- A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders - fiction/non-fiction; a great selection of Russian stories and it was such a treat to be "taught" through them by Saunders. I let this sit on my shelf for too long!
- The Farmer's Wife, by Helen Rebanks - memoir; I loved her husband James Rebanks' books about their family farm in the Lake District and it was delightful to hear Helen's side of their family story.
- My Father's House, by Joseph O'Connor - historical fiction; such a well-written, compelling, delightful book. The plot is loosely based on the story of a real priest who was helping diplomats, refugees, and escaped Allied prisoners find hiding across Rome and within Vatican City during WWII. This made me excited to explore more of O'Connor's novels. I don't think I've encountered historical fiction I liked so well since Hilary Mantel.
- How to Stay Married, by Harrison Scott Key - memoir; I've never read a book like this and the gallows humor made me squirm a bit before I settled in to it. But I found this is a striking and profound book. Key is such a skilled writer. I'm put in mind of the quote attributed variously to Hemingway and others that writing simply requires you to sit down at your typewriter and bleed.
- Works of Mercy, by Sally Thomas - fiction; a great fit for devotees of Wendell Berry and in general those who love stories focused on the impact and quiet beauty of ordinary people living ordinary lives. It made me ponder what the "works of mercy" are that I may be called to in my own life.
- Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri - though I would catalogue this is as a novel rather than a memoir despite how much of it is taken from Nayeri's personal story. I enjoyed hearing him join the Close Reads podcast team for their Q&A session on this book after their other episodes concluded. An incredible story and told so beautifully.
HOW DID I FORGET TO MENTION HSK!?! Ahhhh! I need to update this! But yes to Saunders too, only I read it when it first came out. I highly recommend that one!
I can never resist an end of the year reading roundup post :-) There are so many books on your 2023 list that were on mine too but I didn't get to, so this is encouragement to move them up the list! I'm currently listening to Forty Acres Deep, read by the author Michael Perry. He's usually a creative nonfiction/essayist type, but this novella about a grieving farmer who is trying to save his barn from collapse under the weight of a winter's worth of snow is really sticking with me. It's powerful and dark, but it's not without humor and reflection. I'm not quite done but it's going to be in the top 5 books of the year for sure.
My best non-fiction was The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager, who writes about her admission to the "Widow's Club" in her town after her husband dies of cancer and leaves her with two young boys. Second favorite was Nobody will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb, about her grandmother's life. I listened to that one on audio and I think hearing it from the author made it even more enjoyable, especially the humor.
My favorite fiction was a three way tie. The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz. Told in the style of The Canterbury Tales, three children with magical abilities in medieval France join forces to rescue books from burning and themselves from imprisonment. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is a fabulous fable about a witch, an abandoned baby in the woods, and how we choose good when evil surrounds us. It won the Newbery Medal in 2017 and it deserved it. Finally, The Plover by Brian Doyle is about a man named Declan who decides to sail his fishing trawler "west and then west" into the Pacific and ends up with a boat full of passengers/crew/found family and many adventures.
Ooh! I'm looking these up! Especially Inquisitor's Tale. I love Brian Doyle--I taught Mink River at the St Thomas MFA last year, and enjoyed it so much!
Excellent list. At the risk of sounding like a kiss up, READING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD is in my top 5 for this year. I also loved HOW TO INHABIT TIME by James K.A. Smith, SUCCESSFUL AGING by Daniel Levitin, THE UPSIDE OF STRESS by Kelli McGonigal, YOU'RE ONLY HUMAN by Kelly Kapic, and THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST by Jonathan Landry Chase. There are others, but that will do for now.
I don't mind compliments, haha! You send a book out in the world and may God do as He pleases with it. But it's always encouraging to hear the book was well received. Thank you!
A couple books I loved this year were Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" and "Braiding Sweetgrass" By Robin Wall Kimmerer. The language and writing in both was *superb*, and their essays about the earth were encouraging, thoughtful, and creative.
I also loved "Reading Black Books" by Claude Atcho; those were my three favorite non-fiction books.
I really loved Marie Howe's "Magdalene" and "The Hurting Kind" by Ada Limon in poetry.
In memoir (one of my favorite genres, too), I loved "Woman Without Shame" by Sandra Cisneros (one of my fav. authors), "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washington, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave", Beth's Moore's memoir you mentioned above, "Maus" by Art Spiegelman and "Ducks" by Kate Beaton (these are both memoirs in comic form - a genre I had LITERALLY NEVER read until this year, and clocked in about 15 of them. I really enjoyed them all!)
Finally, for novels this year I really loved "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "Robinson Crusoe", and "A Tale of Two Cities" for classics, and "84 Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff - which was just literary fun (novel? Well... artistic license + the authors letters...?). I struggle with most current novels because I find them very predictable.
I listened to the audiobook of Braiding Sweetgrass a couple years ago and adored it. If it's not already on your list, I highly recommend Kimmerer's second book, Gathering Moss.
A Sand County Almanac is a phenomenal book, my husband rereads it every year. If you enjoyed that I would also recommend Sigurd Olson's The Singing Wilderness. Olson is to Minnesota what Leopold is to Wisconsin, and they both made major contributions to the conservation ethic in this country!
really appreciate your making this list, always useful. I just reread "The War of the End of the World" Mario Vargas Llosas. Remarkable how the passage of time has affected my reading of it and how it's relevance has grown.
I loved the conversation between Daniel, Beth, and Esau! Their books read in their own voices were truly special. Recently I finished Andrew Wilson's Remaking The World and I cannot stop thinking about it
My favorites this year would be:
- A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders - fiction/non-fiction; a great selection of Russian stories and it was such a treat to be "taught" through them by Saunders. I let this sit on my shelf for too long!
- The Farmer's Wife, by Helen Rebanks - memoir; I loved her husband James Rebanks' books about their family farm in the Lake District and it was delightful to hear Helen's side of their family story.
- My Father's House, by Joseph O'Connor - historical fiction; such a well-written, compelling, delightful book. The plot is loosely based on the story of a real priest who was helping diplomats, refugees, and escaped Allied prisoners find hiding across Rome and within Vatican City during WWII. This made me excited to explore more of O'Connor's novels. I don't think I've encountered historical fiction I liked so well since Hilary Mantel.
- How to Stay Married, by Harrison Scott Key - memoir; I've never read a book like this and the gallows humor made me squirm a bit before I settled in to it. But I found this is a striking and profound book. Key is such a skilled writer. I'm put in mind of the quote attributed variously to Hemingway and others that writing simply requires you to sit down at your typewriter and bleed.
- Works of Mercy, by Sally Thomas - fiction; a great fit for devotees of Wendell Berry and in general those who love stories focused on the impact and quiet beauty of ordinary people living ordinary lives. It made me ponder what the "works of mercy" are that I may be called to in my own life.
- Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri - though I would catalogue this is as a novel rather than a memoir despite how much of it is taken from Nayeri's personal story. I enjoyed hearing him join the Close Reads podcast team for their Q&A session on this book after their other episodes concluded. An incredible story and told so beautifully.
HOW DID I FORGET TO MENTION HSK!?! Ahhhh! I need to update this! But yes to Saunders too, only I read it when it first came out. I highly recommend that one!
I thought for sure "That was a mistake... I thought she loved How To Stay Married, she even reviewed it!" haha
I can never resist an end of the year reading roundup post :-) There are so many books on your 2023 list that were on mine too but I didn't get to, so this is encouragement to move them up the list! I'm currently listening to Forty Acres Deep, read by the author Michael Perry. He's usually a creative nonfiction/essayist type, but this novella about a grieving farmer who is trying to save his barn from collapse under the weight of a winter's worth of snow is really sticking with me. It's powerful and dark, but it's not without humor and reflection. I'm not quite done but it's going to be in the top 5 books of the year for sure.
My best non-fiction was The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager, who writes about her admission to the "Widow's Club" in her town after her husband dies of cancer and leaves her with two young boys. Second favorite was Nobody will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb, about her grandmother's life. I listened to that one on audio and I think hearing it from the author made it even more enjoyable, especially the humor.
My favorite fiction was a three way tie. The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz. Told in the style of The Canterbury Tales, three children with magical abilities in medieval France join forces to rescue books from burning and themselves from imprisonment. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is a fabulous fable about a witch, an abandoned baby in the woods, and how we choose good when evil surrounds us. It won the Newbery Medal in 2017 and it deserved it. Finally, The Plover by Brian Doyle is about a man named Declan who decides to sail his fishing trawler "west and then west" into the Pacific and ends up with a boat full of passengers/crew/found family and many adventures.
Ooh! I'm looking these up! Especially Inquisitor's Tale. I love Brian Doyle--I taught Mink River at the St Thomas MFA last year, and enjoyed it so much!
I really think you'd enjoy the Inquisitor's Tale. If I had to pick only one to recommend to you, that would be it!
Excellent list. At the risk of sounding like a kiss up, READING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD is in my top 5 for this year. I also loved HOW TO INHABIT TIME by James K.A. Smith, SUCCESSFUL AGING by Daniel Levitin, THE UPSIDE OF STRESS by Kelli McGonigal, YOU'RE ONLY HUMAN by Kelly Kapic, and THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST by Jonathan Landry Chase. There are others, but that will do for now.
I don't mind compliments, haha! You send a book out in the world and may God do as He pleases with it. But it's always encouraging to hear the book was well received. Thank you!
A couple books I loved this year were Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" and "Braiding Sweetgrass" By Robin Wall Kimmerer. The language and writing in both was *superb*, and their essays about the earth were encouraging, thoughtful, and creative.
I also loved "Reading Black Books" by Claude Atcho; those were my three favorite non-fiction books.
I really loved Marie Howe's "Magdalene" and "The Hurting Kind" by Ada Limon in poetry.
In memoir (one of my favorite genres, too), I loved "Woman Without Shame" by Sandra Cisneros (one of my fav. authors), "Up From Slavery" by Booker T. Washington, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave", Beth's Moore's memoir you mentioned above, "Maus" by Art Spiegelman and "Ducks" by Kate Beaton (these are both memoirs in comic form - a genre I had LITERALLY NEVER read until this year, and clocked in about 15 of them. I really enjoyed them all!)
Finally, for novels this year I really loved "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "Robinson Crusoe", and "A Tale of Two Cities" for classics, and "84 Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff - which was just literary fun (novel? Well... artistic license + the authors letters...?). I struggle with most current novels because I find them very predictable.
I listened to the audiobook of Braiding Sweetgrass a couple years ago and adored it. If it's not already on your list, I highly recommend Kimmerer's second book, Gathering Moss.
I just recently bought it while on vacation and spied it at a local bookstore! I'm saving it until early Spring.
A Sand County Almanac is a phenomenal book, my husband rereads it every year. If you enjoyed that I would also recommend Sigurd Olson's The Singing Wilderness. Olson is to Minnesota what Leopold is to Wisconsin, and they both made major contributions to the conservation ethic in this country!
Interesting! Thanks!
I will look into that one - thank you so much!
really appreciate your making this list, always useful. I just reread "The War of the End of the World" Mario Vargas Llosas. Remarkable how the passage of time has affected my reading of it and how it's relevance has grown.
I loved the conversation between Daniel, Beth, and Esau! Their books read in their own voices were truly special. Recently I finished Andrew Wilson's Remaking The World and I cannot stop thinking about it
Ooh yay--me too!