With things starting to calm down heading into the holiday season, I’ve finally been able to start reading again. Getting to binge-read over the break is one of my favorite things, especially when it is a good book. Last break, I read around 8 books, and this break, I plan on breaking that record.

To keep track, I love to use good reads, and I use it probably as a second type of social media platform. For the yearly challenge, I set my goal as 70 books, and right now, I have nine books to go, reading the Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. As we approach January 1st, I was going through my list of books that I read this year, and I thought I would share some of my favorite books from 2023.

Some books I recommend:

‍The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This book will always be at the top of my recommendations list. Taylor Jenkins Reid does such a great job of taking the story through different points of her life. Don’t ask me how, but this is the only time I have ever cried reading a book. The ending had me shocked, but to be honest, I’m not sure why I was crying. If you read it, please let me know if you found it sad or not! This book is about Evelyn Hugo, a movie star who contacts a journalist about writing a biography about her life and she tells her story from her husband to the next and how she became a big movie star. I would re-read this book again and again any day.

Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter.This was such a cute book, and it was a really quick read. I read it in about two days. I loved the characters so much, and Liz and Wes stole my heart immediately. It was such a fun and short romcom which was also super enjoyable with all of the movie references and music references. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book with as many Taylor Swift references as this one.

If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio. I bought this book knowing absolutely nothing about it, and at first, it wasn’t my cup of tea. I wasn’t getting past the fact about the Shakespeare aspect, but I realized I had to try and reread it from the beginning to where I was, and I couldn’t put it down. It had me at the edge of my seat. It is a fiction novel with a hint of romance and a hint of mystery. This novel surrounds a group of college theater students when one of them dies, and it becomes a mystery where they have to try and figure out who was the murderer and how it happened. Every student told the cop told a different perspective.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. This book was amazing, but normally I have to read the book before seeing the movie, but I felt the motivation to be in reverse. The prequel had so many more pages than the other three, and I was dreading trying to get through. I got about 100 pages in, but then I saw the movie and absolutely loved it, and I decided that now that I saw the movie, I’m going to reread the book. I ended up loving the book and seeing how Coriolanus Snow actually became the Snow we see in the other movies. It’s so sad to see some of the changes made from the book to the movies, but I loved both so much, and I can’t wait to reread the book again. This book also made so many references to the rest of the series. I highly recommend it.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I was at my friend's cousin's house, and she brought a book out for me to read if I needed a good book. Right then, I read the first 100 pages, and I fell in love with the characters. The story was told so well. It also took place in London (London = my favorite place), so I could picture all of the British accents. I knew I was going to like it, but I didn’t realize how much. It tells the story of Lou, who takes the job of a full-time assistant for Will Trayno, who is paralyzed from a motorbike, and she tries to help him regain his life and adjust after the accident.

I love that at the end of the year, I can reflect on some of the books I read as well as recommend some of my all-time favorite books. I can’t wait for another year of books and getting to explore some different genres in which I haven’t before.