While I don’t set New Year’s Resolutions, I do like choosing a word to focus on for the year ahead, and this year, my word is “connection”. And what better way to start off the year, than by sharing about some of the connections I have found here.

In addition to meeting so many amazing fellow book lovers I have also had the opportunity to connect with authors. And living in a very small state, I have really enjoyed meeting local authors, including these four! All of these authors are ones I connected with during 2022, and wanted to get on your reading reader for 2023!

“In the 1990s American workplace, survival of the fittest is sometimes less about clawing your way to the top than developing good camouflage. And Audrey Rohmer is doing her very best to blend in as an undistinguished middle manager. Uninspired by her job and uneasy about her father’s new marriage, Audrey coasts through the work week leaning on her “partner in apathy”–an admin assistant named Pooter–to keep her relationship with the married head of her department from becoming water cooler gossip.

But when an old family-friend-turned-Hollywood-superstar crashes on her doorstep in the midst of a publicity crisis, Audrey’s under-the-radar status quo gets upended, and the writing may literally be on the bathroom wall that secrets will find a way out.

Equally acerbic and heartfelt, In Light of Recent Events is both an endlessly engaging piece of storytelling and a fascinating commentary on workplaces, families, and fame.”

Unstitched by Brett Ann Stanciu

“What if society looked at addiction without judgment?

Unstitched shares the powerful story of one librarian’s quest to understand the impact of addiction fed by stigma and inevitable secrecy.

The opioid epidemic has hit people in communities large and small and across all socioeconomic classes. What should each of us know about it and do about it?

Unstitched moves listeners from feelings of helplessness and blame into empathy, ultimately helping friends, family, and community members separate the disease of addiction from the person underneath.

A stranger, rumored to be a heroin addict, repeatedly breaks into the small-town library Brett Ann Stanciu runs. After she tries to get law enforcement to take meaningful action against him – elementary school children and young parents with babies frequent the place after all – he dies by suicide. When she realizes how little she knows about opioid misuse, she sets out on a mission, seeking insight from others, such as people in recovery, treatment providers, the town police chief, and Vermont’s US attorney.

Stanciu’s journey leads to compassionate generosity, renewed faith, and ultimately a measure of personal redemption as she realizes she has a role to play in helping the people of her community stitch themselves back together.”

The Treehouse on Dog River Road by Catherine Drake

“A young, determined woman figures out life and love while staying true to herself in this whip-smart and genuinely witty debut.

Twenty-eight-year-old Hannah Spencer wants nothing more than to change everything about her life. After 10 years of living in cities, Nathan Wild has just moved back home to Vermont and doesn’t want to change anything about his.

Recently laid off from her depressing job in Boston and ready for a challenge, Hannah heads to Vermont for the summer to take care of her sister’s kids and do some serious soul-searching. There, against the stunning landscape of the Green Mountains, she embarks on an ambitious project: building a treehouse for her niece and nephew. As she hammers away, she formulates a plan to jump-start her life with a new job out West. But, will Nathan-next-door complicate her desire to change course?

A witty, romantic, and inspiring story of a young woman taking control and making tough choices about love and work to build the life she wants, The Treehouse on Dog River Road will have you rooting for Hannah every step of the way.”

“Tangled influences compel a young girl to hide her true nature until one weekend in her mid-20s when the truths she’s been suppressing call her to a crossroads she can’t avoid.
 
Insulated from societal mores by her glamorous mother and humble father, six-year-old Beatrice-barefoot in ratty overalls-tunes into animals, senses the unspoken, and thrives. But when tragedy penetrates their rural Vermont bubble, Beatrice is thrust into a world that tells her she has no place unless she hides her depth, pretties up, and falls in line. She complies.
 
Years later in San Francisco, incongruities in Beatrice’s life abound. What’s real is hidden. What’s false is celebrated. She numbs and sidesteps and, despite inner warnings, artfully outruns thoughts of her family, the girl she once was, and the woman she pretends to be. But when a cascade of events steers her back to her childhood home, a discovery in a rundown barn quiets her. In the still point, she sees her crossroads: should she carry on the known path or step into uncertainty? Her future rests on her interpretation of change. Anxiety and loss. Or hope and renewal. She must decide who she is.
 
In beautiful, spare prose, The Wisdom of Winter explores the tenacity of misbeliefs, the magic in forgiveness, and the artistry of the natural world in healing the past.”

Do you have a word of the year for 2023? And do you have any authors that are local to you? Any that you have learned about on social media? I would love to hear over in the comments section of my @genthebookworm Instagram page.