My 2023 Books In Review
This year, I read 21 books cover to cover. Since I love reading, and I love talking about books and sharing book recommendations almost as much as I love reading, I thought it would be fitting to write up a year in review with a ranking of my favorite books that I read! Most of these books were not published this year, in fact, some are over 100 years old, so this isn’t some kind of finger on the pulse list of what’s hot right now. However, I hope you find a book to read amongst the list, which I separated into fiction and non-fiction.
Feel free to browse the list, find new favorites, or argue with me about my opinions. Happy new year!
Click here to find a list of these titles on Amazon.
My Fiction Rankings
War And Peace
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Year: 1869
Why I Liked It: Many people might ask why I would ever read War and Peace outside of an english class assignment, and the answer is that it is in my opinion one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. Detailing the lives of several families throughout the Napoleonic wars and beyond, Tolstoys’ writing made me feel like I knew each of the characters personally. Readers literally watch characters go from children to adulthood, and some cases to death, and the story told through these characters is as rich as life itself. This book is a marathon of a read, but it is a worthwhile one.
2. The Dosadi Experiment
Author: Frank Herbert
Year: 1977
Why I Liked It: I think Frank Herbert is a masterful worldbuilder and storyteller, and I wanted to read his other works after finishing the Dune series in 2022. The Dosadi Experiment presents a enticing setting in which humans and an alien species are forced to live within a single canyon on an otherwise inhospitable world all as a controlled social experiment. The main character, a sabateur extraordinaire, is tasked with preventing a catastrophic end to the experiment, but can he do it? This book is certainly worth the read, though some aspects of the book regarding social discourse are very much dated.
3. The Santaroga Barrier
Author: Frank Herbert
Year: 1968
Why I Liked It: Continuing my interest in the works of Frank Herbert, The Santaroga Barrier is a uniquely enthralling mystery novel that includes some of the themes that made Dune so alluring. The story follows a psychologist who is tasked with entering a Californian community to find out why nobody there will purchase anything from a business outside of the community, but the resulting rabbithole is so exciting I couldn’t stop turning the pages.
4. The Song of Achilles
Author: Madeline Miller
Year: 2011
Why I Liked It: I have always found Greek mythology interesting since I took a class on it my senior year of highschool (Shoutout Mrs. Johnson!) so when I came across this book at Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to pick it up! Miller’s retelling of the story of Achilles through his relationship with his companion Patroclus is entirely readable and heartwarming. While the romance between Achilles and Patroclus has been alluded to in the historical tellings of Achilles’ exploits, diving into the relationship between the two as they grow from boys to men presents a more humanistic lens to one of the greatest stories of the ancient world.
5. Whipping Star
Author: Frank Herbert
Year: 1970
Why I Liked It: I think 1950’s-1970’s sci-fi is so interesting because it sets the foundation for the themes we see in sci-fi stories today. Whipping Star is like no other science-fiction novel I have ever read. What if teleportation across star systems was possible? What if that teleportation was made possible by sentient stars? What if those stars could feel pain? What if all of those stars went extinct? What does it mean to love, and to be loved? All of these questions and more are explored in this novel, and the result is a beautifully weird tale.
6. Soul Catcher
Author: Frank Herbert
Year: 1972
Why I Liked It: What happens when a young white boy is kidnapped by a Native American man after the man’s sister is brutalized by a group of white men? You may expect a quick and tragic ending, but Herbert takes the reader on a journey of friendship, adventure, and culture. While the ending was not my favorite, I found the book keeping my attention throughout.
7. Dune: House Atreides
Authors: Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
Year: 1999
Why I Liked It: This review encompasses my thoughts on the Dune: House series. Created as a prequel trilogy to the Dune saga Frank Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J. Anderson work to expand the Dune universe. Being a major fan of the six books published by the elder Herbert and the recent movie, I thought I would try out the series; however, I feel that Herbert and Anderson miss the mark on what makes Dune good. The original Dune series, while set in an exciting sci-fi universe, is not action-oriented. Action does happen, but it takes a back seat to the themes of politics, philosophy, and religion that are more prevalent. When reading the Dune: House series, these themes are largely gone, and the book instead reads like a Michael Bay-esque action movie full of fights and explosions with enough royal drama to make a new season of game of thrones. I don’t regret reading them, likely because I went in with low expectations, but this is not a series I would read again.
8. Dune: House Harkonnen
9. Dune: House Corrino
My Non-Fiction Rankings
A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear
Author: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
Year: 2020
Why I Liked It: Hongoltz-Hetling takes the Libertarian party’s “Free Town Project”, an already very interesting political phenomenon that took place in remote New Hampshire, and brings it to life with stories from the town’s residents. Rather than a stuffy political science book about a political topic, A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear remains fun and lighthearted while discussing one of the more bizarre political movements in recent American history. I recommend this to anyone who likes politics, bears, and stories about rural America.
2. Wastelands: The True Story Of Farm Country On Trial
Author: Corban Addison
Year: 2022
Why I Liked It: I love eating meat, but like many of my friends and family I do not often stop to consider what it takes to get livestock products from the farm to the store, particularly in such great amounts. Wastelands pulls back the curtain on industrial pork production and the impact it has made in North Carolina, particularly at a community level. Reading this book felt like I was reading a fictitious legal epic where good manages to triumph over evil to save the farm from evil corporate overlords; however, the fact that the book is a 100% true story quickly sobers the mind. This book is absolutely worth reading for anyone interested in learning the human impacts of our porkchop and bacon obsessed diets and how powerful the American pork industry truly is.
3. Cadillac Desert
Author: Marc Reisner
Year: 1993
Why I Liked It: Cadillac Desert is the best place to start when reading about the American West and its relationship with water. From the first American settlers claiming the great plains for themselves to the gargantuan government effort that was the Central Arizona Project, Marc Reisner paints a clear picture of the people, policies, and projects that made the American West both an agricultural powerhouse and increasingly fast-growing region. I read this to understand what I was getting myself into when moving to Arizona, and this book has provided alot of context for my research and for what I see in the news today.
4. The Promise Of The Grand Canyon
Author: John F. Ross
Year: 2019
Why I Liked It: I picked this book up on a whim when visiting the Grand Canyon on my way to moving into Tucson in August, and thought it would be a fun read to help me learn more about the American West and its historical relationship with water. I ended up getting all of that in more with this book! A biography of John Wesley Powell, the first American to map out the Grand Canyon, this book takes readers on an exhilarating journey through a life well lived. From growing up in the midwest to fighting in the Civil War to becoming a naturalist, explorer, anthropologist, and eventually a political activist, John Wesley Powell’s story is awe inspiring from start to finish. While Powell’s ideas have been forgotten amidst the fervent desire to develop the American West, they are especially worth revisiting today as water scarcity and drought become a seemingly permanent feature of life in the west.
5. The Death And Life Of The Great Lakes
Author: Dan Egan
Year: 2018
Why I Liked It: Continuing this year’s theme of reading about water issues, The Death And Life Of The Great Lakes tells me the sad history of the midwest’s greatest resource. From the construction of the canal that created the great lakes to the Atlantic to the present day, Dan Egan details how humans have radically altered an ancient ecosystem through the development of the canal connecting the Saint Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean, dumping of farm runoff, and the introduction of countless new invasive species. This book is critically important for any resident of a great lakes state, and its a lesson in the horrific environmental impacts that can result from greed.
6. Healing Grounds
Author: Liz Carlisle
Year: 2022
Why I Liked It: I love books that tell true stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things, especially when it relates to the environment! I had the pleasure of meeting the author of this book, Liz Carlisle documents the story of several women of color who are addressing climate change by using sustainable agriculture. Whether it be mushroom farming in North Carolina, bringing the Buffalo Back to Montana, or growing a beautiful Polyculture in California, Carlisle tells a story of hope at a time when news about climate change is so bleak.
7. The Organic Machine
Author: Richard White
Year: 1996
Why I Liked It: This book was recommended to me by the teaching assistant for a U.S. History Course I took during my junior year. I finally picked it up this summer when I found it for cheap on Amazon and was immediately pulled in to Richard White’s review of the relationship between humans and the Columbia River. White argues that our relationship to the river has always been one of energy, whether it be pulling calories out through fishing as the Native Americans did or crafting massive dams to generate electricity as white settlers did. For me, this book presented a valuable perspective on how rivers hold value to different peoples, another important lesson as I continue my learning about water issues,
8. The Color Of Law
Author: Richard Rothstein
Year: 2018
Why I Liked it: I read this book for an Urban Planning class I took during the last semester of my senior year at UIUC. This book tells the story of how policy at all levels of government has historically worked against minorities, keeping them out of neighborhoods and creating the socioeconomic troubles that are still prevalent in our communities today. By creating neighborhood covenants that prohibited a resident from selling their house to a person of color and denying people of color loans for homes, America sowed the seeds of countless social and economic issues that we are still reaping today.
9. Why We Fight
Author: Christopher Blattman
Year: 2022
Why I Liked It: Have you ever seen images of a war on the news and wondered “How did this come to be?”, this book goes very far in answering this question. Using an expertise in economics, political science, and history, Blattman clearly lays out the different challenges that lead to conflict, and the various opportunities to find peace. Blattman presents his argument through real-world conflicts and peacebuilding efforts, giving the reader a better understanding of why wars are fought, or, rather, why they are so often not.
10. Inheritors Of The Earth
Author: Chris D. Thomas
Year: 2017
Why I Liked It: Thomas presents an unorthodox argument in the ongoing discussion of humanity’s impact on the world’s ecosystems: while we are causing extinctions, we are helping many species expand and thrive in new places. Thomas argues that humans are a part of nature, and thus the impacts we have are a natural force that species must adapt to or die. While I found the argument convincing in some respects (humanity has undoubtedly been great for corn, wheat, and many species of bird), we act as though we are a bull in a china shop, wrecking beautiful works of art without care.
11. Arizona Water Policy
Author: Various
Year: 2006
Why I Liked It: Written by several experts on the topic of Arizona’s water resources and policy, I read this book to better my understanding of the political landscape in which I now live. When researching anything relating to agriculture in Arizona, it is impossible not to account for the ongoing challenge of water scarcity. This book gave me the beachhead I needed to start comprehending the labyrinthine landscape of Arizona’s Water Policy
12. Thinking In Systems
Author: Donella H. Meadows
Year: 2008
Why I Liked It: This is the definitive book for learning about what a system is, how it works, and why. You may ask why you should ever care about systems, and the answer is that literally everything in the world is a system! From the water in your bathtub to the temperature in your home to the global oil market, everything is a system. Most importantly, once you understand how systems work, you can identify them in everyday life, and be better prepared to make changes within the system.