2023 Pop Culture Lists

2023 has come to a close and seeing as how I am for some reason obsessed with tracking and archiving basically everything I do, here are my book, TV show/series, and album lists from the past year. (As always, my movie picks have to hold until the end of January after I’ve finally caught up on everything that comes out in the last week of the year and we do our end of year recap podcast.)

BOOKS

My reading goal every year is 52 books. I usually beat that by just a bit but was able to cruise past that goal this year, finishing with 62 (not listed: re-reads and books I read for work). For books, I don’t pay attention to publication year/date the way I do with movies, TV shows, and albums. Sue me. Here’s everything I read in 2023, ranked:

  1. Red Rising Sequel Trilogy by Pierce Brown (Audiobook)

  2. “Piranesi” by Suzanne Clark, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  3. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury, Horror (Audiobook)

  4. “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Literary Fiction (Audiobook)

  5. “Nothing to See Here” by Kevin Wilson, Fiction (Audiobook)

  6. “Blood, Sweat, and Chrome” by Kyle Buchanan, Non-Fiction Film (Audiobook)

  7. “A Death in Vienna” by Daniel Silva, Thriller (Audiobook)

  8. “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Gann, History (Audiobook)

  9. “The Last Ronin” by Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz, Graphic Novel (Book)

  10. “The Saturday Night Ghost Club” by Craig Davidson, Horror-ish (Audiobook)

  11. “The Confessor” by Daniel Silva, Thriller (Audiobook)

  12. “The Glass Hotel” by Emily St. John Mandel, Literary Fiction (Audiobook)

  13. “Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Literary Fiction (Audiobook)

  14. “Pax” by Sara Pennypacker, Fiction (Book)

  15. “The Kill Artist” by Daniel Silva, Thriller (Audiobook)

  16. “Kingdom Come” by Alex Ross and Mark Waid, Graphic Novel (Book)

  17. Murderbot Diaries 1-4 by Martha Wells, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  18. “Goldilocks” by Laura Lam, Sci-Fi (eBook)

  19. “In the Lives of Puppets” by TJ Klune, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  20. “The Wild Shore” by Kim Stanley Robinson, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  21. “The English Assassin” by Daniel Silva, Thriller (Audiobook)

  22. “The Hunger Games: A Song of Snakes and Songbirds” by Suzanne Collins, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  23. “All My Knotted Up Life” by Beth Moore, Memoir (Audiobook)

  24. “Exiles” by Jane Harper, Myster (Audiobook)

  25. “Whispers Underground” by Ben Aaronovich, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  26. “Broken Homes” by Ben Aaronovich, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  27. “Foxglove Summer” by Ben Aaronovich, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  28. “Top Eight” by Michael Tedder, Nonfiction Music (Audiobook)

  29. “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  30. “The Lola Quartet” by Emily St. John Mandel, Fiction (Audiobook)

  31. “Children of Memory” by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  32. The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn, Sci-Fi (eBook)

  33. Distress Signals” by Catherine Ryan Howard, Mystery (Audiobook)

  34. “Starling House” by Alix E. Harrow, Horror Fantasy (Audiobook)

  35. “Dead Water” by CA Fletcher, Horror (Audiobook)

  36. “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger, Literary Fiction (Audiobook)

  37. “The Last Enforcer” by Charles Oakley, Non-Fiction Sports (Audiobook)

  38. “Relic” by Alan Dean Foster, Sci-Fi (eBook)

  39. “Calculating the Stars” by Mary Robinette Kowal, Alternative History Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  40. “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” by Susanna Clark, Fantasy (Audiobook)

  41. “Frozen in Time” by Mitchell Zuckoff, History (eBook)

  42. “Outland” by Dennis E. Taylor, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  43. “Earthside” by Dennis E. Taylor, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  44. “Roadkill” by Dennis E. Taylor, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  45. “The Wrong Unit” by Rob Dircks, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  46. “Blood Meridian” by Cormac McCarthy, Western (Audiobook)

  47. “Here, Now, and Then” by Mike Chen, Sci-Fi (Audiobook)

  48. “The Last Rhinos” by Lawrence Anthony, Science (Audiobook)

  49. “The House in the Pines” by Ana Reyes, Mystery (Audiobook)

  50. “Down the Great Unknown” by Edward Dolnick, History (Audiobook)

  51. “The Substitution Order” by Martin Clark, Legal Thriller (Audiobook)

  52. “No Beast So Fierce” by Edward Bunker, History (eBook)

  53. “Children of the Comet” by Daniel Moffitt, Sci-Fi (eBook)

  54. “Wooly” by Ben Mezrich, Science (Audiobook)

TV SHOWS/SERIES

I thought this was a great year for television. Some of the favorites from years past may have had only “good” or even “middling” seasons in 2023 but there were plenty of excellent new shows and some terrific returns for existing shows as well. I wasn’t sure anything would pass The Last Of Us for me when it wrapped up in March but The Bear season two took a show I really loved in its debut season last summer and LAUNCHED it into “one of the greatest of all time” territory for me. Here’s everything I watched in 2023:

NEW SEASONS

  1. The Bear S2 (Hulu)

  2. The Last of Us S1 (Max)

  3. For All Mankind S4 (Apple)

  4. I Think You Should Leave S3 (Netflix)

  5. Fall of the House of Usher (Netflix)

  6. Poker Face S1 (Peacock)

  7. Silo S1 (Apple)

  8. Shrinking S1 (Apple)

  9. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2 (Paramount)

  10. Ted Lasso S3 (Apple)

  11. The Mandalorian S3 (Disney+)

  12. Only Murders in the Building S3 (Hulu)

  13. Daisy Jones and the Six (Prime)

  14. Picard S3 (Paramount)

  15. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel S5 (Prime)

  16. Beckham (Netflix)

  17. What If? S2 (Disney+)

  18. Afterparty S2 (Apple)

  19. Last Chance U S2 (Netflix)

  20. Dark Winds S2 (AMC+)

  21. Sweet Tooth S2 (Netflix)

  22. Ahsoka S1 (Disney+)

  23. Yellowjackets S2 (Showtime)

  24. Justified: Primeval City S1 (Hulu)

  25. Love and Death (Max)

  26. The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (Max)

  27. The Secrets of Hillsong (Hulu)

  28. Hijack (Apple)

  29. Jack Ryan S4 (Prime)

  30. Muscles and Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators (Netflix)

  31. The Night Agent S1 (Netflix)

  32. Unstable (Netflix)

  33. Waco: American Apocalypse (Netflix)

  34. The Murdaugh Murders (Netflix)

  35. Escaping Twin Flames (Netflix)

  36. Inside Man S1 (Netflix)

FIRST TIME WATCHES - PREVIOUS SEASONS

  1. For All Mankind S1-3 (Apple)

  2. Star Trek Strange New Worlds S1 (Paramount)

  3. Mythic Quest S1-3 (Apple)

  4. Dark Winds S1 (AMC+)

  5. Bojack Horseman S6 (Netflix)

  6. Jack Ryan S3 (Prime)

  7. Picard S2 (Paramount)

  8. The Flash S1-9 (Netflix)

  9. The English (Prime)

  10. Reboot (Hulu)

ALBUMS

This wasn’t the best music year I’ve ever had; some years I really prioritize listening to new albums and finding new stuff and some years that just falls through the cracks. 2023 was of the latter kind. Still, some of my favorite artists put out new albums this year and I found my way to a handful of new and new to me artists as well. I don’t track every new album I listen to, only my favorites on the year, but I did make a Spotify mix CD of sorts of my favorite new songs, newly discovered songs, and newly relevant songs from 2023 if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Here’s my top ten albums from 2023:

  1. “Folkocracy” by Rufus Wainwright

  2. “Weathervanes” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

  3. “1989 (Taylor’s Version” by Taylor Swift

  4. “White Trash Revely” by Adeem the Artist (actually 2022 but it dropped late in the year and I didn’t get to until January)

  5. “Suburban Legend” by DURRY

  6. “Guts” by Olivia Rodrigo

  7. “Spectral Lines” by Josh Ritter

  8. “The First Two Pages of Frankenstein” by The National

  9. “One More Time” by Blink-182

  10. “Self-Titled” by Zach Bryan