Happy New Year('s Eve)!

Hello my fellow bookworms, 

(c) Once Upon A Book Blog(ger) 2023

Wishing you a safe and happy New Year's Eve! May your year ahead be filled with many good books!

What are your book resolutions this year? This past year I read 48 books, for a total of 11,750 pages read. For 2024, I am going to keep my "Read 25 Books" resolution. I am going to aim to read a difficult book and a classic book. By the end of this year, I hope to be able to go back to reading in full force! :)

 

Here are my top 5 books from this year (in no particular order - this was a hard list for me this year!):

• An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten
• Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik
• These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan
• Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
• Give Me A Sign by Anna Sortino
  

Here are 5 books I look forward to in 2024 (also in no particular order):

• A Touch of Chaos by Scarlett St. Clair
• Bride by Ali Hazelwood
• How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
• A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur
• The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley
  

Here is some good book news for your new year:

• If you read my blog post from last month, Goodreads has announced their Goodreads Choice Awards for 2023! Did any of the books you voted for make the final cut?
  

• Cardinal Rule Press is looking for new realistic fiction books aimed at children, ages 4-11, that are representative, inclusive, and meaningful to publish! Picture book manuscripts can be up to 1,000 words and must be submitted as a PDF. Click here for more information.
  

• Book Riot has a reading log for their Read Harder Challenge that you can download and use to track your reading this year!
• If you want the actual list of challenges for 2024, check out the Read Harder Challenge here!
  

• There is a new bill introduced called the "Books Save Lives Act," that aims to counteract the book bans across the nation by classifying such bans as a federal civil rights violation. Check out the news article from HuffPost for more information.
  

• A nice act of kindness from James Patterson this winter, Mr. Patterson provided bonuses to 600 booksellers!

One more thing before the new year - did you know I have a Facebook page set up so you can now receive Facebook notifications when I post a new blog post? Check it out (and subscribe)!

Until next time - Happy Reading! Happy New Year! :)

Best of the Best Book Lists

Photo by Ioana Motoc from PexelsPhoto by Ioana Motoc: https://www.pexels.com/photo/sill-life-with-gingerbread-red-berries-and-old-books-lying-on-a-windowsill-19149211/

Hello my fellow bookworms!

How did the time go by so fast? We just had falling leavings and changing colors, and suddenly, SNOW. Ah! I am not ready for it, yet. At least, there are quite a few new cozy reads out to keep you company during the cold season?

Today I have some award winning and best of the year book lists for you!

• The National Book Awards
• According to the National Book Foundation's website:

"The National Book Awards were established in 1950 to celebrate the best writing in America. Since 1989, they have been overseen by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture. Although other categories have been recognized in the past, the Awards currently honors the best Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature published each year."

• The winners for this year are:
• Fiction: Blackouts by Justin Torres
• Nonfiction: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk
• Poetry: from unincorporated territory [åmot] by Craig Santos Perez
• Translated Literature: The Words That Remain by Stenio Gardel, Bruna Dantas Lobato
  
• Young People's Literature: A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
  
• If you check out the award website, you can also see the finalists and various Longlists!
  

• The 2023 Booker Prize

According to The Booker Prizes website:


The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades

Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. It is a prize that transforms the winner’s career.

• The winner of the 2023 Booker Prize this year is: Prophet Songby Paul Lynch
• Check out the Booker Prize website to see the both the Shortlist and Longlist of book nominations!
   
• New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2023
  

• Time's Best Books 2023 
  

• Book Riot's Best Books of 2023
• Check out their selections in science fiction, romance, nonfiction, mystery/thriller, horror, fiction, fantasy, comics, and children's books!

• Goodreads Choice Awards - you can still vote in these for about 2 more days! Check Goodreads in about a week or so to see the final results.
  

I am currently working on a project in my neighborhood that details the top 25 books the community has read. I was surprised by the amount of manga that made the list! I was not surprised that Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was the #1 book, though! What was your favorite book this year? I still have some time left, so I will leave my choice until next time. ;)

Happy Reading!