2023 on Goodreads

48 books. By my standards a big year.
A link to the year's reading. https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/38380015

My fiction book of the year is And the Rat Laughed by Neva Semel. So thought provoking I read it three times.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6014334497

The surprise of the year was Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure by Adelle Stripe and Lias Saoudi. I have outlived music bios but this was exceptional.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5992280955

Fiction honourable mentions to The Book of Emmett by Deborah Forster and one from the past The Sea and Summer by George Turner. Both conceptually fine novels.
The outstanding Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North was at times breathtaking. “A great book compels you to reread your own soul.”
I read the most depressing novel I have ever read in my life. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.
Not much to say about that one.

On the other end of the scale the fun book of the year was the gently humorous Poor Man Wealth by Rod Usher.

For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clark was outstanding, an Australian classic.

Nonfiction honourable mentions to War by Sebastian Junger and The Age of Kali by William Dalrymple had me glued to the pages. Tribe another by Sebastian Junger was very thought provoking. A Brief History of Thailand by Richard A. Ruth was a fine read on the subject.