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!
