2023 was my reading year, okay?
Reading has always been an incredible escape for me. my favorite genres include fiction, self help, and (celebrity) memoirs. YA novels, romance, historical fiction, and anything I can learn from and that will allow me to enhance my life, my skill, my imagination, or give me hope for a better tomorrow is where I love to hangout. As much as reading is an escape, it’s also an incredible tool. Reading more has made me feel smarter, more well rounded, it’s something I can use to build community and share knowledgeable information that can transform anyone. It’s broadened my vocabulary, critical thinking, and also my own writing abilities. BUT, enough about me!!! It’s time to introduce the 12 books i read in 2023. All of them were bangers. Here are the books, accompanied by my brief opinion and all praise for the incredible writers who were brave enough and brilliant enough and vulnerable enough to write, to share, and create universal truth.
Whole Again by Jackson MacKenzie, opened me back up to my body. I realized I needed to learn how to feel again. I woke up for months and months with a weight on my chest. My body tense and in unexplainable pain. I couldn’t feel cuddles, squeezes, joy, or sadness. Paying attention to that feeling in my chest opened me up to parts of me that had been somatically closed off. I learned how to stop fighting my feelings, my body, by learning to feel the pain without resistance. Turns out, there wasn’t anything more there than old stories my body remembered.
Paper Towns by John Green was a Brendan recommendation. This book pissed me off pretty much the entire time. But that was because it reminded me of exactly the kind of person I could have easily become and kind of was, in high school. It tells a story of an all encompassing high school “relationship”. Fake deep, fake spontaneous, real childish, yet really real. It’s maddening really. Available in the undotshop.
Finding Me by Viola Davis knocked me out of my pity party. This was the first audiobook I listened to where the author read their work. (My second audiobook ever). Viola’s raw vulnerability and honesty made me realize shame is a liar. There are parts of her story that I would never feel like I could share with the world, but she does. And I found that to be profound. Because the truth heals. Not just you. All those who still must hide in the secrecy of the things that happened to us. It is a true story of resilience and how current and or past circumstances do not have to predict future outcomes.
Daisy Jones and the MF Six. The ultimate interview story. I mean seriously. I must admit this recommendation is a package deal. You have to read the book first, then watch the show on Amazon, and then stream the music. Memorize the lyrics and have a duet with your partner for the rest of your lives. Probably my favorite realistic fiction book this year. Taylor Jenkins Reid is an absolute mastermind AND I as a budding fiction writer, aspire to reach her level of self actualization. She’s my favorite fiction writer right now.
On Confidence by The School of Life, is this little tiny book of things I never knew. Just absolutely never knew. Did you know confidence is a skill? Like you can learn to be confident if you aren’t innately confident? Practice makes confident.
Love Cycles by Linda Carroll saved my relationship. Okay drama, my relationship was not in danger, but the way I thought about my relationship made it feel like it may have been. I think that’s a universal phenomenon. I quickly learned, that like all things in nature, love goes through cycles. After reading the book, we both took the quiz and I was SO happy for a few weeks, because I liked…loved where we were. Where we always end up. And some of the examples actually were validating since I LOVE convincing myself I’m incapable of having a healthy relationship, which is just not true. I think this book has the power to save, assist, and heal relationships of all sorts, past, present, and future. I originally sourced it for the shop, and somehow it just became mine.
So Sad Today was my wildcard. I grabbed it while I was at Powells bookstore in Portland, OR. I was really sad at the point in time in my life. Like really really sad. Buying that book felt like admitting it to myself. And I read it soon after because I couldn’t deny it anymore. And if someone else was sad today I wanted to know about what and if it was anything like why I was sad any day. To say the least, I felt less sad after. More amused, less alone, slightly concerned, but also just so alive. Melissa Broder, this is the most internally intimate and vulnerable work I have ever consumed. I felt like I was violating her privacy by recommending this to anyone, but I kept thinking, “Well if she’s cool with it…” I’m really thankful for this book. I love people who tell it how it is for THEM. We all fear it may only be us who thinks, feels, can go…there. This book puts that to the test. For the girls, and those who feel like they may be “the only one” feeling slightly clinically…impaired.
Untamed was the deepest hug. Glennon Doyle is a real one. That’s a white lady I have no problem getting behind. She is not trying to be perfect. She is trying to learn. Her humility is palpable. She is trying to get life right, whatever that means, after getting it wrong for so so long. She is trying to do more good than harm. She’s a truly transparent and loving soul. Her story made me feel like there was room for error. Truth it, I did not expect her to have this story. I knew of the book, and I knew of her, but I did not know these two were the same. And once I read, I would never have excepted her to share it. Let Glennnon surprise you too. The world is better because she’s in it. This recommendation also has an amendment. You must also tune into We Can Do Hard Things Podcast. The most intimate and honest and HELPFUL conversations with Abby Wambach and Glenonn’s sister, Amanda and their various wildly helpful special special guests. Available in the undotshop.
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz helped me get over the midyear book hump. A quick read. I needed something small, quick, classic, and helpful. I was at a point in time where I needed a golden nugget. Just a little something something to help me look at things different. The Four Agreements was perfect for that. Just some straight up practical advice on how to stop letting these fuckers get to you. That’s how I took it at least.
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest was Brendan recommendation. I think I should have read this at some point in school and just didn’t. Or at least, I don’t remember. I was pleasantly surprised however. I thought the book was way more profound at this time in my life than it ever would have been in high school. For me. But as I actually work hand in hand with the psychiatric facilities and people who have experienced it, I felt particularly moved. Followed up by the Jack Nicholson film. I had problems with the movie. I believe a film adaptation for a classic story should be followed like a script. But that’s just my opinion. If it aint broke, don’t fix it.
Greenlights! Hell yes. No excuses with Mr. McConaughey. Sexy vibes. I loved the tangental nature of the book. It was a true story from a true storyteller. I was inspired by his vulnerability despite the fame and success. His story, like Violas, contained truths that would have scared me for life. Parenting in both stories becomes painfully visible. How it hurts, how it helps. Who you can becomes despite and in spite of, family. Personally, I’d let that cowboy tell me anything he wanted to.
All These Wonders presented by The Moth. This book is a collection of personal essays. I was able to cry with this one. Something that either comes very easily to me or is wound up with suppression. Really really painful stories of true heroic aliveness. I think we all hold a story in the mere existence of our reality. In some way, we are all survivors, victims, perpetrators. And there’s something we can all learn from one another. These stories of the unknown that make your own worries, seem a little less. We’re all braving something storm like. But when people make it through natural disaster level pain, the kind you’re only running from in the figments of your imagination, it puts the real back in reality. This collection made me remember that it could always be worse, everyone is carrying something you have no idea about, and because of both of these truths, kindness, openness, faith, and with an abundance of love, is the only way to live and also the only way to survive, because none of us truly know what’s next, but you mustn’t stop. Find out. Keep going. See what your story has left to teach you. And when you can make the space in your world, allow the stories of others to teach you something too.
Thank you to my Brendan for encouraging me to to up my reading goals and showing me I don’t have to read every book, but i can read more than the number my self limiting beliefs around my capacity have formed. thank you for the gift that kept giving. I wouldn’t have done 12 without you
