Best of 2023

(The one where I pretend to be the NY Times)

Welcome to the bumper issue of my Substack just in time for your Black Friday shopping!

This time of year, I love reading the New York Times list of the best books of the year. TBH, they tend to focus on literary fiction—the type of books that require a dictionary to understand and tackle extremely weighty topics. Don’t get me wrong—those books have their place on bookshelves. And if those are the types of books you like to read or gift your loved ones, please check out their picks.

My list is full of books that made me laugh out loud, cry happy tears, and gave me the best kind of book hangover. The ones I immediately reread after finishing because I didn’t want it to be over. As we barrel into 2024, I hope that they bring you some joy as well.

Top Five Romances

If you’ve been reading my newsletter or following me on Instagram, you know I looooove a good romance. It was incredibly difficult to narrow my list of favorites to only five, but here goes nothing.

In order of publication date, my first choice is Kate Clayborn’s Georgie, All Along.

Kate is one of my auto-buy authors. Her writing is heart-wrenchingly emotional, full of tender-hearted heroes and heroines who are beautifully flawed and real. Devour this one and then immediately buy all of her backlist.

Georgie has always lived in the moment, which made her great at her job as an assistant to a famous screenwriter but also gave her a reputation as a flake growing up. After losing her job and housing, she moves back to her hometown to help her best friend get ready for her baby—and also figure out what she wants to do with her life. Enter Levi: a gruff, quiet dock builder who ends up staying at Georgie’s family home with her. As they get to know each other, they learn they just might be perfect for each other.

Elissa Sussman’s Once More With Feeling is incredibly fun and engaging. Former teen pop star Kathleen Rosenberg has the chance to realize a lifelong dream of starring in a Broadway show. The only problem is that the director, Cal Kirby, is one of the reasons she fell from grace.

Told in dual timelines, Sussman deftly weaves their past and present. The story had many twists and turns and more than a sprinkle of commentary about how we treated female pop stars like Britney Spears.

Jessica Joyce’s You, With a View left me swooning (#Theosthighs), laughing (the banter!), and weeping (the unresolved grief). She is a rare talent, and this debut signals the beginning of what will no doubt be a long career.

When Noelle discovers her late Gram’s steamy old photo and love letter—and it’s not with her Grandpa Joe—she takes to TikTok to try to solve the mystery. When someone responds, she’s elated, until she learns that the hot man in the photo is the grandfather of her high school arch-nemesis. Still, it’s a piece of her Gram’s life, so she offers to go on the road trip with him. He agrees—as long as his grandson Theo can come too. As the road trip through the Southwest continues, Noelle and Theo discover that their past rivalry may transform into something even better—soulmates.

Alicia Thompson’s With Love, from Cold World has my whole heart. Her sophomore novel solidified her as an auto-buy for me. Her books are heart-wrenching and witty in equal measure.

On the surface, Lauren and Asa couldn’t be more different. She’s a tightly wound bookkeeper who never met a list she didn’t love. He’s a happy-go-lucky goofball who never takes things too seriously. But when their boss asks them to team up to create a new exhibit for Cold World (the freezing Orlando theme park where they work), they discover that they have more in common than they thought and develop deep feelings for each other.

If you sometimes find romance a tad too saccharine, Kate Goldbeck’s You, Again is the book for you. Inspired by my all-time favorite rom-com, When Harry Met Sally, this book will have you in stitches with the antics of Ari and Josh and pulling for them to find their version of a happily-ever-after.

Improv comedian Ari and chef Josh have a series of meet-disasters over several years in NYC. But when they are both reeling from breakups, they find comfort in becoming extremely depressed friends. They bicker across every borough and realize that the person you’re meant to be with isn’t the one who makes you happy. It’s the one who you can be with at your worst.

Best Book Club Fiction

I picked up Caroline O’Donoghue’s The Rachel Incident because it takes place in Cork, Ireland, and I was researching how to make the Irish dialogue in my Ireland rom-com more realistic. It’s a smart, funny, and immersive coming-of-age story about two young people who meet working at a bookstore in Cork, and how they fumble into adulthood. It reminded me of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, but *whispers* I think it might be even better.

Best Nonfiction

Britney Spears’ memoir, The Woman in Me, is written in spare, heartbreaking words as she details her upbringing and the extremely dark days during her conservatorship. It’s required reading for anyone examining how society and the media treat women. For anyone who cares about how we treat women postpartum. For anyone who has ever gone through a bad breakup or been gaslit. For any woman who has felt rage.

I finished it two days after it was released and am still thinking about it.

Also, I’ve heard the audiobook version might be even better. Fo shizz!

What were your favorite reads of the year? I’d love to hear.