Hi Page Turners,
Welcome to the long awaited and most anticipated post my bookish wrap up of the year. In case you missed last years wrap up you can read it here- https://fizwrites.wixisite.com/website/post/my-year-in-review-books
Intro
Last year’s post just consisted of the books I like and disliked and because it is so hard to choose favourites or nail it down to a few books I went through nearly all of them saying whether I liked them or not. This year is going to be different and I hope more entertaining to read as instead of going through all the books I read I will be using book tag questions and choosing a few books and at the end (painfully) whittling it down to my top ten favourite books I read in 2023. If you go straight to the bottom of the post to read those top ten I won’t blame you but you will be missing out on all those juicy questions, so please enjoy reading and reviewing my books with me and of course looking at the stats.
Consider commenting and keeping the conversation going by writing on your reading year and your goals for 2024 and comment if you have read any of the books I have mentioned and if you agree/disagree and as always leave me your recommendations of the books you read that were your favourite or even the ones you didn’t like as I love reading bookish comment. Well without further ado lets get into it.
Reflecting on 2023 reading goals
At the beginning of 2023 I decided I wanted to set a Goodreads goal to read 73 books and the reason for that number was because it was my final year of uni and I wanted to really focus on that. I also wanted to slow my reading down and really savour each and every book. I thought for me 73 was a healthy and attainable goal that I will be able to do. I can proudly say I have succeded that goal by reading 150 books. To me it is not about the quantity, I couldn’t care less if I read 10 or 1000 in year as long as along the way I find favourites and really push myself in what I read and learn along the way.
Speaking on pushing myself at the bottom of last years wrap up I gave myself a few goals which were to write monthly book reviews on the blog, re-read favourite books and read books that are on my TBR and finally read more classics and non-fiction books.
Reflecting back on these goals I am really proud of myself that I have achieved all of these. My monthly bookish updates (which led me to post more on my blog which was another goal I had but also led to my newsletter that consists of weekly updates that include the books I have read) sometimes I didn’t want to post the monthly updates but I made myself do it and now I have twelve posts that I can re-visit and reflect back on. Re-read favourite books that goal I felt I did to a certain extent because I re-read a few but not as much as I wanted to that is definitely a goal for 2024. Read the books that are on my TBR I have definitely stuck too expect for one which I intend to get around to early 2024- keep me accountable. Read more classics honestly I wanted to say I have achieved this goal but I didn’t although I read a bunch I didn’t read as much as I wanted too. Another goal was to read non-fiction books and it is safe to say I have definitely smashed that goal because I think out of all my reading years this year has been a great year for me because I picked up a lot of non-fiction books and have enjoyed it. Finally the last goal was to listen to more audiobooks and I have achieved that really enjoying reading in a different format.
2023 reflection.
2023 has been the best year, the worst year and everything in between. To the start of the year where I was battling with my own personal health (nothing major) to the cost of living crises to having one of the best Ramadan’s I have ever had. Working on my finals and submitting my last ever assignments for uni too finishing uni and battling the post-graduation rut to savoring the summer and reading all the books I can and savoring them without having to think about uni reading lists. To finally the horrific war in Palestine and Israel to finally graduating and learning about myself and getting back into journaling and my faith. Throughout all of this one thing that has got me through the year is books. I spoke about this in last years wrap up but books are like my anchor and it gives me stability in a world that doesn’t offer you any. Without getting into it to much books have really been my saviour for my mental health for my sanity and for comfort (of course other things have done this like my religion and family). Check out my post of my love letter to libraries here- https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/how-to-get-free-books-and-my-love-letter-to-libraries-long-read
Finally, if you have read up to here I can only thank you for putting up with my waffle so let’s get into what you came here to read the book tags!
2023 stats
Check out the stats from my Story Graph: Side Note (I don’t use this as often as my Goodreads I literally just use this the yearly stats as I would prefer to use over Goodreads however I just don’t like the layout I don’t know if it is different if you have the app but I use the website for both sites and prefer the Goodreads layout- if you want to connect with me Goodreads is better as I am most active there- link here- https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/71950525-fiz-substack-link-in-bio
Best Sequel: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon- I loved this sequel see my full review and April wrap up here: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-april-2023
Biggest Disappointment: The No Show by Beth O’Leary- Review and wrap up here https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-march-2023 A Women Is No Man by Etaf Rum/ The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh
Biggest Surprise: The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino,
Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, Love Pamela- Pamela Anderson Review and wrap up here- https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-may-2023
The Fall by Louise Jensen: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-july-2023
Best Guilty Pleasure: Next of Kin by Kia Abdullah review and wrap up here- https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-november-2023
A Book Everyone Loved but You Didn’t: A Court of Thornes and Roses- Sarah J. Mass https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-decemeber-2023
Book You Read the Fastest, Playing Games by Huma Qureshi, The Hunger Games trilogy: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-february-2023
A Book That Deserves More Hype Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen, Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie.
Disappointing Read of the Year- Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus- https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-september-2023
Circe by Madeline Miller, Gilded by Marissa Meyer: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-august-2023
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Underdog Book of the Year The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam, French Braid by Anne Tyler: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-january-2023
Book That Surprised You - A Death at the Party Amy Stuart, He started it by Samantha Downing, All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham.
Book That Was Overhyped- Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton, Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde.
New Author you Discovered: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.
Best Adaptation- The Queen’s Gambit- Walter Tevis: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-october-2023
Longest- shortest book- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell- longest.
Shortest- The Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami
Frustrating book (had potential): The Maid by Nita Prose, The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager, Party Crasher by Sophie Kinsella.
Worst Reads- Femlandia The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins Rumours by Freya North, Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sitenfeld, Magnolia Parks by Jessica Hastings review and wrap up: https://fizwrites.wixsite.com/website/post/the-books-i-read-in-june-2023
A book you haven’t stopped thinking about: Zarifa A Women’s Battle In A Man’s World by Zarifa ghafari, Louise O’Neill Idol, Jane Harper The Survivors, Know Your Place Faiza Shaheen, All The Houses I’ve Ever Lived in by Kieran Yates.
Honourable Mentions: The Khan by Saima Mir,
Manifesto by Bernardine Evaristo,
King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard.
The Island Home by Libby Page.
Good Immigrant Nikesh Shukla.
Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes.
Snap by Belinda Bauer.
The Palace Papers by Tina Brown.
The Other Guest by Heidi Parks.
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop.
Lessons by Ian McEwan.
Rumi Book One the Masnavi.
Manifest Dive Deeper by Roxie Nafousi.
Book Tag:
The Best Ten Books of 2023:
-The Stolen Heir by Holly Black -review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4763167588
-The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave – review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5314476243
-The Hunger Games trilogy/ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins- review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5358709306
-The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopen – review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5981512343
-Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid- review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4755948016
-All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In by Kieran Yates – review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5689944440
- Know Your Place by Faiza Shaheen – review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5812478319
- The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis- review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5927736543
- Zarifa A Woman’s Battle in A Man’s World by Zarifa Ghafari- review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5915158880
- The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell- review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4763167220
There you have it the best ten books I have read in 2023 and the books all under the books tag. I hope you enjoyed reading my wrap up this way as opposed to last year’s if you did prefer this way let me know by commenting below or leaving me an email by giving me feedback on what I could do better or keep the same any feedback is much appreciated. I really enjoyed this year’s reading and although I read less than last year and had a couple of slumps and books I didn’t enjoy on the whole I found a lot of new favourites and reading more non-fiction and different genres out of my comfort zone has pushed and challenged my reading experience.
My reading goals for 2024:
- Re-read more of my favourites.
- Finish my TBR and accomplish at least 30 books on my reading list.
- Read at least one classic a month.
- Read more non-fiction and self help books including audiobooks.
- Read more guilty pleasures (fantasy, young adult etc)
- Create my own reading challenge and attempt to read 24 books that are different out of my comfort zone genres.
- Write shorter reviews (stick to 140 characters).
Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed this years wrap up. As always I would love to hear what your top ten books of the year were. In the new year I will keep you updated with what I am reading whether I am sticking to my goals and updating you on my reading challenge that I have created.
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With Love and Dua’s,
Fiz @Every Page She Turns.
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