Broader Horizons: 2023 Books and Their Impact on Me

For 2023, I set a goal for myself to read 12 new books during the course of the year. “New” is defined as a book that I haven’t yet read, so rereading old favorites doesn’t count. I thought it would be a great way to broaden my horizons with the books I read and the insights I can gain. I also joined two book clubs, one local and one virtual, so in hindsight, I should have realized this would be an easily attainable goal. But life happens, so it’s not always a bad thing to leave room for error to ensue. I’m really excited about the range of topics I was able to dip my toe into and I finished the year with 26 new books!

  1. The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover over of Bodies and Brains, Robert H. Lustig

  2. Verity, Colleen Hoover

  3. Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, Anne Helen Petersen

  4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

  5. Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism, Aja Barber

  6. Troubled Blood, Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

  7. Drama Free, Nedra Glover Tawwab

  8. The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel

  9. The Housemaid, Freida McFadden

  10. Anna, Amy Odell

  11. The Guest List, Lucy Foley

  12. The Wellness Trap, Christy Harrison

  13. Happy Place, Emily Henry

  14. A Perfect Vintage, Chelsea Fagan

  15. Unmasking Autism, Devon Price

  16. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

  17. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention- And How to Think Deeply Again, Johann Hari

  18. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson

  19. How to Keep House While Drowning, KC Davis

  20. Chasing Mia, Lauren Michelle

  21. The Ink Black Heart, Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

  22. Catching Raven, Lauren Michelle

  23. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman

  24. Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, Amanda Montell

  25. “You Just Need to Lose Weight” And 19 Other Myths About Fat People, Aubrey Gordon

  26. The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower, Morra Aarons-Mele

Overall, I’m really proud of my year of reading. I learned a lot. I enjoyed a lot. I smiled a lot. I was also able to fall back in love with fiction. For a while, a lot of my reading was non-fiction, to learn something and fix an area of my life. Purposeful reading. This year I was able to read for fun. Or for curiosity. Or because I had an afternoon free and I was a little salty that my book club didn’t select Happy Place when it looked so interesting and I just had to read it. Some books, like Verity or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo I couldn’t put down. Luckily for me, those were book club picks for my local group so I was able to meet with folks in person and just talk about them, respectively. I tried to explain to my husband what was so amazing about these novels, but I guess you just have to read it to get the full experience. He was a little confused by my recounting, and enthusiasm.

A huge takeaway from my reading this year is a reframing of how I want to live my life. Who it’s for, how I want to show up, and how I want to feel. Throughout this year and the last few, I’ve become engrossed in systems: how they work, what their functions are, and what outcomes they are supposed to produce (or who they are supposed to benefit). I’ve come across a term for this, systems theory, that I plan to explore more in the upcoming months. But other books gripped my attention as they highlighted the systems that I’m living within and am not always cognitively aware of. Can’t Even provided more context to my generational upbringing: the impacts of life for our parent’s generation(s) and how that may have affected how they raised us in the midst of an ever-changing world. Consumed opened my eyes to the impact of discarded clothes- where they end up, who’s “problem” they become when I’m done with them and the systems in place to prevent people from profiting from their own labor. It also alerted me to my complicitness in participating in fast fashion, which I previously thought I was above simply for not shopping at certain global, fast fashion retailers. Most importantly, it forced me to take a hard look at my own consumption, not only fashion, but single use items, recycling, and food waste.

Stolen Focus gave me grace to know that it’s not all my fault, that my attention is valuable to outside forces. Really valuable in fact, with billions of ad dollars being spent to capture and retain my attention, even if for a few moments. I would literally need to cut myself off from the internet to completely unplug from the matrix and that’s not even something I desire. But the awareness allows me to chuckle when I see what now are clearer tactics. Or I can openly admit, “yep, this is a great way to market to me”, maybe the algorithm is listening too. But instead of being frustrated at not being able to focus, I can understand why and establish some boundaries between me and my online habits for a more harmonious future. Along a similar vein, Four Thousand Weeks enlightened me that my so-called “control” over my time both day to day and on this Earth, is nonexistent. That has been such a freeing concept, to be able to drop the proverbial rope. Not to allow time and circumstance to rule my life; in some ways I do believe I have control, but I’m no longer going to be upset when I do lose control of it. It’s an illusion, a beautiful one when it holds and a beautiful mess when it doesn’t. I feel better equipped to look at that mess for what it is, rather than a problem that needs to be solved. I have a newfound respect for my lack of control over time. Perhaps one day we’ll feel like equals.

The Anxious Achiever has been an interesting read. I was first introduced to the work Morra Aarons-Mele does when she gave a presentation at my workplace. Not only was it an engaging presentation, but I discovered her book and her podcast, the latter of which I started before borrowing a copy of her book. The term “anxious achiever” resonates with me as I have a life long track record of high achievement and perfectionism, often being driven by “what will other people think?” and “what can I do better?”, which drives me to overwork and outperform. I do it because I love it, I love the achievement and the impacts I can create, but it takes a toll. When trying to dial it back or reign myself in, I’ve started to feel like that’s not an option, that I’m not doing my best. Or I see what I want the end result to look like and if I’m not producing that, “what’s the point?”. I need to work with what I’m learning is a symptom of my anxiety, but my achievement is also part of my identity. Anxiety and achievement will need to work in concert for me to be fulfilled, but a mutual respect for one another needs to be developed. 

This year, I feel I have broadened my horizons with the types of books I’ve read, the viewpoints I’ve listened to, and the grappling with so many things being true at the same time. I have learned so much that has forced me to look at the world differently. That is a door that cannot be closed. I can’t wait to see what new books are in store for me in 2024. 

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