2023: My Year In Books
Being a summary of every book I read in 2023 with certain books highlighted as the best of the bunch.
Another year, another book round up. This year, as always, I read 52 books, again more weighted towards nonfiction than fiction, with perhaps a bit less poetry and (a lot!) more science fiction. Some true all time bangers on the list this year, a few duds, and maybe slightly more than usual amount of “eh, it was fine.”
I once again have big plans for my reading in 2024, and they’ll be more on that in the future, but for now, let’s take a look back at my year in reading. I’ll start with what I think are the best books I read this year followed by short reviews of every single book I read. If you dig this kind of thing, I’d appreciate it if you subscribed to this here substack. I plan to write a lot more here in the new year focused on books, ideas, fitness and more.
As a reminder, each review ends with me writing either “recommended”, meaning I recommend it without reservation; “recommended for the enthusiast”, meaning if the subject matter interests you, it’s worth a go; and “not recommended”, meaning I cannot recommend the book.
As always it’s best to keep in mind that I (a) am not very smart (b) have questionable taste in literature and (c) have many obvious selection biases in what I choose to read. Ok, books!
Best Novel
The Books of Jacob
Olga Tokarczuk
Authors who win the Nobel Prize are usually not my thing. Too fancy for my common tastes. But Tokarczuk is the real deal. A brilliant writer who walks the line between high art and readability better than any other living novelist I can think of.
This is the novelization of the story of Jacob Frank and his followers. Frank was a Jew influenced by the currents of Sabbateanism floating around Poland. He would in his life claim to be the messiah, develop a loyal following, and eventually be baptized in the Catholic church. Gorgeously written, this book calls forth the world of impoverished Jews in Eastern Europe and takes us through Frank’s horrible self hating behavior, riches and power, imprisonment and more. It borders on the edge of the fantastical, but never really dips over into it completely and is just a remarkable reading experience. Certainly one of the best novels I have read in years. I happen to have an interest in messianic Jewish cult movements (see below), but you certainly don’t need to share it to enjoy this.
Best Nonfiction
I read so many excellent works of nonfiction this year – Rise and Kill First, Scholem’s biography on Sabbatai Sevi, Gradual, Recoding America, American Caliph and the Making of the Atomic Bomb all are excellent and worth your time.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Richard Rhodes
Trying to limit myself to one, I’m going to say the Making of the Atomic Bomb for its scope and relevance. More than just a history of the making of the bomb, it’s a history of WWII and an examination of what it means to unleash forces that are at the edge of, or perhaps even beyond our control. A modern masterpiece of history, it's a must read.
Best Poetry
As I mention below, somewhere along the line I made a commitment to read modern poetry of people are war and this year I had too many opportunities to put that into practice. To understand a bit better Palestinians (especially in Gaza) and Israelis I highly recommend
Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear
Mosab Abu Toha
and
Frayed Light
Yonatan Berg
Different authors who wrote very different books, but both well worth your time.
They’ll be lots more coming to this here Substack in the year ahead, but for now, here’s
2023: My Year in Books
Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations, Ronen Bergman
Read this well before the current war, and I’m sure if I read it now it would hit differently. An exhaustive history of Israel’s use of assassinations from before the founding of the state to the (nearly) present. Incredibly illuminating on how trauma begets trauma and how the ends will make us justify even the most awful of means. Recommended.
Gershom Scholem, Master of Kabbalah, David Biale
An accessible biography of the great scholar of mystical Judaism. I’ve long been fascinated with Scholem, but this was the year I began to dig into his work. By all accounts a difficult but brilliant thinker and among the first to take the folk aspects of Judaism seriously. This was a great introduction to the man and his work. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Longtime readers of this list know my weakness for the tell all business book. If it’s written by James Stewart, I’m going to read it. This one was trashy, even for my taste, with tawdry sex, horrible sexual harassment, and lots of very rich people behaving very badly. I ate it up, but I’m a bad person. Recommended for the enthusiast
Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age, Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox
If someone were to ask me what my theory of change is (no one asks me that) I’d point them to this book whose central thesis is, essentially, we greatly overvalue what can be done in the short term to make the world a better place and undervalue what we can do in the medium to long term. Full of real world case studies making this point I think this is essential reading for anyone really trying to make the world a bit better. Recommended.
*Disclosure – one of the authors of this book is my boss and the other is someone I think of as a mentor. Even if that weren’t true I’d still think this was a great book.
Nemesis Games, James S.A. Corey
Babylon’s Ashes, James S.A. Corey
Persepolis Rising, James S.A. Corey
Tiamat’s Wrath, James S.A. Corey
Leviathan Falls, James S.A. Corey
Books 4-8 in the Expanse series of science fiction novels. If you’re a fan of modern SF, you’re probably aware of these books or the TV adaption. Both are good, the books are (no surprise), better. Got everything I want. Weird aliens, political intrigue, complex class and race discussion. Definitely my thing, likely yours if you are into SF, likely not if you’re not. The classic Recommended for the Enthusiast.
Wanderlust: An Eccentric Explorer, An Epic Journey and a Lost Age, Reid Mitenbuler
Fun read about a now largely forgotten adventurer from the golden age of white dudes going to cold places. Pure dad lit, which I am a total sucker for. If Shackleton era shenanigans are your vibe, you’ll love this, if not, not. Recommended for the Enthusiast.
It’s wild that the takeover of multiple federal buildings in the Nation’s capital by a black Muslim sect, which resulted in multiple fatalities and the wounding of the soon to be mayor of Washington D.C. has been largely memory holed. American Caliph does a great job of telling this story, not only in a tick tock of the actual hostage taking, but also of the background on the wider, wild, world of internecine violence plaguing the world of black Muslims in and around the Nation of Islam. Absolutely fascinating. Recommended.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann
The story of the aftermath of a wreck of a 18th century British warship off the coast of South America. Page turning dad lit full of anecdotes about the British Navy, rich officers behaving badly, and moral crewmen behaving valiantly. Absolutely my thing, Grann at the top of his game. Recommended for the enthusiast.
To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision, Adm. James Staurdis
Lessons in leadership taken from various pivotal moments in the history of the U.S. Navy. I’ve no idea why I read this book. It was fine for what it was, but not really my thing. Not recommended.
Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, Gershom Scholem
The mother of all books on the greatest heretic in the history of Judaism. A work of absolutely monumental scholarship. A book, frankly, that I am not smart enough or well read enough to truly understand, but one that left me in awe. Apparently scholars now quibble with Scholem’s understanding of the importance of Sevi in both the reach of the heresy and influence it had on the future of Judaism, but whatever. This book is incredible. Yes it helps if you have a deep understanding of Lurianic kabbalism and near eastern geography, but I have neither and was absolutely engrossed. I’m not sure it's fair to recommend a book that is nearly a thousand pages about a schizophrenic false messiah who lived long ago and far away, but this book had a profound effect on me and therefore, Recommended.
David Bowie’s Low, Hugo Wilcken
A short book on Bowie’s creation of the Berlin trilogy, specifically, Low. Good as far as it goes, but this era of Bowie from coked out Satan dabbler in LA to weirdo avant garde recovering addict in Berlin deserves much more attention. I wish this had been twice as long. Recommended for the enthusiast.
The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messiah to Esoteric Myth, Jay Michaelson
Apparently the book version of Michaelson’s doctoral thesis. Michaelson is much better known for his political commentary and work in Buddhism, but he started his career as a scholar of Judaism. I read this in conjunction with the Books of Jacob and while I wish this had more historical background on the movement, it does a good job of taking Frank’s theology seriously. There’s very little written in English about the movement, so this is essential if you find yourself, like me, obsessed with it. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Books of Jacob, Olga Tokarczuk
Certainly the best work of fiction I read this year, and probably one of the best works of fiction I have ever read. Tokarczuk won the Pulitzer and twenty pages into this you will know why. The writing FEELS like poverty in Poland and the scene where the Frankists substantiate the blood libel gave me actual chills. I don’t read much high literature these days, but I am so glad I read this one. A truly magisterial book of fiction and you don’t need to be obsessed with false Jewish messiahs to enjoy it. Recommended.
A Line in the Sand, Kevin Powers
A completely forgettable thriller that got a fair amount of positive coverage. I suspect Powers is well connected or has an excellent agent because this book is mid at best and trust me, I read a lot of this kind of thing. Not Recommended.
Joe Rogan lit. Honorable gunman kills his way across Europe to save a little girl. Total page turner that I enjoyed more than I should have. It’s not very good, but I don’t have a lot class. If dudes killing dudes with various cool weapons is your idea of light entertainment you will be entertained. If not, not. Recommended for the enthusiast.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
The book about the bomb. This was apparently having a renaissance amongst folks who take the risk of AI seriously. Exhaustive and exhausting, as they say, I found this one engrossing, if occasionally too detailed. As horrific as the outcome was, the Manhattan Project is a stunning achievement of science and management and there’s a lot to learn from it. This one will probably get a fuller review, but for now, Recommended.
The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shapes Silicon Valley, Jimmy Soni
Eh. Whatever. People love this book, but I was underwhelmed. I’m as fascinated as the next guy by Thiel and Musk and while there’s a lot of new gossip in this, I don’t think I learned much that was interesting. Not recommended.
Babel: An Arcane History, R.F.Kuang
Kuang’s big kinda fantasy book about language, colonialism and family. This started out as an absolute banger but lost its way as it reached for an ending. Still an enjoyable read, if not really a necessary one. I still plan to read Yellowface. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, Peter Attia
Honestly the only book you ever have to read about living healthier, longer. Attia is the premier expert in the world on this and while this book probably has more detail than the average reader needs, I found it absolutely fascinating and full of actionable advice. Highly recommended.
The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune, Alexander Stille
Wild ride taking you from the groovy sixties of self discovery through child abuse, sexual misconduct, theft, vandalism and cultist behavior on the Upper West Side. With my interests I cannot believe this is the first I am hearing of this group. Of course, as soon as I read this, folks I know from the area started regaling me with stories of this by turns weird and sad group. Definitely Recommended.
A good if not great cyber thriller that kept me reading even if I figured out where the plot was going about fifty pages in. Fine for what it is, and what it is I like. I’ll probably read more by Pepper at some point. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Parfit: A Philosopher and the Mission to Save Morality, David Edmonds
Now this dude was a weirdo. One of the godfathers of the effective altruism movement (though not an EA himself) many people consider Parfit to be among (if not THE) most important moral philosopher of the modern age. I am not smart enough to read his magnum opus Reasons and Persons but I greatly enjoyed this look into the life and thought of a true weirdo Oxford don. The world needs people like Parfit – brilliant, obsessed, profoundly idiosyncratic. I wouldn’t want to be him, but I’m glad he existed. Recommended.
Suleyman is one of the engineers behind Deep Mind and the AI revolution and frankly I was expecting more from this book. Feels a bit phoned in and meant to (a) capitalize on the current interest in AI and (b) turn Suleyman into a “thought leader”. If you don’t follow developments in AI, this is a fine place to start, but I follow that shit obsessively and this was all old hat to me. Not Recommended.
Fire Weather: A True Story of a Hotter World, John Valliant
Valliant wrote the absolutely brilliant The Tiger, and after that Fire Weather feels like a bit of a let down. That isn’t to say it isn’t good, it is, but it doesn't have the haunting quality of the Tiger, and I think it won’t have the kind of last power that book has. Still, this story of a town grappling with an out of control wild fire in Northern Canada is engrossing and unfortunately a clear harbinger of what is to come, especially in the North West. A good read. Recommended.
If you work in government or the nonprofit sector you should read this book. Ostensibly about modernizing the technical infrastructure of the government it’s really about how to put change into practice in large bureaucratic organizations. I saw so much of my own professional life in these pages and learned so much about how to do things better from the case studies included here. Highly recommended.
Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier, Kevin Kelly
A small book of insights from the wonderful Kevin Kelly. I dig an aphorism, but you may find this trite. To each their own. Recommended for the enthusiast.
American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion and Technology, D.W. Pasulka
Pasulka, a scholar of religion explores the belief in UFOs as a religion, focusing on a small group of “believers” who come from the world of tech and science. Absolutely fascinating. I think of myself as UFO curious and this book mirrors my own view of the phenomenon as interesting, not dismissible, but as wrapped up in myth and belief as any religion. Well worth the read, especially for the fascinating characters Pasulka profiles. Recommended.
Chip War: The Fight For World’s Most Critical Technology, Chris Miller
The definitive book on what is perhaps the most important technology of our age, the microchip, taking us from the earliest history right up to Nvidia’s GPUs. I learned so much from this book and was fascinated by every page. Even if you think you don’t care about microchips, this is worth the read. Recommended.
Going Infinite: Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, Sam Bankman-Fried, Michael Lewis
This book got terrible reviews and I’m not sure why. Folks seem to think Lewis gave SBF a free pass here, but I see it very differently. Lewis is showing a complex, deeply flawed, man in all his contradictions. I have to think anyone who says this book is a hagiography of SBF simply did not read it. That said, if you followed the whole saga closely (and I certainly did) there isn’t much new here. I’m a sucker of a Lewis book, so I still enjoyed it, you may not. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall, Zeke Faux
A fun ride through the wild world of crypto in the last bull market. Faux is clever and irreverent and skewers the various grifters in the space in an entertaining read. This isn’t a very important book, but it sure is fun. Faux witnessing SBF’s final days in the Bahamas was worth the price of admission for me, but I have a far higher interest in this stuff than most people. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Address Unknown, Katherine Kressmann Taylor
Surprised I am just learning about this little novel now. A total gut punch of a book about the lead up to WWII. Very short, more a novella than a novel, and very very good. You can read it in an afternoon and you should. Recommended.
Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
The first two books in the Murder Bot series about a security robot who achieves consciousness, which he uses to watch lots of television. Super fun. Recommended to me by my boy David Hammer whose SF recommendations are always top notch. Recommended for the enthusiast.
A collection of Snyder poems and essays that does a great job of capturing the vibes of the early “back to the land” movement. Unlike many of the beats and hippies who decided they wanted to be farmers Snyder actually grew up outside with an intimate knowledge of the forest and close relationships with native communities. That comes through in a nuanced appreciation for indigenous culture (that only occasionally becomes cringy) and a real understanding of what it means to honor the land. Still, not really a major work and probably not worth your time. Not recommended.
We Are Mermaids, Stephanie Burt
Burt is considered one of America’s major contemporary poets, but this collection left me cold. As I often say when reviewing poetry that doesn’t connect with me, I’m sure the fault is my own. Burt is either too smart for me, or writing for an audience too different from my own for me to understand. For me, this is Not recommended. You may disagree.
God, Human, Animal Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning, Meghan O’Gieblyn
Whoa this one. How do you explain a book that is partially a meditation on what it means to be human, part a reflection on our relationship with technology, and all around circuitous and weird? I adored this book, in its digressions and moving from memoir to reportage to history it reminded me of W.G. Sebald, even though it is nothing like W.G. Sebald. Hard to explain, but I still think about it all the time. Recommended.
Another trashy trash tell all book, though more of substance in how to not run a business than the average one of these books. I understand that Bridgewater is now a very different place, but in the heyday of Dailo it sounds downright awful. I found this engrossing, depending on your tolerance for the internal workings of a hedge fund, you may find it tedious. Recommended for the enthusiast.
Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear, Mosab Abu Toha
It seems I tell this story every year when I do these write ups – a million years ago I was at a talk by Tariq Ali and he said “if you want to understand a people, read their poetry” and I’ve tried to take that to heart and read the poetry especially of people currently at war. Tragically, this has become a growing theme over the last couple of years. This collection by Toha, a Palestinian poet living in Gaza is gut wrenching. Written during a time of relative calm in Gaza is it still full of the deprivation, anger and humiliation that define the lives of so many average Palestinians. Not an easy read, but a powerful one. Recommended.
Adaf is considered a major Israeli poet and this, an ode to his dead sister, his most important work. Perhaps its power was lost on me as I don’t read modern Hebrew, but this one just didn’t click with me. Again, as with Burt, I’m sure the fault is my own. Not recommended.
Unfortunately It Was Paradise: Selected Poems, Mahmoud Darwish
The seminal collection from the writer who many consider Palestine’s national poet. I read this for the first time many years ago, and re-reading it now I’m struck by the variety of Darwish’s gifts — not ever poem here is a political poem – many are strictly beautiful and not tied to a particular place, others speak directly and heartrendingly about what it is like to be Palestinian. If you’re going to read one book by a Palestinian poet it should be Darwish, but you should also consider reading more. Recommended.
A fun and educational tour through the world of the “rationalist” , a group of nerds who play an enormously outsized role in the development of our online culture. We’re talking here the folks who cluster around Less Wrong and Astral Codex Ten, people like Elizer Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander who write thousands and thousands of words online, fret about AI, and are super into polyamory. It would be easy to make fun of these people, but Chivers takes them seriously, and I am very glad he did. I follow this world pretty closely, so I’m not sure how much I learned directly from this book, but I still found it fascinating throughout. This one and the world of the rationalist will get a longer write up on here in the future, but for now, this is Recommended.
Berg, through no choice of his own, grew up in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and served in the IDF and comes to his poetry with all bucketfuls of confusion, anger, love, and contradiction. I adored this collection and I wish more of his writing was available in English. If you really want to wrestle what it means to a young Israeli to be Israeli, this is a very good place to start. Recommended.
Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein
Tyler Cowen described this book as being about a person with crazy politics who wrestles with getting confused with a person with even crazier politics and, yeah, that checks out. This made a lot of best of lists this year and I’m not 100% sure why. Klein wrestling with her “relationship” with Naomi Wolff is interesting, as is her chronicling of Wolff’s descent into true wing nut territory, but there are far better, more important books that came out this year. That said, Klein makes a weird left turn into Israel / Palestine in the final section of the book which is interesting and thoughtful and feels weirdly prescient. For that alone I’d say Recommended for the enthusiast.
People often say later Morrison is difficult and as I’ve been reading my way through her work I’ve pushed back on that – I thought Jazz was fun – but Paradise is truly tough sledding, at least for me. Gorgeous writing on a paragraph by paragraph level but I often had a hard time understanding where we were going. It seems absurd for me, an idiot, to criticize one of the greatest ever American novelists, but I just didn’t get as much out of this as I have of her other works. Still, it’s Morrison, it’s worth your time. Recommended for the enthusiast.
People who think we’re in a bad spot right now would do well to remember that in the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan essentially controlled the state of Indiana and many other municipalities across the Midwest. This is the story of the rise of the Klan, especially its horrific awful leader in Indiana, and how his rape and killing of a woman ended up bringing him and the Klan down. The kind of narrative nonfiction I always “enjoy” even if, as here, the subject matter is very difficult. Recommended.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick
Been a long long time since I read any PKD, but I’m on an AI and fiction kick, and that of course led me to this seminal book. For some reason I never read this in my twenties when I read so much PKD, but the book is stranger and more interesting than I would have imagined. You can forget that he was an odd writer before the whole Valis then, but then you read a book about a bounty hunter who tracks androids (or does he?) so he can buy a goat and you’re like “this PKD dude was full on bizarre”. Great fun from start to finish. Recommended.
The Word for World is Forest, Ursula Le Guin
Not your average Ursula Le Guin book. Clearly a metaphor for climate change and the Vietnam war, this one is more pedantic than Left Hand of Darkness or the Dispossessed, but even with the sometimes heavy handed nature of the plot, I couldn’t put it down. She’s just an absolutely excellent writer, even when she’s clearly brimming with anger beneath the surface. A good, if not great book, by one of the greatest writers of science fiction. Recommended for the enthusiast.
You may want to look into On Savage Shores by Caroline Dodds Pennock, which looks at the history of indigenous Americans who were brought to Europe after 1492. Very interesting story about which little is noted in conventional Eurocentric books. Could be right up your alley.