Friday Reads: My First Five-Star Read of 2023
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- Опубликовано: 11 окт 2024
- I read my first five-star book of 2023! Let's talk about it as well as the last two books I crammed into 2022 and the other two books I've finished so far in 2023. Expand for more information. 👇
Channel recommendation 🍿
Roro Reads: / @rororeads
Links 💻
Information About the E.M. Forster Readalong: • Video
Erica’s Channel: / @the_broken_spine
Further Viewing 🎥
The Best Fiction Books of 2022: • The Best Books of 2022
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2022: • The Best Nonfiction Bo...
The Almost Best Books of 2022: • The Almost Best Books ...
My Favorite Books of 2021 (Featuring The Power of the Dog): • The Best Books of 2021
The Power of the Dog Book vs. Movie: • Book vs. Movie: The P...
My Deep Dive on Now in November: • Was the Youngest Pulit...
Last Friday Reads: • Friday Reads: The Wors...
Titles Mentioned 📚
The Sheep Queen, Thomas Savage
The Thirty Names of Night, Zeyn Joukhadar
Enter a Murderer, Ngaio Marsh
The Inland Island, Josephine Johnson
All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankam Mathews
Where Angels Fear to Tread, E.M. Forster
The Geek Who Saved Christmas, Annabeth Albert
My husband made a cookbook! Check it out here:
www.blurb.com/...
But wait, there's more!
Email: supposedlyfungreg-at-gmail.com
Storygraph: app.thestorygr...
Instagram: / supposedlyfun
Twitter: / supposedlyfun
Website: supposedlyfun....
the cover design on All This Could Be Different is impossibly gorgeous!
It is!
1st 5 star for me was “On Earth we’re Briefly Gorgeous.”
When a poet writes a novel…chefs kiss.
I was a bit softer on that novel than most, but Vuong is a gorgeous writer.
You’re on fire with the reads this year! I actually love the All This Could Be Different cover the most. So gorgeous.
Thanks so much for the channel recommendation! That’s really nice of you.
Thank you for starting such a great channel!
First 5 ⭐️ 2023 for me= Great Circle . Loved it
I’m intrigued by Inland Island, one of my favorite books to recommend is Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek which won the Pulitzer for nonfiction in 1975, published five years after this book. She spends a year exploring nature in a nearby valley with a stream near her house in Virginia. It’s meditative and observant and captures the experience of being out in nature so perfectly, just a remarkable achievement in writing and describing an environment and her feelings for it.
Last year I read my father’s favorite book, Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, about him observing his land and nature in Wisconsin. The first big chunk is a month by month description of the land, animals, plants and seasonal changes and was definitely on its way to being a five star read for me. Then there were a number of more politically charged or very narrowly defined chapters essays at the end that seemed to go off on a tangent it didn’t need and it fell in my estimation. I’m not even sure if it was just the edition I was listening to, if it just had these extra writings added to it, since this is his masterpiece and a way to get more people to read his other stuff as well. The book though dates back to 1949 and is considered a classic and foundational in environmental writing. I wouldn’t be surprised if both these other writers were familiar with it before starting their books.
I think these three book have an affinity that lovers of one, would enjoy the others as well. A more recent book that has echos of this that I loved is Islands of Abandonment by British writer Cal Flyn. Instead of nature in the natural state she travels to areas where mankind has devastated nature, but nature is fighting back to return and repair the scourge man has wrought. So places like Chernobyl, the NJ wetlands, the dematerialized free zones between the Koreas and on Cypress between the Greeks and Turks. The way she writes about the beauty of nature in these ravaged landscapes is stunning and similar to the other writers here. I highly recommend all of these.
My first read was very calculated, it was Foster by Claire Keegan since I knew I would love it and could read it all the first day of the year. It was stunning, but I gave it a 4.75 since it’s really hard to beat Small Things Like These. “Small” is definitely a winter book, and “Foster” is a summer book, my hope is Keegan gives us a spring and autumn novella on some other aspect of village/small town life in Ireland, that would make me overwhelming happy.
I love how much you loved The Inland Island!
I have found my first 5 star read of the new year thanks to Sarah at Hardcover Hearts: "At the Hairdresser’s" by Anita Brookner. It's actually a short story/novella recently published by Penguin as a standalone e-book. A real gem. If you or any of your subscribers have read and enjoyed Elizabeth Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" you would probably really like "Hairdresser’s" too.
Hope you are enjoying the long weekend after your rough Friday.
wow...way to start the reading year right! i have a copy of inland island so will be reading soon...
Oh wow, The inland island sounds amazing!!
I just started Power of the Dog this morning and can already tell I’m going to like this book. Four of my five read books so far in 2023 have been duds. 😮. Hoping this one gets me out of the slump.
I have yet to have a 5 star read for 2023, but I'm pretty stingy with 5 stars. I have had one 4.5 star, which was Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee. I hope you are able to put the week behind you this weekend!
Good morning. I have my first five star read. It's A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt. I read it the first time and then reread so I could take notes. I definitely think it is a book for you. I have a copy of The Inland Island. I also read The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams. This book should definitely win a Putilzer Prize. Yes I remember what happened last year. Have a great day.
Added Inland Island to my TBR. Sounds up my street, in my driveway and through my door. I go on daily walks and usually feel more connected out there alone w trees and sky than surrounded by humans. Blahdiggityblah, short version = thank youuu for this review 📖🪱💚
Will check out your Power of the Dog video. I'm intrigued.
I’m excited to check out Josephine Johnson, I hadn’t even hear of her. I may start with Now in November. My first five star read of the year: Casandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker.
Now in November is a very good place to start. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
I read another Zeyn Joukhadar (The Map of Salt and Stars) and I didn't like it. I had considered reading Thirty Names of Night of but I probably won't ever get to it.
Oh I love that this book was not about just twelve months in a year but over the months. I love that. I really need to read Josephine Johnson.
I reread The Tradition by Jericho Brown and was beautiful.
I’ve not yet found my first 5 star read, but I’m hopeful I’ll have more this year than last year. Hopefully 😅
The Inland Island sounds amazing! If you like that you might like a book I read recently called Rogue Intensities by Angela Rockel which (it sounds like) has a similar structure but it’s set in Tasmania.
I had a 5 star read the other day but it's a play - Dear Lupin by Michael Simkins. Worth a look if plays are something you are interested in.
I had a very slow reading week. No 5 star books yet though The Years by Annie Ernaux was a solid 4.5.
I'm looking forward to trying The Years.
Finally read "The Seven Moons of Maali Almedia", my second read of 2023. This book will stay with me for a very long time. So intense, so much to think about. I can see why it won a Booker Prize.
My first 5star read this year was
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
I’m currently reading
Deluge by Stephen Markley ( Did you read Ohio? his first book)
The Secret Life of Albert Entwhistle
A Fine Balance ( I’ll probably finish it for my 100th birthday)
🍀👋☘️😳📕📖☕️
I'm highly distracted! Is your dog a Welsh Terrier? I had one in my 20's - long time ago, Rocky was a crazy dog but I still miss him.
I love a classic whodunnit but I really hated that first book in Ngaio Marsh's series. Glad to hear the next one was an improvement, but I still don't think I'd read her again.
I just read Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh and all I have to say “Wow! A masterpiece! “
Thanks!
Thank you so much! 🥂
I can always depend on your excellent book recommendations to add to my ever burgeoning book collection and TBR pile. I really enjoyed Now in November so I will absolutely add The Inland Island by Josephine Johnson to the top of the pile. Have a great weekend and as always thank you for your thoughtful content. Be well.
Well, that does it. I must check out some Josephine Johnson. And yours is the second recommendation, albeit qualified, for All This Could Be Different - so I’ll give it a try too!
I hope you like both! 🥂
You’ve piqued my interest with The Inland Island. I try to read at least one nature book a year because they really ground me.