23 BEST BOOKS OF 2023

[@emmastinylibrary]

You popped up in my feed and after watching this video I have subscribed as I love the way you talk about your experiences with books and how you read a wide selection of authors. I also enjoy childrens books, I'm slowly making my way through the Famous Five series. I can't choose between my top 3 of 2023, so I'll tell you all of them... The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 😊

[@sandra3616]

Oh, I read The Mysterious Benedict Society aloud to my boys when they were younger. Happy memories! I sent it to my great-nephew for Christmas this year.

[@shelliclarke5563]

I was surprised how much I enjoyed A Rover's Story also. And thank you for the sweet nostalgic memory of the Children of Noisy Village. I totally forgot about that book! I read it in middle school in the 1970's 😊

[@natashachesney178]

I just reread A Caribbean Mystery. I love anything Agatha Christie! She is has been my favorite author since middle school.

[@Dinadoesyoga]

I'm sorry about the loss of your friend. ❤ Dombey and Son is truly special. I'm slowly making my way through Dickens' works, and, right now, this is my second favorite behind David Copperfield. There was even a surreal quality about it that felt dreamlike.

[@Lu.G.]

There are 5 books that you mentioned that I have been meaning to get to (Coraline, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Kitchen House and the 2 Dickens). 🤓 Hearing how much you enjoyed them makes me want to dive right in! Thanks for sharing. ❤

[@helentucker9163]

What a sweet memory with Janelle

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I'm so thankful for those 2 months spent almost everyday chatting. She was such a treasure.

[@theresas709]

I don't know if I could pick a favorite of 2023. I think my fav. classic this year was A Child's Garden of Verses by RLS. Middle grade I could give you several and same with nonfiction and fiction adult. I was surprised I didn't see you in our middle grade book club. They really had some great one's.

[@janespitfire9884]

Thank you!! I need to hear this I LOVE TO READ!!! Also you are a pretty lady too!! One of my favorite book is Far From the Maddening Crowd...movie was great too made in year 2016.

[@sandra3616]

I think a lot of Montgomery's writing is episodic, too. And I think there are a lot of short stories that were precursors for her novels. That's how I read Herriot. I can't remember if I mentioned that here before or not. A Caribbean Mystery is the February pick for Chantal Reads All Day Agatha Christie book club. I'm looking forward to reading it now!

[@janetsmith8566]

Yay for Caribbean mystery coming in as your favourite mystery! I love that book. One of my top top Christies. This video inspires me to kick myself in the backside and get going on my Dickens reading! I’m so bad - I put them off for some reason, but Time to change that! Thanks for the vid. PS - please please please do a worst reads of 2023 video! LOL

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

😂The Story of Mankind- worst book ever. 😂

[@janetsmith8566]

@@mitzireadsandwrites oh yes, I remember that was the rotten Newbury. And the very first one! 😹

[@mattiez3545]

Wow, I always feel inspired after watching your videos. Sounds like you had a great reading year. I will definitely check out the books you mentioned. Thank you for sharing.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Thanks! Happy that I could inspire your reading! Hope this is your best reading year yet!

[@daisy4750]

Yes, The Kitchen House is a five star read.

[@talesandtreatswithtay]

I still need to read the Apple Cider Slaying series, its been on my TBR for a good bit

[@debrawilkin2114]

Thank you telling us about the Cider Houe mysteries, I read the first one on you recommendation and Loved I!! I have over 2 don’t know if I can wait u til the fall!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I know!! I just gobbled up that series!

[@Angela-it2tb]

Far from the Madding Crowd❤❤❤❤❤its one of my all time favorites I am a huge Hardy fan!!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I'm becoming a Hardy fan, too!

[@littlehousema7162]

I found The Kitchen House at the thrift store last month and can't wait to read it!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, yes! Great find! Let me know what you think.

[@BlackSunJamie]

My favorite book of 2023 was Tess of the D'Ubervilles. Amazing! Far From the Madding Crowd is next. I am really looking forward to diving in!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I plan on reading Tess this year!

[@Catloudan]

All of a kind Family series was my FAVORITE growing up. I read it umpteen times. All the books are amazing.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

So it IS a series! I thought someone mentioned that. I'm going to try to continue that this year.

[@littlehousema7162]

I just finished A Tangled Web and definitely noticed the short story style of that novel. It took me awhile to get into it and then when I finally did, I enjoyed the stories and the characters and the style that the book was written in.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Same! That book was difficult in the beginning because of all the characters. Once I understood the family dynamic, though, I was all in!

[@littlehousema7162]

@@mitzireadsandwrites Exactly!!

[@miriamelizabethreads]

Great list!! I need to read Secrets of a Charmed Life! I loved her book Nature of Fragile Things. I also need to read The Kitchen House!! I adored her newest book Crow Mary!😍 I read and really enjoyed The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax in 2023 as well. So fun! Apple Cider Slaying!! 🍏🍎🤩 Dombey and Son is incredible!!!

[@insearchofwonder]

I'm similar, I don't read a lot of new books either. I loved All of a Kind Family when I was younger! Interesting thought about LMM being a short story writer. I'd not thought of that before, but I'll keep that in mind as I read. I'm currently slowly reading the Anne series.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, that's such a wonderful series. I need to revisit it soon.

[@talesandtreatswithtay]

Best 23 books in 23, how ironic, definitely meant to be lol!

[@marybeery1764]

The Kitchen House author, Katherine Grissom, has a new book out. Crow Mary, absolutely wonderful. One of my favorites for 2023. My bookclub had a great discussion on the history of it. Crow Mary was a real person. I think it will be a book you might enjoy.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I read that one in November, but completely forgot to talk about it!

[@sandra3616]

That was a a difficult but great read.

[@starlasell5698]

❤📚 Wonderful reviews. I have Little Dorrit on my shelves, still needing to be read.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

It's so good! Hope you get to it this year!

[@starlasell5698]

@mitzireadsandwrites Me too, although I already have two tomes on my 2024 tbr list. Middlemarch by George Eliot and World Without End by Ken Follett.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

@@starlasell5698 um, yes, Middlemarch is enough for the year lol. I still have that one waiting on my shelf.

[@cajunpeachreads]

Have you read the Savannah Quartet by Eugenia Price? It's historical fiction based on real people and it also has so much of the history and so many of the houses and lore of Savannah. I highly recommend it if you like Savannah (the city) and reading about it,

[@soniawithani7586]

Hi Mitzi! Happy New Year🎉. Thank you so much for sharing your reads and the memory of your friend. I am so sorry for your loss. This year I think I’m doing a classic author focus of LM Montgomery. I really want to read all of her works. I have a suggestion for the Cider shop mysteries, she also has the Seaside Cafe mystery series written under Bree Baker. The stories and characters are very similar, and it has the same feeling except on an island. I hope you have a wonderful 2024! Happy Reading

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, thanks Sonia! I'll grab that series! And yes to a year with Montgomery. Have you read The Blue Castle? My favorite!

[@soniawithani7586]

@@mitzireadsandwrites that’s where I plan to start! I’ve heard so many folks rave about that one, I’m excited about it.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

@@soniawithani7586 Yay! Then we can talk about it!

[@MLLatUtube]

Love your list! A Caribbean Mystery is one of my favorite Miss Marple mysteries. And I also really like Coraline. My favorites for 2023 were Hello Beautiful, Remarkably Bright Creatures, and The Wishing Game. You are inspiring me to add a Dickens book to my TBR this year.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Yes! I am loving my journey through Dickens! It's been a challenge, but so worth it.

[@paperbacksandponytails]

I really enjoyed The Book of Lost Names, I was in the car when I read the ending and tried really hard to cry silently so the fanily wouldn't look at me funny.😂

[@PoiemaLee]

I love those 2 Dickens titles, too. I am slowly making my way thru all of his works, I only have a few left for 2024: Pickwick Papers, Barney Rudge, and short stories. I enjoyed your year end thoughts! Happy New Year to my favorite booktuber.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, how sweet to say! Thanks!

[@debralang9467]

Oh! I didn't know you'd read The Cider Shop Mysteries. I loved those so much, especially the third one (which I gave my mom as a get well gift). It was the ultimate for that autumnal feeling and the characters and stories of each are well-developed and interesting. My other favorite autumnal book of 2023 was Truly, Madly, Sheeply, the 4th in a wonderful middle grade series. That one was autumn-off-the-chart! I'm already wanting to reread it. :) Thanks for sharing your favorite books of 2023. Your descriptions are always fun.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Yes, I loved that series! Too bad it's only 3 books!

[@WaterBearReads]

What a great list Mitzi! We just finished A Rover Story and on my own I have been reading the second All-of-a-Kind Family, All-of-a-Kind-Family Downtown, and I am loving it! I want to continue the series. A Rover Story was wonderful, but until the very end I wasnt sure how I felt about it. But that end was just wonderful. I am now very interested in Dombey and Sons, as well as Caribbean Mystery. Thank you! Nice reviews and lovely video!!!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I felt the same about A Rover's Story. At first I wasn't sure, but the more I read, the more I enjoyed it. It was such a different premise and experience.

[@sandyokey1019]

Wonderful books, Mitzi! I’ve read some of these and written down many more on my want to read lists. The Murder She Wrote series was a favorite of mine for several years. The best ones, at least in my opinion, are the earliest ones written by Donald Bain . He captured the voice of Angela Lansbury as JB Fletcher so well. I read a few of the later books written by others and they were okay, but Bain was by far my favorite.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Thanks! I'll focus on the earlier ones then!

[@ReadJournalLove]

Hi Mitzi! I enjoyed your list…especially the mysteries. I’m going to see if my library has a couple of them. That book about the rover looks super cute. Definitely going to add that one. 😊

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Yes, try the rover one- such a different idea!

[@ArtBookshelfOdyssey]

I think Ive only read Dombey and Son once. This year I’m rereading some Dickens books that I haven’t read much.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh my goodness, Art!! Stop what you're doing and go reread it! 😂

[@HannahsBooks]

It has been so long since I’ve read LM Montgomery, but she is one of my most beloved authors. I think you’re onto something about both her stories and novels feeling similar. She leans into vignettes a lot-something that I’ve seen with a few authors of her era but never thought much about. Thank you for the discussion!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Hmmm, I've never thought about this with other authors of her era. I wonder if that was sort of their process at the time.

[@BernasBookishAdventures]

It is the same with me with mysteries, it is harder for me rate mysteries higher because I like them to be close to a perfect complex mystery ;) The Book of Lost Names was a book that I enjoyed. Yay for two Christie books!! I am rewatching Murder She Wrote episodes very slowly (about two a week) and I am having such a great time ;)

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I need to rewatch some Murder She Wrote!!!

[@robinkirk1821]

The Book of Lost Names is one of my favorite historical books! Some of my favorites for 2023 was The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers and Jane Eyre! I already want to reread A Voice In The Wind! 🥰

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, Jane Eyre- just the best book ever. ❤

[@Catloudan]

I love a new Mitzi video even though it always costs me money 🤣 good recommendations as always!

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

😂I'm with you! Booktube is dangerous to my pocketbook!! 😂

[@LauraR00]

Sounds like a great reading year! I also read All of a Kind Family in 2023, and it was a favorite for sure. I recently purchased Far from the Maddening Crowd but might not get to it until 2025 😂 My favorite classic of the year was David Copperfield, and my favorite historical fiction were Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg and The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

David Copperfiled is my all-time favorite!! ❤

[@gretchen6475]

What a great list of favorites! I have read several on your list - All of a Kind Family, Mrs. Pollifax, Murder, She Wrote, James Herriot, Far From the Madding Crowd, Cider Shop Mysteries. I had twenty books on my list of memorable reads from the year. I'm not sure I could pick one favorite! Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery was on my list. Stalking Around the Christmas Tree by Jacqueline Frost ( this is another pen name for Julie Anne Lindsey who wrote the Cider Shop Mysteries). With this Pledge by Tamera Alexander, two books by Karen Witemeyer. I'm not sure what my favorite Murder, She Wrote book has been, I have only read 11 of them, but I know my least favorite was The Highland Fling Murders.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

I really enjoy Karen Witemeyer! I'm not a big romance reader, but she writes those so well, I can't help but enjoy them.

[@joyceredman2136]

2023 was just an okay reading year for me, except for the Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbucktoo by Joshua Hammer, biography of Georgette Heyer by Jennifer Kloester and the fiction books that I really loved was The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen, A Christmas Party by Georgette Heyer. I really enjoyed these four books over the 27 books that I read last year. The Hammer book I could not put down as I was afraid that the people trying to rescue these priceless manuscripts would be destroyed by the terrorists. The Heyer biography was a very good read and it showed which books Heyer liked best-I will never give that book away. The Christmas Party was a good mystery; it kept me guessing until the very end. Far from the Madding Crowd was the best Hardy book you could have read. I read The Mayor of Casterbridge which was awful.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, I enjoyed The Mayor of Casterbridge. It was like watching a train wreck, the guy just couldn't get it together, but I still found it to be thought-provoking. I had to admit this, but I still haven't read one Georgette Hayer!! I know. That's just shameful! I do have A Christmas Party on my shelf, though, so I need to read that one!!

[@gerridauer9092]

@@mitzireadsandwritesMitzi, that’s the Heyer that I started with but I don’t recommend starting with her mysteries. Her regency romances are much better and even some of her other mysteries. I had a hard time getting through The Christmas Party, though mine was titled Envious Casca, but same book.

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

@@gerridauer9092 Thanks for letting me know!!

[@joyceredman2136]

Yes, after I read The Mayor of Casterbridge, I wanted to throw at men to say "This is how NOT to live!" Once you read one Georgette Heyer she'll hook you into reading her other books!@@mitzireadsandwrites

[@believeinyourshelf]

Hi Mitzi! I wanted to let you know I mentioned you in one of my recent videos, my favorite books in 2023. P.S. my youtube channel used to be called cornflower blue before I started my booktube channel...just so you have a name you might recognize. 😊

[@user-km7fu7su1d]

I love the Murder She Wrote series. I have read almost all of them. I read all the ones by Donald Bains and when he pass next author was Jon Lands. After reading his first I stopped reading them. He has the sheriff calling Jessica a PITA! He made all the characters very crass. Then Terrie Farley Morgan took over and I started back up and her next one come out the end of this month. So I don’t have a favorite but I do have ones I think you should avoid😊😊😊

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Yeah, no crass for me, so I may need a list from you of ones to read. I don't plan on reading all of them anyway, so if you can think of a few, that would be great.

[@amyodell7157]

Could you tell me how long that M.V. Hughes book is? I just ordered it and my copy said 140 pgs. and it look like the one you showed. Surely it is longer than that? 🤔I hope! I don’t like tiny print. 🤨

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Yep, about 140 pgs. The first one is the shortest, but the other 2 in my collection aren't that much longer.

[@kimberlycasey4105]

So many books I read last year were Mitzi recommendations, and a lot on my tbr this year as well!🩵. Domby and Son will be my next Charles Dickens read! I’m also looking forward to finishing the cider shop mysteries😀

[@mitzireadsandwrites]

Oh, I hope you like my picks!!