Buzz Worthy Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2023

This calendar year has been superb for new book releases so far, and it will only get better! This list is a combination of publications from Vulture, Vogue, The Millions, GMA, Washington Post, LitHub, and more. These titles are getting a lot of buzz in a wide variety of literary and reader circles so don't miss out and give one, or a few of these titles a little of your time.

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Ada's Room A Novel.

Ada's Room A Novel.

Otoo, Sharon Dodua.
2023

A woman in 15th century West Africa named Ada buries her child and confronts a Portuguese enslaver. A woman in Victorian England named Ada Lovelace, a mathematical genius and computer programming pioneer, tries to hide her affair with Charles Dickens from her husband. A woman named Ada, imprisoned in a concentration camp at Mittelbau-Dora in 1945, will survive one more day in enforced prostitution. Connected by an unknown but sentient spirit, and a bracelet of fertility beads that each Ada encounters at a pivotal moment in her life, these women share a name and a purpose. Print run 30,000.

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At sea

At sea

Fedor, Emma, author
2022

When they first met, Cara was struck by the power of Brendan's conviction, by his unstoppable charisma, and by the evidence before her, believes everything about him. A few years into their marriage, Brendan and their baby vanish, leaving her desolate and alone and questioning everything she once thought was true. Five years later, a local fisherman announces he's spotted two people - one of them a small child in Nantucket Sound. As she fights to untangle delusion from reality, and revisits a past she's worked hard to reconcile, Cara is determined to learn the truth about her lost love and finally find her son.

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Bad Cree : a novel = ācimoiᐧn

Bad Cree : a novel = ācimoiᐧn

Johns, Jessica, author
2023

Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.

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Brutes : a novel

Brutes : a novel

Tate, Dizz, author
2023

A group of teenage girls discover a dark secret about their fame-hungry Florida town that will haunt them for the rest of their lives when their friend, the local preacher's daughter, Sammy, goes missing.

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Camp Zero A Novel.

Camp Zero A Novel.

Sterling, Michelle Min.
2023

America, 2049: summer temperatures are intolerably high and humans are implanted with a "Flick" at birth, which allows them to remain perpetually online. When a high-profile client offers Rose a job to secretly monitor the mercurial architect in charge - in return for a home for her displaced mother and herself - she accepts it. Rose quickly secures the trust of her target; but in the north, she begins to sense a new way forward, and her objective shifts. Through skillfully entwined perspectives, the fate of the Camp and its select inhabitants comes into stunning relief. Hometown: Victoria, B.C.

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Carmen and Grace A Novel.

Carmen and Grace A Novel.

Aquino, Melissa Coss.
2023

An emotionally riveting coming-of-age drama about two cousins lured into the underground drug trade at a young age and the inextricable ties that bind them, as one woman seeks power and the other seeks a way out. As tough and tender as its main characters, "Carmen and Grace" is a moving meditation on the choices of women and the legacy of violence, it's a devastatingly wise and intimate story about the bonds of female friendship, ambition, and found family. Print run 75,000.

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A country you can leave : a novel

A country you can leave : a novel

Angel-Ajani, Asale, author.
2023

"An enthralling story of humanity and survival on the fringes in modern-day America, featuring an eccentric mother and her perceptive daughter-characters so piercingly real they are impossible to forget. When sixteen-year-old Lara and her fiery mother, Yevgenia, find themselves homeless again, the misnamed "Oasis Mobile Estates" in the Californian desert is all they can afford. In this new community where residents are down on their luck but rich in humour and escape plans, Lara navigates what it means to be the Black daughter of a Russian mother and begins to wonder what a life beyond Yevgenia's orbit-her insistence on reading only the right kind of books (Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky) and having the right kind of relationships (casual, with lots of sex)-might look like. Lara knows that something else lies beneath her mother's fierce, independent spirit, but Yevgenia doesn't believe in sharing, least of all with her daughter. When a brutal attack exposes the cracks in their relationship, Lara and Yevgenia are forced to confront the family legacy of violence and the strain of inherited trauma on the bonds of their love. A Country You Can Leave is a dazzling, sharp-witted coming-of-age story, suffused with yearning, as Lara and Yevgenia attempt to forge their own identities and thrive in a hostile land. Compelling and empathetic, wry and intimate, Asale Angel-Ajani's unforgettable debut novel examines the beauty and dangers of womanhood in multiracial America."-- Provided by publisher.

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Evil Eye A Novel.

Evil Eye A Novel.

Rum, Etaf.
2023

Raised in a conservative and emotionally volatile Palestinian family in Brooklyn, Yara thought she would finally feel free when she married a charming entrepreneur. With her family balanced with her professional ambitions, why doesn't it feel like enough? Shaken to the core by these indictments of her life, Yara finds her carefully constructed world beginning to implode. To save herself, Yara must reckon with the reality that the difficulties of the childhood she thought she left behind have very real - and damaging - implications. Author of "A Woman Is No Man." Print run 150,000.

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Flux A Novel.

Flux A Novel.

Chong, Jinwoo.
2023

Four days before Christmas, 8-year-old Bo loses his mother in a tragic accident, 28-year-old Brandon loses his job after a hostile takeover of his big-media employer, and 48-year-old Blue, a key witness in a criminal trial against an infamous now-defunct tech startup, struggles to reconnect with his family. A blend of neo-noir and speculative fiction as the lives of Bo, Brandon, and Blue begin to intersect, uncovering a vast network of secrets and an experimental technology that threatens to upend life itself. Print run 50,000.

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Ghost music : a novel

Ghost music : a novel

Yu, An, 1992- author
2022

From the author of the "original and electric" Braised Pork (Time), An Yu's enchanting and contemplative novel of music and mushrooms follows a former concert pianist searching for the truth about a vanished musician. For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. She gave up on her own career as a concert pianist many years ago, but her husband Bowen, an executive at a car company, has long rebuffed her pleas to have a child. He resists even when his mother arrives from the southwestern Chinese region of Yunnan and begins her own campaign for a grandchild. As tension in the household rises, it becomes harder for Song Yan to keep her usual placid demeanor, especially since she is troubled by dreams of a doorless room she can't escape, populated only by a strange orange mushroom. When a parcel of mushrooms native to her mother-in-law's province is delivered seemingly by mistake, Song Yan sees an opportunity to bond with her, and as the packages continue to arrive every week, the women stir-fry and grill the mushrooms, adding them to soups and noodles. When a letter arrives in the mail from the sender of the mushrooms, Song Yan's world begins to tilt further into the surreal. Summoned to an uncanny, seemingly ageless house hidden in a hutong that sits in the middle of the congested city, she finds Bai Yu, a once world-famous pianist who disappeared ten years ago. A gorgeous and atmospheric novel of art and expression, grief and survival, memory and self-discovery, Ghost Music animates contemporary Beijing through the eyes of a lonely yet hopeful young woman and gives vivid color and texture to the promise of new beginnings

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Hello beautiful : a novel

Hello beautiful : a novel

Napolitano, Ann, author
2023

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. Then he meets Julia Padavano. With Julia comes her family. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia's new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household. But then darkness from William's past surfaces, it jeopardizes Julia's carefully orchestrated plans for their future. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Author of "Dear Edward."

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A History of Burning A Novel.

A History of Burning A Novel.

Oza, Janika.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labour on the East African Railway for the British. One day, he makes a desperate choice to ensure his survival that will shadow his family's future for decades to come. As Pirbhai's grandchildren find their way back to each other in exile in Toronto, news arrives that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, in order to secure their own place in the world. Residence: Toronto, ON. Print run 25,000.

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A Manual for How to Love Us Stories.

A Manual for How to Love Us Stories.

Slaughter, Erin.
2023

Print run 20,000.

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A thousand miles to Graceland : a novel

A thousand miles to Graceland : a novel

Chase, Kristen M., author.
2023

"Accountant Grace Johnson can't escape the feeling that her life is on autopilot-until her husband announces he's done with their marriage. Grace has a choice: wallow in humiliation... or grant her mother's seventieth birthday wish with a road trip Graceland. Buckle up, Elvis. We're on our way. Now outlandish mother and reluctant daughter are hightailing it from El Paso to Memphis, leaving a trail of sequins, false eyelashes, and painful memories in their wake. Between spontaneous roadside stops to psychics, wig mishaps, and familiar passive-aggressive zingers, Grace is starting to better understand her Elvis-obsessed mama and their own fragile connection. Apparently the King really does work in mysterious ways. But after all these years, will it ever be possible for them to heal the hurts of the past?"-- Provided by publisher.

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