It’s time to wrap my reads of 2023 in a bow, and crown my top three favorite reads of the year!

This year, I read 17 books. Every last one of them was “read” by listening them through Audible. And it’s time for me to narrow down what I’d recommend to a friend if she were to need a new book to pick up this new year.

-3- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt :: I love a story the follows different characters that don’t seem inter-related only to find out that they do in fact have a connection. I loved this sweet Octopus. I loved Tova and her quirks, and the way that she grew to love Marcellus, the octopus. It was such a beautiful story, easy to follow, and just a fun little read.

-2- Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi :: I’m also a sucker for a book that let’s me flip back and forth between present day and the past. Trying to piece together what events made these characters act and behave in the ways they do in present day. What has shaped their thoughts, their lives. What has caused them trauma. I loved the way the main character had to grapple with the way her past came to meet her in her present. Great book!

-1- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah :: Kristin Hannah does no wrong in my book. Her books captivate me. The writing, the characters, the way their stories interweave with each other. They break my heart and leave me endeared to them forever, and the Nightingale was no different. This book is set in World War II, and follows how women were able to assist in the war effort in Nazi held areas, risking their lives and flying under the radar because of their sex. It was simply fantastic and well deserved of my top spot for 2023!

It’s been many months since my last book review…many months. So I’m just going to call this my fall book review. 🙂 As always, I listened to all of these books as audiobooks. I rarely have time to sit and read an actual book…not to mention I’m the slowest reader on the face of the planet. So all of these opinions are based on listening to these books!

First up, was Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

(Summaries from Amazon)

What I’d say about this book was that it was mostly pretty light. It went remarkably fast. I found myself easily able to track the story and characters even while listening to it. Elizabeth Zott, the main character, is lovely. I love her independence and absolute refusal to comply with the gender norms of the time. I will say that my dislike for the book is primarily due to how uncomfortable I feel when women are not allowed to just be themselves and are held to different standards than men. I realize that was the time and era of when this book was set, but man, it just grates at me.

If you’re someone who likes to read a book before it becomes a movie/TV show, then this one might be for you. It just came out as a show on Apple TV. It’s on my list to watch sometime over Thanksgiving or Christmas break!

Next, I listened to Honor by Thrity Umrigar

In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide.

Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. As she follows the case of Meena—a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man—Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. But the dual love stories of Honor are as different as the cultures of Meena and Smita themselves: Smita realizes she has the freedom to enter into a casual affair, knowing she can decide later how much it means to her.

In this tender and evocative novel about love, hope, familial devotion, betrayal, and sacrifice, Thrity Umrigar shows us two courageous women trying to navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.

This book has incredible reviews, but for the same reasons that I struggled with Lessons in Chemistry, it absolutely destroys me when women are treated so poorly and unfairly. No matter how realistic and true to life that may be, it just truly bothers me. This book was well written, easy to listen to and follow, but the content was just absolutely heart wrenching. That coupled with the love story between the journalist covering the story and the Indian guide who helps her, and I just couldn’t really give myself over to this book. The love story felt thrown in like they felt it needed the romantic aspect to round out and draw in more readers. And it just wasn’t for me.

And lastly, I listened to The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then…six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes—they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann’s recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O’Brian, his portrayal of the castaways’ desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court-martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann’s work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the listener spellbound.

This book was recommended to me my Dad, and it was fascinating. It was so well researched and put together to take the listener through what it was like to be a seaman in the 1700’s, what they contended with on the waters and on shore. I enjoyed the dual lens of how two groups of sailors survived their shipwreck, what transpired on the desolate island, and how they made it back to civilization. I will say, I had to slow down my normal listening speed, because it was harder to keep up with the characters and the story due to the depth of the information. But overall, a good listen!

If you’re looking for a book to pick up this holiday season, here’s what I’ve read so far this year:

My 2023 Books:

• January:
  • Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff
  • Christmas in Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey
• March:
  • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
  • Spare by Prince Harry
  • Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
  • The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
• March/April:
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
  • Cribsheet by Emily Oster
• June:
  • Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
  • The 5 Love Languages of Children
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures
• August:
  • The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling (podcast)
  • I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
  • The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
  • Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish