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# The Year in Review: 2023
- URL: https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/12/31/the-year-in-review-2023/
- Published: 2023-12-31T11:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-01T15:18:45.000Z
- Description: The best books that I read, the best films that I watched, the best albums that I listened to and the best exhibitions that I visited in 2023.
- Author: Ivar Hagendoorn
- Tags: Blog, Literature, Non-Fiction, Film, Art

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f7/c4/f7c4338c-1a69-4369-8416-8d74c9880bb6/content/images/2024/12/sophie-calle-musee-picasso-11.jpg)

These are the best books that I read in the past year. As always I like to mix "classics" and recently published books. When it comes to making a best of list the classics usually come out on top. You can find every book I read in 2023 [here](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/almost-every-book-i-have-ever-read/) by filling in the year in the search field.

### Best Books: Fiction

**David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas**. Yes, I know, you're probably thinking, "what, are you only reading this now?" Years ago, for reasons that I no longer remember I stopped after the second chapter. When I wanted to pick it up again I decided to wait some more and to start again right from the beginning. It is indeed a wonderful novel. Definitely one of the best of the 21st century.

**Amos Oz: A Tale of Love and Darkness**. With Israel and Palestine making news headlines again I decided to read this classic novel about a boy who grows up in war-torn Jerusalem in the 1940s and 50s. It saddens me that so little has changed.

**Annie Ernaux: La place & L'événement**. I loved *Les Années* (The Years) and now that she has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature I was keen to read some of her other novels. I love her writing style.

### Best Books: Non-Fiction

Ray Monk: [Ludwig Wittgenstein. The Duty of Genius](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/11/12/ray-monk-ludwig-wittgenstein-the-duty-of-genius/)

Siddharta Mukherjee: The Song of the Cell

Hans Belting: [Faces. Eine Geschichte des Gesichts](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/03/19/hans-belting-face-and-mask-a-double-history/)

Paul Griffiths: [Modern Music and After](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/09/17/paul-griffiths-modern-music-and-after/)

Ben Lawrence: The Treeline. The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth

### Best Exhibitions

[Sophie Calle: À toi de faire, ma mignonne](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/11/26/sophie-calle-at-the-musee-picasso/) at the Musée Picasso

[Anna-Eva Bergman: Voyage vers l'intérieur](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/06/18/anna-eva-bergman-voyage-vers-l-interieur/) at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris

[Nicolas de Staël at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/11/25/nicolas-de-stael-at-the-musee-d-art-moderne-de-paris/)

[Christian Marclay at the Centre Pompidou](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/01/29/christian-marclay-at-the-centre-pompidou/)

[Manet/Degas at the Musée d'Orsay](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/05/29/manet-degas-at-the-musee-dorsay/)

[Sarah Bernhardt. Et la femme créa la star](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/05/28/sarah-bernhardt-et-la-femme-crea-la-star/) at the Petit Palais

### Best Films

[Everything Everywhere All at Once ](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/02/12/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/)

[Decision to Leave](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2023/03/12/decision-to-leave/)

[Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse](https://www.ivarhagendoorn.com/blog/2024/01/01/spider-man-across-the-spider-verse/)

### Best Albums

Gabriel Fauré: Intégrale de la Musique de Chambre

Enno Poppe: Prozession

Pascuale Corrado: Works for Ensemble