My 2023 Year in Books

It was a hard year, even when it came to reading.

Books carry me to places far away, and for their duration, take my mind off whatever is gnawing at me, personally or globally. Plus, I just love a good story.

Only once did I find it difficult to keep my eyes in a book: in the months following 9/11. Everything, even the most quotidian reference in a novel, offered some kind of painful reminder of that dreadful morning. So I stuck to reading articles and staring at the news. There was no social media rabbit hole yet to fall down.

Time passed, and thankfully, books and I were back in business, though I cannot recall how long it took. I was glad for their solace. Their joy and pleasure and wonder, too.

We, books and I, carried on that way until October 7, when I found myself struggling to read again.

I’d open a novel and see the faces of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the words on the page dissolving in a blur of tears. It took me a week, even two, to get through a book that I might have otherwise read in a Shabbos afternoon. And I found no solace or pleasure in the stories.

It’s already January. My heart remains focused on Israel, my head consumed with worries about the war and our soldiers, images of the hostages still there in my mind’s eye. #bringthemhome #bringthemhomenow

But in a small miracle, reading has come back to me of late. It’s a gift, a comfort, for which I’m grateful.

In part, it’s because wonderful friends have recommended or sent me or dropped off books they believe in. The people I love and the books I love are among the ways I’m finding moments of beauty and joy, despite the world being too hot to handle right now.

A few things before I share the full 2023 list

These were my favorite books this year, in no particular order: Anne Berest’s The Postcard, Hila Blum’s How to Love Your Daughter, Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful, and Alice McDermott’s Absolution.

Also, a few thoughts in response to several of the questions I received after I posted my 2022 list:

• A shared love of books — even when they aren’t the same books — builds community. What’s important is that we’re reading.

• More on the above. I do love when our reading overlaps. But when it doesn’t, how wonderful that we can swap titles with one another and grow our own to-read lists.

• Sometimes, it’s just a case of right book, wrong time when I can’t get through a book, and maybe I’ll try again later.

• I’m effusive when I’ve adored a book. At reader request, I’m clearer this year when I haven’t. If I don’t say specifically, it means I enjoyed the read well enough, but didn’t feel strongly one way or another.

One more thing. There are other ways to connect through the written word. For example, I’m taking a class taught by our rabbi about Sefer Tehillim (the Book of Psalms). I am also finding meaningful connection through my friend Julie Zuckerman’s monthly Literary Modi'in events. And I keep an eye out for online essays, poems, and stories by Israeli and other Jewish writers.

Here’s the full list.

1.The Old Country by Mordicai Gerstein. This wartime YA folktale turns dark when a young girl switches bodies with a fox. For 12+

2. I’ll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein. Essays on midlife, but mostly motherhood. Funny, some sad, most relatable.

3. Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash. A fictional reflection on New York’s cultural scene in the year leading up to John Lennon’s assassination.

4. The Convert by Stefan Hertmans. Romance between a Norman convert and a yeshiva student during the 1st Crusade. Tragic, yet beautifully written novel.

5. Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks. I really enjoyed this novel about a famous racehorse (and so much more), though I waffled for a while over how I felt about the ending.

6. Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono. I loved the intro (Bono quotes Tehillim!), but could not stay focused on the rest of the book. I might try this again.

7. Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket by Hilma Wolitzer. Brilliant story collection. The titular story is a must-read look at motherhood.

8. The Koren Tanakh Graphic Novel: Esther by Jordan Gorfinkel, illustrated by Yael Nathan. Fabulous graphic novel interpretation of the Megillah. It made my Purim.

9. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. A story of estranged siblings reunited by their mother’s death. Lots to talk about.

10. The Pearl that Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi. Intergenerational tale of two Afghan women struggling to save themselves within a restrictive culture.

11. Shosha by I. B. Singer. Love story set in Warsaw on the eve of its destruction. Haunting, but Singer always manages to be charming.

12. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. Coming-of-age story about a young girl in a disappointing marriage. The story felt implausible.

13. A Woman in Jerusalem – A. B. Yehoshua. Touching, absorbing novel about a woman killed in a suicide bombing. (Just discovered the film version from 2011, called The Human Resources Manager.)

14. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. Fictional retelling of the OED’s compilation. A nice read that looks at the ways words shape our world.

15. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Contrived ending, but a sweet diversion of a story.   

16. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. Loved this portrayal of female friendship. And how I laughed!

17. The Shortness of Life by Seneca. A philosophy classic. Couldn’t get through it. Forgave myself quickly.

18. How to be Fine by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer. Adapted from their popular podcast. Repetitive. I lost interest quickly.

19. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I know I’m the rare bird, but with the exception of one poignant scene, I did not love this, though it was a fun, quick read.

20. The Most Precious of Cargoes: A Tale by Jean-Claude Grumberg. Novella about a Jewish man bound for a concentration camp and the Polish woman who finds and raises his child. An original, post-modern fairy tale.

21. Made Holy: Essays by Emily Arnason Casey. Moving essay collection about love, loss, and addiction. 

22. The Girl on the Via Flaminia by Alfred Hayes. Novel about an American GI and an Italian woman in Rome after WWII. A classic, still relevant, poignant, moving.

24. Verity by Colleen Hoover. I thought I’d see what the fuss was about. Not my thing.

25. You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. Gorgeous memoir. May make you want to set her ex’s hair on fire (in your imagination only), but ah, the writing!

26. Sima’s Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger-Ross. Endearing novel about finding sisterhood, love, and self in a Brooklyn basement lingerie shop.

27. The Twelves of Hattie by Ayana Mathis. A young girl flees Jim Crow South for Philadelphia. Multiple narrative threads that did not explore the characters deep enough for me to feel invested in them.

28. Proof of Loss by Sara Marchant. Heart-wrenching memoir about losses old and new.

29. Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby. A must-read, especially now.

30. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.  A meditative story about a dying pastor that explores faith and forgiveness. It did not move me as I’d hoped it would.

31. The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. Beautiful book. But take care. At over 700 pages, you can’t set it down for too long or you’ll lose the thread of it.

32. The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker. A 600+-page thriller. Not my usual fare, but a good Shabbos diversion.

33. Nesting Dolls by Alina Adams. Deep roots and assimilation across three generations of a Jewish family, from Odessa to Brighton Beach. A nice read.

34. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I love her writing so much I think I’d find her grocery list moving. But the end of this novel broke my heart and it took me a while to forgive her.

35. Self-Portrait of a Hero: Yoni Netanhyahu by Herman Wouk, et al. His personal correspondence. From another place in time.

36. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Found this very different from her usual. Loved how the mother-daughter relationships unfolded in the telling. Also, there’s cherry pie.

October 7

37. The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner. Story of a literary agent who is slowly vindicated of his past. Slow-moving, though I generally enjoy Stegner.

38. The Postcard – Anne Berest. Gripping autobiographical fiction about the author’s search for what happened to her family during the Holocaust. Excellent.

39. Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis. Historical fiction set around Henry Clay Frick’s house in New York.

40. One for Each Night. A fun collection of Chanukah stories, essays, and poems by classic and modern writers.

41. Liar by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. A smart, engaging novel about the consequences of one huge lie told by an awkward Israeli teenager. Hard to put down.

42. The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. A novel about a poor Pennsylvania community of outsiders. Highly readable, but I loved his earlier memoir, The Color of Water, best.

43. Just Love Them: The Life & Legacy of Rabbi Dovid Trenk by Yisroel Besser. Not my usual fare, but I was moved by his legacy — a belief in each Jewish child.

44. Heirloom Rooms by Erin Napier. Sweet, sentimental personal essays about creating a soulful home.

45. Matters Honor by Louis Begley. Set at Harvard in the 1950s, a novel of self-invention, at its heart a young Holocaust survivor. Very slow-moving.

46. How to Love Your Daughter by Hila Blum. Gorgeous writing, cutting to the core of family relationships and the damage we can do in the name of love.

47. Absolution by Alice McDermott. Novel about American expat wives in Vietnam during the war. Stunning writing, a story I’d never have known. Read in one long burst.

Books are love. Here’s to more love in 2024!

What are you reading?

What have you read from my list?

What did you love, or not?

What was the best book you gave or received as a gift this past year?

What do you recommend as must-reads for 2024?

If you are reading this booklist, but have not yet subscribed to Days of Rest, please do. Subscribing is love, too, and it would be a huge kindness to me.

Let’s continue to pray for good in the year ahead. For the return of the hostages, and peace — and peace of mind — for all of us.

Love,
Merri