39 Books for my 39th Birthday: A 2023 Reading List

I read some excellent books this year! I seem to continuedly learn over and over that I am happiest and feel most like myself when I am in the middle of a great book. My top five books from the year were The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work” (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality) by Kathleen Norris, Which Witch by Eva Ibboston, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster, and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. 

I have to add that these six runners-up were also very, very good: All my Knotted up Life by Beth Moore, Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard, Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin by Rowan Williams, A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, and Attachments by Rainbow Rowel.

2023 was a year in which I tried out a lot of different rhythms to my day, and in some ways there was less time for reading physical books, but more time for audio books. I found myself struggling come December to have enough books for this post!

Partially this was because I decided not to list a couple of books I did read. In the middle of the year I read two books in a row, one a romance and the other a YA, that were both highly recommended. In many ways I did enjoy them, I read them quickly, and was very invested in the characters. But both left me ultimately disappointed, and neither were books I’d recommend very widely, so I decided not put them on this list. The romance was more “open door” than I liked, and it had been described as light and fun, but had some very heavy themes of trauma and abuse. The YA had a lot of adult themes and language and a somewhat heavy-handed political message (Even though I agreed with nearly all of the message, I didn’t liked feeling preached at!). After reading them right in a row, I sort of threw up my hands and declared that I needed to read mostly older books and be pickier about what recommendations I take. I want to like romance and YA books, but it turns out that I am just very choosy about what ones I like.

Here are links to previous years’ birthday book posts 30 // 31 // 32 // 33 // 34 // 35 // 36 // 37 // 38. And again this year I divided up my mini-reviews by genre: Health and Wellness/Non-fiction (books and relationships), Memoir, Spiritual Formation, Children’s books, Middle Grade, and Novels.

Health and Wellness

1. Outlive: the Art and Science of Longevity by Peter Attila. A big book full of fascinating information about the big four killers and how to try and push them off for an extra decade or two: Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Alzheimer’s. My biggest take away was to try and incorporate more zone 2 cardio into my life. I had some opinions about the nutritional section (even though much of what was there I agreed with). A little bit of swearing, especially towards the end of the book. Very readable for a 400 page science book.
2. Built to Move: The Ten Essential Habits to Help You Move Freely and Live Fully by Kelly and Juliet Starrett. Mostly about stretches and patterns of movement (although there is a great chapter on eating 800 grams of vegetables a day and another on sleep) centering around testing you can give yourself (balancing on one foot with your eyes closed for 60 seconds, getting up and down off floor without using your hands). Physical Therapist wisdom about what he wishes all his neighbors knew about aging well. Again, a lot of swearing for a non-fiction science book that I’d like to give out to all the old ladies at church, but otherwise a great book.

Non-Fiction (Books & Relationships)

1. Lessons for a Lifetime by Maureen Kasdorf. This is a book written by a church friend and fellow Wheaton Alumna. It has 20 chapters, each centering on a beautiful children’s book (classic books like Blueberries for Sal, Harold and the Purple Crayon, Corduroy, and Goodnight Moon, as well as new favorites like Last Stop on Market Street, Ron’s Big Mission, and Extra Yarn) and with 2 to 5 additional book recommendations at the end of each chapter. A great resource for teachers and parents who want to read great books to kids.
2. Your Eight Year Old: Lively and Outgoing by Louise Bates Ames and Carol Chase Haber. These 1980s gems are so encouraging that children have been going through the same developmental patterns, and offer some grounded perspective on behavior and what to expect. I love seeing what has aged well and what is very clearly 1980s culture. Overall, it made me excited about this year with my new 8 year old.
3. The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremain. This book almost could be filed in the memoir section because it is filled with so many stories from the author’s life reflecting on her earliest and most important friendships. But it also has some good analysis on what type of friends we all need. Overall, it is an encouragement that we have many friends over the course of our life that fill different roles, and that one person does not need to (and cannot) fill all the roles. A great book to read with friends or to appreciate the friends you have.

Memoir

1. Picnic in Provence by Elizabeth Bard. A lovely memoir about an American mother moving from Paris with her French husband and baby son to Provence eventually to start an ice cream shop. A lot of great reflections on French culture, motherhood, and family. (I also read Lunch in Paris, which was also good, although I liked Picnic in Provence more and could relate to Elizabeth the married early mother more than the love affair story that starts Lunch in Paris).
2. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. A classic that has held up. A delightful description of Provence life from a British couple who moved there in the 1970s. In comparing it to Bard’s memoir of Provence, it was fun to see what has stayed the same and what was waning in the 1970s.
3. Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing up a Wizard by Tom Felton. After reading this memoir by the actor who played Draco Malfoy, it made me want to watch all the movies again and all the special “making of” features on YouTube. Fun and hard and thoughtful, being a child actor is not particularly glamorous and Tom Felton has a hard road, with a good amount of substance abuse, but ends with a lot of hope.
4. Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham. I watched all 7 seasons of the Gilmore Girls this year for the first time. This was a fun way to learn more behind the scenes from lead actress Lauren Graham. I don’t think it would be as interesting if you haven’t watched the series or don’t want to hear about an actor’s road, but reading this after the series was so much fun. I laughed really hard at her story of trying out in her early days sight-singing “Slap that Bass.”
5. A Year of Small Things by Sarah Arthur and Erin Wasinger. A few years ago a Wheaton friend recommended this memoir from fellow Wheaton alumna Sarah Arthur about their year of having a very intentional small group with another couple trying live out the ideas of Shane Claiborne while raising very young children. I think that it was the perfect read a few months before we started our own small group (although a much less intense one.) I took the idea of closing our time together with a blessing song from this book. Full of real life parenting and thoughtful discussion of wealth, community, privilege, sacrifice, and practical ways two families worked on 12 different themes or new monastic values through one 12 month year together.
6. All my Knotted up Life by Beth Moore. I haven’t done a lot of Beth Moore Bible studies, but I have always had a great deal of respect for her and enjoyed catching her teachings here and there. I loved this memoir. It was so moving. It has some very difficult parts, including sexual abuse by her father (Beth Moore had long mentioned her sexual abuse, but not named the abuser before). I listened to a really great podcast interview with Beth Moore where she prayed specifically for the people for whom hearing her story would bring out their own traumas. I particularly was moved by the account of Beth’s story of the last 10 years navigating her husband’s illness and the Southern Baptist hostilities and finding an Anglican church home. My respect for Beth Moore only grew from reading this.
7. The Graces We Remember: Sacred Days of Ordinary Time by Phyllis Tickle. I love Phyllis Tickle’s memoirs about the church year. I read her Advent and Christmastide one a few years ago, which was probably a little bit better than the Ordinary time one, but I still loved this one a lot. Reading these memoirs reminds me a lot of reading Madeline L’Engle’s Crosswick Journals.

Spiritual Formation

1. The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and “Women’s Work” (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality) by Kathleen Norris. I love all of Kathleen Norris’ writings, although this little book may be my new favorite. I think the way that she writes about women’s work, with dignity, value, and an eye towards what feminists worry is degrading is so fresh and clear and insightful. I especially loved reading it with an eye towards how the daily work of praying and writing is related to the daily work of laundry and cooking and dishes. I could re-read this every few years and get something new from it.
2. Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin by Rowan Williams. Last year I read and loved The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ, and I thought Ponder These Things was just as lovely. I think especially because Archbishop Williams is Anglican but has such a heart and deep knowledge of Eastern Orthodoxy, I loved his reflections on Mary as an icon of the Church, and of ourselves as part of the church within the Icons of the Virgin. A devotional book reflecting on (or “reading”) like The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer by Frederica Mathewes-Green and Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons by Henri Nouwen are some of my favorite books, and if you’ve never read one I’d highly recommend any of them!
3. Mark: LifeChange A Nav Press Bible Study Series by The Navigators. This was the book that our church’s ladies Bible study (Tapestries!) used to study the Gospel of Mark. It’s more workbook than book to read, and while I had a few quibbles with it (the layout especially: why were the places to write so small? also sometimes the questions were looking for a very specific but hard to figure out answer), I do think it did work really well for preparing people to come to Bible Study ready to learn and discuss.
4. Mark for Everyone by NT Wright. I read, in conjunction with the NavPress book mentioned above, this lovely NT Wright book about Mark. I love the For Everyone series; it’s accessible, meaty, and devotional all at the same time. And it made doing the NavPress workbook a lot easier and more fun to come to group not only with my ideas about the text, but NT Wright’s insights. If you are looking for a good devotional book that’s heavy on Biblical Studies, I cannot recommend this New Testament series highly enough.

Children’s Books

1. Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary. Ramona’s year in kindergarten was such a fun read the summer before Lily went to kindergarten. A lovely look at how things have changed (coming home from school for lunch, children just learning their letters for the first time in kindergarten) and stayed the same (beloved teachers, complex social lives of 5 year olds, losing a first tooth) and of course the indefatigable Ramona who gets herself into scrapes (or mud in her brand new boots) like no one else.
2. The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit. Nearly as perfect at The Railway Children, this E. Nesbit follows a big family fallen on hard times as the children seek to secretly help their father out of his money problems and end up often needing to be rescued by a kind neighbor’s uncle.
3. Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas by Madeleine L’Engle. This was such a small delight. It’s almost short enough that it could be a picture book (and it would make an excellent one!). It follows 7-year-old Vicky Austin as she is worried about her new baby brother’s arrival possibly disrupting their Christmas. Madeleine L’Engle writes warm family like no one else. It’s also a story included in the larger collection of L’Engle’s Christmas writings Miracle on 10th Street.
4. The Christmas Pig by JK Rowling. Jack loves his stuffed animal pig “DP,” and when DP is lost on Christmas Eve, Jack is devastated. His grandparents buy him a replacement pig, “Christmas Pig” who Jack wants nothing to do with. But when Christmas Pig comes to life on the night of Christmas Eve and offers to take Jack into the land of the lost to try and bring DP back, Jack and Christmas Pig embark on wild adventure through the land of the lost. Pulling on themes from the Velveteen Rabbit, Toy Story, Pilgrims Progress, and probably a little Dante too, we all enjoyed this family read aloud. A heads up for sensitive kids: the beginning when Jack loses DP is very sad, and the description of divorce and a new step family very raw, and there are intense scene throughout the book. Although our kids said they liked it a lot.

Middle Grade Books

1. Which Witch by Eva Ibboston (Also The Secret of Platform 13). One of my favorite discoveries of this year was Eva Ibboston’s short, nearly perfect little books. They have the quirky feel of Roald Dahl’s, with lots of witches and ghouls, and good triumphing over evil, happy endings and romances, even in her topsy-turvy worlds. A perfect read for October.
2. Front Desk by Kelly Young. I found this book buried in an Amazon review for a different book (I forget what book) where the reviewer mentioned that it was good but not as well-loved as Front Desk by Kelly Young. So I promptly checked out Front Desk. It has a spunky protagonist who has recently come from China in the mid 90s. Her parents have very limited employment options and end up managing a hotel for a dubious owner who continues to slash their wages and require more hours. 10 year old Mia ends up managing the front desk to help out her parents, and many adventures ensue as Mia seeks to help other immigrants, her parents, and as she herself navigates life in America.
3. Freewater by Amina Luqman Dawson. This year’s Newbery, you can read the full review here. An exciting tale of a maroon slave community told from multiple children’s perspectives who both have grown up and are traveling to the secret community deep in the swamp.
4. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. This was my first Diana Wynne Jones, and it did not disappoint! A fun love story involving wizards and witches with lots of people under curses not being as they appear. Of course, the moving castle itself was a highlight and a great setting, and having Sophie be a changed into an old woman and be the hero was great too. An older middle grade book for kids ready for a romance.
5. Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge. A tale of four children who run away from their severe grandmother’s house only to accidently run to their retired school teacher and local parson Uncle Ambrose who undertakes to educate them. At the same time, they undertake to get themselves lost, solve a mystery, and undo some dark magic by a local witch. The magic in this book is a little intense (voodoo dolls) even though everything turns out well in the end. It’s a quirky old book that is worth reading, but will need some unpacking by adults in terms of magic, spiritual warfare and race. Possibly one you’d want to read first to decide when the timing is right time for your family.
6. The Dragon and the Stone by Kathryn Butler. I discovered this series while shopping for my godson’s birthday present which was a set of the Green Ember books by SD Smith. Along the bottom there were more suggested titles, including the expected WingFeather series by Andrew Peterson and The WilderKing series by Jonathan Rogers, and then there was this new one by Kathryn Butler. Since I think that Peterson, Rogers, and Smith are three of the most popular writers of Christian Fantasy, I had to check out Butler’s Dream Keeper Saga. And Amazon’s suggestions were right, heavily inspired by Narnia, but with a unique premise of the places where dreams come true (in a different way than the island where dreams come true in Voyage of the Drawn Treader). This book has a female protagonist, a tiny good dragon, a grumpy (but reformed by the end) school bully, a fantastical land with a good prince Unicorn battling an evil dragon. A strong recommendation for kids 10-13.
7. The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford. Different than the beloved movie Homeward Bound but charming and compelling in its own way. Most surprising to me was that the animals do not talk to one another in the book. The narrator explains what they want and think to some extent, but they are more regular animals than the voice-over movie would have you think. It was also fun that the book was set in the part of Canada near where my family would go fishing, so I could imagine that wilderness pretty vividly.
8. Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster. A delightful 1912 epistolary novel, that reminded me strongly of LM Montgomery’s Anne of Island (the third Anne of Green Gables book where Anne goes to college) or Maud Hart Lovelace’s Emily of Deep Valley with turn of the century college girl female protagonists. Judy is an orphan whose college education is being paid for by an anonymous donor (she dubs him Daddy Long-Legs) who requires monthly updates from Judy. One word of caution, some editions have a critical essay in the beginning with A LOT OF SPOILERS. Don’t have the ending spoiled for you; wait to read the introduction until after you’ve finished.
9. A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. Another classic, this one from 1909, which follows Elnora Comstock as she figures out a way to afford school by selling her beautiful moth collection. A tale that has beautiful descriptions of Indiana natural life, especially moths and swamp life, and a beautiful arc of redemption. In some ways it is similar to Maud Hart Lovelace or LM Montgomery’s works as well, but it is a little choppy narratively with beautiful chapters and paragraphs and a solid ending, but a few sort of odd bits here and there. It’s also the sequel to the book Freckles, so I think it might make more sense if one were to read Freckles first. The characters from Freckles come in at the end without a lot of introduction.
10. The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat. A Newbery honor book from last year that has a navigational tale set in fantastical Asian land with a predominantly female cast of characters (female captain, queen, map-making apprentice protagonists, antagonists and dragon) without any comment on women in leadership being unusual or having particular challenges. The strengths of the book were strong themes of mentorship and the connection between geographic exploration and later exploitation of those lands. I think what would have made the book stronger would have been more genuine friendship between Sai and a peer, and a more consistent and visible antagonist throughout the book.
11. The False Prince by Jennifer Nielson. I would probably classify this as a YA novel although the publishers have it as a middle grade 9-12 age bracket. This intense, fast-paced book follows three boys who have been selected by a nefarious nobleman who plans to be the power behind the false prince. Lots of satisfying mysteries unfold by the end (I won’t say any more and spoil them!), although the ending is not entirely satisfying (but there are 4 more books as of now in the series that likely explore those loose ends). A good amount of violence makes this a pretty mature read (I mean the tag line on the books is “choose to lie or choose to die.”

Novels

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen. I enjoyed this book immensely. I thought the longing for lost love was so great. I will say that it moves very slowly in the beginning. The first half of the book has incredibly few interactions between our love interests, but don’t worry it’s completely worth it. It might be my favorite Austen, although I did really enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Emma. I also enjoyed the Netflix version of Persuasion even though all the modernization with the alcohol and the breaking the fourth wall was kind of the opposite of how virtuous Anne Elliot is in the book. The 1997 and the 2008 versions were great to watch as well. I think there needs to be a full mini series, although the beginning episodes would be pretty slow.
2. A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting by Sophie Irwin. A Jane Austen-esq tale of the two eldest of five sisters who are on the brink of bankruptcy after the death of their parents. Kitty Talbot needs a fortune to save the family, and she has one season in London to find the richest man she can marry, love need not be involved. Fun and fast, it is a book that made me smile throughout. There definitely are plot lines that would make Jane Austen blush and frown, some of which were integral to the plot and some of which just seemed like modern sensibilities (like the main characters never going to church). But overall a ton of fun, and I look forward to Sophie Irwin’s other books.
3. Lovely War by Julie Berry. The Greek gods telling the story of two couples during World War I. Ares narrates the war bits, Aphrodite the love parts of the story, and Apollo the musical parts. The audiobook was very well done, with each god-narrator played by a different actor. (Occasionally, this resulted in a funny attempt of a British actor to do an American 1910s black Harlem accent). It took me a while to get through, probably because I was afraid that every happy scene was about to end in heartbreak, because WWI was brutal, but there is a good happy ending. I learned a lot about black soldiers in WWI both from the text of the book and a very informative afterward.
4. Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley. A feminist retelling of Robinhood, with still plenty of love and a long final battle scene that stretches over many chapters with sufficient blood and guts. After seeing the play As You Like It this summer, I think that perhaps the Shakespeare play inspired a bit of the girls dressed as boys in the good band of outlaws in the wood motif. I have enjoyed every Robin McKinley book I have read very much, thinking that there were brilliant parts of it, and then bits that I wished would have been slightly different, but always a very solid reading experience.
5. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. Written in 1905, this is the original masked super-hero with secret identity that would go on to inspire such characters as Zero, Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. FYI, A pimpernel is a little flower, not a small pimple like I always thought. Based on a play by the same name, the first few chapters have that old novel convention of being about places and characters that barely appear in the rest of the book. The majority of the middle of the novel is told from the point of view of the hero’s wife (who does not know he’s a hero), and that part was my favorite. I will say that the ending of the book felt a little stereotypical and had some anti-Semitic and misogynist undertones that make it feel pretty dated (although to be fair it might only feel stereotypical because so many stories have copied it since then!)
6. Attachments by Rainbow Rowel. As I said above, I have come to learn that I just am very picky about what romance books I read, and I continue to find Rainbow Rowel’s books (at least her older ones) are ones that I do like. I will say in this book there is one character who has a real potty mouth. Even that one character aside, it is not a particularly clean book. But everything seems to be there for a reason, it furthers the plot, and I don’t feel taken advantage of. This is an epistolary novel of emails between two workplace friends that an IT guy happens to start reading as part of his email surveillance portion of his job. It has heavy Pam and Jim from The Office vibes. It was written in 2011 and takes place right around 1999-2000 (Y2K!)
7. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. An octopus and an old Scandinavian woman who has taken up cleaning the local aquarium forge an unlikely friendship and uncover a mystery from the past. Told from multiple perspectives (including the octopus!), definitely an adult novel with language and content, but sweet and solid. Reminiscent of A Man Called Ove.
8. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. What if there were a book that took place entirely in the wood between the worlds of The Magician’s Nephew and what if instead of trees and ponds there were oceans and statues and endless halls and corridors? Susanna Clarke’s new book is beautiful and haunting, and as the mystery unfolds, it ponders questions of how our memory is and isn’t tied to our identity. I loved her first book, the huge and complex Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. This one is much shorter (8 hours on audio vs. 32 hours) and the audiobook was excellent. There is not a lot of language or content but there is some, so I would say this is a book for adults. But if you are looking for a new fantasy that stands up to the classics, you must read this one.

What were your favorites reads from 2023?