Miss Kitty is a voracious reader (in her words) and a big ol’ nerd in the Captain’s words. Okay, not really, he’s proud and a little jealous of her ability to cruise through a book a week on average while he’s been chipping away at Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for six months and counting. It’s not his fault. There are so many distractions out there (like video games) and the Nazis just don’t make for light, breezy reading.
But back to Miss Kitty. She always has lists upon lists of books to read, some lists of which she sticks to religiously (this is the Big List, which we will discuss in a different post), and others she’s more loosey goosey about. However, not really adhering to the lists doesn’t stop her from making them even though there are so many distractions out there (like other books.)
As 2023 approaches, though, she feels more resolved than ever to create a list and get through it. Now, that doesn’t mean she won’t abandon a book if it sucks (life’s too short), but it always feels good to set out a goal and actually accomplish it. Or kind of accomplish it. Or not accomplish it at all but fail in a spectacular fashion.
Just as she is with food, drinks, and music, Miss Kitty likes books of nearly every type as long as they don’t suck. However, her heart has been and always will be captivated by fiction as this is the genre she has dabbled in writing her entire life. Yeah, yeah, she makes her living writing business content, but her true love is fiction. So this is what makes up 90% of her reading. She loves literary, mysteries, psychological thrillers…all the good stuff. As long as there are solid characters, a good plot, and sparkling writing, she’s in. She’s also always up for a suggestion from other readers, including those from her book club (technical name of book club: Wine I Mean Book Club, so you can probably guess how much reading actually gets done.)
To develop this year’s list, Miss Kitty did it somewhat strategically and somewhat haphazardly, as Captain Love would insist she does most things, most notably loading the dishwasher. Strategically, she chose from the National Book Award winners and nominees from past years as she’s always liked the books that win this prize (as opposed to the Pulitzer which she finds is hit and miss) as well as the Rooster’s Tournament of Books (if you haven’t heard of it, look it up, it’s spectacular). Haphazardly, she just added the books that have been sitting on her To Be Read shelf and she just hasn’t gotten around to it.
All in all, there are 22 books on the list. Though distractions are inevitable and it’s likely she’ll develop a whole new list before January is even over, it’s possible this is the year she actually sticks to it. Without further ado, here is her 2023 book list:
- My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkam Braithwaite
- The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
- When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
- The Lola Quarter by Emily St. John Mandel
- All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenborough
- I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh
- A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet
- The Man on the Middle Floor by Elizabeth S. Moore
- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
- Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
- A Good Neighborhood by Therese Ann Fowler
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
- The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
- The Echo Maker by Richard Power
- The Archive of the Forgotten by A.J. Hackwith
- Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
- The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken
- Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
- An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
- Dutch House by Ann Patchett
- Writers & Lovers by Lily King
And there you have it! Miss Kitty has vowed to write about each book she reads (even if that means she read 10 pages of it and threw it aside in disgust). Feel free to check back in to see which was her favorite and, more importantly, if she even came close to reading them all or if the fates intervened to derail her.
