What's on my stack: January 2023
Books being published in January 2023 I can't wait to read
Welcome to 2023! It’s a new year, and though everything doesn’t immediately start over on the first day of the year, I am looking forward to a fresh start more than ever this year. I’m hopeful for things to come and am wishing all the best things for you and your loved ones as well.
While December is a very quiet publishing month, January has hit the ground running! The first week of the year alone has proven to be flush with new books everywhere, and it’s not going to slow down for a while. Great news for us readers: more books!
Weekly book recommendations will always be free, but once a month, I send out roundup for paid subscribers of books being published that month that I’ve added to my TBR stack and am very excited about reading. There will be buy and preorder links (preorders are incredibly helpful for authors) for all books featured.
I’ll start the new year off by introducing my two most-anticipated books of the year!
The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh (out April 25): Sternbergh’s previous novel, The Blinds, is one of the most inventive and gripping books I’ve read in years, and I think about it constantly. It was even one of the first books I recommended on this newsletter—so if you haven’t picked it up yet, do it now! I’ve periodically searched the author’s name to see if he’s ever going to have a new book, and this year is the year! The Eden Test is about a struggling couple who attend a marriage retreat to try to save their relationship, but it’s not quite the retreat they were planning on. I’m bouncing on my heels at my door waiting for this to show up at my house and will be canceling all activities when it arrives so I can read it.
Goodbye Earl by Leesa Cross-Smith (out July 3): The list can go on forever for why I’m excited for this. I grew up listening to the Chicks and at age 8 could scream every word to this song outside the trailer at the lake in Kentucky I grew up going to while the bonfire crackled next to me. Plus Leesa Cross-Smith is from Kentucky and has frequented my hometown local bookshop many times promoting her other incredible books (like Half-Blown Rose). And on top of all that? Who doesn’t love a downright good and dirty revenge story?
Book news
This is so important that I wanted everyone to be able to read it: The HarperCollins Union has been on strike since November 10, 2022. Reading Under the Radar stands in solidarity with the union. The union is fighting for better pay, union protections, and follow-through on diversity promises. The union is asking for no boycotts to books since that hurts authors, but for as much awareness to be spread as possible and for little to no promotion of Harper titles. No weekly book recommendations in this newsletter will be from Harper Collins until the union receives a contract, though in an effort to not hurt authors, there will be a small list of titles only at the end of this newsletter for books I’m excited to read. If you would like to support the union, they are raising funds to pay the workers while they are on strike. I encourage you to learn about this strike, as it is a historic one in the publishing industry, and Harper Collins is revealing a lot about itself by refusing to come back to the bargaining table with the union.
And now for the January new releases I’m adding to my TBR immediately!