Vincennes Contextless List of Books 2023

Alex Mitchell
2 min readJan 1, 2024

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Vincennes Review of Books 2023 is here!

Key:

* = Excellent, highly recommend

~ = Actively bad, do not recommend

First reads

The Book of Form & Emptiness–Ruth Ozeki
Love in Idleness–Charlotte Mendelson
Straight Man–Richard Russo *
The Complete Magazine Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1921–1924–F. Scott Fitzgerald *
The Book of Goose–Yiyun Li
The Imperfect Life of T. S. Eliot–Lyndall Gordon
The Liar’s Dictionary–Eley Williams
The Coaching Habit–Michael Bungay Stainer
Cleopatra and Frankenstein–Coco Mellors
The Waste Land: A Biography of a Poem–Matthew Hollis
The Exhibitionist–Charlotte Mendelson
Trespasses–Louise Kennedy
The Pocket Guide to Neurodiversity–Daniel Aherne ~
Memories of the Future–Siri Hustvedt *
My Phantoms–Gwendoline Riley *
Bright Star, Green Light–Jonathan Bate
The Three Dahlias–Katy Watson
Atomic Habits–James Clear
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned–eds. W. Blazek, D. W. Ullrich and K. Curnutt

Light–Eva Figes *
Passages–Ann Quin
House Mother Normal–B. S. Johnson
The Secrets We Kept–Lara Prescott
Ruth & Pen–Emilie Pine
Legacy of Ashes–Tim Weiner
Circe–Madeline Miller *
White Out–Michael W. Clune *
Ducks, Newburyport–Lucy Ellman *
James Joyce–Richard Ellman
The Human Factor–Graham Greene
Me Cheeta–James Lever
The Unfolding–A. M. Homes
The Confidential Agent–Graham Greene
The Art of T. S. Eliot–Helen Gardner
Pregnant Then Screwed–Joeli Brearley ~
The Other One–E. Saxey
The Story of Art Without Men–Katy Hessel
Sound Within Sound–Kate Molleson *
Play It As It Lays–Joan Didion
The Others of Edenwell–Verity Holloway
Radical Candor–Kim Scott
Cakes and Ale–W. Somerset Maugham *
One Day I Shall Astonish the World–Nina Stibbe
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 1667–Samuel Pepys
The Lock In–Phoebe Luckhurst *
A Quick Ting On… Afrobeats–Christian Adofo

Rereads

The Black Prince–Iris Murdoch *
Unquiet–E. Saxey *
Dubliners–James Joyce *
White Noise–Don DeLillo *
Possession–A. S. Byatt *
The Bible (The Message Translation) *

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Alex Mitchell
Alex Mitchell

Written by Alex Mitchell

Collected the Complete Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Edits the Feminist Friday newsletter. Also I’m a data analyst.