One of the things I promised myself I’d do last year was to share the books I liked best in 2023, none of which I reviewed here. Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites me to get my act together and do a down-and-dirty update of this draft and finally hit publish:

1. Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
   Two generations of Dominican-American women with magical gifts (ranging from the ability to tell if someone is lying to possessing an “alpha vagina”) find their lives upended when Flor, whose gift is knowing when someone will die, announces she’s throwing herself a living wake. Organized as personal narratives/interviews told to Flor’s daughter, an anthropologist, the chapters mostly alternate through all four senior sisters and the two daughters/cousins. Each one looks back at how her life — both in New York and in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic — has been shaped by her gift and her family and how these matrilineal powers cause them to walk through the (male-dominated) world. If you like family sagas or immigrant stories and magical realism, I highly recommend Acevedo’s first novel for adults.
    

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Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. D.C. got about six inches of snow on Tuesday, most of which has already melted, which is the best kind of storm around here. The kids got a day off, everything got to look pretty, and then it all warmed up and went away.

2. I needed three of us to show up for volleyball in the storm on Tuesday night in order not to forfeit, and I got four. On my walk to the game, I got to see college kids sledding and playing football in the snow, and two field mice raced in front of me, trying to get the first footprints along the virgin sidewalk canvas. And Jess gave me a ride back to the metro, which meant I didn’t have to catch the last train home. (We did not win, but I can’t have everything.)

3. Rudi and I picked up pizza and cannoli as a pre-birthday celebration tonight and then curled up with the cats to watch sitcoms, including three old Valentine’s Day episodes. It was a gentle way to usher out the end of my 50th birthday year, particularly since Rudi will be out of town for my actual birthday. (Never fear; friends and I are heading out for the night.)

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to come up with our own love-related topic for this week. I thought I’d share the top ten romantic books I have either out from or on hold at the library:

1. Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello
2. A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy & Sienna Simone
3. The Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth
4. Old Flames and New Fortunes by Sarah Hogle
5. A Lady’s Guide to Marvels and Misadventure by Angela Bell
6. The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi
7. Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi
8. The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
9. Empire of the Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson
10. Back After This by Linda Holmes

The first two are Christmas-themed romances that are still lingering into 2025, which is more an indictment of my scattered reading habits thus far this year than of the books themselves.

After I’ve crossed those two off my in-progress list, has anyone read anything from the list they’d recommend I start with?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. D.C. was expecting icy weather last night, just as Rudi was supposed to be driving back from western New York. So, when we talked Tuesday, we agreed that if it was prudent, he’d stop along the way and come home today instead. Between the team wrapping its race early to get a jump on the storm, a slightly slower moving front than originally forecast, and temperatures that stayed warmer later, he was able to make it home earlier than expected and before what turned out just to be rain.

2. It has been a hot minute since I played basketball, but that’s what I signed up to coach this winter as my volunteer gig. It felt good to be able to demonstrate to the elementary school boys why it was they should learn how to do layups and not just take the jumpers that seem to have become the mainstay of today’s NBA.

3. Since it was so nice out after my morning volleyball game wrapped up Saturday, I decided to pedal home via the neighborhood just north of mine, where a bakery I’d enjoyed during the pandemic has moved to. Its line reminded me of going into New Haven for pizza or Italian ice when I was a kid, and it’s nice to see that people still have the patience to wait for tasty treats. (Also, the passionfruit doughnut was delicious!)

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Arty Reader Girl asks us to share the books that came out last year that we were excited to read — but then didn’t get to. Here are some of mine, all of which I hope make it onto this year’s finished list:

1. Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance
2. T.J. Klune’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea
3. Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde
4. 1000 Words by Jami Attenberg (In fairness, I did start this one and decided I was going to want my own copy, which I now have.)
5. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
6. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin
7. Amor Towles’ Table for Two
8. The Briar Club by Kate Quinn (Currently reading and overdue back to the library)
9. The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
10. 50 Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott

How about you? Were there books that came out during 2024 you fully intended to read and then … life?

January is often a high reading count for me, and this year is no exception, with six books already marked off in the done category.

Here are some reviews of what I read last month:

Aliya to the Infinite City by Laila Rifaat

A middle grade fantasy novel that I picked up at the Daunt Books mothership in London last year, Aliya to the Infinite City could reasonably be called an Egyptian Harry Potter — and, in fact, it’s impossible to avoid the comparison, which I suppose Rifaat knew, since she name-checks the series in the story. Aliya lives with her grandfather after her parents are killed in a fire when she was very young. They’ve always gotten along well, but he’s become increasingly erratic in his behavior of late. On her 11th birthday, Aliya learns first that her grandfather has been telling the world she was also dead — and then that she’s from a long line of time-travelers. She ends up in an alternate dimension of Egypt, where she must play catch-up on a lifetime of magical learning, overcome the trauma of her grandfather’s betrayal, and meet other wannabe time-traveling kids who’ve come from all eras of Egyptian history. Add to that, she must try to cope with the stress of poisonings of governmental officials (possibly linked to her roommate and/or house matron), cracks that keep appearing in the sky, and a necklace that once belonged to her mother and recently gifted to her by an anonymous benefactor, which seems to hold enormous — and likely forbidden — power.

Rifaat does have a knack for descriptions. The Infinite City and its residents come alive before your eyes, and you will constantly be hungry because of the feasting that goes on.

It was an okay story, and I would read another in the trilogy if it were to cross my path. But I don’t know if I’d seek it out. Recommended for someone who hasn’t read Harry Potter and might no longer choose to or to someone who wants another version of a magical orphan.

Personal print copy

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