The First Annual Wyrdo Awards
Or my top nine book recommendations of 2023...
As the major bookish publications release their end-of-year best-of books lists, I always like to spend a little time thinking about what my favorite reads were over the last year. And of course, I love to share them in case you're looking for some holiday gift ideas or just stocking your TBR pile for Winter Break.
My full list of 2023 Holiday Book Recommendations is available on Bookshop.org, but here are my favorites, presented in a list of light-hearted "awards." Perhaps I’ll make these Wyrdo Awards an annual thing. Hmmm….
Best Mash-Up of My Interests
Of course I'm going for unconventional categories, friends, what did you expect? This is the perfect mashup of highly feminist, lyrical, and...Shakespeare. Joy McCullough brings her amazing verse and her roots in theater to this retelling of several of Shakespeare's most famous heroines in this masterpiece of social commentary. I read this one in one sitting because it was so compelling. This one should be at the top of every best-of list this year. The fact that it's not makes me want to shout about it from the rooftops even more.
Best Books about Writers/Publishing Industry
I love books, shows, and movies about writers and publishing. It’s why The Lost City was the first movie I saw in theaters after COVID and why I rewatch it regularly. It’s also why I was delighted to read two books I loved this year, both of which felt like peeks behind the curtain of publishing, albeit in very different ways.
The first is R. F. Kuang’s mind-bending Yellowface about a woman who not only witnessing a long-time friend and best-selling author’s death, but then goes on to steal her work and sell it as her own. This book was as compulsively page-turning as a psychological thriller and a damning look at how writers from traditionally underrepresented groups often continue to be marginalized and erased even after they find publishing success.
The second is much lighter, obviously, but also fabulous. It’s an agent-editor love story, but also such an homage to romance in general, with a healthy sprinkle of small town, enemies to lovers, and forbidden romance tropes. I adored her earlier story featuring two authors, Beach Reads, too if you’re looking for a bonus recommendation!
Best "How did he do that?" Award for Craft
If my best friend hadn't told me this was a must-read, I might have put it down when I realized there were so many different timelines and that, in typical Doerr style, they wouldn't come together until the very, very end. But I'm so glad I hung on with this one because the way he wove these stories together was ultimately so satisfying. There's really no way to say what this book is about in any sort of short form, so I'll just say this: It's a craft masterpiece and you should definitely read it if for no other reason than to try to figure out how the heck he came up with the idea to weave so many seemingly disparate ideas together into one stunning whole.
Best Retelling of an Original I Loathe
TJ Klune is fast becoming one of my favorite insta-read authors. So I picked up his latest without even paying attention to what it was. And I'm glad I did because if I'd known it was a Pinocchio retelling, I might have given it a miss given how traumatized I still am by that nightmarish fairy tale from my childhood. He brings his typical humor, heart, and M/M romance to this classic story that reimagines Pinocchio as a post-apocalyptic adventure with some very strong parallels to The Matrix in addition to fun re-imaginings of aspects of the original. As always, the voice is what drew me in from the opening chapter. I mean, Rambo, an anxiety-prone Roomba vacuum, needs to be on the list of best-ever sidekicks, in my opinion. Just one of the many delights in this book.
Best Continuation of a Great Series
These books are a craft study in world-building and multiple POV voice. Mind-bending in a very different way than Yellowface, this duology that kicked off with The City We Became imagines what would happen if an extraterrestrial existential threat faced New York City and NYC responded by spawning personified versions of each of the Burroughs, then tasked them with sorting it out. Jemisin is another insta-read author for me. This duology is a little shorter than The Broken Earth trilogy if that’s a barrier to entry for you.
Best Forthcoming Adaptation
OK, I definitely invented this category so that I could have one for N.K. Jemisin AND Martha Wells. Because these were two of my favorite reads this year. And I definitely wanted Gwendoline Christie for the role of Sec-Unit in the Murderbots adaptation instead of the guy they actually cast, but I’m still going to devour it just as I have the books. If you haven’t experienced The Murderbot Diaries, get thee to the library TODAY.
Best Holiday Romance
This year has been rough, folks. So rough that I started reading holiday romance in July. Which is how I not only discovered this series beginning with A Merry Little Meet Cute, but was primed for Book 2, which was truly delightful. Although many of the typical "Christmas Romance" tropes are firmly in place, there's a fun twist--the main character, who plays Santa in the Christmas Romance they're filming over the course of the book--is Jewish. And a former boy band star. And a pizza-baking entrepreneur. I loved this one with all my heart. The team-up of Julie Murphy's lovely fat positive characters with Sierra Simone's excellent spicy love scenes was a real winner for me.
Favorite Over-All
Oh look, another Shakespeare reference. Well, at least I'm on brand. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow has little to do with Shakespeare though. It's a story of gamers Sam and Sadie and their unlikely friendship that spans decades, multiple tragedies, and dare I say multiple dimensions? Another multiple-timeline, multiple POV craft masterpiece, this one breaks so many rules so well that it's another must-read for the craft wonks out there. But it will also probably make you cry. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Here are a few book lists from around the internet as well. Because let's face it, I can only read so many books! I've knocked out 68 and counting this year, but there are still so many more I'd like to read, including quite a few of these:
NPR's 2023 Staff Picks (Adult fiction & nonfiction, YA)
School Library Journal's Best Books of 2023 (children's literature birth - YA)
Kirkus Reviews Best of 2023 (sortable by age category)
Hugo Awards (best speculative, including shorter forms)
Nebula Awards (best speculative, including shorter forms)
I know I've said it before, but reading is one of the best ways to learn the craft of storytelling. So I hope you have some time in the coming weeks to refill that creative cup and read, read, read.
If you have a favorite read from this year that's not on my radar, comment below. I’m taking some time off in the coming weeks and plan for my R&R to be reading and more reading!
Yellow Face was so good. I really did not know how it was going to end.