Read More in 2024!
With recommendations to get you started.
Perhaps you’ve heard the slogan ringing in this new year: Do More in 2024!
I don’t know about you, but the thought of doing more after the past few weeks of shopping, decorating, baking, cooking, and entertaining makes me want to crawl in a hole and hide.
If I did though, I would take a book with me. For the past few years, I’ve set reading goals on Goodreads, and although I missed my goal by 6 books this year (30/36), I’m happy to see my numbers increasing each year. I’m setting my goal for 36 again this year, so I hope to read more in 2024!
If you’ve never set a reading goal, or think you don’t have time to read, think again. For the three years 2019-2021, I averaged ten books a year—not bad for a slow reader who was working nearly full-time and writing part-time. Still, increasing my goals and making reading a priority (through audiobooks, ebooks, and print books) has tripled that number.
Enough about the numbers. While goals can motivate, it’s the books—the stories, adventures, characters, learning, insight, and pleasure—that enrich our lives. Below, I’ll share my 5-star reads for 2023. If you haven’t read them yet, you may want to add them to your 2024 list!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fiction
I enjoyed all of the books above, but my absolute favorites in 2023 were:
This is Happiness by Niall Williams
Loved this book! Niall Williams’ descriptions are detailed and delightful. I listened to the book on audio and enjoyed hearing the story told with an Irish accent. I’m very tempted to reread it (print or ebook) to let the beautiful sentences sink in. The story of love, loss, beauty, and happiness is as rich and full as the writing. He captures the essence of storytelling while telling a story about stories.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
A heartwarming story of loss and love, with mystery and intrigue and one highly intelligent octopus named Marcellus. The characters come alive in these pages as you piece together Tova’s and Cameron’s difficult pasts, complicated present, and uncertain future, all the while being entertained by the wise and winsome Marcellus. A great read!!!
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
Lifelike characters, fraught family relationships, and mystery surrounding a string of tragic events drew me in. That, and the setting in rural Minnesota in 1961. Narrated by a grown man, recalling the coming-of-age events of his 13th year, this beautiful story of grace in the face of struggle and loss was one of my favorites this year.
Other 5-star fiction books I loved this year were: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Cloud Cuckoo Land, The Last House on the Street, and Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Memoir
These completely different life stories, told by three women of faith, show that God is with us in the darkest moments of our lives. All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore, Winds of Grace by Cheryl Esper Balcom (a personal friend of mine!), and Ordinary Hazards by Nikki Grimes will remind you that even in difficult times, God provides the strength and grace to go on, as well as others to support and love us.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Non-Fiction, Historical Fiction, and YA
Both Growing Slow (Jennifer Dukes Lee) and Inspired by the late Rachel Held Evans were pivotal—though in very different ways—in my faith formation this past year. I highly recommend these two Christian authors. The Anthropocene Reviewed by novelist John Green and Braiding Sweetgrass by botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer (a member of the Potawatomi Nation) opened my eyes in brand new ways to the world around me, at times moving me to tears.
Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women is a disturbing but eye-opening look at the strong women divers on a small Korean island, with a beautiful story of friendship and forgiveness woven in. Finally, Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Agenline Boulley is a Young Adult thriller that takes place in a Native American community in upper Lower Michigan.
Check out all my 5-star and recommended reads from 2023 and past years at my Bookshop.org Bookstore! I love working with Bookshop.org for their commitment to supporting local independent booksellers.
One more thing…
Not to toot my own horn (okay, I’m tooting my own horn) but, another great book that came out in 2023 was Lent through the Little Things: Encountering Jesus in Life’s Ordinary Moments, by yours truly. If you didn’t get it last year, you can order it now wherever books are sold online, and still get it in time for Lent which begins on Feb. 14!
NEW COPIES of the book include a FREE Companion Journal download to deepen your Lenten journey.
Note: If you have an earlier copy of the book and are receiving this post through your email, scroll down for a direct link to the download! If you’re reading on the Substack app (whether you’re a subscriber or not), click HERE to go to my website for instructions on getting the free download.
What were your favorite reads in 2023? You can let me (and others) know by hitting the comment button below!