Stephen King was surely right when he said, “Books are uniquely portable magic.” Want to experience what it is like diving in an ocean? Read a book. Wish to travel to a whole other dimension that has characteristics unseen of in reality? Read a book. Want to get insights into the life of a famous person? Read a book. The list never ends! Just because there are tons of books that you still need to read, adding one or two (… or three… or more) to that list does not harm anybody. With so many books already released in less than halfway through the year, here are some of the best books of 2023 so far that you must add to your reading lists:
The Stolen Heir: A Novel of Elfhame, by Holly Black
Holly Black returns to Elfhame in a new duology, following Jude’s brother Oak and the changeling queen, Suren. Eight years after the Battle of the Serpent, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has reclaimed the Ice Needle Citadel and is using an ancient relic to create monsters. Suren is saved by Prince Oak, heir to Elfhame, who is on a mission to lead him into the north. If Suren agrees, it will mean guarding her heart against the boy she once knew and a prince she cannot trust.
Blue Hour, by Tiffany Clarke Harrison
Blue Hour is a fragmentary novel about motherhood in an unraveling America. The narrator is a gifted photographer, an uncertain wife, an infertile mother, and a biracial woman. She struggles with ambivalence about motherhood, but her husband Asher is desperate to keep trying. When she learns she is pregnant, she must decide what she dares hope for her future.
Begin Again, by Emma Lord
Andie Rose has a plan to transfer from community college to Blue Ridge State, major in psychology, and become an iconic self-help figure. However, her plans go off the rails when her boyfriend Connor transfers out of Blue Ridge, her roommate Shay needs a major, and Milo disrupts her ideas about love and relationships. When Andie finds the power of her voice as the anonymous Squire on the school’s legendary pirate radio station, she learns that not all the best laid plans are necessarily the right ones.
I Am Still With You, by Emmanuel Iduma
I Am Still With You is Emmanuel Iduma’s story of his return to Nigeria, where he grew up, in search of the fate of his uncle Emmanuel, who disappeared in the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s. To find answers, Iduma stopped in city after city, reconnecting with relatives, photocopying illicit books, and visiting half-abandoned monuments. It is a story of collective loss and making peace with the unknowable. It is a profoundly personal story of collective loss and making peace with the unknowable.
Chlorine, by Jade Song
Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale. Ren Yu is a swimmer, and her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends, and her coach is her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school, and have a good life. However, Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers, who called sailors to their doom and dragged them down and drowned them.
While these suggestions may just be a few from the bunch available, there are tons of new releases every week that might even be more appealing to you than the novels suggested above. Do let us know how you find these novels in the comments. Happy reading!
