Merry Christmas! Bests of 2023

Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas! No better gift than a great book or movie rec, as stories are our human escape and our reflections. I’m always adding great books on Goodreads and movies good or bad on Lettrboxed all year round. Hope you enjoy seeing what I loved most in 2023 and your holiday! Peace and Blessings, Kalisha

FICTION

This was a great past year of fiction, stores and more. I especially enjoyed attending the Chicago Public Library Foundation Awards with Jeff Allen, a former honoree now friend, and Thrillerfest in New York City. Friends new and old published again or for the first time, my blurbers came out of hiding to deliver expected masterpieces, I got to read one of my favorite movies as a book, and novels I helped edit or blurbed were among the biggest of the year. Hope these peak your curiosity.

FAT TIME & OTHER STORIES by Jeffrey Renard Allen (Graywolf, 2023)

WHEN I’M GONE, LOOK FOR ME IN THE EAST by Quan Barry (Pantheon, 2022)

YOU NEVER KNOW by Connie Briscoe (HarperCollins, 2023)

THE SAME COUNTRY by Carole Burns (Legend Press, 2023)

BLUE LIKE ME by Aaron Phillip Clark (Thomas & Mercer, 2022)

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S.A. Cosby (FlatironBooks, 2023)

I AM AYAH: THE WAY HOME by Donna Hill (Entangled Publishing, LLC, 2023)

I’LL TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE by James Klise (Algonquin, 2023)

HEAT 2 by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner (HarperCollins, 2022)

STELLA MARIS by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf, 2022)

THE QUIET TENANT by Clemence Michallon (Knopf, 2023)

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT KITTY CARR? by Crystal Smith Paul (Henry Holt, 2023)

LAST SEEN IN LAPAZ by Kwei Quartey (Soho Press, 2023)

BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY & SUSPENSE edited by Lisa Unger (HarperCollins, 2023)

LET US DESCEND by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner, 2023)

LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET by Toya Wolfe (HarperCollins, 2022)

NONFICTION & MORE

I’ve gotten some of my best ideas and calmest reading from nonfiction. These are very powerful memoirs, refreshing new looks at cultural icons, and personal accounts of surviving trauma and fighting for justice in all its forms. I was especially happy to see Mosaic back in print and send The New Black Woman to women as a gift as well as gift the Prince book to my father.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE NEW POLAR AESTHETICS by Lisa Bloom (Duke University Press Books, 2023)

LENA HORNE: GODDESS RECLAIMED by Donald Bogle (TCM, 2023)

STEPPING OUT: THE UNAPOLOGETIC STYLE OF AFRICAN AMERICANS OVER FIFTY by Connie Briscoe, Milton Washington

INTERSECTING AESTHETICS edited by Terri Simone Francis et. al.

THE UNFORESEEABLE FUTURE by Tiffany Gholar (Tiffany Gholar, 2022)

IGNITE: UNLOCK THE HIDDEN POTENTIAL WITHIN by Andre De Grasse, Dan Robson

THE NEW BLACK WOMAN: LOVES HERSELF, HAS BOUNDARIES AND HEALS EVERYDAY by Marita Golden (Mango, 2023)

CLIMBING THE ROUGH SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF LOVE, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND LABOR ACTIVISM by Norman and Velma Hill (Regalo Books, 2023)

THE DIARIES OF FRANZ KAKFA by Franz Kafka (Schocken, 2023)

EVERY DAY SOMETHING HAS TRIED TO KILL ME AND FAILED: NOTES FROM A PERIRACIAL AMERICA by Kim McClarin (IG Publishing, 2023)

GROCERY SHOPPING WITH MY MOTHER by Kevin Powell (Soft Skull, 2023)

THE CREATIVE COMEBACK by Felica Pride (Create Daily, 2023)

MOSAIC #43: QUEER/BLACK/LIT guest edited by Mecca Sullivan (Literary Freedom Project, 2023)

PRINCE: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC by Matt Thorne (Agate Bolden, 2023)

SCREEN

A nice combination of impromptu theater runs, streaming and film fests produced a fun year in film. Watched THE DEPARTED, WOLF OF WALL STREET, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL and SCARFACE for the first times (I was wrong for Scarface all these years, but I got my Black card back). L.A. CONFIDENTIAL surprised me- I never knew it had the racial injustice narrative and I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner for it. THE DEPARTED and THE STRANGER, both about haggard white cops and pitiful white criminals in an undercover mess, broke through as rare new favorite movies I could watch again and again. Looking forward to AMERICAN FICTION, FERRARI and THE COLOR PURPLE as holiday season views.