Comment, share, repost, upgrade to paid, or buy me a coffee to support my work. Follow me @ thebookcreep on Instagram for pretty book pictures. Your support (monetary or not) is why I keep going, so thank you.

See you around the bookshelf!

Natalie