Black Cake and Small Things Like These

 

Sometimes I feel like I don't read enough contemporary fiction. I don't think that will be true for me in 2023.

I've started out the year reading four books of contemporary fiction, and I thought all of them were very good or excellent: Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet; We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman; and, this week, Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson and Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. 

All of these were books you, my fellow readers, recommended. Thank you!

I'd like to keep this streak going. So...what contemporary novels should I read next?

What I Read Last Week:

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

What I'm Reading Now:

Adam Bede by George Eliot (Chapter-a-Day Classic)

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (Classics Club)

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (Creativity Challenge)

The Wonderful World of Nils by Selma Lagerlöf (1001 Children's Books You Must Read)

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (Nonfiction: Memoir)

Great Short Books: A Year of Reading Briefly by Kenneth C. Davis (Nonfiction: Books-about-Books)

Mistress Masham's Repose by T. H. White (1001 Children's Books You Must Read)

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

The Sunday Salon: It Can't Happen Here; Dinosaurs; and Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder

Bookish Goals for 2023: Ten Challenges I'm Attempting in 2023

New Coffee Mugs

Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop : Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Had to share these...

I'm taking on a lot of challenges in 2023. But, why not? It's fun to give it a try, and if I don't succeed...well, oh well, there's always next year.

I have a page where I update these here, but this is how it's going so far...

 

Good Thing #1

We watched two movies this week.

We liked both of them,

even though they were very different.

Good Thing #2

I got a BookCrossing bookbox this week. 

Have you ever done that?

It's great fun to choose the books from the box you like,

and then replace them with an equivalent number of books.

This bookbox is the Around-the-World Bookbox.

Good Thing #3

The weather was nice here last week, and 

my husband and I were able to get out to do some naturalist work.

This is a Crested Caracara my husband saw at San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.