Welcome (back) to my unapologetically casual top-5 series. Follow the tag ‘Top 5 2023’ for more. There are no stars and no metrics. The only criteria is how much I enjoyed the book, and how well its strengths place it primarily in a given category. Yes, books can appear on more than one list if they fit. Oh, also, I am keeping the tag even though I am dropping the final 3 lists in 2024, because life is too short to edit tags.
I love a good think-piece. I don’t often review it here, but I consume me some non-fiction, especially history, science and current events. I was that kid who genuinely loved school, because I got to learn something new. Any book that leaves me thinking speaks to that deep desire in my core to view the world from new angles – to run my hands over it and feel the cracks.
If any of that overwritten intro speaks to you, you may love these books:
Top 5 Thought-Provoking Novels
5. This Is How You Lose The Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal Al-Mohtar- This beautiful novella is the essential treatise on love despite form, external trappings, or circumstance. It is a pure love, an idealistic love, across all boundaries, written in a delightfully snarky exchange of letters.
4. The Midlife Crisis of Commander Invincible by Neil Connelly- Before The Boys and its copycats, a professor wrote a quiet novel deconstructing the life of a superhero. It features the trials of navigating the existential dread of aging, as seen through the eyes of a man whose powers have been his purpose and identity his entire life. This story is poignant, tender, and relatable.
3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E Schwab – We all want to be seen. To be remembered. What if that was literally impossible. How would you live? What would you live for? Follow the wandering, melancholy journey of Addie LaRue to explore these themes.
2. The Last Human by Zach Jordan- This quirky sci-fi adventure has a philosophical core. It explores the feeling of being alone in the universe, and the sense I suspect we all experience that we must fight to find meaning in a world which often seems controlled by forces far beyond our control or understanding.
1. Babel by R.F. Kuang- I wrote a whole reflection on the insights of Babel, but for this article, let’s sum it up as the essential challenge of modern life in a developed nation: How do we reconcile the privilege we enjoy with the cost of obtaining that luxury?
Honorable Mention – Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Tafise- Ideas are important. Freedom of artistic expression and the freedom to learn doubly so. What lengths would you go to to expand your mind in a world that did everything it could to keep it in a box?
Bonus Honorable Mention because I read an awesome book since writing this article – A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers – This charmingly cozy sci-fi novella features a tea-slinging monk, a delightfully unassuming android, and beautiful scenery. This backdrop perfectly frames the series of discussions of what it means to be alive, to be a citizen of the world, and to live.
Happy reading, folks.
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