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Gabrielle Benoit

I Read 101 Books in 2023. Here's the list, with reading stats and superlatives!

I had a weird year, and StoryGraph picked up on it. My 2023 Reading Wrap-Up reviewed my habits as "[Riding] a rollercoaster of emotions, [pondering] thought-provoking themes, and [delving] into dark and intense narratives."


My GoodReads stats are as follows:


Average Rating in 2023: 3.68 Stars


Averages Book Length: 336 pages (+2 from last year!)


Most Popular: Fourth Wing


Here they are, in order of completion! My 101 books of 2022!

  1. Like, Comment, Subscribe: How YouTube Drives Google's Dominance and Controls Our Culture - Mark Bergen

  2. Making a Scene- Constance Wu

  3. The Great Alone- Kristin Hannah

  4. The Family Game- Catherine Steadman

  5. From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home- Tembi Locke

  6. The Gifts of Imperfection- Brené Brown

  7. The Lost Ticket- Freya Sampson

  8. The Dead Romantics- Ashley Poston

  9. Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me- Ralph Maccio

  10. The Identicals- Elin Hilderbrand

  11. Spare- Prince Harry

  12. The Summer of Broken Rules- K.L. Walther

  13. The Sporty One: My Life as a Spice Girl- Melanie Chisholm

  14. The Suite Spot (Beck Sisters, #2) - Trish Doller

  15. An Arrow to the Moon- Emily X.R. Pan

  16. No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear- Kate Bowler

  17. Back to the Burbs- Avery Flynn and Tracy Wolff

  18. The Lemon- S.E. Boyd

  19. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear- Elizabeth Gilbert

  20. It Happened One Summer (Bellinger Sisters, #1) - Tessa Bailey

  21. Brutally Honest- Melanie Brown

  22. Exes and O's (The Influencer, #2) - Amy Lea

  23. I Have Some Questions For You- Rebecca Makkai

  24. Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side- Eve L. Ewing

  25. The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel

  26. Dreamland Burning - Jennifer Latham

  27. We Should All Be Feminists- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  28. Written in the Stars (Written in the Stars, #1) - Alexandria Bellefleur

  29. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Finlay Donovan, #1) - Elle Cosimano

  30. Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead (Finlay Donovan, #2) - Elle Cosimano

  31. Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3) - Elle Cosimano

  32. Anon Pls. - DeuxMoi

  33. Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The celestial Kingdom Duology #1) - Sue Lynn Tan

  34. A Perfect Vintage- Chelsea Fagan

  35. Calling Me Home- Julie Kibler

  36. How the Penguins Saved Vernoca (Vernoca McCreedy, #1) - Hazel Prior

  37. This Bird Has Flown- Susanna Hoffs

  38. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin

  39. Paris: The Memoir - Paris Hilton (I read this TWICE)

  40. Wahala - Nikki May

  41. Happy Place - Emily Henry

  42. Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting - Clare Pooley

  43. Don't You Dare - Jessica Hamilton

  44. Lunar Love - Lauren Kung Jessen

  45. Promise Boys- Nick Brooks

  46. The True Love Experiment - Christina Lauren

  47. Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin

  48. The Cat Who Saved Books - Sōsuke Natsukawa

  49. Romanic Comedy- Curtis Sittenfeld

  50. Going Dark- Melissa de la Cruz

  51. Pageboy - Elliot Page

  52. Live Your Best Lie - Jessie Weaver

  53. Yellowface- R.F. Kuang

  54. The Long Weekend - Gilly Macmillan

  55. Loba - Diane di Prima

  56. Babel- R.F. Kuang

  57. The Daydreams- Laura Hankin

  58. Seven Days in June- Tia Williams

  59. Stone Cold Fox- Rachel Koller Croft

  60. The Force of Such Beauty- Barbara Bourland

  61. Nothing More to Tell- Karen M. McManus

  62. Remarkably Bright Creatures- Shelby Van Pelt

  63. The Golden Spoon- Jessa Maxwell

  64. Forget Me Not- Julie Soto

  65. The Five-Star Weekend- Elin Hilderband

  66. Yours Truly (Part of Your World, #2) - Abby Jimenez

  67. Missing Clarissa - Ripley Jones

  68. Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) - Rebecca Yarros

  69. The Hunting of Hillary: The Forty-Year Campaign to Destroy Hillary Clinton- Michael D'Antonio

  70. Love & Other Scams - Philip Ellis

  71. The Things We Do in the Dark - Jennifer Hillier

  72. Hello Stranger- Katherine Center

  73. None of This Is True- Lisa Jewell

  74. A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd- Patrick Ness

  75. Warrior Girl Unearthed- Angeline Boulley

  76. The Last Time I Lied- Riley Sager

  77. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires- Grady Hendrix

  78. My Last Innocent Year- Daisy Alpert Florin

  79. Death of a Bookseller- Alice Slater

  80. The Great Believers- Rebecca Makkai

  81. A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons (Saffron Everleigh Mystery, #1) - Kate Khavari

  82. I'll Eat When I'm Dead- Barbara Bourland

  83. Down the Drain- Julia Fox

  84. Final Girls - Riley Sager

  85. Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)

  86. The Only One Left - Riley Sager

  87. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde, #1) - Heather Fawcett

  88. Fault Lines - Emily Itami

  89. Remember Us- Jacquline Woodson

  90. A Shot in the Dark- Victoria Lee

  91. Waiting for Tom Hanks (Waiting for Tom Hanks, #1) - Kerry Winfrey

  92. Rabbit: A Memoir - Patricia Williams

  93. Horse- Geraldine Brooks

  94. Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutano

  95. With Love, from Cold World - Alicia Thompson

  96. Say Her Name - Zetta Elliot

  97. The Guest - Emma Cline

  98. Meet Meet the Lake- Carley Fortune

  99. Severance- Ling Ma

  100. P.S. I Miss You - Jen Petro-Roy


Best Celeb Memoir(s)

  1. The Sporty One: Mel C

  2. Brutally Honest: Mel B

  3. Paris: the Memoir

  4. Down the Drain

  5. Rabbit


Best Thriller/ Mystery

  1. The Family Game

  2. The Things We Do in the Dark

  3. None of This is True

  4. The Only One Left


Best Romance

  1. The Dead Romantics

  2. An Arrow to the Moon


Best Historical

  1. The Book of Lost Names

  2. Calling Me Home

  3. Dreamland Burning


Best Nonfiction

  1. The Sporty One: Mel C


Best Cry

  1. Horse


Best YA

  1. Promise Boys

  2. Dreamland Burning

  3. An Arrow to the Moon

  4. Warrior Girl Unearthed

  5. Calling Me Home


Best Prose

  1. Daughter of the Moon Goddess: Celestial Kingdom #1


Best Audio Performance

  1. The Sporty One: Mel C


Best Overall

  1. Daughter of the Moon Goddess: Celestial Kingdom #1


My Highest Ratings (5 Stars)

* See this post for the complete list of 4-5 star books

  • An Arrow to the Moon

  • Severance

  • Promise Boys

  • Horse

  • The Lost Ticket

  • Spare

  • Paris: The Memoir

  • Rabbit


My Lowest Ratings (1-2 Stars)

  • A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons (1.0)

  • Fault Lines (1.25)

  • I'll Eat When I'm Dead (1.5)

  • The True Love Experiment (2.0)

  • Anon Pls. (2.0)

  • Written in the Stars (2.0)

  • Finlay Donoval #3 (2.0)

  • Making a Scene (2.0)

  • Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (2.0)

  • With Love, from Cold World (2.0)

  • It Happened One Summer (2.0)


StoryGraph Stats!












Final Reflections

  • My nonfiction dropped from 32% to 20%! I read far fewer memoirs this year. They dropped from my #3 genre category to #7.

  • I read alongside more friends and increased my network of book girlies! This was facilitated by taking road trips with friends and leaning into the Fourth Wing hype.

  • And, on that note, the hype is real! Fourth Wing was amazing! I'm loving the dragons and the angst.

  • BK Public Library budget cuts are breaking my heart! Our available holds just got cut to 5 books on hold per patron - it used to be much higher (12 or 20, I forget).

  • There is a steep decline in the mood of books I read after the summer; in direct correlation with returning to work after vacation and several family tragedies.

  • I prefer plot-driven stories over character-driven stories.

  • Open endings drive me nuts.

  • Thrillers with endings that are out-of-left field are actually disappointing.

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