Reading Books in 2023

I seem to be back on the reading bandwagon after spending the last decade not reading that much except for books I was having to review. This year I was constantly with a book and according to Goodreads, I've read 89 books this year. Not bad considering that my goal was 60 books.

I enjoy reading year-end lists and always interested in what people are reading. Let me know what you read this year in the comments.

Here were some of my favorites and least favorites -

BIOGRAPHY

I read a lot of biographies, especially those related to film and the entertainment world. The one I enjoyed the most was an old one - AS I AM by Patricia Neal, published in 1989. She experienced a long string of misfortunes in her life but she endured and kept going. After a promising start in Hollywood, her career and reputation was tarnished by an affair with the married Gary Cooper. She later married British writer Roald Dahl. They had several children together, a daughter died from measles and their son almost died after being struck by an automobile. A series of debilitating strokes took years of recovery in which she had to learn how to walk and talk again. Dahl was very supportive during her recovery but later treated her terribly. As terrible as things were, Neal relates with candor and sometimes humor.

I also read a lot of new biographies, notably Barbra Streisand's My Name Is Barbra, a 900+ page extravaganza that was admirable, just lacking many juicy details that you know are out there! Matthew Perry's Friends, Lovers & The Big Terrible Thing was compelling but excruciating (what a trainwreck of a  life!).

I also enjoyed True West, a biography of Sam Shepherd by Robert Greenfield, Charlie Chaplin vs. America by Scott Eyman, and Elizabeth Taylor: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon by Kate Anderson Brower. I adore Phyllis Diller and read her autobiography Like A Lampshade  in a Whorehouse and a memoir by her assistant Robin Skone-Palmer,  Beyond the Spotlight.

HISTORY / CRIME

I am generally not interested in certain topics, especially the Civil War, Slavery, Wars and Nazis. That said, when I saw the author Ilyon Woo discussing her book Master Slave Husband Wife on a morning show, I was intrigued. It is the story of William and Ellen Craft, two slaves from Macon, Georgia who  made a daring escape in 1848 with Ellen in disguise as a wealthy white man (she was light-skinned) and William posing as "his" slave. Their 1,000 mile journey by train & boat is as suspenseful as any action thriller and even knowing the outcome beforehand, my nerves were on edge.

I was also not familiar with the story behind Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (as you might have already guessed, history is not my strong point) and I was particularly fascinated by the Osage tribal community, who had amassed fortunes by renting their land to oil drilling companies. The book covers an extensive period when several people were murdered and the cover-ups that followed. This has been made into a film by Martin Scorsese and is getting rave reviews.

FICTION

In my high school and college days, I devoured every book Stephen King wrote. Later, as he delved away from traditional horror and more into sci-fi territory, I abandoned him and have only read a few of his books since. I need to catch up though because his latest, Holly  was such a page-turner that it was all I could do not to read the whole thing in one setting. The villains are repulsive and sinister, and King's prose effortlessly flows from the page. 

When it comes to fiction, I probably like crime-fiction the best. A co-worker recommended that I try S.A. Cosby and I'm glad she did - All The Sinners Bleed, about a black sheriff in a small southern town (yep, more racial prejudice again) was a good one. As in Holly, the subject matter is graphic and unpleasant. I'm on the list for his earlier novel, Razorblade Tears, which I hear is even better.

The New Life by Tom Crewe. This is by no means a fast read and I had to take it at a slow, deliberate pace. Set during the Oscar Wilde period (he even plays a role in the book), it is the story of two unconventional Victorian marriages. Hard to believe that this is Crewe's first book. The writing is exquisite.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is an earlier novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. I like big, multi-generation family stories and this one traces a Greek-American family through three generations. For something different - the lead character is intersexed, starting out as female and ending up male. I enjoyed the book, some parts more than others, but overall, quite excellent. 

Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters. Waters is one of my favorite writers and her writing style reminds me so much of Ruth Rendell who I miss terribly (she died in 2015). There is something about the way they write that draws me into their books like I'm in a hypnotic state. This was Waters first novel and I'm just now reading it. Unfortunately, Waters is not anywhere near as prolific as Ruth Rendell was and it has been seven years since her last book. 

Disappointments - The Marriage Portrait by Maggie Farrell, The Sister by Poppy Adams, The Boy Who Followed Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

CLASSICS

One of my retirement goals was to read great classics that I missed earlier in life. Although I majored in English Literature, there are a lot of books that I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read. This year, I decided to tackle that!

First, I wanted to read two authors that I have never read before but whose works I am very familiar with, mainly because many of them were made into favorite films. The first, E.M. Forster, has had many of his novels filmed by the great Merchant/Ivory team and include Howard's End, A Room with a View and Maurice. I've always wanted to read Maurice, since seeing the film back in the early 80s.  The novel was not published until 1971, after Forster's death. He had written it 60 years earlier but would not publish it because it was a homosexual love story. I loved it and am looking forward to reading more of his works.

The second author was Somerset Maugham, a prolific writer whose works were widely adapted in Hollywood films, most notably The Letter and Of Human Bondage. I read two of his books this year and look forward to more. The first, The Painted Veil, involves a missionary and his unhappy wife, dealing with marital infidelity and battling a cholera epidemic in a rural China village. The second book, The Razor's Edge, was immensely popular in the 1940s when it was first published, and it was also filmed (with Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney). Of the two, I liked The Painted Veil best. Maugham was one of the most popular writers of the twenty-first century and I'd like to find a good biography on him. 

Gone to Earth by Mary Webb - I was familiar with the book because Jennifer Jones, my favorite actress, played the role of Hazel Woodus in 1949. It is the story of a simple girl living in the Shropshire countryside whose life is ruled by ignorance and superstition. The book excels at describing the beauty of nature, but the dialog is not the easiest to read. 

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen, a memoir of her years living of living on and managing a coffee plantation near Nairobi. Lyrical writing and so descriptive, I enjoyed it for the most part but I found it very sad.

And finally, a re-reading of The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. I'm pretty sure I first read this in school or I may have discovered it on my own. Another multi-generational tale, this one depicts the rise and fall of peasant farmer Wang Lung in twentieth-century China. It was wonderful the first time I read it as a kid and even more so now. (With the exception of the poor wife O-Lan, who never gets a break!). 

Disappointments - City of Night by John Rechy, Fanny Herself  by Edna Ferber

GARDENING / NATURE

It appears that I did not read many gardening books this year. These days, new gardening books seem to be few and far between. However, there are many older titles on my shelves still waiting to be read.

The Pacific Northwest Native Plant Primer by Kristen Curren and Andrew Merritt. I would choose this book as my top favorite simply for the fact that it is an invaluable reference for gardeners in the Pacific Northwest. It is an attractive book, very well organized and the photographs are very nice. I haven't read it from cover to cover but refer to it often.

We Made a Garden by Margery Fish

I just wrote about this book in my last post.

The Writer's Garden by Jackie Bennett

This is a beautiful coffee table that profiles famous writer's and their gardens, such as Agatha Christie, Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton and Roald Dahl (yikes!). (And yes, Patricia Neal did mention the garden many times in her book. She herself found weeding very therapeutic as she was recovering from her stroke).

Disappointments - The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl - I thought I would love this. The writer is from my neck of the woods (she grew up in south Alabama, I grew up in northwest Alabama). It is a collection of 52 short chapters that dwell on the nature/ wildlife happenings in the garden. It is so beautifully written (I would love to have a fraction of that talent) but alas, I found it relentlessly downbeat and depressing. There is a lot of reflection here on loss (parents dying, children leaving home,  etc.) and the "nature" parts were equally bleak - insects and birds being poisoned in neighborhoods across the U.S. and trees are being cut down everywhere.  And she is 100% correct about all of it. 

A Gardener's Guide to Botany by Scott Zona - Too technical for my feeble brain to comprehend!

And The Worst Book I Read This Year-- The Humble Lover by Edmund White - Trashy, vulgar, offensive, disgusting - are just some of the adjectives I would us describe this book. 

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy