As usual, I read mainly contemporary fiction. I also have a very quick trigger finger. If I don’t like a book, I’m typically out after 40 or 50 pages, so as a result, every book below is at least pretty good because I finished it.
This list is through November. I just started reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. It is very good but very long and I decided to take my time with it, so this list covers January to November.
Also, I didn’t know where to put it because it doesn’t come out until next March, but Blank by my friend Zibby Owens is fantastic. I tore through it in one night (including on the way to and from the Mets game, and if the 7 train to Flushing flies by, the book you’re reading is working). Oh, and I should also mention that you can buy or order any of these from P&T Knitwear, my bookstore on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Top 10 (in order of when I read them):
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs — Sidik Fofana
This was one of last year’s Gotham Book Prize winners and is a wonderfully interconnected novel of stories about a group of people who live in or work near the same building in Harlem. The way Sidik writes in the voice of so many different people – old, young, gay, straight, male, female and more – is remarkable.
Age of Vice — Deepti Kapoor
This is a great coming of age story set in contemporary India. It’s very fun, very winding, and very vivid. It’s a little longer than it needed to be, but still very much worth the journey.
Every Man a King — Walter Mosely
Pretty much any book by Mosely is good and this one even stands out among them. It’s exciting. It’s fun. It resonates and stays with you. You care a lot about the characters. There’s a real plot. Highly enjoyed it.
Romantic Comedy — Curtis Sittenfeld
This was a nice play on the usual boy meets girl who’s out of his league but he’s so charming/ wonderful/ weird/ smart (basically anything but rich because that’s too close to reality) that he gets her anyway. Came to really appreciate both of the main characters and the evolution of the story during Covid.
Small Mercies — Dennis Lehane
A great novel about busing in Boston schools in the early 1970s. It’s, all at once, about violence, family, identity, tribe and right and wrong. It was beautifully written and exciting at the same time, which is a rare combination.
The Chain Gang All Stars — Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
I’m not into fantasy but I loved this book. It was a dystopian, end of the world, everyone must survive, everything is fucked type novel (am guessing what my kids liked about the Hunger Games books) and it was awesome. The characters were so badass and yet so human and so deep. And the action is great (if they don’t screw it up, this will be a great movie).
Demon Copperhead — Barbara Kingsolver
David Copperfield in Appalachia. Kingsolver pulls it off. Demon, the main character, is someone I loved living with for the duration of the book. His evolution was fascinating and heartwarming and sad and twenty other emotions at the same time. This may be the best book I read this year.
Crook Manifesto — Colson Whitehead
This book is so fun. It’s a great NYC story, the writing moves, the pace is fast, the plot is exciting and yet the book also has a lot to say about society when it takes place in 1976 and in some ways, now too. I know it’s heresy to say this since Thou Shalt Not Fail to Genuflect Before The Underground Railroad is the 11th commandment, but this is my favorite Whitehead book in a while. Really enjoyed it.
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity — Dr. Peter Attia
The only non-fiction book on this list, Attia lays out his thesis for Medicine 3.0 in the first half of the book, explaining both how it will and should work. It’s fascinating. The second half of the book covers Attia’s specific views on exercise, nutrition, sleep and mental health (including a very transparent account of his own struggles). I learned a lot, made a long list of tests to get from my doctor, and feel like I better understand what the future holds.
Wellness — Nathan Hill
I really, really liked Hill’s last novel – The Nix – and Wellness was just as good but set in Chicago (including in a neighborhood I lived in), so that makes it better. The subplot about wellness and placebo effects was clever and interesting but the characters really suffice either way. They felt so flawed, so impressive, so conflicted, so real. Loved it.
Also, a few others worth calling out:
The Shards — Bret Easton Ellis
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise — Colleen Oakley
American Mermaid — Julia Langbein
Confidence — Rafael Frumkin
Big Swiss — Jen Beagin
The One — Julia Argy
All Night Pharmacy — Ruth Madievsky
Quitting Weed: The Complete Guide — Matthew Clarke
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store — James McBride
How Not to be a Politician — Rory Stewart
2023 BOOKS
January
Everybody Knows — Jordan Harper
The Shards — Bret Easton Ellis
Stories from the Tenants Downstairs — Sidik Fofana
The Social Climber — Amanda Pellegrino
The Good Life — Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz
Age of Vice — Deepti Kapoor
Reputation — Sarah Vaughan
Bad City — Paul Pringle
February
The Sense of Wonder — Matthew Salesses
Vintage Contemporaries — Dan Kois
Every Man a King — Walter Mosley
March
City of Angeles – Jonathan Leaf
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise – Colleen Oakley
American Mermaid – Julia Langbein
Down the River Unto the Sea – Walter Mosley
April
Romantic Comedy – Curtis Sittenfeld
Confidence — Rafael Frumkin
City of Dreams — Don Winslow
May
Small Mercies — Dennis Lehane
The Chain Gang All Stars — Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
No One Needs to Know — Lindsay Cameron
Take No Names — Daniel Nieh
Yellowface — R.F. Kuantan
Excellent Advice for Living — Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier - Kevin Kelly
Demon Copperhead — Barbara Kingsolver
Going Zero — Anthony McCarten
June
The Double Life of Benson Yu — Kevin Chong
All the Sinners Bleed — S.A Cosby
Big Swiss — Jen Beagin
Berlin — Bea Setton
July
City of Blows — Tim Blake Nelson
The Stolen Coast — Dwyer Murphy
The One — Julia Argy
All Night Pharmacy — Ruth Madievsky
Quitting Weed: The Complete Guide — Matthew Clarke
August
Crook Manifesto — Colton Whitehead
Dopamine Nation – Anna Lembke
No Red Lights — Alan Patricof
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store — James McBride
Blank — Zibby Owens
The Vegan — Andrew Lipstein
Sucker — Daniel Hornsby
September
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity — Peter Attia
A Line in the Sand — Kevin Powers
Speech Team — Tim Murphy
Wellness — Nathan Hill
October
How Not to be a Politician – Rory Stewart
The Intern — Michelle Campbell
Going Forward: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon — Michael Lewis
Lou Reed: The King of New York — Will Hermes
The Exchange: After the Firm — John Grisham
November
Anita de Monte Laughs Last — Xochitl Gonzalez
Land of Milk and Honey – C Pam Zhang
Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes — Morgan Housel
Dead by Proxy — Manning Wolfe
The Helsinki Affair — Anna Pitoniak
The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix it — Chris W. Winter
The Society of Shame — Jane Roper