5 Books That Deserved More Buzz This Year 

Thank you for pointing out "Don't Call Me Home." I recently read Patti Smith's memoir "Just Kids" and absolutely loved it so it seems like this book could be a great companion piece.

North Woods is getting plenty of attention in the States. It's been cited in the top 10 NY Times and Washington Post, and it's looking like a Pulitzer frontrunner. The New Life is glorious. Something that went under-the-radar this year but shouldn't have? The Pole by J.M. Coetzee. Loved, loved, loved it! Five stars.

North Woods is my favorite book this year. Incredible story telling by Daniel Mason, MD, who is also a Professor of clinical psychiatry at Stanford Medical School.

Great list! A few of these sound very interesting. Thanks for putting them higher on my radar. 😊💙

North Woods is on the TBR and I'm very jazzed about Don't Call Me Home. Happy Holidays!

I’m completely enthralled with the cover of Don’t Call Me Home! I will look out for the graphic novel. And again the UK cover is better with North Woods. Thank you for highlighting these, Eric. And great fresh haircut!😉👌🏻

Based on your recommendation earlier in the year, I read THE NEW LIFE, and I loved it! Thank you!

I’ve been telling everyone I can about The New Life. It was one of my first reads of the year and I think about all the time. I think it absolutely deserves more attention

Plantains and Our Becoming by Melania Luisa Marte is a poetry collection that came out this that completely flew under the radar but is excellent!

I would put Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano on that list - probably my favourite read this year. And also Falling Animals by Sheila Armstrong; it’s yet to be read but the cover alone is stunning and I’ve heard great things about it

I completely agree about The New Life! North Woods is in my personal Top Ten for 2023. Two I will add--both of which have received some attention but I think should have received more-- are *Wandering Souls* and *In Memorium*.

I have North Woods and Counting Crows sitting in my ever increasing pile of what to read. I’m getting ready to read Loot. It’s been up for some awards but haven’t heard too many people talk about it.

The New Life was in my top 5 books of the year - I was sure it would get a Booker nod. My top book of the year also got little love or attention: Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary - everyone I have foisted it on has loved it also though!

Another great video! Random question, hiw many books do you read per month on average? Or do you even keep count. I feel that if i tell myself that I am going to read "x" number of books a week/month, it tends to turn into work, rather than reading for pleasure.

The New Life won Orwell prize, it is a great novel.

I just watched the US book award show of a few weeks ago. My ignorance must be showing but I never heard of the book finalists as oppose to the Booker's books.

oh I just started north woods the other day. its like literary "room 104".......kinda....

North Woods is so good Eric - you have to read it.❤

I read The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason. It was wonderful.

Some of these sound intriguing. You likely have read "Thing of Beauty" The Tragedy of Supermodel Gia" by Stephen Fried. It's all about the New York scene in the 70's....very good book.

Not to be glib or snarky, is it valuable to have one's finger on the pulse of contemporary literature? Surely for me it is - with a hint of embarrassment - a case of been there and done that with little urge to go back to that way of life. Of course, when we were kids all of us would someday soon write the novel to set the NYT Review on fire (most of us finished at least one book though without creating much buzz) but perhaps having someone else's work fresh in the mind served to be more obstruction than inspiration? I don't know. As much as I wish to support writers already there is so much to read, and frankly it's getting harder not easier to find someone reading the same thing, in order to chat about it. Well, I'm in a nasty mood. Thanks for video - it was good.

I'm surprised Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald doesn't get more attention. It's so very special in so many ways. I also don't understand why a book by such a great, and well-known, author has not been published in the US. Does anybody know?

I don’t know if smug is how I feel to have read three of these. North Woods is appearing on lots of best books of the year lists so I’m a bit surprised it is on this list. And I felt like The New Life got a lot of attention when it was published at the beginning of the year. I will say that The Comfort of Crows is a gorgeous book and very beautifully written as well. I am giving it as a gift more than once and it will definitely be on my own best books of the year list.

Don’t Call Me Home was really quite excellent, especially the writing was exceptional from what I was expecting. I had just this past year read a few NYC complicated father/daughter memoirs, so this was a nice companion to them. (They’re not NYC based, but the Laura Dern mother daughter memoir was one of the biggest disappointments of the year, so this helped make up for it) I was obsessed with the Warhol scene in my late teens and early twenties and carried around the Edie Sedgwick biography as my Bible for much of that time. I did just reread Edie last month and it remains an exhilarating, incredible book and holds up quite well. I can also see/compare and correct issues with it now in conversation with Edie’s sister’s Edie/Andy biography that came out last year, which she adjusted the blame for Edie’s drug use and behavior off of Warhol that Stein leaned heavily in on in her book). Viva isn’t extensively quoted in that book, but interestingly enough she comes off as one of the more together people, and kinder and supportive, especially towards Edie. Which also leads me to want to read Viva’s book of that earlier era (thankfully my library does own it digitally and it’s not completely obscure). One of the best parts of the Alexandra book was her relationship with Cindy Sherman, another artist who I’ve remained obsessed with from the start, but is intensely private and I’ve known little about personally. This gave me so much insight into her, living a life more Martha Stewart then as a contemporary Warhol, and ending up being a grounding and stable force in Alexandra’s life, even to this day. I now really want a Gaby Hoffman memoir, an actress I regard highly and who’s work I appreciate. She seems like her writing could be quite sophisticated as well, but her relationship was very different with her mother, owing a lot to having Alexandra as a second (and better) mother figure and perhaps a greater sense of stability because of it. Also, how her more commercial child acting career success versus her sister’s shaped her differently. It still would have been a wild ride, but not as problematic as Shia Laboef’s or Jeanette McCurdy’s.

North Woods is in my top ten for the year. I also enjoyed A New Life. However experience has taught me that buzz does not necessarily mean a good book. Such is the power of marketing.

Wonderful video!! Check out the 2023 new release The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook, published by the great indie press Biblioasis, for a great explanation of why certain books go under the radar and why certain books are the ones you find on bookstore front tables (hint: capitalism and white supremacy play a big role). I have a review of Cook's book on my channel if you are interested!

I was disappointed that the new life doesn't delve deeply into the history and social oppression of queer people as much as I had hoped. It predominantly focuses on the physical aspects, which, while okay, feels a bit surface-level for me.