Top 3 Best and Worst Books* of 2023

Hi Everybody!!

While today is not quite the last Monday, the next two are Christmas and New Year’s Day. This means that I’ll be off for the next two weeks, so this will mark the last post of the year! Let’s celebrate it with the 4th annual year-end countdown of books* I reviewed in 2023!

*This also includes movies.

Like before, I’ll pick 6 titles for this list – 3 for the best and 3 for the worst! Now, I have only one question for you!

I sure am! Let’s get started with the Best Books of 2023!

This year I read a lot of 5-star books and watched many 5-star movies. This made it pretty difficult to choose which ones were the very best. All of them were in a variety of genres. But at the end of the day, I had to narrow down the best list to 3 of those titles, which I’d love to show all of you now.

3. Late Bloomer: Finding My Authentic Self at Midlife by Melissa Giberson

There are plenty of stories of people discovering themselves at a later age, but Late Bloomer: Finding My Authentic Self at Midlife by Melissa Giberson stands out for its sheer rawness and honesty. Melissa is fully aware that she’s not a perfect human being, and she tries her hardest to keep some form of normalcy within her family after she realizes that she’s a lesbian. And yet, things don’t work out that way. On top of that, she has to reconcile her sexuality with her husband, kids, and Jewish faith. In addition, she can be funny, which certainly balances out the times where she experiences her low points. It’s a fantastic memoir and can be read by anybody regardless of sexuality, age, and faith!

2. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Even though I’m no longer a Children’s Librarian, I still love to read juvenile literature simply because they can be deep and simple. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is a great example of that. While it’s basically a story of a girl overcoming struggles of having a clubfoot while being displaced in World War II, it contains a lot of layers. Many characters are morally grey instead of black and white. Caregiver Susan claims that she’s not a nice person, yet she ends up being one, and obviously, Ada is a flawed child who has a hard time trusting others due to trauma inflicted by her truly awful mother. It even has a interesting way of dealing with lies and liars. What makes this book truly work is that it primarily focuses on Ada gaining strength to face her fears, combat prejudice, and develop trust with others. It does these things in realistic ways, while constantly reminding the audience of the historic backdrop. This novel is a great historical fiction novel for kids, and a perfect representation of the serious titles that I read for this website!

1. Dog Man by Dav Pilkey

If The War That Saved My Life represents the best of the serious books that I’ve read, then Dog Man by Dav Pilkey symbolizes the silly side. This was the funniest title that I’ve read this year. It captures the active imaginations of 7-8 years old in the best way possible ranging from the illustrations to the situations Dog Man finds himself in. I still smile anytime I think about how Petey the cat tries to eliminate all text from every book in order to make people dumb and how the hot dog wieners attempt to cause trouble despite their size. I also appreciate how Pilkey manages to find some time to make fun of those who object to filth in books. No matter how silly the plots may be, it fully commits. It’s completely understandable as to why this has spawn many other titles in the series, which I hope to cover each one in the future!

Before, we get to the worst list, I want to mention that the chosen titles bothered me for one main reason: they all try to distinguish themselves with the story they are telling, but they fall flat on their faces to various degrees

Now that we got that out of the way, it’s now time to get to the Top 3 Worst Books* of 2023!

3. Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1969 Movie

I spend the first half of this year analyzing every adaptation of the novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. While they weren’t the greatest pieces of media on the planet, they had a lot of good elements that helped to enhance the book. The 1969 movie musical contained a lot of changes to the story in order to make it stand out, especially from the faithful 1939 version, but they don’t really work. I go into a lot of detail as to why, but the main problem is that it’s a musical. I still wonder why the writers and producers thought that a story about an old English schoolmaster looking back on his life should have music and lyrics. Songwriter Leslie Bricusse is capable of musicalizing books (Scrooge and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory are great examples), but the songs overall needed more oomph and less generic lyrics.

Despite the problems, it still succeeds to some degree. Some of the tunes are catchy, and musical numbers like “London is London” and “Schooldays” are well executed. Moreover, the scene in which Mr. Chips finds out that Catherine died remains the best interpretation of that story beat from the novella. Also, I may have been a little harsh on director Herbert Ross. After all, it was his first movie, and he was figuring this out even though some of his choices are flat out strange. He would go on to make films like The Goodbye Girl, The Turning Point, and most importantly, the original Footloose. Basically, he directed flicks with lots of romance and dancing! The point is that Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1969 movie is a misguided attempt to be different from the previous adaptation. Maybe one day, there could be an adaptation set to music, but it needs to be in better hands.

2. A Farewell to Arms 1957 Movie

If the 1969 version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips tries to stand out from the original movie by being different from the source material to some degree, then the 1957 adaptation of A Farewell to Arms attempts to do this in the opposite direction. It’s even more faithful to the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway than the 1932 film is. However, it falls flat on its face because it fails to understand how to adapt that author in the first place. It drags out almost every moment from the novel because it wants to capture every possible word that Hemingway wrote, yet it’s not the worst example of this. Furthermore, there are weak lead performances, sudden tonal changes, and desperate attempts to be Gone With the Wind without understanding why that movie worked in the first place.

It does have some interesting supporting performances from Mercedes McCambridge (aka the lady who voiced the demonic Linda Blair in The Exoricst (1973)), Elaine Strich, and Vittorio de Sica. However, they don’t really overcome the main problems of the flick. It’s just another bloated movie produced by David O’Selznick. Even though the 1932 version isn’t particular great, it understands that the core is the romance between a soldier and a nurse and that everything else is fluff. Also, it contains striking images even if they don’t enhance the story. The 1957 one does not. News broke within the last two weeks that Tom Blyth from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie was cast as Frederick Henry in another adaption of A Farewell to Arms this time to be directed by Michael Winterbottom. And, it’s set to start filming late next year. I hope that version isn’t as bloated as and better the comprehends the story than the 1957 one ever did.

1. The Flight of Celestial Race Horses by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow

The Flight of Celestial Race Horses by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow is so bad that it’s hilarious. Berdimuhamedow tries to present himself as a strong man to the people of Turkmenistan when he was the dictator (uh, I mean president) by protecting the national horse, the Akhal-Teke. Yet, he does this with what is essentially a picture book filled with poorly photoshopped Akhal-Tekes and passages that imply he wants to have sex with them. It doesn’t help that the text is mostly garbled that I had to read it out loud. Granted, that may be due to translation; I’m not entirely sure. The biggest kicker is there is no self awareness. It’s disturbing to some degree, but to me, this makes it even funnier. Because of this clumsy propaganda, I can’t take Berdimuhamedow seriously. If I get executed for criticizing The Flight of Celestial Race Horses, I won’t regret it at all.

And that was the Top 3 Best and Worst Books* of 2023! I hope all of you enjoyed it. I look forward to having plenty of new reviews for 2024! See you next year!

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