dancingthroughchaos

‘A home without books in a body without a soul’  – Cicero

For the past few years, I’ve kept track of every book that I’ve read, purely for my own satisfaction.  When I signed up to Goodreads a few years ago, I discovered that they have an annual reading challenge.  I’ve taken part so that I now have a visual record of all the covers of those books, rather than just a sterile list in the back of my journal.

Because I also have a strong competitive streak, I’ve tried to stretch myself each year, but am competing with no-one but myself.

In 2020, I set myself to read 30 books and managed 63.  I increased the goal to aim for one a week from then on, and managed or exceeded it. In fact, this year I ended up reading 90 books (even though Goodreads says 88), and enjoyed almost all of them.  If I start, I usually finish unless it’s particularly dark, gruesome or distasteful (subjective, I know), which was only true of one novel in 2023.

This increase has been good for me not only because it’s expanded my repertoire, but because I’m reading different genres; a mix of fiction and non-fiction books; devotional and secular; humorous and heart-breaking.  So, this time around, I’ve cautiously set a target of reading 80 books by the end of the year.  If I don’t make it I won’t be beating myself up; I’d just like to enjoy the ones I do complete, and I plan to make considerably better use of the riches to be sourced at my local library too.

In case you’re looking for something to get your own teeth into, here are my top ten books of 2023 in the order in which I read them:

1) The Air We Breathe – Glen Scrivener                          

Bouncing off the weighty tome, Dominion, by Tom Holland, Glen Scrivener explores the topics of equality, compassion, consent, enlightenment, science, freedom and progress contrasting the culture before and after the coming of Jesus.  He unpacks the impact that first ‘Jesus revolution’ had on values which we now take for granted but barely existed in the dark days when Greek and Roman culture ruled the western world.

2) Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation, and Tombland – CJ Sansom  

I’m cheating (obviously) by counting these seven books as one, but they’re all well worth a read. The series features Matthew Shardlake, a hunchback lawyer drawn into crucial situations during Tudor times.  There are a mix of detective work and historical fact woven together with consummate skill; a combination of sympathetic characters and treacherous villains from the palace to the pavement.  I’m looking forward to reading Number 8 – Ratcliff – in 2024

3) Cuckoo in the Nest – Fran Hill                              

Using her own experience of being fostered as a teenager, Fran has created a marvellous novel set in the drought year of 1976.  I recognised so many references from my own childhood, it was a total delight.  Her protagonist, Amanda, discovers that although her own world seemed pretty broken, the fractures of the family she is placed with are just as real and are forced to the surface.

4) Dear Mrs Bird – AJ Pearce                               

Emmeline Lake thinks she is about to land a prestigious job as a war correspondent, but finds herself as a general dogsbody and typist for Henrietta Bird, the fearsome agony aunt for the advice column in the London Evening Chronicle.  Mrs Bird filters all ‘unpleasantness’ from the letters she is sent, signing many of them to the wastepaper basket.  Emmeline boldly begins to answer a few of those herself…

5) The Bride – Joy Margetts                                

Following on from her novels (and novella) set in medieval Wales, Joy brings us the tale of Efa, forced into a marriage where she must adapt, set aside her preferences and become an instant mother to small children.  Through the new relationships she forges, Efa discovers that God has not forgotten her, and that healing and transformation are possible.  A beautiful look in every way.

6) The People on Platform 5 – Clare Pooley                           

An unlikely, but compelling novel about friendship and community.  For those on the daily commute, faces become familiar even though you may not really know those fellow travellers.  Clare Pooley has created a flamboyant agony aunt (definitely not from the Henrietta Bird school of advice), a bookworm, a teenager, a male nurse and an apparently successful businessman, all interacting after an incident with a grape. Clearly fiction, but it could so easily be fact.

7) Wild Designs – Katie Fforde                                

Althea is juggling her job and three teenagers as a single parent and doing a good job until she is made redundant.  She takes refuge in growing things, but does so using the abandoned greenhouse of a dilapidated house nearby.  When the house is purchased, things get tricky.  The opportunity to create a design at the Chelsea Flower Show gives her focus as she begins to design despite suffering from acute imposter syndrome.  Taking in a lodger helps relieve some of the financial pressure but the reappearance of her ex-husband is unhelpful. I genuinely cheered Althea on throughout the book.  Her tenacity and love for her kids shines through.

8) The Book of Beginnings – Sally Page                             

Jo Sorsby is recovering from a break up when she goes to oversee her sick uncle’s stationery shop.  Here she immerses herself in the world of notebooks and fountain pens and meets an intriguing cast of characters including Eric the Viking (actually an optician), Ruth the runaway vicar, and Michael the perpetual buyer of small notebooks.  Together they discover a measure of healing and that when some things end, opportunities arise to begin new ones.

9) Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee                                

I’m amazed I haven’t read this earlier in my life, but parts were considered rather racy back in the 1970s; it all seems rather tame now. Apart from a fumbled encounter under a hay cart, this book is rich in language and tone.  A memoir of Laurie’s childhood in a Cotswold village as part of an unwieldy family abandoned by their father (almost certainly a consequence of his PTSD after World War I) and then dominated by their scatter-brained mother. An evocative recollection combining both the innocence of the young Laurie with the retrospection of his adult perspective.

10) Home of the Brave – Katherine Applegate                          

Kek is a Sudanese refugee who lost his father and brother after men with guns came to his village. From the refugee camp, he is sent to live with an aunt and cousin in Minnesota where the snow emphasises the vast difference in culture he is about to experience. Written in free verse and five carefully crafter parts, each beginning with an African proverb, we join Key as he navigates this new life.  He makes friends with a foster girl, finds a cow to care for – something familiar at last – and battles through in school all while keeping the hope of his mother still being alive, close to his heart.  Here is empathy and poignancy without sentimentality; beautiful.

Whatever you choose to read in 2024, I hope it nourishes your soul.

My full reviews can be found on my Goodreads page here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/106549825?ref=nav_mybooks

[Title image by Ed Robertson via Unsplash]