Friday Mood Recs: Five popular 2023 books I didn't enjoy

And what they taught me about my reading taste

Today, inspired in large part by my conversation with Traci Thomas about negative reviews, I’m sharing a handful of 2023 books that just didn’t work for me. I know what you’re thinking…isn’t sharing the books I didn’t enjoy actually the opposite of a recommendation? Maybe! But these aren’t bad books…these are books I genuinely would recommend to other readers. But for each, there was something (or more than one somethings) that bothered me in a way that revealed something essential about my personal taste. My hope is sharing these books will not necessarily discourage you from reading these titles or persuade you to think differently about your own love for them. Rather I hope this will be the start of a discussion about what the books we didn’t love can teach us and give you more insight into how I think about the books I write about here.

Each book is accompanied by a description of why it didn’t work for me, the lesson I took away, and a book that represents that lesson in the positive. These “books that did it right” aren’t one-to-one pairings, but examples of what I learned I love from reading these books I didn’t.

I can’t wait to hear what books didn’t work for you this year and what those reading experiences taught you about your reading life!