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What was your favourite book of 2023?

93 replies

BrandyandGinger · 10/12/2023 21:41

It doesn't have to have been published in 2023, just read by you in the last year.
I think mine was Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan. I also loved The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and Amy and Lan by Sadie Jones.
Disclaimer: I bought myself Demon Copperhead for Christmas so it's not impossible that I might change my top choice later.

OP posts:
GalileoHumpkins · 11/12/2023 18:56

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Yes, this one as well. Loved Yellowface but it didn't quite make it as a favourite.

CatChant · 11/12/2023 18:59

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. I enjoyed it so much I re-read the other two, Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies, and then immediately read it again. It really was worth reading the three together - minor events in the earlier books became significant and I could appreciate the characters so much more.

Celestial Navigation by Anne Tyler. She is always a pleasure to read.

cloudjumper · 11/12/2023 19:28

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby, great read. Not for the faint-hearted, though!
And I re-read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and loved it just as much the second time.

Softwintersun · 11/12/2023 19:33

Me before you. Jojo moyes

ShitIforgothelves · 11/12/2023 19:36

I'm halfway through Demon Copperhead, not massively loving it.

ChrisPriss · 11/12/2023 19:48

An Eye for an Eye by MJ Arlidge is excellent.
(Demon Copperhead is going to be my Christmas Eve treat!)

LinkedinLovely · 11/12/2023 22:44

I've also read both The Plot and Yellowface recently, and my top book this year was Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward, which is also based on writers and telling other people's stories.

BlueFairyBugsBooks · 11/12/2023 22:54

For me it's a toss up between:

Being a Woman... Who's Had Enough by Lynn B. Mann

The Thief The Harlot and The Healer by M.E Clements

Casual Cruelties by Alison Irving.

I had a few 5 star reads this year. But I think they were my favourites.

pastypirate · 11/12/2023 23:43

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It was the book I finished after years of not being able to cope with reading fiction. I gave it to dd1 who is 14 and loved it too. We have given it away to a gaming friend who was v excited about it.

I have lessons in chemistry ready.

Floralovesflowers · 12/12/2023 07:06

Demon Copperhead without a doubt swiftly followed by
Still life by Sarah Winman

JaninaDuszejko · 12/12/2023 08:21

viktoria · 11/12/2023 18:07

I enjoyed Yellowface, (which obviously is about a writer stealing a plot from another writer) but curiously enough, after I had read it I came across The Plot which had been published a couple of years earlier than Yellowface, ....and its plot is about a writer stealing a plot from another writer...
How postmodern (is that the right term!?)!
Anyway - I absolutely LOVED The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz... more so than Yellowface actually

Show quote history

You might also enjoy Morvern Callar by Alan Warner, a book published in 1995 about a woman who claims her boyfriend's novel is hers after he commits suicide.

Rainbowqueeen · 12/12/2023 08:24

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton.

My Christmas treat is going to be The Running Grave. Can’t wait!

JustAnotherCunningStunt · 12/12/2023 08:25

My favourite was Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Probably because it was just what I needed at that time in my reading year.

Also really enjoyed Yellowface.

JustAnotherCunningStunt · 12/12/2023 08:29

@LinkedinLovely i just looked up ‘Looking Glass Sound.’ Is it a ghost story? If so will steer clear as I invariably end up unable to sleep…

(Crime fic no problem…)

vestedinterests · 12/12/2023 08:34

.

JaninaDuszejko · 12/12/2023 09:33

My favourite books of the year were:

South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel
Childhood, Youth, Dependency by Tove Ditlevsen

biedrona · 12/12/2023 10:06

American Dirt
Demon C
My dark Vanessa

pastypirate · 12/12/2023 14:41

Am I going to feel about demon copperhead the way I do about shuggie Bain though? Which I wanted to burn

TheDonsDingleberries · 12/12/2023 14:48

Non Fiction:
The Only Plane In The Sky - The Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

Fiction:
Beartown by Frederik Backman

ToastandJamandTea · 12/12/2023 15:00

Demon copperhead and Limberlost have been my two favourites this year.

GarlicMaybeNot · 12/12/2023 15:05

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. I was deeply immersed, its 'universe' (the Library) stayed with me for months, and I've got the sequel on pre-order!

StColumbofNavron · 12/12/2023 15:14

I think I have a couple more books in me before end of year and I rarely read new releases until about 5 years after everyone else.

I think my standouts are:

My Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier (she just reels me in)

Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan (genuis really for someone so young when she wrote it)

Jamilia, Isaac Aitmatov (loved this, loved it)

Some Tame Gazelle, Barbara Pym (really appreciated the twee Britishness of this one when I needed a nice gentle read)

StColumbofNavron · 12/12/2023 16:13

Oh my goodness... it is Chingis Aitmativ and I have left off the translators.

mambojambodothetango · 12/12/2023 16:34

The Romantic by William Boyd. Also enjoyed Killing Commandatore by Haruki Murukami and am currently reading Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson.

U2HasTheEdge · 12/12/2023 17:45

I can't pick just one, but my standouts are:

Demon Copperhead
Running Grave
Tom Lake
Strange Sally Diamond
The Island of Sea Women