Yearly Recap for 2023

2023 was a weird year for reading for me. I didn't actually read almost any books--I listened to almost everything on audio this year. And obviously, one major change was that I didn't keep track of my reading here on this blog, for the first time in a decade. I just don't have the time or energy for this any more. But I do still track my reading on Goodreads, and I'm writing down the titles I read in a notebook to keep track. 

Since I didn't read a lot of hard copy books, I read only 91 books this year--still a lot of books, but not a lot compared to the 150 I read a few years in the past. But I still read some really great things this year that I loved. This was a year of listening to a lot of Greek mythology, and I really loved it, so I chose my favorites from that genre this year too. 

Favorite Fiction: Maame by Jessica George, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakroborty, Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal, Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

Favorite Nonfiction: Die with Zero by Bill Perkins, The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter, Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Favorite Greek Mythology: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, Mythos by Stephen Fry

Favorite Mysteries: The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey, The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Favorite Romance: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

Best of the Best for the Year: The Change by Kirsten Miller

Yearly Recap for 2022

I did some good reading this year. The first third of the year wasn't as great with my morning sickness and general exhaustion, but I made up for it and still read somewhere around 120 books. Quite a lot of them were audiobooks and a huge chunk of the rest were ebooks. I read the fewest hard copy books that I have ever read this year. I'm not sure why that is or what has changed, but I sure hope that's not a lasting, forever change in my reading habits. 

Best of the year: Cloud Cuckoo Land

Best Fiction: Anxious People, The Remains of the Day, The Scholomance trilogy

Best Nonfiction: Empire of Pain, Hunt, Gather, Parent, Four Thousand Weeks

Best Mystery: A World of Curiosities, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, The Bullet that Missed

Best Middle Grade: The Last Cuentista, The Hero and the Crown

Best Romance: Book Lovers, Nora Goes Off Script, Thank You for Listening, The Bodyguard

Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most by Cassie Holmes

I really loved this time management book as well. I thought she gave some really good, scientifically based information. Everything she talked about was based in social science studies, most of which she conducted herself, and about what makes people happier. Very well done. Shocker: it's about relationships and not about getting stuff done. 

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow

I really, really loved this book. It was a look at Mary Bennet as her own character, explaining why she acted the way she did during the story of Pride and Prejudice but also then what happened to her after. I loved seeing how Mary could be a well-rounded, full character and how she developed and grew over time. I really loved it. My only complaint was that it felt a little long and started to drag about 3/4 of the way through.

Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean

Princess Diaries set in Japan. What's not to love?

Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters by Laura Vanderkam

I like that Vanderkam is a mom of five kids, spread out over a wider spread of ages than our kids are. She isn't writing about time management from her white tower. She's super busy and gets how hard it is to implement things. But I really liked this book and the 9 techniques she talks about. I especially want to implement having a bedtime and doing one big adventure and one little adventure each week. 

A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny

This may have been one of my favorite ones yet. I love Armand Gamache and every mystery Louise Penny puts out. 

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C. S. Lewis

I honestly found some of this book hard to follow. Lewis is clearly one of the smartest people I've ever read--he remembers almost everything he ever read and had references to every classic in Latin and Greek in every other sentence. As someone who doesn't know any classics, it was hard to catch all the references. But it was fine. Not really a memoir as you'd think by the title. 

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

This was the third book in the Scholomance series, and I think this series as a whole was brilliant. I love El and her character as this grumpy unwilling dark sorceress heroine, and I thought this book was amazing at tying together the entire series. There were several scenes where El sleeps with other characters that really bugged me and I felt were totally unnecessary for the plot--I wish those had been kept out. But the other 99% of the book was excellent and I loved the end of this trilogy. 

My Body is Not a Prayer Request by Amy Kenney

I heard about this from several different people and thought it would be a good thing to learn about. Kenney is writing about disability in the Christian religion and how we can do better to include and not try to "fix" or change the disabled members of the church. I definitely feel that I could do better with this and think this is such a good introduction to how and why.

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis

After reading Becoming Mrs. Lewis, I wanted to read all of the other books by Lewis that I could find. This one he wrote after Joy Davidman died, and I think this would be a great book to read while going through grief (or maybe not, depending on how you're feeling). You could really feel his anguish. 

Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan

I didn't know much, if anything, about C. S. Lewis's wife or their relationship before this, but it made me want to read everything Lewis wrote (although I've read a bunch of his books already). It was a cute story (but I think was too long) and I love Joy Davidman now.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This book had a lot of heart in it. I loved a lot of it. I thought Celie's growth as a character was the best part of the book. It was amazing what she went through and that she could still have love in her heart for people after it. 

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

This was absolutely mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. I kept having to stop to tell Tommy about what I was learning from it. I still can't believe some of it. So insane. 

Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love and Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships by David Schnarch

Dr. JFF recommended this book and talks about this author all the time in her courses. I feel like this could have been about half as long and just as effective, but there were definitely some good, interesting points that I wanted to remember. A lot of it JFF talked about too. 

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

I read that this was a Beauty and the Beast rewrite, and was interested, but it didn't really grip me like I thought it would. It was fine but I wasn't tempted to read the sequels. I was confused about the love triangle thing. 

The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker

This was really what it sounds like--a book about how to have good gatherings. But it goes into way more detail than I expected and honestly, was fairly interesting. I learned a lot of good ideas from it, although let's be honest--right now is not the stage in my life when this book will be that useful. Maybe in a few years I should read it again. 

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

A great sequel to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Also well done, super gripping. 

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I didn't love this one, but it did go pretty quickly. I liked a lot of the stories, even though they were all about a world I have no knowledge of or interest in. I liked the short story format, because I felt like I was able to get invested in each character really deeply for that time. 

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

I absolutely loved this middle grade WWII novel about some children who were evacuated from London during the blitz. It was basically a The War that Saved My Life but much less depressing. I loved the whole thing.