My Fave Books of 2023
Seven books, in no particular order, that were published this year, enjoyed, and fully recommend.
Casey Plett - On Community (Biblioasis)
In her first book of nonfiction, Casey Plett explores the many ways we use the term community and its myriad meanings. These range from religion, book publishing, T4T relationships and more. I don’t think she’s ever been this open about herself before but it would be a mistake to look at On Community and expect a personal essay. The meat of this book comes when she explains why communities matter: a community is where one fits and finds kinship. It could be a Discord server of writers, a community around a popular Youtuber, even the group of seniors one sees at a Tim Hortons every morning. What’s more, Plett offers a sense of hope that we can regain this: “Don’t give up on this stuff,” she writes.
Emily Zhou - Girlfriends (Littlepuss Press)
The debut of the year. Zhou’s short fiction takes readers into a world of post-college Michigan where a series of trans women are trying to figure out what to do next. Some of them write, others are in bad relationships, but they’re all going through a feeling of this can’t be it which is one I remember so well from that age. Her work has a quiet hope in it that these people will make it and even when they play dirty, you’re rooting for them. And never mind Zhou’s powers of observation or the understated way she avoids cliches and stereotypes. Girlfriends is a great collection of stories.
A. Light Zachary - More Sure (Arsenal Pulp Press)
The best poetry collection I read this year. I saw Zachery perform in late May at their book launch and they stole the show - no small feat considering both Jane Hazel Plante and Casey Plett read before them. But the way their poems rang in the air, the rhythms and quiet sense of determination stuck with me. Even now, over half a year later, I can picture them stomping on the small stage and reading, winning over the crowd. I bought their book that night and loved it. I find it hard sometimes to express what it is about poetry that resonates with me - I blame a not great secondary school education - but Zachary is a real one.
Catherine Lacey - Biography of X (FSG)
One that’s both experimental and accessible, Biography of X plays with the conventions of fiction and biography, mixing both into something that’s hard to classify (is it science fiction? A book about genius? Abuse?) and compelling in its depiction of a splintered America and a deeply problematic genius who goes by X. Like the best of Kathy Acker’s work, it dabbles in remixing other writers into a new whole - one recognizes bits of Sontag here, of Didion there - while sneakily raising questions about authorship. But even when it’s playing these games, it becomes a compelling novel about the search for X’s true identity and a romp through a world that’s a lot like ours, but slightly askew. It’s enjoyable enough that you can read it as a straight science fiction novel and not feel like you’re missing anything. People who enjoyed Man in High Castle or The Alteration will find a lot here to dig their teeth into.
McKenzie Wark - Love and Money, Sex and Death (Verso)
Perhaps the best memoir I read this year and one of the more interesting literary experiments too. Where Wark has previously mixed memoir with theory and autofiction (Reverse Cowgirl, Raving), here she uses the epistolary form to explore her past. She writes letters to past lovers, herself, and even an ancient goddess to explore not just who she is, but how she became the person she is now. This form gives her book a sense of immediacy: one feels as if they’re being spoken to directly by Wark, and it’s hard not to be moved when she writes of dead friends or her own resilience.
Isle McElroy - People Collide (HarperVia)
In their second novel, McElroy turns their focus towards marriage and the idea of how we never really know the people in our lives. When a pair of lovers switch bodies one night, Eli (now in Elizabeth’s body) chases his former self across Europe and runs into a paranoid conspiracist, falls in love, and is caught in a terrorist attack. On one level, it reads like a thriller, but scratch at it a little and you’ll find an investigation into masculinity and the ways we all connect with each other. In some ways it compliments Plett’s book, but in others it goes into why we bond with strangers and share so much of ourselves with them. It’s a blast to read.