Big Book Review of 2023

 

Happy 2024!  Another year of reading is now complete and so here's my annual New Year blog post to share the books I read in 2023 and my accompanying ratings.

Reading remains my favorite hobby, and I love sharing my love of books with others and taking recommendations.  Here is my list for those of you who like the same:

1.       A Nantucket Christmas – Nancy Thayer – 3.5 stars

2.       Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt – 4.5 stars

3.       Slammed – Colleen Hoover – 4 stars

4.       The Connected Leader – Karen Joy Hardwick – 4 stars

5.       After I Do – Taylor Jenkins Reid – 5 stars

6.       Uncommon Influence – Tony Dungy – 3.5 stars

7.       8 Rules of Love – Jay Shetty – 4 stars

8.       Mad Honey – Jodi Picoult – 4 stars

9.       Upstream – Dan Heath – 4 stars

10.   An Invisible Thread – Laura Schroff – 4 stars

11.   Before We Were Strangers – Renee Carlino – 3.5 stars

12.   Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng – 3.5 stars

13.   Beneath a Scarlet Sky – Mark T. Sullivan – 4.5 stars

14.   The Layover – Lacie Watdon – 3 stars

15.   Just the Nicest Couple – Mary Kubica – 3 stars

16.   Drunk on Love – Jasmine Guillory – 3 stars

17.   When in Rome – Sarah Adams – 3 stars

18.   The Soulmate – Sally Hepworth – 4 stars

19.   Marlowe Banks, Redesigned – Jacqueline Firkins – 3 stars

20.   Inclusion on Purpose:  An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work – Ruchika Tulshyan – 4.5 stars

21.   The Dinner List – Rebecca Serle – 4 stars

22.   The 6 Types of Working Genius – Patrick Lencioni – 5 stars

23.   The Blackout Book Club – Amy Lunn Green – 4 stars

24.   Pineapple Street – Jenny Jackson – 4 stars

25.   The Edge of Summer – Viola Shipman – 4 stars

26.   Yours Truly – Abby Jimenez – 4 stars

27.   Educated – Tara Westover – 4 stars

28.   Cabin Fever:  The Harrowing Journy of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic – Michael Smith – 4 stars

29.   Maame – Jessica George – 4 stars

30.   Happy Place – Emily Henry – 4.75 stars

31.   Happiness for Beginners – Katherine Center – 3 stars

32.   The Five-Star Weekend – Elin Hilderbrand – 5 stars

33.   The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot – Marianne Cronin – 5 stars

34.   The House Across the Lake – Riley Sager -4 stars

35.   Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow – Gabriella Zevin – 3 stars

36.   Little Pieces of Me – Alison Hammer – 3 stars

37.   Missing Molly – Natali Barelli – 3.75 stars

38.   These Silent Woods – Kimi Cunningham Grant – 3.75 stars

39.   The Accident – Natalie Barelli – 3.5 stars

40.   A Little Ray of Sunshine – Kristan Higgins – 4 stars

41.   The Little Italian Hotel – Phaedra Patrick – 3.75 stars

42.   Same Time Next Summer – Annabel Monaghan – 3.5 stars

43.   Yellowface – R.F. Kuang – 3 stars

44.   All the Days of Summer - Nancy Thayer – 4 stars

45.   The Light in Hidden Places – Sharon Cameron – 4 stars

46.   Enchanted to Meet You – Meg Cabot – 3.5 stars

47.   Only the Beautiful – Susan Meissner – 5 stars

48.   It’s OK That You’re Not Ok – Megan Devine – 4 stars

49.   Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano – 4 stars

50.   A Proposal They Can’t Refuse – Natalie Cana – 3 stars

51.   Thicker Than Water – A Memoir – 4.5 stars

52.   XOXO, Cody – Cody Rigsby – 3.75 stars

53.   Bright Lights, Big Christmas – Mary Kay Andrews – 4 stars

54.   Live Learn Love Well - Emma Lovewell – 4.5 stars

55.   The Body Keeps the Score – Bessel van der Kolk – 4 stars

56.   The Mistletoe Motive – Chloe Liese – 3 stars

57.   Three Holidays and a Wedding – Uzma Jalaluddin – 5 stars

58.   The Senator’s Wife – Liv Constantine – 4.5 stars

59.   The Santa Suit – Mary Kay Adams – 4 stars

60.   The Burnout – Sophie Kinsella – 4 stars

61.   Wreck the Halls – Tessa Bailey – 2 stars

62.   Activate Your Greatness – Alex Toussaint – 4 stars

63.   Arsenic and Adobo – Mia P. Manansala – 3.5 stars

64.   A Winter in New York – Josie Silver – 4 stars

65.   The Christmas Guest – Peter Swanson – 3.5 stars

66.   Before We Were Innocent – Ella Berman – 3 stars

67.   A December to Remember – Jenny Bayliss – 4.5 stars

      That’s the whole list – all 67, surpassing my reading goal of 65.  As is my tradition, to ring in the New Year, I also name my top books of 2023.  It was harder this year to narrow them down but here they are, and writing about them actually affirms I picked the right ones.

#3.  Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley.  I LOVE Christmas and all things festive in this winter season.  Give me all the Hallmark movies, the music, the food, the décor, the cards, the festive Christmas accessories and clothes (from head to toe), and the Christmas books!  Oh, how I love a cozy Christmas romance.  This particular one had me excited to come back to anytime I was away from it.  This book had the sweetest love stories and also, so much diversity and celebration of various cultural traditions and one more thing I love: events and event planning, including a wedding!  Squeal!  I loved it!

#2.  The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni.  I couldn’t be more pleased that a leadership book lands in my top 3 again this year.  Of all the leadership ones I read this year (and the last few years), this one was easiest to digest and the aha moments come fast!  The basis is that we all have two working geniuses that bring us great joy when we get to use them.  It also helps us identify our 2 competencies, and our 2 frustrations at work. Once you learn it, you can’t unsee the lessons playing out in real life (at work and at home).  I’ve shared it in leadership development trainings to two other groups of leaders in our organization, and I love hearing how people find it easy to apply and are finding it helpful in our work.  It’s a quick read in my opinion, and before you finish the book, you’re eager to implement the lessons right away!  I love a book that can help make impact with people we lead by learning more about what makes them tick.  At work, we find ourselves using it to be more efficient and effective, how to cope with work stress, and how to understand ourselves, our strengths and those of others.  If you lead a team, or even if you want to figure out more about your family and how they like to work, and how you can balance each other, this is a great book.

#1.  Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner – Set in WWII, this historical fiction novel was heart wrenching and as such, unforgettable.  I had no idea that Eugenics actually happened in our country.  The characters’ stories were tragic in a way that sucked me in and left me unable to forget them even now – months after reading it.  Meissner also wrote my favorite book of 2019, Bright as the Heavens, which was also historical fiction and wow, does she have a way of getting straight to the heart.  I won't say much more about the plot because part of the reason it ranks as #1 is how much you learn from the surprising storyline.

That’s it, that’s a wrap. I got several books for Christmas and I’m excited to jump in.  My people – they get me.  Thank you for the books ranging from leadership to thick novels with stories they pulled off my To Be Read list, or ones they read that they loved themselves.  Swoon!

This past year had a lot of ups and tragic downs as well.  Reading was comforting in both times.  I’m wishing everyone a joyful new year of holding our loved ones close and finding great reads along the way!