my TOP 10 BEST BOOKS of 2023 RANKED!!

Hello friends, welcome back to my channel. I feel like my voice has risen like 10 octaves. Because it is time for my best books of 2023. Are we excited? I'm really excited. I'm nervous. We're going to be talking about my top 10 books of 2023, my best books of the year, the books I would most recommend to you. We know I didn't have the best reading year. I had a bit of a lack of five stars. I think up to today, I've had 21 five stars this year that weren't rereads. So it's not terrible. The latter half of the year did save it a bit in terms of five stars. I think it's a really good list of books. I do want to say before we get into it. I would say this is more of a top six and then the bottom four of the list could interchange with other five stars on a different day. To be completely honest with you. I do stand by them, but it's definitely the top six of this list are like favorites of all time for me and the bottom four are favorites of the year. That's the differentiation between the two. Shall we just get into it? We're going to start with number 10. Work our way up to number one. We all know what number one is. We all know what number two is, but the fun is in the journey. Shall we just get into it? Okay, coming in at number 10 is Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. I read this in a vlog where I read books that one of my favorite authors, Courtney Summers, recommended me. It was a dream come true. She was absolutely incredible. I love the interview that we did together. It was great getting to know her. And Nothing to See Here was by far my favorite from that vlog. So this is the story about two friends who are unlike roommates when they were at school, but they've barely spoken since and the other gets in touch with the main character saying, I've got these stepkids who are coming to live with me. They spontaneously combust. Could you come look after them and like be their living nanny? And the other one's like, yeah, all right. You gotta admit this is strange. So it's a story of her looking after these kids who spontaneously combust and trying to teach them love and family and affection and safety. And I just thought this was such a beautiful book, but it's also kind of funny. It's got this humor to it. And it's also got a dash of weirdness. Like there's certain interactions between characters that are a little bit weird. Certain choices that characters make that are a little bit weird, but I just loved this. I really love books where you never would have picked them up otherwise if it weren't for the vlog that I was doing. And this is one of those for me. Like I don't think I would have ever really picked this up otherwise. And so it being such a surprise really does make the book for me. But I think this is a very unique book. I haven't read a book like it in a long time. And if you're looking for a little bit weird, if you're looking for a bit magical realism, but with family with a really lovely core to it, this would be my recommendation. Number nine, we have got The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson. You guys know, I've been here a long time. This was me and Tiffany Jackson's last chance. That's quite dramatic. So it's quite miraculous that it's made it on my best books of the year list. So I've given her I think a two and a three beforehand, or maybe even a two and a 2.5 with the books I've read from her beforehand. And I said if I didn't like this book, I wasn't going to pick up her books anymore. Because it's not fair to an author if I keep picking up their books and rating them lowly and talking about them in a shitty way to you guys. Like that's not fair. That's not fair. So this was our last chance and boy did I knock it out of the park. If you're going to read this, listen to the audiobook. I absolutely adored the reading experience of this. I have such vivid memories. I was playing Unpacking. Is that what it's called? I always get the name wrong in that game. Unpacking? Where you're like unpacking ----. I was playing that game while I was listening to the audiobook of this. So this is a Carrie retelling, but our main character is a biracial girl who up until this point has passed as white. But then people find out that she's actually half black. And it's to do with her being ostracised because of the way people treat her. I mean she's always been treated poorly at the school, but that kind of like amplifies things. And obviously if you know the story of Carrie, you know the plot beats that this is going to take us down. At the beginning there's like a podcast element that kind of comes in and out throughout the book. And it's talking about the night of the prom. And I do want to caveat this by saying I haven't read Carrie. I've never watched Carrie. But I think part of it is in the reading of elements that I loved with this. I don't know how much of it comes from Carrie. Do you know what I mean? Like parts of this book I'm like oh that's so great. Like a certain way characters interact or what have you. I don't know how much of that is this book and how much of it is moments taken from Carrie. But I just loved this. I thought it was so fun. It's definitely, is this my only YA? Yeah this is my only YA on this list for the year. It's definitely my best YA of the year. I thought it was a really wonderful and flinching look of racism that exists. Particularly within certain American communities. Like insular American communities. Like certain parts of this book you hear and you think no that can't really be happening in real life. But it is. Like this is the first time they've had a non-segregated prom. But like that still happens in parts of America. Which is absolutely insane. This was like such a gratifying and satisfying experience. To finally love a Tiffany D. Jackson book. Because I've loved all of her synopses forever. So it was really, I loved, I loved, I loved, I loved reading this. Coming in at number 8 we have got Bright Young Women by Jessica Null. This could be recency bias. There's a few on this list. I'm a bit worried it could be recency bias. But I don't think it is. I really love this. This is the first on this list that you'll see from the Goodreads Choice Awards vlog. You probably can predict there's another one coming. But I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I was. When the top 10 list came out I was excited to read this. I already owned it. So I was excited for it. But I wasn't like predicting it was going to be a 5 star. I was probably thinking oh it's going to be a really good 4 star. You know? But my gosh, my gosh guys. This book is so, so, so, so, so good. So this book is a fictionalised account following some of Ted Bundy's victims. Now he's never named but the book is very heavily inspired by the events that happened with Ted Bundy. So we're following one girl who was the head of the sorority that he attacked. And we're following another woman who believes that a very important woman in her life was one of his victims. This has such a wonderful look at so many elements of true crime. Of the way that victims are treated by police, by the media. The long lasting mental effects of living through something like this. I just think it was incredibly, incredibly well written. I said in the vlog, you could have kidded me that this was a autobiographical account. You know what I mean? It feels so real. These characters feel so real. What they're going through feels so visceral. And there is a scene at the end that I think, oh, I still think about it. I think it's absolutely incredible writing. Just like a feat of writing. I just really appreciate the way the whole subject was spoken about in this. It examines why people maybe are interested in true crime but also strive to place the victims at the centre of that. Ted Bundy is never named throughout the book. She refuses to name him. It just feels so... This is one of the books I've read this year that feels so real. Everything that the characters are feeling, you feel with them. I just loved it. Also, it's kind of split timeline a little bit and I liked that element of it, which is high praise coming from me. I can't believe that. I actually can't believe that. I just thought this was absolutely wonderful. If you are interested in a thriller kind of examining the true crime genre, this would be my top recommendation. I think it's so well written. I thought it was a wonderful, wonderful book. Coming in at number 7 is Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. We're not surprised. She told me to read this for years. If you don't know what this is about, Finlay Donovan is a single mum. She's struggling girly. She's trying to pay the bills. She's an aspiring author and she's describing the plot of her new book to her editor one day in a coffee shop. A nearby woman misunderstands and thinks that Finlay is a hit woman and gives her a lot of money to kill her husband. Clap if you've ever wanted to kill somebody. She's kind of like, I need this money but am I going to kill this man? What are the morals surrounding this? We all told me I was going to love this and I loved it. I am nervous to read the rest of the series. I haven't heard as good things about the rest of the series but I thought this just perfectly struck the balance between an interesting mystery slash thriller but also having a lot of humour and a lot of heart to it. Finlay is a fun character and I enjoy a book where you're reading it and you're like, what an idiot, Finlay. Stop it! I like a book that kind of infuriates you where a character just keeps doing stuff that you're like, why are you making that decision? She kept doing things. I was like, you idiot. You idiot. Thanks a lot, you idiot. You're not doing this right. This is not going to go down well. It kind of stresses you out. I think that's a fun reading experience. I am late to the party here. Everyone has loved this. By no means the first to sing its praises. I really, really enjoyed it and I'm excited to continue on with the series and I'm very excited to see where the series goes because I think the way that this book leaves off is very exciting. But it's just fun. If you're looking for a fun mystery thriller this would be my number one recommendation. Yeah, loved it. So, now we're into the top six. These are my top, top books the favourites of all time, I would say. So, coming in at number six we have got Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. This is another one that I was worried was a bit of recency bias but I don't think it is. I have really contemplated and meditated on this and I don't think it is. In this we're following Tress who lives on this little island and the boy, the man that she loves is stolen by this evil witch and she goes on this quest to save him and it's really her on this boat, on this boat journey and it's the found family that she encounters on the boat there's these great characters, there's a deaf character who writes on this magical tablet, there's a talking rat love the talking rat and this just had such a lovely tone to it. I would definitely say this is cosy fantasy. Brandon Sanderson, please just write cosy fantasy. Get rid of all these high fantasy books. Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave? I am going to actually try out Brandon Sanderson now. Next year could be my Brandon Sanderson era and another era which we're going to get into in the next book. It had one of my favourite things where it has like an overseeing narrator with a dry, sarcastic sense of humour so one of the characters who's in the book what's his name? Hoid. Hoid, he's in the book and I believe he's in other Cosmere books but I haven't read them. He's in the book and he's narrating this with this wonderful humour I absolutely loved the way it was written I thought it was just a wonderful, wonderful little book I think also it says it's inspired by The Princess Bride and I grew up watching The Princess Bride, I'd never read it but there's just something about this book and it's beats that felt familiar and cosy and I said a lot in that video that this book feels like a book written outside of the pressures of trends in the book world and pressure of what fans are going to think of it and having to live up to a previous book, this just felt like a book written for the love of writing, right? And Brandon Sanderson says at the beginning or in his acknowledgement somewhere, he says that he originally just wrote this as like a gift to his wife and she told him to publish it and you can just feel that. This book is brimming with love and joy and fun in it. I really don't like it anymore when I read books and I can just tell it's written because Enemy to Lovers is trendy so they've got to write an Enemy to Lovers book and this is trendy so they've got to put that in the book. Whereas this just felt completely free of that and I think that's so freeing. Being free is freeing. So yeah, I loved it. I can't recommend this enough. Is this my top fantasy? No, it's not my top fantasy. Get a grip, Megan. But yeah, I definitely want to try out more Brandon Sanderson. Not only just the one that other people said is more of like a cosy fantasy but I want to start- my dad loves Brandon Sanderson. He has all his books. So I want to start the whole- Are Cosmere and Mistborn the same thing or different things? I generally don't know anything. So if you want to educate me on like the Brandon Sanderson reading order because I find that a little bit intimidating, feel free because I don't get it. Coming in at number five, we have got a classic. Who is she? Can we believe I'm putting a classic on my best books of the year list? I'm in a complete state of shock. I forgot what I was going to say. And it is Emma by Jane Austen. So I read this for my Patreon book club one month. So you guys actually haven't seen me even read this on a vlog. But I adored this. I think this is a genius, genius, genius, genius book. Oh, Jane Austen, you're mine. So I want to give you my background going into this. So as a kid, I loved, and I still love, but I loved the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Me and my mum would watch it together whenever I was sick of school growing up. I know it's maybe a bit of a weird thing. I also loved watching like the History Channel when I was off school as a kid. I watched a lot of like Tudor. I don't know. But we watched that together growing up. And I think I did read Pride and Prejudice growing up with my mum, but I haven't read it since I was like eight or ten. So that world of Jane Austen, of the Regency, of the kind of characters, the kind of tropes is very familiar to me. I've watched that BBC adaptation. I don't even want to know how many times I've seen Colin Firth come out of that lake. I refuse to watch the Keira Knightley one. I don't think I've ever seen it. I'm sorry. Don't try and convince me. It's not, that is not my Pride and Prejudice. This is my Pride and Prejudice. So I loved that growing up and then in terms of other Jane Austen, I've only read Persuasion, which I didn't love. And so I was a bit nervous going into this, but I think this is a wonderful, wonderful book. So if you don't know the plot of Emma, basically what you need to know is Emma is like a matchmaker. She wants to like pair people up and like finds fun in doing it, but doesn't always go about things the right way. If you've seen Clueless, Clueless is an Emma retelling. And I just think this book could be written today. It is so modern on its observations of human nature and the way we interact and the way that we love. I just think it is incredible. Like, Jane Austen, your mind is like, wow. She's incredible. She's a beautiful person. Her talent and brilliance is beyond. And it's funny. This is Jane Austen's, I think, her most like comedic book. And this book is just so funny. It's so humorous. Oh, I loved the way that characters spoke and interacted and just the depth. Oh, I just think it's incredible. I think it's an incredible, incredible book. I think it's an absolute feat. And it set me down a bit of a Jane Austen rabbit hole. Like, I watched a lot of Jane Austen documentaries after watching this. I want to read Jane Austen, like, non-fiction. Lucy Worsley, my favourite non-fiction author. Well, I actually haven't read any of her stuff. My favourite historian, she's my favourite historian, has written a Jane Austen book, which I now have to read. But I just think this book is absolutely wonderful in its humour, in its tone, in the character development. Oh my god. The lion. If you know the lion, if you know the lion who's confessing his love. What? How did you write that in like 17 whatever? Jane. Jane! Oh no, 18, sorry. 18, 16. Jane! How did you cut to the core of love and, oh! I believe in love! And it's funny. It's so funny. I would really recommend getting the audiobook for this because it really does help convey the tone of a lot of what is said but I absolutely love this. So just as I'm going to be in my Brandon Sanderson era next year, I'm going to be in my classic slash Jane Austen era because I just thought this was absolutely wonderful. Coming in at number four is a graphic novel and it is the Tea Dragon Festival by Kate O'Neill. So I read both this and the Tea Dragon Tapestry this year but this was my favourite. This is the second in the Tea Dragon series. This one is actually a prequel and I just loved it. I've spoken about this series so much so you don't really need to know too much but it's this magical world the Tea Dragons are little characters in it but they're not really the main characters. It's more about these families and these found families and these friends that exist in this world and interact and I always just say, when I have kids, the attitude that these books have towards the world, towards life, towards community, is the attitude I'd want to impart on my children. It's just such a beautiful view on the world that I think we should all strive to have. Just its outlook I think is wonderful. So these graphic novels to me are just like a hug and a book and I cannot wait to re-read them and re-read them. The drawings are absolutely beautiful. These books are very inclusive. In this book there is a deaf character who the whole town has learned sign language for to be able to communicate. I just love it. I just love it. I just love it. These fill me with such joy. I cannot recommend picking these up enough. Okay everyone, we're into the top three. My next one is controversial. I told you guys this was going to be here but did you think it was going to be this high up? Number three is The Writing Retreat by Julian Barnes! That's my opinion! Okay, I know a lot of people haven't liked this but you're wrong! I love The Writing Retreat. So this is about these women who go on this writing retreat with this very renowned author. She's published a few really incredible hits of a book. I think Donna Tartt. Only writes a book every five to ten years but they're a big hit kind of thing. A bit reclusive. No one sees her out in the normal world. They go on this writing retreat and it's a bit unsettling in the beginning. This book does... I mean it snowballs. By the end we're going in a direction. But at the beginning there's always a bit unsettling. This writing retreat is very isolated and it really has to do with female friendships as well and kind of the sapphic romantic slash sexual element that can exist within female friendships as well. I just absolutely loved this. I absolutely loved this. I loved its weirdness but I think it has just enough weirdness that it's not a barrier to entry. Some books I read that are really weird I'm like, this is beyond me trying to think. I can't figure out what you're trying to do. Do you know what I mean? It's not that. It's a followable book. But it's just wild. It's wild from the get go. I think the way the characters interact is so interesting. What this book is talking about is so interesting. And I just love that it committed. So often I read books. So often I read books. Guess what guys? I read books. No. So often I read books that don't commit. Right? That promise me a lot. That have like in the synopsis it seems like it's going to be really dramatic and big and then it kind of like fizzles out. You know? This goes for it. And I just love the commitment. I love the commitment to the cause. I really appreciate it. I just think this was great. And for a debut? Oh, I just loved it. All of you who hated it are wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong. You're wrong. I'm sorry. You're wrong. It's so good. No, it's true. This crosses a line. No, this is real. I am so excited to see what else Julia Bartz publishes because this... Guys, it was just so fascinating to me. This book. I just... How does it have such a low rating? You're wrong. It's wonderful. Okay, my top two are a league of their own. You know? One of these books was my favourite book for most of the year and then one just snuck in at the end. So these are like top, top, top, top, top. We've had layers. Like layers of an onion to this list. So coming in at number two is Legends and Lattes by Travis Bowdrey. I loved it. This is my first book of the year. I always strive to get a five star. Almost every reading year I've had since 2018, I've had a five star at the start of the year apart from last year. And that was a bad year. So you know, in order to have good luck, I must read a five star at the start of the year. I love this. You all know what this is about. It's one of the biggest books, you know, around at the moment in terms of hype. But we're following Viv who has hung up her sword. She was like a little fighter and she, oh my god even talking about it, I want to cry. Makes a coffee shop. And it's like her trying to set up this coffee shop and try to be successful. And it is just the perfect, low stakes, gentle, cosy book. Oh my god. That's real. Even though she's fictional, it's real. And that's important to me. You don't understand. You don't understand how much I want to read about characters making coffee and Thimble designing his cakes and getting so excited with people like his cakes. You don't get it. You don't get how perfect this book is and everything I want. I'm going to have to re-read it at some point. But oh my god. It was just incredible. It's so lovely and I'm so glad it's had the success that it has. I do own Bookshops and Bone Dust. I'm not, I'm trying to like get rid of the expectation that I'm going to love this as much as I love this. I hope whatever Travis Baldry publishes next is actually away from this series. I want him to write a different standalone because I feel like there's just too much pressure. I don't think I'm going to love this as much as I love this because can you love anything as much as I love this? It is just the perfect book. It's so wonderful. Wonderful. Oh, it's just incredible. What a feat. What a feat to write a book this small and have it take up so much place in my heart. And then my final book, the best book of 2023, The Last Civil To Die by Richard Osman. We all knew it was coming. Even before I read it, we knew if anything was going to dethrone Legends and Lattes, it was this. This is the fourth in the Thursday Murder Club. I read it recently in my Goodreads choice of what I was reading blog. And generally I don't feel like there's much point in reading the rest of this year because like, I'm still kind of in a haze after reading this book. If you're here, you know what this is about. Well, I don't need to give you a synopsis, but we're forming this early group of characters who have this Thursday Murder Club where they used to try and solve cold cases. Then the first book, a case lands on their doorstep and they try and solve it and then by the time this book, they've got enemies, they've got friends all over and mysteries keep turning up to them. People keep dying. In this one it's a kind of acquaintance of theirs is murdered and they endeavour to solve it and it's a lot to do with espionage and drug money and smuggling and all that ---- in this one. But this one... Dear God. I don't want to get upset. Don't get upset. Don't worry. I haven't cried like this at a book in a long time. So, because these characters are old, it's dealing with death a lot, right? But not just death. It's dealing with how you live when you know you haven't got a lot of life left and frankly, we're all dying. Do you know what I mean? Like, I think we should all live as though we haven't got long left. I think it teaches you so much about how you should live and the life you should endeavour to live full of love and care for the other person and... I have not cried like this. I just... I'm starting to cry. Calm down. I think if you read the third book, you kind of know where this is going and my God, it is just a beautiful look at humanity. I think Richard Osman, both on the big stuff, like the stuff that made me cry, is a big topic. It's a big human experience. It's a terrible thing to go through. But even the small stuff, Richard Osman taps on the door of what it means to be a human so well. Even just the things we like to watch or the things that make us laugh or the little quirks that we all have but don't really talk about. It's just a line that blows me away. Richard Osman, the man that you are, I love you. We are not getting a Thursday Murder Club book next year and he's going to be starting a new series, which I'm equally excited and nervous for. But this series is just incredible and this fourth book is definitely the best in the series. It's my best book of the year. I just love it. I love that it's a mystery. I love the characters. I love everything about it. I love the humour. These books are funny. It's so good, guys. It's definitely my best book of the year and I cannot wait. I'm going to have to re-read the whole series soon. Sometime next year since we're not getting a book in it. Or maybe the year after. I don't know. How do I pace myself? What's the correct way to do this? I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. So there we have it. That is my top 10 books of 2023. Let me know what you thought of any of these. I mean, the one you're most going to disagree with me on is The Writing Retreat. I can accept that. But I think these are all wonderful books and I cannot recommend them enough. Let me know what your favourite books of the year have been. I'd love to know for future reference or just kind of I'd just love to know what your favourite books of the year have been. But thank you guys for watching this video. If you got to the end, comment a star emoji. And I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!