Hernan Diaz

2023 Reading Bracket

| Jessica Crawford

Here is my final 2023 reading bracket! (Hopefully I’m not jinxing it by posting it 3 days before the end of the year–I’m in the middle of reading a book that is fine but not a favorite, here’s to hoping I don’t finish it and then read something Earth shattering in the next 72 hours!)

I reconsidered and made a change since the last time I posted this bracket, but the final outcome would have been the same either way. I think this supports what I already knew: I love me some Gothic fantasy and science fiction, but not quite as much as I love some moving literary fiction!

Books included as some of my favorite reads of the year: “What Moves the Dead” by T. Kingfisher, “Trust” by Hernan Diaz, “Nettle & Bone” by T. Kingfisher, “The Mountain in the Sea” by Ray Nayler, “A House with Good Bones” by T. Kingfisher, “Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries” by Heather Fawcett (I actually read an ARC of the sequel and enjoyed it even more, but decided not to count it as a 2023 favorite since it won’t be published until after the new year), “A Face Like Glass” by Frances Hardinge, “Chlorine” by Jade Song, “Chain-Gang All-Stars” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, “If We Were Villains” by M. L. Rio, “North Woods” by Daniel Mason, and “The Seventh Bride” by T. Kingfisher.

Wow, that’s a lot of T. Kingfisher!

But the top honor goes to “North Woods” 🎉💯❤️

What was your favorite book you read this year?

Book Review: TRUST by Hernan Diaz

| Jessica Crawford

Such a creative structure to this Pulitzer Prize-winning literary historical fiction novel! The form and some striking prose made this a 5 star read for me.

The four parts of the book are presented as a novel, the rough draft of a memoir, a complete memoir, and the entries in of private journal. You may be confused as to the point at first, but as you read along you will begin to realize what the different sections have to do with one another, and just what it is that they represent.

The story at the center revolves around the lives of a New York City power couple in the early twentieth century, a husband and wife whose social standing was gained through great successes on Wall Street. But taken together, the four parts of the book make the point that those in positions of relative power (due to wealth, status, sex, influence/reach) get to decide which voices are heard, thereby controlling the narrative and effectively “bending and realigning reality”.

And if the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction isn’t enough to tickle your discerning reader’s fancy, Trust was also one of The New York Times top ten books of 2022, longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, AND one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2022. BOOM!

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