By Mark Johnson, Library Committee, HV Resident
The Library at Homestead Village is managed by a wonderful group of resident volunteers. These volunteers are committed to keeping the library fresh with new books that are sure to entice even the most discerning reader. What books were the best of 2023? Of course, any such list is highly subjective, no more for the professional critics than for you and me.
After some of the major lists were published late last year, I researched which of those books had made it into our little library. Curiously, one that did was a top-10 choice by The New York Times and a top-24 pick by The New Yorker yet failed to crack The Washington Post’s top 100. In fact, from what I could tell, The Post never even reviewed the book.
Subjective, indeed.
With that in mind, here are the books on our shelves that made at least one of the following lists: Time’s top 100, The New Yorker’s top 24, The NYT’s top 10 and top 100, and The WaPo’s top 10 and top 100 (50 fiction, 50 nonfiction). All are fiction unless otherwise noted:
The Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor (WaPo top 50 fiction).
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Time 100, NYT 100).
The Deluge by Stephen Markley (NYT 100).
The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen (Time 100).
The Guest by Emma Cline (Time 100, WaPo 50 fiction, New Yorker 24).
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Time 100, NYT 100, WaPo 50 fiction).
Holly by Stephen King (NYT 100).
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (Time 100, WaPo 50 fiction).
Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo (nonfiction; Time 100, NYT 10, New Yorker 24).
Pageboy by Elliot Page (nonfiction; Time 100, NYT 100, WaPo 50 nonfiction).
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (Time 100, NYT 100).
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (WaPo 50 fiction).
Spare by Prince Harry (memoir; Time 100, WaPo 50 nonfiction).
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (Time 100, NYT 100, WaPo 50 fiction).
The Wager by David Grann (nonfiction; Time 100, NYT 100, WaPo 50 nonfiction).
What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman (nonfiction; NYT 100).
LIBRARY ADDITIONS
Our total for new books in 2023 was just shy of 300, with donations far outnumbering purchases. Of the 32 volumes added in November, all but one were gifts from Homestead residents. Folks, it would be more correct to say that the library is served by you rather than for you. Thanks to everyone who donated a book last year. (Please keep in mind that we only want books in good condition that were copyrighted no more than five years ago, except for classic literature.)
Mysteries made up half of the November additions, highlighted by works by some of the genre’s best-selling authors. Michael Connelly (with whom I worked at the campus newspaper at the University of Florida, for what it’s worth) is part of that list with a large-print edition of his 2023 book “The Crossing.” He’s joined by Clive Cussler (“Final Option,” 2019), Jonathan Kellerman (“Heartbreak Hotel,” 2017, large print) and, yet again, James Patterson (“Countdown,” 2023, large print, and “The Shadow,” 2021, paperback).
Other new novels included “The Passenger” (2022), one of the final works by the late Cormac McCarthy; “Dreamland” (2022) by Nicholas Sparks; and the literary classic “My Antonia” by Willa Cather.
In the nonfiction category, this title jumped out: “My Friend Anna: The True Story of the Fake Heiress Who Conned Me and Half of New York City” by Rachel DeLoache Williams. That would be Anna Delvey, a Russian born grifter who before her 2017 arrest and subsequent conviction had milked her marks for some $275,000 – including $62,000 from the author. At least Williams was able to get a book out of an otherwise lousy deal.
Mystery lovers (of which there are no shortage at Homestead Village) should be delighted with the slew of books that were donated to start 2024.
For starters, how about a new John Grisham thriller featuring the return of Mitch McDeere, the hero of Grisham’s 1991 best-seller “The Firm”? In “The Exchange,” McDeere finds himself embroiled in an international crisis as he tries to deliver a young associate at his high-powered law firm from Libyan terrorists.
If you’re looking for something on the lighter side, “Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village” by Maureen Johnson offers tongue-in-cheek advice with the help of illustrations by Jay Cooper. And if you enjoy the Thursday Murder Club series, you may want to try Nina Simon’s “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” about a three-generational lrio of amateur sleuths in California.
Mixing mystery with science fiction, “The Ferryman” by Justin Cronin takes place in a mysterious island paradise where the title character discovers dark forces at work and comes to question everything he thought he knew.
One other recent arrival worth mentioning: “North Woods” by Daniel Mason, a New York Times top-10 pick for 2023, tells the stories of the occupants of a New England house over three centuries.
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