Stephany Writes

Categories: Best Of

Best of 2024 | End-of-Year Survey

1) What did you do in 2024 that you’ve never done before? 

  • Went snow tubing
  • Got my nose pierced
  • Went strawberry picking
  • Started seeing a chiropractor and getting spinal adjustments
  • Stayed over at a blogger’s house!! (Thanks, Kim!)
  • Experienced hurricane loss – my car got totaled due to flooding

2) Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, my former boss/good friend gave birth to a baby girl in February and my cousin gave birth to a baby boy in September.

3) Did anyone close to you die?

No.

4) What places did you visit?

New Orleans, Chicago, and the Bahamas.

5) What would you like to have in 2025 that you didn’t have in 2024?

A stricter budget, an earlier bedtime, and more dates

6) What dates from 2024 will be etched in your memory forever?

September 26 – the night I watched my parking lot fill up with water and my car get flooded

November 6 – the day I woke up and immediately learned that Trump was going to win the election. What an awful, terrible day.

7) What was your biggest achievement this year?

Advocating for myself. I had to advocate for myself multiple times this year. For example, I had to get my doctor to approve a sleep study to find out if I have sleep apnea (and it turns out I do). I also had to advocate for myself with my dermatologist to be super clear that my scalp psoriasis was affecting my quality of life and we needed to take drastic measures (so I started steroid shots).

8) What was your biggest challenge?

My physical health was quite the challenge this year. Between feeling tired all the time and then finding out I have severe obstructive sleep apnea, needing chiropractic adjustments for my sciatica, dealing with really terrible flares with my scalp psoriasis condition, and having two massive cysts in my underarm that erupted and needed medical attention… well, my physical health took a beating.

9) Did you suffer from illness or injury?

I never got ill this year, so that’s a positive! I did deal with some injuries, like sciatica and inflamed abscesses.

10) What was the best thing you bought?

Ruby! She’s a beautiful 2025 Kia Soul, and I love her with my whole heart. Getting a brand-new car was not on my 2024 bingo card, but Hurricane Helene had other plans for me.

11) Where did most of your money go?

The majority of it went to bills and food.

12) What did you get really, really excited about?

Honestly, I’m not sure if there was anything I got super excited about this year. It was not exactly the best year for me for a variety of reasons, but I know I had a lot of anticipation for my cruise in December and for the holiday season.

13) What authors did you discover in 2024?

Some new-to-me authors I discovered in 2024 include Ashley Poston, Jessica Joyce, Rufi Thorpe, Jesse Q. Sutanto, Ally Carter, and Alison Espach. And I read the debuts of the following authors this year: Andrew Boryga (Victim – ★★★★☆), Shelley Read (Go as a River – ★★★★★), Freida McFadden (The Housemaid – ★★★★☆), and Ali Hazelwood (The Love Hypothesis – ★★★★☆).

14) What do you wish you had done more of? 

More dates, more therapy, more reaching out to friends

15) What do you wish you had done less of?

Less spending money, less worrying, less laziness

16) How did you spend Christmas?

Oh, it was such a good day! I slept in until 8:30, had a bowl of cereal, and then snuggled under the couch with a Christmas blanket to drink my coffee and read my book. After that, I made mashed potatoes for our family dinner (watching episodes of The Circle while doing so). Then, I got ready quickly, transferred all of my presents down to my car, and headed to my mom’s house. We had a lovely time opening presents (you guys, my mom and brother chipped in together to get me an iPad! I was astonished!) and then eating dinner and dessert. We also watched the Chiefs game and I was pleasantly surprised that Netflix was able to pull off such a massive live stream! (Good job, guys.) I got home around 5, gave the girls their presents, and then lounged on the couch for most of the night.

17) What was your favorite TV program?

The Circle was a really fun discovery this year – I’m quickly working my way through their seasons (I’m on season 5!). I also discovered Suits this year, although I haven’t done a great job of bingeing the series. (Fun fact: After watching the first episode, I told my mom about the show. She watched the ENTIRE SERIES before I had finished season 1. Ha!)

18) What did you want and get?

I wanted to sleep better and got that, thanks to my CPAP machine. I had no idea how exhausted I really was until I started experiencing good sleep with my machine.

I wanted to make some strides in my fitness habits, and I definitely improved in that area! I joined a gym, started attending HIIT classes, and now have a four-day-a-week exercise routine.

19) What did you want and not get?

I wanted to go for more walks outside and I definitely struggled with that (but hey, this is mostly because I’m now getting my exercise in a gym setting so…)

I wanted to play with the cats more and that was a struggle. WHY?!

I wanted to save more money and, aha, nope.

20) What was your favorite film of 2024?

I’ve been dreading this question. I only saw three movies in 2024: The Idea of You, We Live in Time, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. How sad! If I had to choose a favorite movie from that list, I’d choose We Live in Time, mostly because Florence Pugh is EVERYTHING.

21) What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 37 this year and my birthday fell on Thanksgiving. It was actually kind of a letdown to have my birthday on Thanksgiving. At the risk of sounding incredibly selfish, I felt like the holiday overshadowed my birthday. I mean, it is what it is. A Thanksgiving birthday is just a lot more fun when you’re a kid, I think.

22) What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

I wish I could have moved into a two-bedroom apartment. While I don’t regret staying in my one-bedroom apartment for another year (especially because my rent is $500 cheaper), it would be nice to have a bigger space and an extra bedroom to use as a home office.

23) Who kept you sane?

My mom. She’s my rock, my anchor, my safe place.

24) What are five things you are grateful for this year?

  • My cats – These girls are my everything. I love when Eloise makes me scooch over in my office chair so she can sit right next to me and when Lila jumps on the bed in the morning and pokes me with her paw for pets. I had a health scare with Eloise this year, but it turned out to be nothing, and I am so grateful for that.
  • My home – I love my apartment and I love that I can live independently and alone. Living alone is one of my favorite things and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
  • My friends – We have unlocked deeper levels of our friendship dynamics this year. It’s been a hard year for a lot of us but we’ve made it through with each other’s support. Whether that’s supportive texts or spontaneous dinners or helpful advice, we’ve lifted each other up in our times of need.
  • My new therapist – I’ve only had three appointments with my therapist but she’s already changing my life. It feels like such serendipity that we found each other!
  • My mom and my brother – My ride or dies. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. I am so grateful for our relationship, our closeness, and our inside jokes.

25) Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024.

You are your best advocate. If something doesn’t feel right, if the treatment regimen isn’t working, say something. You deserve to feel good and to live your best life. I have a really hard time speaking up even when I’m in a doctor’s office because I don’t want to be a burden. And I’m always worried I’m not going to be heard. I had to fight to get a sleep study and had to be very clear with my dermatologist that I needed drastic measures for my scalp psoriasis. And it’s not as if my doctors weren’t amenable to these treatments, but I did have to use my voice to make sure they happened. And I am so very glad I did.

26) What would you rate your level of happiness on a scale of 1-10 this year?

I think I’d give it a 6. This year was a weird one. Nothing exceptional happened, but also nothing terrible happened. It was just one of those years where things were just okay. My mental health was up and down and, like I’ve mentioned, I dealt with quite a few physical health issues that put a damper on my year.

27) If you could change one thing that happened this year, what would it be?

Oh, I really wish the storm surge from Hurricane Helene hadn’t flooded my car and destroyed the homes of two of my friends. That would have been really cool.

28) How have you changed over this past year?

Well, for one thing, I’m getting much better sleep now than I was at the beginning of this year and for many years prior! Being on a CPAP machine has been life-changing. Before being on CPAP therapy, I was having 40+ apneas an hour (a period of time where I stop breathing for 10 seconds or more), my blood oxygen levels were 90-91% on average (some nights, they even dropped below 90%, which is terrifying), and I was getting less than 10 minutes of deep sleep every night. I was also waking up almost every morning with a headache, needed a nap to get through every day, and experienced a lot of brain fog. I’ve now been using my CPAP machine for four months and my blood oxygen levels are now normal, I’m sometimes getting upwards of an entire hour of deep sleep (the ideal range being 1.5-2 hours), and I feel a whole lot more energized and alert. It’s been an amazing change to my physical health.

29) How did this year surprise you? 

It’s been a constant refrain in this post, but all of the physical ailments I dealt with this year were a surprise. I did not expect to be diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and I did not expect to need steroid shots in my scalp to calm down my psoriasis. I did not expect to need so many trips to the dermatologist.

And I really did not expect to deal with the aftermath of hurricanes. My city is still reeling from the damage. My friends are still living in temporary housing (this is month three for them and will probably be another few months before they can move back home). Our beloved Tropicana Field is still without a roof. It was just in the past week or so that all of the debris that was piling up on people’s lawns got picked up by the city. It will be a long rebuilding process for our city.

30) Show us one of your favorite photos from the year.

This was such a fun night! I love this picture of the six of us with our flower bouquets, and I love the beautiful representation of our friendship that I feel from this picture. This was a night filled with love and laughter and so many compliments. I’m so grateful for these ladies and how we have gotten through 2024 together.

What was your biggest achievement and challenge in 2024?

Categories: Best Of

Book Club 2024

Last year, I decided to do something crazy and recap the entire year’s worth of book club experiences. I have been attending this book club for most of my adult life and we are so much more than friends who meet once a month to talk about a book we read. We are a core group of friends. We have been there for each other through some of the hardest times and some of the best times. To be honest, this year was a hard one for most of us. Just about everyone had something major happen in their lives, and because of that, we tried to make book club a fun, enjoyable place for everyone to come and be lifted up. We read a lot more romance than we normally do and opted for light-hearted reads over heavy ones.

Here’s how our book club works: We have six members (we added a seventh member in September, which means we’ll be switching things up in 2025!) so each member gets two months. When it’s your month, you come prepared with three book selections that we’ll vote on and then an experience. My first month was March so when we had February book club, I had my book selections ready. During February book club, I also announced the experience I had chosen so we could schedule the date.

That’s enough preamble! Here’s book club 2024!

January

  • Book selection: This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens
  • Overall book club rating: 3.6
  • Experience: Pasta bar and PowerPoint night

This was the perfect way to kick off 2024! We all gathered at Bri’s where we brought items for a delicious pasta bar and then snuggled on the couch together for PowerPoint presentations. We laughed hysterically through almost everyone’s presentation, and it was a very good time. My presentation was on the reality TV futures of each member, which was a delight to think about.

As for the book, it wasn’t one of my favorites. I wanted it to be steamier and more of a traditional romance, so it didn’t give me exactly what I was looking for. Other book club members really enjoyed it for what it was: a sweet contemporary fiction novel. Sometimes that’s what we need!

February

  • Book selection: The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
  • Overall book club rating: 4.4
  • Experience: Murder mystery night

In February, we all gathered at Lynn’s house for a murder mystery party! During January book club, Lynn handed us printouts that explained who our characters were and how they related to the murder mystery party. We were also given instructions to dress as our characters (if possible). My character was Mary Wollstonecraft and originally, I thought I had found the perfect dress at ThredUp but then the dress got sold out from under me. Wah! So I just wore a dress with a cardigan and called it a day. We didn’t love the setup of this murder mystery as much as the one we did last year. That one had an actual script we could follow while this one was a lot more of a free-flowing conversation. We figured out the “whodunit” but it was very confusing to get there. Live and learn!

As far as the book discussion went, I was the lone dissenting opinion. I gave it 3.5 stars and everyone else gave it 4 or 5 stars. I think the narration really affected my rating. It just wasn’t very good and I should have read it in print. Everyone else really loved the clever plot and writing style.

March

  • Book selection: The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline
  • Overall book club rating: 4.25
  • Experience: Making candles

March book club was such a great one! For the experience, I chose candle making at a lovely place called The Candle Pour. I’ve now made four candles from this shop and each time, I try a little something new. For this candle, I opted for something coffee-scented. We had a great time making candles and afterward, we had lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant and then walked around a pop-up market. We all ended up buying something from this market (I bought a print of a cat in a cowboy hat that says “Meowdy!”) so we all went home with handmade candles and something special from local vendors.

The book was on the heavier side for what we’ve been reading lately, but everyone really liked it! It taught us a lot about Australia’s history and how difficult it must have been to be a woman without any resources. (The novel is about three women who are found guilty of various offenses and sentenced to live in Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia.) I remember having a really good discussion about this book and the way it impacted us.

April

  • Book selection: The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley
  • Overall book club rating: 3.3
  • Experience: Dinner and an ice cream social

This was a really fun Friday night book club! First, we all met up at a local Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed some seriously delicious food. Then, we drove over to a really cute ice cream shop to have an ice cream social! We even had a reserved table and everything. The ice cream was outstanding and the conversation was even better.

Our book club pick for the month came with mixed reviews. I wasn’t a huge fan of it (I gave it 2.5 stars) and neither was another friend in book club, but everyone else gave it 4 stars. I just didn’t enjoy the writing or the convoluted plot. It also had an unsatisfying ending, in my opinion. But others really enjoyed it and thought it was a cute, fun story! So, YMMV.

May

  • Book selection: Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaefer
  • Overall book club rating: 3.9
  • Experience: Flower arrangements

Oh, this was one of my favorite experiences of the year! We got together at Bri’s house to do a flower arrangement night. I believe we ordered pizza to keep things easy and after dinner, we got to work. Beforehand, one of my friends had gone to a flower wholesaler to get a whole bunch of different flowers and plants so we could all make something different. We brought our own vases to put our arrangements in, which made things even more unique! What I remember most about this night is how complimentary we were of everyone’s creations. We were just gushing about how everyone’s flowers turned out, and it was such a sweet, supportive environment. And that’s what I love most about these women.

The book that was chosen was one I had read years ago (2019) and I remember it fondly. It is such a great representation of the kinds of female friendships I want in my life—and the kind I have now! Everyone else really liked the book, too. Honestly, I can’t remember much about the discussion of the book. I think we all just really enjoyed the book and felt very seen by the author’s perspective.

June

We didn’t take a book club picture in June!

  • Book selection: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
  • Overall book club rating: 2.9
  • Experience: Breakfast for dinner

In June, we went to a diner that’s fully run by people in the queer community to have breakfast for dinner! The food there was phenomenal and I am itching to go back.

Our book club discussion was probably the most involved one we had for the entire year. While the book itself didn’t meet our expectations (aside from one member who gave it 4 stars), I do think it led to an in-depth conversation about the trans community, motherhood, and what we owe to the people in our lives. For the most part, our group does not have personal history with the trans community so there is a lot we don’t know. Still, I do think we were able to have a respectful but fully honest conversation about our misconceptions and what we learned from reading this novel.

July

  • Book selection: Go As a River by Shelley Read
  • Overall book club rating: 4.1
  • Experience: Mexican food and making picture frames

I loved this book club experience and was so impressed by Lynn who suggested it. What a unique, cool idea! We all met at Lynn’s house and then traveled together to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. I’m pretty sure we all ordered margaritas and ate our weight in chips and salsa. Afterward, we reconvened at Lynn’s to make picture frames. We had all sent her the picture we wanted to frame and she had picked up the frames + printed out the pictures for us. We all pitched in to bring craft supplies. I brought a few books and had to reassure my friends a few times that yes, it’s okay to rip out the pages and cut them up for the frames! The majority of us ended up doing book pages, ha, but we all had a different spin on it! This was such a fun, relaxing night and I loved every minute of it.

The book was one I had read the month prior and given 5 stars. I just loved this book, even though it was pretty heavy and sad. We talked about some of the more visceral scenes in the book and about the perseverance of women. I don’t remember everything about our discussion (I really should do a recap in my Notes app for this end-of-year post, eeps) but I do feel like we had a pretty heartfelt conversation about the book.

August

  • Book selection: The Art of Scandal by Regina Black
  • Overall book club rating: 3.0
  • Experience: Pajama party, nacho bar, and game night

In August, we had the best pajama party! We gathered at Amber’s condo for the night where we enjoyed a nacho bar and sangria. This sangria became a cult favorite for our book club. It has a high alcohol content so we were all feeling it after just one bottle! (The brand is Capriccio, if you’d like to fall in love the way we have.) After dinner, we played the game I brought, Over-Rated, which is in the style of What Do You Meme or Cards Against Humanity. This game brought us so many laughs and inside jokes, and we truly had the best time.

The book wasn’t a hit for our book club, unfortunately. I enjoyed it but everyone else rated it 2 or 3 stars and some didn’t even feel like reading it. The book has a big political throughline, which turned a lot of people off. I really liked the political element, but that’s because politics fascinates me. For others, they wanted less of that and more of the romance. Fair enough!

September

No photo taken

  • Book selection: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
  • Overall book club rating: 4.6
  • Experience: Hunt a Killer

September’s book club was a bit strange. We held it in between hurricanes (what a wild thing to say) and one friend couldn’t make it because, well, she was going through the worst thing: a completely destroyed home. We were also hoping that this would be the first book club meeting for another member who had recently moved back to Florida after a decade living out of state, but her home had also been destroyed (way to welcome someone to our state, Mother Nature). And since my car had been totaled during Hurricane Helene and I was currently without a car, a friend picked me up and drove me home.

The five of us who were able to attend enjoyed an evening at Bri’s house. We ordered pizza and then gathered in her living room to play Hunt a Killer. We were exceptionally bad at the game this time around, ha. I think we placed four guesses until we got the right one. I was very adamant who I thought the killer was and forced us to make the first guess, and I was very much wrong, so I kept my mouth shut for any further guesses. I’m not cut out to be a detective, I don’t think! Anyway, Hunt a Killer is such a fun game and I hope this is something we can do on an annual basis!

Our book selection for September was a hit for everyone in our book club – everyone gave it 4 or 5 stars! We all fell head over heels for Vera Wong and would like to make her an honorary member of our book club. We also really enjoyed the mystery as a whole and talked about what parts of the plot we guessed before they were revealed.

October/November

No photo taken

  • Book selection: The Roommate by Rosie Danan
  • Overall book club rating: 3.75
  • Experience: Naughty Cocktail Party

Okay, buckle up. This book club experience might throw you for a loop. We combined October and November’s book clubs into one (due to hurricane craziness and also knowing that November is always a hard month to schedule book club due to the holidays/schedules/etc), and we did a sex toy party! One of my friends had done one of these parties with another friend group earlier in the year and brought it up as a possibility for a future book club experience. And you know what? We were on board! This was a crazy night. There was a lot of wine and sangria consumed, a ton of laughter, and some really open conversations about sex and sex toys and pleasure. And yes, there were lots of toys bought that night.

This was one of my favorite book clubs of the year, and not just because of the sex toys. But one of the things that has happened this year in book club is becoming way more open and honest about our sex lives. We talked about sex in long-term partnerships, sex with new partners, self-pleasure, and all of that fun stuff. It has allowed us to unlock an even deeper level to our friendship. As someone who grew up in purity culture and was told sex is only permissible inside of marriage (heterosexual marriage, of course!), I have had to really come to terms with my own feelings around sex and self-pleasure and how to talk about it without those feelings of guilt and shame. And I think I’m getting there!

The book we chose this month was a steamy romance but it didn’t land with everyone. One member thought it was too steamy so she stopped reading it. Other members wanted it to be even more steamy. As for me, I thought it was one of the steamiest romances I’ve read in a while! I really liked it, though.

December

  • Book selection: One Day in December by Josie Silver
  • Overall book club rating: 2.7
  • Experience: Christmas party

Our annual Christmas party took place this past weekend! We always do this as our December book club experience and while we try to have a book on tap to read, it’s not a focus of the event. (This year, three of us had read the book but two of those three read it years ago, lol.) We all showed up to Bri’s house dressed in our Christmas pajamas, had a delicious potluck, made really terrible gingerbread houses, and played some fun games on Jackbox. We also did our second annual Favorite Things gift exchange. This year, I gifted everyone a One Line a Day journal. I’m finishing up my third year of using one of these journals and I love it so, so much. It’s so much fun to see exactly what I was doing/thinking/feeling at this time during previous years! Everyone was really excited about my gift, which made my heart grow ten sizes!

Here’s some of the other Favorite Things from my friends:

  • A 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle
  • A flower vase with a bookish theme
  • A bottle of Capriccio sangria, cozy socks, Lanolips lip balm, and chocolates
  • A $10 Starbucks gift card
  • A bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes
  • A bottle of the best-smelling handsoap, an Alani energy drink, and a cucumber chip clip (<– there’s an inside joke to this)

And that’s book club 2024! I can’t believe I’ve written 2,500 words about all of our book club experiences for the year. Whew. I did this last year, and it’s quite the undertaking, but oh my goodness is it a delight to go back and remember everything we did over the year. We had some really great times!

To finish off this post, here are some of the book club stats for the year:

  • Genre breakdown: romance (4), contemporary fiction (3), historical fiction (2), nonfiction (1), mystery (1)
  • Overall rating: 3.7
  • My format breakdown: print books (6), audiobooks (4), e-books (1)
  • Highest-rated book of the year: Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (4.6)
  • Lowest-rated book of the year: One Day in December by Josie Silver (2.7)

Do you belong to a book club? 

Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2023 | Reading Stats

Hi, friends! I’m finally finishing up my “Best of 2023” series… in mid-January. This is the latest I’ve ever been writing these posts, so I hope you will indulge me in one more look back on my reading year with my reading stats post. As a reminder, I keep a very detailed spreadsheet (which I’m happy to send to anyone who wants it!), which helps me put this post together. The spreadsheet lists out the book title, author, page count, my rating, when I started and finished a book, and other details like if it’s a debut, if it’s diverse, where I sourced the book from, etc.

Now, let’s dive into what my 2023 reading year looked like!

Nitty-Gritty Details

  • Number of books read: 117 (-7 from 2022)
  • Number of pages read: 40,435 (-2,364 from 2022)
  • Money spent on books I read this year: $374.81 (-$50.18). This amounts to $3.20 per book.
  • Percentage of books by and about BIPOC and the LGBTQIA+ community: 30, or 26% (-12% from 2022—ugh)
  • Number of books abandoned: 14 (-1 from 2022)

Format Breakdown

This was so interesting to me because while my print reading didn’t change too much from 2022 to 2023 (+2.3%), my audiobook reading came in second place for the first time ever! It bumped up from 22.6% to 30.8%! And my e-book reading went down over 10% from 2022. Crazy!

Genre Breakdown

Genre Percentage Average Rating
Romance 32% 3.6
General Fiction 22% 4.0
Thriller 15% 4.1
Nonfiction 15% 4.0
Historical Fiction 9% 3.8
YA 4% 3.6
Fantasy 1% 3.0

Romance was once again my highest-read category—but down 1% from 2022 and my average rating was down .2 from 2022! A 3.6 rating is not great for me. General fiction was way up (9%!) although the average rating came down (from 4.7 in 2022, which is an astonishingly high rating). Thrillers were up 4% and the rating came down .1 from 2022—not too bad, there. Nonfiction came down 3% and the rating also came down by .2. Historical fiction went up by 1% but the better news is that I picked much better historical fiction novels in 2023—my rating was up .8 from 2022! Another surprising stat was YA. My percentage came down 12% (!) and my rating also came down by .5. It was not the year of YA for me, it seems. And finally, I only read one fantasy book this year, which I gave 3 stars.

Source Breakdown

Even though I love buying books, I’m pleased to see that I’m still getting over half of my reads from the library. (I get almost all of my audiobooks from the library and most of the romances I read.) My second most popular source was Amazon, but that percentage was down 5% from 2022. Book of the Month (BOTM) and indie bookstores were both up 2%, which was good to see. Target was down by .6%. And some of the smaller categories include Barnes & Noble, gifted books, Thriftbooks, and Spotify.

Month Breakdown

Pretty stable throughout the year! The most books I read in a month was 11 (January, July, August, and November) and the least was 8 (September, October). I’m guessing football is the reason my reading went down so much in September/October. I try to read while I’m watching the games, but I’m not always successful so that removes a whole day from my reading schedule.

Ratings Breakdown

 

I read a lot of 4- and 5-star books this year—almost 72% of the books I read! And that’s up 3% from 2022! However, my 5-star ratings decreased by 7.3% while my 4-star ratings increased by 10.4% (!!). My 3-star ratings decreased by 6.1% while my 2-star ratings increased by 3%. So maybe I felt more comfortable rating books 2 stars rather than giving them 3 stars? And maybe I also had a hard time giving a book that 5-star designation so I opted for 4 stars. This year, I want to track the half-stars I give a book so we’ll see how that shakes things out in 2024.

Days to Read

I don’t read fast these days and that’s because I’m usually reading multiple books at one time, and I’m very slow with my audiobook reading. (They have to compete with podcasts so I generally only listen to 1-2 hours of my audiobook per day.) This chart is about on par with what I did in 2022.

New Release vs. Backlist

I’m about 50/50 on my new release vs backlist books! I used to read a lot more backlist, but things keep trending toward more new release books every year. In 2023, my new release reading went up by 4.2%. Between 2022 and 2023, my new release reading went up by 10%!

Odds and Ends

  • Oldest book (by pub date): A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (1947)
  • Newest book (by pub date): The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (October 24, 2023)
  • Author I read the most: Julia Quinn (3)
  • Book I spent the most money on: Happy Place by Emily Henry and The 1619 Project ($23)
  • Time spent listening to audiobooks: 345 hours, 41 minutes (which is 55 hours, 31 minutes more than last year!)
  • Longest book: America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray (606 pages)
  • Shortest book: Have I Told You This Already? by Lauren Graham (183 pages)
  • Book that took me the longest to read: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (65 days)
Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2023 | My Favorite Reads

Ah, it’s finally time for my favorite “Best of” posts—the reading recaps! Today, I’m revealing some of my favorite reads of 2023. I break this post into three sections: My overall favorites (which includes my #1 book of the year!), my favorites by genre, and some superlatives (I got most of these categories from Sarah’s Book Shelves yearly superlatives episode). I want to note that these books are the ones I read in 2023—they were not necessarily published in 2023. This is a long post, so let’s dive in!

Overall Favorites

Favorite Overall Book

We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres-Sanchez – When I think about my favorite overall book of the year, I think about the book that impacted me the most. What’s the book I can’t stop thinking about? What’s the book I want everyone to read? In 2023, We Are Not From Here is that book. This is a hard, heavy book about three Guatemalan kids who make the arduous journey to the U.S. border, and it is a book that taught me so much. It taught me about the light and darkness that is in people, what our immigrants go through to get to the border, and how we as a country need to do so much better for them. It’s not an easy book, but it will be impactful.

Favorite Fiction

Falling by T.J. Newman – This book came so very close to being my favorite of the year. It was such a unique, fast-moving story that was so hard to put down! This is not a book for anyone who gets nervous about flying because it’s about a pilot who starts a flight and then finds out his family has been taken hostage. To save his family, he must crash the plane. I loved this book and I cannot believe it is Newman’s debut and that she wrote while she was working as a flight attendant! I could never. I loved Newman’s follow-up, Drowning, almost as much as this one. I haven’t flown since reading these books, so we’ll see how I feel about them the next time I have to step foot on an airplane.

Favorite Nonfiction

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson – What a sensational memoir this was! I read this in early February and I’m still thinking about this book and the way George told their stories. It’s maddening at times because I just felt so sad for George and what they went through to come to terms with their queerness and coming out. I listened to this book on audio, which George narrates, and I highly recommend taking in this story that way. It made their words so much more impactful.

Favorite Romance

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld – This was such a fun romance, and I love the way it was structured. It’s about a comedy writer (Sally) working on an SNL-style show and the celebrity (Noah) who was hosting for a particular week. The first act follows the two of them as they prepare for the show, and there’s definitely some flirtiness happening. The second act happens during 2020 and Covid times; Sally is now living at home since the show is on hiatus and Noah is quarantining in Los Angeles. They exchange lots of emails during this time. And then the third act is Sally deciding to drive to see Noah, and the culmination of their romance. I thought it was an inventive way to not only tell a romance, but also a Covid-era romance. I loved it!

Favorites by Genre

Favorite Contemporary Fiction

The People We Keep by Allison Larkin – This is one of the final books I read in 2023, and I am so glad it made this list! This is a book about a girl who is just trying to survive and the people she meets along the way. I found the main character to be such an easy person to root for. I just wanted all of the best things for her. The ending made me cry happy tears, which rarely happens for me!

Runner-up: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

Favorite Historical Fiction

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon – The historical fiction genre is littered with WWII novels, but I always love getting a new view of this time period from my reading. This book is a fictionalized retelling of Nancy Wake, a real-life spy during the war. The novel was fascinating and heartbreaking, and I learned a whole lot.

Runner-up: The Henna Artist by Alki Joshi

Favorite Contemporary Romance

Codename Charming by Lucy Parker – I have never been disappointed by a Lucy Parker novel and this one was no exception. It follows two employees of the royal family—a personal assistant to the princess’s husband and the head of security—and the fake relationship they have to fool the press. It’s sweet and funny and, dare I say, charming.

Runner-up: Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly

Favorite Historical Romance

A Caribbean Heiress in Paris by Adriana Herrera – I didn’t read any GREAT historical romances this year, but I’m choosing this book as my favorite historical romance because I appreciated what the author tried to do with the representation elements and discussing colonialism and slavery within the novel.

Runner-up: Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian

Favorite YA

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo – It’s hard to put into words how much this book meant to me. It’s about a 17-year-old girl growing up in 1950s and discovering her queer identity… and the girl she falls in love with. It’s a sweet story, but also heartbreaking. I just loved it.

Runner-up: The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow

Favorite Mystery/Thriller

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister – This book was on my list to make my “Overall Favorite” of the year because it was just so good. Inventive and clever with a really excellent ending. It’s a time travel book, except a woman is traveling back in time to solve the mystery of why her son murdered a man right in front of their home.

Runner-up: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

Favorite Memoir/Essay Collection

Finding Me by Viola Davis – This memoir was exquisite. Viola Davis had a really tough life growing up and she doesn’t shy away from talking about how hard it was. It was a difficult book to read, but a beautiful one as well. This one is a must on audio, too!

Runner-Up: The World Record Book of Racist Stories by Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar

Superlatives

The Most Disappointing DNF

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley – I loved Rowley’s previous novel The Guncle, and I had hoped his newest release would have the same magic as that book. But this one just didn’t. I tried this on audio and gave up after a few hours. I just didn’t love any of the characters and the story felt convoluted. And with its low Goodreads rating (3.67 compared to 4.15 for The Guncle), I think I made the right choice to abandon it.

The Most Disappointing Book I Read

Have I Told You This Already? Stories I Don’t Want to Forget by Lauren Graham – The reason this book was the most disappointing one I’ve read is because… it started to make me dislike Lauren Graham. Lorelei Gilmore! How can I dislike Lorelei Gilmore?! Alas, it just wasn’t a great set of essays. I think she wrote this book too soon after her breakup with Peter Krause because her signature humor just wasn’t there. I found the collection to be a bit tepid, honestly.

The Book I Was Surprised to Love

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb – Typically, I am not someone who is interested in books about classic music nor am I normally drawn to slow-burn mysteries. But I decided to give this book a shot, since so many of my trusted recommendation sources loved it. And I loved it, too! It was such a compelling story and somehow, Brendan Slocumb made me care deeply about his main character and his precious violin. I found myself on the edge of my seat until the end, and I found the ending to be particularly poignant and lovely.

The Book I Thought I Would Love More Than I Did

Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker – I had such high hopes for this novel. It sounded so interesting: an oral history of the disappearance of a teenage girl and the TV docu-series that followed along. But it just didn’t work for me. It was hard to be invested in the mystery when everything was revealed early on, and some of the commentary on the true crime genre felt heavy-handed.

Most Deserving of the Hype

The Measure by Nikki Erlick – This novel came out in 2022 and I heard a lot of buzz about it, but it sat on my TBR list for a while. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read a novel that had such a heavy premise. (One day, everyone finds a box on their doorstep. Inside the box is a string that indicates how long—or short—your life will be.) But this book was so, so good! I loved it and highly recommend it.

Least Deserving of the Hype

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak – Gah. This book was awful. It was filled with fatphobia, which is just uncalled for in 2022 (when this book was published). And the ending was so over-the-top and fat-fetched; it didn’t work for me. It somehow won a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror in 2022 and has a 4.14 rating, which I just do not understand.

The Book I Loved That Other People Hated

If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook – This book has a 3.5-star rating on Goodreads, which is very low for Goodreads. But I really liked this novel! It’s one of those large family stories where everyone converges for an event, and we learn about the inner lives and secrets and lies of different members of the family. I thought it was a well-written, well-paced, and well-plotted book.

The Book I Hated That Other People Loved

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes – This book has a 4.3 rating on Goodreads but it’s not one that worked well for me. The writing was clunky and the book was poorly structured and way too long. I appreciated the representation elements of this book, but the rest of it didn’t work for me.

The Underrated Gem of the Year

Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer – With less than 4,000 ratings on Goodreads, this book qualifies as my underrated gem of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed this book (and so did everyone in my book club!) and thought it was such an interesting love story.

Favorite Reading Experience of the Year

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – This year, the wonderful Engie hosted our first-ever Cool Bloggers Book Club when we read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. For many of us, this was a reread and it was so much fun to read this book alongside so many other bloggers. I love this book and I loved our discussions.

What were some of your favorite books of 2023? Or, pick a superlatives category and answer it!

Categories: Best Of

Best of 2023 | A Month-by-Month Recap

JANUARY

  • I went to my first meeting of Silent Book Club Tampa with my friend Amber and it was such a wonderful experience! It was so nice to be surrounded by bookish people and to have a solid hour of quiet time to read my book.
  • I had a doctor’s appointment from hell. I wanted to get my meds adjusted because my anxiety was feeling overwhelming but instead, the doctor I saw wanted to talk to me about my weight (and even said he recommended Ozempic for weight loss!!!). After that appointment, I immediately scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist and it was the best decision. My psychiatrist is kind and warm and helpful. She increased my Lexapro dose (from 20 mgs to 30 mgs), which provided a vast improvement.
  • Playoff January – I love January because I get a ton of family time thanks to all of the playoff games. We try to watch them all, which is a lot during the first two weeks, as there are multiple games on Saturdays and Sundays. The Dolphins were in the playoffs but lost in the first round, which is par for the course.
  • We published season 3 of our podcast, which was all about relationships.

FEBRUARY

  • My mom, my brother, and I went to see Jim Gaffigan live. It was the best night!
  • My nephew’s favorite team, the Chiefs, won the Super Bowl so he was very happy!
  • Bri and I had our 8th annual Galentine’s Day date at The Library where we dressed up, had fancy drinks, and great food.
  • I went on my first date with the woman I would end up dating for five months. We had coffee at this cute place, but I did not realize they did not have inside seating so we sat outside and froze a little, as it was a colder day than we expected. Brr!

March

  • My friend Amber and I took a knife skills class at Sur La Table, which was a lot of fun! (And made me really want to buy an expensive knife to make chopping much easier!)
  • Chip turned 5 and Lucy turned 2, and I took them both on PetSmart shopping sprees for their birthdays! They were mostly anxious about being there, so it wasn’t as cute as I was hoping, but they got some fun items out of it!
  • My uncle was diagnosed with lung cancer this month, and it was a devastating blow to my family.
  • We launched season 4 of the podcast where we talked all about our work lives! It was really fun.
  • I had lots of fun dates and we made things official near the end of the month. Squee!

April

  • I saw TAYLOR SWIFT! She was incredible. One of the most amazing days of my life.
  • My mom and I went to a local u-pick farm to pick flowers. It was disgustingly hot but we had a great time and went out for lunch afterward.
  • I was on dogsitting duty for five days while my mom and stepdad went on a cruise. We had a fun time together!
  • This was a busy month for me between fun events, dates with my girlfriend, and work… social burnout definitely affected my mental health.
  • I went brunette! This was a super fun change that I had been thinking about for a long time.
  • Eloise turned 5!

May

  • My new bed arrived and it was so nice to finally sleep on a non-lumpy mattress! My brother is the one who delivered and set up my mattress (+ my new bed frame), and it was cool to see him in the middle of a random weekday!
  • I celebrated Mother’s Day with my mom, my stepdad, and my brother. After breakfast, my mom and I visited Grandma’s grave and brought her flowers.
  • I had to get two moles removed from my back, which entailed 7 stitches and a lot of pain. I was so happy to get those stitches out two weeks later so I could finally itch my back as much as I wanted!
  • I spent Memorial Day at my mom’s house where we enjoyed a good amount of pool time with the dogs and then Robert cooked us a hearty lunch of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs. It was the perfect way to kick off summertime!
  • Lila turned 5!

June

  • I participated in Pride for the first time ever! I did a Pride-themed photoshoot with my then-girlfriend to announce our relationship on Instagram (and thus, announce my sexuality to the world!) and went to the parade with her. We had to leave early because she started feeling terrible (the heat was killer!), so in 2024, I desperately want to see the actual parade, too.
  • For my mom’s belated Mother’s Day gift, we went to a DIY crafting night where we made gorgeous creations. I made a lazy susan and my mom made a sign for her front porch. The crafting was nearly foolproof, which was good news for these girls that aren’t super crafty.
  • I spent more weekend afternoons at my mom’s house, cooling off in the pool with the dogs. Chip loved jumping on and off our rafts (when the raft got close enough to the edge, so he could jump on/off easily) and even started to get the hang of swimming himself. Lucy just wanted to run around and get dirty, sigh.
  • Bri and I celebrated nine years of friendship with a lovely lady date to Fairgrounds St. Pete, this super kitschy museum that was all dressed up for Pride.
  • We released season 5 of the podcast: all about traveling! This one was especially fun because our friend Amber, who runs a travel business, came on the podcast to talk about work travel and how she plans travel for people.
  • After many weeks of chemo and radiation, my uncle was declared cancer-free and we all breathed a sigh of relief.

July

  • My mom and I took a quick weekend trip to Charleston, South Carolina. We had such a great time! We did a ferry tour, viewed the fort, saw Rainbow Row, took a ghost tour, and ate lots of good food.
  • My blog went down for 36 hours due to my site being infected with malware. I was so sad and worried that I had lost everything, but thankfully, I was able to get the malware removed and my site was fine!
  • I had a LASIK consultation and learned I was a perfect candidate for the traditional procedure! And thus began weeks of trying to decide if I really wanted to spend the money on the procedure.
  • I saw Barbie twice this month! The best movie.
  • At the end of the month, I broke up with my girlfriend. It was the hardest and easiest decision for me; hard because I didn’t want to hurt her or lose her as a friend, but easy because I knew it was the right thing to do.

August

  • I took the month off blogging, which I needed for my mental health and to process my breakup. It was a good month off, although I desperately missed writing!
  • My mom, my stepdad, and I went river tubing and had the BEST time! The weather was hot, the water was cold, and spending two hours just slowly floating down a river while enjoying the sunshine was perfection.
  • We had family in town and spent a lovely weekday evening catching up with them over dinner at the beach, and then we went down to the beach to watch the sunset.
  • I started seeing a dietician and she has been WONDERFUL. She has really helped me better understand what I need from my diet and unearth some of my diet culture tendencies.
  • There was a DOLPHIN in the canal near my mom’s house, which was wild.

September

  • I got my third tattoo, which I had been wanting to get for a long time: something to commemorate my grandma who died in 2015. I am so happy with the way it turned out, although the healing process was a bitch.
  • We found out that my uncle’s cancer had returned, metastasized to his brain, and there was very little we could do for him. It was a devastating blow to our family.
  • I got a raise at work, and I’m super proud of this raise because not only did I work hard for it, but I also fought hard for it. I knew what I was worth and I didn’t stop asking for this raise until it was mine.
  • We released season 6 of the podcast where we did more deep dives on personality frameworks.

October

  • I returned to Silent Book Club after taking a few months off due to scheduling issues, and it was so delightful to be back.
  • I got my Covid + flu vaccines at the same time and had no side effects. Astonishing!
  • I got LASIK! My recovery was pretty easy; I was able to notice a difference in my vision almost immediately!
  • I went to my mom’s house to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters and we had a record-low number! Such a disappointment.

November

  • I participated in NaBloPoMo for the third year in a row. Writing a blog post every day (and keeping up with other people writing a blog post every day) is not for the faint of heart!
  • I celebrated Thanksgiving with my family – my cousin hosted and my uncle was able to join us for a bit of time before he got too tired and needed to rest.
  • I turned 36 at the end of November and celebrated with a Day of Stephany: there was a facial, a bookstore shopping trip, and dinner with my family, among other things
  • I got the cutest pet portraits done of Dutch, my beloved dog who passed away in 2018, and the girls. They have a prominent place in my home and I love them so much!
  • We released season 7 of the podcast, which was all about mental health and personal growth. I’m particularly proud of these episodes!

December

  • The hardest part of this month: My uncle died on December 12th. It was shocking to lose him so soon. We were really hoping he would make it through the holidays.
  • For my birthday, my bestie Bri gifted me a ticket to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at Disney World. It was such a generous gift and we had the best time together!
  • I had my first illness of the year with a head cold that moved into my chest. Oof. Do not recommend.
  • I enjoyed the holiday season to the fullest! I decorated my apartment, went to see the lights, decorated Christmas cookies, and so much more.
  • I spent the last week of the year in Tennessee with my mom, stepdad, and the dogs. We had a wonderful time and loved living that winter cabin life!