Claire Fuller Archives - Novel Visits

BEST BOOKS of 2023

Susie — Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:00:12 +0000

2023 has been a busy year! I think I tried to get in a lot of the traveling I missed over the last couple of years. I traveled to Greece and Turkey in the spring, then France and England in June. Both trips were wonderful and we had absolutely perfect weather, mid 70’s the whole time. Back in the U.S. there was a weeklong family reunion in Lake Tahoe and a trip to Washington D.C. this fall. Lots of other smaller trips, and of course I spent several weeks in beautiful Sunriver, Oregon. Phew! In 2024, I hope to get more traveling done, but maybe not quite as much. I was also lucky enough to spend a lot of time with my 5 grandkids who are growing up too fast!

As for books, I’ve heard people complain that this wasn’t a great year for books, but I disagree. I read so many books I loved, and some I didn’t, but truly appreciated what the authors were trying to achieve. I also read some clunkers and had a few I couldn’t finish. Right now I’m at 153 books and will likely get in a couple more before the 31st rolls around. Still, I’m confident no other books will be squeezing in on this list. I shared My Favorite Debuts of 2023 on Tuesday and if you want to see my Underrated Gems or Hyped Books, you can find those on Instagram. (Where you can follow me to get ALL my reviews.)

For my Best Books of 2023, I’m only including fiction for two reasons. First, I just don’t read that much nonfiction and what I do read is usually on audio. I’ll be covering my nonfiction audio favorites on a post next week on Instagram. (I’ll also cover my favorite fiction audiobooks.) Second, choosing the best was plenty hard without throwing nonfiction in there, too! Now on with 2023 books….

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Favorite Books of Summer 2023

Susie — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:00:23 +0000

It’s been a minute! Last time I posted was the end of June when I shared that month’s favorites. I fully intended to do the same with my July favorites, but things just got away from me. To be fair, I was in Tahoe at a long overdue family reunion from July 25th – 31st. I never even thought about it until four or five days into August. Oh well! It was a wonderful time. My family has been doing this Tahoe reunion every three years since my kids were little, but with COVID and all, it just hadn’t happened for too long. The wait was worth it!

Just because I wasn’t thinking about sharing great books, does not mean I wasn’t reading great books. It was so hard narrowing down my list that I just decided to include all the books I loved. (One of these I initially rated lower, but it’s stayed with me so much that I’m including it.) And, huge surprise, I have two nonfiction books in this list!

These books are shown in the order I read them. Most were published in July and August, but a few were earlier. They made for some wonderful summer reading and I’m sure you’ll see more than one on my Best Books of 2023. As always, you can follow me on Instagram @novelvisits, where I most often share books near their release date. (It may be the only place to see my reviews come 2024.)…

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2021 Underrated Gems

Susie — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 11:00:31 +0000

It’s that time of year. The year-end lists are going to start popping up all over the place and this blog is no exception. I’m kicking things off with 2021 Underrated Gems. These are books I loved this year, but that didn’t seem to get a whole lot of attention. It’s hard to know why that is sometimes, but it happens. For some reason these books just didn’t gain the traction they needed, so I’m hoping to give them a little boost since all six are books I’d highly recommend!

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Favorite Books from May and June

Susie — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 10:00:42 +0000

Happy first day of summer! It’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted here and I’m so sorry about that. I’d planned to post May books at the end of last month, but then my mother suddenly got sick and ended up in the hospital. My siblings and I flew in and were with her for a few days before she peacefully passed away. I had just been to see her two weeks before she died and though her dementia was progressing to a concerning point, we went out and did things, visited with relatives, etc. So, it was a shock to lose her from what was really a minor infection. We’re doing a celebration of life for her in July.

On a happier note, I decided to retire a little earlier than I had originally planned, so as this posts I am done! I made the decision so late in the year that it still doesn’t feel real, but I know it will come fall when I don’t head back to the classroom. I’m very excited and looking forward to the freedom, the ability to spend more time with my family, and to be able to travel in seasons other than summer.

And finally, I’ve been having my kitchen and bathroom remodeled over the last few months, so life has been insane!

Despite all that, I have still been getting some reading done, so I have eight favorite books to share today. The best part is I enjoyed them all very much! (For more timely reviews of all the books I’ve read, you can follow me on Instagram @novelvisits.)…

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Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller | Review

Susie — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 10:00:05 +0000

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller
Publisher: Tin House Books
Release Date: October 9, 2018
Length: 320 pages
Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

When Frances Jellico meets Cara and Peter at a rundown English estate, she finds friendship for the first time in her life, but that friendship quickly turns into something dark and dangerous.
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The Novels of Claire Fuller | Review

Susie — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 11:00:09 +0000

Swimming Lessons & Our Endless Numbered Days

Last fall I began to notice a lot of buzz around Claire Fuller’s upcoming book, Swimming Lessons. So many had loved her debut novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, and they were eager to read her second. I’d somehow missed Fuller’s debut, so decided to squeeze it in last month. Within just a couple of weeks I read both of Fuller’s novels and am reviewing them together today.

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