Happy New Year!
And we're off on another trip around the sun. You know how they say the days are slow but the years are fast? Over here it all just feels fast. I was looking forward to a slow Christmas this year, but it seems like I blinked and it was over. *sigh* A brand new year means a fresh new book list though, and that's always exciting. The possibilities are endless, and 2023 is boasting the most ambitious book list I've ever made for myself.
Forty titles. Ever since I made my first book list in 2015 and totally bombed, I've tried to keep my lists pretty small. I usually aim for around twenty-four books on the official list. But this year, as I pulled books off my shelf, I figured I'd try to keep it under thirty. When I finally counted up what I'd pulled and realized I was well on my way to fifty titles, I decided I couldn't possibly narrow it down to any fewer than forty so that's where we landed. On last year's list of twenty-eight books, there were four I didn't get to. So trying to stick to the forty on this year's list ought to be real interesting. I'm already halfway through my biography of Polk, and Cody and I are over halfway through our read aloud of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The four books I didn't get to from my 2022 list carried over onto this year's list, and I am resolutely determined to read David Copperfield this year (this is the fourth time I've put it on my book list for the year). Having said all that, here's my book list for 2023.
Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency : Walter R. Borneman
Zachary Taylor : John S.D. Eisenhower
Millard Fillmore : Robert J. Rayback
Franklin Pierce : Michael F. Holt
The Devil in the White City : Erik Larson
Keep A Quiet Heart : Elisabeth Elliot
A Woman After God's Own Heart : Elizabeth George
It's Not Supposed To Be This Way : Lysa Terkeurst
The Case for a Creator : Lee Strobel
A Praying Life : Paul E. Miller
Miracles : C.S. Lewis
The Tempest : William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet : William Shakespeare
David Copperfield : Charles Dickens
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea : Jules Verne
The Scarlet Pimpernel : Baroness Orczy
As I Lay Dying : William Faulkner
A Gentleman in Moscow : Amor Towles
Housekeeping : Marilynne Robinson
Cold Sassy Tree : Olive Ann Burns
Carry On, Jeeves : P.G. Wodehouse
The Chosen : Chaim Potok
The Starless Sea : Erin Morgenstern
If You Want To Make God Laugh : Bianca Marais
What Alice Forgot : Liane Moriarty
The Secret History : Donna Tartt
Skating Shoes : Noel Streatfeild
Emily of New Moon : L.M. Montgomery
Emily Climbs : L.M. Montgomery
Emily's Quest : L.M. Montgomery
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness : Andrew Peterson
North! Or Be Eaten : Andrew Peterson
The Monster in the Hollows : Andrew Peterson
The Warden and the Wolf King : Andrew Peterson
James and the Giant Peach : Roald Dahl
The BFG : Roald Dahl
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd : Agatha Christie
Messenger of Truth : Jacqueline Winspear
A Red Herring Without Mustard : Alan Bradley
The Mysterious Benedict Society : Trenton Lee Stewart
Phew! We'll see how it goes. As you can see, I put four presidential biographies on this year's list. I mentioned I'm already about halfway through the Polk biography and the biographies I have for Taylor and Pierce are small so I feel confident that I may be able to finish all four. I'm still plugging away at Maisie Dobbs and Flavia de Luce, and I'm going to start The Mysterious Benedict Society this year so I'll have a lot of fun mysteries to solve.
All in all, I'm really excited to get into my book list this year. I've been wanting to read The Starless Sea since its release, and I'm looking forward to my next Bianca Marais and Liane Moriarty books. Cody wants us to read The Wingfeather Saga aloud together so we'll get into that as soon as we finish up Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. It's going to be a great reading year!
Do you make yourself a book list each year? How about New Years resolutions? I'd love to hear about it in those comments, and I hope 2023 is our best year yet.
What an awesome list! 2023 is going to be a cracker 😍 I'm curious to see what you think of the Erik Larson, so many people have told me to pick up one of his books but they've just never caught me for some reason. And good news, we've both got The Secret History on our lists! I've put all mine (including that one) on slips of paper in a to-be-read jar and I'll be selecting them at random - should be fun!
ReplyDeleteOh excellent! It'll be fun to compare notes on The Secret History. I saw somewhere that 2022 was its 30th year since publication so I had to add it to this year's list. And I've been collecting Larson's books, but this will be the first one I've actually read. Hope the TBR jar works out for you! It's such a fun idea!
DeleteThe Case for a Creator : Lee Strobel - Looking forward to your thoughts on this one especially!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you are going to work on more Presidents. Those are some of my favorite posts.
You are really going to like the Mysterious Benedict Society. At least the first one is really good.
I just started the Master and Commander series by O'Brian. I think there are a bunch of those so I'll be on that train for a while.
Have you read anything by Lee Strobel?
DeleteI'm excited to tear through some presidents this year. The biographies I have on Taylor and Pierce are going to go quick. I may even try to start Buchanan this year, but we'll see how it goes. My list is already pretty ambitious.
I've got a lot of good mysteries on my list this year! And Amy chose The Mysterious Benedict Society for our book club, so that will be first up for me as far as mysteries go.
Those Master and Commander books will keep you busy for a while if you decide to stick with them.
No, I haven’t read any Lee Strobel but I think he is the apologist who wrote all the Case for Faith or the Case for Christ etc books, right? I am looking forward to your thoughts because if you really enjoy his writing I may pick this one up.
DeleteYes, that's him. I read the student editions of The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith in high school and really enjoyed them.
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