PECKERWOOD BOOK CLUB: Did You Have A Favorite Book This Year? Plus What Did All The Critics Think?

What was your favorite book this year? Something new? Something old which you encountered for the first time? As for what the critics think, I have to laugh whenever I read their year-end "Best Books" lists, because there are not a finite amount of mass-market books released each year (like there are similarly with movies), but scads upon scads of them. So how can anyone rightly pick "the best?" You can't, of course, though the old adage, "the cream rises to the top," has to be taken into account, and this year, the best book according to over 20 reputable "Best Of" lists, is, drumroll, please, "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang, a novel I'm very much looking forward to digging into over the holiday break, even if I'm slightly wary, as it's yet another navel-gazing scenario which takes place in the publishing world. But, hey, it's the top pick of the year according to big cheese critics everywhere, so it's got to be good, right? 

Jenny Jackson's "Pineapple Street" was my favorite new book this year. And like most things with books, it's entirely subjective and dependent on your personal taste. For me, "Pineapple Street" hit several sweet spots. It's my favorite genre, historical-fiction, has pitch-black humor, and characters with  a sharp, almost pop-up-book vividness, all of whom get up to no good, and then some, in this tale of old money family antics in The Gilded Age. It's both literate and intensely pleasurable (which is quite the stunt). Critics have called it a delicious, guilt-free beach read, which is pretty accurate. If you're looking for a last minute holiday gift (for yourself), this is a good one, I promise. 

If you're searching for more top picks of the year and don't have time to comb through all those "Best Of" lists, you're in luck. The site "Information is Beautiful" has created a "Consensus Cloud," meaning that it ran the numbers from over 20 top critics' lists and created a click-through cloud which takes you straight to the book's Amazon page. I haven't read at least 70% of the titles mentioned - and I'm a pretty big reader! - since I usually get around to books, like many of you, I suspect, sometimes years after their original publication date. But this cloud is an ingenious way to get a handle on what everyone's been talking about and reading in 2023. When I clicked through the titles, I found many books I hadn't even heard of, like "Big Swiss," which sounds funny and filthy and literate, so, yeah, right up my alley. Give a click below and I guarantee you'll find a few books that'll be musts for you.

Use the cloud by clicking the image above, then click through the titles.

Meanwhile, your happy Bibliophile Bendy Boy™ is waiting with bated breath. What was your favorite book of the year? If it wasn't published in 2023, who cares? It was new to you, right?

And don't be embarrassed. Reading books, above all else, should be purest pleasure, so if your favorite of the year was Brit-Brit's big bio, or something more serious and literary, like "Absolution," so be it. And, hey, if you can't decide, and have, say, two or three favorites, that's good, too. We all need to add to our lists, so let 'er rip!

Photo Credits: Pamela Dorman Books