Reading Wrap-up For 2023

Reading can get a little difficult for me during the school year, but I was able to knock out quite a few of the books I had going over Christmas break. It's time for another book update! I wish I could read consistently enough to do these updates monthly instead of sharing a huge chunk of books all at once, but honestly, I'm just glad to finish books whenever I get the chance. Lots of winners on the list, mostly because I started quitting books that I knew I wasn't going to like! Highly recommend doing that to keep yourself out of a reading rut.

A Tangled Web by L. M. Montgomery - I really enjoyed this book from Anne Of Green Gables author, L. M. Montgomery. In this book, there are two very large extended families that are connected by a bunch of marriages, and they all are after Aunt Becky's old jug. They come to a will reading, and we get a peak at a myriad of different characters who all want the jug for different reasons, and we follow their stories through the rest of the book. Notes: I've noticed that in Montgomery's lesser-known works, she does seem to have references to occult practices or witchcraft scattered here and there, and it was the same in this book. Also, the book ended on rather a cringe note as the last sentence of the book has a racial slur that was much more commonplace back in Montgomery's day.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (along with A Worldview Guide To Frankenstein by Canon Press) - This is the first time I've read Frankenstein, though you can hardly live to be my age and not have some idea about the plot. I can see why it's a classic, though I found Shelley's writing a little tedious to listen to (the narrator did a great job though). I very highly recommend reading this particular worldview guide along with the book, as it was really enlightening to Shelley's background and possible state of mind while writing the book. It convinced me the message of the book is alot different than I've been told my whole life (some nonsense about the monster representing Shelley and her daddy issues) - instead I now think of Frankenstein as a tale about the monsters we ourselves can create when we are driven by passions to throw aside the natural constraints that God has placed on us. Really interesting.

The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda - I've liked some of Miranda's thrillers in the past, and this one was particularly spooky to me since we had an unreliable narrator, and lots of unexplainable events (until the end of course). Arden was swept away in a flood as a child and trapped in a pipe before being found three days later, but she has no recollection of it. The resulting media attention ruined her life, so she changed her identity and moved away. But now, a character from her past shows up dead in her neighbor's yard, and she has to figure out what is going on. Notes: Some bad language in this one, and really messed up family relationships.

The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay - This book starts with a funeral - Madeline's aunt has died and left her a failing bookshop. She hasn't visited her aunt in a while, but her life as a big time lawyer isn't going as planned, so she puts her plans aside and tries to see if she can get the bookshop in the black before selling it. Along the way, she becomes friends with two of her aunt's employees as they all reevaluate their life choices and work in the bookshop. Overall, really cute and cozy, with normal-type problems that all work out in the end.

Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie Heuiser Hill - This is a middle grade novel that I don't think has gotten nearly enough hype. Rose and Thomas are twins, but have almost nothing in common aside from their birthday. Rose is tall, Thomas is short. Rose is advanced and taking classes at community college at the age of 12, and Thomas struggles through his school work. Rose is working to become a professional cellist, and Thomas...starts growing a huge pumpkin with their neighbor. Rose's piano teacher and mother decide Rose should be more involved in this project, and she reluctantly agrees - until a terrible accident ruins her cello plans. As she is forced to slow down and connect with her neighbors, the pumpkin keeps outrageously growing. I enjoyed every minute of this book, it was a perfect before-bed read to calm me down after a long day! I'll probably have my kids read it next fall. One note: A female "pastor" is mentioned one time (but isn't even a character in the book).

Deeper Heaven by Christiana Hale - This book is an in-depth analysis of C. S. Lewis's space trilogy, which in case you didn't know, is not really about actual outer space at all, so we will call it the Ransom trilogy. Hale gives us background information about Lewis and his life as a professor of medieval literature, and that backdrop makes all the difference in understanding the Ransom trilogy. Lewis's ulterior motive for the trilogy was to give us a vivid picture of how a medieval person would have viewed space and the cosmos, and Hale guides us through the different symbolism and messages in each of the books. I loved this analysis, and honestly wouldn't even consider recommending the Ransom trilogy without having a copy of this book right alongside it. Excellent.

Prayer by John Bunyan - I've been trying to read the Puritans over the last couple years, and this is the 4th or 5th Puritan book I've read. Bunyan gives an in-depth theological look at what it really means to "come to the throne of grace", as well as Christ's work as a sacrifice, priest, etc. What does that have to do with prayer, you may ask? I admit, I was struggling to find the connections with everything he was saying, but in the last chapter he tied it all together into a beautiful picture of what it means to pray. I do find myself more drawn to prayer when I consider his points in this book, and so it was a success.

Holiday By Gaslight by Mimi Matthews - This was a really fun Christmas novella. Sophie is courting Mr. Edward Sharpe, but decides to break up with him, because it doesn't seem like they are connecting. He is very difficult to talk to, and she wants to marry someone she can learn to love. However, when she sees the effect her decision may have on her family, she decides to give herself and Mr. Sharpe one more chance to get to know each other. I thought this book was really cute, and a great, short Christmas-y read for the busy holiday season, Notes: There were a couple uses of curse words.

Bambi by Felix Salten - Like so many kids, I watched Bambi as a child and found it all rather sad. But as an adult, I discovered that old Disney movie is actually based on this book. One of my kids was asking to read it, and I decided to pre-read it for them. I actually quite enjoyed it! The book, as always, was better than the movie - one of the main differences is that there is more of the Old Stag in the book, and more of the animals erroneous beliefs about "Him" (ie. man). I thought one of the last scenes of the book, in which Bambi finds out that Man is not all-powerful, but is a creature as well, was an unexpected development that added some depth to this book. The deer's obvious conclusion that there is a Creator over all, man and animals, was an interesting development in the story, but could also see someone taking the final message in an anti-God way. However, I took it as poignant that the animals know there must be an all-powerful, all-good Creator, they just needed to learn that Man was not Him. Notes: Some of the animals definitely die, so this book wouldn't be suitable for sensitive or younger kids. As a hunter myself, the book seemed less anti-hunting than the movie, but obviously any book involving hunting from animals' perspective is going to seem that anti-hunting to some extent. But as someone who has my wildlife management and conservation philosophy firmly established, I didn't find this book offensive or annoying. Opposition to hunting was clearly not the point of this book, at least to me.

Homecoming by Kate Morton - Morton's latest book is perhaps one of her longest, but I also feel like it hearkened back to some of her earlier books in a good way. Jess must fly back to Australia to attend to her injured grandmother - but when she tries to figure out what her grandmother was doing when she got hurt, she stumbles upon a family tragedy that is rife with secrets. Alot of the reviews of this book mentioned that they thought it was too wordy or long, but I didn't feel that way at all. It was enjoyable from beginning to end to me. Notes: Plot involves some infidelity, etc. Mild language.

He Rules The World by Ben Zornes - I listened to this Advent devotional and quite enjoyed it. I wouldn't say this is a Bible-based devotional, more just Christmas thoughts and inspiration from a Christian viewpoint. I loved the encouragement to enjoy all the trappings of Christmas to the glory of God.

Rejoicing In Christ, The Newborn King by Taigen Joos - This was our family Christmas devotional this year, and I loved it! The devotions were short and sweet, based upon different Scriptures, very theologically grounded, and each devotion ended with a hymn recommendation we could sing together. Reading this took less than five minutes each day, but added alot to keeping our Christmas focused on Jesus. Loved it, and will probably read it again.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson - I bought this book for myself to read over the Christmas season, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Each day of advent includes a "liturgy" for family or personal worship, including hymns to sing, Scriptures to read and meditate on, quotes to prompt prayer or praise, and psalms to sing with a tune index in the back. I loved going through this from the beginning of Advent through epiphany, and found so many wonderful quotes and encouragement in it. The book itself is also gorgeous, with cloth binding like an old hymnal with a fancy sleeve cover that makes it look lovely on the shelf. The publisher is going to send me the next book by this author, and I'm very excited to dive into it, because I loved this one!

Forbidden Child by Gwen Newell - In this book, Piper has grown up on a ship since the world flooded 40 years ago. The ship is run as a dictatorship, where all the citizens exist to serve the ship and it's "godmother". Piper is on a task force to find those breaking the rules, and then one day she stumbles upon the greatest offense of all - a baby that was born without permission, an "illegal organism". She must decide whether to turn the baby in, or turn her back on everything she has ever known and find a way to rescue the baby. I was very unsure about this book because I don't really like the "global flood" plot point, since obviously as a Christian I believe God promised He would never flood the earth again - but this book ended up working for me since you can't really trust anything the godmother says anyway, and the ending resolved that conundrum for me in a really satisfactory way. I completely loved the ending, and definitely had a "book hangover". Enjoyed it alot.

Five Lies Of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield - I had read Butterfield's other book, The Gospel Comes With A Housekey, so I was excited to find this book at my library. Butterfield has so much insight and wisdom to share about our culture's current conflicts, especially as it relates to feminism, gender issues, etc. This book is very rooted in Scripture, and Butterfield draws from the Bible and her personal experience to challenge ways that our culture, and the church, have been willing to accept subtle lies. I don't feel I am doing it justice with this description - I highly recommend it if you need some encouragement as a Christian living in our anti-God culture.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - I re-read this book with my two oldest this year, and it was such a fun experience. First of all, if you have never read A Christmas Carol aloud, I recommend it. It's so fun to do the different voices for the characters in this book. My kids also enjoyed it much more than I thought they would, and we can officially watch the movie now since we read the book first.

The House Of Love And Death by Andrew Klavan - Sometimes Klavan's books get a little too graphic for me, but I have enjoyed this series enough in the past that I wanted to pick up the next book. I really like how this one turned out. Cameron Winter is a literature professor, but he has a "strange habit of mind" that helps him solve crimes on the side. In this book we find out more about Winter's past, and I think we see the light at the end of the tunnel of his inner darkness, which was a heavy theme in the other two books. In this book, he must solve the mystery of what happened to a family that was murdered in a house before it was destroyed by a fire. Notes: Definitely some crude language and curse words, violence, and infidelity/fornication are involved in various parts of the plot.

What was your favorite book of 2023?

My top non-fiction books would be:

-Musing On God's Music by Scott Aniol

-Deeper Heaven by Christiana Hale

-The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace

-Counterfeit Kingdom by Holly Piveck

-Five Lies Of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield.

Top fiction:

-Tales From The Perilous Realm by J. R. R. Tolkien

-Homecoming by Kate Morton

-Giant Pumpkin Suite by Melanie H. Hill

-Glitch by Laura Martin

-Meet Me In The Margins by Melissa Ferguson.

Total: 71 books (approximate, since I don't really do a clear cutoff between January and December). Better than I thought I did, honestly, and most of them were actually good since I quit forcing myself to read books I wasn't enjoying or knew I wouldn't be able to recommend! Life's too short to read bad books.

You can read all about all the other books I read for 2023 in these posts: