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.

⭐  Do These Books Deserve 5 Stars?  ⭐

DESTINATION TRUTH: MEMOIRS OF A MONSTER HUNTER BY JOSH GATES

Adult Memoir

Goodreads Rating: 4.46

World adventurer and international monster hunter Josh Gates has careened through nearly 100 countries, investigating frightening myths, chilling cryptozoological legends, and terrifying paranormal phenomena. Now, he invites fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at these breathtaking expeditions.

Follow Gates from the inception of the groundbreaking hit show (at the summit of Kilimanjaro) to his hair-raising encounters with dangerous creatures in the most treacherous locations on earth.

Why I'm excited to read it: Normally, I don't like celebrity memoirs, but Josh Gates is one of my favorite humans. He hosts several exploration-related TV shows on the Discovery and Travel channels. I want to be Josh Gates when I grow up. He's hilarious and open minded. I wish all tourists were like him.

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Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

Adult Literary Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 4.32

Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Why I'm excited to read it: I honestly don't understand what this book is about because the synopsis is so vague! All I know is that it won tons of awards, and all my book friends enjoyed it. I guess it's loosely connected short stories? Each story has a "girl," a "woman," and an "other." I'm eager to find out why so many people love this book.

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HAMNET BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL

Adult Historical Fiction

Goodreads Rating: 4.23

Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley Street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet.

Why I'm excited to read it: I call myself a historical fiction fan, but I've never read a Maggie O'Farrell book. Oops. It's time to correct that. She has won many awards and is mentioned on a lot of lists of best historical fiction.

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Little House On The Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Middle Grade Classic

Goodreads Rating: 4.21

Pa Ingalls decides to sell the little log house, and the family sets out for Indian country! They travel from Wisconsin to Kansas, and there, finally, Pa builds their little house on the prairie. Sometimes farm life is difficult, even dangerous, but Laura and her family are kept busy and are happy with the promise of their new life on the prairie.

Why I'm excited to read it: Because I've read it before. Maybe it's cheating to put this book on the list, but it's my list, and I don't care. A teacher read this book to our class when I was a child. I loved it because of the danger and adventure, but I don't remember the details. We'll see if I still love it the second time around.

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OCTOBER SKY BY HOMER HICKAM

(AKA Rocket Boys)

Adult Memoir

Goodreads Rating: 4.18

It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying.

Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. The introspective son of the mine’s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive.

As the boys began to light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would never be the same.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I blame my graduate school friends for this one. We were talking on Zoom (Zooming?), and somehow got onto the subject of Netflix space shows. Netflix makes a ton of space shows, but they always cancel them after a season or two. WHY? I WANT THE SPACE SHOWS, NETFLIX! Someone mentioned a space movie called October Sky. Then someone said, “Wait, isn’t October Sky a book? Wasn't it called Rocket Boys?” Then a bunch of Googling ensued. Turns out, October Sky / Rocket Boys is a book and a movie. I'm excited for this book because Netflix keeps canceling my space stuff!

 

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ONE BY SARAH CROSSAN

Young Adult Contemporary Novel-In-Verse

Goodreads Rating: 4.17

Grace and Tippi. Tippi and Grace. Two sisters. Two hearts. Two dreams. Two lives. But one body.

Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins, joined at the waist, defying the odds of survival for sixteen years. They share everything, and they are everything to each other. They would never imagine being apart. For them, that would be the real tragedy.

But something is happening to them. Something they hoped would never happen. And Grace doesn’t want to admit it. Not even to Tippi.

How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives?

Why I'm excited to read it: Have you ever read a novel about conjoined twins? I haven't. I'm interested to see how the author handles the "two lives, one body" thing. And, I want to know what's happening to the twins! The synopsis is so mysterious.

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Saga, Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples

Adult Science Fiction Graphic Novel

Goodreads Rating: 4.17

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

Why I'm excited to read it: This series is iconic. Whenever I ask for graphic novel recommendations, this one comes up. If everybody else loves it, I probably will too. Reviewers rave about the fictional world and the snarky characters.

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OUR DARK DUET BY VICTORIA SCHWAB

Young Adult Fantasy

Goodreads Rating: 4.16

Kate Harker is a girl who hunts monsters. And she's good at it. August Flynn is a monster who can never be human. Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is a terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be. When a new monster emerges from the shadow—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim's inner demons—Kate must face a monster she thought she'd killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her own.

Why I'm excited to read it: This is book #2 in a duology. Book #1 isn't my favorite Victoria Schwab novel, but I liked it enough to continue the series. I'm sure the finale will be full of plot twists and characters who kick ass.

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A GAME OF FOX & SQUIRRELS BY JENN REESE

Middle Grade Fantasy

Goodreads Rating: 4.16

 

After an incident shatters their family, eleven-year old Samantha and her older sister Caitlin are sent to live in rural Oregon with an aunt they've never met. Sam wants nothing more than to go back to the way things were . . . before she spoke up about their father's anger.

When Aunt Vicky gives Sam a mysterious card game called "A Game of Fox & Squirrels," Sam falls in love with the animal characters, especially the charming trickster fox, Ashander. Then one day Ashander shows up in Sam’s room and offers her an adventure and a promise: find the Golden Acorn, and Sam can have anything she desires.

But the fox is hiding rules that Sam isn't prepared for, and her new home feels more tempting than she'd ever expected. As Sam is swept up in the dangerous quest, the line between magic and reality grows thin. If she makes the wrong move, she'll lose far more than just a game.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: Goodreads says this book “explores the often thin line between magic and reality, light and darkness.” It sounds like it has the potential to be delightfully weird. I’m game. Let’s play.

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DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES BY SEANAN MCGUIRE

Young Adult Fantasy

Goodreads Rating: 4.15

Twin sisters Jack and Jill were seventeen when they found their way home and were packed off to Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children.

This is the story of what happened first . . .

Jacqueline was her mother’s perfect daughter—polite and quiet, always dressed as a princess. If her mother was sometimes a little strict, it’s because crafting the perfect daughter takes discipline.

Jillian was her father’s perfect daughter—adventurous, thrill-seeking, and a bit of a tom-boy. He really would have preferred a son, but you work with what you've got.

They were five when they learned that grown-ups can’t be trusted.

They were twelve when they walked down the impossible staircase and discovered that the pretense of love can never be enough to prepare you a life filled with magic in a land filled with mad scientists and death and choices.

Why I'm excited to read it: I loved the first book in the series and can't wait to read the second. These are short, spooky, magical novels about children who find hidden doors and stumble into strange worlds. The remind me of the joy I felt while reading Alice In Wonderland as a child.

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Do you have a book on your shelf that you think will earn 5 stars?