I was inspired by Aoife’s blog post about her 2023 reading year to talk about my own. I am a pretty big reader, and though we are well into January, I never got to talk about all the books I read last year. Though it was not my most prolific reading year, I still relish any opportunity to talk about books.

I’m an avid Goodreads user, and I love keeping track of what my friends and I are reading and enjoying (or not enjoying!). So here are all the books I read this year, ratings included:

1. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: 2 stars
2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (this was a reread, and one of my favorite books of all time): 5 stars
3. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske: 3 stars
4. Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malindo Lo: 4 stars
5. Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn: 3 stars
6. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (a guilty pleasure reread of one of my favorites as a teen) : 5 stars
7. Pride and Prejudice (also a reread of a favorite!): 5 stars
8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: 3 stars
9. Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall: 4 stars
10. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante: 3 stars
11. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin: 4 stars
12. They Never Learn by Layne Fargo: 2 stars
13. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin: 4 stars
14. Educated by Tara Westover: 4 stars
15. The Girls by Emma Cline: 2 stars
16. Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler: 2 stars
17. Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy: 3 stars
18. Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner: 3 stars
19. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters: 4 stars
20. Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: 4 stars
21. Happy Place by Emily Henry: 5 stars
22. Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun: 3 stars
23. Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield: 3 stars
24. The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary: 3 stars
25. Bunny by Mona Awad: 4 stars
26. The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun: I didn’t rate this one, as I didn’t know how I felt.
27. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (another reread!): 5 stars
28. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty: 4 stars
29. Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren: 3 stars
30. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon: 4 stars
31. The White Album by Joan Didion: 3 stars
32. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb: 5 stars
33. Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: 3 stars
34. We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman: 4 stars
35. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: 3 stars
36. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine: 4 stars
37. Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson: I didn’t rate this because I find it hard to rate poetry, especially old poetry
38. Memorial by Bryan Washington: 2 stars
39. Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh: 3 stars
40. The Shadows by Alex North: 2 stars
41. Chlorine by Jade Song: 2 stars
42. Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison: 4 stars
43. Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater: 4 stars

I definitely read a good amount, but it was a lackluster year in terms of enjoying what I was reading. I don’t know if I have become a harsher critic as I’ve grown older and read more, but I find it’s getting harder to please me these days.

The standouts of the year were Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which I unexpectedly loved and which genuinely impacted my life, and Happy Place, because Emily Henry is one of my favorite authors and she has yet to disappoint me. All the other 5-star ratings of the year went to rereads.

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I’m hoping this year I’ll pick up more books that I enjoy as well as reach my Goodreads goal of 50 books. I wish you all a good reading year as well!

— Hannah Gruen, administrative coordinator