Favorite books from 2023
I won't be posting favorite movies, music, or anything else (except books)
Dear subscribers,
[Am pleased to report that I topped 600 subscribers for the first time last month. If you haven’t subscribed, please do so! It’s free. Thanks to the two people who bought subscriptions anyway! Now I can comfortably retire.]
I am taking a month off from my Holland Sentinel column. My colleagues on the op-ed page seem willing to keep writing about national and local politics - not that there isn’t a lot to sound off about - but I can’t bring myself to do it again.
So, here’s a complete list of the books I read in 2023. And don’t worry: Unlike former president Obama, I won’t be posting my favorite movies, music, or anything else from last year. I watch movies, but I love to read more. Always have.
Mostly, the books on the list were recommended by friends, chosen by the men’s book discussion club that I belong to, or else assigned by the professor in the seminary class I took last fall.
Seminary class assignments:
Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor (A novel, maybe my first novel ever in the Southern Gothic genre.)
Re-enchanting the Text, Cheryl Bridges Johns (I liked what this book set out to do, but didn’t like how it got there, a comment I expressed in class discussion.)
Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems, Rita Dove (Was worth the class tuition to be introduced to this poet. As it turned out, it was the second volume of poetry I read in 2023.)
Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God, Malcolm Guite
Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art, Yukiko Weichbrodt
Men’s book discussion club choices:
[The thing I like about the men’s book discussion group - from the First Presbyterian Church in Holland, Michigan - is that the group chooses books I might not otherwise have chosen.]
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, David Grann
How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, Siddharth Kara (If you read this, you’ll feel guilty about carrying a cellphone.)
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, Timothy Egan (I understand Indiana much better now.)
Books I read for my current book project, which is sort of a travel memoir:
The Salt Path, Raynor Winn
Blue Highways, William Least Heat-Moon (I can’t believe I waited so many years to read this one. It’s beautifully written, but also moving in some unexpected ways.)
A Time to Keep Silence, Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton (A Swiss author who lives in the U.K. and writes in English. It’s beautifully written.)
Books I read because of the last church I served (American Protestant Church in the Hague)
Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End, Bart D. Ehrman (I attended a class at my church on the Book of Revelation - and was so horrified by the content that I immediately ordered this book to make sure I knew what scholars actually say about this book of the Bible.
On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old, Parker J. Palmer (A very thoughtful farewell gift and another way for the church to tell me that my useful life as a pastor is over.)
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan (A member of the church read this and was so troubled by it that she asked me to read it. I did and assured her that the contents are taught at most theological seminaries in the U.S.)
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, Carl R. Trueman (This was a going-away gift from a church member who worried that the church was being too gracious with its welcome.)
Because the authors are friends
Practicing to Walk Like a Heron, Jack Ridl (A fine volume of poetry by someone who taught English for many years at Hope College and has a writers conference named in his honor. I feel honored that he read my Chasing After Wind.)
Why Did Jesus Die and What Does That Have to Do with Me? Fred R. Anderson (Fred was the senior pastor who took a chance on me when I first graduated from seminary.)
Novels just for fun
The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese (His first novel, Cutting for Stone, was so good that I couldn’t wait to read his next. It did not disappoint, though be fore-warned: it is nearly 800 pages.)
The Warden (Chronicles of Barsetshire, #1), Anthony Trollope (I heard a wonderful lecture about this novel last fall and immediately went to Amazon to order it. As it turned out, I ordered all 47 of Trollope’s historical novels for 99 cents…on my Kindle.)
The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams (I cried while reading this one. And if you love the Oxford English Dictionary, you might find this fascinating.)
(Photo: I celebrated the last week of the year reading in La Mesa, California.)
His prose may be an acquired taste, but I'd love to hear your reaction.
Thanks for sharing. The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton (A Swiss author who lives in the U.K. and writes in English. It’s beautifully written.)
I often see his work cited or featured in monocle Magazine.