I’m delighted to unveil my top reads of the year – as ever, considering how much I enjoyed them and how good I think they are, wrapped up into one. Apparently I usually do 12, but this year it wasn’t hard to draw the line after 10 – these are definitely my top books, and there was a bit of a gap before the books I’d consider for numbers 11 or 12. I don’t include re-reads or more than one book by an author – and, of course, they are in strict order. It’s a surprisingly modern list for me, with only one book from before 1950.
Click on the title to get my full thoughts. Here we go!
10. A Flat Place (2023) by Noreen Masud
It’s always good to read a book by a friend, and even better when the book is brilliant. Noreen Masud expertly weaves together her experiences of cPTSD with explorations of flat landscapes in Pakistan and the UK. It’s an involving, moving, excellent book.
9. A Bird in the House (1970) by Margaret Laurence
Laurence took the top spot on my 2022 list, and though I was disappointed by The Fire-Dwellers, I loved these linked short stories that piece together a coming-of-age for young Vanessa. The stories sometimes cover seismic moments but more often look at everyday relationships – particularly those that are cut short or peter out. It’s also the first of three books in my top 10 that have ‘house’ in the title.
8. Temples of Delight (1990) by Barbara Trapido
Trapido’s chunky novel is particularly strong in the opening chapters and the friendship between two schoolgirls: shy, nervous Alice and whirlwind Jem. The strength of Jem’s exuberant, confusing personality is sustained throughout the novel, which is comfortably the best of the three Trapido books I’ve read.
7. The Bird in the Tree (1940) by Elizabeth Goudge
Not to be confused with A Bird in the House! This is the first in the Eliot trilogy, given to me in 2008 and finally read now – a beautiful, comforting read about several generations of a family in a delightful big house. What set it apart from me is Goudge’s unashamed championing of self-sacrifice.
6. The Self-Portrait of a Literary Biographer (1993) by Joan Givner
A total gamble that really paid off. Givner is a biographer of Katherine Anne Porter – and this book is about that, but also about her youth and her family and everything in between, all told in index-card-style vignettes. Such an unusual, inventive, strangely compelling book that I’m so happy I stumbled across in a Hay-on-Wye bookshop and took a chance on.
5. Day (2023) by Michael Cunningham
No link yet because my review will be appearing at Shiny New Books when it’s published in the UK – but Cunningham’s first novel in an age is already out in the US. It follows the same day in 2019, 2020, and 2021 – morning, afternoon, and evening respectively – and is very much a pandemic novel. But it’s also a novel with Cunningham’s trademark groups of family and friends-as-family, and his incisive brilliance at deeply showing every conceivable relationship within these groups. Worth the long wait we’ve had for it.
4. Road Ends (2013) by Mary Lawson
For me, 2023 will always be remembered as the year that I got to speak to Mary Lawson on my podcast – and, in preparation, I read the only novel of hers that I had waiting. Road Ends is as brilliant as always, about a man in Ontario dealing with a friend’s suicide, his father trying to come to terms with his past, and his sister’s bid for freedom in London. I don’t know how Mary Lawson does it, but she always does.
3. In The Dream House (2019) by Carmen Maria Machado
Following a similar pattern to Givner’s book, Machado tells this memoir of queer domestic violence through vignettes – each one linked to a particular literary device or framework. Visceral, clever, and beautifully written – it thoroughly deserves all the accolades it got in 2019.
2. The House by the Sea (1977) by May Sarton
I’d read some fiction by Sarton but her journals are on another level – and my favourite, so far, is the first one I read. She has moved to a house by the sea, and I appreciated descriptions of the area – but it’s really about her identity as a writer, her fears and anxieties, and her constant re-determining who she is.
1. No Leading Lady (1968) by R.C. Sherriff
All my top three are non-fiction, and my top place goes to the extraordinarily enjoyable memoir by R.C. Sherriff. The first half goes in granular detail through the conception, production, popularity, and afterlife of Journey’s End – a play I haven’t even read or seen, but I absolutely loved the detail he went into. Some books are ignored altogether, and this certainly isn’t a warts-and-all autobiography, but it’s a sheer delight. Sherriff is one of the great storytellers, and his own life and career are treated as exceptional material.
Big fan of the Persephone Sherriffs, but I’ve been kind of ambivalent about some of his other titles including Journey’s End. (I forget if the novel came before or after the play, I’ve read the novel.) After less than delightful experiences reading autobiographies of my favorites Ambler and Trollope, I’m trepidatious, but if I find it out in the wild I will pick it up for sure.
The House by the Sea is my favorite Sarton journal as well.
I keep meaning to get a copy of Day, but then I keep forgetting. The premise is very appealing to me. I once had an idea for a book that had 12 chapters, each one taking place on place on 1/1/01, 2/2/02, 3/3/03, etc. But that was the sum total of my idea. I had no idea what would happen on those dates or why that gimmick would even be interesting. Cunningham seems on much more solid ground. And there is the fact that he is a brilliant writer.
Weirdly the novel isn’t mentioned at all – he makes a big deal about Fortnight in September being his first novel. I’ve got the novel (which I believe he co-wrote with someone else?) but haven’t read yet – but I have loved some of his non-Persephones. The Wells of St Mary’s is among his best IMO.
That is an excellent premise, but I agree that it would need an actual novel attached to it :D
What an interesting list Simon, especially the fact that your top three are non-fiction! Happy new year!
Thanks! Yes, that came as a bit of a surprise to me too. Happy new year!
I always love your end of year lists but I especially love how surprising this one is, particularly for the non-fiction picks. Happily, I’ve only read one (the Lawson) so will have fun seeking the others out – starting, perhaps, with the Laurence. Happy New Year!
thanks Claire! Yes, I seem to be a lot more experimental with non-fic than with fic – and certainly with more success.
What a fascinating list Simon. I had to keep clicking through to your reviews.Both Elizabeth Goudge and Barbara Trapido interest me especially because I haven’t read either and I suspect I might like them. I too loved Mary Lawson’s Road Ends, and her others too.
Happy New Year.
Thanks Ali! Yes, I feel pretty confident you’d enjoy the Goudge and Trapido.
That’s an interesting list. The Bird in the Tree is one of my books of the year too and I’m hoping to read the rest of the trilogy in 2024. Happy New Year!
If I’d only read the second one, it could have easily made it on my list – and I’m enjoying the third too. She is so good at making appealing homes.
Thanks for sharing your favourite reads. I have only read The Bird in the Tree, which I really enjoyed too (and the other two in the trilogy were lovely too). Thanks for all the inspiration you have given me in 2023. Happy 2024!
Thank you, Sarah, I always appreciate your encouraging comments!
I requested No Leading Lady from the library after reading your review and you were right. It was absolutely wonderful. And I haven’t read Journey’s End either. You are also responsible for me reading every Mary Lawson book I could get my hands on in the course of a few short weeks. So good.
So glad you managed to get hold of it! I do feel a bit bad about praising it so highly when it’s so expensive online – but praise the Lord for good libraries.
Such an interesting list, Simon, with many books that catch my eye as possibilities for the future. May Sarton sounds right up my street, definitely a writer I’d like to investigate in 2024. Ditto Mary Lawson. I listened to an abridged version of her latest novel on R4’s Book at Bedtime and thoroughly enjoyed it but feel a more complete reading of the full book would do it justice.
Happy New Year to you and yours, and here’s to more excellent reading in the months ahead!
Mary Lawson is truly a marvel – I’m sad I’ve got to the end of the ones she’s published, but re-read all the others too this year and that was wonderful. And I’ve been gathering Sartons to keep going, albeit I’m reading her journals all out of order!
You actually put me on to Temples of Delight with your review earlier this year—it ended up being my first Trapido and an incredibly good surprise, so thank you! Big love for In the Dream House, too, a thoroughly gutting modern classic.
Ah I’m so glad you enjoyed the Trapido! It divided my book group a bit.
A great list as ever Simon! I plan to read RC Sherriff and Margaret Laurence this year but different titles (Greengates and A Jest of God respectively). I’m looking forward to the Laurence so much, you have no idea :D
Those are my favourite books by Sherriff and Laurence! You’re in for a treat.
Nice to see Goudge here. I devoured her books in my teens.
Here are my top for the year:
https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/01/01/year-of-reading-2023-part-1-my-top-26-books/
I also read The Bird in the Tree in 2023. At first I wasn’t sure about it, but it had grown on me by the end. I liked the sequel, Pilgrim’s Inn (alternatively titled The Herb of Grace) even better.
I’ve heard a few people say that – I really enjoyed The Herb of Grace (as called in my edition!) but not quite as much, largely because Lucilla is so absent for much of it.
A great list and, as you can imagine, I am delighted that Day is apparently a return to form!
Yes, a triumph!