Have you made a Winter 2023/2024 #TBR? It’s always exciting to begin a new reading season! Do you have a most anticipated read?
Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books on My Winter 2023/2024 TBR
Have you made a Winter 2023/2024 TBR? It’s always exciting to begin a new reading season!
Background Image Source: Canva
With all the books that are on my radar on a given day, it’s nice to pick out a few for an official TBR. Ten still leaves room for library holds that come in, occasional ARCs, or some mood reading.
Sometimes fall is an opportune time for me to check off some books from my TBR since there’s a lull in publishing at this time of year.
Keep in mind that I’m not yet recommending the books on my official Winter TBR list…..check back often, though, because I will provide updates and links to reviews as I read them. For now, these are the reads that are on my winter 2023/2024 reading radar.
Find my Fall TBR update here. I read nine of the books on my fall TBR. I’m moving one to this winter TBR because my hope of a fall ARC was unrealized.
*Titles are Amazon affiliate links.
Winter 2022/2023 TBR
(ARC=Advanced Reader Copy)
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Why: Lawhon is a trusted histfic author and I’ve read some wonderful early reviews. This is a holdover from my fall TBR because I hoped for an ARC which I didn’t receive.
***UPDATE: 4 Stars. Well written with difficult content (a violent rape, a rape trial, and revenge). Not yet reviewed.
Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles (ARC)
Genre: Historical Fiction, Books About Books. ARC: Pub Date: 5/7/2024
Why? It has “book” in the title! Author of The Paris Library.
***UPDATE: 4 Stars. Enjoyable and informative. Review coming soon.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Genre: Literary Historical Fiction, Mystery
Why? I noticed stellar reviews and I’m always eager to add diverse reads by authors of color to my reading life. Jewish/African American.
***UPDATE: 2 Stars. DNF @ 87%. Lots of characters and meandering storyline. Child sexual abuse is not for me. I’m an absolute outlier and others have loved it. Not reviewed.
The Librarian of Burned Books by Brianna Labuskes
Genre: Historical Fiction.
Why? A book about librarians and books. Recommended by Carla @ Carla Loves to Read.
***UPDATE: I decided to remove this from my list upon reading more reviews.
Steeple Chasing: Around Britain by Church by Peter Ross
Genre: Nonfiction, Essays
Why? Sounds interesting and I’m always eager to read more nonfiction. Recommended by Joanne @ Portobello Book Blog.
***UPDATE: 4 Stars. Parts of the book were interesting. Not Reviewed.
The Memory of Lavender and Sage by Aimie K. Runyan
Genre: Women’s Fiction. Pub Date: 2/23/2023
Why? I read my first Runyan book (A Bakery in Paris) and I am interested in reading more from the author. Fingers crossed for the ARC.
***UPDATE: 4 Stars. Some magical realism which some readers may love. I enjoyed Bakery in Paris more. Find my review of Memory of Lavender and Sage here.
An Astronomer in Love by Antonoine Laurain
Genre: Historical Literary Fiction
Why? Highly recommended by Davida @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog
***UPDATE: 5 Stars. I needed a great read to end the year and I’m delighted I chose this! My review of An Astronomer in Love here.
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Why? I’ve read #1 in the series and noticed so many raving reviews of the series that I feel I must read the next installment.
***UPDATE: 4 Stars. Satisfactory read. Not reviewed.
Fast Girls by Elise Hooper
Genre: Historical Fiction
Why? I just finished The Boys in the Boat (late to the party), so I feel it’s timely to read about women in the 1936 Olympics (before seeing the Boys in the Boat movie release).
***UPDATE: DNF. In the author’s prologue she mentions that she made up all the news articles, etc. Ummm….thanks for her honesty but no thank you. If news articles are fabricated, what facts can I trust here? (this is the issue sometimes with histfic) I’d rather read a nonfiction version of this story or a fiction version that is not so fictionalized. I DNFed early on after a child rape scene.
The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Mecham
Genre: Nonfiction, Essays, American History
Why? I admire Meacham and I’m working on his backlist. Buddy read opportunity for my husband and me.
***UPDATE: Set aside for now. My library loan ended and I didn’t feel compelled to borrow it again.
QOTD!
What’s on your Winter TBR?
What is your one most anticipated read this winter?
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A great selection. I fancy A Frozen River but it doesn’t seem to be available here yet. It’s showing as published in hardback but not in stock anywhere so I don’t think it’s actually out.
It was just released here.
Hope you can get it soon! 🤞🤞🤞
Hope you enjoy The Man Who died Twice, Carol, it’s a good fun! 😀
Looking forward to it! I enjoyed the first one but I’ve lagged on the rest of the series.
I hope to read the James McBride book, too, if it ever arrives for me at the library. And I’ll be curious to see what you think about The Soul of America. I’m very concerned about America’s soul these days.
Excellent list, Carol💜 Frozen River is one I want to get to soon.
I hope we both enjoy it!
Grocery Store is on mine too! I built the list with books others loved most this year!
https://onereadingnurse.com/2023/12/12/top-ten-tuesday-books-that-friends-loved-and-recommended-in-2023-my-winter-tbr/
I hope we both enjoy it! Happy winter reading! ⛄️
What a great list, Carol! I am going to be searching for several of these books, well 7 of them. 😁🤷♀️ I need to think about my TBR but won’t be starting them until January.
Thanks Carla! Happy winter reading to us! 🎄⛄️
I hadn’t heard of many of these before. They all sound good. I hope you love them.
Happy winter reading to us! ⛄️
These all sound good. I’ve only read Fast Girls, but it was very good. I’m sure I’ll be adding a few of these to my tbr!
I love seeing all the tbr lists today!
Me, too!
Hi, Carol – Yours looks like a great TBR list. I am currently reading ‘March’ by Geraldine Brooks. After that I plan to read ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ (both are bookclub picks). After that for my leisure reading I hope to read ‘Mrs. Van Gogh’ by Caroline Cauchi and Fresh Water for Flowers (recommended by Marty from Snakes in the Grass).
I’ve been on the fence about reading March. I’m eager to hear how you like it.
You have some good reading ahead of you! Thanks for sharing!
You have a nice mix of books to choose from. The only one I’ve heard of is The Librarian of Burned Books, which I hope to read at some point. I hope you enjoy these.
Thanks! I hope we both enjoy Librarian of Burned Books. Happy winter reading Sarah! ⛄️📚
I like history, so several of these sound appealing! Here is our Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
Thanks for commenting! Happy winter reading! ⛄️📚
Great list! I’m hoping to start the McBride book this month, and I’d like to read The Frozen River too, Hope you enjoy your winter reading!
I hope these are good reads for both of us! Happy reading!
Great list! I’m also pumped for THE FROZEN RIVER. It sounds excellent. The bookish books on this list are definitely going to need a second look from me since I love that genre. I hadn’t heard of FAST GIRLS before, but it sounds like one I would enjoy. Thanks for the heads-up! I’ll be interested to see what you think of all these.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Thanks Susan! So many good books so little time! I enjoyed your comment re publishing TTT on Wed because I accidentally published Throwback Thursday today (Wed) 🙃😳😱😂😂😂 oops!
GoodReads currently has a giveaway for the print version of The Memory of Lavender and Sage.
Thanks for the info! ⛄️
I got the chance to blind read (without knowing the title or author) the opening of that Heaven and Earth book and was pissed off right away! NO Jews do NOT put inscriptions on their Mezuzahs. Even if we did, we would never put a personal one on a mezuzah on a synagogue, which is a community building! That, along with other stuff, made me realize this author did NO research into Jewish customs and traditions, and I wouldn’t read beyond the first 150 words of this book.
Ugh! It’s astounding that wasn’t caught by the editor. If he’s going to write about another culture, he needs appropriate beta readers!
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