My top 10 reads of 2023 🩷

I've read Medusa in 2022, I think, and it is a great book! Unfortunately the Drowning Empire series did not score so high for me, but I am happy you liked it so much. Similar with Cress and Winter, but it has been so many years since I have read that series. :D Happy reading in 2024, hope you find many new favorites.

I really appreciate the concept of ranking works instead of individual books as you mentioned at the beginning, I do the same. I can rank individual books within a series if asked to but comparing individual books from different series is hard for me. I like the idea of reimagining myths more than retelling, though it is much, much tougher to pull off imo. Will look up Medusa. Happy reading! 👋

I loved our buddy read Kaat! I agree always needed a shower after reading from his pov 🤢 he was despicable I need to read Unseelie! I keep meaning to, this is the reminder I needed

My Top Favorite Read of 2023, is a tie between «Under Heaven» by Guy Gavriel Kay & «The Veiled Throne» («Dandelion Dynasty #3) by Ken Liu: «Under Heaven» should be teached next to «War & Peace» and «Le Miserables» for GGK’s prose and Ken Liu’s Character Work has few if any rivals! A character that has only one scene in «TVT» (though a series veteran in «The Dandelion Dynasty»), earned with that scene alone my favorite character of 2023: Cogo Yelu! Next is another tie between «The Retreat to Avalon» by Sean Poage & «The Winter King» by Bernard Cornwell: Poage has written my favorite take on «A Historical King Arthur» and the Seige of Yves Trebon/St. Michel in «TWK» shows why Cornwell might be the best at writing battles! The next are unsorted: «The Winter Road» by Adrian Selby «The Way of Edan» by Philip Chase (You might have heard about him! 😄) «Bold Ascension» by Vaughn Roycroft «Salammbo» by Gustave Flaubert «The Farthest Shore» by Ursula K. Le Guin «The Name of the Wind» by Patrick Rothfuss «Brigantia» by Adrian Goldsworthy «Tortilla Flat» by John Steinbeck «The Little Emperors» by Alfred Duggan My Honorable Mentions «Tehanu» by Ursula K. Le Guin «Speaking Bones» by Ken Liu «River of Stars» by Guy Gavriel Kay «The Conscience of the King» by Alfred Duggan «The Black Gods Kiss» (Jirel of Joiry) by CL Moore «In the Grip of the Minotaur» by Farnham Bishop & Arthur G. Brodeur Cheers!

My favourite book of 2023 has now been tainted by a biography I read of the poet and author 😭 (it was The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa) so instead I'll share #2 which was Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman and #3 which was The Road by Cormac McCarthy.