Books in Review: 2023

[gothwalk]

I thought I had done a fiction-reading post like this last year, and now can't find it. Turns out it was in August of 2022, when I crossed the 100 book threshold that year, and also I posted it on Facebook. This year hasn't been nearly so dense in terms of books read; I capped out at 86 compared to the previous year's 138. A number of those I read this year turn out to have been very chunky, though, which is a thing I haven't learned to judge with ebooks. And there were a few I didn't finish, mostly because I realised I'd rather do other things than read them, so I gave up and moved on to something else.

I have been trying to read more books by women and non-binary authors than by men, and I'm happy enough with the outcome of this that I'll mostly continue. I do intend to re-read a lot of Pratchett this year, which will likely skew my numbers. I didn't chase that nearly as hard in 2023 as I did in 2022 - most of this year's reading came from either "new books by authors I like" or "recommendations that turned up on social media or newsletters", so I'm quite pleased that the numbers are still skewing heavily away from dudes.

So:

Year	Books Read	Percentage Books by Women & NB	Percentage Women & NB Authors
2022	138	80.58%	74.71%
2023	86	73.63%	69.01%

I'm not going to chase hard on the number of books I read in 2024, but I am halfway through the second one already.

Highlights from 2023:

Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education: This was a re-read; I didn't really get it the first time through. Second reading was much better, and I went to on to read both sequels. Highly recommended.

Annalee Newitz' The Terraformers: I didn't think it was great while I was reading it, but it has absolutely and thoroughly stuck in my head since, and I've gone back to it a few times to pull out details. It's a deeply interesting book, and I reckon we'll see more like it in the next few years.

T. Kingfisher's A House With Good Bones was as usual stellar. Later in the year, Thornhedge and Paladin's Faith by the same author were also excellent. I am reasonably certain that anything she writes will be similar, and her characters' level of practicality and sense (from my point of view, at least) makes it very easy for me to relate to them.

Nicola Griffith's Hild is almost entirely a historical novel, rather than fantasy, and I was still all over it. I am looking forward very much to the sequel.

H. A. Clarke's The Scapegracers and its sequel The Scratch Daughters are both odd books in an almost jarring abrupt narrative style, but I recommend them highly. Teenage witches wreaking magical revenge on various deserving people.

Gareth Hanrahan's The Sword Defiant is totally different to his first trilogy, and again I recommend it very greatly. It's a sort of long-form commentary on the concept of "adventurers" in the fantasy genre.

Martha Wells' System Collapse is the latest Murderbot book, and I think I'll be re-reading all of those this year too, and looking forward to whatever she does next. I also read her The Witch King, which was great, but didn't have Murderbot in it, and therefore just couldn't be as good.

And Emma Törzs' Ink Blood Sister Scribe reminded me of Leigh Bardugo's books, but somehow with a deeper, more thought-out world and more relatable characters. I love Bardugo's settings, but I sometimes have a tough time getting on with the people in her books; this did not have that issue.

Comments

[chocolatepot]

Ooh, I think I meant to look into Hild!

Ink Blood Sister Scribe was so interesting. I wasn't sure it would resonate with me at first, but then I was halfway through in the blink of an eye.

[malinaldarose]

I had difficulty with A Deadly Education, but persevered and ended up loving the series.

[bastun]

I have a plan to re-read all of Pratchett, or, in the case of his final Discworld book, to read it for the first time. Which will be very bittersweet.