Every month, I recommend books I love that you might too. Every year, I go back collect them into a single post. For reference, here are my picks from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. And now, the best books I read in 2023: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata does that special thing that prose fiction, at its best, does so well: invite you inside someone else’s head. In this particular case, it invites you inside the head of someone who’s never been able to fit in, who struggles to navigate social norms despite how keenly she observes them, who looks at the world differently. In a world largely determined by opaque systems, she finds a place for herself working in a Tokyo convenience store, but when they hire a difficult new employee who also approaches reality from an unusual angle, she’s forced to reassess the life she’s built for herself. Funny, engaging, and rich with psychological and sociological insight, this short novel will weird you out in the best possible way, broadening your understanding of what it means to be human.
The Best Books I Read in 2023
The Best Books I Read in 2023
The Best Books I Read in 2023
Every month, I recommend books I love that you might too. Every year, I go back collect them into a single post. For reference, here are my picks from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018. And now, the best books I read in 2023: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata does that special thing that prose fiction, at its best, does so well: invite you inside someone else’s head. In this particular case, it invites you inside the head of someone who’s never been able to fit in, who struggles to navigate social norms despite how keenly she observes them, who looks at the world differently. In a world largely determined by opaque systems, she finds a place for herself working in a Tokyo convenience store, but when they hire a difficult new employee who also approaches reality from an unusual angle, she’s forced to reassess the life she’s built for herself. Funny, engaging, and rich with psychological and sociological insight, this short novel will weird you out in the best possible way, broadening your understanding of what it means to be human.