What I read/heard in 2023 ...

A few good books, and more ...

Hi Readers,

I’m not quite sure I’m ready to sum up 2023 yet - but one thing I always enjoy at the end of each year is looking back at the books I read.

(I use Goodreads to track my reading each year and find it really helpful, with the caveat that I have to manually enter audiobooks and/or books I didn’t read via Kindle).

This year, I wanted to share images of the books I read as well as a short sentence/blurb about them. Please note that this list is *not* all-encompassing — I read several more books for research purposes as well as several other books that I was sent for review purposes and will be sharing separately! This list is a bit more of a pleasure/literary list, and it’s a mix of fiction and non-fiction - contemporary and historical.

Also, as many of you know, much of my reading is comprised of daily news and other Substacks. You can find my Substack recommendations here - just scroll down to the bottom-right side. I also subscribe to the Washington Post, with a focus on the Today’s Worldview newsletter, and Los Angeles Times, again with a focus on their World & Nation coverage. For local news, I read the Minnesota Reformer. I share a lot of those best reads in my News with Nuance biweekly newsletter.

If you want to be a better writer, my best advice is to be a better reader! Read widely, read critically, read for pleasure, just read - read - read. I’m so grateful to have the ability to read widely each and every day, and I’m constantly strategizing the rest of my schedule to make sure I have lots of reading time available. It’s one of the most important things I do.

Please do comment on this post with your favorite reads of 2023! I may follow up this post in January with a post on my favorite podcasts - because listening is important, too.

*A note that the below images from Goodreads include audiobooks I listened to in 2023. And a final note that not included in these images are the many, many books I started and did not finish for one reason or another.*

You can find all of these books in your local bookstore or library! A great way to support authors is to request their books in your library, too, as well as frequently local bookstores. But Amazon and Bookshop.org are also fine options (Bookshop.org is best for authors if possible!).

Books, in order of images from upper-left to bottom-right

The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

A book I’m ashamed I didn’t read until 10 years in ministry. Eminently theological and quotable and encouraging, while not sparing the truth.

Finding Me, by Viola Davis

I listened to this on audiobook, where it’s read by Viola herself. Highly recommend. Rich in details, quality storytelling, honest and somehow relatable.

Eat the Mouth that Feeds You, by Carribean Fragoza

Unusual, arresting prose. Stories that are at once disjointed and connected.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, by Lindsay C. Gibson

A book series (I devoured four!) recommended to me by a friend: super helpful especially for those of us who are looking to unpack our childhoods with love and without judgment for the ones who raised us, as many of us raise our own kids

The Graduation of Jake Moon, by Barbara Park

We listened to this as a family through desolate stretches of Montana and Wyoming. Park is one of my favorite children’s authors, and this tells the story of loving someone with dementia with sensitivity, heart, and humor.

The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington, by Leonora Carrington

A mix of poetry, literature, and fables, told with a wry sense of truth and humor by a surrealist painter and novelist who was a founding member of the women’s liberation movement in Mexico in the 1970s.

Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson

I never would have thought to read this Baywatch star’s memoir, but it was recommended I believe by

Jessica DeFino

. A reminder to us all that feminine beauty and sexuality does not preclude intellect.

Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

It took me a very long time, but I listened to this entire book. Time spent reading/listening to Tolstoy is always time well-spent. I couldn’t believe how current this book (published in 1878) felt.

Easy Beauty, by Chloe Cooper Jones

I will admit that there were a few times I considered stopping this book (it’s read by the author on audiobook), but I persevered - and the end was really worth it. A philosophical and humbling experience.

Of Boys and Men, by

Richard V Reeves

I read this mostly for research purposes for my own forthcoming book on young white boys and men (Our Boys), but I was interested in it for personal reasons, too. Very well-researched and balanced.

Tricks and Traffick, by

Ellen Hopkins

I came across this YA author because of her books frequently ending up on banned books lists. For what it’s worth, I found absolutely no reason for them to be banned. If anything, many of their assumptions were conservative at heart.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid

One of my recurring interests is in books set in Islamic majority countries in Central Asia and the Middle East, especially post-9/11. I liked the way this story unfolded with a wry sense of Western hypocrisy. I also always appreciate reads that reveal our misconceptions about religious fundamentalism.

The Incendiaries, by R.O. Kwon

Another book that hits on my penchant for books about cults and religious fundamentalism, as well as books set on East Coast college campuses.

On Tyranny, by

Timothy Snyder

A quick must-read/listen for all Americans, especially as we approach the 2024 Presidential Election.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, by Matthew Perry

I’m not big on celebrity memoirs, and I was a Seinfeld person much more than I watched Friends, but I picked up this book after I’d heard that Perry didn’t use a ghostwriter, and also heard that its depiction of addiction and recovery was especially poignant. I was so sad when I heard of Perry’s death, especially after spending hours with him reading his book to me via audiobook.

Time is a Mother, by Ocean Vuong

Listening to and reading poetry is another daily practice for me, as I look to economize my words while writing and improve my imagery. I also subscribe to Poem-a-Day. Vuong is a formidable talent and his poetry is singular yet utterly American.

What We Don’t Talk About when we Talk About Fat, by

Aubrey Gordon

I first came across Aubrey Gordon while listening to her podcast, Maintenance Phase. She has really changed the way I think about bodies and diet culture, and she encourages me to speak boldly against size discrimination and anti-fat bias.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem, by Joan Didion

Just a classic book of essays by one of America’s best writers, and especially resonant if you’ve ever lived in California.

Happening and Getting Lost, by Annie Ernaux

Two books I read after Ernaux won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature. Feminist, clear, and unapologetic - and very French, too.

The Man They Wanted me to Be, by

Jared Yates Sexton

A memoir that provided a great deal of inspiration to me as I began work on Our Boys. Sexton is always unsparing and honest and revelatory.

The People are going to Rise like the Waters Upon Your Shore, by

Jared Yates Sexton

This was the first book I read from Sexton (his Substack, Dispatches from a Collapsing State, is a must-read). I always turn to Sexton when I feel overwhelmed by America’s turn toward nationalism/fascism and the national media’s general inability to speak truth about this, especially when it comes to blue-collar and Midwestern/rural white voters.

Life’s Memories, by William Julius Gadow

William Julius Gadow is my great-great grandfather. He grew up in Prussia, in what is today northwestern Poland, to a German-Lutheran family. I am so grateful that his descendants compiled Gadow’s writings and made them available on Kindle. His story illuminated so much about my own ancestry, in rich and colorful detail that made the past become present. Through him I felt even more connected to my roots, and the writer’s soul that is obviously a part of my genes.

Where Do we Go from Here, by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just a heartbreakingly powerful extended sermon, filled with truth and hope, from America’s best preacher who was taken from us far too soon.

The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante

I spent several weeks, while recovering from surgery in early 2023, descending into Ferrante’s Neapolitan world. Her prose is delightfully sexy and feminist and rich, telling female stories with an insistence that their truth matters in the grand scope of human history. I do recommend the Netflix series based on this book, along with Ferrante’s other works, and the HBO series based on them. (Ferrante is a pseudonym; the author’s identity is not public).

That’s a wrap for 2023 - unless I maybe manage to finish one more here over the next few days. Have you read any of these books? What’s the best thing you read in 2023? What’s on your list for 2024? Isn’t reading the best?!

By the way - thanks for reading I’m Listening in 2023!

See you next year,

Angela

P.S. …

A Few Notes:

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