The Best of 2023.
A recap of my year.
We made it everyone! I had a good year. It was my first full year in my post-grad school job, a job I love and feel grateful to get to do. I went to New York and Albuquerque and Denver and Hilton Head and New York three more times and then back to Denver. Thanks to my parents, I moved into an apartment alone for the first time. I ate a lot of good food, and I wrote this newsletter (almost) every week. And, as you all know, I read and watched and bought a lot of stuff. Here’s a list of my favorite books, tv, and movies from this year.
Before we start: things are eligible for this list if I read/watched them for the first time this year, regardless of release date. These aren’t ranked in order, that’s impossible for me. Just lists of things I loved! Previous lists are here: 2022, 2021.
Books
I read 70 books this year! My goal is always 75, so I am gonna call that close enough. 22 of them were audiobooks, which is usually how I read non-fiction.
Rom Coms
You, Again by Kate Goldbeck: I think this ended up being pretty polarizing on Book Internet, but I really loved it. It’s a When Harry Met Sally retelling about Josh, a type-A uptight chef, and Ari, a chaotic struggling comedian. They meet when they are both hooking up with the same woman and immediately hate each other, and then they have several more run-ins over the course of the next few years. One of them happens when they are both fresh off of break ups, and they decide to become sad friends. You’ll never guess what happens next! The banter in this is so good, like an Emily Henry but snarkier. It takes place in New York, mostly in the fall, and it was just great vibes for a Saturday in September.
The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren: This is technically a sequel to The Soulmate Equation but I don’t think it’s super important that you read that first (I would recommend it though, I loved it too!). This is about Fizzy Chen, a romance author who is burned out on both dating and writing when she gets cast as the lead in a new reality dating show. The show’s producer is Connor, a documentary film maker whose boss has forced him to do this job sort of against his will. The book follows the season of the show and what happens when Fizzy and Connor start to connect. This book is such a celebration of romance novels, it’s so bright and fun and reverent of the genre. This is my sixth Christina Lauren book and I think it’s my favorite! So, so good.
Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon: Rachel Lynn Solomon makes my Best Of list for the third year in a row! I have loved all three of her adult romance novels so much. The plot of this one is absurd in the best way: Chandler Cohen is a ghost writer helping celebrities write their memoirs. She has a terrible one night stand with a guy, and then the next day goes to meet her new client and realizes it’s the dude she just slept with. I hate it when that happens!!!! Then they agree to work together on the book and she also gives him lessons for how to be better in bed. Their relationship is so healthy, one of the healthiest relationships I’ve ever read about in a book. There’s no annoying miscommunications or dumb fights, everything that causes conflict between them is actually a legitimate issue for them to work through. This was fun and hot and I liked it a lot.
Will They or Won’t They by Ava Wilder: Another repeat author making the list. Last year I loved Ava Wilder’s first book, How to Fake it in Hollywood, and this one was even better. This one is about Lilah and Shane, who are the stars of a long running tv series. No one knows that they had a secret relationship while filming the first season, and then a messy break up, and they have hated each other ever since. She left the show after season five, but after a flop attempt at a movie career she’s back for the ninth and final season and they have to work together again. The tension in this was so good, it’s a good slow burn but it’s not annoying because we see flashes of their past relationship. I can tell this author loves celebrity gossip and pop culture as much as I do. And it’s hot! A+.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my favorite authors, so when she announced her next book would be a romance novel about a writer at an SNL-like show and a hot musician who came to host one week, I think I screamed? This is so incredibly My Interests. My expectations could not have been higher, and the result was a truly perfect reading experience for me when I sat down and read it cover to cover on a Saturday. I loved this so much I wrote a whole Instagram post about it.
Honorable Mentions: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, Happy Place by Emily Henry, It Happened One Summer and Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey
Other Fiction
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue: I read several books this year that I would put into a niche genre of “stories about girls in their twenties who are a mess” and this was far and away my favorite of them all. It’s set in Ireland and is about a girl named Rachel and her best friend James, both in their early twenties and living together, and what happens when both of them have a crush on the same professor. Someone on Goodreads said this is like a Sally Rooney novel on an effective anti-depressant and I think that’s a perfect description. It has such similar characters to those in her books but it is not nearly as melancholy. This is beautifully written, very astute and very funny, and I was so invested in the characters and the story.
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman: I picked this up one day because I had been in a bit of a reading slump and it was the shortest book I had on my shelf, and then I proceeded to spend the next three hours sobbing my way through it. This is told from the point of view of a woman named Ash, who is caring for her lifelong best friend Edi, who is in hospice care because she has terminal cancer. This is SO sad, soul crushingly sad, but it also manages to be very funny and heartwarming and just so genuine. It is based on the author’s real life experience of going through this with her friend and it is so full of love, such a gorgeous tribute to friendship. I think you really need to consider whether or not you are in the right headspace to read this, but if you think you are I definitely recommend it. It’s a gem of a book, one I have been thinking about for months.
The Daydreams by Laura Hankin: This was just very up my alley. It’s about the four main cast members of a show called The Daydreams, a teen drama that was very popular in the early 2000s before a live season finale ended in disaster and the show got canceled. 15 years later, they all reunite for the first time for a live reunion episode. It’s full of pop culture nostalgia and the type of behind the scenes Hollywood drama and gossip that I love. This is so fun and I really enjoyed it. I’ve read both of Laura Hankin’s other books (Happy and You Know It and A Special Place for Women), and while all three of these are very different in terms of topic, they are all reliably fun and absurd in the best way. This one is definitely my favorite of the three.
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson: The plot of this is nothing groundbreaking— this is just about an extremely wealthy white family in New York. It’s told from the perspective of several different family members, and honestly they mostly suck. But what made me like this so much was the writing! It’s so zippy and crisp and I just really loved the writing style. I flew through it really quickly. This is a good family drama that’s not too heavy.
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld: Ok I did say she’s one of my favorite authors. I just love her writing. This one is based on the life of Laura Bush, and is about a woman named Alice. We follow her from high school through adulthood, as she meets her eventual husband Charlie Blackwell, and he eventually becomes the President. This is long (~550 pages) but very immersive. Alice was such an interesting and complex character. I found myself very endeared to her even as she continuously made choices I didn’t like. While we’re here you should also read Eligible and Prep and this short story, The Prairie Wife. I love her.
Honorable Mentions: Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Non-Fiction
Going There by Katie Couric: This was riveting. A perfect mix of stories from her personal life, her television career, and gossip. The audiobook is so well done, she reads it herself and it includes audio from the real events she is talking about. She talks about some of her more famous (and infamous) moments and looks back on some things that haven’t aged well with a level of self-criticism that I respect. There are plenty of stories in this book that do not paint her in a good light, she is so honest and upfront. This is exactly what I want from a celebrity memoir.
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton: This is Dolly’s memoir/essay collection about being a girl in your 20s and the importance of female friendship. I listened to it at the beginning of the year and now it’s one of my favorite books of all time. The most relatable thing I’ve ever read about being a girl. The way she writes about her friends made me cry. I loved this so much, I want to read it again, I cannot recommend it more.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado: This is a memoir about the author’s experience in an abusive queer relationship, and it is exquisite. This is the type of writing that is so good it makes me angry because I will never be able to write this well. This is so vulnerable and honest, it’s written in a really interesting way and I’ve never read anything like it. I listened to it, but I don’t think you can go wrong either way.
Strangers to Ourselves by Rachel Aviv: Rachel Aviv is one of my favorite working journalists, she’s a staff writer at The New Yorker and everything she publishes is an automatic click for me (I think about this article all the time). In this book she tells the stories of several different people who have struggled with mental illness, and its very very good. Her work always digs into hard and complex issues, leaning into the grey area, and she does that so well in this book. This made me think so much, and it’s deeply empathetic in a way that I really appreciated. I am still thinking about the stories in this book months later.
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond: Incredible book. This is a searing, scathing examination of poverty in America and a consideration of why the number of people living in poverty in this country hasn’t really changed in decades as the rich have only gotten richer. He writes with such empathy but also incisiveness. The whole point here is that there is enough money to fix these problems. Living in poverty is not a choice, it is something that happens to you. And we, as a society, choose everyday not to fix it. I also really liked this episode of Vibe Check discussing the book.
Honorable Mentions: Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton, Solito by Javier Zamora, Oscar Wars by Michael Schulman
TV Shows
I watch so much TV and I always have a hard time narrowing it down to a reasonable about for this list. This year I watched some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, and a lot of my favorite shows came to an end, so it was particularly hard to just pick 10.
Pachinko (AppleTV+): I watched this season over the course of a few weeks earlier this year and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. It follows a Korean-Japanese family across several generations throughout the 20th century, and it is unequivocally one of the best television shows I have ever seen in my life. I truly think this is a masterpiece. It’s visually stunning, the cinematography is incredible and every episode just looks so beautiful. The acting in this is overwhelmingly good, everyone is so good in this show. It is so emotionally effective, I was so invested in the characters and it made me cry so much. I think this show is pretty under the radar, I don’t hear many people talking about it, but I am literally begging you all to watch this. This show is a work of art. They are making a second season right now, I cannot wait to watch.
Starstruck (Max): If you like a rom com this is a must watch. It’s about a woman named Jessie who, in the first episode, meets and goes home with a guy named Tom and then when she wakes up in the morning she realizes he is a famous movie star. Throughout the next three seasons we followed their relationship, but also Jessie and her friends. This is so funny, it made me laugh so much. The rom com moments in this show are so good. Each episodes is only 6 short episodes, so every time a season of this came out it felt like sitting down to watch a movie. I can see myself rewatching this more than once in the future, it just was the best. The third season came out this year and is probably the last, and I will miss these characters a lot.
The Bear (Hulu): I’m not saying anything new here but I cannot believe how good season 2 of this show was. This show is so, so good. It stars Jeremy Allen White (hot) as Carmy, who has returned home to Chicago to run his family’s restaurant after his older brother dies by suicide. Season two follows him as he works to open a new restaurant. There is a whole cast of side characters, the staff at the restaurant, and one of my favorite things about the second season was getting to see more of their lives outside the restaurant. Ayo Edebiri plays Sydney, Carmy’s business partner, and she is incredible. There are SO MANY guest stars in this season, some real heavy hitters, A list actors just show up randomly for a couple minutes at a time. Outside of the cast and characters there are so many things I love about this show. The cinematography (soooo many good food shots!), the music, it’s all just so good.
Somebody Somewhere (Max): This is just the most wholesome, heartwarming, lovely show. It stars Bridget Everett as Sam, a woman who moved back to her small hometown to care for her dying sister who has since passed away. Sam is sort of stuck in a life she doesn’t love and struggling to move on. Season 2 came out this year and it’s just the nicest show. It is earnest without being cheesy. It is heartfelt without being too sad. It is the loveliest little show, so endearing and pleasant and just so NICE. Watching this feels like a warm hug.
The Diplomat (Netflix): Blew through this whole season in one weekend earlier this year, it’s so good. Keri Russell plays Kate, who has a new job as the US Ambassador to the UK. She is married to another career diplomat, who has been more high profile than her for most of their careers and now must take a back seat. The creator of this also worked on The West Wing, Homeland, and Grey’s Anatomy, and I actually think this is the perfect combination of the three. It has interpersonal drama, international relations drama, and political drama. I have been waiting for Keri Russell to be back on tv since The Americans ended and she is SO good in this. I can’t wait for season 2!
Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee/Prime Video): This ended up going pretty viral so I’m sure most of you have watched it, but if you haven’t yet you must. This is set up as if this team is making a documentary about a weeks long jury trial, but the whole thing is fake and everyone knows it except for one random guy who thinks he is actually doing jury duty. It is SO funny, I laughed out loud so many times throughout it. One of the people on the jury is James Marsden, playing himself, and he is so hilarious and silly in this. It is so impressive that they pulled this off, and I loved that the last episode was all about how they did it. It’s astonishing to me how well this went, how perfectly this all played out. I watched this really quickly, and then I watched it all again with my family. A perfect show.
Bad Sisters (AppleTV+): This came out last year but I didn’t get to it until earlier this year, and I loved it. There are five of the titular sisters, and one of them is married to a man named JP who is truly one of the most despicable characters I’ve ever seen on television. In the first episode we find out that he is dead, but we do not know why or how. The rest of the season flashes back and forth between the present day and the days leading up to his death. This sounds dark, and it is sometimes, but it’s also quite funny. This is just an excellent show, so well written and so well acted. It got renewed for a second season, which feels unnecessary to me, but this first one was so good I will give it a go. I think this has pretty universal appeal because it’s got a little bit of everything— comedy, drama, romance, mystery, something for everyone.
The Traitors (Peacock): My favorite reality tv of the year! It’s a competition show where the contestants are trying to win money for a communal pot that some of them will win at the end. Three of them are The Traitors, and every round they get to “murder” someone. Then the whole group competes in a mission to win money for the pot, and then the whole group votes to “banish” someone. The money gets split among whoever is left at the end, unless any of the Traitors make it to the end, and then they get it all. This takes place in a Scottish castle and is hosted by Alan Cumming, who appears to be having the best time. The cast is also half normies, half reality show stars. So there’s people from Bravo, Survivor, Big Brother, and even Arie from the Bachelor. This is the most random assortment of people but it was SO entertaining, I had the best time watching this. And the winner was extremely satisfying. I still have only watched the US versions but there are also seasons from the UK and Australia on Peacock. Season two premieres in a few weeks and this time the cast is all reality tv people, and the cast is, honestly, iconic. If you’re already watching other reality tv you gotta tune in!
Succession (HBO): I know I don’t need to tell you to watch this either, but the final season was so incredible I had to put in on the list. I looked forward to watching this every Sunday night, and I love when tv becomes appointment viewing. I will never forget watching the third episode live. Everyone was so good in this show, and I loved the way the storyline wrapped up over these 10 episodes. I’m curious to see if this show has any staying power in terms of relevancy, but it’s absolutely some of the best tv I watched this year.
Sex Education (Netflix): This is one of my favorite shows of all time. The fourth and final season came out in September, and I also rewatched seasons 1-3 in preparation. I just love these characters so much, I feel so attached to them. They really did a lot in the final season and I didn’t love all of it, but I love the characters so much I don’t really care. Ncuti Gatwa is a STAR as Eric, Maeve Wiley is genuinely one of my favorite characters I’ve ever seen on tv, I loved Aimee’s storyline so much….I just LOVE them. I loved how this show showcased platonic friendships as well as romantic relationships. It’s so colorful and effervescent and fun to watch. This show was very diverse without feeling like it was trying too hard, it was funny and heartwarming, it made me laugh and it made me cry, and while I think it was time for it to end I will miss it a lot. You must watch.
Honorable Mentions: Sandition (PBS), The Other Two (Max), Poker Face (Peacock)
Movies
Kind of a weird year for movies! So many things got pushed because of the strikes and there were several months were I didn’t really go see anything in the theater. As a result I found myself watching a lot more older movies, which has been really fun.
Past Lives (rent): Unquestionably my favorite movie of the year. I’ll never forget watching this in the theater and sobbing. It’s about two friends who grew up together in Korea but lost touch when her family emigrated to Canada, and what happens when they reconnect years later. I think this is one of the most beautiful films I’ve ever seen in my life, both visually and story-wise. There are several specific shots in this that I am still thinking about months later. The way this movie explores themes of love and fate and grief and identity is just so beautiful. This is one of the most emotionally effective romance movies I’ve ever seen, it makes me cry so much. It’s so gorgeous, I love it so much, you absolutely must watch this film.
The Before Trilogy: Sorry to be dramatic but I truly had a life altering experience when I watched all three of these in 24 hours one weekend earlier this year. Before Sunset came out in 1999, and stars Ethan Hawke as Jesse and Julie Delpy as Celine. They meet on a train and strike up a conversation, he convinces her to get off with him in Vienna, and they spend the whole night wandering around the city. Before Sunset came out in 2004 and follows the two of them nine years later, and we find out what has happened in the years in between. Before Midnight follows the timeline and came out in 2013, and we check in with them again after nine more years. The two of them have incredible chemistry and theres so many moving conversations in all of these. Before Sunset is my favorite of the three, but you have to watch them all. These movies are just so incredible. I watched them in September and I’ve probably thought about them every day since. Instantly on my list of all time favorite movies, all three of them.
Bottoms (rent): Funniest movie of the year!! Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri play two unpopular high school girls who start a fight club at school. They frame it as a women’s empowerment thing, but it’s really just a ploy to help them hook up with cheerleaders. The rest of the cast is also incredible. Nicholas Galitzine plays a dumb football player, basically the opposite of what he was doing in RWRB, and he’s hilarious. Marshawn Lynch plays a teacher and had me cracking up. This movie is weird and bizarre, everything is just a tiny bit off in this world, but it is truly hysterical and I laughed so much.
Shithouse (AMC+): This movie hurt my feelings! It’s about a guy named Alex who is a freshman in college and having a very hard time. One night he goes to a party and meets a girl named Maggie, and then we just follow them through the weekend. This felt so real, almost *too* real at times. But it’s also really heartwarming and vulnerable and lovely. This is written by and stars Cooper Raiff, who also made Cha Cha Real Smooth, a movie I *love* so much. Both of these movies just feel so pure and human. I’ll watch anything and everything Cooper Raiff does next.
You Hurt My Feelings (rent): This was the most delightful movie. It stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies as a married couple in New York. One day she overhears him talking about how he doesn’t like the book she has written, and this causes her to question their whole relationship. I love a small, insular movie like this. The problems here are small, this is not End of the World type stuff, but it is the type of thing that feels all consuming when it is happening to you. To me, that’s a really interesting dynamic to explore. This also has a small but great cast of side characters. This is just such a nice little slice of life film, it’s funny and heartwarming and so, so lovely. I liked it so much!
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Hulu): This rules and I think it went way too under the radar. It’s based on a nonfiction book about environmental activism, but the actual story told in the movie is fiction. It is about a group of young people who decide to try to blow up a pipeline as a sign of protest against oil companies. This is a very, very good movie. It’s like a heist movie but the heist is eco-terrorism. It’s so suspenseful and stressful, it has twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, I was fully invested and on the edge of my seat the whole time. It has a fun ensemble cast of young people I recognize from some things and a couple I had never seen before, I thought they were all great. I hope more people watch this.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Starz): Another extremely underrated movie! I went to see this in the theater with my mom and we both loved it. This is the adaptation of the iconic Judy Blume book, about a 12 year old girl named Margaret who is navigating moving to a new neighborhood, exploring religion, and ~becoming a woman~ and what not. I remember reading this book as a kid and really relating to it. The movie is the best, it’s funny and heartwarming and just so pure. Rachel McAdams plays Margaret’s mom in this and she’s SO good, I’m not sure she’ll make the cut but I would love her to get an Oscar nom for this. All the kids are also good in this. The loveliest movie, for the girls.
Rye Lane (Hulu): Favorite rom com of the year! This is about two Black twenty-somethings, Dom and Yas, who are both going through recent breakups. They meet at an art exhibit and spend the day bopping around London. This is so eccentric and colorful and FUN. It’s quirky and funny and very cute. It’s also a great showcase of a couple South London neighborhoods, it really highlights the multicultural parts of the city. I do not understand why more rom coms like this don’t get made. I would watch so many of them.
Saltburn (Prime Video): There are a lot of valid criticisms of this film but this was genuinely the most fun I had in a movie theater this year. It’s about vibes!! If you start to think about it too much it sort of falls apart but I simply don’t care, I had FUN. This is about Oliver (Barry Keoghan), who is an outcast at the beginning of his first year at Oxford University until he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Felix (Jacob Elordi…..SO HOT I cannot say anything about him that is appropriate to put on the internet), the rich, popular boy. Felix invites Ollie to spend the summer at his family’s estate (the titular Saltburn), and things get so dark and twisted and weird. Both Jacob and Barry are excellent in this, as is everyone in the supporting cast— Rosamund Pike (iconic as always), Carey Mulligan, Richard Grant! This is a visual feast, the cinematography and set design are so ornate and gothic and lush, just gorgeous. It’s set in 2006 and the soundtrack is so good. It’s shocking and often gross but it’s also hilarious. You might love this or you might hate it, but I promise you will absolutely not be bored. What a TRIP.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Paramount+): Couldn’t read anything about Saltburn without coming across a comparison to this, so I watched it for the first time and it’s my favorite older movie I watched this year. It stars Matt Damon as Tom Ripley, who meets Dickie Greenleaf’s father in New York, who pays Tom a lot of money to go to Italy to try to convince his spoiled, degenerate son to come home. Once Tom gets to Italy he befriends Dickie (Jude Law, !!extremely!! hot), and then things start to spiral. Everyone is just so hot in this movie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Cate Blanchett are here too and they’re both so good. I understand the comparisons to Saltburn, it’s a very similar vibe, but this movie is definitely better. This is so twisty and fun, visually it’s so lush and rich. Loved it.
Honorable Mentions: Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Women Talking, May December, Priscilla