2023 Honorable Mentions

2023 was the year of quite good books that I promptly forgot all about, so upon reflection they didn’t make my top 12 recommendations (see Parts One and Two), but they’re all absolutely still worth mentioning. Read my lightning round reviews plus their lamb rating.

• Small Mercies: A 70’s South Boston mother sets out to find her missing daughter. Class, race, bias, stakes. Great mystery. (1.5 lambs)

• Signal Fires: A novel of big grief and big love. Melancholy and compassionate. (2.5 lambs)

• All This Could Be Different: Late-stage capitalism and the power of friends as family. (2.5 lambs)

• Hello Beautiful: A depressed man, the women he loves, the power of family. (3 lambs)

• The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle: A time-twisting murder mystery. Too hard to explain. Definitely worth reading. (3 lambs)

• The Cloisters: An academic, Gothic suspense. Nervy and taut. (3 lambs)

• Killers of a Certain Age: Four retirement-age assassins take a girls trip and realize they’re one one last job. (4 lambs)

• Nora Goes Off Script: When a screenwriter’s husband leaves her and her two children, it becomes a script - that attracts new love to her life. (4.5 lambs)

• Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: Funny, self-aware murder mystery in the vein of Knives Out. (4.5 lambs)

• A Lady's Guide to Scandal: A Regency-era widow inherits her late husband’s money - as long as she stays out of scandal. (5 lambs PLEASE READ THIS AUTHOR, she is my favorite rom-com writer.)