2023 Master Reading List
It’s time, once again, for my favorite post of the year, the one that takes me weeks to write and the one I refer back to more often than any other. It is well known that I am a list maker. Shamelessly, I always have been and always will be. I love starting the new year (especially when it starts on the first day of the week) with an assortment of lists to keep me organized. So, it’s only natural that I’d have a master reading list. This isn’t an exhaustive list, as I add on a lot of books that publishers send me as well as new releases or backlist selections that I pick up along the way.
Like years in the past, I’ll be participating in the Popsugar Reading Challenge, which presents fifty prompts that encourage readers to branch out and read new genres, new and old. I’ll also be doing Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge, with its multi-descriptive prompts that force you to put some thought into diversifying your TBR with lots of books from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors.
I’m so close to finishing Sanne’s Back to University list, which is all the required reading from her days studying English in college, so I’ll be adding a few more of these books to my list. Also in 2023, I’m joining Rachel Dawson for her RAD Reading Challenge, a fun list of nine prompts to add some new and interesting books to your shelf.
The #ReadYourBooks challenge encourages you to read some of the books you already own but haven’t yet read, and coming in at the eleventh hour, the Reading Glasses podcast has officially shared their challenge list, so I do plan to include those prompts, which are five books and five reading tasks to tackle throughout the year.
Roxane Gay has moved The Audacious Book Club back to her newsletter home base after the Literati platform decided to discontinue their adult book clubs. She’s shared the first half of the year’s books, and I’ll be requesting the selections from the publishers, as they are all 2022 releases, and I’ll fill the remaining books in and check them off as they come. Another challenge I did last year and really enjoyed was Carina’s Big Book Reading Challenge. I HATE reading books that are over a few hundred pages, so this was a wonderful opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and take on some of the chunkier novels.
Finally, because I am a masochist when it comes to keeping myself busy, I’m adding a few other books to my challenge this year. In the past, I’ve tried to cover as many of the prompts as I could with BIPOC authors, and I’ll continue to do that, but this year, they are getting their own category. On top of that, I include five books from PBS’s The Great American Read, which, surprisingly, I’ve not read many of, and also rounding out the list with five books about disability.
There are also two readalongs I’m joining in 2023: African literature with Bernie Lombardi and War and Peace with Simon Haisell.
Drum roll, please… By my count, that’s 140 books on my list. No sweat, since I maxed out at close to 200 last year. I’m fired up and excited to get started! If you want to follow along and see my reviews when I share them, send a friend request or follow on Goodreads. Happy reading!
Popsugar Reading Challenge (Count: 50/50)
A book you meant to read in 2022 - Sex Object by Jessica Valenti
A book you bought from an independent bookstore - Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
A book about a vacation - The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
A book by a first-time author - What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson
A book with mythical creatures - Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
A book about a forbidden romance - Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
A book with a color in the title - Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A romance with a fat lead - The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
A book about or set in Hollywood - The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
A book published in spring 2023 - Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah
A book published the year you were born - Kindred by Octavia Butler
A modern retelling of a classic - Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Matthieu
A book with a song lyric as its title - Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
A book where the main character’s name is in the title - Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
A book with a love triangle - Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
A book becoming a TV series or movie in 2023 - American Prometheus by Kai Bird
A book set in the decade you were born - A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle
A book with a queer lead - More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
A book with a rabbit on the cover - Please Don’t Eat Me by Liz Climo
A book with just text on the cover - Unleash the Power of the Female Brain by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.
The shortest book (by pages) on your TBR list - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
A #BookTok recommendation - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
A book your friend recommended - The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
A book that’s on a celebrity book club list - Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
A book that comes out in the second half of 2023 - The Militia House by John Milas
A book about an athlete/sport - Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad
A book you think your best friend would like - A World on Fire by Amanda Foreman
A book you should have read in high school - Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
A book you read more than 10 years ago - Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
A book by an author with the same initials as you - The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
A book written during NaNoWriMo - The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
A book based on a popular movie - Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater
A book that takes place entirely in one day - Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
A book that was self-published - Eragon by Christopher Paolini
A book that started out as fan fiction - City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
A book with a pet character - Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris
A book about a holiday that’s not Christmas - Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
A book that features two languages - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list - Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
A book with alliteration in the title - How to Human by Carlos Whittaker
Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge (Count: 24/24)
A novel about a trans character written by a trans author - The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas
One of your favorite author’s favorite books - Going Clear by Lawrence Wright
A book about activism - We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai
A graphic novel in a different genre than you normally read - Donut Feed the Squirrels by Mika Song
An independently published book by a BIPOC author - Jawbone by Monica Ojeda
A cookbook cover to cover - Good Food, Good Life by Curtis Stone
A nonfiction book about BIPOC and/or queer history - How to Survive a Plague by David France
An author local to you - The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst
A book with under 500 Goodreads ratings - Women Are the Fiercest Creatures by Andrea Dunlop
A historical fiction book set in an Eastern country - The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
A romance with bisexual representation - Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales
A YA book by an Indigenous author - Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
A comic or graphic novel that features disability representation - Hawkeye by Matt Fraction
A nonfiction book about intersectional feminism - Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
A book of poetry by a BIPOC or queer author - Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans
A book of short stories - First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami
Any book from the Ignyte Awards shortlist/longlist/winner list - A Master of Djinn by P. Djeli Clark
A social horror, mystery, or thriller novel - When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole
A challenge from any of the previous years’ challenges to repeat - The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
Back to University Reading List (Count: 5/5)
The RAD Reading Challenge (Count: 9/9)
A book by an activist - Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem
A book with an animal on the cover - You Had Me At Woof by Julie Klam
Disability representation - Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc
A book about your favorite holiday - We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell and Frane Lessac
Any book you can read in one day - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
A book that will teach you something new - Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen
A book you thrifted - All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
#ReadYourBooks Challenge (Count: 5/5)
Reading Glasses Challenge (Count: 10/10)
A book with a disabled protagonist - At the End of Everything by Marieke Nihkamp
A book about a library - The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
The favorite book from someone close to you - Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
Track the countries where your books take place
Attend a library event, either virtual or in person
Figure out your doghouse
Try background reading music
Read an interview with an author you love
Roxane Gay’s Audacious Book Club (Count: 13/13)
July - Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration by Alejandra Oliva
August - Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter and The Militia House by John Milas
Big Book Reading Challenge (Count: 5/5)
BIPOC Reads (Count: 5/5)
PBS The Great American Read (Count: 5/5)
Books About Disability (Count: 5/5)
African Literature Readalong with Bernie Lombardi (Count: 4/4)
Simon Haisell’s #WhiskyAndPerseverance Readalong (Count: 1/1)