Top Ten Tuesday: New-to-Me Authors I Hope to Try in 2023

snowy10

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is 2023 Debut Books I’m Excited About — but I really don’t tend to get very excited about debut books in advance (and don’t even keep track of upcoming debuts), so this topic was a non-starter for me.

Instead, I thought I’d spin off from the designated topic, moving from books by new authors to books by authors who are new to me. Much easier to come up with a list of ten!

Here are ten authors whose books I plan (or hope) to try in 2023:

  1. Farrah Rochon
  2. Deepa Varadarajan
  3. Victor LaValle
  4. Claire Keegan
  5. Nikki Erlick
  6. Colleen Oakley
  7. Jenni Fagan
  8. Trish Doller
  9. Nita Prose
  10. Deesha Philyaw

Two of these (Nikki Erlick and Claire Keegan) are authors of books my book group will be reading later this year, and the rest are an assortment of books that I’ve had on my radar for a while plus a couple of ARCs.

Have you read any of the books pictured above, or read other books by these authors? Are there any in particular you’d recommend?

If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!

Reading goals: Series to read in 2023

Happy New Year! Here’s hoping 2023 brings joy and health for one and all!

As is my annual tradition, rather than setting a bunch of reading goals that I probably won’t actually try to achieve, I prefer to limit my bookish goals to series reading. There are so many series out there that I want to get to!

I absolutely recognize that I may end up changing my mind on some or all of these, but as of now…

My priority series to read in 2023 will be:

A bunch of carry-overs from 2022:

Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky: I own two of these books, and the 3rd comes out in January. I meant to at least start these last year… hoping to do better this year!

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir: Another carry-over. I’ve read the first book (Gideon the Ninth), and have books 2 & 3 on my shelves, ready to go!

Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers – I finished the first two in 2022, and definitely plan to read the remaining two ASAP.

The Lady Janies series by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows: I read My Lady Jane in 2022, and want to read the next two in 2023.

Plus, some new additions to the list — series to start (and maybe even finish!) in 2023:

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon: My daughter recommended these to me, and so far, I haven’t had any romance series on my annual series lists.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper: This is an older fantasy series that I really should have read by this point in my life! I read the first book years ago with one of my kids, but I think it’s about time that I give the series a shot, just for me.

Regency Faerie Tales by Olivia Atwater: This series slipped past my radar, but then I started seeing a lot of positive reviews. I think I need to give these books a try.

And finally…

A couple of series that I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while now. Who knows? Maybe 2023 will finally be the year that I give them a try. My “maybe” series for this year are:

  • The Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn
  • Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny

Are you planning to start any new series this year? If you’ve read any of the series on my list for 2023, please let me know what you thought and if you have any recommendations!

Top Ten Tuesday: [FREEBIE TOPIC] Books my book group will be reading in 2023

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is a freebie — we all choose our own topics!

I haven’t done a TTT post in a while and my brain cells are not feeling up for anything too challenging… so I’m keeping it simple. My book group picks our monthly discussion books for an entire calendar year ahead of time, and we’ve just finalized our selections for 2023!

So yes, that makes this a top 12 list — but I couldn’t decide which two to leave out, so I’m going for it.

Here’s what we’ll be reading in 2023:

  1. January – Miss Austen by Gil Hornby
  2. February – An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose, #1) by Charlaine Harris
  3. March – The Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger
  4. April – Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
  5. May – Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein
  6. June – The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Loigman Cohen
  7. July – The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
  8. August – Cotillion by Georgette Heyer
  9. September – The Measure by Nikki Erlick
  10. October – Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
  11. November – Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
  12. December – Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

As you can see, we aim for a mix of genres as well as a mix of newer and older books. I have to say, I think we’ve done a great job planning for next year! I’ve already read our March and November books, but I’m happy to read them again, and I’m excited for all the new books I’ll be reading and discussing with my amazing group.

Have you read any of these? What do you think of our choices?

If you wrote a TTT post this week, please share your link!