January Bonus, Part 1: A list of lists, a bonus list, Ada Limón is Coming to ATL, & a bonus rec.
In which I compile a bunch of lists of books to look out for in 2023, add a bonus list, freak out about getting to see the Poet Laureate of the U.S. in Feb., & recommend a bookish podcast
Happy 2023! In a previous post about upcoming books I was/am excited for (which can be found here), I included a handful of 2023 titles. So I figured it was high time to talk about what’s coming up book-wise this year and geek on out.
2023 Books I’ve previously mentioned:
Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America by Will Sommer, expected release date February 21, 2023 - Nonfiction
Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear by Erica Berry, expected release date also February 21, 2023 - Nonfiction
Maddalena and the Dark by Julia Fine, expected release date June 13, 2023 - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias, new expected release date September 19, 2023 - Novel (Literary Fiction)
People Collide by Isle McElroy, expected release date also September 19, 2023 - Novel (Literary Fiction)
Then, in my review of Catherina Lacey’s The Answers from this post, I mentioned being excited for her new novel:
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey, expected release date March 21, 2023
So anyway, now that 2023 has officially been at it for 25 days, it seems appropriate to remind you of those previous excitements, as well as add a bucketful (or 5) more. I’ve been keeping my eye out for books that the writers and readers I follow and respect have been buzzing about, and below is a list of lists I’ve found to be productive fodder for my to-read and pre-order plans. RIP my next paycheck.
Quick aside: Just a reminder that preordering books is the most badass and best way to support authors and be an amazing literary citizen (if I had more money, I’d preorder everything all the time, and then invest in, like, cool “Preordering Hero” stickers or badges or something to send to all the cool people that preorder books, so you could brag about it, I dunno, probably a silly idea, but whatever). Basically, the book industry uses the number of preorders to decide how much support and marketing authors get, which affects buzz and lists like the ones below, and can make or break a debut especially, not to mention impacting future deals and contracts. Also, even if we aren’t always made of money and can’t afford to preorder everything everywhere all at once (heh), one can still help out, as Dana Stives explains over at Book Riot (in a post you can find here):
You can support authors via book preorders by suggesting your local library preorder the book and requesting it for checkout as soon as it becomes available. This achieves the same end—a copy of the book is still preordered and purchased—and also helps ensure that author’s presence in your library for readers in your community.
Aside over :)
Anyway, there’s no way I’m going to be able to read all of these hundreds of books (some of these lists go hard), but then the world would be a more boring place if everyone only read the same things, so hopefully you’ll find some gold in them there hills (and then tell me about it? please?).
Also, stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2, where I shout out the 25-ish titles (besides the ones listed above) from these lists that have my eyeballs twitching with anticipation. Enjoy!
The List of Lists
In no particular order, just left-to-right through the open tabs I’ve been adding to since 2023 began. (My computer needs to update, but I wouldn’t allow it to until I finally got this post together… poor thing.)
62 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2023
Novelist and writerly social media badass R. O. Kwon compiled a list of 62 books by women of color that she has her eye on in 2023.
(Which reminds me: I’ve had Kwon’s The Incendiaries [2018] on my to-read list forever and still have not gotten to it—it’s amazing how one can read so much, but also be an absolute monster who still hasn’t read specific books for obviously inadequate reasons. A further 2023 resolution: read The Incendiaries. Jeez.)
31 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2023
StoneWright Reads favorite Isle McElroy and some compatriots over at Vulture put together a list of 31 books they’re excited about—a healthy mixture of fiction, nonfiction, & poetry.
Our Most Anticipated Books of 2023 Read more: Our Most Anticipated Books of 2023
ourculture magazine has a list of 20 fiction reads they’re excited for (19 novels and a collection of short stories)
102 new African, African-American, Black-Brit and Caribbean books
Darkowaa over at the blog African Book Addict has compiled a list of 102 books by Black writers from many backgrounds to look out for in 2023, noting “this list/collage is just a snippet of books by Black authors 2023 has to offer!” Bunches of excellent sounding novels, poetry collections, works of nonfiction, and short story collections.
Charis Books & More List of Pre-Orders
One of Ally and my favorite local bookstores has a very long list of pre-orders they’re looking forward to, plus a collage of some highlights at the top. Focal points on LGBTQ authors, authors of color, feminists, and other cool cats.
Meet the 10 best new novelists for 2023
The Guardian put together a list of some debut novelists to watch in 2023 that I heard good buzz about from some great writers. Nice and manageable group of 10 books.
List of books coming out in the first half of 2023 from The Millions. As they write: “We’ve assembled the best books of 2023A (that is, the first half of 2023), including new work from Nicole Chung, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Claire Dederer, Brian Dillon, Samantha Irby, Heidi Julavits, Catherine Lacy, Mario Vargas Llosa, Rebecca Makkai, Fernanda Melchor, Lorrie Moore, Jenny Odell, Curtis Sittenfeld, Clint Smith, Zadie Smith, Brandon Taylor, Colm Tóibín, and many, many more.” Lots of great names in there, and you can bet I’ll follow up with a Bonus Read once they put out 2023B.
Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2023
And (almost) finally the most potentially overwhelming list of them all: 218 books that the folks at LitHub think are worth keeping an eye on in the coming year. I saw some very good picks on here, but I also would be lying if I said I’d carefully combed the entire thing. Still, if these other lists haven’t hit your sweet spot, hopefully this more expansive option will have some gems you’ll get excited about.
And lastly, though these are not upcoming 2023 books, a final bonus list that y’all should check out is this list of finalists for the Townsend Prize, a biannual award given to a work of literary fiction from a Georgia author. I may be biased, but the writers of Georgia are a strong bunch, and there are some hits on here for sure.
Almost Last Thing: OMG, Poet Laureate of the U.S. Ada Limón Is Going to Be in Atlanta Feb. 11
Y’all: Poet Laureate extraordinaire Ada Limón is going to be visiting Emory University here in Atlanta and will be giving a free public reading Saturday, February 11th, at 3:00pm as part of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Reading Series! So if you are also in Atlanta and like amazing people doing great things, you should grab your free tickets here. I guarantee there will be no regrets.
And, if you’re not in Atlanta, you should check out the events calendar on her website here for other dates and cities! She’ll hopefully be near you sometime; the list is pretty extensive.
Actual Last Thing: Bonus Read Bonus Recommendation
In a previous post (linked here), I mentioned the podcast 5-4 about how much the Supreme Court sucks. Well, one of the hosts, Peter, has another podcast with Michael Hobbes, from the You’re Wrong About podcast, called If Books Could Kill. It just launched and is already making waves, but I just want you to know that I was into it before it was cool.
In each episode they take a similar approach to the 5-4 podcast—breaking down the specific reasons the court’s decisions are often incoherent, inconsistent, lacking in basic common sense, etc.—but in this case, looking at a book (what they call “airport books”) that had perhaps an outsized impact on American culture and popular thought (Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Rhonda Byrnes’ The Secret, etc.) and do a deep dive into why they gained traction, as well as why they were pretty flawed and should not be considered unassailable purveyors of truths (as well as making note of any good points they may have made along the way). Fascinating stuff, and an excellent example of applying a critical lens to a text and exposing many examples of flawed reasoning, poor use of data, unexamined but important context, etc.
Ally StoneWright raved “Oof, that sounds depressing,” when I told her about it, so… I guess not for everyone, lol.
Read more about it here from Jessie Gaynor on LitHub, and you can find If Books Could Kill wherever you get your podcasts.
Okay, that’s it for this Bonus post so far, but there will be a follow-up Part 2 tomorrow with specific 2023 titles I’m looking forward to.
Also, just a quick teaser for the folks who read to the end: I’m super stoked about an unprecedented third Bonus post in a single month from a special guest columnist. You won’t want to miss it :)
And finally finally, a quick reminder that Bonus Posts like this don’t go out to everyone’s inboxes because I don’t want to spam you, but you can always find them on the Bonus Reads section of StoneWright Reads, or in the ICYMI section at the bottom of each of the official monthly newsletters.
Please feel encouraged to subscribe below (if you haven’t already) to get monthly updates on what I’m reading and some reviews of my faves, and then also feel free to share this post if you enjoyed it. Happy reading!