Ep. 160: The Best Backlist Books We Read in 2023 with Catherine (@GilmoreGuide)
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.9 • 732 Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 160, Catherine (@GilmoreGuide) and I share the best backlist books we read in 2023. We each discuss our top 5 backlist books from last year, highlight some underrated backlist gems, and review our backlist reading statistics. Devoting an entire episode to backlist reading is something we love doing and we've heard from you that you love it too!
This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).
CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.
Announcement
- Available Now! To get the backlist reading guide, The Best of the Backlist, you can sign up to be a Superstars patron here. You’ll also get access to a monthly bonus podcast series called Double Booked (where Catherine or Susie and I share our own book recommendations in the same format as the big show) and my Rock Your Reading Tracker.
Highlights
- Catherine had a small uptick in her backlist reading — her most successful segment of books in 2023!
- Sarah's backlist reading was slightly less successful than last year — maybe marking an unfortunate trend.
- How Sarah's decreased DNFs for last year impacted her Backlist stats.
- While Catherine has already read many of Sarah's picks, Sarah has already purchased (but not yet read) many of Catherine's choices!
Our Top 5 Backlist Books We Read in 2023 [7:37]
Catherine
- Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen | Amazon
| Bookshop.org [7:44]
- True Biz by Sara Nović | Amazon | Bookshop.org [13:12]
- All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir | Amazon | Bookshop.org [17:52]
- The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary | Amazon | Bookshop.org [24:58]
- Leaving Atlanta by Tayari Jones | Amazon | Bookshop.org [32:31]
Sarah
- Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent | Amazon
- What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo | Amazon | Bookshop.org [15:36]
- Search by Michelle Huneven | Amazon | Bookshop.org [21:41]
- Like a House on Fire by Lauren McBrayer | Amazon | Bookshop.org [29:04]
- The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka | Amazon | Bookshop.org [36:55]
Other Books Mentioned
- Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent [10:38]
- Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent [11:10]
- The Ensemble by Aja Gabel [23:19]
- Untamed by Glennon Doyle [31:14]
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones [33:22]
- Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones [36:31]
Underrated Backlist Gems [39:54]
Catherine
- Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See
by Juliann Garey | Amazon | Bookshop.org
- A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella | Amazon
Sarah
- Something Wild
- The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre | Amazon
Other Books Mentioned
- I Could Live Here Forever by Hanna Halperin [45:21]
- Red Widow by Alma Katsu [54:02]
- Red London by Alma Katsu [54:03]
Other Links
- Vogue | In Finishing My Book… by Lauren McBrayer
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. |
| 0:11.9 | I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. |
| 0:13.8 | Join me every other week as we get real and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. |
| 0:19.3 | Sometimes I'm joined by one of my co-hosts, Catherine, |
| 0:22.0 | from Gilmer Guide to Books, or Susie from Novel Visits. Other times, I talk with a bookish guest, |
| 0:28.4 | including authors and publishing insiders who give us a behind-the-scenes peek into different |
| 0:33.4 | corners of the book world. But always, we're bringing you great book recommendations in every |
| 0:39.3 | single episode. Let's get rolling. Welcome to the best backlist books we read in 2023. We know how |
| 0:46.9 | much y'all love hearing about backlist books. You've told us so in various different survey |
| 0:52.2 | results. So we wanted to devote an annual episode entirely to |
| 0:57.1 | backlist. Catherine from Gilmorgide always does these episodes with me, and she's here with me |
| 1:02.6 | today. Welcome back, Catherine. Thank you. I love doing these episodes. And you read a lot of |
| 1:08.4 | backlests. So you're a good person to do these episodes with. |
| 1:12.0 | You read a fair amount. |
| 1:13.4 | You're right. |
| 1:14.5 | Before we get to our best backlist of 2023, I do want to share something really fun and new that we are doing this year for our $7 a month superstars patrons. |
| 1:26.9 | If y'all remember back to this summer, we did a companion |
| 1:29.9 | to my summer reading guide called Summer Shelfs. It was available to my Superstars Patrons and was |
| 1:35.6 | entirely backlist titles recommended by podcast guests and patrons of the show. Through our |
| 1:41.8 | most recent patron survey results, we learned a couple things about summer shelves. |
| 1:47.0 | We learned that it was decently successful, but not as successful as we would like it to be given the time and effort it took to put together. |
| 1:54.0 | Our patrons communicated two issues that were really good information for me to know. |
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