Thank you so much for mentioning my book - it's such high praise from any voracious, dedicated reader and of course your appreciation means a lot to me!
Some of my favorites from a quick glance at my list are
POVERTY, BY AMERICA by Matthew Desmond (nf)
DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver (litfic)
NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo (creepy magic-time fiction with a side of class anxiety)
Evicted is obviously much longer, and written much more through a story lens. Poverty, by America is a quicker read (but in some ways heavier!) and has some info I regularly use as a reference! I just really like how Desmond writes with such empathy and clarity even as he's doing rigorous social science.
Worth the wait to have Meryl Streep act out this book on audio. I usually prefer a read over audio. But this one? Just like I felt having Beth Moore read me her memoir... Amazing audio experience!
Yessss one of my fav field notes to receive this time of year! I've read about 1/2 of your non-fiction list and 1/3 of your fiction list, so I look forward to adding some new reads to my Goodreads!
My top 10 list is ALL non-fiction. But I'll share a couple honourable fiction mentions:
Top 10 in no particular order (so far from the 159 books I've finished this year):
- Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
- On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
- My Body and Other Crumbling Empires by Lyndsey Medford
- My Body is not a Prayer Request by Amy Kenny
- Uncultured: A Memoir by Danielle Mestyanek Young
- On Our Best Behaviour: The Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen
- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake (yes his real name)
- #10 is up for debate right now, but currently is held by The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
Fiction mentions:
- Horse by Geraldine Brooks
- The Measure by Nikki Erlick
- Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
- Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel
- The Things we Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
Could also list another 10 - 5 star reads but will practice some restraint 😅 Thanks again for sharing!
Oh it's so very good. I read it for book club (I'm in a bookclub of 2 😅). My friend saw him speak, too. Highly recommend for anyone's spiritual and Indigenous-specific anti-racism journey.
Hiii! Let's hang out at my Substack 😉😉😉 it's such an honor to hear that my story mattered to you this year! Thanks for reading and talking books. So interested to get my hands on Invisible Women.
I loved Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land by Krueger. I just picked up The River We Remember and I can't wait to get started.
Also reading a thriller called Going Zero. No explosions or killings but a page turner about a company that collects and analyzes data of all kinds. They offer 3 million dollars to 10 people if they can disappear and remain unfound for a month. Fascinating look at how data is collected, what it's used for and what's actually legal.
Going onto Libby and deleting holds so I can add all these new ones! I LOVED All my Knotted Up Life, too -- I so appreciated how vulnerable Beth is willing to be with us. And I just got Ordinary Grace from the library and can't wait to start. My favourites this year? I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet, Undistracted, On a Night of a Thousand Stars, The Premonition, The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Measure, and I finally read The Year of Biblical Womanhood, which made me laugh, learn and cry for all we have lost in RHE (but so thankful we can still treasure her wisdom). Thanks so much for your heartfelt recommendations! I look forward to them every year!
I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet is one of those books where nearly every chapter left me thinking, "so I'm not just crazy?!" 😂 The audiobook in particular has kept me company on some rough days 💚
Body Work was my introduction to Melissa Febos - definitely a masterclass! I actually highlighted and scribbled notes in the copy I bought for my best friend (we’re both in the raising tinies stage so getting to talk about the books we recommend back and forth rarely happens)
*Shark Heart a Love Story by Emily Habeck (There's nothing else like it, the premise sounds so odd but it is a completely beautiful read and nearly everyone I've recommended it to-- which is a lot of people because I'm a book seller 😂-- has joined me in my campaign to get the whole world to read it 🦈💙)
*Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (listen to the audiobook for an even better experience)
Okay! I had a friend text me after I published this list yesterday and say, YOU HAVE TO READ SHARK HEART. So this checks out! I will add it to my list, for sure.
My Favorite Books of 2023 (in the order of reading them):
-Glory Happening by Kaitlin Curtice
-The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
-Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
-The Unfolding: An Invitation to Come to Yourself by Arielle Estoria
-Everybody Come Alive by Marcie Alvis Walker
I have also discovered the joys that are Audiobooks and Goodreads this year. Currently on a mad dash to finish my pledged 25 books, but I have told myself that I will be content with 20 books.
75% of the books I consume are audiobooks through the local library! It's such a gift. And thank goodness for Goodreads tracking and finding new reads :)
My favorite novel was The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. I heard about it from this community a few years ago, but didn't pick it up because I worried it would feel blasphemous. Several years of deconstructing later, it was the right read at the right time, and has led me to the realization that I don't know that I believe in a God of rescue any longer, but I do believe in a God of presence, and that realization has been a thread that has helped me continue to hold onto some measure of faith this year.
My other fiction recs are all YA magical realism. I loved Cemetery Boys and The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (these ones have fantastic trans characters), as well as When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb, which is described as a queer, immigrant fairytale, and which I found quirky and delightful.
For nonfiction, the one I found most impactful was Equal Partners by Kate Mangino. It unpacked gender roles in the home, and offered many helpful suggestions for what reimagining them could look like. My other nonfiction rec is a collection of essays called We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents edited by Eliza Hull.
The one other book I'd like to throw in here is a picture book (a genre I've been re-exploring) called Little Witch Hazel by Phoebe Wahl. The illustrations are charming, and the author slips in representation of so many different communities and identities just as part of the illustrations.
We’ve Got This is incredible!! As a disabled person who is contemplating parenthood, it’s been mind-expanding and world-expanding but I truly think everyone should read it
*maxes out my library holds*
😂
Same! 😂 is it terrible to hope there are no Field Notes readers that share my library?😜
Thank you so much for mentioning my book - it's such high praise from any voracious, dedicated reader and of course your appreciation means a lot to me!
Some of my favorites from a quick glance at my list are
POVERTY, BY AMERICA by Matthew Desmond (nf)
DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver (litfic)
NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo (creepy magic-time fiction with a side of class anxiety)
Loved your book, Lyndsey! Thanks for writing it!
I have Poverty, by America, but I haven't read it yet. (Same with his other book, Evicted.)
Evicted is obviously much longer, and written much more through a story lens. Poverty, by America is a quicker read (but in some ways heavier!) and has some info I regularly use as a reference! I just really like how Desmond writes with such empathy and clarity even as he's doing rigorous social science.
Sounds great! Looking forward to them both!
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. The audio book is read by Meryl Streep. So good!!!
It is going to take FOREVER for that hold to come in at the library. I might just buy it. I've heard such good things.
Worth the wait to have Meryl Streep act out this book on audio. I usually prefer a read over audio. But this one? Just like I felt having Beth Moore read me her memoir... Amazing audio experience!
I'm 165th in line at the library right now 😅
Yessss one of my fav field notes to receive this time of year! I've read about 1/2 of your non-fiction list and 1/3 of your fiction list, so I look forward to adding some new reads to my Goodreads!
My top 10 list is ALL non-fiction. But I'll share a couple honourable fiction mentions:
Top 10 in no particular order (so far from the 159 books I've finished this year):
- Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
- On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
- Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
- My Body and Other Crumbling Empires by Lyndsey Medford
- My Body is not a Prayer Request by Amy Kenny
- Uncultured: A Memoir by Danielle Mestyanek Young
- On Our Best Behaviour: The Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen
- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake (yes his real name)
- #10 is up for debate right now, but currently is held by The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
Fiction mentions:
- Horse by Geraldine Brooks
- The Measure by Nikki Erlick
- Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
- Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel
- The Things we Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
Could also list another 10 - 5 star reads but will practice some restraint 😅 Thanks again for sharing!
I have thought about getting the Mark Charles book. I've heard his talk at Calvin College and am impressed by him.
Oh it's so very good. I read it for book club (I'm in a bookclub of 2 😅). My friend saw him speak, too. Highly recommend for anyone's spiritual and Indigenous-specific anti-racism journey.
@lyndseymedford oh my gosh fangirling. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your words with the world ❤️
Hiii! Let's hang out at my Substack 😉😉😉 it's such an honor to hear that my story mattered to you this year! Thanks for reading and talking books. So interested to get my hands on Invisible Women.
I have capped my Substacks right now because I can't keep up and get overwhelmed haha but I'll remember you have one!
I listened to the audiobook from the library and now my husband is reading it! It's excellent.
I loved Ordinary Grace and This Tender Land by Krueger. I just picked up The River We Remember and I can't wait to get started.
Also reading a thriller called Going Zero. No explosions or killings but a page turner about a company that collects and analyzes data of all kinds. They offer 3 million dollars to 10 people if they can disappear and remain unfound for a month. Fascinating look at how data is collected, what it's used for and what's actually legal.
"This Tender Land" was on my list last year. What an amazing writer, eh?
Going Zero sounds interesting
Krueger's mysteries are excellent too.
Going onto Libby and deleting holds so I can add all these new ones! I LOVED All my Knotted Up Life, too -- I so appreciated how vulnerable Beth is willing to be with us. And I just got Ordinary Grace from the library and can't wait to start. My favourites this year? I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet, Undistracted, On a Night of a Thousand Stars, The Premonition, The Forest of Vanishing Stars, The Measure, and I finally read The Year of Biblical Womanhood, which made me laugh, learn and cry for all we have lost in RHE (but so thankful we can still treasure her wisdom). Thanks so much for your heartfelt recommendations! I look forward to them every year!
I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet is one of those books where nearly every chapter left me thinking, "so I'm not just crazy?!" 😂 The audiobook in particular has kept me company on some rough days 💚
In the Wild Light by Jeff Zenter (really, anything by him)
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
I didn't realize that Erica Bauermeister had a new book out!
Fiction books I loved (not favorites! Not rankings! Can't choose!)
-Persuasion, Jane Austen
-Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano
-A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway, Amor Towles
-The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill (the Newbery Committee got it RIGHT with this one)
-Reckoning at the Riviera Royale, P.J. Fitzsimmons and all the other Anty Boisjoly mysteries too
-The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Nonfiction books I loved (see exclamation-pointed disclaimers above)
-No One Will Tell You This But Me, Bess Kalb (and I think it was better on audio because it is read by the author)
-The Incomplete Book of Running, Peter Sagal (also great on audio in the author's voice)
-My Body is Not A Prayer Request, Amy Kenny
-The Smallest Lights In The Universe, Sara Seager
The Girl Who Drank the Moon looks amazing!
It's phenomenal. If you made me choose a single favorite for the year that might be it!
I'm reading Hello Beautiful right now and LOVING it!
I love Amor Towels and my favorite of his is actually Rules of Civility in case you haven't gotten to that one yet 💜
It's definitely on the list! And oh my can he write an ending. I am always amazed at how his last chapters are somehow both surprising and satisfying!
NF: Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara... Truly so so very good.
Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara love Hardin
Fiction: A constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
I have A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, but haven't read it yet.
I loved Unreasonable Hospitality too.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Demon Copperhead, The Council of Dolls, The Covenant of Water, re-reading These is my Words.
I am the nerdiest book loving fool who ever was…..here are some of my favorites from the past year…..so far….
Dirtbag Confessional by Isaac Fitzgerald
All My Rage by Saaba Tahir
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi
The Polygamist’s Daughter by Ana LeBaron
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner
(Last two are stories written about a similar time and topic from different parts of the same family)
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Between Two Kingdoms: A Year of a Life Interrupted by Sulieka Jaouad
My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
Tornado Brain by Cat Patrick
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
Your Plantation Prom is Not OK by Kelly McWilliams
The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander Newfoundland by Jim deFede
I absolutely love Between Two Kingdoms, and Suleika's substack is one of my favorites!
In Memoriam by Alice Winn was my beautiful devastation this year.
And Body Work by Melissa Febos is a not-for-the-faint-of-heart personal narrative masterclass that I won't forget any time soon.
Body Work was my introduction to Melissa Febos - definitely a masterclass! I actually highlighted and scribbled notes in the copy I bought for my best friend (we’re both in the raising tinies stage so getting to talk about the books we recommend back and forth rarely happens)
*Shark Heart a Love Story by Emily Habeck (There's nothing else like it, the premise sounds so odd but it is a completely beautiful read and nearly everyone I've recommended it to-- which is a lot of people because I'm a book seller 😂-- has joined me in my campaign to get the whole world to read it 🦈💙)
*Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (listen to the audiobook for an even better experience)
*Love & Saffron by Kim Fay (epistolary)
*The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
*Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb
*The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
*Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
*Life Is In The Transitions by Bruce Feiler
Okay! I had a friend text me after I published this list yesterday and say, YOU HAVE TO READ SHARK HEART. So this checks out! I will add it to my list, for sure.
I've been on hold for Shark Heart forever!
I got both of my book clubs to read it and it was some of our discussion ever 🥰
I'm very intrigued by your description of Shark Heart!
Didn’t even look at the synopsis for Shark Heart, just went for it. Thanks for the recommendation!
My Favorite Books of 2023 (in the order of reading them):
-Glory Happening by Kaitlin Curtice
-The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
-Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
-The Unfolding: An Invitation to Come to Yourself by Arielle Estoria
-Everybody Come Alive by Marcie Alvis Walker
I have also discovered the joys that are Audiobooks and Goodreads this year. Currently on a mad dash to finish my pledged 25 books, but I have told myself that I will be content with 20 books.
75% of the books I consume are audiobooks through the local library! It's such a gift. And thank goodness for Goodreads tracking and finding new reads :)
Same, same. I could not imagine life without the library!
Homegoing is amazing. I read it a few yrs ago and it's stuck with me
I love Homegoing. Also loved Transcendent Kingdom.
My favorite novel was The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. I heard about it from this community a few years ago, but didn't pick it up because I worried it would feel blasphemous. Several years of deconstructing later, it was the right read at the right time, and has led me to the realization that I don't know that I believe in a God of rescue any longer, but I do believe in a God of presence, and that realization has been a thread that has helped me continue to hold onto some measure of faith this year.
My other fiction recs are all YA magical realism. I loved Cemetery Boys and The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (these ones have fantastic trans characters), as well as When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb, which is described as a queer, immigrant fairytale, and which I found quirky and delightful.
For nonfiction, the one I found most impactful was Equal Partners by Kate Mangino. It unpacked gender roles in the home, and offered many helpful suggestions for what reimagining them could look like. My other nonfiction rec is a collection of essays called We’ve Got This: Stories by Disabled Parents edited by Eliza Hull.
The one other book I'd like to throw in here is a picture book (a genre I've been re-exploring) called Little Witch Hazel by Phoebe Wahl. The illustrations are charming, and the author slips in representation of so many different communities and identities just as part of the illustrations.
We’ve Got This is incredible!! As a disabled person who is contemplating parenthood, it’s been mind-expanding and world-expanding but I truly think everyone should read it
Agreed! I'm also a disabled person contemplating parenthood, and have been grappling with some really hard questions around it lately.
Book of Longings is one that I go back to again and again 💛
Goodness, Sarah, thank you!
You are so welcome but I promise you it was one of the best reading experiences of my whole year. You are such a gift! xo