Reading The Highest Rated Books On My Shelf

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I’m going to make book predictions! At the start of 2022, I chose 10 books that I hadn’t read but thought I’d love. Over the course of the year, I read the books, then shared my reviews. I’m going to do that again. These are my 2023 5-star predictions. I promise I will read all these books sometime this year.

I currently have 50-something unread books on my to-be-read shelf. I think all of them have the potential to earn a 5-star review from me. (They wouldn’t be on the shelf if I didn’t think I’d love them.) But I’m extra excited about the books in this post because they have mostly positive reviews on Goodreads. They're actually the 10 highest rated books I own. I hope I love them as much as everybody else does.

The Sunday Post #329

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Books To Read In Spring

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It's nearly spring, bookworms! Do you know what you're reading this season?

Usually, I'd look over my to-be-read shelf and pick out a bunch of books that are set in spring or that have spring-like cover art.

This year, I'm going to do something different. I have a bad habit of buying books and then leaving them on the shelf for years without reading them. I decided to look at my old book haul blog posts and find the books that have been sitting around the longest. This spring, I'm determined to read them.

Here are my 10 most neglected book babies.

The Sunday Post #328

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

March 2023 Book Releases

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March is an excellent time for book releases! So many books are coming out this month. It was hard to narrow down my list to a reasonable number of books. Here are the ones I'm looking forward to reading the most.

Note: Some of the release dates may change or be different in your part of the world. Don't come for me if they're wrong. I'm trying to keep up!

Historical Fiction Book Recommendations

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Historical fiction is probably my favorite genre. I love every flavor of it: realistic historical fiction, historical fantasy, historical horror, dual timelines, family sagas. I even read history nonfiction.

Today, I'm going to recommend some realistic historical fiction. These are fiction stories set in the past with no magical elements. Here are 10 that I've read and obsessed over in the last few years.

The Sunday Post #327

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Usually, I just slap a meme up here, but today's artwork was done by Brooklyn. Here's a happy bee for you.

The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Best Modern Classic Heroines

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Who's your favorite fictional heroine? I have so many that I couldn't narrow it down to a reasonable number for a blog post. To save my own sanity, I decided to choose characters from modern classic literature. (Modern classic means "popular and published after WWII.") So, here are my 10 favorite modern classic heroines.

The Sunday Post #326

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Did I Love These Popular Books?

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Way back in February 2022, I made a 5-star TBR predictions post. I picked a variety of popular books that I hadn’t read yet. They sounded like my kind of stories, so I thought I’d love them and give them all 5 stars.

During the adventure that was 2022 (and January 2023), I read the books. Did I give them 5 stars? Let’s find out.

The Sunday Post #325

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

I Read 200+ "Best Books Of 2022" Lists

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It took over a month, but I have searched the Internet and read, watched, or listened to over 200 "Best Books Of 2022" lists. Why would I waste my time doing this? Because I'm insufferably nosy and want to know what everybody is reading. (Seriously, I've strained my neck trying to see what strangers on a train are reading.) I also have a bad case of FOMO. What if there's an awesome book in the world that everybody knows about except me? I can't let that happen!

While I was perusing the lists, I jotted down the titles of books I saw multiple times. Then I looked them up on Goodreads and picked 10 that I want to read. That's what I'm going to show you today.

The Sunday Post #324

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Best Middle Grade Book Releases 2023

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There are so many fun middle grade books coming out in the first half of 2023! Today, I have a list of new releases for tweens that caught my attention. I can't wait to read these books.

Note: The release dates may change or be different in your part of the world. Publishing is notorious for delays.

The Sunday Post #323

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Best New Young Adult Book Releases 2023

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There are so many fun young adult books coming out in the first half of 2023! Today, I have a list of new releases for teens that caught my attention. I can't wait to read these books.

Note: The release dates may change or be different in your part of the world. Publishing is notorious for delays.

The Sunday Post #322

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Best New Book Releases 2023

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There are so many fascinating books coming out in the first half of 2023! Today, I have a list of new releases that caught my attention. I can't wait to get these books in my hands!

Note: The release dates may change or be different in your part of the world. Publishing is notorious for delays.

Get your scrolling fingers ready. This is a big post.

The Sunday Post #321

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

2022 Reading Statistics

Welcome to my giant post of 2022 reading stats! It's actually been a while since I did a yearly wrap up because I can't seem to keep a computer alive for an entire year. They keep dying and taking my spreadsheets with them! (Of course I don't back up my junk. I'm not that responsible.)

Anyway, 2022 was my worst reading year in recorded history. I usually read around 100 books a year, but in 2022, I read a grand total of 62. I think I was just busier than normal. My dog got sick in September 2021 and then needed increasing amounts of attention until she died in April 2022. The day after she died, I switched roles at work. (With 4 days' notice that the switch was happening.) My new role is infinitely more stressful. I worked a zillion hours of overtime. I caught COVID and several other diseases. I ran/walked over 1000 miles. I joined a boxing gym. My roommate is a 3-year-old child. Yeah . . . books haven't been a priority for a long time.

Even though I wasn't reading very much, the blog did okay. It passed one million all-time pageviews. I woke up at 3 in the morning to get this sweet screenshot.

Okay. Enough blathering. Let's make graphs. I mostly make these graphs because I like to see how my reading changes from year to year. I don’t know how interesting the graphs will be to people who aren't me, but I decorated them for you! Maybe that will help. 

If you’re the kind of nerd who wants to know more about my reading year, check out my favorite books of 2022.

The Sunday Post #320

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The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

Best Books Of 2022

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It's time for my favorite blog post of the year. These are the best books I read in 2022. To be extra dramatic, I arranged them countdown style, but they're all good books, so please pick them up if you stumble across them on your literary travels.

Drumroll please . . .

The Sunday Post #319

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.