Month: December 2023

books

Best Books of 2023: Non-fiction

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So after yesterday’s fiction post, today I’m back with the other stuff. And actually I didn’t read a lot of new-new non-fiction this year, so this is a general best non-fiction post, rather than a specific new books one, but hey, I’m all about rule breaking!

So let’s start with the chunkiest book I read this year – Michael Cragg’s Reach for the Stars. My sister and I really enjoyed reading this history of a decade of pop music from the mid 90s. I was a consumer of pop music during this era so it gave me a lot of nostalgia but it also gave me some insights into what I was listening to at the time and the way that the bands involved were covered by the press. One of the bands in this – Girls Aloud – have announced they’re touring again next year, and another (S Club) were touring this autumn so the music and bands are really still out there.

Also in the pop culture sort of space but not new this year is Wild and Crazy Guys by Nick de Semlyen, which I read while I was on holiday this autumn. The Guys in question are the comedians of the early 80s whose careers launched through shows like Saturday Night Live and went on to dominate comedy movies for a decade or more – people like Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Dan Ackroyd and John Candy. I’m too young to to remember this all happening, but some of the movies that they made – Ghostbusters, Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings – were all over my childhood and some of them are still all over movies and streaming now – after all I’ve just binged Only Murders in the Building!

Also in the new to me not new new is Maiden Voyages by Sian Evans. This is a look at women on board the cruise liners during the Golden Age of ocean liner travel. It touches on some of the famous faces who travelled on the ships but mostly focusses on the women who worked on board and the opportunities that shipboard work offered them. I really enjoyed Evans’ Queen Bees a few years back and this is also a really good read.

And that’s the lot I think. I think one of my resolutions for next year is to read more non fiction – and I’ve certainly got a delightful selection to chose from to help me!

books

Books of the Year: New Fiction

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It’s that time of year again, where I’m rounding up the best things that I’ve read this year, and I’m starting with the new fiction because it has been a really good year for it.

As I’ve said already, in contemporary romance 2023 has been the year of the celebrity and normal person romance in my reading life. I’m still not sure if it’s an actual trend or if it’s just what the algorithm has been feeding me but I’ve really enjoyed it and the hardest part is how do I pick just one for this list? Well the answer is I’m not. I’m picking two: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld and Once More with Feeling by Elissa Sussman. Yes, they are two of the books that were on my half year favourites list, but I really did love them and they’re two of the books that I’ve recommended the most this year. Romantic Comedy is still the only book with the quarantimes in it that I’ve enjoyed and Once More with Feeling made me so happy for some bookish revenge on a Justin Timberlake type figure.

Also in contemporary romance is Lucy Parker’s Codename Charming – this was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and it lived up to my internal hype for it when it finally arrived in the autumn. Also excellent was Christina Lauren’s True Love Experiment and Role Playing by Cathy Yardley, the latter of which has an older pairing than you usually see which was fun.

And finally it wouldn’t be one of my end of year lists without a Rich People Problems novel, and this year it is Pineapple Street, which was also on the mid year list.

I realise now that there’s no crime on this list, which is a slight surprise to me given how much mystery I have read, but a lot of it was either not new or from long running series and you know my policy on that. I wonder what 2024’s fiction list will look like?

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Recommendsday: Twixtmas reading

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I’m already back at work, but as I’m still trying valiantly to cling to the Christmas spirit, for today’s recommendsday here’s what I’ll be reading (or listening to) between now and the end of the year – once I’ve got my fifty states challenge finished (why are West Virginia and the Dakotas always so hard?) and some ideas for you too.

If you turn on the TV in the afternoon at this time of year, chances are you’ll stumble across a movie version of an Agatha Christie novel – Death on the Nile was on on Christmas Day, Mirror Cracked this afternoon and Murder on the Orient Express is coming up too in the next day or too. And the novels make a pretty good choice for this time of year too – there are some Christmas-set stories, but my pick is always Orient Express – something about being stuck in a snow drift just makes it Christmassy to me.

You also could do worse than a Christmas Meg Langslow, the only reason I haven’t read the new one yet is because I haven’t read the summer one yet because the kindle edition is eye wateringly expensive and I’ve even reading them in order from the very start and I refuse to change that now after more than thirty books! There’s also a Christmas book in Jenn McKinlay’s Cupcake Bakery series that came out this autumn that I can’t read yet because: Reading in order and a book or two behind, but if you’re not bothered about reading in order they’re a pretty reliable series.

In fact most of my favourite series have Christmas books – I’ve mentioned most of them ad nausem (Royal Spyness, Daisy Dalrymple, Phryne Fisher etc) but I might actually reread one of my favourite Drina books this year – ballet at Christmas is such a thing and in Drina Dances Again she’s in Edinburgh, playing Little Clara in the Nutcracker (although not at Christmas!) and it’s a pivotal moment in the series for reasons that are a bit spoilery. If I want a boarding school story, the Chalet School series is full of Christmas plays – I usually pick one from the early days of the series so maybe I’ll go later this year.

Once I’ve got the last few states ticked off my 50 states challenge I’m planning on reading another of the Christmas stories from the British Library Crime Classics series – I think I have The Christmas Egg on the actual to-read shelf but there’s bound to be one in Kindle Unlimited too.

And finally, it’s not strictly festive, but I’ve been listening to the Radio 4 serialisation of Miss Buncle’s Book on BBC Sounds this week, and it’s just such a lovely cozy book, if you’ve never read it before, this time of year would be perfect to discover it for the first time. You can find my review of the trilogy here.

Happy Wednesday everyone (yes, it’s Wednesday!)

books

Book of the Week: Maggie Moves On

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Happy Boxing Day everyone – if Boxing Day is a thing where you are. We’re on our way back home from the frozen North after a family Christmas at my sister’s house. However today’s pick is a non-Christmas book because I already told you about it in last week’s Recommendsday! The good news is that I got a stack of books that I wanted for Christmas so expect to hear more about them in the near future too.

The titular Maggie is a home renovation YouTube star. She buys houses, does them up, flips them and then moves on. Her latest project is in a small town in Idaho and it’s her biggest one yet. But she’s got a plan and she’ll be in and out in just a few months and on to the next thing. One of the things on her to do list is the gardens and grounds, so she sends for local landscapers to give her quotes for the work. One of them is Silas – a sexy local boy who sees her and decides that she’s the one for him. But Maggie’s time in town has an expiration date on it – and there’s no way it can be more than a casual fling, or can it?

So, first things first: Silas is the most alpha-y hero I’ve read in a long time and it was a bit jarring at first after a bunch of grumpy/sunshine romances to have this big hot guy fall in instantly-lust with the heroine and start trying to win her over. I was prepared to hate it, except that he does it with a smile and although he’s always telling her she’s his future wife he never actually pressures her to do anything. This has got a really nice found family sort of vibe to is as Maggie accidentally builds herself a community in Kinship and then has to work out if she wants to stay or go. This also means it has good cast of secondary characters for you to enjoy as well.

I read a Lucy Score and someone else romance as part of my 50 states challenge in 2021 and found it too New Adult for me, but this was much, much better. I do like a book with a house renovation at the centre of it – romances like The Honey Don’t List or cozy crimes like the Fixer Upper series so I like the concept of this as well as the romance. Basically it’s a nice fun read with a romance that doesn’t have an obviously cinnamon roll hero – although deep down he turns out to actually be a really champ.

Like a lot of Lucy Score’s books, this is currently in Kindle Unlimited – although I bought it this time last year when it wasn’t in KU, I suspect because I noticed it was set in Idaho which is always a tricky state in the challenge stakes!

Happy Reading!

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The Week in Books: December 18 – December 24

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Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you’re all having a delightful day filled with whatever you want to be doing and hopefully lots of lovely food. And that you got the books you wanted of course. I’ve checked off another four of my missing states so I may still get the list finished before the end of the rest! Wish me luck.

Read:

Tempest by Beverly Jenkins

The Christmas Book Club by Sarah Morgan

Six Geese a’ Slaying by Kathleen Bacus

Maggie Moves On by Lucy Score

The Ape Who Guards the Balance by Elizabeth Peters

Cowboy Dancing All Night by Jessie Gussman

Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello*

Started:

If Only You Knew by Kristen Higgins

Still reading:

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd

Animal, Vegetable, Criminal by Mary Roach

Seven books bought and another preordered – there’s a sale on Beverly Jenkins and I needed to get the new Rivers of London ordered.

Bonus photo: a pile of presents (not for me) because if can’t post another gratuitous Christmas picture on actual Christmas Day when can I?!

*next to a book book title indicates that it came from NetGalley. ** indicates it was an advance copy from a source other than NetGalley.