books

Best Books of 2023: July – Dec 2023

elizabethcaulfieldfelt book reviews, books, children's books, fantasy, historical fiction, mysteries, Newbery contenders, reading, Scotland, Wisconsin, writing

I read so many excellent books in the first part of 2023, I made a blog post about it. The second half of the year was equally amazing. Below are my favorites of the books I read, July-December of 2023. Again, there are so many I’m going to attempt just one-sentence summaries with links to the authors’ pages for each.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr: Using the Greek myth of Aethon, creative and amazing characters, from the past, present, and future find meaning in the midst of great peril.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro: In the not-so-distant future, Klara is an “artificial friend,” a robot with sentience and the goal of aiding her troubled teen “owner” into a happy and stable adulthood.

Artemis by Andy Weir: This fast-paced thriller, set in the future on the moon, features the fabulous Jasmine Bashara, a small-time criminal tempted to make a big-time heist that will get her into more trouble than she can imagine.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabriella Zevin: The story of three friends who create a video game company. This well written description is stolen from the author’s website: this is a “novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, games as art form, technology and the human experience, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect.”

The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper: Australian historical fiction. I was lucky enough to get an ARC to read for a Historical Novels Society review.

A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat: (intended for ages 9-12) Set in a Thailand-like fantasy world, a child born in prison and a child born to a prison warden seek justice and truth. In part, the story mirrors Les Miserable with added excitement and great world-building.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell: I finally got around to reading this much-hyped book, and it deserves all the praise it got. This is the story of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet. Exceptional writing and story-telling.

The Lies of Locke Lamorra by Scott Lynch: Another book I should have already read. Fantasy at its best. The story of Locke Lamorra, the renowned thief and rogue, from his orphaned childhood to his most dangerous exploits.

Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket: If you enjoyed his Series of Unfortunate Events, you’ll love this Snicket mystery which involves diving into philosophy. I couldn’t find anything about this book on the Lemony Snicket website, but this one at his publisher’s is clever.

I was lucky to read two phenomenal books set before, during, and after the Japanese occupation of Malaysia:

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: This book is written so softly, so beautifully, so peacefully, you almost don’t think of it as a book about pain and loss and war and torture, which it is. Short-listed for the Booker Prize.

The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan: The story of the Alcantara’s family who are Chinese-Malaysian, told through the perspectives of Cecily (mother), Jujube (teen daughter) Abel (teen son) and Jasmin (young daughter). The decisions each makes will have devastating impacts on the rest of their lives.

Letters from Clara edited by Janet Newman: This is the only nonfiction book on my list. These are the edited letters of Clara Pagel of Wausau, Wisconsin. On her own, she traveled the world from 1936 to 1939 and wrote letters home to her friends and fellow YWCA members. Her curiosity, intrepid spirit and thoughtful insights about the world, just before it broke out in war, are fascinating.

One Came Home by Amy Timberlake: (for children ages 9-12 and adults) When the sheriff decides that the unrecognizable body in her sister’s dress is her sister, Georgie Burkhardt doesn’t believe it and sets off to find her sister. Set in 1871 Wisconsin, during the massive passenger pigeon roost, as well as the Peshtigo fire, this is fast-paced, historical thriller for kids.

The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton: Using interviews, articles, and letters this tells the story of fictional rock duo Opal and Nev’s rise and fall in music history. Walton is masterful in the changing voices of those interviewed and her descriptions. Everything feels so real. An amazing look at the music industry and its handling of gender and race.

The Eyes and the Impossible by David Eggers: (for ages 8-12 and up) I hope this wins the 2024 Newbery Award. Johannes is a wild dog that lives in a large park with other animals, including two buffalo who reside in a comfortably large pen. As the elders, the buffalo make decisions and solve disputes among the other animals. Clever and fast, Johannes is the eyes for the buffalo, running around the park and reporting on what is going on. I won’t give anything more away. This is an enchanting animal story with beautiful, full-page illustrations by Shawn Harris every 20 or so pages.

The Mermaid and the Bear by Ailish Sinclair: A magical love story set in late 1500s Scotland that encounters the devastation caused by hate, jealousy, and the abuse of power. This story made me cry.

Thanks for making it to the end of this long post! I read 96 books last year (almost 100!), and SO many of them were excellent. How lucky is that? I wish I could have recommended more, but this post has already gotten very long.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about these books, your own favorite books of the past year, or anything else you’d like to mention.

Happy 2024 and may it be a great year of reading!

Favorite Books

elizabethcaulfieldfelt author, awards, book reviews, books, reading, writing

This isn’t my favorite books of the year post (coming soon). Instead, this is a post talking about the BookDNA platform’s book promotion asking authors for their favorite three books of 2023. I’ve answered their question, and you can see my thoughts here.

If you are curious which books got the most votes (with about 2000 authors replying), you can follow that link too.

Shepherd is for both readers and writers as an alternative to Goodreads (owned and controlled by amazon). So, take a look and sign up if you are so inclined.

Sneak peak:

Best Books Jan-June 2023

elizabethcaulfieldfelt book reviews, books, e-books, Fairy tales, historical fiction, mysteries, reading, Scotland

I’ve read so many good books through the first half of this year that I cannot wait until the end of the year to tell you about them. It’s a long list (longer than most full year posts), so I’m going to try to write one-sentence summaries. The title/author link will most often take you to the author’s website.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

  • A bookish young Swedish woman comes to America to meet her recently deceased pen-pal and meets a charming community instead.

Aviva vs the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe

  • (Middle Grade) When a girl’s father dies, she and her mother move into a home that is haunted by a Dybbuk, a ghost of Jewish folklore.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

  • Dicken’s David Copperfield moved to the setting of modern-day Appalachia.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King

  • As a lover of fairy tales, I enjoyed how King played with the genre in this not-a-horror-story novel.

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson

  • In this near-future, science fiction novel, an array of diverse and fun characters attempt to solve global warming and other world issues.

The Beatrice Hyde-Clare mystery series by Lynn Messina: A Brazen Curiosity (1), A Scandalous Deception (2), An Infamous Betrayal (3), A Nefarious Engagement (4), A Treacherous Performance (5), A Sinister Establishment (6), A Boldly Daring Scheme (7), A Ghastly Spectacle (8), A Malevolent Connection (9), An Ominous Explosion (10), An Extravagant Duplicity (11) and related to the series: A Lark’s Tale and A Lark’s Flight

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

  • A year in the life of Tookie, an ex-con, Native American woman, and book store employee who reads with “murderous attention” and is haunted by an annoying ghost.

Sisters at the Edge of the World by Ailish Sinclair

  • In ancient Scotland, a silent, prophetic young woman is caught between her Caledonian tribes and Roman invaders.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

  • A midwife struggles with her conscience and a legal battle when one of her patients dies.

A Blackened Mirror by Jo Graham

  • The first in a trilogy about Giulia Farnese, a young woman and seer who befriends Lucretia Borgia and becomes lovers with her father, the ambitious Cardinal Borgia.

Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

  • A young white girl runs away from home in 1963 Mississippi and gets lessons in racism, family, and love.

The White Donkey by Maximilian Uriarte

  • A powerful, adult graphic novel about life as a solder in the US Marine Corps.

Alchemy of a Blackbird by Claire McMillan

  • A fictional biography of the fascinating and amazing Spanish surrealist artist Remedios Varo.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

  • (nonfiction) This memoir of a female anthro-biologist is beautifully and skillfully written, mixing life information with a love of plant life.

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

  • This epistolary novel, mostly letters of recommendation interspersed with emails and memos, is a hilarious (and sometimes too close to home) glimpse of the life of an English professor.

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

  • (middle grade) The story of one of the “lost boys” of Sudan and his long journey out of his war-torn home country to the US, told in alternating chapters with the story of a young girl currently living in a village in Sudan.

Wildoak by C.C. Harrington

  • (middle grade) In alternating chapters: a young girl who stutters is sent to live with her grandfather in Cornwall while her father decides how to fix what is “wrong” with her, and a young snow leopard is purchased as a gift and then dumped in Cornwall’s Wildoak Forest when he becomes too much to handle.

Thanks for making it to the end of this list. If you are trying to decide on what to read next, I recommend buying books from authors you’ve never heard of and getting books from famous authors from your library. The small-time authors are the ones who need your support the most.

Smashwords’ Buy an E-Book Week

elizabethcaulfieldfelt Adele Hugo, book covers, books, e-books, historical fiction, Oscar Wilde, reading, Smashwords, Syncopation, Wilde Wagers, writing , , , ,

Sunday, 5 March – Saturday, 11 March 2023 is Smashword’s Buy an E-Book Week. Many of the books published on Smashword‘s platform will be discounted or free. Including…

Book Cover for Wilde Wagers

My books at Smashwords:

Wilde Wagers and Syncopation: A Memoir of Adele Hugo which are available this week for $1.49 each. Smashwords is a great platform as it lets authors publish e-books for free and gives them a majority of the profits of their sales.

My books at amazon:

Per my contract with amazon, I’m not allowed to sell my books anywhere for less that one can buy them at amazon, so the books are also on sale at that store, if it is where you prefer to buy books: Wilde Wagers and Syncopation: A Memoir of Adele Hugo.

Happy Reading!

Best Books of 2022

elizabethcaulfieldfelt book reviews, books, children's books, reading

I read 71 books in 2022. That doesn’t count the books I started and didn’t like and gave up on. In my younger years I was much less likely to give up on a book. I wonder what that says about me. Anyway, here are my favorites, in the order I read them:

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue

You probably think you don’t want to read a book about a pandemic, having just experienced one yourself. However, you really should try this book about the Great Flu of 1918-19. It’s told from the perspective of Julia Power, a nurse working in an under-staffed Dublin hospital. Women who have the flu and go into labor are kept away from the laboring women who don’t have the flu. These ill women are cared for by Julia, who spends her time away from work caring for her shell-shocked, mute brother. The story only spans a few days and is simply incredible.

Comeuppance Served Cold by Marion Deeds

This mystery-fantasy-alternate history of depression-era Seattle is a lot of fun. I wrote a review of it earlier for the Historical Novels Society.

Pony by R.J. Palacio

In the 1860s, 12-year-old Silas lives with his photographer father and a ghost named Mittenwool. When three dangerous-looking men force his father to leave with them one night, and then one of the ponies returns, without any of the men, Silas decides his father needs rescuing. This is a heart-stopping, fast-paced adventure with emotional depth. Written for the child-reader, but I recommend it to you all.

The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine

Identical twin sisters, Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, have been fascinated with words their entire lives; they even invented their own twin-language as children. As twins and sisters, they are each other’s best friends, pretty much excluding the world from their own perfect life as two halves of the same person. As adults, they hate each other. The story flashes back and forth to their years growing up, and their love of language, until you discover what happened to split them. Although fascinated by them, I didn’t particularly like either sister; however they are surrounded by likeable characters. This story is utterly engaging, and anyone who loves words should give it a go.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

In the 1600s, in France, in a desperate attempt to thwart a marriage she doesn’t want, Addie LaRue makes a deal with the devil that causes her to live forever–and also causes her to be forgotten by everyone, the moment she is out of eyesight. In modern-day New York City, Addie finally encounters someone who doesn’t forget her. How is it possible? This story is so cleverly written, so magnificently engaging. It’s a best-seller for a reason.

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos

This is one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever encountered. You don’t so much read the book as experience it. Here is the review I wrote of it for the Historical Novels Society. A children’s graphic novel about being a refugee.

The Rat Catcher: A Love Story by Kim Kelly

A crazy title and a funny, beautiful story about the plague in Australia. Here’s my review of it for the Historical Novels Society.

The Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese who Fled Mao’s Revolution by Helen Zia

I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, and I’m glad my book club made me read this one. It reads like fiction, following the lives of four people who were children living in Shanghai in 1949 when the Communists took control of the city and country. Incredibly engaging and informative.

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

On the surface, this is a fantasy story. Neil Narayan and Anita Dayal are two, suburban-Atlanta, Indian-American children whose parents are obsessed with their success. When slacker Neil discovers from Anita that if one steals and eats the gold in jewelry owned by others, they will also steal the abilities of the victims. It’s a crazy but interesting story taken as such, but when you realize that the gold-eating is actually a metaphor, the story becomes so much more. It is about ambition, the meaning of success, being a “model minority” and so much more. One of the most cleverly written stories of the year.

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

This book got a well-deserved Newbery Honor and a whole lot of other awards. Written in verse, this is the story of Reha, who struggles with her parents, American immigrants from India. They want her to maintain her Indian-ness, but they don’t understand what it is like, growing up in America. Straddling two worlds, she is fully frustrated with her parents. When her mother gets leukemia, the complicated becomes more complex.

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee

Lillet Berne isn’t her real name, but it is the name she is most famous for, as a falcon soprano and the most revered opera singer in 19th century Europe. She started out as a Minnesota farm girl, then a circus singing equestrian. Her engrossing story is slowly unfurled as she meets with someone who she might have to kill–or who wants to kill her? I can’t remember, but I do remember that this book is incredible.

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

The North may have won the Civil War, but you’d hardly know it from the way the southern town of Old Ox is run. On a homestead outside of town, George Walker decides to start farming his land, as a way of mourning his son Caleb who died in the war. Having never held with slavery, George hires two brothers, former slaves, and pays them a living wage, infuriating the townsfolk and the brothers’ former owner. This is the time and place and some of the characters, but a whole lot goes on in this heart-breaking story of family, of love and hate, of justice and injustice. An impressive debut novel.

Jaguars and Other Game by Brynn Barineau

This is a sort of female three musketeers story that takes place in Rio de Janeiro in 1808. Whip-wielding Maria, her dagger-throwing sister Isabel, and their sword-savvy friend Victoria must solve a murder mystery to free the wrongly accused Mateo. Did you know that the royal family of Portugal fled to Rio to avoid the threat of Napoleon? Mad Queen Maria, the Prince Regent and the horrible Princess Carlotta are some of the colorful characters here, as is this historical version of Rio. A great romp of a story that taught me all sorts of stuff.

What were your favorite reads of the past year? I’d love to hear!

Aging Ambition

elizabethcaulfieldfelt aging, ambition, author, books, mid-life crisis, personality, reading, writing

When I was young I was ambitious. I wanted to write books and modestly support myself with the success of those books. (No fame, please. I am/was incredibly shy.)

After I was married with children and only working part time, my ambition was to write books and have them published. Perhaps earn about what I made in my part-time job. As the years wore on, I decided that just finishing a book and self-publishing it would be enough.

Now that my children are grown and I’m nearing retirement, I’m rethinking even that modest ambition.

My mother was a writer. She wrote seven novels when I was growing up, though none of them got published. She and my sister published Finding the Way together when she was in her fifties, I think. When she retired, I talked to her about how lucky she was to have the time to work on her writing. And you know what? She no longer felt like writing. She did volunteer work. Took care of grandkids. And read more. No writing? I couldn’t understand.

Here I am, heading toward that same place in my life and feeling much the same way. I now understand. Writing is SO HARD with almost no value. Volunteering has great value. Spending time with friends and family has value. Reading more will be a constant goal in my life.

I have two half-finished novels, Outlandish and The Little MERmaid. The characters in these stories are so real to me. I hate the idea that their lives are paused…. I feel like their stories should be finished. But then I sit down to write and wonder why….

I have three revised and ready-to-publish novels that have never been picked up by an agent or publisher, though I tried for years to find one. I could self-publish them. It’s a lot of work. And what for? Money and fame were never my goals. It has become hard to remember why I wanted to be a writer. It now seems so self-indulgent.

What are your own ambitions and how have they changed over the years?

2022 Newbery Winners

elizabethcaulfieldfelt awards, books, children's books, Newbery contenders, reading ,

I live-streamed today’s award ceremony. I’m that kind of nerd!

Congratulations to author Donna Barba Higuera for winning this year’s Newbery Medal for her novel The Last Cuentista.

And congratulations to the Newbery Honor authors:

Rajani LaRocca for Red, White and Whole

Darcie Little Badger for A Snake Falls to Earth

Kyle Lukoff for Too Bright to See

Andrea Wang for Watercress, which also won illustrator Jason Chin this year’s Caldecott Award.

I’ve spent the last few months reading what I thought were Newbery contenders, but I haven’t read any of these. I’m excited to do so now!

Newbery Award 2022: the Contenders

elizabethcaulfieldfelt awards, books, Newbery contenders, reading

One of my book clubs reads Newbery Award contenders in December and January, so we can be well informed when the American Library Association announces the award winner in late January. There are so many great children’s books being published every year. This picture includes the ones I’m reading.

I didn’t get Joseph Bruchac’s Rez Dogs in the first picture, but I’m starting that one today.

I’ll let you know which I think should win before the announcement is made.

Do you have a favorite children’s book published in 2021?

July Sales Event

elizabethcaulfieldfelt Adele Hugo, author, books, e-books, historical fiction, Smashwords, writing

During July, the e-book of Syncopation is 99 cents at Smashwords and Amazon.

This sale is a part of Smashwords’ July sales celebration.

Smashwords is where I first published Syncopation as an e-book. I love Smashwords! They make self-publishing easy and affordable and work with international book sellers such as Apple books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, etc. When you buy from one of those retailers, you are purchasing my Smashwords edition. (All sites feature the $0.99 discount in July.)

Syncopation is also available at amazon, and per contract the price has been dropped to $0.99, so that I’m not selling cheaper anywhere else.

I hope you’ll pick up a copy of Syncopation and let me know what you think.

Happy July!