Don't freak out, but...

We are already half way through the year! It seems appropriate to do a midyear wrap up. And I know people like to take the lists to the library. Hopefully this is helpful!

To the end of June 2023, I have read 93 books. Of those 93 books, here are my five star reads (in the order that I read them):

• The Mother Wound by Amani Haydar. Full review here.

• A Knock At Midnight - a story of hope, justice, and freedom by Brittany Barnett. Full review here.

• The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken. Full review here.

• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. I don’t think I am going to review this one. We read this for our book club and not many others thought this was a 5 star, so I skipped the review on this one.

• All the Broken Places by John Boyne. Find the review here.

• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. It seems like there are reviews of this book everywhere so I haven’t done one.

• See You in September by Charity Norman. Full review here.

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. The review for this can be found here. I am really pleased to see the awards that this book keeps winning. So well deserved!

• As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh. Find that review here.

• You Are Your Best Thing by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown. That rant can be found here.

• Secrets My Father Kept by Rachel Givney. Review here.

• All My Mothers by Joanna Glen. You can find this review here.

• The Other Half of Augusta Hope also by Joanna Glen, and also found in the same link.

• Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot. That review is here.

• My Fourth Time, We Drowned by Sally Hayden. This review is here.

• Frontline Midwife by Anna Kent. That review can be found here.

• Greta & Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly. Find this review here.

These ones are all yet to be reviewed as most of these I finished more recently, but reviews will be coming to your inbox soon! (It is actually freaking me out that I have so many reviews still to do).

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.

• The Maid by Nita Prose.

• Go As A River by Shelley Read.

• Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer.

• Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow.

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

• Grand by Noelle McCarthy.

• A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney.

• The Storyteller by Dave Grohl.

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano.

• The Book Binder of Jericho by Pip Williams.

• The Only Plane in the Sky - the oral history of 9/11 by Garrett M Graff.

31 books for you to add to your TBR. I find it interesting that one third of the books I read make it to my substack reviews. I have at times contemplated changing this to a fortnightly email, but if I did that, I wouldn’t get through the reviews of all of the fabulous books out there!

What’s your favourite book of 2023 so far? I am sure we all need more amazing books to add to our TBR because life is too short to read bad books.