2 . Find the most anticipated books of 2023 to pre-order now

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Soon to be a Hulu series, Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake is about two estranged (疏远的) brothers who reunite when their mother passes away. While facing their mom’s past, they must I earn how to put aside their differences to honor their mother’s wishes.

Available: February 1, 2023

$24.84

What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris

Kai Harris’s What the Fireflies Knew is a coming-of-age novel told from the view of an 11-year-old who, along with her sister, goes to live with her estranged grandfather after the death of her father and disappearance of her mother.

Available: February 1, 2023

$23.92

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

Following the publication of her bestselling book. In Five Years, Rebecca Serle returns with One Italian Summer, When Katy’s mother dies before their special mother daughter trip to Positano, she goes on the trip alone. One day, her mom magically appears as a 30-year-old and she gets to know her as a young woman before she became her mother.

Available：March 1, 2023

$24.84

Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith

Maggie Smith’s first novel, Truth and Other Lies, is about a young former reporter who disagrees with her politically conservative mother who’s running for Congress. After the former reporter lands an opportunity to work for a journalist on her public relation team, a scandal(丑闻) threatens her work, family and relationships.

Available: March 8, 2023

$16.98

4 . Reading is a key to developing wisdom that guide s you through challenging life decisions, and enhances your creative abilities. It holds importance for children. To make reading enjoyable for your young ones, you might need to set off their interest in it. Today’s post is for you if you want to assist your children in developing the life-changing practice of reading.     1    .

Boosting the Cognitive Activity

Reading aloud to youngsters or encouraging them to develop the habit helps understand what they see, read, or hear.     2    . They are more perceptive (有洞察力的) and have more complicated cognitive capacities.

Improved Focusing and Learning Abilities

It is not surprising that children have a limited attention time and quickly switch between tasks. You can eventually beat greater discipline and attentiveness into your children’s head by scheduling a set reading activity each day.     3    , within a couple of days they will speed up their pa ce and actively participate in these activities and develop newer competencies.

Proficiency in Language and Literature

When children begin reading, they discover words and sentences that greatly expand their vocabulary.     4    , it improves their ability to interact socially and talk efficiently.

    5    . We hope the advice and suggestions in this article will help you spread in your kids the virtuous practice of reading and raise awareness of the world surrounding them. Knowing the value of reading to children, you may assist them develop abilities that will make them smarter.

5 . The Best Books Chosen by Dan Chaon

Dan Chaon is a famous author. Below are four new books recommended by him.

French Braid by Anne Tyler

This has already been a good year for books,with new work from greats like Jennifer Egan, Jean Thompson, and Marlon James. But I was particularly excited to see a new book from Anne Tyler, whose work I’ve loved since I read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant in college. Tyler now 80. puts together the lives of a Baltimore family over decades, and h insights are as sharp, funny, and moving as ever.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

I love the fearlessness and insistent humanity of Mandel’s work. Her new book — a kind of companion to her 2014 best-seller, Station Eleven — is an ambitious, time-travelling puzzle box about the ways in which we humans are always living at the end of the world.

Now Do You Know Where You Are by Dana Levin

Levin is one of my favourite modern poets, and her new book is one of her best-a complex description of what it’s like to live in modern America, which I feel I will be learning from for years to come.

Ghosts Caught on Film by Barrett Bowlin

This collection of stories, the author’s first book, blew me away with its strange vision of anxious and tormented (折磨的) characters caught up in surreal situations, tightrope-walking a perfect line between horror and heartbreak: not unlike 2022 itself.

6 . As COVID-19 restrictions come to an end, foreign visitors have been returning to Paris. Outdoor booksellers called “bouquinistes” have now made their _________ to the neighborhood near the city’s famous Seine River. Many thought the pandemic would _________ their businesses and the tradition of selling by the river, which _________ over 500 years.

Rachid Boianouand is a(n) _________ sailor and fishing boat mechanic. He is now a bookseller. He opened his large green wooden _________ of used books and placed it on a wall _________ the river in the heart of Paris. He sells second-hand books to _________ as they pass by. He smiled as he said “I always love beautiful books, and I think why not share this _________ and share the books and authors I love with other people.”

The city council(委员会) recently _________ Boianouand and 17 other new river side booksellers. This brings the __________ number of booksellers along the river to 230. The booksellers’ riverside spots are __________ sought-after. The Paris city council __________ the spots to be used for five years. The booksellers don’t __________ rent, but they must stay open __________ four days a week. In normal times, __________ summers help with the slower sales of the winter months.

Jan and Maria - Aida Vandemoortele are visitors from Belgium(比利时). They enjoyed ____________ the old books and newspapers for sale. 68-year-old Jan said, “It’s only in Paris that you get to these __________ with wonderful books.”

The Seine book business is not only for tourists, __________, Parisians also love to walk along the river and visit the book sellers’ offerings. Kubilai Iksel, a 27-year-old Parisian, said, “It’s very __________ that new sellers have arrived, and it’s __________ that the Seine book business isn’t going to disappear. It’s one of the most wonderful things about Paris.”

7 . Best Books for You

Lessons in Chemistry     By Bonnie Garmus     $29

Elizabeth Zott is a brilliant scientist trying to make it in a man’s world in the 1960s. Out of a job when she gets pregnant, she uses her talent for chemistry to land herself in the unlikeliest of places — as the beloved host of Supper at Six, an unusual cooking show with a distinctly feminist point of view. Full of historical details and attractive characters, you’ll cheer on Zott and her unique show sign-off: “Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself.”

The Maid     By Nita Prose     $27

This novel about a hotel maid who discovers a dead guest cuts across the thriller and mystery types with a bit of comedy. The building tension will keep you turning the pages, but above all, it’s hard not to be instantly invested in the strange main character; most readers will find her oddities (古怪) relatable in some form.

Less Is Lost     By Andrew Sean Greer     $31

Arthur Less is the average guy that everyone can root for. Following him on his journeys as he finds love is both calming and reassuring. A wonderful tale about living a fulfilling life without huge fireworks moments. Perfect for anyone who wants to believe an ordinary life can be extraordinary.

Editor, National News     By Janice Hallett     $27

An extraordinary debut (处女作), this crime novel immediately stands out due to its bold style — in the form of emails and letters. Sited in rural UK with an amateur dramatics society at its center, and pretty much everyone up to no good, it interests readers from the first page.

A recently released     1    (nation) survey on reading among Chinese people,     2     was conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication (CAPP), has shown     3     steady rise in reading as a habit in the country.

Over 1.48 million     4    (sample) were collected for the survey from 165 cities nationwide, carried out via the forms of online and telephone surveys.

An average adult would spend 23.13 minutes on average per day     5    (read) printed books in 2022 the survey showed.

Moreover, listening to audiobooks was another rising habit among Chinese readers,     6     35.5 percent of adults saying they were used to listening     7    (main) to audiobooks.

Public reading services continued to meet the needs of Chinese readers, as 78.2 percent of the people     8    (survey) were satisfied with the services of public libraries, and 72.5 percent were pleased with their experience at community or self-service libraries.

“In Hangzhou, for instance, reading venues, including public libraries, self-service libraries and rural reading rooms,     9    (cover) the whole city in the past several years,” said Mayor of Hangzhou Yao Gaoyuan on Sunday.

Reading on mobile phones also remained a habit among Chinese readers. According to the survey, 77.8 percent read on their phones last year, 0.4 percent     10    (high) than in 2021.

10 . I was trained as a gymnast in Hunan, China, in the 1970s. The government wanted to transfer (转学) me to a school for athletes while my parents wanted me to become an engineer, because they firmly believed there was only one sure way to happiness: a safe and well-paid job. But my dream was to become a Chinese opera singer. Although I tried everything I could to go to opera school, I knew I was too old to be trained and my dream would never come true.

But that’s so unfair. So I was determined to find another calling — books. I satisfied my hunger for parental advice from the Fu Lei’s Family Letters by Fu Lei and Zhu Meifu, found my role model of an independent woman from Jane Eyre, learned to be efficient from Cheaper by the Dozen, and inspired myself to study abroad after reading Complete Works of Sanmao and Lessons from History.

I came to the U. S. in 1995 where I started comparative reading. Comparing and contrasting give scholars a more complete understanding of a topic. So I thought, well, if comparative reading works for research, why not do it in daily life too? So I started reading books in pairs. They can be about people who are involved in the same event — Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson and John Adams by David McCullough, for example, or friends with shared experiences. I also compare the same stories in different genres or similar stories from different cultures, as Joseph Campbell did in his wonderful book The Power of Myth.

Books have given me a magic portal (入口) to connect with people of the past and the present. I have come to believe that coming true is not the only purpose of a dream. Its most important purpose is to get us in touch with where dreams come from, where passion comes from and where happiness comes from. Even a shattered (遭受极大打击的) dream can do that for you. So may books be always with you.