I have an award for the funniest book of the year, but funny isn’t the only reaction. Sometimes you just want to be hit in the feels. Here are my nominees for the most emotional book of the year:
- Parallel Lines – Ruth Marks Egash
- The Orphan Keeper – Cameron Wright
- The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
- Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love – Rebecca Frankel
- The Hiding Place – Corrie Ten Bloom
Parallel Lines – Ruth Marks Egash
A powerful and timely story written by a reporter that has spent a decade in the heart of Jerusalem where the conflict is boiling. It tells the story of 3 different teenage girls, one a muslim, one a traditional jew, and one a more modern jew, and how they are trying to navigate the battles between the three. It touches on a wide arrange of topics, including violence, terrorism, traditional, sexual assault, independence, feminism, and a slew of other. I will say, the day to day teenager problems were not as well fleshed out and captivating as the speaking-from-experience viewpoint in Israel, but I was reading this book when the war broke out in Israel, and it had an impact on how I looked at and considered both sides of the conflict. You can’t ask for more from a book. If it does win my most emotional, it was probably the most important book to me in 2023.
The Orphan Keeper – Cameron Wright
Wow, this story grabbed and captivated me the whole way through. A poor boy is kidnapped in India and sold by the orphanage that captured him to an adoptive family in the United States. As he grows, he has to come to grips and learn to navigate the experiences from both worlds. I just remember having such visceral reactions while reading. Whether the sewer scene (you’ll know it when you read it) or the emotional beats of the main characters, this book brought out the whole spectrum of emotions. Highly Recommend.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
I am a total sucker for the world of the Hunger Games. If you were not a fan of the original story, you probably like this prequel either. But, if you are like me and could not get enough and are curious about the history of Coriolanus Snow and how he became who he is, I think you will enjoy this. I was completely there for the ride and could not put it down as we see what impact our choices have on who we become. Also, am I the only one that loves that Suzanne Collins puts songs into her books? Compelling, heart-breaking, heart-racing, and captivating, this one stuck with me long after reading the final chapter.
Into the Forest: A Holocaust Story of Survival, Triumph, and Love – Rebecca Frankel
I was on a World War 2 book binge at the end of the year, so to stand out among the group meant that it had to be special. Into the Forest was special. In an incredible TRUE tale where fact is better than fiction, Into the Forest is written in a narrative format based on the life story of a Jewish family trying to escape the holocaust by living two years in the woods. In many titles of the genre, the stories try to focus on the pain and devastation of one of the low points of human history, and up the ante by trying to be more brutal than the ones that came before it, but this actual account was more hopeful and demonstrated how people find faith and heroism not despite what they go through, but because of it. As a bonus, the audiobook includes some actual interviews from the author with Miriam Robinowitz, the heroin of the story.
The Hiding Place – Corrie Ten Bloom
From a little known WWII novel to one of the classics, this one is well known for a reason, as a group of people that would have probably been safe and fine otherwise risk everything to hide runaway jews in their attic. Filled with constant tension and heartbreak, and ALSO a true story and first hand account, The Hiding Place is one of the grandaddies of the genre and is required reading if this is a genre you are interested in.
