End of Year 2023 Reading Wrap-Up

Hello… it’s been a while.

I don’t want to write too long of an intro because the focus of this post is BOOKS!! But I must address the elephant in the room… Blogging has been a bit rough for me. It’s more the result of a lack of time than anything else—this past semester was the busiest I’ve been in a while, and I barely had time to even read—but it also reflects my inactivity in online spaces as a whole. 

Like I said before, I just want to take it easy and come back to blog whenever I am able to or feel like it. I will probably continue to be sporadic on my blog, and I hope that I can at least post once a month. I miss the community a lot, but I think I feel nostalgia for the past more than I feel the need to return to it. Blogging regularly is no longer feasible for me, but I also have gotten so used to not blogging and sharing things that I feel fine not doing it. (But if you’d like a “life updates” post from me, feel free to let me know!)

To wrap this all up… I had a busy year, and both my reading and blogging took a hit. But I still had a decent reading year of enjoying most of the books I read, thankfully. Let’s take a closer look!

STATISTICS & GRAPHS

Number of books read: 60

Number of rereads: 3

Books rated: 48/60

Average rating (without rereads): 3.65 (-0.09 from 2022)

 

I had another year of mostly enjoyable reads. Even though 4-star ratings still take up a large chunk, it’s evening out a little with more 3-3.5 star books (and I’m back to more 4.5-star books, rather than just one like last year!). I think I’m definitely going to start leaving more books unrated this year, though.

Even though fantasy still remains my largest chunk, I still want to read more! I’ve been reading less every year, and I miss it. Also, I know it looks like I’m reading a lot of nonfiction and being oh so knowledgeable, but most of it is memoirs! Which I want to change! And I’m surprised that I read more YA this year—I enjoyed most of it, so I’m not upset, but it probably will decrease again…

It’s been so interesting to see how the number of ebooks has changed over the past few years—during lockdown, I was reading mostly library ebooks/eARCs, but now I’m back to reading mainly physical books, which is definitely in part because I can now check out physical library books instead of just ebooks. I need to get back into audiobooks, though!

I am very pleased by how almost a third of the books I read were from small/indie publishers! Reading outside the big 5 is something I want to continue improving at, especially since it usually means also reading outside the US.

I expect backlist will continue to reign supreme—I love going through older books that I didn’t get around to. Also, a big reason why I think I enjoy more books is because I’m not reading newer releases that have barely any reviews; I’m able to see what other people think about older books and decide whether it’s worth reading.

As always, my library sustains me! While it may look like I’m reading a lot of my owned books, many of those were school reads that I bought this year for the purpose of reading them for class…

Unfortunately, I ended up reading more books from the US than last year. I read 9 books for class (~1/6th of my reading in total), and they were all from the US—so I could argue that I could’ve read more from other countries if I hadn’t read those… But no matter what, I need to make this a priority!

 

This was a year of short books, I fear… While great for getting books read on little free time, I miss my chunkier books! And as always, December is my best month for reading because of all the short books I read to cram for my reading challenge. While I didn’t beat last year’s number, I’m impressed by how I read a fourth of the year’s books in one month.

While I still stuck mostly to authors I was familiar with, I’m glad that I at least read more debuts! And as always, reading lots of authors of color. A whopping 58% of my reads this year were from Asian authors, though, so I want to diversify that! (Though I have to bring up school again and say that 7 Asian-authored books were mandatory for class. On that note, I will have an unfortunate amount of white authors in 2024 due to the classes I’ll take…)

FAVORITE BOOKS

For the sake of attempting to keep this post shorter (emphasis on attempting…), you can read about my thoughts on my honorable mentions + the longer version of my thoughts on my top 4 books here!

HONORABLE MENTIONS

       

TOP FOUR

     

4. Flamefall by Rosaria Munda: This book is my favorite of the trilogy, but it can represent the Aurelian Cycle as a whole. I can’t believe in 2023 I have a YA fantasy in my top books, but Rosaria Munda has done the impossible! Reading these books reminded me of binge-reading early 2010s YA books and falling into deep obsession with them. This series is so complex, from its politics of revolution and war to its characters and their relationships. And this middle book was perfect, with its intricate balance between internal and external conflict and exploration of what a revolution should look like.

3. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: I read this book early in the year, and I still cannot stop thinking about it. I don’t think this needs any justification, seeing as its brilliance has been recognized and praised by so many readers; everything that needs to be said about this book has already been said. But reading this reminded me why I love multigenerational stories so much—and it is truly the multigenerational saga of all multigenerational sagas. Gyasi weaves two narratives together seamlessly and heartbreakingly to slowly unfurl the devastating cycle of oppression. 

2. The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez: There is no book like this one. I would not recommend it to the regular reader, but I think it is a must-read for every fantasy lover. It takes the typical trope of “quest to save the world” and spins it into an epic homage to storytelling, history/ancestry, and family. It invites you as the reader to be a part of the story, just as it includes every seemingly insignificant character. The poetic writing and shifting perspectives create an unforgettable reading experience that feels akin to floating through a dream. And like the best stories, love is at the heart of everything, in both its beautiful and twisted forms.

1. The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez: This is what SFF is all about! Using the fantastical and outlandish to emphasize the intrinsic nature of humanity! This book accomplishes the perfect balance between the expansive and the intimate. It is somehow both heartbreaking and hopeful, showing both the darkness and beauty of what we are capable of. Love persists, and persists, and persists, and Jimenez ensures that we can see this and believe in it even thousands of years from now in outer space. Jimenez’s writing reminds me of why I love SFF—I will never stop reading it, because I have to see how Jimenez further leaves his mark on the genre with his magical ability to imbue each of his stories with an intimacy that both bares and soothes the soul.

DISAPPOINTING BOOKS

         

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches: The writing was annoyingly juvenile, and the romance was cringey and underdeveloped at best to unfair at worst (no woman deserves a man “grumpy” to the point of being unnecessarily cruel!).
• A Dowry of Blood: More annoying writing, this time a case of trying too hard to sound pretty/be quotable one-liners. Also weird romantic dynamic in which the woman felt like a mother to the person she was attracted to…?
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Waters of the Universe: Now I may have cried my eyeballs out while I read this, but that doesn’t negate my opinion that this was kind of an unnecessary sequel. Particularly when it throws tragic plot twists in for the shock factor.

Those three are my main disappointments that I actually disliked, but the other three books I enjoyed but didn’t love as much as expected.

HIDDEN GEMS

          

Most of these have under 1,000 ratings but they are so good… please read!!!! Orphan Bachelors and Ma and Me both explore the meaning of family within an Asian American context of generational trauma; Everyone Wants to Know centers an Asian American family and their toxic dynamic; Some Are Always Hungry and Oculus are beautiful poetry collections (some poems centering on Asian American identity); and Happy Stories, Mostly is an Indonesian short story collection happiness, queerness, and religion.

BOOKS THAT MADE ME CRY

        

BOOKS THAT MADE ME HAPPY

     

The Chalice of the Gods reminded me why I love Percy so much, and it was an extra happy reading experience because I got to see Rick Riordan on one of his tour stops and get a signed copy!!

SURPRISING BOOKS

        

The first three I was surprised by how much I loved them, while the last three were shocking because they went in very wild directions I never expected. Like, very wild. I would recommend all of them, though! (Except maybe not Dandadan, since I’ve only read the first volume so far.)

MOST ANTICIPATED 2024 RELEASES

       
+ Gods and Gamemasters!

Full anticipated releases post coming to you in the near future ;)

#1 PRIORITY BOOKS FOR 2024

     

I’m just going to keep putting the same books on my priority list until I actually get to them. This is embarrassing.

666 READING CHALLENGE

      

I did a lot better than I thought, since I kind of gave up on this challenge… I read 12/18 books! I didn’t read from my TBR, I just happened to pick up books that fell in these genres. I don’t think I’ll be doing this challenge again because I’m naturally reading a wide range of genres now (except for nonfic…), but it’s been a good time!

The covers above represent my favorite books that I read for this.

nonfiction – 2/6	horror – 4/6	literary fiction – 6/6
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong	The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez (3.5 ★)	Severance by Ling Ma (4 ★)
The Souls of Black Folk by WEB DuBois	Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung (3 ★)	The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan (2.5 ★)
	Natural Beauty by Ling Ling Huang (3.5 ★)	Human Acts by Han Kang (4 ★)
	The Night Eaters bk 1: She Eats the Night by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda (4 ★)	Bone by Fae Myenne Ng (3 ★)
		Y/N by Esther Yi (3 ★)
		Happy Stories, Mostly by Norman Erikson Pasaribu (4 ★)

READING GOALS

• Read 70 books
• Read outside the US – at least 25 books
• Read nonfiction & classics
• Read from owned TBR
• Write reviews again!!

How was your reading year in 2023? What were your favorite books? Any fun reading goals? Thank you so much for sticking around, and hopefully I will see you all more often!! <3