Liz's Pickz 2023!
An anti-gift guide, a year in obliteration
I hope you’re reading this on the toilet, the ideal locale to read any g**t g***e. Doesn’t it feel like we’ve reached peak Best Of and gifting saturation?! Here’s a peek behind the curtain: it’s easy content, it separates you from your dinero, and everyone is a dum dum in December, with the half dozen brain cells we have left colliding around the internet like drunk bumper cars. Lists of things to consume are all we can manage!
But listen, I read some excellent and surprising things this year, and there are more men on this list than in years past, so who’s to say I am done evolving?!
Without further ado, I present to you the most important list you will read on this visit to the bathroom:
LIZ’S PICKZ 2023!
The Possibility of Life by Jaime Green: What our alien friends might be like!!!
Wild Problems by Russ Roberts: Never would I ever have guessed a book by an economist would find its way on to this list. In researching my new book on intuition I have found myself in the upsetting world of behavioral economics, so I am grateful to have come across a sensible economist, finally. This book is full of timeless wisdom about living, and the perfect gift for a younger person in your life, or just to remind you that the only mistake is one you consciously continue to make.
The Guest by Emma Cline: Best read in a single sitting with something hard to absorb the blow of the book when you throw it like a touchdown at the end.
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas: Does the perfect “horned up” (Reyhan’s descrip) campus novel exist? Look no further. There were moments in this when I SCREAMED!
Purple Crayons by Ross Ellenhorn: After reading this inspiring, brilliant book, I have (so far) narrowly escaped a restraining order when forcing the author to hang out with me because I am obsessed. Zero regrets. I hope Ross starts a cult so I can join it.
Everything/Nothing/Someone by Alice Carriére: The lived experience in here is WILD enough to make it a tremendous memoir but the thing that killed me is how many perspectives the author occupies at once. Craft magic.
Alice Sadie Celine by Sarah Blakely-Cartwright: A mom has an affair with her daughter’s best friend. Say no more!!!
Blood on Their Hands by Mandy Matney and Carolyn Murnick: A victim-focused and nuanced true crime narrative on the Murdaugh murders. More Cousin Eddie!
Cage Kings by Michael Thomsen: If you like UFC (ok!) this book is for you. If you like excellent reporting and storytelling, this book is for you!
Pre-order alerts!!!
Think about how grateful your grumpy, resolution-abandoned 2024 self will be when these stunners arrive, which you’d forgotten all about?! It’s like playing the best kind of prank on yourself.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza: Am currently reading a galley of this frothy funny murder mystery in Sicily and am already sad for when it is over. Take yourself on an Italian vacation and pre-order this book!
Prescription for Pain by Phil Eil: I blurbed this feat of reporting and stand by it all!!!
Big in Sweden by Sally Franson: What happens when a big-hearted, physically gifted American comedian becomes a Swedish reality TV star?! FIND OUT!
I shan’t perpetuate the lie and wish you a restful holiday. Unless you are under the age of 23, it just ain’t. I will wish you this, though: the promise that in less than ten days, we return to the light. The year will turn, and there’s nothing you have to do about it. NINE DAYS TILL SOLSTICE
And please do share any titles you enjoyed this year. It makes me feel optimistic.
To the light,
Liz