The hottest and most coveted literary award right next to The Pulitzer Prize. The second half of this year brought a succession of books that I really enjoyed and made choosing my top three almost impossible (but if I'm honest, it's always difficult for me to choose). This year's reads further solidified that my favorite genre is historical fiction, but fiction based in more current times also grabbed my attention. My top three picks consist of a part-fantasy novel and a few

Pages: 302 📖 Year Published: 2021 🗓️ Days to Complete: 11 🕰️ Author: Colgan must be one of those authors who never stops writing given the number of books she's published plus books written under her pseudonyms, Jane Beaton and J. T. Colgan. She was born in Scotland and attended the University of Edinburgh. After college, she worked in health services and married her husband, Andrew Beaton. Together, they have three children and split their time between France and London (

Pages: 530 📖 Year Published: 2014 🗓️ Days to Complete: 15 🕰️ Author: Anthony Doerr was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and has a list of impressive education including Bowdoin College in Main where he earned a degree in history. He spent 10 years writing this book which received many awards, but had previously published his first novel, a memoir, and many short stories. He published his third novel, Cloud Cuckoo Land , also somewhat based in history, in 2021. He current

Pages: 668 📖 Year Published: 2005 🕰️ Days to Complete: 25 Author: Elizabeth Kostova was born in Connecticut and raised in Tennessee. She is well-educated having earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University and master's degree of fine arts from the University of Michigan. Her interest in Bulgarian culture started as a child and she remains an activist for Bulgarian writers. She co-founded the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation to benefit Bulgarian writers and to assist Eng

Pages: 280 📖 Year Published: 1996 🕰️ Days to Complete: 17 Author: Frances Mayes was born and raised in the American south and teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University where she also earned her masters degree. She is most-known for this book but has several novels and other books about her adventures in Italy and travels around the world. She divides her time between North Carolina and Cortona, Italy and has one daughter. Three words to describe this read: