What I read in 2023

This year some difficult personal circumstances meant I stared at a lot of bad TV instead of picking up a book. Also, though I often have several books on the go at once, I usually finish them. Not this year: there were several where I just lost momentum half-way through. But they are still on the to-be-read pile and will be finished eventually.

However, despite all that, I still managed to finish 39 books – partly due to two trilogies which I raced through and four re-reads. So here’s what I read, and what I thought of them.

PLEASE NOTE THIS INCLUDES SOME SHORT SERIES – THE CLAIRE DEWITT MYSTERIES AND THE SCHOLOMANCE TRILOGY – SO SPOILERS ARE INEVITABLE.

Late Call by Angus Wilson

A strong start to the year as I loved this! Sylvia Calvert and her jolly but feckless husband Arthur move in with her son Harold and his three older teenage children who live in a fictitious Midlands new town (thought to be based on Harlow, where I was born) in the early 1960s. Harold is the headmaster of the secondary school and an evangelist for the new town as a tool to re-make society on modern lines. Sylvia struggles to get used to it but she’s a woman of good humour, strength and kindness and in the end it turns out that Harold is the conservative one while Sylvia discovers a whole new way of being alive.

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

A Book Group choice. But as I had actually read it in late 2021 (no. 51) and it’s a whopper, I just skimmed it this time round. However, what I said then holds good now- “Set in the near future, the story of the global fight against climate change led by a UN agency. Though this sounds pretty dry, it’s actually fascinating and quite gripping. And optimistic.” And as the climate crisis isn’t going anywhere, I still recommend it as a hopeful, as well as dramatic, read, full of solutions to remedy our foolishness.

Latchkey Ladies by Majorie Grant

Another fabulous publication focused on women’s experiences from Handheld Press. Also see Business As Usual by June Oliver and Ann Stafford (no 20 in 2021’s list). This time it is a group of diverse young women in 1920s London, working, enjoying themselves, and having relationships, one of which results in an illegitimate pregnancy. It’s well written, witty and touching, and is a wonderful exploration of not just the circumstances the women are in but also the choices they make. Marvellous stuff!

Broken Ghost by Niall Griffiths

This follows the difficult, traumatised lives of three strangers who share a mystical vision at a 24-hour rave on a Welsh hillside. Adam, Cowley and Emma are each struggling with personal issues, as well as being beset with the challenges of surviving, let alone thriving, in Brexit Britain, with its faltering economy, broken public services, and atomised communities. It’s brutal, scabrous and heart wrenching but also holds glimmers of hope.

City of the Dead by Sara Gran

The first in a series, this is the story of idiosyncratic private investigator Claire DeWitt who returns to New Orleans, where her mentor was killed, to find a missing person. Her quest takes her through the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on the physical city and the emotional lives of its residents, particularly two poor Black teenage boys. Claire’s approach to detection combines physical action, intuition, hallucinogenic drugs and mysticism, while the city itself is a strange and secretive ruined landscape. She’s ironic, dedicated, caring, tough and haunted by her own personal tragedies, which means she never gives up on the case. The story advances amid the swampish atmosphere and underlying it all are the questions of what it is to be a victim and to have agency over your own destiny. It’s unlike any other mystery I’ve read. And I loved it so much I instantly bought the next two in the series.

Meantime by Frankie Boyle

Ah, a crime novel set in Glasgow written by a comedian (during lockdown, I presumed). Well, I approached it with a certain cynicism but was pleasantly surprised. Frankie Boyle has a way with words as anyone who reads his Guardian column or sees his stand-up will know. Being a Glaswegian, I liked the setting, and each time I thought something seemed a bit unlikely even within the conceit of the slightly exaggerated world of a Glasgow crime novel, I was wrongfooted. Which was good! Just as I was thinking that I knew where it was going there was another surprising, and also rather sad, turn. Very enjoyable.

Hear No Evil by Sarah Smith

A debut novel that draws on the very bare bones of a Scottish legal case of 1817 when a young woman was accused of drowning her baby. The woman, Jean Campbell, is deaf, and so Robert Kinniburgh, a young teacher who uses a form of sign language which he teaches in a new school for deaf children, is brought in to try and get her evidence. She gradually entrust him with her story, and he finds himself caught between keeping on the right side of the authorities and giving her a true voice in court. It’s a complicated situation, and though I wasn’t sure I fully believed the back story the author creates for Jean, it’s neatly and sensitively done.

Love Me Tender by Constance Debré, translated by Holly James

A Book Group choice. The unnamed narrator leaves her husband and her young son, abandoning her job as a lawyer, her possessions, and her comfortable middle-class existence for a life of writing, living in bedsits, shoplifting, and lots of one night stands with women. Every day she swims lanes in the public pool and hopes for success with her legal applications to see her son. Her husband argues that her new lifestyle is not motherly and the state agrees. He condemns her sexual choices but perhaps her rejection of her social class is the underlying and greater betrayal. Though there’s always the sense that, despite being broke and rejecting materialism, she’s not without resources – education, friends and social capital – so she’s never totally down and out. It’s very short and spare but vivid – the writing is superb – and her account of embracing her new true life is angry, dry and passionate. Really worth reading.

I should add some of Book Group went to see the author at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and she was charismatic, charming and funny, which made me soften my initial opinion of the book.

Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway by Sara Gran

The second in the Claire DeWitt series. This time she’s investigating the death of her ex-boyfriend in San Francisco. But as she delves into the crime with the help of her new assistant Claude – who she hopes will be another convert to the oblique Jacques Silette method of private investigating – another mystery, also linked to her past, arises. Personally she’s a wreck, stumbling from one drug-induced hallucination or blackout to another, but professionally she manages to find a route to some solutions. Tense and intense.

The Hummingbird by Sandro Veronesi

A Book Group choice. A prize-winner in Italy, this is the story of quiet ophthalmologist Marco Carrera and how he deals with the trials of life – marriage, divorce, raising an orphaned grandchild, dealing with the death of his parents and so on. It’s a busy family saga that jumps back and forth in time but, despite all the drama that surrounds him and some slightly odd exaggerated situations, the book feels flat. It’s well written, but not a story I loved..

The Dawn of Everything. A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow

Be warned: this is a doorstopper with pretty small print! But it’s fascinating! The general gist is that we have an sense that society has progressed from hunter gathering, to agriculture with villages and small towns, to industry and cities. And this conglomerating is necessary for new ideas and innovation that drives political and economic development. Well, this plonks all of that on its head and shows how plenty of nomadic or hunter-gatherer societies were/are incredibly sophisticated in their political structures, and that peoples of the past have sometimes abandoned restrictive, hierarchical urban societies in favour of greater freedom and equality. There’s some really interesting bits about how Enlightenment thinkers were flabbergasted by some of the ideas of freedom, equality and communal government they were introduced to by people from the so-called New World, and those people were baffled by how Europeans had chosen to organise their societies as brutal hierarchies of wealth and power. There’s also some fascinating stuff about how women were early innovators. There’s a lot to take in but it’s constantly challenging and the writing style – relaxed, friendly, and very well organised – makes it easy to absorb the information and arguments. Very worth reading.

Dressed for War by Julie Summers

A biography of Audrey Withers, editor of British Vogue through the Second World War to the 1960s. Based on archive materials, this was an easy read and very interesting. Audrey was not a debutante; she was a clever, middle class young woman who wasn’t really that interested in fashion but did want a job in journalism. She expanded the magazine’s reach to encompass other areas of women’s lives, an approach that led to her publishing the photos and reports of astounding war correspondent Lee Miller, as well presenting fashion in the ruins of blitzed London as something normal and beautiful to value and fight for. Lots of fascinating stuff, including the delightful snippet that the US publishers referred to the British edition of the magazine as Brogue!

The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran

The last of the Claire DeWitt mysteries. She starts off battered and bruised, having just survived a car crash that was a murder attempt. Now she has to find out who is trying to kill her, whilst delving back into a cold case, and coping with the reverberations from a personal teenage tragedy. On the sideline is another mystery involving a fondly-remembered series of Nancy Drew type books. All this almost destabilises her for good, but she’s got grit, never-say-die determination, sardonic humour, and a high tolerance for drug consumption. There’s a resolution of sorts but while its a satisfying conclusion, its not simple, and we know the stories will continue to unwind. I loved it.

A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey

A typically untypical mystery from Tey – none of them are the same – in which Inspector Alan Grant seeks the killer of a famous film star, murdered while hiding out from the the press at an isolated English country cottage. He is assisted by a self assured 16-year-old girl who in fact, appears to be a bit better at the detecting than he is! It’s a twisty plot with lots of red herrings but tightly handled so it’s actually quite a short book. Not perhaps her best in my opinion – I thought the solution was a bit wild – but thoroughly enjoyable and actually an interesting insight into 1930s celebrity culture.

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

I knew of this book, of course, but had never read it. So it came as quite a surprise to find the story-within-a-story format but I thought it really worked, especially as the ‘modern’ story of the emotionally troubled and disaffected son, is now also historical being set in the late 1970s. So we have two intertwined stories of The Holocaust – the father who survived it and lives with his memories and the son who is forced to live with the fallout. It’s compelling and moving.

Land of Snow and Ashes by Petra Rautiainen, translated by David Hackston

Set in the part of Finland populated by the Sámi people, photo-journalist Inkeri arrives in 1947, ostensibly on assignment to record the post-War development of the region but also to try and discover the fate of her husband, a Finnish soldier who vanished in 1944. She forms relationships with the locals but there’s a lot of resistance to her inquiries. Her storyline is mirrored by another in the form of a diary written by a man who worked with her husband in the prison camp where Sámi people were tortured in the name of Nazi ‘science’ – Finland and Germany were allied from 1941-1944. As she looks more closely Inkeri sees that the post-war reconstruction is also designed to dominate and obliterate the Sámi and their culture. It is a very beautiful read with lots to think about regarding light and dark, shadows and transparency, and looking and seeing.

The Best of Wodehouse by P. G. Wodehouse

Who doesn’t like PG Wodehouse? Well, maybe some curmudgeons, but the stories are so brisk and airy, yet so deft and tight, and the characters so true to themselves that the books are both delightfully light AND very satisfying. I could drone on but who wants that when they could be immersed in the world of Bertie, Gussie, Madeline, aunts Agatha and Dahlia, Jeeves, and all the other marvellous denizens of the Wodehouse world!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

A Book Group choice. Due to a variety of far-fetched incidents, chemist and single mother Elizabeth Zott finds herself presenting a 1960s TV cookery show which becomes wildly popular with women viewers, not just for the good food but also for Elizabeth’s forthright comments on men, marriage, sexism, and society. It’s comic and cute but has no real substance; tasty fast food for the brain.

The Movie by Louise Bagshawe

A kind gift when I was in emotional distress and what a great distraction it turned out to be! It’s all very silly but I couldn’t wait to see what happened for Megan Silver, burger bar waitress turned multi-million dollar scriptwriter, film studio head Eleanor Marshall struggling with a selfish boyfriend and conniving colleagues, and Roxana Felix, a sexy, bitchy supermodel determined to be a star with her first-ever film role. Will the sex sizzle, will true love appear, who’s on whose side, and, most importantly, will the movie be a hit? Hilarious stuff, all the way from the 1990s!

Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang

Oh, what a hoot this was! A satire of the publishing industry, social media and identity politics, the plot sees the unlikeable aspiring writer June steal a manuscript from the attractive, accomplished and successful Anthea and be propelled to superstar author status with her novel about poor Chinese labourers in the First World War. It rattles along as June struggles to keep her secret and create another bestseller, with clever, barbed insights into the facile attempts of the publishing industry to ‘support diversity’ and how identity is being used to cover up the lack of systemic change and transfer of power from the rich and strong to the poor and powerless. A lot of fun, and recommended!

Book Group went to see the author – known to be attractive, accomplished and successful – at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she also turned out to be kind, funny, and committed to trade union solidarity in the face of rapacious corporations. Delightful!

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

This was a big hit a couple of years ago and so I picked up a second-hand copy to see what the fuss was about. Back it went to the charity shop once I’d finished! I ploughed on through regardless of lots of plot devices seeming fairly unlikely, only to find – and I’m trying to avoid spoilers here – that there was indeed a big reason for the unlikeliness. A reason that made me think ‘well, why did I bother?’ Which is not a place you want to be at the end of a mystery.

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

I have read this detective novel by one of the absolute masters of the genre many times. Stranded in a lonely Fens village with an huge mediaeval church at Christmas, Lord Peter Wimsey takes part in a marathon bellringing session with the locals. Not long afterwards he returns to the village when a battered and unknown corpse is discovered in another person’s grave. It’s an atmospheric, tantalising, and ultimately moving read.

The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

I’m generally against celebrities knocking out crime novels but Richard Osman seems like a nice man and I picked this up second-hand so thought I’d give it a go on my holidays. Well, I was charmed by the adventures of this gang of oldies as they tackle a murder mystery. The plot zips along, there’s danger but also plenty of jokes and the characters are endearing and, despite being in the midst of outrageous death and espionage, seem quite realistic – they get scared, tired and hungry, they bicker, apologise and sometimes cry. What I’m saying is “Well done Richard, I’d read more”.

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance Trilogy)

The first in a trilogy which triumphantly launches us into an extended work of stunning imagination and fabulous writing! It brilliantly employs fantasy to subtly but pointedly cast light on the big issues of our real world, from capitalism to colonialism to climate change.

It starts with Galadriel ‘El’ Higgins locked with hundreds of other teenagers inside a school where they have to hone their natural magical skills to survive. Quite literally, as the outside world is teeming with monsters that kill and eat anyone with magical skills and many of which have squirmed their way into the school to feast on the students. On top of keeping up with the relentless coursework, continually working – sometimes physically – to top up their stores of magical power, and fending off the monsters, this school is just like any other in that the kids are divided into cliques: the rich kids (from what are called enclaves) have it easier, being supplied with plenty of protective power from their parents, while the poor kids have to desperately try to accumulate their own knowing they’ll never make enough, or sell their skills, knowledge, possessions or themselves to acquire enough to have a hope of staying alive. It’s a brutal world where every relationship is assessed in terms of what can be exchanged, a microcosm of capitalism at its worst. El, who has a unique, outsider background in the magical world, is a brilliantly engaging heroine, fierce, funny, principled, prickly, defensive, kind and courageous. You root for her all the way. Can you tell I loved this book?!

Lost & Found. A Memoir by Kathryn Shulz

The author reflects on on personal experiences of grief and love, particularly sharpened for her as her dearly beloved father – who does sound like a lovely man – died a short time after she met the woman who became her wife. As she reflects she entwines cultural and historical allusions with her own emotions. It’s all very nicely done though I think the section on loss seemed stronger, perhaps because her father had a very interesting life and she had a lifetime of memories to draw on. The final and third section is the ‘and’; the fact that we all exist with both these states within us, and connections – to memories, to people, to communities – are central to being human.

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

A friend recommended this and I really enjoyed it. It’s a fairly conventional historical novel format but so well crafted and sensitively written that it is completely absorbing. The plot is initially centred around the visit of star author Somerset Maugham to Penang, Malaysia, in 1921 to stay with his old friend Robert and wife Lesley. But there are stories within stories, on the themes of loyalty and betrayal, to friends, spouses, lovers and countries, set against the political movements of the time. All the characters seemed complex and real, and I loved it.

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance Trilogy)

Having made it though the past academic year, El is now in her final year at the Scholomance which means she and the rest of her cohort have to face the final deadly hurdle of their education, exiting the school via the graduation hall which is stuffed full with the most fearsome and ghastly creatures all with their mouths open to feast on the students. However, this year she’s picked up some pals and a boyfriend from New York, one of the fanciest of the protective magical enclaves. Together with them, El leads a movement to overturn the dog-eats-dog ethos of the school and comes up with a startlingly innovative – indeed revolutionary – solution to their survival problem. Completely gripping and emotionally draining.

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik (The Scholomance Trilogy)

Just when you thought this trilogy couldn’t get any better, battle-scarred El is plunged into another existential struggle as she races to rescue her friend from a dark magical ritual. In the process she uncovers a foul truth about the source of the privilege and power of the magical world’s protective enclaves. The parallels for us are climate change and colonialism, but both worlds need to embrace the same remedies to these crises: acknowledgement of deliberate damage by the powerful on the weak; international collaboration to stop the ongoing degredation; and commitment of resources to make the changes that will keep us all safe. And, that it’s young people and unconventional thinkers who will lead the way to solutions. Though that might not sound very readable, it’s actually a stunning conclusion to the trilogy, full of menace and fear but also solidarity and hope.

The Great Darkness by Jim Kelly

Another re-read. I was holidaying in Cambridge so took it to read in situ, and enjoyed it all over again. So here’s what I said about it in 2022: “a crime novel set in the city [of Cambridge] in the Second World War… Atmospheric, intelligent and well-written, and also features a lot of night swimming in the river which also appealed to me.”

Wintering by Katherine May

I like winter so I started this expecting it to be a love-note to the second-best season of the year (the best being autumn of course), and so I was surprised when it was more ambivalent about the cold and the dark. But it’s a memoir of difficult times in the author’s life where she explored the physical and metaphorical experiences of the process of wintering, of life slowing down, of resting, retreating and lying fallow, and how embracing discomfort can actually keep us going. Her life – giving up her job, trips to Iceland for the steamy lagoons, and to Scandinavia to see the Northern Lights, cold water swimming at the beach right next to her house – happily facilitated all these experiences, but it’s a beautifully written reflection on finding value in seeming desolation.

Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas, translated by Anne McLean

This is a superb crime novel about justice – who gets it, who escapes it, and what a thirst for justice can do to a person. It’s set in the Terra Alta, an arid, deprived, forgotten region of Catalonia where Barcelona cop Melchor Marín has been sent to keep him out of the way of possible criminal retribution. Marín came to police work after conversion from his own life of crime following reading Les Misérables. in prison and the murder of his mother. The book follows his investigation into a gruesome triple murder of a rich elderly couple and their servant, with tragic results for him, whilst still attempting to find his mother’s killer. It’s not only a crime novel but the story of Marín and the Terra Alta and how the past pervades the present.

What White People Can Do Next. From Allyship to Coalition by Emma Dabiri

A polemic written at the height of the Black Lives Matters movement this is a passionate and informed call for anti-racism action based on solidarity and de-centering whiteness. Her argument is that race has been socially constructed historically as a tool to divide people from challenging the inequalities that affect us all. She advocates for focusing on system change – which will benefit everyone living under capitalism – rather than getting stuck on a focus on racial identity, privilege and oppression and thus mired in anger, guilt, and denial. It’s a radical and refreshing vision.

Hex by Jenni Fagan

A Book Group choice for Halloween. As 15-year-old Gellis Duncan – a real person – awaits her execution for witchcraft in an Edinburgh jail cell in 1591 she is visited by Iris who is from our times, and they exchange experiences and thoughts about the plight of women centuries apart. It’s very short, and the style is quite ethereal and impressionistic. But whilst it’s a sad story and told with righteous anger, the two women’s situations are smashed together across the years and the contexts to make one big answer to their misery – misogyny – which, while it undoubtedly holds truth, also felt a bit clunky.

Wish I Was Here. An Anti-memoir by M. John Harrison

I confess I’d never heard of author M John Harrison until last year when he was a Booker Prize judge and I discovered he wrote West Midlands-based sci-fi, which seemed excitingly niche! (Though I’m yet to read any of it). This is a tapestry of pieces that dip in and out of his life, his passions such as climbing, his work, and his reflections on writing. Together they create a picture, from multiple different perspectives, of how he came to be who he is, whilst continually reminding us that we all contain multitudes: we are all the people we’ve ever been, at all our different times of life, all at the same time, and filtered through who we are now. How does one possibly write to represent that? This is a fascinating and provocative meditation on living through writing.

There Is Nothing For You Here by Fiona Hill

A memoir that also doubles as a reflection on our economic and political situation by a woman from the North East of England who became a Russia expert and advised the US Government on foreign policy. You may have seen her on the telly in the Trump impeachment, testifying in a County Durham accent. The child of an ex-miner and a nurse who grew up in the declining north-east in the 1980s she explains how she came to be in that role, making it very clear that luck, comprehensive education, student grants, and working-class solidarity were the reasons for her making it to university, and then to America. What’s also interesting is that she feels her background, so different from many political analysts, gave her unique insights into the inequality and economic distress that underpins the rise of authoritarianism and populism in Russia, the USA, and Britain. It’s informed, interesting and occasionally funny – she has some sharp words to say about Tony Blair and Ed Balls – but it’s a pretty long book, and it’s the personal story that really stays with you.

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñero, translated by Frances Riddle

People whose opinions I respect had enthused about this, and they weren’t wrong. It’s brilliantly written, incredibly tense, gripping, tender and touching. It’s the story of a sick old woman struggling to take a bus to find a vaguely remembered apartment to ask a virtual stranger for help in investigating the death of her daughter, which she is convinced is murder, not suicide. Her journey, punctuated by carefully calculating when exactly to take the pills that keep her paralysis at bay, is so painful and so brave. As she travels she recalls the relationship with her daughter. And when she arrives, all is not as she thinks. It’s an amazing exploration of family, illness, disability, limitations and grief, and offers harsh and meaningful resonances about societal expectations and bodily agency for the poor and powerless. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK!

The Vandal by Ann Schlee

As a teenager I loved this dystopian sci-fi novel but never thought to learn more about the author. Seeing news of Ann Schlee’s death prompted me to dig it out and re-read. I’m pleased that it’s just as good as I remembered! Paul lives in a happy family in a well ordered life on a modern housing estate. Each evening the family get together to drink a concoction that erases their memories of the day before and each morning a machine tells them what they need to know for that day. But one day he inexplicably takes part in an arson attack on the local sports centre, is sentenced to community service and then learns to steal memories from the machine. Underlying Paul’s awakening is nature; the ever-changing seasons and the chaotic life force of plants. A rich and nourishing read.

The Other Times of Caroline Tangent by Ivan D. Wainewright

Ho, ho, ho! The Christmas Book Group choice. Caroline’s husband has invented a time machine in their basement and, in stereotypical middle-aged-bloke-stylee, decides the best use of this technology is to go to classic gigs of the past. So they see Edith Piaf in 1920s Paris, the Beatles at the Cavern Club, and pop to the 1969 Woodstock festival. It then takes a darker turn, with less time-hopping and, in fact, that part of the book was more engaging. They do have the ‘would you kill baby Hitler?’ discussion, but do not appear to have seen any time-travel movies, including Back to the Future! It provoked a good time travel chat in Book Group, however the characters and their relationships were very cardboard cut-out so by the end it turned out that the ingenious time travel mechanism which enabled the key plot device was the most convincing part of the book!

Mystery In White by J. Jefferson Farjeon

One of the British Library re-prints of classic mystery novels, this was appropriate for the time of year but I found it a bit peculiar as a crime story. A group of strangers from a snowbound train end up taking refuge in a comfortable house where the fires are lit and the table laid for tea, but there’s no-one around. One of the party is an psychic researcher and he takes on the role of the detective. However quite a few of the deductions result from supernatural experiences in the house rather than the evidence. So it’s a strange blend of detective story plus Christmas ghost story. It’s spooky and atmospheric, and, as well as the straightforward narrative, there are also chapters from the points of view of different individuals, my favourite being the stream of consciousness diary entries by the glamorous young chorus girl, fending off the attentions of a much older man. An oddity but if you like Golden Age crime, it’s worth picking up for novelty value.

So my favourites of 2023 were Elena Knows by Claudia Piñero for its deep anger and heart-wrenching humanity captured in incredible writing, and Sara Gran’s and Naomi Novik’s trilogies, both wildly imaginative and well written, and featuring gutsy, compassionate, intelligent, humorous, scared, hurt, and determined women challenging the unfair circumstances of their lives.

Now back to the unfinished books pile to start 2024…

Happy New Year!

Lucy