My 2023 Booklist

 

Here we GO!

My Favorites from the 2023

Strangely, many of these are set in the wilds or centered around nature this year, but lots of variety, too. (Blurbs mostly attributed to Good Reads and/or Amazon!)

The Bee Sting — Paul Murray (longlisted for Booker Prize 2023) *This is a long one!!!

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home. Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?

 
The North Woods – Daniel Mason

A sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries. When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants. An English soldier, a pair of spinster twins, a crime reporter, a lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive. Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?

The Bird Hotel – Joyce Maynard

After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano. The Bird Hotel tells the story of this young American who, after suffering tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way we meet a rich assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel. With a mystery at its center and filled with warmth, drama, romance, humor, pop culture, and a little magic realism, The Bird Hotel is a big, sweeping story spanning four decades, offering lyricism as well as whimsy.

The Vaster Wilds – Lauren Groff

A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.

Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver   *This is a long one!

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store – James McBride

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community-heaven and earth-that sustain us.

Wish You Were Here – Jodi Picoult

Diana O'Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She's not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time. But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It's all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes. Almost immediately, Diana's dream vacation goes awry. The whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father's suspicion of outsiders. Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different. 

Starling House – Alix E. Harrow

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home. As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares. If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.

Bright Young Women – Jessica Knoll

Bright Young Women is the story about two women from opposite sides of the country who become sisters in their fervent pursuit of the truth. It proposes a new narrative inspired by evidence that’s been glossed over for decades in favor of more salable headlines—that the so-called brilliant and charismatic serial killer from Seattle was far more average than the countless books, movies, and primetime specials have led us to believe, and that it was the women whose lives he cut short who were the exceptional ones.

Happiness for Beginners – Katherine Center

A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls. Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

The River We Remember – William Kent Krueger

On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife. As suspicions and accusations mount and the town teeters on the edge of more violence, Dern struggles not only to find the truth of Quinn’s murder but also put to rest the demons from his own past. Caught up in the torrent of anger that sweeps through Jewel are a war widow and her adolescent son, the intrepid publisher of the local newspaper, an aging deputy, and a crusading female lawyer, all of whom struggle with their own tragic histories and harbor secrets that Quinn’s death threatens to expose.

Tom Lake – Ann Patchett

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

Fantasy/Science Fiction Novels:

Fairy Tale – Stephen King (I’ll say it again…I am a Stephen King fan!)

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder. Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.” And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time. A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.

Fourth Wing – Rebecca Yarros (Plus Book #2 in series Iron Flame)

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away... because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sarah J. Maas (#2 A Court of Mist and Fury, #3 A Court of Wings and Ruin)

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world. At least, he’s not a beast all the time. As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

Good Romantic Happy-Place Reading

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Anything by Emily Henry 

Anything by Katherine Center (just discovered her this year! Awesome story-teller)
Hello Stranger
The Bodyguard
Things You Save in a Fire
How to Walk Away
The Bright Side of Disaster
Happiness for Beginners

Anything by Abby Jimenez
Part of your World
Yours Truly
The Friend Zone
The Happily-Ever After Playlist

 

My 2022 List of Favorite Books

 

Well, I managed to read a lot of great books in 2022, and since a few of you have asked…here’s my annual list of great reading for you!

My absolute FIVE STAR favorites

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin

Two friends--often in love, but never lovers--come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. For Sam Masur and Sadie Green a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.

Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt

A charming, witty and compulsively readable exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus. After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

A Town Called Solace – Mary Lawson (longlisted for Booker Prize 2021)

A Town Called Solace opens on a family in crisis: rebellious teenager Rose been missing for weeks with no word, and Rose's younger sister, the feisty and fierce Clara, keeps a daily vigil at the living-room window, hoping for her sibling's return. Enter thirtyish Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, where he promptly moves into the house next door--watched suspiciously by astonished and dismayed Clara, whose elderly friend, Mrs. Orchard, owns that home. Around the time of Rose's disappearance, Mrs. Orchard was sent for a short stay in hospital, and Clara promised to keep an eye on the house and its remaining occupant, Mrs. Orchard's cat, Moses. As the novel unfolds, so does the mystery of what has transpired between Mrs Orchard and the newly arrived stranger.

Among the Lesser Gods – Margo Catts

“Tragedy and blessing. Leave them alone long enough, and it gets real hard to tell them apart.”

Elena Alvarez is living a cursed life. From the deadly fire she accidentally set as a child, to her mother’s abandonment, and now to an unwanted pregnancy, she knows better than most that small actions can have terrible consequences. Driven to the high mountains surrounding Leadville, Colorado by her latest bad decision, she’s intent on putting off the future. Perhaps there she can just hide in her grandmother’s isolated cabin and wait for something—anything—to make her next choice for her. Instead, she is confronted by reflections of her own troubles wherever she turns—the recent widower and his two children adrift in a changed world, Elena’s own mysterious family history, and the interwoven lives within the town itself. Bit by bit, Elena begins to question her understanding of cause and effect, reexamining the tragedies she’s held on to and the wounds she’s refused to let heal.

Mercy Street – Jennifer Haigh

A tense, riveting story about the disparate lives that intersect at a women's clinic in Boston. For almost a decade, Claudia has counseled patients at Mercy Street, a clinic in the heart of the city. The work is consuming, the unending dramas of women in crisis. For its patients, Mercy Street offers more than health care; for many, it is a second chance. But outside the clinic, the reality is different. Mercy Street is a novel for right now, a story of the polarized American present.

True Biz – Sara Novic

TRUE BIZ (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk

True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf. This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection.

All My Rage – Sabaa Tahir

A brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching contemporary YA novel about family and forgiveness, love and loss, in a sweeping story that crosses generations and continents.

 

I found these gems also totally enjoyable

The Christie Affair -- Nina de Gramont

A beguiling novel of star-crossed lovers, heartbreak, revenge, and murder—and a brilliant re-imagination of one of the most talked-about unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century -- Agatha Christie’s disappearance for eleven infamous days. London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie. The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?

The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams

An unforgettable and heartwarming debut about how a chance encounter with a list of library books helps forge an unlikely friendship between two very different people in a London suburb.  

Carrie Soto is Back – Taylor Jenkins Reid

In this powerful novel about the cost of greatness, a legendary athlete attempts a comeback when the world considers her past her prime—from the New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising.

Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese

A vivid reimagining of the woman who inspired Hester Prynne, the tragic heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and a journey into the enduring legacy of New England's witchcraft trials.

Other Birds – Sarah Addison Allen

An enchanting tale filled with magical realism and moments of pure love that won’t let you go. Between the real and the imaginary, there are stories that take flight in the most extraordinary ways.

We Are the Light – Matthew Quick

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, We Are the Light is an unforgettable novel about the quicksand of grief and the daily miracle of love. The humorous, soul-baring story of Lucas Goodgame offers an antidote to toxic masculinity and celebrates the healing power of art. In this tale that will stay with you long after the final page is turned, Quick reminds us that guardian angels are all around us—sometimes in the forms we least expect.

Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.

Fun, Romantic, Happy-Place Reading

Book Lovers – Emily Henry (if you haven't read Emily Henry and you like contemporary romance...run, don't walk! She has the best dialogue and sets up great stories with smart characters)

Beach Read – Emily Henry

Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston

 

And, of course, COHO! I got involved with the Colleen Hoover craze…and have to admit I see why all the fuss. She does her type of stories (tragic, romantic, emotional) so, so well!

It Ends with Us

It Starts with Us

November 9

All Your Perfects

Ugly Love

Verity

Don’t Forget to Support our Local Authors – Love!

Pearl of Arabia – Connor Black

The sweeping saga of a young woman uncovering her mysterious past, only to find herself at the epicenter of a power struggle that could shatter a nation.

Julian's Gambit: Alerti Chronicles - Book One – Tom Schnurr

His father is dead. His family is under siege. But Julian has a magical secret. Julian Amerson-Koth is heir to a dominant trading house, but his world abruptly changes with the unexpected death of his father and accusations of his own involvement. Thrust into events beyond his control, Julian must call on all his cunning, strength and loyalties—and even forbidden magic—to fulfil his dead father's wishes. But it seems that larger forces want him to fail. Can Julian defeat stacked odds to fulfil his destiny? Or, will the family dynasty follow his father to the grave?

2020 Book List: What a Year!

 

My favorite Zoom backgrounds this year have been book shelves...libraries...beautiful spaces that would be perfect to hide in with a book. If I have to see myself on a screen all day, at least it can be in the setting of my dream home study. It's been very soothing and satisfying to surround my virtual self with books during the work day, and my real self with books whenever else I can. A lot of people did a LOT of reading in 2020, including me. For some reason I found myself gravitating toward thrillers and mysteries this year, as well as some beautiful, difficult literary fiction, some young adult novels and many, many simply lovely works of art. There are so many talented writers out there, and I am constantly in awe of the work and dedication it takes to bring a novel to life. Here are some great choices if you're looking for your next great read!

My Absolute Favs of 2020

The Midnight Library: Matt Haig 

"Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?" A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time.

Hamnet: Maggie O’Farrell 

“Of all the stories that argue and speculate about Shakespeare’s life… here is a novel … so gorgeously written that it transports you." —The Boston Globe In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker). A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down—a magnificent leap forward from one of our most gifted novelists.

Invisible Life of Addie La Rue: V.E. Schwab

“A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.” France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars: Glendy Vanderah 

In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again. After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises. The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay—just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Daddy: Emma Kline *Short Story Collection

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls comes an eagerly anticipated story collection exploring the dark corners of human experience. In ten remarkable stories, Emma Cline portrays moments when the ordinary is disturbed, when daily life buckles, revealing the perversity and violence pulsing under the surface. She explores characters navigating the edge, the limits of themselves and those around them: power dynamics in families, in relationships, the distance between their true and false selves. They want connection, but what they provoke is often closer to self-sabotage. What are the costs of one’s choices? Of the moments when we act, or fail to act? These complexities are at the heart of Daddy, Emma Cline’s sharp-eyed illumination of the contrary impulses that animate our inner lives.

Writers & Lovers: Lily King 

Writers & Lovers follows Casey―a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist―in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

Sea Wife: Amity Gaige 

From the highly acclaimed author of Schroder, a smart, sophisticated page literary page-turner about a young family who escape suburbia for a yearlong sailing trip that upends all of their lives. Sea Wife is told in gripping dual perspectives: Juliet’s first person narration, after the journey, as she struggles to come to terms with the life-changing events that unfolded at sea, and Michael’s captain’s log, which provides a riveting, slow-motion account of these same inexorable events, a dialogue that reveals the fault lines created by personal history and political divisions. Sea Wife is a transporting novel about marriage, family and love in a time of unprecedented turmoil. It is unforgettable in its power and astonishingly perceptive in its portrayal of optimism, disillusionment, and survival.

Dear Edward: Ann Napolitano

What does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live? One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor. Dear Edward is at once a transcendent coming-of-age story, a multidimensional portrait of an unforgettable cast of characters, and a breathtaking illustration of all the ways a broken heart learns to love again.

The Wind is Not a River: Brian Payton

The Wind Is Not a River is Brian Payton's gripping tale of survival and an epic love story in which a husband and wife—separated by the only battle of World War II to take place on American soil—fight to reunite in Alaska's starkly beautiful Aleutian Islands. While John is accompanying a crew on a bombing run, his plane is shot down over the island of Attu. He survives only to find himself exposed to a harsh and unforgiving wilderness, known as “the birthplace of winds.” There, John must battle the elements, starvation, and his own remorse while evading discovery by the Japanese. Alone at home, Helen struggles with the burden of her husband's disappearance. Caught in extraordinary circumstances, in this new world of the missing, she is forced to reimagine who she is—and what she is capable of doing. Somehow, she must find John and bring him home, a quest that takes her into the farthest reaches of the war, beyond the safety of everything she knows. 

Mystery/Thriller

Home Before Dark: Riley Sager

In this chilling thriller, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the place really haunted by evil forces, as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?

The Guest List: Lucy Foley

*Recommend the audio of this book! Accents are fantastic...

A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party. The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner  – The bridesmaid – The body…On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?

The Sun Down Motel: Simone St. James

Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

The Searcher: Tina French

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets."One of the greatest crime novelists writing today" (Vox) weaves a masterful, atmospheric tale of suspense, asking how to tell right from wrong in a world where neither is simple, and what we stake on that decision.

The Better Liar: Tanen Jones

When a woman conceals her sister’s death to claim their joint inheritance, her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets in this addictive new thriller for fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins. Leslie Flores has the perfect life—a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. She’s been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret—and it’s an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she won’t receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robin’s apartment, Leslie discovers her body.

Some More Quality Choices!

The Vanishing Half: Brit Bennett 

Shuggie Bain: Doulgas Stewart

Long Bright River: Liz Moore 

American Dirt: Jeanine Cummins

Blacktop Wasteland: S.A. Cosby

If I Had Your Face: Frances Cha

The Paris Hours: Alex George

Girl, Woman, Other: Bernadine Evaristo 

Apeirogon: Calum McCann

The Book of Lost Friends: Lisa Wingate

If the Creek Don’t Rise: Leah Weiss

Call Your Daughter Home: Deb Spera

The Cutting Season: Attica Locke 

Normal People: Sally Rooney

The Boy from the Woods: Harlan Coben

The Jetsetters: Amanda Eyre Ward

Actress: Anne Enright 

The Glass Hotel: Emily St. John Mandel 

Oona Out of Order: Margarita Montimore

Once upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Pride of Eden: Taylor Brown

Young Adult

The Spirit Legacy: The Gateway Trilogy Book 1: E.E. Holmes

The Spirit Prophecy: The Gateway Trilogy Book 2: E.E. Holmes

Saint Anything: Sarah Dessen

The 2018 Book List is Here!

I had no idea that my public (all four of you! LOL) was waiting for this list, so I apologize for taking so long to publish it! I have to admit that I didn’t meet my GoodReads Reading Challenge Goal of 50 books this year, topping out at a hearty 47.  It appears that many of my titles this year were set in Asia, and I think that means maybe I need to travel there? The other theme of this year seems to be DEBUT NOVELS…completely by accident. But as I review my favorite books, I have discovered that these new authors are amazing, and will give us many more works to look forward to in the years to come. Debut novels are noted with a star, just for fun.

So, for my friends and family who often ask me for book recommendations, here’s what I enjoyed in 2018!

My Top Five-Star Picks of the Year:

Drum Roll, Please…My Favorite Book of 2018!!

How to Stop Time — Matt Haig

Full disclosure, I have recommended this book as my top choice this year to a number of people. Some loved it as much as I did. Others weren’t as into it. I don’t know what it was here…but see if you can figure out how you CAN stop time. I had a great take-away on this topic. And if the title of my blog is any indication into my personality, you’ll know why I’m searching for an answer to this question. This book gave me one. Read it and let’s see if we have the same answer! From Amazon: “How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages—and for the ages—about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.” And I just noticed while I was revisiting the book’s Amazon page…”Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.” Hurry up and read it before the movie comes out and then we can all go together!

The Rest of the Top Five (can’t decide what order)

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine—Gail Honeyman *Debut

As NPR put it…Heartbreaking and humorous. This is a book you don’t want to miss. It snuck up on me in the same way A Man Called Ove did, and delivered just as powerful an emotional punch. Don’t miss out on this one, seriously. It was fantastic. “Eleanor Oliphant is a quirky loner and a model of efficiency with her routine of frozen pizza, vodka and weekly phone calls with Mummy. [She’s] a woman beginning to heal from unimaginable tragedy, with a voice that is deadpan, heartbreaking and humorous all at once.” –NPR.org

Each Vagabond by Name—Margo Littel *Debut

I loved this gypsy novel… “A piercing tale of isolation, redemption, and belonging,” When a group of traveling people descends on the sleepy town of Shelk, Pennsylvania, Zaccariah Ramsy, owner of the local bar, finds himself drawn into their world after a hungry man turns up on his doorstep. Meanwhile, Stella Vale, Ramsy's former love, believes that her long-lost daughter might be among those who begin to rob townspeople's homes. As tensions between Shelk residents and the newcomers rise, Stella and Ramsy must decide whether they will remain isolated from the world around them--or reach for a life of new possibilities.” It was a surprise to discover this author and a great, lovely read.

An American Marriage — Tayari Jones

Most of you probably read this in 2018…It was an Oprah Book Club pick. She was on the money with this one! “This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.”

Crazy Rich Asians & China Rich Girlfriend & Rich People Problems — Kevin Kwan *Debut

Three books here, one great ride! I discovered Crazy Rich Asians in January 2018 and quickly plowed through the other two books in the series. And then the movie came out, and I loved that too! These books might belong in the fun reads section, but they were too great to leave out of my Top Five.

The Rest of the Five-Star Pack

The Forgetting Time—Sharon Guskin *Debut

This is a debut novel and I devoured it. Again, the themes resonate with me. Reincarnation and past lives? Right up my nostalgic alley. “What would you do if your four-year-old son claimed he had lived another life and that he wants to go back to it? That he wants his other mother? Gorgeously written and fearlessly provocative, Sharon Guskin’s debut explores the lengths we will go for our children. It examines what we regret in the end of our lives and hope for in the beginning, and everything in between.” Sounds amazing, right? It was!

Little Do We Know—Tamara Ireland Stone

Okay, so this is technically a YA novel, but it was so good it actually made me cry. I haven’t cried reading a book in a long, long time. Maybe since like Racing in the Rain or Where the Red Fern Grows or Watership Down—and those all involve animals. I might have cried at the end of Gone with the Wind, but that was mostly just because I didn’t want it to end. This novel moved me, truly. It’s about teenage friendship and faith and loyalty and love and I cherished spending time with these characters. "Beautiful, heartfelt, deep, and real. This book broke my heart and I loved every minute of it."―Robyn Schneider, author of The Beginning of Everything. Rock on, Tamara Ireland Stone. Keep dazzling us.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep—Joann Cannon *Debut

Another debut novel that I really enjoyed. “An astute, engaging debut” (Publishers Weekly), The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is a quirky and utterly charming tale of a community in need of reconciliation and two girls learning what it means to belong.” England, 1976. Mrs. Creasy is missing and the Avenue is alive with whispers. The neighbors blame her sudden disappearance on the heat wave, but ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly aren’t convinced, and decide to take matters into their own hands. The best part of this novel for me was the voice of 10 year-old Grace and her observations…

Boy in the Striped Pajamas—John Boyne

It’s not possible for John Boyne to write something that isn’t amazing. This was horrifying and touching and so, so devastating. “Berlin, 1942: When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far, far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people in the distance. But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.”

To the Bright Edge of the World—Eowyn Ivey

"To the Bright Edge of the World is a glorious feast of American mythology. In it, Eowyn Ivey's Alaska blooms vast and untouchable, bulging with mystery and wonder, and lit by an uneasy midnight sun. On this haunted stage, the lines between man and beast are blurred, and Ivey has etched her most compelling characters: the incorruptible, determined Sophie Forrester, who wrestles with the rules of men and polite society; and her husband, the explorer Allen Forrester, who struggles mightily against the uncivilized Alaskan wilderness with its ragged teeth. Gorgeously written, utterly un-put-downable, To the Bright Edge of the World sweeps its reader to the very brink of known territory, and presents that bright edge in stark relief: gleaming, serrated, unforgiving. As with The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey has once again written a magical, breathtaking novel that I just cannot put out of my mind." ―Jason Gurley, author of Eleanor

Short Story Collections:

Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine—Kevin Wilson

I picked this up because I saw Anne Patchett talking about books on the Today Show, and she claimed this one was “hands down” her favorite book of the year. It did not disappoint! “Filled with imagination and humor, Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine is an exuberant collection of captivating and charmingly bizarre stories that promise to burrow their way into your heart and soul.” If you like short stories, go get this book.

Nonfiction

Educated—Tara Westover

You probably read this one this year already, too. What a gripping story. I liked the first half better than the second half of it, but it was no mistake that it was picked as Amazon Editors’ Best Book of 2018! “Tara Westover wasn’t your garden variety college student. When the Holocaust was mentioned in a history class, she didn’t know what it was (no, really). That’s because she didn’t see the inside of a classroom until the age of seventeen. Public education was one of the many things her religious fanatic father was dubious of, believing it a means for the government to brainwash its gullible citizens, and her mother wasn’t diligent on the homeschooling front….Educated is an inspiring reminder that knowledge is, indeed, power.” --Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

Middle Grade/Young Adult:

Restart—Gordon Korman

Okay, so this was Andrew’s middle school “One Book, One School” pick for 2018, meaning the whole school had to read it and then the author paid every one a visit. I picked it up just because it was sitting on the table. And then I couldn’t put it down! I loved the concept and it was a great Middle Grade read. “Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof. He doesn't remember hitting his head. He doesn't, in fact, remember anything. He wakes up in a hospital room and suddenly has to learn his whole life all over again . . . starting with his own name. He knows he's Chase. But who is Chase? When he gets back to school, he sees that different kids have very different reactions to his return. Some kids treat him like a hero. Some kids are clearly afraid of him. Pretty soon, it's not only a question of who Chase is -- it's a question of who he was . . . and who he's going to be.  Restart is the spectacular story of a kid with a messy past who has to figure out what it means to get a clean start.”

Instructions for a Secondhand Heart—Tamsyn Murray

I’m not sure how I ran into this book, but I am so glad I did. This is a YA title, and it was an awesome read. “Jonny knows better than anyone that life is full of cruel ironies. He's spent every day in a hospital hooked up to machines to keep his heart ticking. Then when an organ donor is found for Jonny's heart, that turns out to be the cruelest irony of all. Because for Jonny's life to finally start, someone else's had to end. That someone turns out to be Neve's twin brother, Leo. When Leo was alive, all Neve wanted was for him (and all his glorious, overshadowing perfection) to leave. Now that Leo's actually gone forever, Neve has no idea how to move forward. Then Jonny walks into her life looking for answers, her brother's heart beating in his chest, and everything starts to change. Together, Neve and Jonny will have to face the future, no matter how frightening it is, while learning to heal their hearts, no matter how much it hurts.”

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library—Chris Grabenstein

I fell into this book because it was “research” and then fell in love with it. I loved the voice, the clear love for libraries and games (two of my favorite things) and the three brothers (natch). A great read for Middle Grade. “When Kyle learns that the world's most famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has designed the town's new library and is having an invitation-only lock-in on opening night, he's determined to be there! But the tricky part isn't getting into the library—it's getting out. Because when morning comes, the doors stay locked. Kyle and the other kids must solve every clue and figure out every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route!” 

Little Do We Know—Tamara Ireland Stone

(See above!)

Notable Fiction (Four stars):

The Piano Teacher— Janice Lee

Another book set in Asia. I loved this one! I don’t remember why I didn’t give it 5 stars, but I probably should have. J “In 1942, Will Truesdale, an Englishman newly arrived in Hong Kong, falls headlong into a passionate relationship with Trudy Liang, a beautiful Eurasian socialite. But their love affair is soon threatened by the invasion of the Japanese as World War II overwhelms their part of the world. Will is sent to an internment camp, where he and other foreigners struggle daily for survival. Meanwhile, Trudy remains outside, forced to form dangerous alliances with the Japanese—in particular, the malevolent head of the gendarmerie, whose desperate attempts to locate a priceless collection of Chinese art lead to a chain of terrible betrayals.”

A Tale for the Time Being—Ruth Ozeki

Another one set in Asia! This was heavy, hard and breathtaking. You can’t shy away from the deep stuff, right? “In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future. Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.”

Lighter Reads

Still Me — Jojo Moyes

Part three of the Me Before You triogy. Another great read from one of my fav Aussie authors, JoJo Moyes. “Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life. Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she discovers who she is and who she was always meant to be—and learns to live boldly in her brave new world.

Sometimes I Lie— Alice Feeney

“Great thriller/mystery! Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it. Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from twenty years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it's the truth?”

Other People’s Houses—Abbi Waxman

“A hilarious and poignant new novel about four families, their neighborhood carpool, and the affair that changes everything. At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find...repressed hopes and dreams...moments of unexpected joy...someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband...*record scratch* As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this...” Fun and funny read!

Get reading. There is so much beauty here...Enjoy!