Seeing as I have been very into my reading era lately, I thought I would share a collective list of all the books I read last year to give y’all inspiration for your 2023 reading lists! I tend to stick to the realistic fiction genre (especially beachy romance novels) and nonfiction books about celebrities or true crime. However, I am ALWAYS looking for something new to read- so feel free to leave suggestions below!!
So I had actually been reading this for a Novel and Film class during the beginning of my senior year and had stopped reading for so long, until I finally picked it up at the beginning of last January. This was a fictional mystery story about a woman who goes missing and the whole book you develop your own speculations about who the murderer was, but the ending is shocking! Once I picked this book back up, it was impossible to put down.
So I had actually picked this book up at the airport on my way to Florida because I had finished The Girl On The Train during my flight. A typical Elin Hilderbrand novel set in Nantucket follows the story of a granddaughter who reconnects with her estranged grandmother after her mother passes away. This wasn’t my favorite of Hilderbrand’s novels, but it was a great, light, summery read.
The way I feel like my entire blog is centered around this novel. This is quite literally one of my favorite books of all time. American Wife follows the entire life story of a democratic woman who falls in love with a republican man who eventually becomes president. The story further follows their entire married life despite their disagreed beliefs. I absolutely love anything related to American politics and although this isn’t a true story, it’s based on Laura Bush’s life. Even if you don’t like politics, historical fiction, or any kind of fiction this is a book you NEED to read this year.
Of course, I had to follow up a more historical read with an Elin Hilderbrand novel. I love this book especially because I started it at the beginning of the summer. This book follows the story of a wedding to be held in Nantucket with special requests from the bride’s deceased mother left behind in a notebook of how the wedding should be. Of course, nothing goes as planned and each member of the family is dealing with their own personal issues throughout the period of time leading up to the wedding.
This nonfiction novel depicts the story of how Lyle and Erik Menendez carried out the murders of their own parents in 1989 in Beverly Hills. It’s absolutely unreal how this is a real story! The two brothers performed the perfect murder of the emotionally and physically abusive parents.
This film, which I recently watched with Jack last week, was remarkably well done compared to the novel. Christian Bale does a stellar job playing Patrick Bateman a wealthy wall street “yuppie” who by day is a fashionable (and he will talk about fashion in depth) business man and by night is a psychotic and sadistic killer who abuses his victims and severes their bodies and saves parts of them. This novel was truly vile and descript. I personally didn’t feel like it had much of a plot but just kept following the same pattern of Bateman going in depth about The Patty Winters Show, some 1980s musical artist, or what exquisite dinner he was eating, him luring women back to his place, and then him performing some kind of murder. However, after watching the film and seeing how closely it matched the book, I grew to have more respect for the book.
I absolutely LOVE Springsteen and cannot wait to see him in concert this March. Besides his music, I didn’t know much about his life before reading his autobiography. It blew me away seeing where he came from to where he is now. Another interesting aspect was seeing how he grew his band, lost members of his band, and furthermore the meaning behind more of his songs. See you in two months Bruce!!
Back to Elin Hilderbrand to finish off my summer 2022 reading! This was one of Hilderbrand’s novels that I adored! After her rich husband scammed many of his clients out of money and went to jail, Meredith loses almost everything and decides to live in hiding. Meredith eventually reconnects with her old best friend, Constance, with whom she returns to Nantucket to escape and begin a new life. I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s very full circle.
This nonfiction book takes you through the roller coaster and mysterious deaths of the Kennedy family and how they are all connected. It’s definitely a denser novel and even though it wasn’t very long, it took me a little while to get through reading. But, overall it was so interesting to delve more into the lives of the Kennedys.
This book wasn’t as good as American Wife, but it was still a very good read. It was a parody of Pride and Prejudice. The story describes the lives of five women who come from an affluent family, but are all yet to be married. This throws their mother in an absolute tizzy and makes her feel like she is a failure. It further follows the women in their individual journeys of love.
Wow. Just wow. This book was insane. Seriously, reading about true crime so close to home and so recent is so disturbing yet intriguing all at the same time. Prior to reading this book, I didn’t know really anything about The Mafia. So, just the descriptions of The Mafia and how it worked by killing people just because they knew too much blew my mind. Also, the way Whitey was constantly on the lam and would essentially tease officers or watch himself on a top wanted list scared me due to the fact this was real. If you’re into true crime or Mafia related books- I recommend this one for you!
This was a Devil Wears Prada novel and it did not fail to impress. Although slightly predictable, it was an enjoyable light read following three unlikely women who come together in the suburbs of Connecticut to take down a fake DUI incident.
This was my first ever Colleen Hoover book and I understand the hype. It was a fast paced, easy, yet hard to put down read. I realize that I read this before I read It Ends With Us, so I messed up a little bit but that’s okay. In order to prevent spoilers, I won’t say too much but I really did love this book. I’m a sucker for a good love story and this one was very cute and wholesome. But, now I am dying to read It Ends With Us, so I have it on my 2023 to read list!
After Chess calls off her wedding to her seemingly perfect husband she enters into a very depressive state. She quits her job and cuts off all her hair and goes on a retreat to Tuckernuck with her mom, sister, and her aunt, where they all bond and learn how to survive the tough waters of what they’re going through in their love lives. This was another amazing beach read by Hilderbrand. It was so hard to put down and I was so sad once I finished it because I wanted to read more and know more about what happened to the characters.
This wasn’t my favorite book. It was a short book, but it took me a while to get into it. Four young adults move into a hotel together their first summer after college in order to work on the island. The books alternates chapters between that summer and the current summer when they all return to the island years later with their kids. It was a wholesome book, but too predictable for me.
I hope y’all enjoyed my cumulative 2022 reading list! There’s definitely a lot of variety but an excellent list of great reads for your 2023 list! All of the books are linked to their Amazon page if you would like to order them and read them yourself. Wishing you all a safe and happy New Year filled with good books and better people!
Xoxo,
Hannahlane
Hannahlaneblogs 
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