My friend, David Chaudoir, has reviewed here once, and I’ve mentioned him a few times. I’m posting the favorites in the order I received them, and David’s was the second to come in. David is an anthropologist and storyteller who travels the world. He and I were supposed to go to Australia together until COVID shut the world down. I’m sure he’ll still make it there someday.
Thank you, David, for sharing your favorite books read in 2023.
Books I Really, Really Liked in 2023
David Chaudoir
Mobility by Lydia Kiesling (Crooked Media Reads, 2023)
The engaging, often funny, unconventional coming-of-age story of Bunny, who goes from diplomatic brat in Azerbaijan to a lucrative career in the global oil industry, eschewing her concern for the environment for a life of comfort—but at a cost.
Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones (Soho Crime, 2023)
This snappy, action-paced entry in Jones’s August Snow series finds the ex-detective trying to unravel the murky, international strands constricting around his lifelong friend, Father Michael Grabowski, and Detroit’s Catholic Church.
The Unvarnished Gary Phillips by Gary Phillips (Three Rooms Press, 2023)
This “mondo pulp” collection of genre-bending short fiction is high on crime, horror, and fantasy, coupled with Phillips’s exquisite scene-setting in great urban detail and evocation of lives not often portrayed on the page.
Funeral Train by Laurie Loewenstein (Kaylie Jones Books, 2022)
The local sheriff’s wife is seriously injured in a catastrophic passenger train derailment in Dust Bowl-era Oklahoma, setting off a series adverse events made all the more chilling in the cloistered environment of a small town reeling with the dead and maimed from the train, and the hardships of the Great Depression.
Small Country by Gaël Faye (Hogarth, 2019)
An elegiac story of a young expatriate boy in Burundi (with a French father and Rwandan mother) whose ideals are shattered when a life of relative tranquility becomes anything but, as both Burundi and neighboring Rwanda sink into genocidal conflict.
The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana by Maryse Condé (World Editions, 2020)
A singular, hyperreal adventure chronicling the lives of twins Ivan and Ivana, born into poverty on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and the pulse-pounding consequences of their move to Mali and eventually Europe.
And my read of the year is:
The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Matthew Goldberg (Level Best Books, 2023)
This delightful “road” novel is the story of the Gimmelman clan, thrust out of a life of luxury after the 1987 stock market crash and into the roles of fugitives, cramped into the family RV with little more than the clothes on their backs and some wads of stolen cash. Narrated by Aaron, the middle child, Gimmelmans is by turns funny and poignant, raucous and tender. The novel’s beautiful exploration of religion, affection, and love is matched only by the satisfying references and allusions to late 1980s pop culture. It is Goldberg’s best and most mature book, and one of the finest books I read all year. Don’t miss it!
Thank you, David!
Good list! I don’t think I’ve even heard of these.
Now, Glen. You’ve at least heard of Deus X. Kevin & I both reviewed that here.
There some translated fiction on the list. I love to read works in translation.
I hadn’t heard of any of these. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.
Thanks, Mark!
Hope you like some of them
Thanks for sharing your really, really liked books, David!
I am also a fan of the August Snow books. Both you and Lesa have feted “DEUS X”, so I am moving it up my enormous TBR pile for 2024.
You’ll thank us again later, Grace.
You won’t be disappointed!
Thanks for the additions. Deus X was already on my list, but I just added Funeral Train.
Kevin and I also like Laurie Loewenstein’s books, MM.
Laurie writes a rock-solid novel.
Adding more to my wish list!
Never too many on a wish list or TBR pile, Carol!
If only we had more time to read EVERYTHING we want! The TBR list is half the fun.
Great list – added more to my hold list.
Hope you like some of them
Thank you, David! I hope you will be a regular commenter on our Thursday review days.
Thanks!
DEUS X is the only one I’ve heard of. A couple of others sound good too.
That makes me happy — I like to shine a light on excellent books that others may not have heard of!
Your reading list is every bit as interesting as you, David! I added The Great Gimmelmans to my list after our earlier conversation.
I can already see you smiling as you read…
Thanks for hosting me, y’all. These were some mighty fine books.
David, Thank you for taking time to make these selections, and then respond to the comments. I appreciate it!
What a treat to read this list. I have not heard of most of these books which is why I love reading book blogs. I mean, you can never have too many items on your TBR pile. Also Lesa, if you have to chance to go to Australia or NZ then go. You will love both countries once you get over the long flight.
I hope you like at least one or two of them!
Thank you, David! I am honored and can’t wait to check out the others on your list.
Laurie, will you please write us another novel? 🙂
“I’m working on it,” says this not-speedy writer.
David, of course you would have an interesting list with most books I hadn’t heard of. Of course, my reading has been on hold for seven and a half months now. I do have Funeral Train on my TBR list, and whenever my reading kicks back into gear, The Great Gimmelmans sounds like a great read. Small country has my interest, too.
Kathy, there is also a French-language movie made of “Small Country” (Petit Pais; in English,
Small Country: An African Childhood, 2020, dir. by Eric Barbier). Although I haven’t seen it, it’s available on some streaming platforms with English subtitles. Much of it was filmed in Uganda–and one of my friends was an extra in the film! Let me know if you read/see it.
Lesa, I re-sent my list. Let me know if you get it or not.