Goodreads’s Best Books of 2023 Released, Great Gifts for Readers This Holiday Season

As the holiday season quickly approaches, consumers are still scrambling to find gifts for their loved ones. And for those of you with avid readers in your lives, that means books. But scouring your nearest Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore can be a challenge when you aren’t sure if the book you choose will suit a person. You may know which genres they prefer or subjects they are interested in, but that doesn’t mean every book will be one they devour and add to their list of favorites. Worst case scenario, it ends up collecting dust on the shelf and only halfway finished.

Luckily for you frantic shoppers, Goodreads has just released the results of their 2023 Choice Awards for the Best Books of 2023 list! Gathering votes from nearly six million of their site-users, Goodreads has collected a list of both fiction and nonfiction titles that their users have deemed the best of 2023. From science fiction to romance and memoirs to history, Goodreads has something for anyone to enjoy on their list. You can even check out the nominees that didn’t win in each category if you want even more gift ideas for readers. 

Scrolling through Goodreads’s social media accounts may highlight the discourse between readers as they argue which book may have been more deserving to win a particular category than others. This is normal considering the subjectivity of art and the wide-range of taste and preferences amongst readers, so don’t fret over buying a book someone else may call ‘boring’ or ‘trash’ (especially if they mention that they didn’t even read it). What someone else hates, your reader may enjoy! If you choose to scroll through their Instagram or Tiktok, you may want to take note of these comments. Not only could you potentially get a better idea of what certain books are about, but you may just get great recommendations! 

Some titles that may be popular gifts this holiday season seemed almost destined to win first-place in their respective categories. Yellowface and Fourth Wing, for example, were immensely popular on bookstagram and booktok this year, so it seems no surprise that they won by such large margins. There were a few interesting outcomes, however. Interestingly, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which was named the 2023 Barnes & Noble Book of the Year, came in fourth-place in its category for historical fiction, losing to the first-place winner Weyward with almost 30,000 votes. Barnes & Noble determines the winner of their prestigious title by inquiring their booksellers to nominate the titles they feel are particularly remarkable and would recommend to a consumer. This explanation, provided in one of their blog posts this past November,, is rather vague. Meanwhile, Goodreads allows their list to be determined as a sort of popularity contest. A voter isn’t required to have read every book in each category in order to cast their vote, so they merely choose the books they have read and enjoyed to determine who they vote for. This is not necessarily bad, per se, as Goodreads pools together a large group of readers, allowing many different perspectives, interests, and preferences to come together and let their voices be heard. If some books win by large margins, perhaps it’s because a majority of readers believed it deserved to win. 

Lists such as Goodreads’s Best Books of 2023 gives us a great insight into the minds of readers and which books or authors have really made an impact in the publishing world. However, just because one book wins doesn’t mean its fellow nominees in the category are any less enjoyable. Yellowface may have won with over 200,000 votes (with second-place lagging 140,000 votes behind) in the fiction category, but the titles it competed against, such as Hello Beautiful (second-place), Maame (eighth-place), or Evil Eye (thirteenth-place) are also incredible books that you should absolutely check out. If the reader you’re shopping for hasn’t read the book that won in their preferred genre, then you should definitely check it out to see if it’s something they would be interested in. That being said, check out all the nominated books in that category! Even if a book didn’t win, it could be a gem that your reader loves!

Nonfiction Books That Will Change Your Life

For many readers, nonfiction can be an intimidating genre to break into.  However, nonfiction can often help people to change their habits, or keep them informed  on past, current, and future issues. Here, I have collected some nonfiction books I have loved and that have affected the way I think, act, and interact with others. So dive in. I promise, these books will change your life.

1. The Sweetness of a Simple Life by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

Diana Beresford-Kroeger draws on her life as a botanist and scientist to teach a better way of life in her 2013 novel, The Sweetness of a Simple Life. Beresford-Kroeger is a Canadian citizen who grew up in Ireland learning ancient Celtic wisdom. She applies these principles of natural connection, language, and kindness to modern-day life with a series of guidelines for how to live a “simple life.” This book includes tips on a wide range of  things, including how to build a bird’s nest, how to use leftover meat bones to fertilize a garden, and even  how to reduce the chance of a heart attack with food. Beresford-Kroeger’s other works, The Global Forest and To Speak for the Trees, expand on her love of nature and Celtic wisdom.

2. Radical Curiosity by Seth Goldenberg

While the market of pop science books is endlessly diluted by excess, this 2022 book was a standout in its emphasis on curiosity as society’s biggest kept secret. Seth Goldenberg makes the argument that curiosity is in short supply in the modern day, but harnessing its power could radically change the way we view our impact on society. As a more recent release, this book draws on the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst for “looking at the system in a fundamentally new way.”

3. Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall

Hood Feminism is a breakthrough in feminist texts that reframes the conversation towards marginalized groups that created it in the first place. Mikki Kendall outlines the feminist movement as it was developed by and then shunned from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) women. Each essay in this collection reflects on how BIPOC women have continuously been left out of the mainstream white feminist movement, and how to change this. Kendall shows how the combination of racism, poverty, and hypersexualization of BIPOC women has been at the forefront of this divide, and how intersectionality is a more complex issue than mainstream feminists realize. 

4. How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell

As deceiving as the title may seem, this book does not teach you how to do nothing. Instead, it teaches you how to slow down, look outside your window every now and again (or even go for a walk in the park), and distance yourself from what Jenny Odell labels “the attention economy.” Odell makes the argument that in modern society, it has become too easy to get swept up in “the attention economy” of today, with social media, the Internet, and technology at the forefront of our lives. Throughout the book, Odell develops an action plan for taking back our time that does not ignore the complexities of modern-day life and the importance of technology. Instead, Odell shows how we can disconnect from the negative effects and turn the rest into positive action.

5. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

Trick Mirror was one of the most popular books when it was released in 2019, and for good reason. Expanding on previous essays and adding new ones, journalist Jia Tolentino gives a complex picture of the last two decades through a series of social and cultural questions that many people can relate to. In one essay, Tolentino focuses on the idea of “always optimizing,” wherein people, especially millennials, are constantly trying to find the best use of their time instead of taking a moment alone (similar to Odell’s theory in How to Do Nothing). In another, Tolentino tells the story of a falsified 2014 Rolling Stone article of a sexual assault case that happened at her alma mater, the University of Virginia. Tolentino covers a lot of ground in these essays, but ultimately does a great job of tying together underlying themes of social and cultural touchstones.

6. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Similar to The Sweetness of a Simple Life, this 2013 book serves as a part-memoir and part-instruction guide on how to live a more environmentally-friendly life. Botanist and Potawatomi scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer draws on a lifetime of studying plants, indigenous culture, and her own personal story of motherhood. Wall Kimmerer’s love of nature is infectious, and with each page, she manages to inspire the reader to do better. Her argument for a renewed bond between people and nature relies on a reciprocal culture of gratitude, in which people understand that they are indebted to the natural world in the same way as it is to them.  

Happy reading!

-Hannah Eaton, CambridgeEditors Team

Winter Book Recommendations!

By Charlotte Lackney

https://www.ebsco.com/blogs/novelist/warm-winter-reading

Winter is one of the cozier seasons for reading. The scenery of snow falling outside the window and the crackling of a fireplace—real or, if you’re like me, a ten-hour video of a fireplace on YouTube—and a fluffy blanket make for the best kind of reading day. It’s made even better with the perfect book selection. So, I’ve accumulated my three favorite winter reads and am offering them to you today!

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

An enchanting tale about Le Cirque des Rêves and the fierce competition that’s underway behind the scenes. Magicians Celia and Marco have been trained since childhood to compete on this whimsical stage in a battle that was designed to leave only one standing. Despite their best efforts, though, the two tumble into a forbidden romance amidst a fatal game that must play out to its end. Morgenstern writes in rich prose that will captivate you from beginning to end. Interspersing the story with a second-person narrative, not only will you see the circus from the perspective of the performers, but as a patron yourself.

2. The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Don’t let the author’s name scare you away! This novella of only 137 pages is a quick and masterfully suspenseful story about the dualities of love and the effect of grief and guilt on the psyche. The tragicomedy begins in the middle, with Trusotsky and Velchaninov beginning the rocky navigation of a love triangle’s aftermath. Although lighter than Dostoevsky’s other much bulkier novels, The Eternal Husband is a testament to his immense talent. It’s one of his most complete works in terms of development.

3. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

A retrospective story about despair and love set against the frozen backdrop of a harsh New England winter. Trapped in an unhappy and luckless life, Ethan Frome becomes obsessed with Mattie, his wife’s spirited cousin brought into their household as a ‘hired girl’. To him, she is the hope for happiness in his future, and is heavily tempted by her vivacious optimism. The short and captivating tale will leave a lasting impression. It is one of Wharton’s most intense and impactful stories.

Happy reading!

MIT Bootcamps: A Desire for Impact

By: Charlotte Lackney

https://www.edx.org/course/product-and-service-creation-in-the-internet-age?index=undefined

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is one of the foremost research-based universities in the world, playing a vital role in the development of technology and science. Among an impressive list of programs including computer science, mechanical engineering, physics, and aerospace engineering, there’s a rapidly growing entrepreneurship program called MIT Bootcamps. Founded by previous CambridgeEditors client Erdin Beshimov in 2014, the ten-week program is intended to bring entrepreneurs from all over the world together to coach them in the development of innovative ventures.

The structure of the program is built around “learning by doing”—having the students be an active part in their education. Innovation seminars are a major part of this program, in which the students can implement theory in interactive workshops to show them how to apply and use innovation tools taught to them in seminars. Seminar instructors span from MIT faculty to industry experts, allowing students to learn about the experiences of successful entrepreneurs and investors that have made the MIT innovation ecosystem prominent and lasting. Students are also given individual and team coaching sessions, providing them with an experienced professional to guide and support them throughout their time in the bootcamp.

Erdin Beshimov, a lecturer at MIT in subjects such as entrepreneurial creativity, believes that the foundation of effective educational programs is the combination of mastery and community. The two elements are essential to support one another in long-term ventures. The hope with the program, then, is to make a difference in the world through social impact. The students leave the program with the backing of a community that reaches many corners of the globe, providing support and inspiration through their entrepreneurial journey.

Beshimov is the recipient of the Patrick J. McGovern Entrepreneurship Award, Carol and Howard Anderson Fellowship, and the MIT Sloan Peer Recognition Award.

“We’ve now offered our bootcamps all over the world–in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, and Turkey–and have trained over 1,500 entrepreneurs from 100 countries and counting. I am particularly proud of our partnership with the MIT ReACT program through which we offer entrepreneurship education to refugees.” — Erdin Beshimov, 2021, IdeaMensch

Learn more about MIT Bootcamps by visiting their website.

Revisiting Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights

All writers are given the same piece of advice to write each and every day; Ross Gay took on this challange and made it literal. 

And so The Book of Delights was born, Ross Gay’s collection of personal essays, a one-year project beginning and ending on Gay’s birthday. Each piece is framed around the blissful premise of capturing the little pleasures in everyday life. 

The topics of the delights range from the smallest joy, like a “Flower in the Curb,” where Gay recounts seeing, “some kind of gorgous flower, mostly a red I don’t think I actually have words for, a red I maybe only seen in this flower growing out of the crack between the curb and the asphalt…”  (Gay 9). 

In addition to the light moments, Gay reveals truths that ask his reader to think. A writer of color, Gay raises the issue of inequality throughout the text, like when he discusses his friend’s book : 

“…the fact that innocence is an impossible state for black people in America who are, by virtue of this country’s fundamental beliefs, always presumed guilty. It’s not hard to get this. Read Michelle Alexander’s New Jim Crow. Or Devah Pager’s work about hiring practices showing that black men without a record receive job callbacks at a rate lower than white men previously convicted of felonies… (Gay 25).”

This perspective that Gay shares invite his readers not only to be appreciative, but critical, of their surrounding world. More serious themes such as this are interwoven throughout the novel, balancing the existing uplifting moments. 

As a reader, this feels more authentic to read than a book solely about delights. It’s not realistic to have a positive outlook every day for an entire year. Gay’s balance of the ideas he wrestles with in daily life, along with the little joys he experiences make for a reliable narrator. 

The Book of Delights is a great read that asks its reader to reflect on life’s positive experiences, amid times of uncertainty and negativity. Its essay-like structure of one delight at a time makes it easy to breeze through, since it is connected by a premise more than a plot. It’s positive tone will put you in an uplifting mood and help you to notice the daily delights in life than go often overlooked. 

– Charleigh

In Need of a New Read? Check Out These Titles

“Books shed light unto the darkness. Darkness retreats one letter, one line, one page at a time,” said writer Kiyoko Yoshimura. Remembering that books hold the incredible power to enrich and educate can be a lifeline, especially during turbulent times like these.

If you’re craving a deep-dive into a title that makes you think, critique, and reflect, check out these 8 well-reviewed books:

NONFICTION

1. Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now by Evan Osnos is a “fast-paced biography that draws on extensive interviews with his subject, as well as with Obama and a host of Democratic party heavyweights. In pursuit of brevity it races through the many personal dramas of a tumultuous life and deals only perfunctorily with Biden’s surviving son … This book suggests Biden has the capacity for self-reinvention,” according to Julian Borger, of The Guardian.

2. Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark is an “incandescent, richly researched biography … Red Comet takes us on a literary picaresque, drawing on untapped archives, Plath’s complete correspondence, interviews with surviving members of the couple’s social and professional circles, and, most crucially, on Hughes’ journals and letters… A bravura performance, Red Comet is the one we’ve waited for,” The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Hamilton Cain stated.

3. Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes “explains in splendidly engaging prose why this fact is cause for wonder and celebration … What Wragg Sykes has produced in Kindred, after eight years of labor, is masterful,” says NPR writer Barbara King. “Synthesizing over a century and a half of research, [Wragg Skyes] gives us a vivid feel for a past in which we weren’t the only smart, feeling bipedal primate alive. That feel comes across sometimes in startlingly fresh ways.”

4. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson includes “vivid stories about the mistreatment of Black Americans by government and law and in everyday social life—from the violence of the slave plantation to the terror of lynchings to the routines of discourtesy and worse that are still a common experience for so many—retain their ability to appall and unsettle, to prompt flashes of indignation and moments of sorrow,” as stated by Kwame Anthony Appiah, a writer of The New York Times Book Review. “The result is a book that is at once beautifully written and painful to read.”

5. After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America by Jessica Goudeau is considered required reading for anyone looking to understand the United States in the Trump era, according to Mimi Swartz in The New York Times Book Review: “Goudeau understands the metaphorical power of a beloved courtyard where family gatherings will never occur again, and the fear inspired by the sideways glance of a newly minted government soldier who may or may not be a friend on any given day … Reading After the Last Border will make you wish that more Americans would take a critical look at themselves and ask whether we are who we want to be, or whether we have lost our allegiance to the dreams that still inspire so many to try to reach our shores.”

FICTION

6. Memorial by Bryan Washington, author of Lot, is “a new and nuanced rom-com, and what truly makes Memorial extraordinary—especially the final section—is Washington’s uncanny ability to capture the elusive essence of love on nearly every page… if there’s one book you should go out of your way to read in 2020, it should be this one,” as Alexis Burling from The San Francisco Chronicle said in her review.

7. The Weekend by Charlotte Wood is a work described as being “more Big Chill than Handmaid’s Tale, with a dash of Big Little Lies and an echo of Atwood’s The Robber Bride. Wood uses the classic theatrical set-up of a house party to concentrate tension in a tight space. If she were Agatha Christie this would lead to murder, but her characters’ emotional blow-ups are closer to those in David Williamson’s Don’s Party or Rachel Ward’s recent film Palm Beach… Behind the laughs there is deep humanity, intellect and spirituality, qualities that mark The Weekend as much more than old-chook lit … The Weekend is a novel about decluttering and real estate, about the geometry of friendship, about sexual politics, and about how we change, survive and ultimately die,” as said by The Guardian’s Susan Wyndham.8.

8. The Cold Millions by Jess Walter is “a tremendous work, a vivid, propulsive, historical novel with a politically explosive backdrop that reverberates through our own… Walter is a Spokane native, and he captures both the depth and breadth of this moment in his hometown’s history … gives us the grand tour, with a bounty of crime and intrigue and adventure anchored by an unforgettable ensemble cast … About half of the novel is narrated in the third person from Rye’s point of view, but Walter brings in a multitude of first-person voices to bring the world roaring to life,” according to Steph Cha, from USA Today.

Meat Symbolism in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

If you’re looking for a terrific and horrific read this Halloween season, look no further than Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. (Please Note: The Vegetarian is a psychological horror/thriller novel and may not be suited for all readers. The book depicts violence/sexual violence, mental illness, and abuse, so please be advised before reading). 

The Vegetarian is written in three parts with three narrators. Part one follows protagonist Yeong-he and is narrated by her husband, Mr. Cheong. As a psychological thriller, this novel focuses on the psychological trauma Yeong-he experiences, and the mental anguish of those around her.

Mr. Cheong isn’t the best husband: he opens the novel by saying his wife is average. His narrative tone is that of a superior partner in a relationship, and the way in which he speaks to his wife indicates mistreatment. 

We learn Yeong-he is undergoing a significant change. After waking up from a nightmare, she vows to never eat meat again. Meanwhile, Yeong-he’s personality is becoming muted. She turns socially withdrawn and quiet, as if she is experiencing depressive symptoms. 

Yeong-he’s repulsion toward meat could speak to a greater symbolic meaning: the repulsion toward her own husband. Psychoanalytic theorist and philosopher Julia Kristeva writes about this very topic of abjection, or the feeling of horror that causes the subconscious and unconscious mind to confuse the self with the other. Regarding food as an example, Kristeva writes: 

“‘I’ want none of that element, sign of their desire; ‘I’ do not want to listen, ‘I’ do not assimilate it, ‘I’ expel it. But since the food is not an ‘other’ for ‘me,’ who am only in their desire, I expel myself, I spit myself out, I abject myself within the same motion through which ‘I’ claim to establish myself.” 

When considering the text from a feminist lens, the symbolic implications of meat are hard to ignore.  From a physical standpoint, meat is flesh and body, and often contains blood. It’s a common trope in art for meat to represent masculinity.

Yeong-he’s disgust towards meat could be because she unconsciously likened it to something primal. Meat could be the threat she is misinterpreting to harm her own reality. Not eating meat goes against her husband’s wishes, and is an exercise in control. 

This reading would suggest Mr. Cheong and masculinity itself is Yeong-he’s real problem, not her unwillingness to eat meat. Ironically, Mr. Cheong becomes more domineering to try to combat this eating issue, and Yeong-he’s mental state only worsens. 

If you’re curious like to learn what happens to Yeong-he and want to curl up with a page-turning thriller,  I recommend The Vegetarian.

-Charleigh 

Literature of the Climate Crisis

We have eleven years to cut global emissions in half. Scientists warn that anything less could raise the global temperature over 1.5 °C and create massive droughts, floods, extreme heat, poverty, and environmental emigration.

2019 saw a huge shift in the public’s awareness of the climate crisis. We’ve curated a reading list for those who want to learn even more.

 

Nonfiction

This is Not a Drill (2019): A collection of essays written and collected by Extinction Rebellion members that will bring the urgency of the climate crisis into reality.

On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal (2019): A collection of award-winning environmental journalist Naomi Klein’s most poignant and inspiring articles on the climate crisis in the last decade.

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2019): In the midst of her exploration of the intersection of technology, memory, and humanity, Jenny Odell connects our tech-induced memory lapses to our lack of attention to our environment.

No One is Too Small to Make a Different (2019) : Greta Thunberg lit the world on fire with her passionate, scalding speeches on the urgency of the climate crisis. This collection documents some of her most inspiring words.

Daughter of Copper Woman: From creation myths to the bloody legacy of colonization, Anne Cameron documents the stories of indigenous women and the link between culture, feminism, and land.

 

Poetry

“The Peace of Wild Things” (2018): First published in Wendell Berry’s collection of the same name, you can read the entire poem here.

“Lullaby in Fracktown” (2016): First published in Poetry‘s January 2016 issue, you can read the entire poem here.  This poem was written by Lilace Mellin Guignard.

“Once the World Was Perfect” (2015): First published in Joy Harjo’s collection Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, you can read the entire poem here.

“Of Age” (2017): First published in the New Yorker, you can read the entire poem here. This poem was written by Amit Majmudar

“2 Degrees” (2015): First preformed at an United Nations Climate Change event, you can read the entire poem here. This poem was written by Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner.

 

Fiction

Oryx & Crake (2003): The first in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam trilogy, Oryx & Crake tells the story of a new species of people created specifically to survive the climate apocalypse.

The Lorax (1971): Dr. Seuss’s iconic and essential children’s story about the consequences of capitalism on the environment.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1996): Humans are barely surviving from the legacy of environmental destruction in this world crawling with giant insects, toxic air, and human greed.

The Road (2006): A father and child try to survive life on the road after a devastating apocalypse transforms the land around them.

Bone Clocks (2014): Author David Mitchell uses the landscape of a fantasy world to explore human nature and our relationship to the environment around us.

 

Feeling Uninspired? Here are Some Books That Can Help

Inspiration can come in a variety of different forms regardless of what genre you write in. With Nature Photography Day being on June 15th, I wanted to create a short list of some of the most beautiful books featuring nature photography. Viewing these splendid images could spark something inside you and help give you a new view on the world as well as create an engaging talking point in your everyday life.

Seeing Seeds by Teri Dunn Chace & Robert Llewellyn

Sometimes taking a closer look at things can help to change your option of them. In this dazzling book, there is more than just close up pictures of seeds, because every seed comes with a fascinating story. As the saying goes, “Great oaks from little acorns grow”, but this book shows there is much more to a seed then the plant it will someday become. With Llewellyn’s unique method of focus stacking, a technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances, every part of the picture is in sharp focus creating a depth of detail that rivals the best botanical illustrators. Within these stunning pages, you’ll gain an understanding of how seeds are formed and dispersed, why they look the way they do, and how they fit into the environment. Seeing Seedsis sure to take you to strange and wonderful places and when you return, it’s safe to say you will never look at a seed the same way again.

Overview by Benjamin Grant

Going from extreme close up to extreme overview can give you a greater understanding of the world as a whole. Have you ever looked out of your airplane window and marveled at the site of the land below you, viewing the grid of housing developments, roads, farms, and shipyards? With this stunning and unique collection of satellite images of Earth, this book offers an unexpected look at humanity. It showcases a marvelous view of the world by stitching together numerous high-resolution satellite photographs. The effect is a sensation that echoes the experiences that astronauts have when given the opportunity to look down on Earth. These breathtaking, high definition satellite photographs offer a new way to look at the landscape that we have shaped, with a mixture of more than 200 images of industry, agriculture, and nature. These photographs highlight the incredible natural patterns that the land creates as well as revealing a deeper story about the human impact on the world. This extraordinary photographic journey around our planet captures the sense of wonder gained from a new, aerial vantage point and creates a perspective of Earth as it has never been seen before.

Beaches by Stefano Passaquindici

As it is still summer you might not be able to head to the beach yourself, but that does not mean that you need to deprive yourself of the beautiful images and inspiration that beaches can bring you. With this beautifully illustrated volume, you have access to 100 of the most breathtaking beaches in the world all from your home. These beaches can be found on coastlines from around the world, from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the quaintness of Love Beach in the Bahamas. This book offers an exclusive tour of 100 of the most beautiful beaches in the world chosen by some of the world’s most qualified and sophisticated travel journalist and photographers and offers a unique perspective for travelers everywhere. This book could also be used as a wonderful piece of research should your work require useful maps and website references

Rarely Seen by National Geographic

Humans have always been fascinated by the awe-inspiring and in this book you can feast your eyes on the visual wonders that few will have the chance to see in person. This book features striking images of places, events, natural phenomena, and manmade heirlooms all shot by some of the world’s finest photographers. Everything is here in this masterpiece, a 30,000-year-old cave art sealed from the public; animals that are among the last of their species; volcanic lightning; giant crystals that have grown to more than 50 tons; the engraving inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch. “In the presence of so many breathtaking images, you’re sure to find something inspiring to write about.” So sit down in a comfortable chair and let your mind wander to all to the possibilities.

Dawn to Dark by National Geographic

Everyone knows that light makes photography possible and that by simply changing the lighting of an environment it can change the feelings that a photograph brings. In this remarkable book, the world’s best landscape photography and photojournalism depicts the stunningly beautiful passage of a single day, from dawn’s first light to the closing moments of sunset. Full of one-of-a-kind photographs, this collection gives readers a front-row seat to the wonders of the world as seen through the passing of a day.

We hope this little list helps you find that spark of inspiration you look for when the creative well feels empty. The photographs in these books can help give you a new perspective on the world through their expert use of lighting, angles, and distances. With this change of perspective, we hope that you find the ability to engage with the creative inspiration that is all around you and know that inspiration can come from the most unlikely of places.

Sink Your Eyes Into These Books!

As we enjoy the summer I wanted to take a moment to create a short list of summer reading material. For those that don’t usually read this could be a terrific goal to have this list completed by the end of July. For those that do read this could be seen as a list to broaden your horizons into a genre you don’t usually read. How many can you read? Which is your favorite?

 

Fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing

By Delia Owens

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

Celebrated for its inspiring tale and emotional prose Where the Crawdads Sing will bring tears to your eyes and a smile on your face.

Historic Fiction

Lost Roses

By Martha Hall Kelly

It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so often, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia: the church with the interior covered in jeweled mosaics, the Rembrandts at the tsar’s Winter Palace, the famous ballet.

But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia’s imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortune-teller’s daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya’s letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend.

A story of friendship and hardship this tale will have you questioning the limits your own relationships have and if you are willing to break them.

Romantic Fiction

Normal People

By Sally Rooney

At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He’s popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers—one they are determined to conceal.

A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

The classic tale of girl meets boy but with a societal class twist. A love story that is not quite a romance from two different perspectives. Will they be together? Will they drift apart? 

LGBTQ Fiction

Real Queer America:LGBT Stories From Red States

By Samantha Allen

Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she’s a senior Daily Beast reporter happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn’t changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called “flyover country” rather than moving to the liberal coasts.

In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: “Something gay every day.” Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.

Conservative communities and queer spaces? Samantha Allen challenges the vision that readers have for the Mid United States and their inner communities and completely changes the narrative and has readers begging for more. 

Science Fiction

Radicalized

By Cory Doctorw

Told through one of the most on-pulse genre voices of our generation, Radicalized is a timely collection consisting of four SF novellas connected by social, technological, and economic visions of today and what America could be in the near, near future.

Unauthorized Bread is a tale of immigration, the toxicity of economic and technological stratification, and the young and downtrodden fighting against all odds to survive and prosper.

In Model Minority, a Superman-like figure attempts to rectifiy the corruption of the police forces he long erroneously thought protected the defenseless…only to find his efforts adversely affecting their victims.

Radicalized is a story of a dark-web-enforced violent uprising against insurance companies told from the perspective of a man desperate to secure funding for an experimental drug that could cure his wife’s terminal cancer.

The fourth story, Masque of the Red Death, harkens back to Doctorow’s Walkaway, taking on issues of survival-ism versus community.

An anthology that likens to Black Mirror, these authors push the societal norms and forces us to question our morality and political views.

Fantasy

Black Leopard Red Wolf

By Marlon James

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: “He has a nose,” people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy’s scent–from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers–he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Armed with literary devices and African mythology Marlon James takes us on an adventure through new worlds and prose. A sharp contrast from the Greek Myths we have become used to Black Leopard Red Wolf is a refreshing tale you won’t want to put down.