I read 52 books in 2023, which was an all-time record for me! I got invited to join a book club at the beginning of the year which really helped me get back into reading fiction.

I didn’t write as much this year, which I guess is a natural trade off – I find that I can only truly devote myself to so many hobbies at a time. This past year I focused on exercising (training for a half marathon) and reading.

Here was the breakdown of genres of books I read this year:

Religious/Spiritual – 14

Fiction – 20

Nonfiction – 12

Memoir – 6

Obviously “fiction” and “nonfiction” could be parsed out more, but I thought I’d leave it at that.

My top favorites for each genre were as follows:

Religious/Spiritual

Finding God in the Waves: How I Lost My Faith And Found It Again Through Science
_{Faith, Science, Spirituality}

I really wrestled with faith this year, and this book was one that was very helpful for me to read as I processed my feelings and tried to make sense of things. Mike McHargue, also known as “Science Mike,” is part of a podcast, “The Liturgists,” that I had listened to in the past, and I always enjoyed hearing his perspective on issues. He is not a black and white thinker, but is very comfortable in the grays, and this was helpful as I tried to balance faith and doubt, and realized that they could both coexist at the same time.

A few other books in this genre that I enjoyed were Love Wins by Rob Bell and How the Bible Actually Works by Peter Enns.

Fiction

The Measure
_{Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy}

It was hard to choose a favorite for fiction, but this book was probably the one I was the most captivated by this year. This was one my book club picked out, and I knew almost nothing about it when I started it. But once I did, I could NOT put it down! Imagine if you could know the exact date of when your life would end… what would that change for you? What if everyone on earth had the opportunity to know exactly when they would die? Would you get married or have kids if you knew you were going to die in your 30’s? What if the person you fell in love with ended up having an early expiration date? I loved how the author really let the scenarios play out of what might actually happen if people knew exactly when they were going to die. It brought up issues of discrimination against people who were determined to die early. For example, would you be required by your employer to share your death date?

There were so many other fiction books I loved this year!

Nonfiction

Good Inside: A Guide to Becoming the Parent You Want to Be
_{Parenting, Psychology, Self Help}

After I read this book, I shared it with some of my other mom friends and told them it was changing the way I was parenting my son. The premise of the book is that all kids are really good inside, and that when they act out or misbehave, they are probably in a state of dysregulation, and it’s our job as parents or caretakers to help them get regulated again to where they can make good choices. Instead of getting angry at our kids, we can reassure them, “You are a good kid having a hard time.” This is so important, especially if your kids have any perfectionistic tendencies, and they feel that any form of mistake or failure is a tragedy.

*And while we’re on the topic of perfectionistic tendencies, I found an amazing children’s book the other day at our local bookstore – A Kids Book About Failure. For any of you Enneagram 1s out there, this book is for you, too!

Memoir

The Woman in Me
_{Biography, Music, Mental Health}

I’ve already written an entire post on why I loved the Britney Spears memoir, but to recap, I think it was a really good example of how women are not always supported in their mental health struggles, but are sometimes written off as simply being emotional or “crazy.” I empathized with her struggles as a new mother, as she was trying to fight off depression as well as balance her career and home life.

A few other memoirs I enjoyed this year were Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton and I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki by Baek Se-hee.

I thought about including my least favorite book I read this year, but I didn’t want to end with such negativity. If you’re interested to see all 52 books I read in 2023, check out my Year in Books on Goodreads!