Five Favorite Books From 2023

Before I rave about how well thought-out, felt and expressed this book is, let me say this; when Demon Copperhead was first published and given VERY high praise, I was reluctant to read it for two main reasons:

First, it’s 500 pages long.
Second, it is about the opioid crisis in Appalachia and I was afraid it would depress me.

Even after I purchased it, even after it won the Pulitzer Prize, the book sat on my shelf, untouched, for months. And while I can no longer recall what finally inspired me to overcome the inertia I’d built around reading it, I can only say that I’m deeply grateful I did.

I think I was craving a change in my own perspective and looking to venture into another life, one vastly different than mine, a life in which a person would not only have a different experience than me, but would also derive a different kind of wisdom from the world. And while Demon Copperhead did give me a window into a life very unlike my own, in a way, something about it felt not only personal but quite familiar. I suppose this is the magic of literature, that it lets us feel, experience, and wise up beyond our own means.

The 500 pages few by, and I don’t say that lightly.

The writing is very good, and the characters, the research, the subject matter, all come together to create a reading experience that feels at once raw and terrible, and incredibly beautiful and hopeful.

By the end I not only deeply care for Demon, the protagonist, but felt like my skin had been stretch around a greater understanding of humanity, life, and myself.

This book is a commitment, and you have to be game for that; you have to be game for a perspective shift. You also have to be game for a long haul reading experience since it is 500 pages. I couldn’t put it down and read it quite quickly despite its length, but as I said, I was in that kind of reading mood.

All that said, you should read it. Trust me, it’s brilliant.

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Now Is Not The Time to Panic

By Kevin Wilson

A page turner to be sure, Now Is Not The Time to Panic tells the story of innocence, creativity, and what it means to let your art be seen, consumed, absorbed. It’s fiction and follows two wonderfully unique characters from high school to later adulthood. It somehow captures the spirit of innocence and unadulterated creativity more purely than any book I’ve read. The writing is clear and concise, and the story moves along rather quickly. It is both interesting and a joy to read.

It deals with big topics, important topics, and so many feelings, but it seems to do so very efficiently; which is a testament to the skill of Kevin Wilson.

I loved this book, such a delight. And I thought about it daily for a long while after I finished it. It’s one of those books whose meaning sort of buries itself inside you.

If you love a good story, great writing, and a short read: this one’s for you!

Highly recommend.

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Each summer I go on a long backpacking trip somewhere far off the beaten path. I almost always bring a book with me, because I always have the intention to read in the evenings as I do at home. However, I never do end up reading the book I bring until I get back home. Such is the way with plans and intentions in the mountains; they collapse onto themselves constantly.

That changed the summer of 2023 when I carried Arctic Dreams along a 170 mile trek across the ridge line of Yosemite National Park.

I would be beat down, run down and bone tired at the end of a long day, and still, I’d stay up late into the night, my vision lit by the growing moon and the red beam of my headlamp, reading page after page about the mystical, magical, fierce, Arctic. The incredible evolutionary engineering behind polar bear fur and their winter rituals on sea ice; the auspiciousness of narwhals and the tooth that grows from their foreheads; years of explores being lost at sea; guttural storms; Inuit wisdom; the extraordinary existence of Polaris; and page upon page rich with the gentle observations only a sensitive writer could make about the most rugged wilderness of all.

Barry Lopez is a brilliant writer and deep thinker. This book is a gift, and absolutely gift.

If you love nature writing, this book will win your heart and soul, and make you want to set sail to the Arctic to live among the wild animals and the Eskimo.

If you love adventure writing, this book will keep you curious and on your toes.

If you love poetic writing, this book has sentences so beautiful they will crack you right open.

One of the highlights from backpacking in Yosemite was reading this book each night; and that right there tells you how wonderful it is.

Please get it and read it well.

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Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow

By Gabrielle Zevin

Of all the books I read this year this one surprised me the most. I expected not to like this book- which is a funny thing to say in a recommendation, but it’s true. My expectation of dislike stemmed from the knowledge that the plot is centered around and driven by video games.

Now, neither I nor anyone in my home play video games. To be sure, we don’t even have a television. So reading a story that revolves around video games sounds about as interesting to me as watching paint dry. However, and this is a huge however, Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow is not actually about video games; and not only that, as a reader you don’t need to enjoy, play, or know anything about video games in order to get completely swept up in the characters, their relationships, and their journey of love and growth from childhood to adulthood.

I gave this book a shot based on a review that extolled its brilliance with the caveat that it’s not about about video games despite what the synopsis says. I expected not to like it, but, big surprise, it became one of my favorite books of the year.

The writing is so smooth, so unique, and so flat out good that each senstence feels perfect. The characters are complex and extraordinary relatable and lovable.

Love and loss, and those intangible connections that remain through radical life changes and the passage of time, this is what the book’s about.

It is beautiful on so many levels and I couldn’t recommend it enough. The writing is witty and heartfelt and honest.

It is a page turner. I couldn’t put it down.

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Okay. Now. Hamnet was one of the first books I read in 2023, and when I finished it I remember thinking, This is one of the best books I will read this year, This is one of the best books I’ve ever read.

To say it is utterly, magically, geniusly brilliant is even to fall short of just how wonderful it actually is.

The story is a fictional telling of the short life of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet who died at eleven years old from the black plague, after which Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, arguably his best and most famous plays.

In this book you get to spend a lot of time with Agnus, Hamnet’s mother, Shakespeare’s wife, rather than with Shakespeare or Hamnet themselves. Which is such a treat because she is a highly interesting character that gives you a unique view of Shakespeare and family they created together.

Hamnet dies, that is not a spoiler, and with that comes the immense, unmooring grief of a mother who has to bury a child. And so, it is very sad at times; of course, it has to be. But somehow in the perfection of her writing and the sheer magic of her story, O’Farrell’s book is far more beautiful than it is sad; strikingly, unbelievably beautiful.

More than any other book I’ve read, this one has stuck with me. I think back to it often. It is that special of a book.

From Hamnet I fell in love with Maggie O’Farrell’s and proceeded to read every single one of her books over the course of 2023. Yes, I read all 8 of them. The Marriage Portrait, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, & After You’d Gone, are some of my other favorites by her. That said, Hamnet is exceptional.

If you there is only one book you read from my selection, I hope it’s this one. And be sure to let me know what you think.

Highest recommendation possible!

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Honorable mention:

Monsters : A fan’s Dillemma by Claire Dederer

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

Both of these books were difficult to read at times, and neither were my favorite, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that they moved me and had an impact on how I see the world; and that is a pretty special gift for a book to give.