That's Noteworthy! (vol. 13)

favorite books of 2023 + a trip to L.A.

Hey friends! It’s lucky newsletter #13 and I’m changing things up for this volume by sharing my faves of the year instead of my recent MG & YA reads (saving those for my next edition).

📚. Favorite books of 2023

Favorites are always hard for me, but when I sat down to wade through my many 5-star reads, I was able to pick some stand-outs. Many of these I’ve written about in my newsletter before and/or raved about on Bookstagram, if we’ve chatted in person, or if you’ve asked me for book recs for a kid. And to give you a more complete look at my reading life, I’m also sharing my favorite adult books & reading experiences from 2023 too.

a few faves I found on our shelves

Young Adult

• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (always)

• Throwback by Maurene Goo

• Saint by Adrienne Young

Middle Grade

• Framed!, Vanished!, & Trapped! (Framed!/T.O.A.S.T. Mystery Series) by James Ponti

• Charlie Thorne & the Curse of Cleopatra (#3) by Stuart Gibbs

• City of the Dead (City Spies #4) by James Ponti

• The Vanderbeekers & the Hidden Garden (#2) by Karina Yan Glaser

• Sisterhood of Sleuths by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

• The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead & Wendy Mass

• The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson & the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan

• The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

Bonus: Adult Fiction

• The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren

• Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez

• Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle

• Juniper Bean Resorts to Murder by Gracie Ruth Mitchell

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

  (and yes, one of these things is not like the other 🤣)

Bonus: Adult Nonfiction

• Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara

• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

🤓. In the library…

Back to school, and back to book club! My new 5th grade book clubs kicked off this week. I have two new groups reading Chasing Vermeer again, and one group is continuing on. For them, I wanted to pick a genre mashup, so we’ll be reading Caroline Starr Rose’s Jasper and the Riddle of Riley’s Mine, which is a historical mystery/adventure story set during the Klondike Gold Rush. I’m excited to read it along with the kids.

📖. What my kids are reading…

• Gigi (16) brought home Scythe from a classroom library and hasn’t been able to put it down.

• Brody (13) just finished The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and won’t stop telling me how I HAVE TO READ IT¹. He and I are listening (slowly) to Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan.

• Hallee (12) DNF’d Golden Girl and picked up On Air with Zoe Washington. She and I are listening to Free Throws, Friendship, and Other Things We Fouled Up by Jenn Bishop.

🥰. Things bringing me joy right now…

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I got away for a night up to a punk show in Hollywood. We saw old nostalgic bands play who we’ve been listening to for over twenty years, and it was super fun. While we were up there, we went to the L.A. location of our very favorite restaurant, Pizzeria Bianco. We hadn’t been (in Phoenix) since 2020 and it did not disappoint.

We also went the Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library and took an art and architecture tour. Our docent was so knowledgable, and the tour was fantastic! Highly recommend it if you’re ever in L.A. (especially if you have read The Library Book by Susan Orlean). The children’s literature room was so beautiful. Visiting libraries outside of my own local area is something I want to do more of in the future (and bonus when they are also historic buildings).

Happy Friday and happy reading!

xo,
Nicole

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1. Back in deep covid, I bought this book on pub day at our local Barnes & Noble. We walked there because we had nothing else to do in those days after I bought it online for pickup (since shopping in the store wasn’t available). Since then it has stared at me from the bookshelf, taunting me… like, do you really want to read this? Do you want to be manipulated into somehow rooting for or understanding Snow? I don’t love villain origin stories, but I do so love The Hunger Games (and the new movie looks really good), so I will probably give in and finally read it.