 Welcome back to my channel, I feel like my voice is written like plan all the time. Because it is time for my best books of 2023. Are we excited? I'm really excited, I'm nervous. But when we were talking about my top 10 books of 2023, my best books of the year, the books I would most recommend to you. We know I didn't have the best reading year, I had a bit of a lack of five stars. I think up to today I've had 21 five stars this year that weren't rereads. So it's not terrible, the latter half of the year did save an event in terms of five stars. I think it's a really good list of books. I do want to say before we get into it, I would say this is more of a top six. And then the bottom four of the list could interchange with other five stars on a different day. I think I'm fairly honest with you. I do stand by them, but it's definitely the top six of this list are like favorites of all time for me. And the bottom four are favorites of the year. That's the differentiation between the two. But shall we just get into it? We're gonna start with number 10, work our way up to number one. We all know what number one is, we all know what number two is, but the fun is in the journey. Shall we just get into it? Okay, coming in at number 10 is Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. I read this in a vlog where I read books that one of my favorite authors, Courtney Summers recommended me. It was a dream come true, she was absolutely incredible. I loved the interview that we did together, it was great getting to know her. And Nothing to See Here was by far my favorite from that vlog. So this is the story about two friends who are unlike roommates when they were at school, but they've barely spoken since. And the other gets in touch with the main character saying, I've got these step kids who are coming to live with me. They spontaneously combust. Could you come look after them and like be there, live in nanny. And the other one's like, yeah, all right, you gotta admit this is strange. So it's a story of her looking after these kids who spontaneously combust and trying to teach them love and family. And affection and safety. And I just thought this was such a beautiful book, but it's also kind of funny. It's got this humor to it. And it's also got a dash of weirdness, like there's certain interactions between characters that are a little bit weird. There's certain choices that characters make that are a little bit weird. But I just loved this. I really love books where you never would have picked them up otherwise if it weren't for the vlog that I was doing. And this is one of those for me. Like, I don't think I would have ever really picked this up otherwise. And so it being such a surprise really does make the book for me. But I think this is a very unique book. I haven't read a book like it in a long time. And if you're looking for a little bit weird, if you're looking for a bit magical realism, but with found family with a really lovely core to it, this would be my recommendation. Number nine, we have got The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson. You guys know I've been here a long time. This was me and Tiffany Jackson's last chance. That's quite dramatic. So it's quite miraculous. This made it on my best books of year list. So I'd given her, I think, a two and a three beforehand, or maybe even a two and a two point five in the books I'd read from her beforehand. And I said if I didn't like this book, I wasn't going to pick up her books anymore because it's not fair to an author if I keep picking up her books and rating them lowly and talking about them in a shitty way to you guys. Like, that's not fair. That's not fair. So this was our last chance. And boy, didn't look at the park. If you're going to read this, listen to the audiobook. I absolutely adored the reading experience of this. I had such vivid memories. I was playing Unpacking. Is that what it's called? I always get the name wrong in that game. Unpacking. We're like unpacking shit. I was playing that game while I was listening to the audiobook of this. So this is a Carrie retelling but our main character is a biracial girl who up into this point has passed as white. But then people find out that she's actually half black. And it's to do with her being ostracised because of that the way people treat her. I mean she's always been treated poorly at the school but that kind of like amplifies things. And obviously, if you know the story of Carrie, you know the plot beats that this is going to take us down. At the beginning there's like a podcast element that kind of comes in and out throughout the book and it's talking about the night of the prom. And I do want to caveat this by saying I haven't read Carrie. I've never watched Carrie but I think part of it is in the reading of elements that I love to this. I don't know how much of it comes from Carrie. Do you know what I mean? Like parts of this book I'm like oh that's so great. Like certain way characters interact or what have you. I don't know how much that is this book and how much of it is taken from like moments taken from Carrie. But I just loved this. I thought it was so fun. It's definitely, is this my only YA? Yeah, this is my only YA on this list for the year. It's definitely my best YA of the year. I thought it was a really wonderful unflinching look of racism that's that exists, particularly within certain American communities like insular American communities. Like some parts of this book you hear and you think no that can't really be happening in real life but it is. Like this is the first time they've had a non-segregated prom. But like that's still, that still happens in parts of America which is absolutely insane. This was like such a gratifying and satisfying experience to finally love a Tiffany D Jackson book because I've loved all of her synopsis forever. So it was really, I loved, I loved, I loved, I loved reading this. Coming in at number eight we have got Bright Young Women by Jessica Null. This could be recency bias. There's a few on this list. No, it's going to be a bit worried could be recency bias but I don't think it is. I really love this. This is the first on this list that you'll see from the Goodreads Choice Awards vlog. You probably can predict there's another one coming. But I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I was. When the top 10 list came out I was excited to read this. I already owned it. So I was excited for it but I wasn't like predicting it was going to be a five star. I was probably thinking oh it's going to be a really good four star, you know? But my gosh, my gosh guys this book is so, so, so, so good. So this book is a fictionalised account following some of Ted Bundy's victims. Now he's never named but the book is very heavily inspired by the events that happened with Ted Bundy. So we're following one girl who was the head of the sorority that he attacked and we're following another woman who believes that a very important woman in her life was one of his victims. This has such a wonderful look at so many elements of true crime of the way that victims are treated by police, by the media, the long lasting mental effects of living through something like this. I just think it was incredibly, incredibly well written. I said in the vlog like you could have kitted me that this was a autobiographical account. You know what I mean? It feels so real. These characters feel so real but they're going through so visceral and there is a scene at the end that I think, oh I still think about it. I think it's absolutely incredible writing, just like a feat of writing. I just really appreciate the way the whole subject was spoken about in this, you know? It examines why people maybe are interested in true crime but also strives to place the victims at the centre of that. You know Ted Bundy is never named throughout the book because he refuses to name him and I just, it just feels so, this is one of the books I've read this year that feels so real, right? Everything that the characters are feeling, you feel with them. I just loved it. Also it's kind of split timeline a little bit and I liked that element of it which is, hi Bray is coming from me. I just thought this was absolutely wonderful. If you are interested in a thriller kind of examining the true crime genre this would be my top recommendation. I think it's so well written. I thought it was a wonderful, wonderful book. Coming in at number seven is Finley Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. We're not surprised you all done me to read this for years. If you don't know this about Finley Donovan is a single mum. She's struggling girly. She's trying to pay the bills and she's an aspiring author and she's describing the plot of her new book to her editor one day in a coffee shop and a nearby woman misunderstands and thinks that Finley is a hit woman and gives her a lot of money to kill her husband. Clap if you've ever wanted to kill somebody. So she's kind of like I need this money but like am I gonna kill this man? Like what is the moral surrounding this? We all told me I was gonna love this and I loved it. I am nervous to read the rest of the series. I haven't heard as good things about the rest of the series but I thought this just perfectly struck the balance between like an interesting mystery slash thriller but also having a lot of humor and a lot of heart to it. Finley is a fun character and I enjoy a book where like you're reading it and you're like an idiot Finley stop it. Like I like a book that kind of infuriates you where a character just keeps doing stuff that you're like why are you making that decision? Like she kept doing things. I was like you idiot, you idiot. Like thanks a lot you idiot. Like you're not doing this right. This is not, this is not going to go down well. It kind of stresses you out. I think that's a fun reading experience. I mean I am not, I'm late to the party here. You know like everyone has loved this and by no means the first to sing its praises. I really really enjoyed it and I'm excited to continue on the series and I'm very excited to see where the series goes because I think the way that this book leaves off is very exciting but it's just fun. If you're looking for a fun mystery thriller this would be my number one recommendation. Um yeah loved it. So now we're into the top six. These are my top top books, the year favorites of all time I would say. So coming in at number six we have got Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brian and Sanderson. This is another one that I was worried was a bit of recency bias but I don't think it is. I have really contemplated and meditated on this and I don't think it is. In the following Tress who lives on this little island and the boy, the man that she loves uh is stolen by this evil witch and she goes on this quest to save him and it's really her on this boat on this boat journey and it's the found family that she encountered on the boat. There's these great characters. There's a deaf character who writes on this like magical tablet. There's a talking rat. Love the talking rat and this just had such a lovely tone to it. I would definitely say this is cozy fantasy. Brian and Sanderson please just write cozy fantasy. Get rid of all these high fantasies. How would you say something so controversial yet so brave? I am going to actually try out Brian and Sanderson now. Next year could be my Brian and Sanderson era and another era which we're going to get into in the next book. It had one of my favorite things where it has like an overseeing narrator with a dry sarcastic sense of humor. So one of the characters who's in the book what's his name? Hoid. Hoid he's in the book and I believe he's in other Cosmia books but I haven't read them. He's in the book and he's narrating this with this wonderful humor. I absolutely loved the way it was written. I thought it was just a wonderful wonderful little book. I think also it says it's inspired by the princess bride and I grew up watching the princess bride. I've never read it but there's just something about this book and it's beats that felt familiar and cozy and I said a lot in that video that this book feels like a book written outside of the pressures of trends in the book world and pressure of what or fans are going to think of it and like having to live up to a previous book. This just felt like a book written for the love of writing right and Brian and Sanderson says at the beginning or in his acknowledgement somewhere he says that he originally just wrote this as like a gift to his wife and she told him to publish it and you can just feel that. This book is brimming with love and joy and fun in it. I really don't like it even when I read books and I can just tell it's written because Enemies to Love is trendy so they've got to write an Enemies to Love's book and this is trendy so they've got to put that in the book. Whereas this just felt completely free of that and I think that's so freeing. It being free is freeing so yeah I loved it. I can't recommend this enough. Is this my top fantasy? No it's not my top fantasy. Get a grip Megan. But yeah I definitely want to try out more Brian and Sanderson. Not only just the one that other people said is more of like a cozy fantasy but I want to start my dad loves Brian and Sanderson. He has all his books so I want to start the whole a Cosmere and Mistborn the same thing or different things. I generally don't know anything so if you want to educate me on like the Brian and Sanderson reading order because I find that a little bit intimidating feel free because I don't get it. Coming in at number five we have got a classic. Who is she? We believe I'm putting a classic on my best books of the year list. I'm gonna complete state of shock I forgot what I was gonna say. And it is Emma by Jane Austen. So I read this for my Patreon book club one month so you guys actually haven't seen me even read this in a vlog but I adored this. I think this is a genius genius genius genius book. Oh Jane Austen your mind. So I want to give you my my my background going into this. So as a kid I loved and I still love but I loved the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Me and my mum would watch it together whenever I was sick of school growing up I know it's a bit maybe a bit of a weird thing. I also loved watching like the History Channel when I was off school as a kid. I watched a lot of like Tudor I don't know but we watched that together growing up and I think I did read Pride and Prejudice growing up with my mum but I haven't read it since I was like eight or ten. So that world of Jane Austen of the regency of the kind of characters the kind of tropes is very familiar to me. I've watched that BBC adaptation I don't even want to know how many times I've seen Colin Firth come out of that lake. I refuse to watch the Kirinati one I don't think I've ever seen it I'm sorry don't try and convince me it's not it's that is not my Pride and Prejudice this is my Pride and Prejudice. So I love that growing up and then in terms of other Jane Austen I've only read Persuasion which I didn't love and so I was a bit nervous going into this but I think this is a wonderful wonderful book. So if you don't know the plot of Emma basically you need to know as Emma is like a matchmaker she wants to like pair people up and like finds fun in doing it but doesn't always go about things the right way. If you've seen Clueless Clueless as a Emma retelling and I just think this book could be written today it is so modern on its observations of human nature and the way we interact and the way that we love I just think it is incredible like Jane Austen in your mind like wow she's incredible she's a beautiful person her talent and brilliance is beyond and it's funny this is Jane Austen's I think her most like comedic book and this book is just so funny it's so humorous oh I loved the way that characters spoke and interacted and just the depth oh I just think it's incredible I think it's an incredible incredible book I think it's an absolute feat and it set me down a bit with Jane Austen rabbit hole like I watched a lot of Jane Austen documentaries after watching this I want to read Jane Austen like nonfiction Lucy Worsley my my favorite nonfiction author wow I've never read any of herself my favorite historian she's my favorite historian has written a Jane Austen book which I now have to read I just think this book is absolutely wonderful and it's humor and it's tone in the character development oh my god the line if you know the line if you know the line who's confessing his love what how did you write that in like 17 whatever Jane Jane oh no 18 sorry 1816 Jane how did you how did you cut to the core of love and oh I believe in love and it's funny it's so funny I would I would really recommend getting the audio book for this because it really does help uh can be the tone of a lot of what I said but I absolutely love this so just as I'm going to be in my Brandon Sanderson era next year I'm going to be in my my classic slash Jane Austen here because I just thought this was absolutely wonderful coming in at number four is a graphic novel and it is the tea dragon festival by k o nil so I read both this and the tea dragon tapestry this year but this was my favorite this is the second in the tea dragon series this one is actually a prequel and I just loved it I've spoken about this series so much so you don't really need to know too much but it's this magical world the tea dragons are little characters in it but they're not really the main characters it's more about these families and these found families and these friends that exist in this world interact and I always just say if when I have kids the attitude that these books have towards the world towards life towards community is the attitude I'd want to impart on my trilogy right it's just such a beautiful view on the world that I think we should all strive to have just its outlook I think is wonderful so these graphic novels to me are just like a hug in a book and I cannot wait to reread them and reread them the drawings are absolutely beautiful these books are very inclusive in this book there is a deaf character who the whole town has learned sign language for to be able to communicate I just love it I just love it I just love it these filming was such joy I cannot recommend picking these up enough okay everyone we're into the top three my next one is controversial I told you guys this is gonna be here but did you think it was gonna be this high up but number three is the writing retreat by jillian pot okay I know a lot of people haven't liked this but you're wrong I love the writing retreat so this is about these women who go on this writing retreat but it's a very renowned author she's published like a few really incredible hits of a book like incredible popular like think donna tart I think like only right to book every five to ten years but they're a big hit kind of thing a bit reclusive no one sees a you know out in the normal world they go on this writing retreat and it's a bit unsettling from beginning this book does I mean it's nobles by the end we're going we're going in a direction right but at the beginning it there's always a bit there's a bit unsettling this writing retreat is very isolated and it's really has to do with female friendships as well and kind of the like sapphic like romantic slash sexual element that can exist within female friendships as well and um I just absolutely loved this I absolutely loved this I loved its weirdness but I think it has just enough weirdness that like it's not a barrier to entry right some books I read that are really weird I'm like this is beyond me trying to fit I can't figure out what you're trying to do don't mean it's not that it's it's a followable book but it's just wild it's wild from the get go I think the way the characters interact is so interesting the book is talking about it's so interesting and I just love that it committed so often I read books it's often I read books guess what guys I read books no so often I read books that don't commit right that promise me a lot they have like in the synopsis it seems like it's going to be really dramatic and big and then it kind of like fizzle out you know this goes for it and I just love the commitment I love the commitment to the cause I really appreciate it I just I just think this was great and for a debut oh I just loved it all of you hated it wrong you're wrong you're wrong you're wrong I'm sorry you're wrong it's so good no it's true oh it's true this cross is a lie go ahead no this is real I am so excited to see what else Julia Bartz publishes because this oh guys it was just so fascinating to me this book I just how does it have such a low rating you're wrong it's wonderful okay my top two are a league of their own you know one of these books was my favorite book for most of the year and then one just snuck in at the end so these are like top top top top top we've had layers like a layer of an onion to this list so coming in at number two is legends and lattes by Travis Bowdrew I loved it this is my first book of the year I always strive to get a five star I almost every reading year I've had since 2018 I've had a five star at the start of the year apart from last year and that was a bad year so you know in order to have good luck I must read a five star start of the year I loved this you all know what this is about it's one of the biggest books you know around at the moment in terms of hype but we're following Viv who has hung up her sword she was like a little fighter and she made oh my god even talking about it I want to cry make us a coffee shop and it's like her trying to set up this coffee shop and try to be successful and it is just the perfect low stakes gentle cozy but oh my god that's real even though she's fictional it's real and that's important to me you don't understand you don't understand how much I want to read about characters making coffee and thimble designing his cakes and getting so excited people like his cakes you don't get it you don't get how perfect this book isn't everything I want I'm going to have to reread it at some point but oh my god it was just incredible it's so lovely and I'm so glad it's had the success that it has I do own bookshops and bone dust I'm not I'm trying to like get rid of the expectation that I'm gonna love this as much as I love this I hope whatever Travis Baldry publishes next is actually away from this series I want him to write a different standalone because I feel like there's just too much pressure I don't think I'm gonna love this as much as I love this because can you love anything as much as I love this it is just the perfect book it's so wonderful wonderful oh it's just incredible what a feat what a feat to write a book this small and have it take up so much place in my heart and then my final book the best book of 2023 the last ever to dive I rich toss men we all knew it was coming even before I read it we knew if anything was gonna dethrone legends and lattes it was there so this is the fourth in the Thursday Meta Club I read it recently in my Goodreads choice of was reading blog and generally I don't feel like it's much point reading the rest of this year because like I'm I'm still kind of in a haze after reading this book if you're here you know what this is about why don't I need to give you some upsist but we're forming these early group characters who have this Thursday Meta Club where they used to try and solve cold cases when the first book a case lands on their doorstep and they try and solve it and then by the time this book there's they've got enemies they've got friends all over and mysteries keep turning up to them people keep dying and this one it's a kind of acquaintance of theirs is murdered and they endeavor to solve it and it's a lot to do espionage and drug money and smuggling and all that shit in this one but this one take off I know I don't look upset don't go upset don't worries I haven't cried like this at a book in a long time so because these characters are old it's dealing with death a lot right but not just death it's dealing with how you live when you know you haven't got a lot of life left and frankly we're all dying do you know what I mean like I think we should all live as as though we haven't got long left I think it teaches you so much about how how you should live and the life you should endeavor to live full of love and care for the other person and I have not cried like this I'm sorry to cry calm down I think if you read the third book you kind of know where this is going and my god it is just a beautiful look at humanity I think Richard Osman first on the big stuff like the stuff that made me cry is it's a big topic it's a big human experience it's it's a terrible thing to go through but even the small stuff Richard Osman like taps on the door of what it means to be a human so well like even just the the things we like to watch all the things that make us laugh all the little quirks that we all have but don't really talk about he often it's just a line like like blows me away I Richard Osman the man that you are I love you we are not getting a Thursday murder club book next year and he's gonna be starting a new series which I'm equally excited and nervous for but this series is just incredible and this this fourth book is definitely the best in the series it's my best book of the year I just love it I love that it's a mystery I love the characters I love everything about I love the humour these books are funny oh it's so good guys it's definitely my best book of the year and I cannot wait I'm gonna have to reread the whole series soon sometime next year since we're not getting a book in it or maybe the year after I don't know how do I pace myself what's the correct way to do this I loved it I loved it I loved it I loved it so there we have it that is my top 10 books of 2023 let me know what you thought of any of these I mean the one you're most gonna disagree with me on is the wrangler tree I can accept that but um I think these are all wonderful books and I cannot recommend them enough let me know what your favorite books of the year have been I'd love to know for future reference or just kind of I just love to know what your favorite books of the year have been um but thank you guys for watching this video if you got to the end comment a star emoji and I'll see you very soon in another video bye