Books of 2023

1. Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy: um well this is my first mccarthy and by the way it turned out, likely last. I have very little patience for lengthy discussions about math and philosophy and theorems etc with tiny bits of some substance throughout that you blink and miss. Pretentious much?

2. Joan is Okay by Weike Wang: how do i say weike? is it wiki? wayki? waykuh? i don't know. starting this immediately after the slog that was stella maris (see above) i was so in love with the beginning chapters of this little lovely book. an isolated socially/culturally inept/unaware chinese immigrant who is an icu doc. it's not exactly my story but it was still a captivating and engaging read. when book went into discussing emergence of covid, i sort of did not want to go there - too real, i don't know if i love that i want to see real events so close to the now in my fiction - but ultimately i did enjoy the book.

3. The Furrows by Namwali Serpell: compelling first chapter that gets you into it straight away, then the alternative scenes that start to get a bit annoying but then the act 2, with the new perspective - it was a good read. writing, and the mood building, the emotions.

4. Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson: i enjoyed this standard but highly readable book. the book really made me want to taste a black cake - some sort of fruit cake??

5. The Farm by Tom Rob Smith: this book i 'enjoyed' (might be the wrong word) a lot. it captivated from page 1, the premise is intriguing as hell to start with, then the way he lets the story unfold, you wonder how is he going to resolve this? but in fact the end is not what you expected, yet somewhat completely believable, and one that cut me to the core. i kept thinking about it, days after reading it. it stayed and stayed with me. 
 
6. The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li: i enjoy her writing. how does one write - not what they know but totally different demographic? sounds stupid to even ask, given that is what writers have done for ages but i'm so used to the contemporary writer who writes what they know, within their own demographic, suddenly it feels foreign and novel (ha). 
 
7. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin: was it life changing? no. but the story is good, driven by two - no three - interesting characters and their relationships. it even got me interested in gaming for a second. the writing - the prose - wasn't like the most beautiful or moving, and plot a little overly dramatic, but the characters were charming and engaging so one stayed absorbed. 
 
8. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo: was it a mistake to read this in english translation? i dont know, probably. it was obviously part 'educational', citing various stats of sex discrimination etc in korea. every page was - ofc in some parts exaggerated - a minor trauma, that many woman (korean and otherwise) would recognise. 
 
9. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro: he frustrates me sometimes with his slow repetitive insinuations, is the payoff great enough for all that? is the 'suspense' (hardly) exciting enough or just irritating? the build up made me a little annoyed, i thought the stakes were not as great, emotionally not so rewarding. the writing is concise, but is it the most beautiful prose that tugs at your heart - not really. i am not sure why so many rave about him. 
 
10. Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout: how she kills me, just quietly devastating. i thought the last few books i've read where covid was mentioned in the book i did not love it, but now the almost coziness of their situation early on especially made me almost nostalgic for those early lockdown days. at times i felt, well she is a bit more haphazard here, not so precise, a bit here and there and rambly - but oh towards the end, how she killed me. with that bit about chrissy her daughter especially. i long to write like her. 
 
11. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van der Kolk: too much talk of trauma becomes trauma itself no? i got to about 60%, and the words became a little too repetitive, trauma stories too - traumatising, if you will, so i had to let it go. also it's formidably long. 
 
12. Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi: i've heard about this book from here and there and found it funny at times, at times (rightfully) infuriating, so real, though ofc to a lesser degree than what she and many other far east asian women have to put up with. i felt the same phantom pregnancy almost. 
 
13. Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro: and she persists, with ishiguro! this was actually a somewhat delightful collection of short stories, all featuring music/musicians. i enjoyed this. is the short story my favourite form?
 
14. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner: was this a bit over hyped? she writes well enough, but is the story particularly unique? she rebelled a little sure and her mother died a bit young but... it made me long to go to korea and eat all the korean things, the stories of her mum were very familiar korean-mum stories... but i dont know, sometimes, over-familiarity breeds a sense of the prosaic. 
 
15. When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro: oh my what is this, 2023 the year of ishiguro? i found this book somewhat more engaging and less annoying than the other constipated englishman stories. how he writes about memories - and how he slowly reveals, little by little, what seemed one way in memory, but may have been something else or someone else entirely - how he unfolds that. 
 
16. This House of Grief by Helen Garner: what a gripping read, a nonfiction book documenting the writer's observations at a court case involving a man and his children who drowned in a car.
 
17. Foster by Claire Keegan: didn't even realise at first that this was what the movie Quiet Girl was based on. what a beautiful tiny novella. lovable.
 
18. The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji: urmmm it was ok. i expected more from a japanese mystery writer tbh!
 
19. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman: it was ok. a cozy murder mystery featuring a group of elderly retirement home friends. i needed a book to read, ok??? 
 
20. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
 
21. The Bullet That Missed by RIchard Osman
 
22. Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang: i enjoyed this. the premise was delicious. granted it got a bit too much, too hectic and somewhat repetitive in the last third or so of the book, not sure about the ending - it was as though they didn't know how to resolve it well, but i enjoyed it. 
 
23. Counterfiet by Kirstin Chen: this was fun. i have been thinking about luxury bags - my favourite thing - and this was fascinating. made me wonder whether the safest place to buy is at the airport duty free shops, less likely to be returned superfakes etc. but also made me wonder about going to china to get a hermes kelly superfake! terrible but yes that was the temptation on offer while reading this. didnt expect to get so into this book, it was engrossing and well written.
 
24. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson: ooh this was delightful too. about a rich family in new york (brooklyn) with old money, the young sisters and how they think of class thru love/relationships. it was a quick read, compelling fun read.
 
25. Vladimir by Julia May Jonas: kept seeing the titular character as the actor who portrayed the Hot Priest in fleabag. sexy, visceral read. 
 
26. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy: at first i wondered - do i like this? is this too much? do i continue? but ultimately she made herself a compelling, likable, empathetic character to read. her struggles, her love and hate of her mother, that complex relationship, i saw that well. 
 
27. Trust by Hernan Diaz: sometimes every one seems to be talking about the same thing in your life - and i'd heard 2-3 different people recommend this book. i enjoyed it. i love reading certain period pieces (this was set in the early 1900s) and about extraordinary people esp women. 
 
28. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris: read this because i watched a trailer of an upcoming tv show based on it. it was a bit Get Out meets Devil Wears Prada, but i found it stifling, a little annoying, too stressful but not in a good way - is there a good way to be stressed? - so i found myself skimming a lot, just to get through, just to get to the unveiling of the conceit, i just wanted to finish. not sure greatly recommend. 
 
29. The Albatross by Nina Wan: ooh i enjoyed this. how nice it must be to be able to write. i had to adjust my reading, from just skimming from the last book, to actually read full sentences and phrases, marinading in them. i felt the words, viscerally, even the quick sex scenes. gosh darn i love reading these asian women writers. 
 
30. 지구에서 한아뿐 by 정세랑: how long since i've read a korean book (in korean)? a long while. it still feels weird, awkward, like i am not used to the structure, that somehow grammar feels wrong, but it's presumably my brain, my eyes that are wrong, not the writer's. this was - not really my cup of tea, i don't dig aliens, especially in a twee way that this book is written, and lot of 'environmentally friendly' messaging was - preachy? not sure if this is a trend or just how it is with this book (but i felt it with how feminism was treated in kimjiyoung too) but do they need to spell it out like they're writing to elementary school children? 
 
31. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland: it's your typical ... wild story of a girl living in isolation, lots of dv plots, mini family sagas, people falling hotly and blindly in love / lust a thing i cannot really empathise with... but a quick read. 
 
32. Greek lessons by Han Kang: is it wrong to read her in english? this is my second han kang, after the vegetarian, which i remember quite loving, or being moved by somewhat. similarly, evocative writing that makes you feel the atmosphere, the literal climate, the emotions - the claustrophobia. yet another woman made mute in some way, which made me long to be mute for a brief moment.
 
33. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: compared to her book rodham this was a very much more conventional, light hearted - romantic comedy! just a quick light read, fine as that.  
 
34. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri: quite an enjoyable read. lovely prose, everything you feel and see as she writes it.
 
35. Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam: they kept trying to build tension... with very little reward per se, it wasn't exactly a plot driven thriller - more leave it to one's imagination, process not the endpoint, millieu rather than details of events. not sure it was worth it in the end.
 
36. Only Goodness by Jhumpa Lahiri: more of a short story - not even a collection thereof - at only seventy something pages. similar setting, family, bengali immigrant story things.
 
37. The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri: enjoyed it. coming of age/ immigrant story/ complex mother-daughter relationship etc.
 
38. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver: it was a long one - 850+ pages on my ebook! at first i was a bit like oh no not another coming of age story from poverty and terrible upbringing marred by addiction and single parents and poor partner choices etc!!! and it was all of those things, things that sometimes make my eyes roll, just bad to worse situations, that i literally had to skip pages very quickly. but then a bit of redemption, thankfully. at final few pages i was on the train, as a ray of sunshine of sorts appears on page, and i teared up a bit out of a small sense of finally some happiness.
 
39. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus: well it is certainly entertaining. more telling than showing, more didactic than literary - made me think about what makes a book literary fiction vs not (whatever that not is). when a book does not have to rely on having extraordinary characters - whether that's how smart they are, how beautiful they are, etc etc - when a book does not have to spell everything out, every emotion or thought explicitly stated - well there is an art to that. when a book's 'message' is not so clearly overtly written in bold, for all children to even understand - there is an art to that. 
 
40. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: it was an tertaining quick read. not sure what the big fuss is about though
 
41. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: i still remember back in early 90s in korea this book advertised everywhere in the newspapers like it was the next big thing and reading it was a bit... like it reminded me of the little prince story. uber simple, supposedly deep, but feels still rather not. nice story, maybe for children.

42. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri: a selection of short stories of varying bengali immigrants again. Well written.

Final book of the year, a year full of Lahiris and Ishiguros.