As a kid, I was a voracious reader. As an adult, I read a lot of science articles daily as a part of my job. My wife was the opposite. As a kid, she hardly read. Now as an adult, she reads every day during her lunch break at work. She’s inspired me. Instead of listening to the same music playlists over and over (sorry, Taylor Swift), I listen to a lot of books during my workday in the lab (shoutout to the Houston Public Library, Harris County Public Library, and Wisconsin Public Library Consortium). Here are some of my favorites from 2023, in alphabetical order.

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Broken Horses: A Memoir by Brandi Carlile

Over the last few years, Brandi has become one of my favorite music artists. I’ve listened to a lot of celebrity memoirs, but this one actually felt like it had real substance. And I’m a sucker for authors who voice their own audiobooks. It’s an artist’s story and her message shines throughout the book. This woman has talent. Also check out her music, my wife and I can’t stop listening to her newest album In These Silent Days.

(P.S. This selection should warrant an honorable mention for Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, another celebrity musician memoir I read this year. His book is full of much of the same authenticity as Brandi’s book, but including 2 musician memoirs in my book review felt like too much, so this footnote is my compromise.)

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

This one feels like a basic pick, but it’s well-loved for a reason. It’s insane that this is Garmus’s debut novel because the story of Elizabeth Zott is inspiring but true to the female experience, and holds a special place in my heart as a female chemist. I particularly loved the portrayal of a male ally advocating alongside this woman entering a male-dominated field. This is a book I gave to my mom for Mother’s Day. She’s the reason I fell in love with reading in the first place and she’s the woman who taught me how to advocate for yourself in a workplace full of men…and find allies along the way (shoutout to you too, Dad.) I look forward to reading more of Garmus’s novels as she continues to hone her craft and focus her stories even more.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman

This guy might be my favorite author right now, or at least my favorite for novels. His writing style is so unique, and you can hear his voice in every book he writes. Backman is a Swedish author and his Scandinavian humor makes me genuinely laugh out loud. What makes his writing incredible though, is the way he can write a sentence that will make you belly laugh and rip your heart out all at the same time (I need to also give credit to his translator, Henning Koch here, who I imagine painstakingly looks for the right words to convey Backman’s meaning in English). His books are emotionally devastating, but I never lose hope. I always leave learning something about myself and the human experience. MGAMTTYSS is no different. We follow a character whose best friend is her granny, and as the story goes on, she learns that her granny touched the lives of many people. This book forces us to feel loss and grief through the lens of a 7-year-old girl, yet along the way, we discover that through loss there is hope for new appreciation, hope, and understanding. The reason I’m including this book over others by Backman though, is one line that had actual tears streaming down my face while in the lab:

“Dad clears his throat. Looks like dads do when it suddenly dawns on them that something they used to do because it was important to their daughters has now become one of those things daughters do because it’s important to their dads.”

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

I wasn’t too sure about this book. Futuristic, apocalyptic stories can be very hit or miss for me. Mad Max movies? Love. Dune? Barely got through the first few chapters. But Parable of the Sower hit the sweet spot for me. This book felt dystopian without being too heavy-handed. It was set in a future that still feels as relevant in 2023 as I imagine it felt 30 years ago when it was published. This listen came courtesy of John Green’s recommendation, so I decided to trust him. It was a good call. This book touches on topics of family, climate change, wealth inequality, and how all of these themes tie into empathy. I think a large part of my connection to this book was driven by its similarities to books from my childhood that I hold dear including The Giver and The Handmaid’s Tale. Don’t read this one leisurely, it’ll get you thinking, but I think it’s a novel worth reading.

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

This is a bit of a silly recommendation, but for a Wisconsin-raised girl living far from home, this book brought a little bit of Wisconsin culture to me. From the voice actor’s choice to lay on the strong Sconnie accent, to the mentions of brandy old-fashioneds and grasshopper dessert drinks, this book made me feel like I was spending my summer at my family’s cabin on a lake. I was recommended this book thanks to the Boswell Books’ gift guide and was not disappointed. Beyond the quips and references only a northern Midwestern person would understand, the book lays out a beautiful story of navigating Midwestern niceness, generational trauma, and a splash of the American dream. It may not be the most earth-shattering title on this list, but it would make for a great gift for a Wisconsinite feeling a little homesick.

This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas

I’m going to be honest here–I judged this book by its cover. The bright colors caught my attention in the (now closed) bookstore in the central market at the Chicago Midway airport. I immediately put it on hold in my Libby app. Turns out, this book is super interesting if you’re a music lover like me. I most appreciate it for expanding my horizons on a killer playlist and for better understanding why some of those songs I’d never heard before (and some of my faves) stand out to me so much. Going into this experience, I thought the audiobook would improve the experience, but once I realized that it required me the constantly flip back and forth between the Libby app and the Spotify playlist, I regretted that decision. My only wish is that the songs were included in the audiobook, but that would probably be pretty expensive–definitely read this one as a hard copy or digital reader. Overall, I really appreciated Rogers’ perspective on music as someone who has been both an insider and outsider of the industry and for her eclectic showing of what makes music into the records we hear, especially from a producer’s perspective. I’d love to read a follow-up detailing more about her story because I think her journey from receptionist to producer at Paisley Park to Berklee professor really legitimizes the information in the book. If you love music (and many different genres, especially) read this book and listen to the accompanying playlist!

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Shockingly, none of this year’s books came from the “self-help” genre. Typically, I get my recommendations for those books from my wife, but since starting her MBA her reading has been more topic-focused. I also went very heavy on the self-help category in prior years, so this year was a bit of a cleanse. I’ve been collecting titles of my favorite books for the last few years now, though, so maybe I’ll post a retrospective on those titles in the future to document some of my favorite self-help books. Cheers to the new year, use public libraries, and shop at independent bookstores!

Note: All of the books I have linked are for physical copies from independent bookstores relevant to the novel in some way, if you’re not able to visit your local bookstore in person. You can also search for physical books online using Bookshop or audiobooks using Libro, which both support independent bookstores!