Our Year in Reviews: 2023

Some of the best things we read, listened to, watched, made, and bought in 2023. Thanks for spending a great year with us!

Happy New Year! Many thanks to our longtime readers for spending another wild year with us. And if you’re newer to the Double Take crew — welcome, here’s to 2024, we’re so happy you’re here!

While we normally stick to TV and streaming service content, every so often we like to recommend other items that have made our lives better and/or more fun. Read on for a special collection of some of the best things we read, listened to, watched, made, and bought in 2023.

— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen

First time reading? Subscribe to receive Double Take weekly.

---

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. Tress is such a fun, whimsical read. This epic sci-fi/fantasy adventure is a little bit like The Princess Bride meets Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Neil Gaiman’s Stardust. The world building (like all of Sanderson’s projects) is exceptionally cool and the story grabbed me in a way that made me feel like a kid reading her first fantasy novel. - Jenni

Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann. A novella and three short stories that are all mesmerizingly written, Thirteen Ways was my first foray into Colum McCann’s works and I loved every second of the experience. His prose is incredibly clear and deft and I would highly suggest that anyone new to McCann start with this collection and then head right over to Apeirogon. If you have more literary fiction on your bingo card for 2024, these books are oh so satisfying. - Jenni

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. This is not a hot take in the slightest but I don’t care. I couldn’t put this book about friendship, video games, and the ‘90s down and I spent the last third of it weeping. It’s beautiful in both content and writing style. - Jenni

Ditto-ing Jenni here, Tomorrow x3 was one of only two books that I awarded 5 stars to this year. It falls off a tiny bit around the end, but is otherwise a masterpiece. - Jess

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Fantasy and heist stories are two of my favorite things, and this book combines them in a way that makes my brain tingle. As a YA novel, it’s a quick and easy read, but the plot structure and writing style are still gripping. You will fall in love with Bardugo’s characters and their dark, gritty city of Ketterdam, especially if you’re at all a sucker for the “thieves with a conscience” trope like I am. - Jenni

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. Take a dip into dark academia with a modern Greek tragedy set in an idyllic small liberal arts college town. This book cast a spell on me for all three days it took me to devour it. Another top book of the year where the writing just blew me away. - Jenni

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. I’m very much in the majority here but sometimes popular things are that way for a reason! Jennette writes about the harrowing abuse she faced at the hands of her mother amidst the trials of becoming a star at a young age. The former iCarly watcher in me enjoyed the nods to that era, but I was surprised to find that the memoir was well-written, engrossing, and told with a hard-to-perfect balance of sincerity and humor. - Jess

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier. Among the 30 thrillers that I read this year, this one about a woman accused of murdering her much older and richer celebrity husband was my favorite. Hillier not only writes interesting and twisty mysteries, but she writes complex and nuanced characters. Even if you can predict the ending, it’s still a good time. - Jess

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I tore through both the LiC book and the recent Brie Larson-led adaptation. You have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit; there is anthropomorphism, anachronistic elements, and an impossibly intelligent main character. The tone is also constantly shifting between grave and comedic in a way that can be jarring. But I loved that it didn’t follow a formula, and I’m always a sucker for a story about an empowered woman. - Jess

---

Normal Gossip is my go-to podcast for literally any situation. It’s fun to listen to while I cook, walk, clean, or workout by myself, but equally good to listen to with others! In every episode host Kelsey McKinney discusses a new piece of anonymized, reader-submitted gossip with a guest, and they dive into the lives and decisions of complete strangers with comedic, reckless abandon. What a blast. - Jenni

Boygenius’s album The Record held the number one spot in my Spotify wrapped this year… which makes sense, because I pretty much played it on a loop throughout the summer and autumn and lots of the winter, too. Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers were already some of my favorite musicians, but their indie rock supergroup has really sunk its claws into my heart or soul or whatever. I love every song, but Cool About It, $20, Emily I’m Sorry, and Not Strong Enough are the creme de la creme. - Jenni

GUTS. The second studio album by young pop icon Olivia Rodrigo has grown on me a lot since September. I liked it fine enough the first listen-through, but did not think it would make it into any of my “best of 2023” lists. However! I’ve come to love how much GUTS makes me feel like I’m back in early college making terrible decisions and feeling misunderstood. It’s so nostalgic and cathartic and much less traumatic than actually being 20 again. - Jenni

I, on the other hand, knew from the start that GUTS was my album of the year. While I might not currently relate to her angsty 20-year-old woes, her songs take me back to a time when every emotion felt raw and heightened, and listening to them feels like vindication for my past self who always felt like she felt too much. - Jess

Drowning by T.J. Newman, the audiobook version. I listen primarily to audiobooks while I run, and never have I heard one that was as adrenaline-pumping and well-paced as this story about a commercial plane that crash-lands in the ocean. The only thing that kept me from listening to it in one go is that I can’t run for 8 hours straight. - Jess

1989 (Taylor’s Version) was not only the re-release of my favorite Taylor album, but included the best Vault tracks to date. Now That We Don’t Talk and Is It Over Now? played on repeat in my ears for weeks; it’s a tragedy that she waited this long to grace us with their existence. - Jess

---

Simple Ribollita. A mainstay for three years running, ribollita is my comfort food of choice between the months of October and March. It’s so delightfully savory, with umami-packed Parm, hearty beans and veggies, and enough bread and olive oil to satisfy the “Macaroni Grill” kid in all of us. It’s also vegetarian and one-pot so what more could you ask for? - Jenni