In February I left my beloved London flat that was so ideally situated above a Waterstone’s (literally less than a minute out of my day to pop in and buy a book, my bookshelves are still groaning with the weight of the books I accumulated from three years of living in the danger zone) and moved to a spot in Brooklyn that, while pleasant and cozy, is a cool 22 minutes walk from a bookstore that I actually like (my nearest bookstore, while it is indeed very close by, is a romance shop, I gave the genre a try and that was my only 1-star rated book of the year).
Even with this dismal change in reading circumstances, I think I did a respectable amount of reading, closing out at 105 books for the year. Of these, 38 were non-fiction, a “good” ratio for me given my propensity to load up on “junky” literary fiction. Sadly, I failed to finish a single book in Chinese, though I read about 50 pages of one and I’ll keep plugging away at it in 2024 when I can muster the energy; please encourage me to do better.
Note on my ratings: These are arbitrarily weighted scores based on how much I enjoyed the writing, how much the stories or ideas influenced my thinking, and/or how likely I’ve been to recommend the book. Based on the latter two criteria, it’s mostly non-fiction that I’ve assigned 5-star ratings, but as is probably evident based on sheer volume, for pure enjoyment it’s litfic for me all the way.
1. Nefertiti, Michelle Moran ⭐⭐⭐
2. The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality, Kathryn Paige Harden ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
3. The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood ⭐⭐⭐⭐
4. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Ed Yong ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5. A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
6. Widow Basquiat, Jennifer Clement ⭐⭐⭐⭐
7. Spare, Prince Harry ⭐⭐⭐
8. The Story of Art Without Men, Katy Hessel ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
9. Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story, Natalie Haynes ⭐⭐⭐⭐
10. Really Good, Actually, Monica Heisey ⭐⭐⭐
11. The Trees, Percival Everett ⭐⭐⭐
12. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics, Tim Marshall ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
13. Takeaway, Angela Hui ⭐⭐⭐⭐
14. Godmersham Park, Gill Hornby ⭐⭐⭐⭐
15. The History of England, Jane Austen ⭐⭐⭐⭐
16. Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors ⭐⭐⭐⭐
17. The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer, Anne Marie O’Connor ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
18. Love, Leda, Mark Hyatt ⭐⭐⭐⭐
19. Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It, Kaitlyn Tiffany ⭐⭐⭐
20. The Paris Bookseller, Kerri Maher ⭐⭐⭐
21. French Exit, Patrick deWitt ⭐⭐⭐
22. All That We Are, Gabriella Braun ⭐⭐⭐
23. Babel: An Arcane History, R. F. Kuang ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
24. Build Your House Around My Body, Violet Kupersmith ⭐⭐⭐⭐
25. Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino ⭐⭐⭐⭐
26. A Diamond in the Desert: Behind the Scenes in Abu Dhabi, the World’s Richest City, Jo Tatchell ⭐⭐⭐
27. Frankenstein in Baghdad, Ahmed Saadawi ⭐⭐⭐
28. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck ⭐⭐
29. This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone ⭐⭐⭐
30. The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders ⭐⭐⭐
31. Victory City, Salman Rushdie ⭐⭐⭐⭐
32. A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
33. The Candy House, Jennifer Egan ⭐⭐⭐
34. Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel ⭐⭐⭐⭐
35. Buried: An Alternative History of the First Millennium in Britain, Alice Roberts ⭐⭐⭐
36. Disorientation, Elaine Hsieh Chou ⭐⭐
37. The Book of Unknown Americans, Cristina Henríquez ⭐⭐⭐⭐
38. Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World, Lauren Fleshman ⭐⭐⭐
39. Our Missing Hearts, Celeste Ng ⭐⭐⭐⭐
40. Central Places, Delia Cai ⭐⭐⭐⭐
41. Stay True, Hua Hsu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
42. Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
43. Yellowface, R. F. Kuang ⭐⭐
44. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelly Van Pelt ⭐⭐⭐⭐
45. Kintu, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi ⭐⭐⭐⭐
46. Trust, Hernan Diaz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
47. Continuous Discovery Habits, Teresa Torres ⭐⭐⭐⭐
48. You Can’t Stay Here Forever, Katherine Lin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
49. I Who Have Never Known Men, Jacqueline Harpman ⭐⭐⭐⭐
50. The Portfolio Life, Christina Wallace ⭐⭐⭐⭐
51. To Paradise, Hanya Yanagihara ⭐⭐⭐⭐
52. The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune ⭐⭐⭐⭐
53. Learning from Las Vegas, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Steven Izenour ⭐⭐⭐⭐
54. Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
55. Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver ⭐⭐⭐⭐
56. Fiona and Jane, Jean Chen Ho ⭐⭐⭐
57. The Cherry Robbers, Sarai Walker ⭐⭐⭐
58. Monogamy, Sue Miller ⭐⭐⭐⭐
59. Yerba Buena, Nina Lacour ⭐⭐⭐⭐
60. If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
61. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
62. Cultish, Amanda Montell ⭐⭐⭐⭐
63. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
64. Take a Nap! Change Your Life., Sara C. Mednick ⭐⭐⭐
65. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
66. People We Meet on Vacation, Emily Henry ⭐⭐⭐⭐
67. Book Lovers, Emily Henry ⭐⭐⭐⭐
68. Greek Lessons, Han Kang ⭐⭐⭐
69. Wonder Boy: Tony Hsieh, Zappos, and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley, Angel Au-yeung and David Jeans ⭐⭐⭐⭐
70. The Latecomer, Jean Hanff Korelitz ⭐⭐⭐⭐
71. Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital, Elise Hu ⭐⭐⭐
72. Provence in Ten Easy Lessons, Peter Mayle ⭐⭐⭐⭐
73. Villa America, Lisa Klaussman ⭐⭐⭐⭐
74. I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Baek Sehee ⭐⭐⭐
75. Goodbye, Vitamin, Rachel Khong ⭐⭐⭐
76. Rules of Engagement, Selena Montgomery ⭐
77. Happy Place, Emily Henry ⭐⭐⭐⭐
78. The Bond King, Mary Childs ⭐⭐⭐⭐
79. The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
80. The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai ⭐⭐⭐⭐
81. Your Face Belongs to Us, Kashmir Hill ⭐⭐⭐⭐
82. All Adults Here, Emma Straub ⭐⭐⭐
83. At Vesuvio, Joanna Blanche Lioce ⭐⭐⭐⭐
84. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison ⭐⭐⭐⭐
85. The Guest, Emma Cline ⭐⭐⭐
86. Horse, Geraldine Brooks ⭐⭐⭐⭐
87. Adelaide, Genevieve Wheeler ⭐⭐⭐
88. Pageboy, Elliot Page ⭐⭐
89. Loveboat, Taipei, Abigail Hing Wen ⭐⭐⭐⭐
90. Simply Clean: The Proven Method for Keeping Your Home Clean, Organized, and Beautiful, Becky Rapinchuk ⭐⭐⭐⭐
91. Emma, Jane Austen ⭐⭐⭐
92. Barbarians at the Gate, Bryan Burrough and John Helyar ⭐⭐⭐⭐
93. Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf ⭐⭐⭐⭐
94. Western Lane, Chetna Maroo ⭐⭐⭐⭐
95. Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, Lisa See ⭐⭐⭐
96. What Kind of Woman: Poems, Kate Baer ⭐⭐⭐⭐
97. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, Peter Attia ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
98. Prophet Song, Paul Lynch ⭐⭐⭐⭐
99. The Woman in Me, Britney Spears ⭐⭐⭐
100. Unmasking AI, Joy Buolamwini ⭐⭐⭐⭐
101. Loot: A Novel, Tania James ⭐⭐⭐⭐
102. If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery ⭐⭐⭐⭐
103. The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
104. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa ⭐⭐⭐
105. Conversations on Love, Natasha Lunn ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐