Top 10 books for 2023
I tried to give this some order but I am not the most organized being alive. I am proud of having read 49 books, and I take it as a symbol of the fact that I have finally been able, in the past few years, to go back to reading. My love for books and words got me through hard times, and now that I'm doing better and I can make more time for myself, I'm glad I can dedicate myself to this.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Most beautiful and haunting book I've ever read. Kind of hope no book will ever hurt me like this ever again. I loved it but at the same time I had to talk to my therapist best friend multiple times about this because the damage it could have done to me...
Still. Most beautiful book of the year.
2. Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney gets me in ways I'm not sure I want people I know to get me, let alone a random book I pick up because I liked Normal People like three years ago.
3. Palestinian Trilogy by Mahmoud Darwish
Anthology made up by Journal of an Ordinary Grief (1973), Memory of Forgetfullness (1987), and In the Presence of Absence (2009). It's one of the most poetic and heartbreaking books I've ever read, and one of the books I have been recommending since I finished it in early 2023.
4. Ghosts by Dolly Aderton
Dolly Alderton also gets me in ways I'd rather perople not get me, and she makes me laugh a lot. And cry.
5. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia could write a grocery's list and I would read it and love it.
6. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Technically a reread, but this was my favorite book at 17 and I'm glad it still is as beautiful as I remember.
7. The Wicked King by Holly Black
I technically rated Queen of Nothing higher than Wicked King but... I think this is more dramatic and iconic and if I have to choose between a kidnapping and an exile I'll always choose the kidnapping.
8. Tutta intera by Espérance Hakuzwimana
Best Italian novel I read in several years. If it doesn't get translated in 204610464 languages then what's the point.
9. Tre ciotole by Michela Murgia
This year we also lost author and activist Michela Murgia. It still feels like I lost my cool auntie, and I know it shouldn't, but it does. To cope I read this and... yeah.
10. If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura
If we consider how short it is and how much I cried reading it... it was probably a sob every two pages.
Honorable mentions:
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (not incluced because I wanted to keep only 1 book per author).
Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong (extremely tough decision between this and Genki Kawamura, but I had to go with the book that made me cry the most. I will remember 2023 as the year of the Shanghai duologies though, and this is by far my favorite book of the series).