January 2023 | Book Nerds Across America

Monday, January 30, 2023

BOOKS I AM WAITING PATIENTLY FOR

It's a new year, and that means for all of us 12 months of new books to look forward to! I have been prowling through list after list to see what is coming out in the next few months and have compiled my own list of a few books I am wanting to add to my shelf...

SPARE BY PRINCE HARRY

Hardcover, 416 pages

Expected publication: January 10th 2023 by Random House

THIS IS THE BOOK I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR. Im a staunch royalist, so you can imagine my opinion on him and his wife. In the beginning I was so excited about them, how they would be such an assest to the Royal Family...now I think they need to shut up.

Spare is a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

GLITTERLAND BY ALEXIS HALL

Paperback

Expected publication: January 17th 2023 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

I loved both of the Boyfriend Material books and am anxious to read this one. It is a reprint of an older book of theirs but all the reviews look great...and it sounds fantastic

Once the golden boy of the English literary scene, now a clinically depressed writer of pulp crime fiction, Ash Winters has given up on hope, happiness, and―most of all―himself. He lives his life between the cycles of his illness, haunted by the ghosts of other people's expectations.

Then a chance encounter throws him into the path of Essex-born Darian Taylor. Flashy and loud, radiant and full of life, Darian couldn't be more different...and yet he makes Ash laugh, reminding him of what it's like to step beyond the boundaries of his anxiety. But Ash has been living in his own shadow for so long that he can no longer see a way out. Can a man who doesn't trust himself ever trust in happiness? And how can someone who doesn't believe in happiness ever fight for his own?

MAAME BY JESSICA GEORGE

Hardcover, 320 pages

Expected publication: January 31st 2023 by St. Martin's Press

I actually have a copy of this and it is next on my list to read. I love a good family drama story.

Maame is not only a coming of age story, but it's so much more. The underlying themes the author touched on in this story include grief, racism, the unfair burdens society places on women, and dating in today's modern society. Maame also includes mental illness and lgbtqa representation. Maame is at times humorous, beautiful and at others times heartbreaking.

THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE BY ROSHANI CHOKSHI

Hardcover, 304 pages

Expected publication: February 14th 2023 by William Morrow & Company

I will read anything that says it is Gothic...most the time I am disappointed, but I can't risk the chance of finding a great story!

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

WHAT HAVE WE DONE- ALEX FINLAY

Hardcover, 368 pages

Expected publication: March 7th 2023 by Minotaur Books

I have been a fan of Alex Finlay's since his first book Every Last Fear, and I have made him an auto-buy without even realizing it.

Twenty-five years ago, Jenna, Donnie, and Nico were the best of friends, a bond forged as residents of Savior House, an abusive group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down—after the disappearance of several kids—the three were split up.

Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live successfully, if troubled, lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them.

To save their lives, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their past—a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.

It’s a reunion none of them asked for... or wanted. But it may be the only way to save all their lives.

WEYWARD BY EMILIA HART

Hardcover, 336 pages

Expected publication: March 7th 2023 by St. Martin's Press

The Cover alone on this made me want to buy it...But then I read it had witches

In 2019, Kate fled an abusive relationship in London for Crows Beck, a remote Cumbrian village. Her destination is Weyward Cottage, inherited from her great Aunt Violet, an eccentric entomologist.

As Kate struggles with the trauma of her past, she uncovers a secret about the women in her family. A secret dating back to 1619, when her ancestor Altha Weyward was put on trial for witchcraft…

400 pages, Hardcover

March 14, 2023 by Dial Press

Sounds like we might be getting another heartbreaking, moving, novel from the writer of Dear Edward

Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what's possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.

400 pages, Hardcover

April 25, 2023 by Berkley

I can be disappointed or absolutely in love with an Emily Henry book, but I always pick them up!

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends

336 pages, Paperback

May 2, 2023 by Viking

I absolultely loved Every Summer After, infact it was in the top 5 books of last year so I am hoping this book will be equally good

A random connection sends two strangers on a daylong adventure where they make a promise one keeps and the other breaks, with life-changing effects

416 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication May 16, 2023

It isnt a want list unless it includes a book by these two authors.

Sparks fly when a romance novelist and a documentary filmmaker join forces to craft the perfect Hollywood love story and take both of their careers to the next level—but only if they can keep the chemistry between them from taking the whole thing off script.

368 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 20, 2023

I know, I tell everyone I am not sure if I like Riley Sager, yet once again I feel the urge to read one. Maybe so I can bitch about something for a week or two when I am finished with it?

A Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.

384 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication July 25, 2023

This just seemed like a fun little book to read, and occasionall I need one of those

Never Have I Ever meets The X-Files in Amanda Quain's Ghosted, a gender-bent contemporary retelling of the Jane Austen classic, Northanger Abbey.

Are any of these books on your want list? Or do you have one not on this list you are waiting patiently for?

XO--TEE

Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Book Review : Drinking Games by Sarah Levy

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

Drinking Games explores the role alcohol has in our formative adult lives, and what it means to opt-out of a culture completely enmeshed in drinking. Sarah explores what our short-term choices about alcohol do to our long-term selves and how it challenges our ability to be vulnerable enough to discover what we really want in life. While many millennial women will see themselves in Sarah's words and story, Drinking Games is dedicated to anyone who feels like their private struggles are terminally unique. Whether it’s alcohol, food, exercise, or work, so many of us are grasping for control and struggling to keep our heads above water.

Candid, dynamic, Drinking Games speaks to the millennial experience of working hard, playing harder, and wanting everything to look perfect on social media. Dedicated to those who might be questioning their relationship with alcohol but scared that quitting drinking is an ending, Drinking Games illustrates how, for one woman, sobriety was just the beginning of the story. Sarah's words strike the perfect chord of relatability and biting honesty. Instead of claiming to have the answers, she takes readers by the hand throughout her journey and shows us that life's messiest moments are the ones that can end up being the most profound.

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

Author Sarah Levy shares her struggles with alcohol abuse in her new memoir Drinking Games. She gives readers an honest look at her navigation from being a person who abuses alcohol to becoming sober, and how it is absolutely, despite what many people think, possible to have fun without a drink in your life.

Her stories are relatable to anyone who has also struggled through becoming clean and also to those who may have just overindulged at times, or if the reader has known someone also going through the process of cleaning up. But the book is not all despair, she writes with humor, which I think we all need when we are struggling through something.

I found Drinking Games to be a heartfelt story of a young woman who not only struggled with drinking but also other things like body image issues, and you know, real things. I applaud Sarah Levy for both overcoming her drinking with dignity but also being brave enough to share the struggle with the world.

***Thank you to Macmillian Audio for the advance listen

Drinking Games was published today January 3rd, 2023

Monday, January 2, 2023

Book Review: No Accident by Laura Bates

GOODREADS SUMMARY:

No matter how you try to hide it, the truth will always come out . . .

When a small plane crash ends with a group of seven teens washed up on a deserted island, their first thought is survival. With supplies dwindling and the fear of being stranded forever becoming more of a reality, they quickly discover that being the most popular kid in high school doesn't help when you're fighting to stay alive.

And when strange and terrifying accidents start to occur all around them, the group realizes that they are being targeted by someone who was on the plane and that the island isn't their only danger. A terrible secret from a party the night before the flight has followed them ashore--and it's clear that someone is looking for justice. Now survival depends on facing the truth about that party: who was hurt that night, and who let it happen?

TEE'S THOUGHTS:

I had visions of Lord Of The Flies when I read the summary that seven teenagers were stranded on an island after a plane crash, but let's face it, nothing can quite compare to that book.

The first part of the book focuses on their will to survive, but it soon turns into a mystery as accidents begin to happen and a mystery unfolds.

The story is told to us by Haley, who is more of a storyteller slash observer than an actual character in the events of the story.

The story has a big build-up throughout most of the first half. This helps propel you through the pages and makes the book a very quick read. You feel the anticipation of something coming, however, even with all the build-up I found the ending to be a bit rushed and would have liked it to play out a bit more.

I had mixed feelings about the book, I felt it was very predictable and the characters were all a bit cliche. There were several triggering aspects to the story, such as rape and toxic male behavior, so if you are bothered by that kind of thing, use caution while reading. I do think the author used the book as a platform for getting a point across about several important issues, and at times I felt preached at, but for the most part, I think she did a good job.

I won't lie, I read this quickly, and there were parts I enjoyed and parts I just forced my way through, but all in all, it was pretty good.

** THANK YOU NET GALLEY FOR THE ADVANCE COPY

NO ACCIDENT BY LAURA BATES WAS PUBLISHED DECEMBER 6, 2022

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