Here we are at the end of another month! Halfway through 2023. I’ve gotta say, my list of fave books of the year is pretty slim. BUT! One or two of these might make the list.
Little Monsters is the best contender in this group – it’s set on the East Coast and follows a really messed up, but fascinating, family. I loved the way everyone’s secrets slowly simmer and then just catch fire. The patriarch of the family is getting ready to celebrate his retirement, and each of his adult children are working hard to give a gift that will be meaningful (and better than the other’s). Lots of slow-burning drama in this family saga! If you liked Paper Palaces, this is for you. And if you didn’t like that one, these characters are slightly more redeeming so maybe give it a try! 5 stars
Buzz book of the summer – The Fourth Wing – totally worth the hype if you go in with YA-level expectations. Agree with my friend Aly when she says that the character development is LACKING, but gosh I still loved it anyway. Set in a battle school where even getting IN is deadly, these fighters are paired with a dragon as the final step before graduation. Once they’re bonded with a dragon, they can join the army to fight the invaders. This is going to be a 5 book series with #2 coming in November. (note: while this feels like YA in terms of writing style, there are two STEAMY love scenes so don’t go gifting it to a pre-teen!) 5 stars
Time’s Mouth comes out Aug 1 and really hit the spot for me – it’s about a woman who discovers she can go into a sort of trance and revisit memories from her past. As an added twist, people who are around her when she does this experience some sort of bliss/transcendence also. She ends up the head of this perfectly creepy cult, but when her (mostly grown) son decides to leave the estate and go off on his own, things sort of implode. Can they be put back together??? 4.5 stars
Another buzzy summer book is The Quiet Tenant. I read this on a flight and it was the PERFECT plane book. It’s about a woman named “Rachel” who lives in a shed in the woods behind her captors house. Inside the house, he lives with his wife and daughter. Outside…we quickly learn that “Rachel” is the lucky one, lucky to be left alive. Told in alternating perspectives (Rachel’s, the daughter’s, a female bartender in town) – this is a creepy creepy summer thriller that will have you on the edge of your pool chair. 3.75 stars
The Weeds is, physically, the perfect book. It’s tiny, and the cover is lovely, and the writing is poetic, and the pages are my favorite kind of paper (nerd!). The structure is a little different – it’s told in alternating voices – two female botanists (or botanist assistants), one in the 1850s and one in present day. The woman from the 1850s is helping a botanist complile an account of every flora or fauna to be found at the Colosseum. In the present day story line, a young woman is working against that list from the 1850s to see how many variets of flora/fauna are still there. However! There is no signifier as to who is speaking – it becomes clear once you sort of learn their voices, but I always had to think a minute. Cuss words, present day. Quaintness, 1850s. Loneliness and yearning? Either. Super clever, very beautiful. 3.75 stars
The Wall is a reprint from the 70s, a super weird pastoral survival novel about a woman who is visiting friends in Austria, in the countryside. Her friends drive into town for dinner and when the woman (nameless!) wakes up, they’re not home. She quickly discovers that the entire estate is encapsulated by an invisible wall, and the rest of the novel is her struggle to survive alone. Weird! Interesting! 3.75
Loren’s boss recommended Camino Island to me – not my usual – but it takes place in an independent bookstore and deals with stolen manuscripts of F Scott Fitzgerald. Fast! Easy! 3 stars
Last but not least, Of Time and Turtles. Comes out in September – loved the turtle parts (our family is VERY turtle friendly), but thought that the parts about dealing with Covid were not my fave. Learned a few things about turtles that I’ll carry with me forever! Niche read – 4 stars.
Lit Picks. 