I read a lot more than novels this year, but these are the 30 novels I read. I have several more I’m almost done with, but that I won’t complete until early 2024. The books with the + signs next to them are the ones I particularly recommend. (I kept a list last year, too.) This is the order in which I finished reading them:
1: Carole Stivers: The Mother Code
2: Lauren Belfer: And After the Fire
3: Daniel Nieh: Take No Names
4: +Amor Towles: A Gentleman in Moscow
5: +Elmore Leonard: City Primeval
6: +Malka Older: The Mimicking of Known Successes
7: +Benjamín Labatut: When We Cease to Understand the World
8: Stephen Blackmoore: Dead Things
9: Fernanda Melchor: Hurricane Season
10: +Charles Cumming: Box 88 (Box 88 Book 1)
11: Annalee Newitz: The Terraformers
12: Weike Wang: Chemistry
13: Lauren Wilkinson: American Spy
14: +Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
15: Charles Cumming: Judas 62 (Box 88 Book 2)
16: Hiron Ennes: Leech
17: Yeo-sun Kwon: Lemon
18: Kristin Chen: Counterfeit
19: Alan Furst: Night Soldiers (Night Soldiers Book 1)
20: John Darnielle: Devil House
21: +Alan Furst: Dark Star (Night Soldiers Book 2)
22: Yukito Ayatsuji: The Decagon House Murders
23: Lauren Oyler: Fake Accounts
24: Charles Cumming: Kennedy 35 (Box 88 Book 3)
25: Richard Powers: The Overstory
26: Lawrence Block: The Sins of the Fathers (Matthew Scudder Book 1)
27: Lawrence Block: In the Midst of Death (Matthew Scudder Book 3)
28: Lawrence Block: Time to Murder and Create (Matthew Scudder Book 2)
29: +Lawrence Block: A Stab in the Dark (Matthew Scudder Book 4)
30: +Sean Michaels: Us Conductors