2023 was a good reading year for me—probably the most I’ve read since the Before Times (the pandemic really messed with my attention span in a big way). Below are a few favorites that were published in 2023. I’d love to know what you read and enjoyed this year, too. Let me know in the comments below?
Wishing you all a pleasant last day of 2023 and a peaceful and prosperous 2024 . . . with plenty of good books throughout the year. And thank you for being a subscriber to The Slow Hello.
Favorite Books for Adults
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by
Favorite Young Adult Books
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater
America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Ringer
Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow
Favorite Picture Books
A Few Beautiful Minutes: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse by Kate Allen Fox, illustrated by Khoa Le
My Baba’s Garden by Jordan Scott, illustrated by Sydney Smith
The Skull by Jon Klassen
There Was a Party for Langston by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey
To the Other Side by Erika Meza
A Tulip in Winter: A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Lauren Soloy
And while we’re making lists . . .
here’s four fun things we enjoyed in Boston this week to close out the year.
Pizza and candlepin bowling at Sacco’s Bowl Haven
The Nova Lox sandwich at Mamaleh’s
The Fashioned by Sargent exhibit at the MFA
The Earl Grey Mousse at L.A. Burdick
And lastly, here’s a New Year’s poem from Lucille Clifton— with thanks to
. I’m about to enter my forty-sixth year, and it resonated. Happy New Year, all.i am running into a new year
By Lucille Clifton
i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind
that i catch in my hair
like strong fingers like
all my old promises and
it will be hard to let go
of what i said to myself
about myself
when i was sixteen and
twenty-six and thirty-six
even thirty-six but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me
*Please note that all books mentioned above contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org, a site that helps support local independent bookstores.