I read 62 books this year – that’s the least I’ve read since 2019. It’s actually interesting to me how much my reading fluctuates from year to year. Why? I hit a high of 102 books / 34,000 pages in 2020, and a low of 32 books / 9200 pages in 2018. Why was 2020 such a good year for reading? Was it because there was no driving kids to activities? Was I just trying to understand the world? (I read a lot about viruses and pandemics that year.) In 2018, my lowest reading year, I was promoted to management and had the most stressful year of my working career. I worked a lot at night after the kids were in bed instead of reading.

5 star books:

• To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
• Wonder by RJ Palacio
• Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
• Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole
• The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
• Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy
• The Solar War by AG Riddle

Best adult fiction: To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

Best adult nonfiction: We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole

Best children’s Fiction: Wonder by RJ Palacio

Other notable books that stuck with me, even if they weren’t “5 stars”:

• Holes by Louis Sachar
• The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by Riley Black
• Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
• On the Beach by Neville Shute

Worst fiction of the year: The World According to Garp by John Irving

What was your favorite book from 2023? And what was your favorite movie?