Every year I set a new years resolution for reading. Sometimes it is to read 100 books, read an hour a day, or read 100 pages daily. I love reading but like most resolutions, I give up on whatever my goal was after a few weeks. The other day I saw someone post a list of twenty-three books they wanted to read as a resolution for the new year. This intrigued me because this goal seemed attainable (even with a hectic college schedule) and very self-guided, plus it gave me an excuse to pick out some new books! Here is a list of my 23 Books on my TBR (to be read) List for 2023, maybe a few will make it onto your list too:
- Weaving sundown in a scarlet Light
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Author: Joy Harjo
Genre: Poetry
Description: “In this gemlike volume, Harjo selects her best poems from across fifty years, beginning with her early discoveries of her own voice and ending with moving reflections on our contemporary moment. Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light traces every occasion of a lifetime; it offers poems on birth, death, love, and resistance; on motherhood and on losing a parent; on fresh beginnings amidst legacies of displacement”
Why this book is on my list: I have always loved Joy Harjo’s writing and when I found out about this collection I knew that I NEEDED to read this book!
- The Days of Abandonment
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Author: Elena Ferrante
Genre: Fiction
Description: “The Days of Abandonment is the gripping story of an Italian woman’s experiences after being suddenly left by her husband after fifteen years of marriage. With two young children to care for, Olga finds it more and more difficult to do the things she used to: keep a spotless house, cook meals with creativity and passion, refrain from using obscenities. After running into her husband with his much-younger new lover in public, she cannot even refrain from assaulting him physically.”
Why this book is on my list: Elena Ferrante’s writing is so beautiful, I’ve had a little taste of it and it is finally time I read some more! Plus we have the same first name!
- Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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Author: Coco Mellors
Genre: Literary Fiction
Description: “Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.”
Why this book is on my list: This book has been recommended to me by a few people and is on a lot of people’s favorites lists. The story seems so interesting!
- For Colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
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Author: Ntozake Shange
Genre: Poetry / Theatre
Description: “From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange’s words reveal what it means to be of color and female in the 20th century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for “encompass(ing)…every feeling and experience a woman has ever had”, for colored girls will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world.”
Why this book is on my list: As an aspiring poet and theatre lover, this book caught my eye the moment I saw it. I cannot wait to dive into this piece.
- Recitatif
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Author: Toni Morrison
Genre: Coming-of-age story / Short Story
Description: “In this 1983 short story—the only short story Morrison ever wrote—we meet Twyla and Roberta, who have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable then, they lose touch as they grow older, only later to find each other again at a diner, a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and at each other’s throats each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.”
Why this book is on my list: I have a confession to make, I have never read anything by Toni Morrison! This is Morrison’s newest publication. She is such an icon in the literary world and it is time I look at her work!
- my trade is mystery: Seven meditations from a life in writing
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Author: Carl Phillips
Genre: Biography / Autobiography
Description: “In these intimate and eloquent meditations, the award-winning poet Carl Phillips shares lessons he has learned about the writing life, an “apprenticeship to what can never fully be mastered.” Drawing on forty years of teaching and mentoring emerging writers, he weaves his experiences as a poet with the necessary survival skills, including ambition, stamina, silence, politics, practice, audience, and community.”
Why this book is on my list: This book is perfect for a new year or a reset on any day of the year. I hope to get some new inspiration from this book and some writing practice.
- where they burn books they also burn people
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Author: Marcos Antonio Hernandez
Genre: Historical Fiction
Description: “Where They Burn Books, They Also Burn People is the gripping combination of two books in the Hispanic American Heritage Stories series, based on historical events. If you like indigenous revenge, villain origin stories, and the consuming force of religious fervor, then you’ll love this illuminating tale about Catholicism’s shadowed past.”
Why this book is on my list: As a Hispanic American who has never stepped foot in Mexico, sometimes I feel a little lost from my culture. This book intrigued my inquisitive side and I cannot wait to dive into this story.
- Braiding Sweetgrass
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Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
Genre: Nature / Essays
Description: “Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings – asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass – offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.”
Why this book is on my list: The earth has so many beautiful creatures and I am so interested in learning its teachings, this book is a perfect look deeper into the world around us.
- Nightb*tch
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Author: Rachel Yoder
Genre: Satire / Domestic Fiction
Description: “One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else… An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler’s demands, only to discover a dense patch of hair on the back of her neck. In the mirror, her canines suddenly look sharper than she remembers. Her husband, who travels for work five days a week, casually dismisses her fears from faraway hotel rooms.
Why this book is on my list: I’ve seen this book on a lot of reviewers’ lists of favorites. After reading the description I was immediately drawn into this story.
- Like a new sun: new indigenous Mexican poetry
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Author: Various Authors
Genre: Poetry
Description: “Like A New Sun showcases the vibrant contemporary poetry being written in indigenous Mexican languages. Featuring poets writing in Huasteca, Nahuatl, Isthmus Zapotec, Mazatec, Tsotsil, Yucatec Maya, and Zoque, this groundbreaking anthology introduces readers to six of the most dynamic indigenous Mexican poets writing today.”
Why this book is on my list: This book was given to me as a holiday gift, it perfectly fits my love of poetry and indigenous literature and I CANNOT WAIT to read it.
- I know why the caged bird sings
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Author: Maya Angelou
Genre: Autobiography
Description: “Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.”
Why this book is on my list: This book is a classic and I have never heard an ill word about it. I have read a collection of Maya Angelou’s poetry and loved all of it.
- Blood Red
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Author: Gabriela Ponce
Genre: Fiction/ Stream of consciousness
Description: “In a torrent of stream-of-consciousness fragments, the unnamed narrator of Blood Red recounts the aftermath of her failed marriage in explicit, sensual detail. She falls in and out of love, parties with her friends, skates around the city at night, does a lot of drugs, and gives in to her impulses. Her internal monologue is punctuated by bouts of trypophobia, an obsessive cataloging of holes that empty, fill, widen, and threaten to swallow her entirely. Blood courses through her every encounter from periods, fights, accidents, wounds, sex, streaming to and from her holey fixation. Blood is a vibrant reminder of her physicality, a manifestation of her interiority, a link to memories and sensations–until its abrupt absence changes everything.”
Why this book is on my list: I saw this book in the bookstore and was immediately interested. The author is Ecuadorian and the novel has been translated from Spanish. I cannot wait to read her narrative.
- Body Work: The radical power of personal narrative
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Author: Melissa Febos
Genre: Autobiography
Description: “In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and writing guide, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller’s life and the challenges it presents. How do we write about the relationships that have formed us? How do we describe our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean to have your writing, or living, dismissed as “navel-gazing”-or else hailed as “so brave, so raw”? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong?”
Why this book is on my list: As a writer, I am always looking for ways to improve my craft. This book is sure to be a guide to my future stories.
- The diary of Frida Kahlo: An intimate self-portrait
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Author: Frida Kahlo
Genre: Autobiography
Description: “Published here in its entirety, Frida Kahlo’s amazing illustrated journal documents the last ten years of her turbulent life. This passionate, often surprising, intimate record, kept under lock and key for some forty years in Mexico, reveals many new dimensions in the complex persona of this remarkable Mexican artist. Covering the years 1944-45, the 170-page journal contains Frida’s thoughts, poems, and dreams, and reflects her stormy relationship with her husband, Diego Rivera, Mexico’s famous artist. The seventy watercolor illustrations in the journal – some lively sketches, several elegant self-portraits, others complete paintings – offer insights into her creative process, and show her frequently using the journal to work out pictorial ideas for her canvases.”
Why this book is on my list: Frida Kahlo is one of my creative inspirations. Her art and passions have always touched my heart. I cannot wait to get a deeper look into her mind.
- The House on Mango Street
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Author: Sandra Cisneros
Genre: Novel/ Fiction/ Bildungsroman
Description: “The House on Mango Street is a 1984 novel by Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros. Structured as a series of vignettes, it tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago.”
Why this book is on my list: Another classic that I have yet to read! I am honestly surprised that I haven’t found my way to this book before!
- Being Heumann
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Author: Judith Heumann
Genre: Autobiography
Description: “One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism—from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington—Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society.”
Why this book is on my list: After watching “Cripcamp” on Netflix my life was changed by what I learned about Judy Heumann. Her story is one that needs to be shared.
- in the time of the butterflies
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Author: Julia Alvarez
Genre: Novel/ Historical Fiction/ Non-fiction novel
Description: “It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas–the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters–Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé–speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human costs of political oppression.”
Why this book is on my list: This book was another holiday gift and such a thoughtful one! I cannot wait to read this narrative!
- The boy, the mole, the fox, and the horse
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Author: Charlie Mackesy
Genre: Fiction / Graphic novel
Description: “Charlie Mackesy offers inspiration and hope in uncertain times in this beautiful book, following the tale of a curious boy, a greedy mole, a wary fox and a wise horse who find themselves together in sometimes difficult terrain, sharing their greatest fears and biggest discoveries about vulnerability, kindness, hope, friendship and love. The shared adventures and important conversations between the four friends are full of life lessons that have connected with readers of all ages.”
Why this book is on my list: Many people have raved about this beautiful story, and I am hoping to learn from its beauties.
- The death of the moth and other essays
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Author: Virginia Woolf
Genre: Drama / Literary fiction
Description: “A highly acclaimed collection of twenty-eight essays, sketches, and short stories presenting nearly every facet of the author’s work. “Up to the author’s highest standard in a literary form that was most congenial to her” (Times Literary Supplement (London)).”
Why this book is on my list: Virginia Woolf is another amazing author that I haven’t had a chance to read yet. I am so excited to add this to my list.
- Tell me how to be
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Author: Neel Patel
Genre: Coming-of-age story / Fiction
Description: “Renu Amin always seemed perfect. But as the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death approaches, she is binge-watching soap operas and simmering with old resentments. She can’t stop wondering if, thirty-five years ago, she chose the wrong life. In Los Angeles, her son, Akash, has everything he ever wanted, but he is haunted by the painful memories he fled a decade ago. When his mother tells him she is selling the family home, Akash returns to Illinois, hoping to finally say goodbye and move on.
Why this book is on my list: This book was a top pick on many lists of 2022 and after reading the description I added it to mine!
- What would Frida do? : A guide to living boldly
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Author: Arianna Davis
Genre: Biography
Description: “Revered as much for her fierce spirit as she is for her art, Frida Kahlo stands today as a feminist symbol of daring creativity. Her paintings have earned her admirers around the world, but perhaps her greatest work of art was her own life. What Would Frida Do? celebrates this icon’s signature style, outspoken politics, and boldness in love and art—even in the face of hardship and heartbreak. We see her tumultuous marriage with the famous muralist Diego Rivera and rumored flings with Leon Trotsky and Josephine Baker. In this irresistible read, writer Arianna Davis conjures Frida’s brave spirit, encouraging women to create fearlessly and stand by their own truths.”
Why this book is on my list: Again, I love Frida! I cannot wait to Frida-fy my life!
- The unabridged journals of Sylvia Plath
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Author: Sylvia Plath
Genre: Autobiography
Description: “A major literary event–the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time. Sylvia Plath’s journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet’s personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath’s life and work.”
Why this book is on my list: Sylvia Plath’s poetry has always been inspirational to me. I cannot wait to understand her deeper and feel her life.
- How to be a good creature
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Author: Sy Montgomery
Genre: Autobiography
Description: “This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of thirteen animals–Sy’s friends–and the truths revealed by their grace. It also explores vast themes: the otherness and sameness of people and animals; the various ways we learn to love and become empathetic; how we find our passion; how we create our families; coping with loss and despair; gratitude; forgiveness; and most of all, how to be a good creature in the world.”
Why this book is on my list: We can learn so much from animals and I cannot wait to learn as Sy Montgomery did.
*Descriptions credited to Google Books