The book you like most discussion
5 Best Books of 2023 So Far
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Shauneen
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Sep 12, 2023 01:52PM

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Seems like I like a lot of the same books you do...I recommend HORSE by Geraldine Brooks. It is the story (historical fiction) of a young slave boy named Jarret in the 1850s and the race horse he befriends and cares for. The friendship of a horse and boy both owned and considered property. The horse if Lexington who gained fame in stud and is the ancestor of every horse that ran in this year's Kentucky Derby. I learned a lot about the history of horse racing, and also about art since the book was inspired by a painting of the boy and the horse and above all about slavery and the treatment of both slaves and also free black men in this era.

I'm reading Demon Copperhead right now, it's so good!
I've enjoyed Bad Blood by John Carryrou, Pandora's Jar by Natalie Haynes, Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Ferrell, American Prometheus by Kai Bird, and Habits of the Household by Justin Whitmel Earley

I agree Joan about Horse, EXCEPT for the very last part. I am a huge fan of Geraldine Brooks and have read everything she has written thus far. But bout that ending… Were you a bit put off as I was? It seemed like unnecessary roughness to me.

Other great ones are A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab, The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton, and Soulless by Gail Carriger!
And thanks for all the suggestions!:)


1. As the Crow Flies by Jeffrey Archer
2. River God by Wilbur Smith
3. The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
4. The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
5. Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe

- Legends & Lattes - fantasy, sapphic (minor plot), coffee - I will definitely be getting the next book in the series
- Yellowface - fiction, social criticism (ended up buying another of her books because I loved it that much)
- All Systems Red - sci-fi, adventure, (This series is an obsession of mine. I've read the books, I'm listening to the audiobooks on repeat, will re-read next year for sure)
- Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas - teen, fantasy, really good continuation of Sally's story
- An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good - mystery, short stories, very comedic

The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
Remember Me by Tracie Peterson
Magician of Light by J Fremont
Winter's Reckoning by Adele Holmes
A Life Renewed by Olivia Rae

1. Binding 13
2. Fourth Wing
3. The Summer Of Broken Rules
4. Love Me by Ashley B. Wistec
5. Ignite Me

The best 5 are:
1. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger
2. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight
3. Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World, by Zahra Hankir
4. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
5. A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
I am currently 47% through Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris (following the book the Tattoist of Auschwitz) and this one also can be in the top 5 with that one

Here are my top 5 for 2023 so far:
1) The Paris Daughter by Kristin Harmel
2) The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church
3) The Block Party by Jamie Day
4) None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
5) The Measure by Nikki Erlick
Have a great night (I'm off to go read Lady Tan's Circle of Women which is awesome so far!)

Hi Shauneen and all! It's hard for me to pick up the best for this year because all of the titles are so damn great, LOL! So far, I have read 'Brave New World,", "1984,", "Felix Holt, the Radical", and "Daniel Deronda", as far as I remember. Right now, I'm reading "Atlas Shrugged" and loving it so much. Not as many books as you have read probably but a small progress is progress, isn't it? LOL!

My top 5 of 2023 are:
1. The Age of Innoncence by Edith Wharton
2. The Behaviour of Love by Virginia Reeves
3. The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
4. Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi
5. The Great Gatsby by F.S. Fitzgerald


1. The Prince and the Apocalypse by Kara McDowell
2. Bonded by Thorns/Woven by Gold by Elizabeth Helen
3. Babel by RF Kuang
4. The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
5. The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

2: The universe in a box
3: Diddly Squat
4: King of battle and Blood
5: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

This is the first comment I've read in this, my first Goodreads group, and I'm amazed to see that all of these, other than Someone Else's Shoes, are on my list of favorite books recently read. I also recently read and loved American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.



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5- [bookcover:Born a Crime: S..."
Born a Crime was such a good book! I learned so much, not only about Trevor Noah, but what life was like in South Africa during that time period. I love how he added history lessons in with his childhood recollections. Definitely glad I read it!

1. The Worth of Water: Our Story of Chasing Solutions to the World's Greatest Challenge I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the authors. So good and informative.
2. Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont Horrific and interesting.
3. Motion of Intervals The second book from my friend. Even better than her first, in my opinion. (I'm so glad she writes so well, it would be awkward if I didn't like her books, LOL!)
4. Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail Heartbreaking. But so good.
5. The Poet X I listened to the audiobook. It's a novel in verse. Very moving. I just picked it randomly from my library's app.
Looking over these, I realized, only one was from my actual TBR. Two others were audiobooks from my library. And the other two were ARC ebooks from NetGalley. (Of the other 4 I have given 5 stars to so far this year, one was another audiobook from the library, two were from NetGalley, and the last one was a political book I'd purchased when it came out this year.)

I read Mickey7 last year and Mickey7 part 2 (Antimatter Blues)came out and I read it and it was just as exciting and fun as the first one!
Antimatter Blues

Next, When Women Were Dragons is a terrific book where some women spontaneously turn into dragons! Fun! When Women Were Dragons

3. Whalefall, a teen is accidentally swallowed by a whale. Its about his struggles to survive. Super intense! Whalefall

4. Dogs of War! Loved this! Military hybrids, mostly machine that just want to get a "Good Boy!" from their master. But their master is evil and corrupt. Dare I say it's a little heartwarming? Dogs of War

Last but not least, The September House. A horror novel about a house that is haunted only in September. The woman won't leave her home for anything. The man can't take Septembers. When September comes, it is above and beyond hell month! The September House


The Witches of Moonshyne Manor
Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman/J. D. Lynn
Small Mercies/Dennis Lehane
This Bird Has Flown/ Susanna Hoffs



THE LAST ORPHAN by Greg Hurwitz
Both of those books can be read as standalones, but you are rewarded by going to the beginning of the series.

Residual Sugar by Kelly Kay
Your Echo: Gatlin Brothers Book 1 by Vi Summers
The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Suzy K. Quinn
Wanted You More by B. Celeste

1. the bear and the nightingale by katherine arden. such a beautiful story! i was enchanted.
2. foxglove by adalyn grace. i loved belladonna, but this one was even better!
3. the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater. i've had som trouble with other works by the same author but this book?? it was desperate and sad, and i have a soft spot for sean kendrick.
4. one dark window by rachel gillig. it had such an interesting plot and the fact that magic had a cost was exactly my cup of tea. dark and gothic - yes please!
5. blade breaker by victoria aveyard. it reminds me a little bit of lord of the rings (which i guess is the point) and i'm OBSESSED with erida and taristan! i have a thing for morally grey characters (or in this case, straight up villains). i did, however not like all of the other characters, but it was still worth it for me.

1. Blood Meridian By Cormac McCarthy
- Terrifying and unsettling examination of the human condition. So depressing and even worse when you remember the violence is not hyperbole.
2. The Last Hour of Gann By R Lee Smith
- My favourite romance book of all time and I can't pass up an opportunity to gush about it. Epic and grand, it must've taken her years to plan the plot because I don't know how she managed to weave something so ambitious from start to finish. The ending blew my mind and I had the worst book hangover after finishing it.
3. Flowers for Algernon By Daniel Keyes
- I'm late to this one, it's a classic for a reason. I cried from start to finish and I still think about this book, especially Charlie, all the time.
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde
- Incredible prose and groundbreaking work by Oscar Wilde. Some of the dialogue took my breath away and I hated every character.
5. The Silver Devil By Teresa Denys
- This book is almost impossible to find, it's going for hundreds - thousands online, but you can read it on scribd. It's a gorgeous, dark, gothic bodice ripper with the most beguiling characters, I was so charmed by Domenico. The romance was beautiful but the political intrigue was what made the book.
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Also these:
- Lemonade by Nina Pennacchi
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- Kushiel's Dart By Jacqueline Carey

Anyway, I'm going to try to pick my 5 star reads this year so far.
1. The Ballad of Never After
2. Fourth Wing
3. Our Dark Duet
4. Twisted Games
5. Forget Me Not

1. Don’t Forget to Write by Sara Goodman Confino (just finished this recently and it made it to #1!!)
2. Verity by Colleen Hoover
3. The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis
4. Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
5. The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Institute by Stephen King
Not That Fancy by Reba McEntire
The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead
Writers of the Future Volume 39
We Were Dreamers by Simu Liu
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

2. Not My Baby- Anya Mora
3. The School Trip - Miranda Smith
4. Covenant Child- Terri Black stock
5. The Prisoner- B.A.Paris

1. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

2. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

3. No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister

4. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

5. Holly Horror by Michelle Jabès Corpora


Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

King Of Pride by Ana Huang
Disgrace by Brittany C. Cherry
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Luv Shuv In New York by N. M Patel
Twisted Lies by Ana Huang
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Jeffrey Archer (other topics)Wilbur Smith (other topics)
Oscar Wilde (other topics)
Edgar Allan Poe (other topics)