a December sunrise in Fort Langley
A final nod to the books I read in 2023! Just squeezing by on Jan 1, 2024. For how busy the last six weeks before Christmas break were, I sure was able to read a lot! A few of these were poetry or comics, which do go faster than a memoir or novel, but the four read-alouds done for homeschool with the kids were NOT easy reads (well, aside from Little Women), and one was incredibly long and bleak...!
What Kind of Woman? by Kate Baer - This poetry collection was probably my favorite of the year. It had poems that made me go "YESSSS" by the end of it; mostly they were about motherhood and how society views women, hilarious and honest and just the right amount of description/editing.
All My Knotted - Up Life by Beth Moore - One of the best memoirs I read this year, I've been an avid fan-girl of Moore's for over a decade. I love her bible studies, her humor, and her integrity, and in this story of her life she reveals some things that readers only have guessed about. Although it has some tragic parts, it is a wonderful story of a life that I deem just as important to the Christian world as Tim Keller and CS Lewis. Five stars.
The Evangelical Imagination by Karen Swallow Prior - This non-fiction book is a bit different than other things Prior has written; it's twelve chapters of ideas, concepts, and (by now) 'ways of doing life' of Evangelicals that had nothing to do with the bible, and everything to do with culture. Although I found some of the chapters to be fascinating and very revealing as to how we live our lives in North American churches, I did find it a bit dry at times.
The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo - This book of DiCamillo's (have I mentioned I will read anything she writes?) was similar to her story about Eduard Tulane, as it's a story about a group of children's toys - puppets - and an adventure they go on. As always, DiCamillo writes with heart, perfectly edited words, and, in this case, a lovely ending.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig - A book club pick, this was a bit of a candy read. The premise is the person who has died (our main character - not a spoiler!) gets to choose a book in 'the midnight library' to see different 'endings' to her life to see if she needs a re-do. It was like a choose-your-own-adventure for adults, only the character gets to go to the page number. Fun, cute.
Menopause by (edited) MK Czerweic - This book (comic) was....different...than I expected. I thought I was getting a comic nonfiction book ABOUT menopause, but this was actually a comic anthology of women's experiences and symptoms of menopause. It wasn't my favorite, but it certainly wasn't a total flop. Some of it was MUCH more graphic than I was anticipating, but (shrugs shoulders), I finished it.
Jesus Through the Eyes of Women by Rebecca McLaughlin - This short, 6-chapter book was our Fall bible study pick and we all really liked it. McLaughlin goes through so many women from the gospels who I knew very little about, had never heard of (!!), and retold me a story that I had completely mixed up. Well worth the read.
The Woman They Wanted by Shannon Harris - This was a quick and very sad memoir of Josh Harris' ex-wife (you know, the guy who wrote that weird book during purity culture, I Kissed Dating Goodbye), and it is awful. Not the book, but what happened to Harris (now under the name Shannon Bonne). I think I read it in two sittings, but everyone who feels like they were put through some stuff in purity culture (I didn't, thankfully this wasn't a thing with my upbringing), should probably read this book and deconstruct a bit!
Wounded in Spirit by David Bannon - This beautiful Advent devotional was a daily reading of scripture, art history lesson, and relating tale about the artist's spiritual life. I enjoyed it, but I shouldn't have made my kids go through it; they didn't get much from it.
Nov-Dec issue of Canadian Geographic - Of course I read these cover-to-cover and this one didn't disappoint. The Tromso (Norway) article or the wooly mammoth articles were my favorite, closely followed by the Wildlife photography contest winners.
Read Alouds:
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - I bought a copy of the Usborne illustrated version years ago, knowing I would read it to my kids someday, but alas, the only thing wrong with this experience? It was NOT complete, though it was unabridged. It was only part 1!! We got to the end and I was VERY confused. Little Women should be read with pts 1 and 2 back to back, not just ending at the end of part 1. Harumph. My mistake for not looking ahead, but honestly!
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington - The kids and I really enjoyed this book, and were astounded at what this man was able to achieve in his lifetime. Washington was born a slave and freed when he was very young, and went on to get an education, mentor others, work tirelessly for 'others of his race', create the Tuskegee Institute, and travel the world to promote the learning, vocation training, and equality of African Americans in a post-slavery time period.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois - This book was excellent to read just after Washington's (as he does have a formal 'rebuttal' for Washington's views), but it was much harder to read. It's like an academic book written in highfalutin and dense language. DuBois made excellent points throughout his book, and mostly spent his life arguing for the true equality in the law (policy) of Black Americans.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - What to say about this book? Although it was written by a communist, as propaganda for the cause, this book was incredibly bleak. Every single chapter something truly awful happened to the main characters, and it doesn't end well, either. There's really nothing redeemable about this book other than the history it helped put into motion during the Progressive Era. Sinclair was able to get food laws changed, working hours and child-labor laws went into effect all due to the horrors found in this classic of Jurgis and Ona. This book has been known to make people physically ill, so be forewarned; it's graphic. Be thankful for the food laws in effect today!
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