Best of the Best 2023 Lit List And Other Projects
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
It's that time again to review the best books of 2023. As always, I would like to thank the various authors, publishers, PR companies, Reading groups, and individuals who brought these books to my attention. You are what makes this blog great.
I also would like to promote two very important books in which I edited and proofread. Please if you get the chance, read them. They may help you with your own conflicts and change your outlook. Links are provided below.
In Search of Cognizance by Nabraj Lama-a Spiritual Travel book about going to Nepal's sacred sites and finding a spiritual connection within them.
Now on with the countdown:
20. Humans Without Borders by Madhava Kumar Turumella
Turumella’s book is a call for unity, understanding, empathy, and kindness to diminish the importance of borders.
Turumella looks through various mindsets like exploitation and biases such as cognitive dissonance. They can sometimes become blockers in our ability to understand one another and make efforts to improve ourselves and the world around us.
The book offers suggestions on ways that the governments and individuals can be more open and accepting in offering aid, resources, and services to each other on a global scale.
19. Reflections In My Magical Mirror: Lessons of Love From The School of Life Spirituality 104 by Ivan Figuero-Otero, MD
Figuero-Otero’s series The School of Life books are summarized in this volume which captures various lessons and advice from the previous volumes. The chapters are helpful, easily digestible, and uplifting.
Each chapter offers a quote from one of the School of Life books, a spiritual interpretation, and an exercise that helps the Reader implement the lessons that the chapter teaches.
Figuero-Otero uses Biblical quotations that illustrate kindness, love, selflessness, and feeling spiritually centered. He also writes beautiful descriptions that use nature and scientific concepts to illustrate the basic themes found in the book.
This is the right book to clear the mind and fill the spirit.
18. An Abraham Lincoln Tribute: His Life and Legacy by Zaki J. Doudak
Doudak’s brief but touching tribute to Lincoln's life recognizes his legacy and its meaning during a time when racism and division are still very much alive.
The book features a transcript of the Gettysburg Address, a brief profile of Mary Todd Lincoln, and a poetic essay which acknowledges that there is racial tension everywhere and that Readers could stand up for equality and unity to change the system that we are given.
We can express our most human traits like freedom, kindness, understanding, and empathy and through that, we can create equality and equity.
Koch’s book is a high energy cognitive approach for ambitious forward thinking potential entrepreneurs.
It is particularly encouraging for those who have an ambitious drive to be successful in whatever they accomplish. Many of the chapters emphasize suggestions like rigorous dieting and exercise and an active approach that focuses on dedication and perseverance.
Readers who like the tough love approach to personal development books with plenty of facts and activities without much sentiment will not be disappointed.
16.
Jane Austen’s Totally Unexpected New York Adventure by Robin Robbey
This is a cute funny Science Fiction Romance short novel in which Jane Austen is sent to the future.
Three friends use a time machine to travel to Regency Era Bath, retrieve Jane Austen from her sickbed, and invite her to come to the future to be treated for the illness that would eventually kill her and return to her time to live a long and happy life.
Austen is the highlight of this futuristic Rom Com. She is her usual witty genteel self speaking in her natural flowery Regency-era language. In contrast, when her new friends try to imitate it, it deliberately reads as forced and out of place. That is one of the nice touches that Robbey gives to this story.
The moment when Austen walks across futuristic New York is one of the best moments that I read all year. She is confused and intoxicated by this futuristic world and is amazed by how the status of women have changed and they work in careers that Austen would have never dreamed that they would. Her romance with cynical narrator Fred is charming and combines the byplay of Austen’s romances with the deeper existentialist questions of Science Fiction.
This is not only a first rate Science Fiction Romance. It is a love letter to an author’s whose works have inspired many.
This is a helpful effective guide on how one can live through an injury and ease their physical, psychological, and emotional pain.
Doudak offers good advice on how to deal with a serious injury and its aftereffects. Instead of being upset about being inactive, they can take that time to rest and relax and monitor their own movements and self-care.
The injured person can also take that time to improve relationships with the people around them. They can talk to friends and family members by confiding about their fears and insecurities, accepting help, showing gratitude, and listening to others' concerns as well.
After Injury offers great advice to heal not only one’s body but their mind, soul, and relationship with others.
This is a brilliant character study of a woman looking back on her troubled past.
Budding singer and songwriter, Sophia struggles with her mentally ill mother, deceased brother, and discovery of her father's unsavory past. She is then caught in a love triangle as racial tension escalates and she becomes the target of hate groups.
Throughout the books, we are shown the roles in Sophia’s life as daughter, sister, friend, lover, student, singer, songwriter, and mother. We see racism and family dysfunction through her eyes and how they marked her path. There are many tense and suspenseful moments where Sophia is confronted with the worst aspects of people around her. She is stalked and threatened by racist groups and her brother was killed in a hate crime. She also has to learn the truth about her father's past and accept his weaknesses and imperfections.
Sophia's romances help shape her future life as a songwriter who wrote the honest pain of heartbreak that she lived. She becomes involved in troubled relationships, one with a white man with a racist past and the other, an African-American activist, that leave lasting impressions on her later years.
This book is about a woman who has to remember and reconnect with her past so she can let it go and become the fulfilled successful happy woman that she was always meant to be.
This book offers common sense advice for those who need help making and reaching goals and tips on how to stay focused on them.
Mott uses examples from her own life to show that despite hardship, goals can still be achieved and sometimes changed. But with a positive outlook, one can still find happiness and personal satisfaction.
The chapters consist of clear steps like “Focus,” “Discipline,” “Mindset,” “Health,” and ”Reducing Distractions.” These chapters give clear plain advice towards each step and how it pertains to the specific goal. They provide Readers whose minds might be filled with nagging questions, doubts, and those times when the body is too overwhelmed or too unmotivated to move beyond that moment and seek a positive future.
The Undeniable Power of Movement is a plainly written book with tips, steps, and exercises tat engage Readers. Like any good personal development book, it allows people to keep moving.
This is a book about facing deeply personal struggles and how anyone can find strength and lessons to learn within them.
Many of the difficulties in Carnahan’s daily life are detailed and lead to lessons that she learned and decided to share with others. The struggles like learning what in her environment caused her ill health taught her the importance of trusting one’s own intuition, studying the environment scientifically, and implementing functional medicine in one’s daily life. These and other situations in the book may run parallel to circumstances that Readers may find themselves in and offer suggestions that they can practice in their own lives.
Unexpected is a book that leads by example. It tells its Readers that if Carnahan got through her struggles, then so can they.
This is a detailed, moving, graphic, and suspenseful account of the reality of living in a country torn apart by invasion and war. Marik lived in Mariupol, Ukraine as the Russian Army invaded the neighboring country and erupted into war when Ukrainian people defended themselves.
Many of Marik’s most poignant moments are when she compares the once thriving city to the war torn exploded decimated shell before her. These descriptions evocatively capture the angst of the average citizen when they are caught unaware of a situation that shatters the world around them.
Marik’s refuge to the Czech Republic and ultimately to the United States is one of courage, sacrifice, and retaining of strength and a willingness to survive. She writes about the hardships that she and her dog endured as well as those who helped or hindered her trajectory. She also writes about her love and loyalty for her country and admiration for the Ukrainian people who defended their country from the avarice and tyranny of the dictator from the next country over.
Escape From Mariupol reveals Adoriana Marik as a complex woman of great strength, spirit, and courage who left a world torn apart by war and was able to tell the tale through her own words.
This book of poems expresses various emotions like loneliness, fear, depression, anxiety, grief, and solitude. Day captures them all in a series of confessional emotional poems that dare the Reader to feel what the Speakers are feeling.
Many of the poems cover various facets of emotions. One poem recalls the evolving nature of heartbreak and what appeared sad at age 14 may not feel so upon adulthood. Sometimes specific events trigger such responses like when the Speaker goes through various thoughts and feelings after a lover's suicide.
Many individual symptoms are covered such as insomnia which is compared to an ongoing battle against an enemy. The book also takes comfort in coping mechanisms like finding quiet spaces and journaling. These poems show that grief and depression may not be the whole story as long as it can recede.
The book puts emotions, especially the hardest ones to feel, together to create a whole soul. It reveals that the mind and soul of a person in deep grief and depression can feel like a kaleidoscope of color. There will always be a bit of blackness that will never truly disappear and can be overpowering. However, that is not all there is. There are other colors, other emotions, that surround the soul and make it complete and authentic.
Miles Watson is one of the few authors of work that has made these lists more than once this year (The others are Zaki J. Doudak, Ayura Ayira, Blake Rudman, Delvin Howell, Kate Swansea, I.O. Scheffer, and Katie Crabb.). Watson's short works are long time favorites of this blog and this and the next entry are excellent examples why.
Wolf Weather is an atmospheric Dark Fantasy Horror which shows that there can be much to be feared in the cold woods during winter.
Crowning, a soldier, is sent to the newly expanded kingdom in the North. He is sent to protect the Northern Kingdom from werewolves. It becomes a tense fight for survival as more of Crowning’s fellow soldiers end up missing or are violently murdered and Crowning is eventually left alone with the monsters.
Watson captures really tense moments with plenty of atmosphere and not much time for exposition. We are given some information about the empire and preceding wars but only what is relevant or necessary for a company soldier turned rebel to know at the time and learn later.
The book is filled with descriptions that highlight the tension and isolation that Crowning feels during this story. The North seems cut off from the rest of the world because of the cold snowy landscape. Loneliness and despair consum and only gets worse as Crowning's colleagues disappear or die. He is also left emotionally isolated when he learns that the Empire that he was once proud to serve is not what he thought.
Wolf Weather is a great short work but an interesting one with great setting and characterization that illustrate the physical and psychological isolation and loneliness within.
Watson's second book on this list is a continuation of his previous short work, Deus Ex. It tells of the reign of dictator, Magnus Antonius Magnus through the eyes of two people who lived through it: an outsider who has lived a criminal and rebellious life and an insider who helped shape history and has to suffer through the world he helped create.
Marguerite Bain is a pirate/smuggler who is hired to deliver goods to an exile on a remote island. After she completes her mission, she reads from the exile’s journal and learns his story. His name is Enitan Champoleon and he sided with Magnus to fight the previous government, The Order. He was an eyewitness to Magnus’ transformation from well intentioned extremist to ruthless tyrant.
Watson builds layers on Deus Ex by widening the scope. Before he was limited to telling of Magnus’ dictatorship from his point of view during the end of his reign. Exiles gives us other perspectives to show us why Magnus’ rule was so awful and why he deserved such a comeuppance.
The differences between the two protagonists reveals much about how the turbulent times affected everyone no matter what side of the political and social spectrum that they are on. Marguerite was abused, abandoned, left in squalor, and was forced to earn a living in prostitution and smuggling. She knows no other life except an underworld life of survival under Magnus’ reign. We see how the smuggler life has given her a sense of freedom by taking to the seas and living beyond society standards but also gives her intense suspicion and mistrust against those around her. She knows that people would love to depose or kill her and have no qualms against it.
Enitan’s perspective is that of the intellectual, the idealist who sees the flaws in the old system and demolishes it before he realizes that he let a bigger evil through the front door. He sought to speak out against a corrupt system and followed Magnus whom he believed shared his ideals. He gave his power and allegiance to one man who then exploited him and turned against him once his loyalty was not 100 percent. Enitan is filled with regret and remorse for the system that he helped create and is now left victimized by it.
While Deus Ex gave us a glimpse into the Magnus dictatorship, Exiles strengthens and expands upon it by showing us the people who suffered through it. History is often written on the blood of those who were crushed by the dictator’s boot and by those who gave the dictator permission to do the crushing.
This is a very tech heavy Science Fiction novel with plenty of human interest as well.
Will Vandoloh, the prodigy son of the director of Gaia 3’s Titan Moon Base, sees a simulation that forecasts the arrival of a comet to Saturn’s moon. As the comet passes by, Gaia 3’s crew members succumb to insanity, delirium, and rising radiation levels. Will and his mother, Margaret are left alone with their ailing crew and the realization that the comet is heading for Earth.
The technical details in The Kuiper Rogue are very plentiful. For the tech-heavy Sci-Fi fan, there is a lot of discussion about orbital singularities and schematics of the Gaia 3 project.
The most memorable aspect of the book is the characterization that appears underneath the science hardware. There are some chilling moments with the crew members’ transformations. One appears to eat human flesh and another's eyes glow red and face distorts. It's a horror movie in Outer Space.
The best moments are those between Margaret and Will. Margaret is the strong-willed tough leader and Will is a brilliant young man who feels at home exploring other worlds. Their love for each other is apparent despite the conflicts that occur.
While the technical detail in the Kuiper Rogue is massive, so is the human element particularly the tie between mother and son.
This is a bright, vibrant, and entertaining Children's Picture Book about friendship and the importance of reading and writing.
Anna, a human girl, and her dinosaur friend, Reggie Rapasaurus love to go to the library and read books together. The book explores all of the imaginative adventures that the two take as they read.
This is an engaging story which encourages a love of reading in the young Readers. Reading allows Anna and Reggie to imagine themselves in far away places like the desert and learn new things about the stars.
The book skillfully explores communication, bonding, and interaction through its words, distinct rhythm quality, and repetitive phrases. Harris and Roberts turned the text into a rap song.
The bright and vibrant illustrations reflect Anna and Reggie’s daily routine and their imaginative trips. Madhushani shows the transition between reality and imagination beautifully.
Through the engaging words and lovely illustrations, Harris, Roberts, Madhushani as well as Anna and Reggie reveal the book’s theme, “United we read, together we grow.”
This is a strange but effective allegory about the youth and maturity of a mango. It is an odd premise but is actually an uplifting story about growing up and striving for one's goals.
Liligu, a young mango is separated from his family and tree by the “bigmouths” (human beings.) He is then given to Lilibeth, a little girl and through her and the new friends that he makes, Liligu learns what he needs to become the big beautiful tree of his dreams.
Liligu learns many things on his journey. When he first arrives, he is scared, uncertain, shy, and nervous about everyone around him. He gives memories of having a loving family to a pair of stuffed animals who only remember their time in the factory. Lilibeth’s kindness towards him makes him realize that not all “bigmouths” are bad.
He also obtains knowledge and education because of other characters who interpret his dreams and give him advice. Finally an orange named Orange gives him what he needs to know about love, sacrifice, independence, and what it takes to fulfill one's dreams.
Liligu learns that it takes growing up, experiencing the world, and making a positive choice to make things better to make that dream come true.
This book is an interesting mixture of Meso-American Western and International Espionage. It captures the time period in which the United States, after long holding onto an isolationist political standard, was thrust into the international spotlight for the first time.
Fabriciano Garcia, a rancher, goes on the run after shooting a Texas Ranger in self-defense, He becomes an outlaw with the name El Fantomas or The Phantom. Francois LaBorde, a hotelier, gets Fabriciano involved in international intrigue with spies like Mata Hari and a war in Germany which will soon engulf the whole world.
One of the key moments in the book is also an important event in history. It is the decoding and release of the Zimmerman Telegram, a key event that led to the United States participating in World War I. The book shows how this revelation affected all of the countries by showing what the ramifications meant for the United States, Germany, and Mexico.
This book also takes a hard critical look at many of the policies that the United States had with Mexico which led to many decades, even centuries, of fractured relationships between the two countries and racism directed towards Central and South American immigrants. This is seen through Fabriciano’s eyes journey from being one of many immigrants trying to make their way in a country that doesn’t always want them there to an outlaw fighting against and then alongside it. Racism drives Fabriciano away from his family and restrictive policies drive him to take on a life of crime. Ironically, the international situation allows Fabriciano to aid the country that turned him away and then branded him a criminal.
Fabriciano is an excellent protagonist to understand and root for. Even when he commits illegal acts, he always does it with the best of intentions and to help others. While on the run, he longs to be back with his wife, Manuela, and their children. He becomes close friends with various characters during his time on the run. One in particular grows so close to Fabriciano, that when they are killed, Fabriciano, who faced so many previous dangers in spying missions, is ready to go on another mission to kill their assassin. He is willing to put his real identity on the line and risk potential exposure for his late friend. Fabriciano is a character of deep convictions and loyalty and this book shows that,
Ghost of the Rio Grande is a fascinating look at a part of American history that isn’t explored enough and brings it to life with interesting characters that offer a fresh perspective to that particular history.
This is an emotional, strong, and inspirational fictionalized account of author Amy Shannon’s fight against her abusive husband to obtain justice and live with the short and long term after effects from years of domestic violence.
The fictionalized version of Shannon is named Anna Coleman. She has woken up in the hospital after her husband, Ted, beat her. Fed up with the abuse, Ted’s addiction, his temperament, and belittling insulting demeanor, Anna files for divorce.
Anna is a very strong character as she deals with her divorce and physical and psychological aftereffects. While dealing with the court case, Anna has migraines because of the frequent beatings. She also has to cope with betrayal when some of her former friends side with Ted instead of her. Through it all, Anna has a determination and inner strength to break free from her marriage, assert her independence, and live her own life.
What is particularly memorable about Anna’s story is how much it echoes her author’s. According to her epilogue, Shannon used her own troubled marriage and subsequent divorce as inspiration for her book. There were some major differences between real and fictional life (In Shannon’s real life, she has children. In the book, Anna’s only child died before the abuse began. Shannon kept them out of the fictional version to avoid any publicity towards them. In the book, Anna begins a tentative romance with an attorney, which Shannon did not do in real life.)
However much of Shannon’s real struggles and triumphs are echoed in her book. For example, the fight which led to Anna’s escape to a police station and subsequent hospitalization is true to life. Also Anna’s badass speech in court in which she calls out Ted and that she can’t forgive his abuse and betrayal is almost word for word a speech that Shannon gave in her real life divorce hearing.
It cannot be stressed enough how graphic the violence in Fractured Tears and how the subject may be triggering for some Readers (Shannon herself warns this in the introduction). But it is truthful about a woman who struggled in a difficult situation and courageously found her way out both in fiction and in real life
The Cuban Gambit is the third book in a wide encompassing series which features characters who go through multiple changes and motives. This particular volume combines the gravitas and drama of a Shakespearean Tragedy with the glitz and glamor of an 80’s PrimeTime Soap Opera. It’s King Lear meets Dallas. Macbeth meets Dynasty.
The wealthy Barron, Sheppard, and Kingsley Families got rid of a common enemy now their rivalries and animosities with each other have resurfaced. Delilah Sheppard Barron Kingsley formed a tight network with her husband and his brothers which controlled most of the oil reserves. Her former and current lover, Harry Sheppard works closely with President Temple and is the target of potential assassins while also caught in his own loveless marriage. Various enemies both inside and outside the families plot to do away with each other either through divorce, lawsuits, business takeovers, corrupt scheming, or murder.
There are plenty of wealthy characters showing off their glamor and privilege in social gatherings where they display glamorous wardrobe, generous donations, plenty of money, and all of the things that it buys. The characters get involved with business meetings, world leaders, and organized criminals to give the Readers an idea who and what makes the world go round. It’s a seemingly glamorous and enviable life that makes those on the outside want to be in but the glamor and power are facades for the troubled nuanced souls underneath.
It’s a fascinating cast of characters that scheme and plot against each other. Even seemingly good characters like Delilah and Harry aren’t above committing illegal means to reach their ends. No one is particularly innocent because all are certainly guilty. There are some great chapters that serve as a counterbalance to the cutthroat and backbiting behavior. Some family members are close to each other as we are introduced to
antagonists that have a parental bond with others, older siblings raising younger ones, and loyal friendships and romances in which some put their jobs and lives on the line for those that they are closest to.
Of course the love between Delilah and Harry is one of the many emotional cores of the book. It began when both were kidnapped as teenagers and emerged from mutual subsequent trauma. When a current attack puts both in danger, their only thoughts are to see if the other is still alive and unharmed. Despite being married to others and in professional lives that require them to be held under scrutiny, their relationship is a hard knot to break and shows the division between one's obligation to family and business and one’s obligation to themselves.
The Cuban Gambit journeys between the public figures and the individual characters and relationships that are underneath those figures.
The Devil’s Calling is a delightful blend of science and spirit that works.
Literature professor and best-selling author, Sean McQueen and quantum physicist and Nobel Prize nominee, Emily “M '' Edens opened a women's college that focuses on science, humanities, and spirituality classes. They grieve for the death and loss of some friends of theirs, but have a close group of friends that they call “The Family,” including two children named for their fallen colleagues. Sean and M have spoken out against an AI program that will link the entire world through neural implants and have received death threats from its users. They receive some strange AI-created gifts and Sean receives psychic images that M might be in danger. All of these clues point to the possibility that a former enemy of Sean and M’s, The Guru, is alive, well, and has sinister plans for the couple and the rest of the world.
Sean and M appear to stand on opposite sides of the science vs. spirit debate but are multilayered enough to not be didactic about one over the other. Sean is more cynical and emotional. M is rational and clear headed. M believes in spiritual concepts of love and faith that Sean often questions. Sean’s deductive reasoning enables him to notice details that M’s big picture thinking often overlooks. The couple are able to complete each other with their differing personalities and perspectives.
Sean and M have a tight knit group of friends and family that help them through various methods like mental telepathy, intuition, mindfulness, meditation, scientific reasoning, technological expertise, and vast intellect. The standouts particularly are Sean and M’s students, YaLan and Astri, their boyfriends, Eric and Brian, and Sean and M’s children, Dylan and Juno. They represent the generation that will have to live in the almost completely AI world. They show that what Sean and M teach will not be in vain because they will study, learn, and adapt them into their daily lives.
The Devil’s Calling is a suspenseful book even to the end when Sean and M are tested when their love for each other and their devotion in protecting and saving the world are called into question. Choices have to be made and fates have to be met. Their decisions rest on whether real love can survive and whether a personal love is greater than a love for humanity.
