I don’t do a lot of “wrapping up the year” rituals. I used to, and while they had value for me then, I find it much more useful to do just a couple of things to put a bow on the current year and look forward to the next. One of those things is talking about the works which made an impact on me in some capacity.

Proclaiming anything the “best” feels like it puts a lot of pressure on whatever the thing in question is. My best is not your best, and what does “best” mean, anyway? Especially if you have not consumed every possible contender within a group, you can’t really measure best. Instead, I prefer to label these things favorites. They’re the things which stuck with me or that resonated in some way that, when I reach this time of year, I recall something from it, be it a message or story or feeling.

I’m offering up three categories of favorites this year. One is the roundup of my favorite personal works of writing, one is my roundup of favorite reads this year, and the last is my list of some favorite music I listened to this year.

My Favorite Writing in 2023

I took a break from doing as much freelance writing this year as I have in the past. School and parenting took some priority in my free time, as did doing a lot more presenting for groups.

• I wrote a pair of posts that connected with one another very early in 2023 that I linked to heavily throughout the year: When did YA paperback books become $15.99, to which way too many people responded that teenagers–those for whom YA is written–can just get those books at the library if they cannot afford to buy them. What those well-meaning commenters did not see or did not want to see is that those very books are often banned at the library or may never be purchased because of silent censorship.
• I did a deep dive into the mess that is the board of Elmwood Park Public Library in suburban Chicago. This piece was eye-opening, and I’m grateful I got to meet a couple of the folks instrumental in holding the library’s leadership accountable this fall.
• What does one decade of the New York Times YA Bestsellers list tell us about the changing landscape in YA literature?
• One of the pieces I’d been wanting to write for a long time finally came to fruition: Why don’t most library masters programs require an ethics course?
• A look back at the United Daughters of the Confederacy and their efforts to ban ad censor books they did not like–and how that history is repeated in today’s Moms for Liberty.
• I gave the microphone over to Central York High School students to talk about why they were organized in protest against book bans in their school…again.
• With the rise of book bans and protests agains drag queen story times at libraries, how did Pride Month stack up in public libraries?
• A peek behind the curtain of BookmarkED, a “solution” to banned books, which was created by someone who championed book ban legislation in Texas.
• I broke the story of how SkyTree Book Fairs are just a “clever” rebranding of Brave Books’s Book Fairs.
• The Prom was canceled at one of the local-to-me high schools by district administration, and this is the story of why–and how students fought back. The musical was reinstated and will go on in the spring.
• This piece about how YA continues to make Shakespeare fresh, relevant, and fun was one I loved writing.

My Favorite Books in 2023

Despite feeling like I didn’t read much this year, I sure did. Even with several months of reading only a book or two, I managed to finish 90, or about two per week. Not bad, given how much reading I did for school, too.

There is an interesting and odd trend to my favorites this year: water. There are a lot of books set in or near water.

I am not limiting my favorites list to just books published in 2023. Some of these will be backlist because I read a little bit of everything. These aren’t in any order. A * before a title means I listened on audio and recommend that format if you like to listen.

Chlorine by Jade Song follows a teen girl who is convinced she is a mermaid. This is a story of transformation and queerness and just how terrible high school can be–especially if you’re different in any capacity.

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus asks and answers one question: what would really happen if you got swallowed by a sperm whale (it is also very much a story of grief). This hard scifi read is fast paced and kept me wanting to talk about it.

A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan is a cozy adventure mystery following Morgan, a 30-something who inherited her parents’ bookshop/metaphysical/magic store in Door County, Wisconsin. She’s a cryptozoologist and the story is about her recruitment to solve several mysterious deaths possibly tied to a lake monster. This is just fun–admittedly, the most boomer-esque 30-something you’ll read, but the premise is good enough to overlook that.

She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran is your read if you want a haunted house story that is also about colonialism. It’s genuinely creepy.

*How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler is an immersive memoir-cum-science nonfiction book that tells the story of growing up queer and biracial. You’ll learn about Imbler’s life, as well as ten fascinating sea creatures like the goldfish, the octopus who would kill herself to save her spawn, and more.

*What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo is a mental health memoir about life with complex post traumatic stress disorder. Foo’s story is so generous, and I appreciated how much was shared about what did–and did not–help in managing it.

*Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond should be required reading for understanding inequity in America. I cannot stop thinking about one of his points about how the left, even when their policies are passed, fail to keep up the momentum to ensure those policies remain and why that’s connected to so many quick actions to reverse course by the right.

Yellowface by R. F. Kuang is one of the buzziest books on this list and it earned that buzz. What happens when a rising Asian author dies and her white friend pretends to have written her manuscript? I am not usually one who cares for books about the book world, but this had me start to finish.

One’s Company by Ashley Hutson is a novel about obsession and specifically, Bonnie’s obsession with Three’s Company. We’re not talking just collecting memorabilia. We’re talking she’s constructed a house to live out the show in her real life. A wild and potent story of grief and loss.

*The Art Thief by Michael Finkel is one I’ve written about quite a bit, but this true crime story is about an art thief and the lengths gone to feed his obsession.

Just Do This One Thing For Me by Laura Zimmerman is the sophomore effort by a YA author who is easily on the top of my favorites list. This story follows a teen girl whose con-artist mother claims she’s traveling to a concert in Mexico but instead, accidentally dies. Now the girl needs to not only take care of her siblings alone, but she must cover for all of the lies her mother has live on. It’s set in Wisconsin, and even though it tackles some heavy stuff, it is also at times laught out loud funny. It’s midwest YA to a T.

Finally, *Conspirituality by Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker is a must-read if you’re at all engaged in the wellness world. This is a book exposing the grifts within it, including some of the biggest players in the field. One of my major takeaways was how messed up International Yoga Day is, including its ties to far-right Indian Nationalism.

My Favorite Music in 2023

I made a goal this year to listen to one new-to-me and newer album per week. This was to grow my music catalog and knowledge. It was a very hard challenge, and I lost steam over the summer. I did end up listening to dozens of new things, though, and even if the exact challenge is going to look different, I’ll be doing something similar in 2024.

Like with books, some of these are 2023 albums, but some are older. I kept to listening to things released in the last 3 years. You can dig into the entire roundup of what I listened to on Spotify here. Some of the highlights include:

Love Your Face by Savoy Motel is for fans of 70s-ish groove pop.

Looking for pop punk that is a LOT OF FUN? Then you’ll dig past // present // future by meet me @ the altar.

A lot of folks may be familiar with hard rock band Maneskin from Eurovision but they were new to me. I really enjoy Rush!

If you like upbeat folk music, Dustbowl Revival’s Is It You, Is It Me is worth a listen.

Indie female solo with pop feels but a wide range of style? Dig into Blondshell’s self-title album. “Veronica Mars” is a killer lead song.

A friend recommend the band High Waisted to me after asking for music like that of The Hippos (ugh, so good). I was NOT disappointed with this surf rock album, Sick of Saying Sorry. It looks like there is a brand new album out this month I’m going to be listening to, too!

Of course, I’m going to tell you how great Matchbox 20’s Where The Light Goes is. It’s new, though the band is far from new to me. But a pop rock band still being this great so deep into their career is worth continuing to shout about. (A side note: several male-led bands or soloists I like have been in my years for decades, and it is so neat to see them go from angry young men to more mature, been-to-theapy-to-work-through-stuff in their later work).