a stack of books

Anna’s Best Books of 2023

Posted on by Anna and Alexis

I read 101 books in 2023, which is the most I’ve ever read in a year!

My favorite books of the year weren’t all published in 2023, and these are in no particular order. In addition to either flying through them or savoring my experience while reading them, all of these stuck in my mind throughout the rest of my reading this year.

I really went back to my literary fiction roots. My favorite books of the year were written by women and, in addition to being beautifully written, the majority of them deal with issues of girlhood and motherhood, feminism, sexuality, and sexual violence. 

My favorite books of 2023

BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE by Nell Stevens

I KEEP MY EXOSKELETONS TO MYSELF by Marisa Crane

THE FEMALE PERSUASION by Meg Wolitzer

VLADIMIR by Julia May Jones

BODIES OF LIGHT by Sarah Moss

PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia Butler

ELSEWHERE by Alexis Schaitkin

THE GUEST by Emma Cline

MOTHER IN THE DARK by Kayla Maiuri

PENANCE by Eliza Clark

THE RACHEL INCIDENT by Caroline O’Donoghue

MY LAST INNOCENT YEAR by Daisy Alpert Florin

Honorable mentions outside of literary fiction

Middle grade: SKUNK AND BADGER by Amy Timberlake

Thriller: MAGPIE by Elizabeth Day

Fantasy: A FIRE ENDLESS by Rebecca Ross

My 2024 Reading Goals

My goals for 2024 are to read more memoirs, prioritize reading more diverse authors and perspectives, and read and review more advanced reader copies on Netgalley. Other goals include being a responsible reader—supporting my local Indie bookstores, local library, and continue preaching to people to stop buying books on Amazon. Other than that, I don’t have a numbers goal—I’ll just see where the year takes me! 

Want to follow my reading? Follow me on StoryGraph and Instagram!

Published by Anna and Alexis

Hello! We're Anna and Alexis, twins from the Richmond, Virginia area. We both studied English and creative writing in college. Anna spent a year after college working in book publishing in New York City. After living outside of D.C., she moved back to the Richmond area. She works in marketing. Her favorite genre to read is literary fiction, especially by female authors, and she also enjoys dystopian novels. Alexis works in marketing and writes novels on the side. She recently finished grad school, where she received her MFA in creative writing. She loves reading fantasy, especially YA, magical realism, and the occasional lyrical fiction and romance. We’ve been reading and writing together as long as we can remember, and we’re excited to share our bookish thoughts with you! Check us out on Instagram @takestwotobookreview.

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