My Most-Anticipated Historical Novels of 2023
My Most-Anticipated Historical Novels of 2023
Check out our post about July 2023 Book Review on Mix & Match Mama , a lifestyle blog by Shay Shull focused cooking, raising a family, and travel.
Shortlisted for the NYPL's 2024 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in JournalismA New York Times Notable Book of 2023 and an Editors' Choice • A Science News Favorite Book of 2023 • A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2023 • A Smithsonian Staff Favorite of 2023 • A New Yorker Best Book of 2023 • A Booklist Top 10 Book on the Environment & Sustainability for 2024An eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager., Crossings, How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Ben Goldfarb, 9781324005896
“The Snows of Nissa” is book one of Isabella Khalidi’s Forgotten Kingdom Chronicles series. It features the protagonist, Duna’s lone adventure in the woods, where she hopes …
My book reviews for March 2023 include a few ADORABLE romcoms, an emotional novel that brought me to tears, and lots of fun middle-grade series.
My Most-Anticipated Historical Novels of 2023
How To Be Eaten began showing up in various areas of the top-picks sections at my local bookstore some time in late 2022 and the premise was so unique I was instantly intrigued. It took a few month…
At TUL we loved Beach Read, and have picked up every Emily Henry since. So naturally, Happy Place is one of our top new book releases of 2023 for romance
Are you a YA fanatic like me? I try to read as many YA novels as I can get my hands on every year. It’s always so hard to pick my favorites, but this year, these are the books that…
Book reviews of new 2023 books, including I Have Some Questions for You, Adelaide, The Good Life, and All the Dangerous Things.
These are my most anticipated releases of 2023—all of the thrillers, rom-coms, literary fiction, and other books I can't wait to read!
My Most-Anticipated Historical Novels of 2023
My Most-Anticipated Historical Novels of 2023
In her new memoir, 'Educated,' Tara Westover recounts how she left an isolated childhood behind to go to college and beyond. A 4-star review.
Another month, another book blog post. Fantasy took center stage this month. Two great books. Read about it in our June 2023 Book Reviews.
From thrillers to romance novels to historical fiction, here are the best books of 2023. Every month, we'll add more of our favorite page-turners we can't seem to put down. Here are the books to add to your reading list this year.
This book is the sequel to Fredrik Backman's best seller "Beartown." For maximum comprehension and pleasure, the books should be read in order. ***** Beartown is a cloistered village in the Swedish forest, where hockey is the local obsession. In the first book, Beartown's junior hockey team is on the cusp of winning a national championship when an allegation of rape scandalizes the town and rips the hockey team apart. People take sides, there's a great deal of victim-blaming, and some former friends become bitter enemies. Everyone in Beartown is anguished after the incident, partly because they lament the disruption to hockey, and partly because they have empathy for either the perpetrator or the victim. The second book, "Us Against You", picks up where the first book left off. SPOILER ALERT//SPOILER ALERT//SPOILER ALERT Beartown's junior hockey team is in tatters, and most of its members are now playing for the rival town of Hed. The Beartown 'Bears' 🐻 and the Hed 'Bulls' 🐮 have always been bitter rivals, so this change in loyalties causes much strife. Moreover, many people blame the girl who was raped for the unhappy situation and frequently text her slurs like "Whore, Liar, Princess." 😫 Angry fans want the rape victim's family to leave town, and start a campaign of harassment - getting moving companies to call the house and deliver packing boxes to the front door. It seems like very few people, except for the victim's family and her best friend, understand (or care) that the girl was severely traumatized by the assault. Her younger brother, however, is furious and rebellious - always on the brink of starting a fight or a conflagration (literally). To make matters worse, Beartown's city council has decided to withdraw financial support for hockey. The league's General Manager, Peter Andersson - who's devoted his life to the sport - doesn't know what to do. The remainder of the townsfolk also start to despair. The 'five old men' - who used to spend every day in the Bearskin Pub arguing about hockey - are emblematic of the town's misery. The elderly codgers now stay home, sad and talking to no one. Enter the town's savior, self-serving politician Richard Theo. Theo - whose every waking moment is spent scheming to gain power - has a plan to save Beartown hockey. The program involves getting foreign investors to salvage the town's failing factory AND sponsor the hockey league. Theo constantly lies and manipulates people to get what he wants, but he does manage to keep the hockey league in business. A female hockey coach named Elisabeth Zackell is hired, which is a shock to the men in town. Nevertheless, Zackell is a talented woman, and she assembles a team around several popular players who didn't defect to Hed: Amat - who's fast; Bobo - who's big; and Benji - who's tough. Zackell also wants teenager Vidar Rinnius -brother of Beartown hooligan Teemu Rinnius - to be the goalie. The problem is that Vidar, who has severe anger management problems, is in juvie jail. Against all odds, Vidar gets sprung - courtesy of Richard Theo - just so he can join the Bears. The Bears and the Bulls have some very contentious encounters, both on and off the rink. The result is that several people get beat up; a building burns down; and there's a deadly car accident. Also on the downside, an unhappy girl 'outs' a gay hockey player - which has terrible consequences for the young man. Hateful townsfolk send the boy cutting texts, like "Fag, Queer, Homo, and Poof".....and rival fans shout, "Fags. Whores. Rapists" at hockey games. The hockey situation also adversely affects the marriage of General Manager Peter Andersson and his lawyer wife Kira. For twenty years, Kira has put her ambitions on hold for Peter's career, and even now - when Peter's job is shaky - he once again asks his wife to 'wait until next year' to follow her dreams. (I was irritated with Peter, who's obtuse and selfish.) The situation plays out as it will and some lessons are learned. One of my favorite characters is little 4 ½ -year-old Alicia, who practices hockey all day long and regularly runs away from preschool to practice her shots. This girl is a determined cutie. 🌺 Like the first book, this story demonstrates the cruel tendency to 'blame the victim.' Backman also exposes hypocrites who 'have nothing against homosexuals' but 'worry about the children.' These phonies also have a habit of pointing out that 'not everyone is as open-minded as they are.' Yeah right!! 😕👎 END SPOILER ALERT//END SPOILER ALERT//END SPOILER ALERT "Us Against You" has garnered very high praise from many readers but for me, it's just okay. I find it hard to believe that hockey is SO important to Beartown and Hed that almost every waking thought and action revolves around the game. In addition, the author does a lot of philosophizing, using hockey as a metaphor for life, and I found this to be overdone. Still, people who enjoyed the first book will probably like this one, and I'd recommend it to those readers. Rating: 3 stars
THE BEST BOOKS WE READ in 2023 is a collaborative book list by the reviewers at IBR in which they review the best books they read this year irrespective of their publication date. It consists solely of books by indie presses and indie authors.
A book review of James Clear's book "Atomic Habits." Here are a few good habits that I have built in my music studio and personal life.
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Nathan Hill's stunning new novel about the stories we tell about our lives and our loves, and how we sustain relationships throughout time, is both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.
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The London Seance Society, by Sarah Penner, promises a captivating journey into the world of the supernatural, within the backdrop of Victorian London, but unfortunately falls short of its potential. While the premise is intriguing and holds promise for a thrilling narrative, the execution falls short, resulting in a lackluster reading experience.
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{Book Review} The Alice Network By Kate Quinn It’s 1947 and Charlie St. Clair is on her way to Europe with her mom, to take care of her Little Problem. Unwed and pregnant, Charlie is consumed with worry and hope for her cousin Rose, who disappeared in France during WWII. She may have lost her … Continue reading "{Book Review} The Alice Network"
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These great recommendations include titles from Emily Henry, Chanel Cleeton, and more!
THE BEST BOOKS WE READ in 2023 is a collaborative book list by the reviewers at IBR in which they review the best books they read this year irrespective of their publication date. It consists solely of books by indie presses and indie authors.
From thrillers to romance novels to historical fiction, here are the best books of 2023. Every month, we'll add more of our favorite page-turners we can't seem to put down. Here are the books to add to your reading list this year.
Step by step guidelines for how to create your own blog about books. Easy to way to start a book review website. Non-technical advice for total beginners.
Emma Makepeace is about to spend the longest night in her life. In this breakneck, race-against-the-clock thriller, a British spy has twelve hours to deliver her asset across London after Russia hacks the city’s security cameras. Can she make it without being spotted . . . or killed? Nothing about Emma Makepeace is real. Not even her name. A newly-minted secret agent, Emma’s barely graduated from basic training when she gets the call for her first major assignment. Eager to serve her country and prove her worth, she dives in head-first. Emma must covertly travel across one of the world’s most watched cities to bring the reluctant—and handsome—son of Russian dissidents into protective custody, so long as the assassins from the Motherland don’t find him first. With London’s famous Ring of Steel hacked by the Russian government, the two must cross the city without being seen by the hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras that document every inch of the city’s streets, alleys, and gutters. Buses, subways, cars, and trains are out of the question. Traveling on foot, and operating without phones or bank cards that could reveal their location or identity, they have twelve hours to make it to safety. This will take all of Emma’s skills of disguise and subterfuge. But when Emma’s handler goes dark, there’s no one left to trust. And just one wrong move will get them both killed. KILLING EVE meets JAMES BOND in the first novel of the ALIAS EMMA series: a thrilling, cinematic page-turner starring the most likeable and resourceful of heroines. AVA GLASS is a former crime reporter and civil servant. Her time working for the government introduced her to the world of spies, and she's been fascinated by them ever since. She lives in the south of England. https://www.avaglass.uk/ Twitter My Thoughts Meet Emma Makepeace, who just graduated from training from the "Agency" and gets her first real assignment. Her task, protect a young doctor, Michael Primalov. The Russians are after him and his family, in particular his mother, a former Russian scientist, who defected years ago. He fights this protection, claiming he does not need it, but after certain events, he reluctantly agrees to work with Emma. Emma is an eager spy, who is determined to protect her charge with all that she has. The Russians are ruthless, not afraid to kill them both. She needs to get the young doctor to the offices of MI6 before daybreak. It will end up being the longest night of her life. They dodge the Russians at every turn and seem to be one step ahead of them, but the Russians always seem to find them. How can that be? Someone hacked the CCTV cameras all over London. Along with following the steps that Emma and Michael need to follow to other to where they need to be, the reader learns more about Emma and her past and why she wanted to be a spy. Not only that, she is not sure who she can trust at MI6. It is always helpful when an author knows about what they write. Ava knows her way around the spy culture and it shows in her writing. I really enjoyed this novel, fast-paced. lots of action, spies, bullets flying. Can they make it to MI? Well, you will just have to go get a copy of the book and read it for yourself! I rate it 4 stars I received a copy of the book for review purposes only!
Check out our post about 2023 Books in Review! on Mix & Match Mama , a lifestyle blog by Shay Shull focused cooking, raising a family, and travel.
Someone's Watching Me - With Alex concerned that she’s losing her grip on reality, does Becky dare keep digging, knowing her almost-perfect life could shatter
