Buzz Books, 2023

Buzz Books is my go to resource for books I know I'm going to want to read, and authors to pay attention to, the 2023 Edition featured authors who were "don't miss" for me included Abraham Verghese's fabulous The Color of Water, my favorite book of 2023.  When I read the Buzz Books list, i feel like and insider! I'm not through the books for 2024, yet, but will get there!

Let's Pretend This Will Work: A Novel by Maddie Dawson

      Mimi believes in her psychic advisor and her lucky skirt, neither of which have failed her.  She is bright and creative and loves thrift shops, colorful clothing and the older Playwright who she’s almost engaged to.  Her NYC life is fun and interesting, and she feels like she’s on the right path.

Let’s Pretend This Will Work by Maddie Dawson

Then her fiancé has to leave NYC for Connecticut to care for his nearly grown daughters and his ex-wife. And since Mimi has lost her job at the posh school they both work at, she decides to be the supportive fiancé and move there too.

And then things get quirky.  She moves into an apartment above a co-op day care, and the fun really begins.

Maddie Dawson is one of the best quirky, upbeat and magical character writers out there, and her storytelling always brings a special light to them.  I fell for everyone one of them in this book, even the b*tchy ex-wife. 

Let’s Pretend This Will Work was published on June 1, 2024, by Lake Union Publishing.

Triple Sec by TJ Alexander

 

Having read and enjoyed TJ Alexander’s last novel, Second Chances in New Port Stephen, https://sunrisesandsuch.blogspot.com/2023/11/second-chances-in-new-port-stephen-5.html, I was eager to see what they were up to in Triple Sec. I found the same fascinating writing, great characters and a different kind of love story. I also found a great story, of Mel, a bartender extraordinaire, Kade, and artist, and Bebe, a lawyer, who find themselves drawn to each other. The development of the relationship, from single to couple to throuple was a fun ride, with Alexander’s sensitive humor and presentation. The settings were very well done as well and left me wanting to go order cocktails at both Terror & Virtue AND Collective Spirits.

This author excelled at staying true to her character’s pronoun choice, though as an older reader, I had trouble keeping it straight. That’s my weakness, not Alexander’s and it was good to see a full book carry it off.

Other readers have commented that the book was “spicy” or “steamy” which I know is a draw for many readers. There are explicit sex scenes (some I wasn’t sure were physically plausible) and if you like that, this book will make you happy. I might be a little too conservative for it, but I recognize the talent in the imagination and the writing.

Triple Sec was released June 4, 2024. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for the review copy.

The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

 

Venice holds a special place in the mind and imagination of people all over the world. I visited for the first time in 2023 and was delighted to receive a set of beautiful blue patterned Murano, (Venice’s “attendant island”) glass at Christmas. Needless to say, I was delighted to read Tracy Chevalier’s new book, The Glassmaker, which traces the history of Venice and Murano through the eyes of a glassmaking family, over five hundred years. The narrator explains to the reader in the first line of the novel: “The City of Water runs by its own clock…” While centuries pass for the rest of the world, the Rosso family of the book ages much more slowly. By using the same characters of the span of five centuries, we witness the continuities and struggle for the well-drawn Rosso family, and Orsola Rosso particularly, who we meet at nine years of age. Her passions, both for family, glass, community, and all it means to be Venetian tells the brilliant story of five hundred years of history, made personal. It is historical fiction at its finest.

Thanks to Penguin Group Viking and NetGalley for the review copy. The Glassmaker was published on June 18, 2024.

One of my Murano glasses.