What I read in 2023

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In 2023, I read 96 books, an average of 8 per month. That's more than I read in 2020, 2021 or 2022, although I'd have to say the reading I did during the early COVID lockdowns was rather more challenging and ambitious. The books are coded as follows:

A Anthology (a bunch of short pieces, whether stories, essays, poetry or whatever)
D Drama
F Fiction
M/B Memoir, Biography (including autobiography), Diaries etc.
NF Non-fiction, if it doesn't fit into one of the other categories above

The numbers break down as follows: 3A, 1D, 64F, 11M/B, 17NF

So here's my list (books listed in the order I read them)


1. The Story Species - Joseph Gold (NF)
2. Dreadfulwater - Thomas King (F)
3. People change - Vivek Shraya (NF)
4. I'm afraid of men - Vivek Shraya (NF)
5. Ottawa Rising - Ottawa Independent Writers (A)
6. Son of Elsewhere - Elamin Abdelmahmoud (M/B)
7. Chokepoint Capitalism - Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow (NF)
8. The Persuaders: At the front lines of the fight for hearts, minds & democracy - Anand Giridharedas (NF)
9. Devil's Delight - M.C. Beaton with R.W. Green (F)
10. The Book Eaters - Sunyi Dean (F)
11. My Darling Detective - Howard Norman (F)
12. Death takes a perfect trip - Mary Jane Maffini (F)
13. Open and Closed - Mat Coward (F)
14. Petit Pays - Gael Faye (F)
15. All the Queen's Men - S.J. Bennett (F)
16. You light up my death - Mary Jane Maffini (F)
17. The Swedish art of aging exuberantly - Margareta Magnusson (NF)
18. Gobsmacked! Peter Cleveland (F)
19. Stealing Jenny - Ellen Gable (F)
20. The Library Suicides - Fflur Dafydd (F)
21. Hobgoblins of Little Minds - Andrew J. Simpson (A)
22. The future is now - Bob McDonald (NF)
23. The Bookseller's Notebooks - Jalel Barjas (F)
24. The White Hare - Jane Johnson (F)
25. The Black Dove - Colin McAdam (F)
26.Bill Bergson Lives Dangerously - Astrid Lindgren (F)
27. Behind the scenes at the museum - Kate Atkinson (F)
28. Once upon a prime - Sarah Hart (NF)
29. L'évangile du nouveau monde -Maryse Condé (F)
30. A Spot of Bother - Mark Haddon (F)
31. Book collecting now: The value of print in a digital age - Matthew Budman (NF)
32. The Little Wartime Library - Kate Thompson (F)
33. When last seen - Brenda Chapman (F)
34. A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf (NF)
35. Open Heart, Open Mind - Clara Hughes (M/B)
36. Git Sync Murder - Michael Warren Lucas (F)
37. The Brothers Lionheart - Astrid Lindgren (F)
38. War Diaries 1939-1945 - Astrid Lindgren (M/B)
39. End of Story -Louise Swanson (F)
40. Astrid Lindgren: The woman behind Pippi Longstocking - Jens Andersen (M/B)
41. Vinyl Resting Place - Olivia Blacke (F)
42. The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan - Stuart Palmer (F)
43. A Natural History of Transition - Callum Angus, ed. (A)
44. Avenue of Champions - Conor Kerr (F)
45. Crow Winter - Karen McBride (F)
46. Sun Storm - Äsa Larsson (F)
47. Queen High - C.J. Carey (F)
48. Librarian Tales: Funny, strange & inspiring tales from the stacks - William Ottens (NF)
49. Maudites Rumeurs - Chantal Beauregard (F)
50. Sweden: The essential guide to customs & culture - Neil Shipley (NF)
51. The Forgotten Home Child - Genevieve Graham (F)
52. We know you remember - Tove Alsterdal (F)
53. L'Avare - Moliere (D)
54. A Nearly Normal Family - M.T. Edvardsson (F)
55. Red Wolf - Liza Marklund (F)
56. Mio, My Son - Astrid Lindgren (F)
57. The Girl with the Sturgeon Tattoo - Lars Arfssen (Lawrence Douglas) (F)
58. Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell (F)
59. The Murder of Halland - Pia Juul (F)
60. Sweet Revenge: 2 novellas (Women Without Mercy; Truth or Dare) - Camilla Lackberg (F)
61. The Survivors - Alex Schulman (F)
62. Master Detective - Astrid Lindgren (F)
63. Sweden for Beginners - Gunnar Jägberg (NF)
64. Meet me in Malmö - Torquil MacLeod (F)
65. Once upon a time in Uppsala - Shirin Amani Azari (M/B)
66. An extra pair of hands: a story of caring & everyday acts of love - Kate Mosse (M/B)
67. Crisis - Karin Boye (F)
68. The Autists: Women on the spectrum - Clara Törnvall (NF)
69. Karlsson on the Roof - Astrid Lindgren (F)
70. The Foulest Thing: A Dominion Archives mystery - Amy Tector (F)
71. Memories look at me: A memoir - Tomas Tranströmer (M/B)
72. Anywhere out of the world - Karin Tidbeck (F)
73. Speak for the dead - Amy Tector (F)
74. Red X - David Demchuk (F)
75 The Pale Horse - Agatha Christie (F)
76. Shadow Play - Peggy Blair (F)
77. Sleet - Stig Dagerman (F)
78. Loving the Difficult -Jane Rule (NF)
79. Pageboy - Elliot Page (M/B)
80. Losing the signal: The spectacular rise and fall of Blackberry - Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff (NF)
81. Encore- Alexis Koetting (F)
82. The Dogs of Winter - Ann Lambert (F)
83. An English Murder - Cyril Hare (F)
84. Reykjavik - Ragnar Jonasson & Karin Jakobsdottir (F)
85. The Power of Language: The codes we use to speak, think & live - Viorica Marian (NF)
86. Wishin' & Hopin' - Wally Lamb (F)
87. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop - Satoshi Yagisawa (F)
88. The Instant - Amy Liptrot (M/B)
89. Woman in the Shadows - Jane Thynne (F)
90. The Librarianist - Patrick DeWitt (F)
91. The Go-between: A portrait of growing up between different worlds - Osman Yousefzada (M/B)
92. Death of a Bookseller - Alice Slater (F)
93. Yule Island - Johana Gustawsson (F)
94. Tom's Story: My 16-year friendship with a homeless man - Jo-Ann C. Oosterman (M/B)
95. Blood and Circuses - Kerry Greenwood (F)
96. What you are looking for is in the library - Michiko Aaoyama (F)