I love watching all of the Mid Year Book Freak Out videos on booktube. This year I have decided to do my own as a blog post. You basically answer a series of questions about the books you've read so far this year. So here goes!
1) Best book of 2023 so far
There was a lot of competiton for this one - I am having a very good reading year, but I have decided on Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. (I read almost exclusively on my Kindle so the links are to the Kindle versions.) I wasn't even sure I would like a book about the relationship between an octopus and the aquarium cleaning lady but I loved it.
2) Best sequel
This is also an anticipated read - we finally got the conclusion to the Alcatraz and the Evil Librarian middle grade series. I thought Bastille and The Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson was a great finale.
3) New release I haven't read yet
I have four new releases for this answer:
- In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune
- Homecoming by Kate Morton
- Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
- The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
4) Most anticipated release for the rest of 2023
Silverborn by Jessica Townsend, the next book in the Morrigan Crow series (October)
5) My biggest disappointment
Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie - I know she had some klunkers and this is definitely one of them.
6) My biggest surprise
Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. I paired this nonfiction title with Remarkably Bright Creatures (see #1) and I was surprised at how compelling it was.
7) New to me author - debut or first time read
Heather Fawcett, who wrote The Grace of Wild Things and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. I am looking forward to reading her newest, The Islands of Elsewhere. She writes both middle grade and adult.
8) My newest fictional crush
I don't really do fictional crushes so no answer here.
9) My newest favorite character
Marcellus, the octopus from Remarkably Bright Creatures, who gets his own point of view. I loved the sections featuring his voice.
10) Book that made me cry
Hands down, this would be Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. This book is loosely based on Little Women as it features four sisters as they move into adulthood. It is such a good book and it definitely made me cry.
11) Book that made me happy
This is a tie between The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink, a childhood favorite just released on Kindle, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sandu Mandanna. I read The Pink Motel for Middle Grade March. I love the found family aspect of The Very Secret Society
12) Most beautiful book I've acquired the year
I got some lovely books this year but I think the most beautiful is the Chiltern Classics edition of Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. It is a lovely hardback complete with gilded edges.
13) What do I need to read by the end of 2023?
First of all, I have a list of sequels I would like to finish this year:
- Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo, sequel to Ninth House
- Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse, sequel to Black Sun
- Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn, sequel to Legendborn
- Amira and the Great Game by BB Alston, sequel to Amira and The Night Brothers
- House of Roots and Ruin by Erin A. Craig, sequel to House of Salt and Sorrow
- Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree, prequel to Legends and Lattes
