2023 Year-End Recap

I have not been on my blog since March! My reading dropped off, reviews became non-existent, book club was impossible, and I did not find or make time to blog. Yet, I did finish stronger than expected, thanks to reading with the kids for school and a determined spirit to read towards the end. I did a few short reviews on social media, and I finished one other book for book club on time, for once, and joined in on the discussion. While I fell short of my annual goal of fifty books, I do have a recap and this is what it looks like:

January

Did not finish any books.

February

Flaubert: Madame Bovary [reread]

Dodds: Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards [unread book]

selected poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge [WEM poetry]

March

Tolstoy: Anna Karenina [reread] [bookclub]

Hanff: 84 Charing Cross Road [bookclub] [unread book]

Melchiore: The Self-Sufficient Backyard [unread book]

April

selected poetry by John Keats [WEM poetry]

Applebaum: Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine [bailed @ 12%] [bookclub]

Schweikart: A Patriot's History of the United States [unread book]

Achebe: Things Fall Apart [unread book]

May

selected poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [WEM poetry] [unread]

Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism [unread book]

selected poetry by Alfred Lloyd Tennyson [WEM poetry]

Malone: Lies My Government Told Me: And the Better Future Coming [Kindle]

Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest [reread]

June

MacArthur: Freedom From Sin [unread book]

Hardy: The Return of the Native [reread]

July 

Whitman: Leaves of Grass [unread book] [WEM poetry]

Lewis: The Great Divorce [unread book] [bookclub]

Newton: Out of the Depths [unread book]

Rand: The Romantic Manifesto [unread book]

selected poetry by Emily Dickinson [WEM poetry]

Calvin: The Institutes of Christian Religion [reread]

MacArthur: Because the Time is Near: The Book of Revelation [reread]

August

Did not finish any books.

September

Hardy: The Woodlanders [bailed @ 11%] [unread]

James: The Portrait of a Lady [reread] [bailed @ 15%]

Rand: Atlas Shrugged [unread book] [bailed @ 9%] [bookclub]

Kent: He Went With Marco Polo [read w/ the kids] 

October

The MacArthur Old Testament Commentary on the Book of Zechariah [unread book]

Apsler: The Prophet of Revolution: Karl Marx [read w/ the kids]

Leake: The Courage to Face Covid 19: Preventing Hospitalization and Death While Battling the Pharmaceutical Complex [Kindle]

selected poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins [WEM poetry]

November

Buck: The Good Earth [unread] [read w/ the kids]

Benge: Hudson Taylor: Deep in the Heart of China [read w/ the kids]

Kovaciny: Dancing and Donuts [Kindle]

Mason: The 10-minute Bible Journey [read w/ the kids]

West: Adam Smith: The Man and His Works [unread book]

Zusak: The Book Thief [unread book] [bookclub]

Benge: Jonathan Goforth: An Open Door in China [read w/ the kids]

Goodman: The Russian Revolution Explained for Kids [read w/ the kids]

December

selected poems by W. B. Yeats [WEM poetry]

Davin: Mao Zedong [read w/ the kids]

Dickens: A Christmas Carol [reread]

Godden: Holly and Ivy [reread]

Begg: Truth for Life Vol. II [unread]

Trifkovic: The Sword of the Prophet: Islam - History, Theology, and Impact on the World [reread]

Stockett: The Help [unread] 

* * *

The 2023 Totals:

read (incl bails): 47

reread: 10

bailed: 4 

WEM poetry: 9

books donated: -8

new books added: +11

unread books read: -18

unread books remaining: 61

(I removed my kids' school books that I want to read from my unread pile.)

* * *

The 2023 Winners:

* unforgettable fiction/novel:

Anna Karenina

* best new-to-me classic:

The Good Earth

* best revived reread: 

Madame Bovary

* memorable biography/memoir:

Out of the Depths

* charming epistolary non-fiction:

84 Charing Cross Road

*  excellent biblical non-fiction:

Zechariah

* best historical fiction: (tie)

Things Fall Apart

The Book Thief

* other (honorable mention) fiction:

The Great Divorce

* pleasantest poetry:

Leaves of Grass

* treasured juvenile read: 

Holly and Ivy

forever a favorite: 

A Christmas Carol

* * *

Not sure if I will be around in 2024, but I hope to get back into the groove of reading, writing, and reviewing, as well as visiting other bookish blogs. I certainly miss it. I already have a goal of books I hope to read in the new year, which I will post in a few days. In the meanwhile...

Happy New Year!