Year End Reading in Review

In between shopping out flights and making travel details to go to Indiana for my aunt and uncle's memorial service this weekend, I have been prepping for my next semester, which started in the classroom Tuesday. I am working on getting my new calendar updated. This means it's time to update my reading list and add a new tab for Reading 2023.  I need to minimize the last couple of years, also. 

Just my youngest and I will go to the memorial this weekend. A larger ceremony is being planned in Texas in the near future, so a bigger group of us will gather for that. Even though that ceremony is the "official" celebration of life, I wanted to gather with my siblings and cousins in Indiana to relive memories and toast our aunt and uncle. It will be good to be together to honor them before we move back into the routines of the school year. One of my resolutions for this year is going to be go... 

But to review: 

Number of books: 66 listed here. I think I have missed a few.  I also read a lot of the Norton Anthology Shorter 13th edition and Home Fire twice for class, although I listed it once. Youngest and I read quite a few books aloud, but we were a little slower this year because of weekend activities. 

Of the 66

• 37 were novels
• 11 were read alouds - Easy chapter books mostly. Two by Melissa Wiley that I have been meaning to read for years.  I need to check if I missed some of these. I feel like we might have finished more. I didn't list picture books, but I read much fewer this year.
• 6 of those 64 were journals of short stories, essays, and poetry.
• Only 7 were spiritual reading - way down from years past when I had my Catholic book club. And these were all pretty light. 
• Only 2 books of poetry
• 12 were rereads, mostly the read alouds
• 23 were nonfiction. 
• Of those, 10 were memoir type books
• 2 were collections of essays by Ann Patchett that were primarily memoir
• 3 of them were about gardening and trees.

Of the 36 books of fiction.

• 10 might be considered classics - some of the children's books and the Cather books: Shadows on the Rock and Death Comes for the Archbishop. The Bobbsey Twins and Pippi Longstocking are perpetual favorites, but I also love Misty of Chincoteague and I had never read Edward Eager's Magic or Not
• A unexpected trend: I read 5 books about Korea/Korean Americans. This was not intentional, but educational.
• I listened to 2 audiobooks - Greenlight, which was probably better as an audio book because Matthew McConaughy has such a great reading voice, and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage also read by the author Ann Patchett. I need to line up more audiobooks for our hours in the car now that I'm almost done with Bible in a Year. 

My favorites:  This was not a year of "You've got to read this!" but I did really enjoy Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, and Memphis by Tara Stringfellow. Four very different novels. 

My favorite nonfiction book was The Heartbeat of Trees although I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass, still, and really like it - for next year. I also would recommend Jo Harjo's memoir Poet Warrior. Her life story makes interesting reading, and it is interspersed with poems that complement the narrative.

For spiritual books, I would probably pick Liturgy of the Ordinary. If The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Francis Schaeffer counts as spiritual reading, I'd list that - or a very different book by a very different author, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. Both of those are guided by spiritual insights. 

One of my goals for next year is to be more intentional about picking a spiritually nourishing book to read. Now I did do several Bible Study books with my ecumenical Bible Study group, but those books are workbooks, so not really "reading" themselves. Without my beloved Catholic moms reading group (I need to start another one), I don't pick up as many books that feed and instruct my soul. I did read most of a Thomas Merton book and most of Devotions by Mary Oliver and part of a book on the Eucharist - to finish in the near future. I need to do some research about what to read for Lent.

So another resolution is to finish what I have started - if it is worth while.  I've got a few books in the stack. I also have a big stack of books I haven't read on my nightstand - I need to cut that down without adding to it. 

I'm reading along with the Moms and Millennials book club in San Diego from the Book Riot Reading Challenge. Some of hte categories are a bit esoteric or niche, but I like reading things I wouldn't usually choose. I won't finish it, but I think last year I read books from 21 of the 24 categories. 

Finally, I want to add a big classic to the list again this year - maybe this is the year I finally read Bleak House!

Out of time. I need to pack for our trip. And decide what books to bring along...