2023 in Books

I've just looked back at last year's reading summary, and I'm relieved to announce that this year was a much better reading year. (And I managed to keep my reading spreadsheet up-to-date this year, so there will be some stats at the end of this post!)

First up, my favourite reads of the year - not in order of favouritism, but in the order I read them in!

Killers of a Certain Age (Deanna Raybourn)

I have probably recommended this book more than any other this year. Take a group of "women of a certain age" but make them trained killers. And then have them retiring, and trying to avoid being eliminated by their former employer. Such a fun book!

Fayne (Ann-Marie MacDonald)

This book was so good that it got its own book review blog post. At almost 1000 pages, it still felt too short. Seriously - everyone needs to read this book!

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Kate Beaton)

I loved Beaton's earlier works/comics, and this was a full-length graphic novel. I read it just before it was a contestant on Canada Reads, and I was cheering for it all the way. The images enhanced the story being told, which made it a story that couldn't have been told as well in any other way. And it is a story that has stuck with me in the months since I read it.

The Book of Longings (Sue Monk Kidd)

Another book that made me look at the world differently. An imagined story of Jesus's life (sacred imagination being one of the things that I like to draw on when preaching), this is the story told from the perspective of Jesus's wife.

Care Of (Ivan Coyote)

This is a book mostly of letters that the author wrote in the early months of the pandemic, responding to letters that they had received (with original letters and the responses shared with permission of the letter writers). Coyote is such a strong writer and storyteller that this book gave me a deep insight into their own mind and heart, as well as capturing the zeitgeist of the early pandemic months.

Run Towards the Danger (Sarah Polley)

I listened to this book as an audiobook, read by the author, and loved it - it was very hard to hit the stop button, so I ended up listening to it over just a couple of days. It is a series of long-form essays, each addressing a different challenging situation she has had to face in her life - from stage fright, to scoliosis, to losing her mother, to being assaulted by a well-known former CBC radio host, to being a child TV star. I'm sure that this is a great read, but I think that I got even more out of it by hearing the powerful words in the author's own voice.

Bonus Entry:  The Crossing Places (Elly Griffiths)... along with the subsequent books in the series (so far I've read The Janus Stone, The House at Sea's End, and A Room Full of Bones)

This is a new-to-me mystery series - I was gifted the first two books in a Secret Santa exchange a few years ago, and finally got around to reading them this year (and promptly wondered what had taken me so long). Fortunately I've been able to access the rest of the series through the library, and I've been making my way through them. I still have lots to go! An archeology professor, a police detective, the desolate Norfolk coast, and some well-drawn secondary characters make these books a fun place to visit.

And now for some stats, because stats are always fun (and if I'm keeping a spreadsheet of my reading, I should be allowed to do something with the data!).

Number of Books Read in 2023:  37

Fiction:  24
Non-Fiction:  13

Books I Purchased:  12
Library Books:  20
Borrowed:  3
Gifted:  2

Paper Books:  20
E-Books:  15
Audiobooks:  2

Books by Non-White Authors:  7
Books by White Authors:  30

Books with Racial Diversity:  20
Books with an All-White World:  11
(The remaining 6 books were non-fiction books with no characters.)

Books by LGBTQ+ Authors:  4
Non-Queer Authors:  33
(To the best of my ability to determine.)

Books with Explicitly Queer Characters:  13
Books with no Queer Characters:  18
(The remaining 6 books were non-fiction books with no characters.)

Books by Female Authors:  29
Books by Male Authors:  6
Books by Non-Binary Authors:  2

Books by Canadian Authors:  14
Books by non-Canadian Authors:  23

And all of the books I read this year, except one, were first-time reads. (My one re-read was Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth.)

And that was my 2023 in books! I'm going to re-set my spreadsheet and get ready to track my 2024 reading. I don't set reading goals or targets - my reading tends to go with what I want to read. But if I were to set some aspirations for 2024:
- Read 52 books (ie one a week). Since I am going to be on Sabbatical for 3 months, this might be the year that it happens!
- Read more queer authors.
- Get through some of the books I've already purchased rather than buying new books. (And continuing to support the library!)

I wish all of you lots of lovely reading in the year ahead.