my favorite books of 2023 🥀 fantasy, scifi, litfic, honorable mentions, best books
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mentioned:
burial rites - hannah kent
iceland vlog - • ICELAND VLOG 🇮🇸 reykja...
scattered all over the earth - yoko tawada
penance - eliza clark
giovannis room - james baldwin
nona the ninth - tamsyn muir
- all systems red - martha wells
- a master of djinn - p. djèlí clark
last tale of the flower bride - roshani chokshi
prague vlog - • My First Solo Trip to ...
our hideous progeny - c.e. mcgill
uk vlog - • UK VLOG 🇬🇧 First Trip ...
kindred - octavia e butler
paladins grace - t kingfisher
- throne in the dark - a.k. caggiano
- a garden of the cursed - katy rose pool
the spirit bares its teeth - andrew joseph white
one for my enemy - olivie blake
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my favorite books of 2023 🥀 fantasy, scifi, litfic, honorable mentions, best books
And here are my worst books of the year :')
czcams.com/video/SZEsazlY2D0/video.html
Your ‘best books of the year’ becomes my bible for book recs each year 😂
omg :''') hope some of these are hits for you!
same
Same !! Got my notebook ready 🤣
Me getting ready to add more books to my list 🏃🏾♀️
^_^
Literally!! Haha
My favorite quote from Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin is my favorite author
"People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget."
Kindred was such a brutal read. Amazing writing. Very raw and really made me want to read more of Butler’s writing. But it’s definitely a book you only read once, I think.
I read Kindred years ago and loved it, though it was so hard to get through because of that brutality. It took me a while to get around to it, but I read her Earthseed books last year. They messed me up pretty good. I think they're the most believable depiction of a man-made apocalypse I've ever encountered. I was TRAUMATIZED. I went out and bought a portable water filter and edible plant guide 😅
The Locked Tomb series might be my favorite thing I read this year.
same it was so good
Could someone explain why to me??? Gideon the 9th was the worst book I have read this year and I don't understand the hype around it 😭
Me squealing at Throne in the Dark making the list 🥹 literally set a new standard for fantasy romance for me
it was just so FUN!
Little Thieves had to be my absolute favorite, followed very closely by Sorcery of Thorns. The romances, the adventures, the twists and turns, they were all so good! Thanks for the recommendation of Sorcery of Thorns, and I'm so glad you enjoyed Little Thieves cause I haven't been able to shut up about it 😂❤
I love your book taste also my mother just finished writing her book called Cradle My demons and I’m so proud of her
omg congratulations to her!!
We'll have to keep an eye out for this one! Love the title
Oooo sounds interesting! I’ll keep an eye out!!
I had a great reading year and some of the most fun were your recommendations. Y.A. fantasy has become my slump buster or my breather from heavy literary fiction.
exactly! a little escapism to reset your brain :)
I just got done reading notes on an execution because of your recommendation! Thank you! It was soooo good! ❤️
ugh that one has stuck with me for over a year now - incredible!
Thank you for putting such well-made subtitles on your video's. I have ADHD and I literally can't focus on a video if I can't read the CC at the same time so thank you, your efforts are really appreciated
Sheesh that sounds rough! Sympathies from a fellow adhd brains
As the person who recommended you Paladin’s grace I’m so happy it ended up on your faves 😭😭
i was sooo looking forward to this video!! thank you for always giving us the best recs
thanks for watching :)
LETS GOOOOO!! Nothing beats your book recs!! 🎉
😊😊😊
You embracing One For My Enemy on your thumbnail gives me so much dopamine cause it reminds me that you recommended that in response to my “gut punch + warm cup of coffee” comment in your book recs video ✨
it absolutely is :''''''')
this was the one recommendation video I kept checking my phone for😩💗
So grateful for your review of Harrow before that was like, it's confusing af but stick with it! I finished it just before Christmas and am now in real danger of making those books my entire personality. Alecto has been pushed back to 2025 though ㅠㅠ
Always adding your recommendations to my tbr list thank youuuu ❤
Been so ready for this video since december, let’s goooo!! 💃💃
♥️♥️♥️
I was a big reader up until the pandemic happened. Now I have such a hard time sitting down and reading, or keeping my attention once I actually start reading. But I've now stopped watching your videos half through multiple times because you make me want to read IMMEDIATELY, I love how you communicate your love for reading. I'm closing youtube and going on my kindle app rn. Thank you for this 💖
I am so glad I found Paladin's Grace in one of your videos! I am on the third book now and I love the world and the characters! For sure one of the best fantasy series I have read in a very long time.
I am drawing myself a hot bath after not being able to because of fresh tattoos and I'm drinking a hot tea and there's a new Cari video talking about books so a perfect evening ❤❤❤
Not me having this video and goodreads open at the same time so i can just add all of these to my "want to read" list lol
LOL!
I recently got back into reading and for this year, I want to make it a goal to bring back that passion. After watching this video, it got me really hyped up😄 thank you for this! Definitely adding some to my TBR list
AAAHHH so excited!! I trust you with my life ❤
♥️♥️♥️
Finally got the down time to watch this post. LOVE it, to the point I'll be rewatching and clicking any links provided! Belated wishes for a Happy New year.
I WAS WAITING ALL DAY FOR THIS god bless u girl 🩷 love u mwah
♥️♥️♥️
Hearing penance deals with early 2010s tumblr culture is giving me flashbacks
heard you mention Throne in the dark, paused the video and looked it up, giggled while reading the book description...immediate purchase. I look forward to laughing my butt off.
Thank you for sharing the joy
I absolutely LOVED artificial condition which is #2 of the murder bot diaries and I could not stop laughing at the dynamic between him and ART
i cant wait to continue ahhh!
Same!! This one was one of my favorites in the series until network effect! ART is the best!!
yesssss. I read #1 and #2 last year. #2 had me laughing out loud at work whilst listening. Totally going to try and get around to some more this year.
My 5* ratings for 2023 were in no particular order:
1. Covet - Elena M Reyes
2. Bigger than tiny, smaller than average - Sherri Koones
3. A Refuge for the Chalet School - Amy Fletcher
4. The Bride - Julie Garwood
5. Storm Echo - Nalini Singh
@ 4.75*
6. Joey goes to the Oberland - Elinor M Brent-Dyer
@ 4.5*
7. Santa's secret diary - Adam Wallace
8. Wayward - Mary Calmes
9. The Guncle - Steven Rowley
10. So Shall you reap - Donna Leon
11. Tales from the cafe: before the coffee gets cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi
@4.25*
12. When we were very young (Winnie the Pooh 3) - A A Milne
13. Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
14. The Light Years (Cazalet Chronicles 1)
@4* I had 26 books. I will not list all of them, but some noteables
'After the Romanovs: Russian exiles in Paris. . .' - Helen Rappaport
'The Deadly daylight' - Ash Harrier
'Aunt Dimity and the duke' - Nancy Atherton
'Aunts aren't gentlemen' (Jeeves 15) - P G Wodehouse [very funny]
'Christmas a Thompson Hall and other Christmas Stories' - Anthony Trollope
As you can see I read quite a variety of different genres in 2023, overall I read 90 books in 2023, which for me is very good.
Thank you for recommending Burial Rites and The last tale of the Flower Bride, I'll put them on my booklist 🙂
Oh my gosh I LOVE your recs 💛💛 I trust you & your brain forever & always
i literally just finished all systems red, and now i have a huge need to start on the rest! i loved that he loved trash tv! i found i so hilarious for some reason. lol!
Kindred is just amaaazing! I can't wait to read her other books!!
im so happy tee Hannah Kent on the list! Love her books. Devotion her latest is so good :')
I'm SO GLAD you talked about Throne in the Dark! I absolutely LOVED it 💖 it's self-published and I was so bummed it's not being promoted more.
Right?! So fun!!
Yay for your favorite, added a few to my TBR! Totally gonna dive into T Kingfisher's catalog.
My absolute number one book this year was The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec... man did it rip my heart out in all the best ways.
I love how your videos always come to me at the best possible time. I’ve never been like “ugh I have to watch later” thANK GAWD 😂❤
fate!!!
YES YES YES IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS
I just bought One for my Enemy as a pre-exam treat! Very excited to read it
❤📚❤️ Great recommendations! I have Burial Rites on my February tbr for a reading challenge. 😊
After listening to your review of 'The Last Tale of the the Flower Bride', I was curious so I stopped your video, got a hold of a copy and just finished.
Wow, definitely recommend for anyone who loves gothic thrillers, fairy tales and books filled with fanciful prose!
Favorite Quote:
'We are the ones accustomed to making our beds in fireplaces, to bending our will to sharp-toothed stepsiblings, to standing alone in the woods with nothing but a trail of rapidly vanishing crumbs to guide our way home. Pain is inexplicably vital to us. It pins us to the very fabric of our lives, that which joy and comfort and warmth have made alien and foreign. Pain speaks to us in a voice that carries the hallowed certainty of hymns: I know exactly what you deserve, and I shall give it to you.'
Did I just squeal because the locked tomb series was your first on the fantasy/science fiction list?! I have not been obsessed like this with a series since high school! Listen to the locked tomb podcast you guys!
ugh it's 12am here but i was waiting for this video to be posted here we goooo
hope you get some sleep after LOL
I’m convinced I need to read Burial Rites now!!
I've been putting off reading A Curse for True Love because I loved the other two books so much and I really wasn't ready to read my baby Jacks for the last time but no one added it to their list of fav books. Now I am scared to read it and be disappointed😭
Cari - you were the reason I picked up Gideon the Ninth (and continued to Nona the Ninth) and let me say :
THANK YOU!!! Omg I will never regret reading these books. I have been gaslit and girlbossed too many times by Tamsyn Muir but I thank you so much. This series were the highlight of my 2023 reading 🥰
Same here, I would never have picked up Gideon if it wasn’t for Cari’s review and it was the most surprising read of the year for me. I still haven’t got to Harrow and Nona yet but once again Cari’s review has made me bump these up to read next!
AAA I love ur videos 💌
thank you :')
Never clicked on a video so fast 👀📝
I would give anything for Cari to make a Gideon the ninth plot recap 🙏🙏
Went to Toppings and co in bath three weeks ago its amaaaaazingggg - got the tote and a caravan of books
the constant pausing and switching to my story graph to add books to my tbr 😅
omg the way you feel about “one for my enemy” is the way i feel about “the atlas six” ❤😂
Ty!! Perfect timing for me
I've had Burial Rites on my shelf since 2017 and this was the year I finally got to it and I'm so glad I hadn't unhauled it but it did break me. 🤷♀️
🙏🙏🙏
What’s crazy is I always hear the Romeo & Juliet inspired novels with ‘new twists.’But I never hear what would happen if they had a child together, and raised her in secret for 15 years to be a bad ass fighter. So I gave it a shot and wrote that story lol thanks for your genuine responses to these books, happy new year.
I read Burial Rites by Hannah Kent for school years ago, loved it
The kindred tv show is soooo good
yessssss new book recs for 2024
Favorite book I read in 2023, which has quickly become my favorite book maybe ever: The Girl who fell beneath the sea by Axie Oh ❤
I cannot wait for you to read Parable of the Sower now and l'll have to pick up kindred
Burial Rites was in my top 3 this year. One of the most beautiful and saddest stories I have ever read.
The last tale of the flower bride was one of my favorites for 2023 as well. It was what I was expecting Rebecca to be like
Interesting selection! Added some to my list
I am on my fantasy era now and trust I’ll add all these recos on my never ending TBR because I trust your taste!☝🏼😅
😊😊😊
Some of my faves from last years reading are the whole of Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and Christadora by Tim Murphy. Totes with you on The Atlas Six, I couldn’t finish it but you’ve got my intrigued with One for My Enemies x
Well now I definitely need to check out Gideon the ninth, I hope I can love it as much as u did!! 😆
May I recommend you the poppy war series @carri? It's just a book that I feel like the author ripped my heart out of my chest, crushed it and then proceeded to set on fire in front of my screaming face kind of book, which I absolutely fell in love with 😅 I would love to hear your thoughts on it!!!
YAYYY!!! New video❤
♥️♥️♥️
so interesting because i loved the atlas six, but i am currently struggling to push through one for my enemy. i'm going to push and see if it gets better, but it is just not hitting for me yet! it might just be a current mindset thing, but hopefully i like it as i continue
The “Throne in the dark” books were some of the best I read year. I laughed out loud 😂
I will be taking notes! ✍️
yeee hope you get some recs!
Best video to finish editing to 💙
♥️♥️♥️
I had to read both Giovanni’s Room and Kindred for classes and they truly are amazing stories that stay with you. On a similar vein would recommend their eyes were watching god, it’s a weird but amazing story about parts of American history that don’t get enough attention
Buriel rites left me in a severe depression for like a month 😅
I started watching you this year and I'm genuinely surprised how many of these 'not-so-popular' books from your list are already on my TBR (for example a master of djin and the spirit bares its teeth but tbh 3/4 of the books you've mentioned in this video) so I will definitely try to read them this year :D also interestingly enough I saw your tiktok video and we started the year by reading exactly the same book!
I agree with everything you said about One For My Enemy!
Was waiting for this one. Soooo excited 🫶🏻
thanks for watching^^
You should definitely read the young adult fantasy book "Wish of the Wicked" by Danielle Paige. It tells the story of Cinderella's fairy godmother, who is part of the Etente, a group of fairies massacred by the new queen. The queen's son, 'the prince,' needs a wife, and through Cinderella's dreams of a love-filled life, she seeks revenge on the queen. The story unfolds in an original world with unique values and norms, making it highly believable. Filled with plot twists, it's definitely worth a recommendation.
Been looking forward to this video!
Where did you get your kindle holder??
if you search vintage kindle case on amazon it should be the first result!
Time to add a ton of books to my TBR
Your dialogue kills me, “I was willing to miss my flight for this book.” 😂😂😂😂
I love love love Burial rites
Love the term “escape pod.”
I just started One for my Enemy and am LOVING ITTTTT
🖤🥀🖤🥀😭🖤
The Earthseed Duology (Parable of the Talents & Sower) by Octavia E Butler is great and kind of shocking how close it's to what is actually happening right now (it was written in the 90s and is set in the now).
Thanks for the recommendations! I have only read Masters of Death by Olivie Blake and it was ok but not something that really grabbed me. It makes me wonder if I should try again with One For My Enemy.
It was a big sci-fi year for me. I read Ursula Le Guin for the first time and literally all the books I read from her left me gobsmacked (Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and The Tombs of Atuan were my favs). I also read Kindred this year and that one was definitely a favorite. I also was pleasantly surprised by The Broken Earth Trilogy.
Tombs of Atuan is a such underrated and beautiful book! Easily in my top 10 fantasy books!
I'm so glad you recommended Throne in the Dark last year. I'm not sure I would have heard of it otherwise, and it was definitely a gem for me! Love that series!
My favourite reads of 2023 were House of Longing by Tara Calaby and the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman!
Well my tbr just got a whole lot longer, and my wallet a whole lot emptier 😅
My personal favorite book of this year will have to be the Poppy war series since I just love all the research done behind it. Anyway, if u ever get around reading that one I would love to know what u thought of it!!!
Just some book recs~ Have you tried Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim? It's YA fantasy inspired by Asian folklore and it's pretty good! The sequel is The Dragon's Promise which I heard isn't great so I skipped it. But the prequel - Her Radiant Curse, I absolutely loved, even more than six crimson cranes! You can read it as a standalone but it would add more context if you've read SCC first~ Curious to hear your thoughts on them :)
Giovanni's Room and Kindred are classics!
Some of my favorites last year were:
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Hild by Nicola Griffith
Our share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Jawbone by Mónica Oneda
Your Atlas Six is my Gideon the Ninth which I just could not vibe wirh. At all. (I am the only person on earth who feels that way, apparently.) Thank you for reminding me that I need to put "Kindred" on my list. Happy new year!
I loved the Murderbot diaries… definitely going to buy Gideon the Ninth
I need to read ONE FOR MY ENEMY! I love time travel, so KINDRED sounds amazing! And some of the others! 😍
Some 2023 favorites out of the 89 books I read:
- WALDEN by Amy Berryman (it’s a play)
- GHOST MUSIC by An Yu (this was based on your recommendation, btw!)
- LUNAR LOVE by Lauren Kung Jessen
- THE SEARCH FOR US by Susan Azim Boyer
- WHERE YOU SEE YOURSELF by Claire Forrest
- IF TOMORROW DOESN’T COME by Jen St. Jude
- WHAT MY BONES KNOW by Stephanie Foo
- LOVE LETTERS FOR JOY by Melissa See
- DISORIENTATION by Elaine Hsieh Chou
- OUT OF CHARACTER by Jenna Miller
- DAMNED IF YOU DO by Alex Brown
- LOVE, THEORETICALLY by Ali Hazelwood
- FOXGLOVE by Adalyn Grace
- VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by Isabel Canas
- STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow
- THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW by Adrienne Young
- EMILY WILDE’S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by Heather Fawcett
- WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS by Isabel Ibanez
- DIVINE RIVALS by Rebecca Ross
Dystopian Novel : The End Of Silence by George Ernest ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
where's your hoodie from?? its so cute
I've been trying to get The Spirit Bares its Teeth for months now. It also took me months to get Hell Followed with Us, so I just have to wait for a paperback of The Spirit Bares its Teeth. Or a hardbound, if I'm desperate.