My BookStack and 2024 BestStack

and why I don't mind January in Michigan

I did something this week that I haven’t done in a long time. I spent the week as a total and complete homebody. For six days, I didn’t leave the house. Not even to get the mail. No, I wasn’t sick or laid up after hip surgery (like last year). I simply had nowhere to go.

Monday was a holiday, so there was no Bible study. My husband and I spent the day watching—off and on—the inaugural events, and getting hyped up for—and then let down by—the football National Championship game.

I used this day in front of the TV to go through several boxes of paper I’d found under the basement stairs when putting away our Christmas decor. I finally pitched (i.e. trashed, recycled, or planned to donate) binders and binders full of college notes, handouts, syllabi, books, and even floppy disks! I’m not sure why I’ve kept them for nearly forty years, but they will no longer occupy space in my home. (They long ago stopped taking up space in my brain.)

One box of paper I did not pitch was a file of old letters. (Remember those things we used to write, stamp, and mail before the internet existed?) I found a stack of letters my mom wrote to me when I went to college, that I had completely forgotten about. What a treasure! And how strange to recall myself as a 19-year-old, and my mom at 45. She lived another 39 years after she wrote them. I still miss both the younger and older versions of Mom.

Speaking of mothers and daughters, the only thing on my schedule this week was a Friday afternoon wedding gown fitting for my daughter—she recently said “YES!” to the dress—which was postponed due to the seamstress being ill. Instead, my daughter, and later her fiance, came over for a marathon wedding planning day. It’s so much fun! But there’s so much to do. Thankfully, we still have 244 days to get it all done. Who’s counting? My daughter, of course. 😍

This week has been both productive and comfortingly chill (literally, with our sub-zero temps and wind chills). It’s the reason I can handle—and have come to appreciate—January in southwest Michigan.

This winter month is also an excellent time to cozy up and read a book. Which brings me to the reason you may have opened this newsletter.

Let’s talk about books!

Did you set a reading goal for 2024? Did you achieve it?

I’m happy to say I met my Goodreads Challenge of reading 36 books. In fact, I exceeded my goal by ONE with 37, when I finished my final two books in the last week of December.

Luckily, I was ahead of schedule earlier in the year, because those two books were the only ones I completed in the last two months. Here’s my short stack for November and December.

Photo by Edson Saldaña on Unsplash

Just kidding. (Although, those do look scrumptious!)

Here’s the real short stack:

*This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, I get a tiny commission at no extra cost to you. All links are through Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that supports local, independent bookstores. Thanks for your support!

BookStack, vol. 5, Nov-Dec, 2024

It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping: Interpreting the Language of our Fathers Without Repeating Their Stories (Lisa-Jo Baker)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommend. In her memoir, Lisa-Jo Baker explores several deep topics, including apartheid, racial discrimination, violence, grieving the death of her mother at a young age, and a complicated relationship with her father. Place becomes a central character as Lisa-Jo describes growing up white in South Africa and later studying and living in America (Washington, D.C.). While the book dragged for me initially, the second half drew me in as her relationship with her father evolved. Her writing style is full of metaphors, which I found beautiful in some passages, but overdone and hard to follow in others. Overall, her story of reconciliation and redemption is one of hope—that change and forgiveness are possible—for individuals, communities, and even nations. (Kindle.)

The Bible in a Year podcast (various authors; commentary by Fr. Mike Schmitz)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Highly Recommend. How could I not give the Bible five stars? It’s the greatest story ever told! I’ve read the Bible since childhood and regularly participate in Bible studies, so much of this podcast was, shall I say, a review. But the beauty of listening to the Bible in a year is that you get the entire story and can see how things knit together from the Old Testament faith fathers, Israelite journeys, and prophets, to the New Testament Gospels, prophecy fulfillment, and early church.

Fr. Schmitz (a.k.a. Father Mike) takes a few minutes after each reading to explain and comment on the passage (often, with great enthusiasm!), making each episode 15-25 minutes long. There is also an enlightening introduction with Biblical scholar Jeff Cavins, to each of the twelve time periods. Although I’m not Catholic, it was interesting to learn more about Catholic doctrine that was sprinkled throughout and to hear the seven books not found in the Protestant Bible. (Since this Bible contains 73 books, I could say I read 109 books this year, LOL!) If you’ve been thinking about listening to the Bible in a year, try this podcast. Even though we’re a few weeks into the year, if you double up some episodes, you could still finish by the end of 2025.

Best of the Best

You might be wondering which—of the 37 books I read—were my absolute favorites. These are the books that stuck with me the longest and that I told others about the most often. My love for them bears repeating.

You can find my short reviews of these books in my previous Bookstacks through the links below.

BestStack of 2024 (If you’re into football, you could call this my “Pick-Six.”)

Fiction:

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

Historical Fiction (my favorite genre lately):

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

Memoir:

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

Now it’s your turn.

If you’ve read any of these books, I’d love to hear your impressions.

Tell me what you’ve been reading lately or how you’ve spent these “chill” January days.

Also, it would mean a lot to me if you’d hit the 🖤, or share this post with a friend!