OH MY GOD!!!!! 🏆🏆🏆😭😭😭 I’m literally screaming out loud, I’m so happy! What an absolute joy it was this year to recommend one of my favorite books to you - who is also a local author/poet to me in Columbus Ohio - and for it to turn out to be your number 1 favorite book of the year! This is truly a 2023 highlight for me
Thank you! Hanif Abdurraqib is my favorite cultural critic and I LOVED a little devil in america. All of his other books are that good as well! Especially they can't kill us until they kill us
I believe how beautiful we were was the first book I finished in 2023 and it was one of those that I stayed up all night reading bc i didnt want to put it down and it has stuck with me ever since. so glad you loved it! I'll have to check out the audiobook too!
I’m so glad you enjoyed a mind spread out on the ground!! I read it a couple of years ago and it was so impactful. I definitely need to pick up some more of these soon!
A Little Devil in America was my favourite of the year as well. I read it right at the start of 2023. I read another two by him this year (I read They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us a couple of years ago and was my favourite of that year!) and Go Ahead in the Rain is also amazing. Hanif's writing is something else. His passion for music and life is infectious. He's releasing a book about basketball this year and I don't like basketball, but you bet I will read it!
I literally just refreshed subscriptions thinking, she probably hasn’t posted, but maybe, JUST maybe…. And omg!!! Thank you for this NYE gift Kayla, and hope the new year brings good things to you and your family 🎉
My favorite of the year was In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead! It really lived up to all the hype booktube gives it. A close second was All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir.
I finished A Little Devil in America on New Year’s Eve and it immediately jumped into my top 10. Hanif is insanely talented at connecting cultural moments with commentary on race and class. Truly a master.
#1 read for me - Monstrilio and I have to thank YOU for choosing it. I would have never picked it up based on the cover and blurb...I can't stop thinking about it. #2 is And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott. I love her writing style so much. I laughed, I cried...so good.
The newest wayward children’s book, finna, the writing retreat, our share of night!! There’s so many I thought you loved enough to make your top 10 this is really surprising to me. ❤️
I loved Nothing to See Here, and I'm so excited to read Natural Beauty when my hold comes in! I think I'm most surprised The Writing Retreat didn't make the list
Yaaaaaay!!! Monstrilio and natural beauty were also some of my favourites this year. Can't wait for you to read they can't kill us until they kill us, Hanif is just phenomenal
I read A Mind Spread out on the Ground after you read a quote from it in a previous video and it made my top 10 this year! Its such a fantastic collection of essays. Took me a while to get through, the subject matters are not easy but so incredible and so worth picking up!
Ooh, I expected a classic on the list this year, but an exciting list nonetheless! There are 3 I still need to read next year but all the rest are fives for me too.
I cannot wait until you read They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us! It was my favorite read of the year. A Little Devil in America and Monstrilio are on my 2024 TBR :)
Natural Beauty was a favorite read of mine too, Monstrilio too but less. I don't read fantasy much but Emily Wilde was one of my forays into it and I quite enjoyed it. I was surprised Kaiyeke didn't make it but it's a very strong list!
Love Your Year End Videos. My top books are. 1. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. 2. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. 3. Chain Gang All Stars. 4. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston. 5. The Secret Society of Irregular Witches. 6. All the Sinner's Bleed. 7. The Stay a Spell Series by Juliette Cross 8. Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. 9. Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
my favorite of the year was definitely Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. I discovered her this year and have read them all at this point lol but Eileen was the best
Leech was so interesting, I'm really happy I read it this year... I feel I'll probably like it more on reread as well :) Now I must go buy natural beauty :)
It's so fun when some of your favs are surprises! Some of my favorite reads this year were Emily Wilde, Vera Wong, ruthless vows, half a soul, and bookshops and bonedust 🤓📚🫶
Love the video!!! My top 5 books of the year(tho I’m kinda cheating here): 5. Bunny 4. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer 3. The Poppy War Trilogy 2. Chlorine 1. The Way of Kings
These look so good. Just finished watching one of your reading journals and I wanted to request if you can try sampling Martha Brook. She owns a beautiful stationery business and she has a reading journal. Thank you and all the best!
I am so glad that you liked Leech. It was a big stand out for me. Because you liked Nothing To See Here I would recommend Spoon Benders by Daryl Gregory. I read them close together and they are forever linked for me.
So glad you loved Everyone In My Family so much, it was one of my top books for 2022 (and as an Aussie I love seeing Aussie authors getting so much love lmao). My top books for 2023 were After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill and Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill with Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie rounding out the top 3
I have so many new favorites I found this year through your channel. We don't always agree but I think we tend to be interested in the same concepts. My favorite book I read in 2023 was hands down, The Echo Wife by: Sarah Gailey. It ripped my heart out, cloned me, and then ripped my heart out again. So thanks for that 😂
I think you did this before and I was wondering if you’re going to do it this year? And that is reading other book tubers favourite 2023 reads and seeing if you liked the book also & what you thought of their favourites. I would watch you watching tv and nothing else if I’m honest because you’d make it interesting & fun, I don’t know how you would but I know you definitely would 😂😂 Anyway Happy New Year to you & your family! I hope 2024 is an amazing year for you Kayla!🥰✝️
Monstrilio is on my 24 for 2024 and I can’t wait to read it, everyone has only good things to say about it! I’ve also been eyeing Natural Beauty for a while now, I need to give it a try! 🥰
Wait did the besties book club just completely knock it out of the park this year? We only read Leech & Emily Wilde + the 1985 books for 2024 right?! That success rate is impeccable
It's something I was thinking about-is there a small piece of me that enjoyed these more, *because* I was reading them so thoroughly and carefully, with the intent of creating a discussion around them? I think I just got lucky with the besties picks & I'm so glad I have the liveshow comments to look back on!! 🤗💕
You read too many books a year for me to predict your top 10, but it still surprised me! The only one I felt was missing was Chlorine. My top 10: 1. My name is Lucy Barton 2. Parable of the Talents (you'd enjoy this duology) 3. Several People Are Typing 4. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies 5. Wrong Place Wrong Time 6. The Year of Magical Thinking 7. The School for Good Mothers 8. A Heart in a Body in the World 9. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes 10. Salt Slow
I’m so glad we had one in common :). My top 10 (not ordered) are: 1. yellowface 2. divine rivals 3. tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow 4. emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries 5. our wives under the sea 6. godkiller 7. hellbent 8. the priory of the orange tree 9. war and peace 10. birnam wood
My favorites this year were Lessons in Chemistry, the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Flawless (by Elise Hu), the Lovelight Farms series, and the Magnolia Parks series.
my top 5 (in order) are 1. The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, 2. Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova, 3. Bunny by Mona Awad, 4. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline and 5. A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
I think you might like A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power. It's a multigenerational, indigenous voices novel about the effects of colonialism, the residential schools. It was long listed for a National Book Award. I loved the first three sections of the book and would love to see your take on it.
Honestly. I'm sick of books about colonization. Every piece of land on this planet had some other group of people at one time. I'm starting to hate books that are trying to sway readers.
My Top Ten was Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow Check & Mate Hello Beautiful Curious Tides Everyone on this Train is a Suspect Shark Heart Happy Place Divine Rivals Black River Orchard Adelaide
Gosh, totally surprised at most of the list. In particular your #1 book being A Little Devil...a nonfiction essay book. I tried it but some had no periods, just one big long sentence with a lot of &&&. For me, the subject matter for most of the stories were out of date, been there and done that. Too many words.
you pushed emily wilde to the top of my tbr after raving about it and now it’s one of my 2023 faves! I would’ve put it off for way longer if it weren’t for you 🥲
OH MY GOD!!!!! 🏆🏆🏆😭😭😭 I’m literally screaming out loud, I’m so happy! What an absolute joy it was this year to recommend one of my favorite books to you - who is also a local author/poet to me in Columbus Ohio - and for it to turn out to be your number 1 favorite book of the year! This is truly a 2023 highlight for me
Thank you! Hanif Abdurraqib is my favorite cultural critic and I LOVED a little devil in america. All of his other books are that good as well! Especially they can't kill us until they kill us
I believe how beautiful we were was the first book I finished in 2023 and it was one of those that I stayed up all night reading bc i didnt want to put it down and it has stuck with me ever since. so glad you loved it! I'll have to check out the audiobook too!
I’m so glad you enjoyed a mind spread out on the ground!! I read it a couple of years ago and it was so impactful. I definitely need to pick up some more of these soon!
A Little Devil in America was my favourite of the year as well. I read it right at the start of 2023. I read another two by him this year (I read They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us a couple of years ago and was my favourite of that year!) and Go Ahead in the Rain is also amazing. Hanif's writing is something else. His passion for music and life is infectious. He's releasing a book about basketball this year and I don't like basketball, but you bet I will read it!
Okay I absolutely must read Monstrilio immediately. I’ve heard such amazing things about it
It's so hard to know if it will be to your taste!! I'll cross my fingers for a big win though when you get around to it 💕🤞🏻
YES do it. The audiobook is fantastic.
I literally just refreshed subscriptions thinking, she probably hasn’t posted, but maybe, JUST maybe…. And omg!!! Thank you for this NYE gift Kayla, and hope the new year brings good things to you and your family 🎉
Lmao I did the same exact thing Happy New Year's to you and your family!🎉
Happy New Year to you bestie!! 💕🥂
My favorite of the year was In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead! It really lived up to all the hype booktube gives it. A close second was All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir.
I finished A Little Devil in America on New Year’s Eve and it immediately jumped into my top 10. Hanif is insanely talented at connecting cultural moments with commentary on race and class. Truly a master.
A great selection of books. Congratulations.
Yesssssss!! Also, 9 is the best number, so I'm glad you didn't just throw a 10th in for roundness sake.
#1 read for me - Monstrilio and I have to thank YOU for choosing it. I would have never picked it up based on the cover and blurb...I can't stop thinking about it. #2 is And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott. I love her writing style so much. I laughed, I cried...so good.
My very top reads were definitely Happy Place and The Last Tale of the Flower Bride!
If you liked Monstrilio, I highly recommend the indie film An Angry Black Girl and Her Monster! I think they are very similar thematically.
I definitely want to read Leech this year. Just added How Beautiful We Were to my list of books to read ☺
Good morning happy new year to you and your loved ones and I hope that 2024 brings you a lot of love and happiness
The newest wayward children’s book, finna, the writing retreat, our share of night!! There’s so many I thought you loved enough to make your top 10 this is really surprising to me. ❤️
This was somehow so surprising but not surprising at all. Now I want to read literally all of these in 2024!
you're my favourite booktuber
I loved Nothing to See Here, and I'm so excited to read Natural Beauty when my hold comes in! I think I'm most surprised The Writing Retreat didn't make the list
Every year I always think I know what will make it to Kayla's list, and every year I'm always wrong.
My favorite book of 2023 is They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib!
Yaaaaaay!!! Monstrilio and natural beauty were also some of my favourites this year. Can't wait for you to read they can't kill us until they kill us, Hanif is just phenomenal
I haven't read a little devil in America but I'm excited to read it this year!
Yes!! - to Nothing to See Here 🌟🙌
So happy How Beautiful We Were made your list! It’s so underrated.
LEEEECH!!! Amazing, I am so happy you enjoyed this!! 🎉
I read A Mind Spread out on the Ground after you read a quote from it in a previous video and it made my top 10 this year! Its such a fantastic collection of essays. Took me a while to get through, the subject matters are not easy but so incredible and so worth picking up!
WAIT. What two rereads didn't make the cut?!?
I bet you the writing retreat was one of them 📝📝
Maybe Immortal Longings?
@@ramen8760 Ooooh good call, I think you're right!
Ooh, I expected a classic on the list this year, but an exciting list nonetheless! There are 3 I still need to read next year but all the rest are fives for me too.
Loved the video! I picked up my number one book of the year from your recommendation! Out there by Kate folk. Thanks for another year of videos!!
I cannot wait until you read They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us! It was my favorite read of the year. A Little Devil in America and Monstrilio are on my 2024 TBR :)
I love that you loved Nothing to See Here!! 🥰🥰
Natural Beauty was a favorite read of mine too, Monstrilio too but less. I don't read fantasy much but Emily Wilde was one of my forays into it and I quite enjoyed it. I was surprised Kaiyeke didn't make it but it's a very strong list!
Shocked not to see The Writing Retreat! Love EIMFHKS 🤗
Love Your Year End Videos. My top books are. 1. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. 2. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. 3. Chain Gang All Stars. 4. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston. 5. The Secret Society of Irregular Witches. 6. All the Sinner's Bleed. 7. The Stay a Spell Series by Juliette Cross 8. Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan. 9. Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez
Whew such a great list! My fave is a bit older kindred by octavia butler, newer central places delia cai and cover story i forget the author. Thx
Nothing to See Here has been on my TBR since its release, what am I waiting for!!!
Putting The Little Devil in America on my tbr!
my favorite of the year was definitely Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. I discovered her this year and have read them all at this point lol but Eileen was the best
Emily Wilde, Leech and Monstrilio are also all in my top 10 this year, and I only picked them up because of our book clubs!!💗🤩
Leech was so interesting, I'm really happy I read it this year... I feel I'll probably like it more on reread as well :)
Now I must go buy natural beauty :)
It's so fun when some of your favs are surprises! Some of my favorite reads this year were Emily Wilde, Vera Wong, ruthless vows, half a soul, and bookshops and bonedust 🤓📚🫶
I loved Monstrilio. Thank you for picking that for thr bookclub!!
Been waiting for this for daysss
awwwwhhhh yeah the one ive been waiting for !!!
I got A Little Devil in America in my Bookish Advent Calendar because of you, so I am glad to see it on the spot it got on your list💜
Ooooooh exciting!!
here to hype this book! Abdurraqib is an amazing writer
Ugh Im obsessed with Emily Wilde.. the arc for book 2 was great too!
Seeing Nothing to see here on the list makes me so happy!
💕💕💕
I couldn't really decide on my 10 favorite, I'm impressed you've managed to choose 9! 😅
I've read Emily Wilde, but none of your others and I really think I need to fix that!! Also, thank you for sharing this with us early!
Love the video!!!
My top 5 books of the year(tho I’m kinda cheating here):
5. Bunny
4. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer
3. The Poppy War Trilogy
2. Chlorine
1. The Way of Kings
A nonfiction in the #1 spot surprised me but I love that for you!! I hope to love a nonfiction that much soon
These look so good. Just finished watching one of your reading journals and I wanted to request if you can try sampling Martha Brook. She owns a beautiful stationery business and she has a reading journal.
Thank you and all the best!
I am so glad that you liked Leech. It was a big stand out for me.
Because you liked Nothing To See Here I would recommend Spoon Benders by Daryl Gregory. I read them close together and they are forever linked for me.
So glad you loved Everyone In My Family so much, it was one of my top books for 2022 (and as an Aussie I love seeing Aussie authors getting so much love lmao). My top books for 2023 were After She Wrote Him by Sulari Gentill and Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill with Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie rounding out the top 3
Planning on reading Leech this year!
The way I loved Natural Beauty and did not think I would!!
I have so many new favorites I found this year through your channel. We don't always agree but I think we tend to be interested in the same concepts. My favorite book I read in 2023 was hands down, The Echo Wife by: Sarah Gailey. It ripped my heart out, cloned me, and then ripped my heart out again. So thanks for that 😂
Nothing To See Here was so strange but so good.
I think you did this before and I was wondering if you’re going to do it this year? And that is reading other book tubers favourite 2023 reads and seeing if you liked the book also & what you thought of their favourites. I would watch you watching tv and nothing else if I’m honest because you’d make it interesting & fun, I don’t know how you would but I know you definitely would 😂😂 Anyway Happy New Year to you & your family! I hope 2024 is an amazing year for you Kayla!🥰✝️
Monstrilio is on my 24 for 2024 and I can’t wait to read it, everyone has only good things to say about it! I’ve also been eyeing Natural Beauty for a while now, I need to give it a try! 🥰
I need to read everything by Hanif Abdurraqib... I adored They Can't Kill Us Till They Kill Us by him this past year.
Monstrilio and Emily Wilde made my list too 🖤
I'm absolutely not a horror reader but damn you might have me checking out some of these in 2024.
This list has only made me more curious for the bracket!
It also made me realize how little non-fiction I've read last year, gotta step it up in 2024!
Wait did the besties book club just completely knock it out of the park this year? We only read Leech & Emily Wilde + the 1985 books for 2024 right?! That success rate is impeccable
It's something I was thinking about-is there a small piece of me that enjoyed these more, *because* I was reading them so thoroughly and carefully, with the intent of creating a discussion around them? I think I just got lucky with the besties picks & I'm so glad I have the liveshow comments to look back on!! 🤗💕
This is great news because I received Natural Beauty as a Christmas gift, and I have Emily Wildes encyclopaedia of faeries on hold from my library 😏
Emily Wilde, Monstrilio, and Nothing to See Here are winning yet again
Also, the way I've read/dnfed 5/9 of these picks! Time to pick up the other four perhaps?
I *always* hope and assume mystery thrillers will be abundant in my favourites list, yet they never are! 😅
@@BooksandLala maybe 2024 releases will finally make it???? hopefully?
You read too many books a year for me to predict your top 10, but it still surprised me! The only one I felt was missing was Chlorine.
My top 10:
1. My name is Lucy Barton
2. Parable of the Talents (you'd enjoy this duology)
3. Several People Are Typing
4. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
5. Wrong Place Wrong Time
6. The Year of Magical Thinking
7. The School for Good Mothers
8. A Heart in a Body in the World
9. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
10. Salt Slow
I’m so glad we had one in common :). My top 10 (not ordered) are:
1. yellowface
2. divine rivals
3. tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
4. emily wilde’s encyclopaedia of faeries
5. our wives under the sea
6. godkiller
7. hellbent
8. the priory of the orange tree
9. war and peace
10. birnam wood
Natural Beauty was the scariest and most unsettling horror book I read this year so I am so glad you ended up picking it up and also enjoyed it 😊
Leech just flew ahead in my TBR
My favorites this year were Lessons in Chemistry, the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Flawless (by Elise Hu), the Lovelight Farms series, and the Magnolia Parks series.
Hanif abdurraqib’s book is so excellent
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone is an absolute favorite of mine. Im so glad you loved it.
you’ll be happy to hear my favorite was The Pallbearers Club! :)
Ahhhhhh!!! 🥳🥳🥳
my top 5 (in order) are 1. The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw, 2. Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova, 3. Bunny by Mona Awad, 4. Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline and 5. A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
Are you not posting your top 6 books from 6 different genres this year?
I will be posting 8. 💕 on Instagram & TikTok
I think you might like A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power. It's a multigenerational, indigenous voices novel about the effects of colonialism, the residential schools. It was long listed for a National Book Award. I loved the first three sections of the book and would love to see your take on it.
My favorites of the year were Chain Gang Allstars, Kindred, and Migrations! Unfortunately it was a pretty meh year overall though
I read EMILY WILDE in November and I LOVED it as well! 😍
💖
omg if you loved a little devil in america please check out the lonely city: adventures in the art of being alone by olivia laing!
My fav books of the year were Monstrilio, A Dowry of Blood and Rouge
Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson is also one of my top 3 books of the year!
Yesss i love nothing to see here!
From me recommend Half A Soul
I’ve never clicked so fast
Honestly. I'm sick of books about colonization. Every piece of land on this planet had some other group of people at one time. I'm starting to hate books that are trying to sway readers.
What is stolen language?
Is it bad that Top 9 feels cleaner to me?
My top teen were;
1. The club
2. The slave ship: a human history
3. Americanah
4. Half a yellow sun
5. Trust
The only one I’m surprised to not see here is The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
My Top Ten was
Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow
Check & Mate
Hello Beautiful
Curious Tides
Everyone on this Train is a Suspect
Shark Heart
Happy Place
Divine Rivals
Black River Orchard
Adelaide
Hanif is my hometown hero
I’m the person who Kayla shouted out in the video who recommended the book to her.. I’m from Columbus as well!! Hello!!!
@@katecollins2471 Hi!! I moved to California about a year ago but I miss Columbus a lot!
Gosh, totally surprised at most of the list. In particular your #1 book being A Little Devil...a nonfiction essay book. I tried it but some had no periods, just one big long sentence with a lot of &&&. For me, the subject matter for most of the stories were out of date, been there and done that. Too many words.
Leech, Nothing to see here, How beautiful we were and Everyone in my family has killed someone are all on my tbr!
Nothing to see here 🔥🫶🏼
you pushed emily wilde to the top of my tbr after raving about it and now it’s one of my 2023 faves! I would’ve put it off for way longer if it weren’t for you 🥲