I use the beginning of the new year to catch up on popular books I missed from the previous year, survey new releases for spring, and to complete my annual quest to watch all the Academy’s best picture nominations. With all of this going on, I already have several recommendations to share:

A book I recently enjoyed!

Admittedly obsessed with Jackie Kennedy, I loved this historical fiction about her life BEFORE she met JFK. She spent a whole year studying in Paris, and this experience shaped her persona. Years after the timeline of this book, JFK famously said at state visit, “I’m the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.” This is a story of her love affair with Paris.

Jacqueline in Paris: A Novel by Ann Mah

What I’m reading now

Ian McEwan wrote one of my favorite books ever, Atonement.

The base of his newest book, Lessons, is what we would call statutory rape (it is consensual in this story) of a young boy at boarding school by his female piano teacher. I’m putting this detail out there because it may not be something some people want to read about. This disturbing story is told so well, and understandably the experience follows him throughout his life. The book goes back and forth between the past and present.

In the present tense storyline, he is a single father after his wife ran away, and in the past tense storyline I am anxiously waiting to find out how the inappropriate relationship ended because it has been foreshadowed as dramatic.

The book goes into several sub-stories (pre and post WWII Germany) and focuses on how major historical events change our actions and decisions at the time and therefore the trajectories of our lives. Fascinating!

Lessons by Ian McEwan

Movies!

Each year I watch all the best picture nominations. This exposes me to so many movies I wouldn’t have watched otherwise.

At this point, I’ve watched Elvis, especially fun for me since I visited Graceland last year; All Quiet on the Western Front, based on a book I’ve read multiple times; Top Gun Maverick, which was a great theater experience, and finally the one I want to bring your attention to today because I am still obsessing over it:

Triangle of Sadness

This is a dramedy (comedy, drama, also with social commentary) in three parts about two fashion models and several rich people on a luxury cruise who then end up shipwrecked on an island. It is bizarre and amazing. Social classes, gender roles, and economic systems are all explored. You will laugh, be horrified, and be provoked to thought.

You can rent it on Amazon Prime!

What I’m excited about for early 2023

Many of the books I have on my list for early 2023 don’t release until March or April so I’ll hold off on posting those because you can’t buy them yet anyway. But here is one I’m excited about for February:

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

This is by an author I’ve loved before; many of my friends also loved her acclaimed book The Great Believers (read my previous post here).

This new book releases Feb. 21 and is a mystery, thriller.

A woman returns to her former boarding school as a teacher, but she is still reckoning with the murder that happened there her senior year. She begins to realize she may have some relevant memories after all that could prove the wrong person was convicted.