I read 103 books in 2023. This is my seventh consecutive year of reading 100 books.
2022: 102 books (favorites list)
2021: 110 books (favorites list)
2020: 106 books (favorites list)
2019: 105 books (favorites list)
2018: 111 books (favorites list)
2017: 100 books (favorites list)
Here is my list of favorites for the year. I want to stress that these are my favorite books that I read in 2023, most were released in previous years.
Book of the Year
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
This book made me cry. Multiple times. Double eyed, ugly cry. No shame here. This is a beautiful book. I’m tempted to discuss how it is a powerful portrayal of community but I’m fearful of Berry’s warning:
NOTICE
Persons attempting to find a “text” in this book will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a “subtext” in this book will be banished; persons attempting to explain, interpret, explicate, analyze, deconstruct, or otherwise “understand” it will be exiled to a desert island in the company only of other explainers.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR
So just read a few Amazon reviews … but don’t believe the negative ones.
Book of the Year Runner Up
Goodbye to a River by John Graves
A masterpiece. This is the type of book I desire to write. It is majestic prose centered on the love of a particular place. It also has the best last line of a book that I have ever read. After being asked if he traversed the river, “All by yourself?” the book concludes:
“Not exactly,” I said. “I had a dog.”
This is my first John Graves book. I’ll now work my way through his entire catalog.
Biography
King: A Life by Jonathon Eig
This is the first major MLK biography in decades and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. The book reaffirms what we already knew to be true. Martin Luther King Jr., like all people, was a complicated man. He was a serial adulterer and plagiarizer, but also a passionate Baptist preacher and civil rights leader. The book gives much attention to MLK’s origin story along with his cast of associates. I checked this one out from the library. I’ll be on the hunt for a cheap copy to keep.
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Ok. Ok. Ok. I’m a little embarrassed by this one. This book had a spot on my Amazon Wish List ever since it was first released. I contemplated purchasing it at least a dozen times, but I always passed. Then the blockbuster movie, Oppenheimer, was released. I saw it. I was wowed (minus two completely unnecessary sex scenes). I went to my local library and put my name on the waiting list for a copy. I should have read it sooner. It is a 700 page biography that never drags.
Nature/Adventure
Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks
Hawks woke up after a night of drinking to find a note: “I hereby bet Tony Hawks the sum of one hundred pounds that he cannot hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month.” He was up to the challenge. This book documents a hilarious trip around the circumference of Ireland with – you guessed it – a fridge. It can be mildly crude at moments, but it is a delightful read.
I’ll Take the High Road by Bob Blake
Purchased in the bookstore in the Milwaukee airport, Renaissance Books. This might carry the title of “My Favorite Bookstore.” It is filled with vintage books for cheap. Always a highlight of my mission trips to Milwaukee.
Bob Blake looked out his classroom window as a law student at Harvard, closed his books, and set out on a round-the-world adventure. The book chronicles 16 months of travel. Blake landed a job as a seaman on the SS Odyssey. After debarking the ship, he picked up Alexander the Great’s route of conquest throughout the Middle East. It provides a year vacation without needing to board a ship or plane.
History
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
On the surface level it is a discussion of the 1986 fire which destroyed the Los Angeles Public Library and more than a million books. On a deeper level it is a testimony the the power of a library and the impact of books. Also weaved into the book is the story of the man behind the fire. The book is a bit of everything – history, investigative journalism, true crime, and biography.
Religious Studies
To Be a Woman: The Confusion Over Female Identity and How Christians Can Respond by Katie McCoy
This book makes sense. More than that, it makes a powerful argument. It recounts contemporary controversies over recent gender theories and combats them with reason, research, and the Bible.
From the book’s promotional material, McCoy’s work will help you understand:
- Why, as a culture, we’ve arrived in such a place of gender confusion
- What the relationship is between biological sex and gender, and why this relationship is so crucial
- The truth about gender transitioning, including the irreversible damage of hormone therapy on the female human body
- Common myths and misunderstandings in the gender debate
- What Scripture and science have to say on the matter
- Ways to respond in a Christlike way to loved ones struggling with gender identity
Biblical Studies
The Invitation: A Simple Guide to the Bible by Eugene Peterson
This book is brilliance and poetry. Each chapter summarizes a book of the Bible in powerful prose. Peterson is able to capture the author’s intended message in each book, while maintaining the ability to turn a phrase. This is a great example of the reason I love Peterson. He provides both substance and style. His love for scripture and the craft of writing is evident. Pick this one up! It is an under-read Peterson volume.
Collection of Letters
The Major and the Missionary: The Letters of Warren Hamilton Lewis and Blanche Biggs edited by Diana Pavloc Glyer
I am a fan of letter collections. This one documents correspondence between Major Warren Lewis, the brother of CS Lewis, and Blanche Biggs, a missionary doctor to Papua New Guinea. The letter collection is complete. Dr. Biggs kept a carbon copy of her letters and the original letters received from Lewis. The correspondence began with Dr. Biggs inquiring about CS Lewis Letters edited by Warren Lewis. She wanted to know how the letters survived and also asked for advice concerning her personal hoarded letters. Lewis responded and sparked a 5-year back-and-forth. It’s charming.
Collection of Sermons
Lights a Lovely Mile: Collected Sermons of the Church Year by Eugene Peterson
My admiration for the work of Peterson has been documented in many places. To include right: here. The number of Peterson volumes I’ve read has only increased since the total mentioned in the provided link. This is due in part to new volumes releasing even after Peterson’s death – to include this work. Lights A Lovely Mile is a collection of Peterson sermons sectioned into portions of the church calendar. You get sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time.
Each sermon is lovely. Each sermon is classic Peterson. Enjoy.
Spiritual Life
Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff
This is a beautiful work comprised of journal entries lamenting the loss of Wolterstorff’s 25 year-old son in a tragic accident. It is raw and honest. It is also filled with insightful theological observations. The key sign of a great book: The desire to read it out loud to those around you. My wife heard a number of these pages while next to me in bed.
This is not the type of book you’d pass along to those suffering with grief. Rather, it’s the type of book you pass along to everyone, knowing that some will someday be devastated by loss.
Liturgy
Every Moment Holy Volume II: Death, Grief, and Hope by Douglas McKelvey
This did not appear on my monthly book logs, but it was a constant companion through the year. It is not a book but a collection of prayers focused upon death. Powerful. The forward is one of the best pieces of writing on discipleship I’ve ever encountered. I put it up there with any work of Bonhoeffer. From the forward:
From the moment of our baptism into the death of Jesus, we begin the practice of dying by degrees – dying to self and to our self-centered pursuits of anything that wars against our vocation as disciples. We begin the long, sanctifying process of taking up our crosses each day, seeking to crucify those parts of our hearts that yet cry Me! and Mine!, and surrendering piece-by-piece those territories of our souls we had so long claimed as our own, now submitting them instead to the lordship of Christ.
I recommend all three volumes of the Every Moment Holy series.
Jeff Gravens 
It is very interesting to read your perspective on so many different types of books. It has inspired me to broaden my reading topics in 2024.
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