Great suggestions! My favorite this year in the thriller category (open the envelope please) was "Never Lie" by Freida McFadden. If my memory keeps getting worse, I'm going to read it again because I think I'll forget who dunnit and get surprised all over again. In the biography category was "All My Knotted Up Life" by Beth Moore. I got the audiobooks in both of these. Beth reads her own book in her homey accent, and I learned so much about how you never know what people are dealing with when they look so put together.
Thank you so much for including Memorizing Scripture!! I'm honored and blessed to know it was so helpful for you.
I started Leave the World Behind and the writing (and smut) was so unbelievably forced that I quit after the second chapter. It left such a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed like the author was trying so hard to show that he was a good writer that his sentences were clunky, similes ridiculous, and his tone pretentious. I don't normally hate books so much, but I really hated this one.
I wish I hadn’t finished Leave the World Behind. I completely agree with you about the writing. I kept reading to see how it was going to end, and then I was just mad. Such a waste.
Dec 30, 2023·edited Dec 30, 2023Liked by Erin Mount
I read the Harrison book - it's a funny dumpster fire - worth the read but borrow don't buy would be my recommendation!
I'm in a slow read group for War and Peace next year. I'm also going to keep reading Agatha Christie books (you've picked a good one!) And I'm reading through my personal collection of poetry books. I'm making a list of all my friends and families Favorite Books Ever and want to read through those too! This may take me more than a year!
Same! I've been on it forever it seems like! In fact, my account is under my old email address (with my maiden name), and I cannot even log into the account on my computer because I cannot get into my email.
I love booklists! Thanks for sharing yours. Memorizing scripture was also on my favourites list for this year, another I really enjoyed was Help for the Hungry Soul by Kristen Wetherell.
Love this! 47 is a lot! I need to look at my lists and see if I ever read more.
I didn’t have a DNF list before this year, but I’m so glad I started it. There were only two I didn’t finish: The Rules Do Not Apply and Soul Boom. But it made me much happier with what I did finish even if they weren’t all favorites. TBF, Soul Boom wasn’t terrible. But it’s maybe twice as long as it needs to be, and when my loan expired I just didn’t bother to renew it. I do think Rainn Wilson has some interesting things to say. Favorites were Demon Copperhead, How to Stay Married, Sorry I’m Late, All My Knotted Up Life (the grace with which Beth Moore tells her story is astonishing!), and a few others. I also have been trying to make it a point every year to reread (or sometimes read because I missed them in high school or college) a classic. This year I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Highly recommend both, and doing the audiobook for Their Eyes.
This is great. I did not finish Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield - it was supposed to be funny, like female SNL writer with a movie star. It was so not funny. I felt like you where I was angry for days after! I also refused to finish (and I generally always finish books) Lessons in Chemistry. I felt like I was being lectured 😡
Demon Copperhead was one of my favourite reads of the year. I also read the next Cormoran Strike novel yesterday - The Running Grave (it’s nearly 1000 pages and 100% worth it). It’s a private detective thriller series by JK Rowling under a pseudonym (Robert Galbraith) each with mystery for each book and a will-they, won’t-they slow burn romance with the two detectives throughout the book. If you like thrillers, you should like this 💛
Ohhh, I feel you on Lessons in Chemistry. That almost made my list of worst books, and I wish I hadn’t finished it. I read several of the Cormoran Strike books but then lost steam. They are SO long!
Dec 30, 2023·edited Dec 30, 2023Liked by Erin Mount
Oh Erin, I hear you! "Life is too short to read books you don't like." And DNF is such a freeing designation on Goodreads, yes?
I was tickled to see someone else with a high number of fiction reads on their list--I need more inspiration these last few years, not more information.
Here's a brief wrap up of some of my favorites:
Malcolm Guite's "Lifting the Veil--Imagination and the Kingdom of God" is non fiction that's inspiring...
Classics like The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy delighted and enchanted me.
A book I received for my birthday would be a the top of the list this year--Remarkably Bright Creatures--genre defying story line and stellar writing!
I'm currently working my way through a biography of L.M. Montgomery which is intriguing....
Just started a new Miss Read Omnibus of Fairacre stories.
Best poetry collection I read (besides mine :-) is Abigail Carroll's "Cup my Days Like Water."
Worst book? The Extraordinary life of Sam Hell. Written like a collection of 372 essays divided into chapters. (I'm exaggerating), hardly a through line to the book, way too graphic tho' the ending was somewhat redemptive (I simply skipped like 40 "chapters" to get to the end.
Published by Amazon Publishing (not KDP) and woefully edited. Yes, I have thoughts.....
I would like to read more Malcolm Guite poems. What I have read, I really loved. And I started Remarkably Bright Creatures, but I had a hard time getting into it, and then my loan ended. I did love the octopus!
I want to read some biographies this year. LM Montgomery would be a good pick!
Ohhhhhhhhh..... yes, all of Malcolm's work is rich, indeed. I'd encourage you to re-dive into Remarkably Bright Creatures if you can. The plot thickens :-)
L.M. Montgomery's story is interesting, I've learned a lot!
I finished “Spare,” but I’ve followed the BRF off and on for decades. My interest started when my aunt dropped off a garbage bag filled with secondhand clothes and Princess Diana books at my parents’ house. My mom had no interest, but as a young girl I was fascinated by all of the glossy photos of Princess Diana in her wedding gown and other outfits.
Great suggestions! My favorite this year in the thriller category (open the envelope please) was "Never Lie" by Freida McFadden. If my memory keeps getting worse, I'm going to read it again because I think I'll forget who dunnit and get surprised all over again. In the biography category was "All My Knotted Up Life" by Beth Moore. I got the audiobooks in both of these. Beth reads her own book in her homey accent, and I learned so much about how you never know what people are dealing with when they look so put together.
I read Never Lie, too! It also kept me guessing. And yes, Beth Moore’s book was really powerful.
Thank you so much for including Memorizing Scripture!! I'm honored and blessed to know it was so helpful for you.
I started Leave the World Behind and the writing (and smut) was so unbelievably forced that I quit after the second chapter. It left such a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed like the author was trying so hard to show that he was a good writer that his sentences were clunky, similes ridiculous, and his tone pretentious. I don't normally hate books so much, but I really hated this one.
I wish I hadn’t finished Leave the World Behind. I completely agree with you about the writing. I kept reading to see how it was going to end, and then I was just mad. Such a waste.
I read the Harrison book - it's a funny dumpster fire - worth the read but borrow don't buy would be my recommendation!
I'm in a slow read group for War and Peace next year. I'm also going to keep reading Agatha Christie books (you've picked a good one!) And I'm reading through my personal collection of poetry books. I'm making a list of all my friends and families Favorite Books Ever and want to read through those too! This may take me more than a year!
Oh, that’s a fun idea to make a favorite books list!
Demon Copperhead is on my TBR for the coming year as well!
I wonder if anyone in book club has read it!
I love Goodreads!!
I read in Five Years a few years ago, and I remember loving it, but not much else. But I had friends who read it and hated it. 😆
I’m firmly in the camp of if I start a book and I’m not into it, I don’t force myself to finish. There are too many good books to read!
Thanks for sharing your list with us!!
Goodreads is so much fun for me! I know others have made a shift to Storygraph, but I haven’t yet. I have a lot invested in Goodreads at this point. 😂
Same! I've been on it forever it seems like! In fact, my account is under my old email address (with my maiden name), and I cannot even log into the account on my computer because I cannot get into my email.
I love booklists! Thanks for sharing yours. Memorizing scripture was also on my favourites list for this year, another I really enjoyed was Help for the Hungry Soul by Kristen Wetherell.
I have heard good things about the Wetherell book! I like her writing.
Love this! 47 is a lot! I need to look at my lists and see if I ever read more.
I didn’t have a DNF list before this year, but I’m so glad I started it. There were only two I didn’t finish: The Rules Do Not Apply and Soul Boom. But it made me much happier with what I did finish even if they weren’t all favorites. TBF, Soul Boom wasn’t terrible. But it’s maybe twice as long as it needs to be, and when my loan expired I just didn’t bother to renew it. I do think Rainn Wilson has some interesting things to say. Favorites were Demon Copperhead, How to Stay Married, Sorry I’m Late, All My Knotted Up Life (the grace with which Beth Moore tells her story is astonishing!), and a few others. I also have been trying to make it a point every year to reread (or sometimes read because I missed them in high school or college) a classic. This year I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Their Eyes Were Watching God. Highly recommend both, and doing the audiobook for Their Eyes.
This is great. I did not finish Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfield - it was supposed to be funny, like female SNL writer with a movie star. It was so not funny. I felt like you where I was angry for days after! I also refused to finish (and I generally always finish books) Lessons in Chemistry. I felt like I was being lectured 😡
Demon Copperhead was one of my favourite reads of the year. I also read the next Cormoran Strike novel yesterday - The Running Grave (it’s nearly 1000 pages and 100% worth it). It’s a private detective thriller series by JK Rowling under a pseudonym (Robert Galbraith) each with mystery for each book and a will-they, won’t-they slow burn romance with the two detectives throughout the book. If you like thrillers, you should like this 💛
Ohhh, I feel you on Lessons in Chemistry. That almost made my list of worst books, and I wish I hadn’t finished it. I read several of the Cormoran Strike books but then lost steam. They are SO long!
Hahahah yes they are long! The BBC made them into a mini series for each book. Maybe that’s better for you! 🙌🏼
Oh Erin, I hear you! "Life is too short to read books you don't like." And DNF is such a freeing designation on Goodreads, yes?
I was tickled to see someone else with a high number of fiction reads on their list--I need more inspiration these last few years, not more information.
Here's a brief wrap up of some of my favorites:
Malcolm Guite's "Lifting the Veil--Imagination and the Kingdom of God" is non fiction that's inspiring...
Classics like The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy delighted and enchanted me.
A book I received for my birthday would be a the top of the list this year--Remarkably Bright Creatures--genre defying story line and stellar writing!
I'm currently working my way through a biography of L.M. Montgomery which is intriguing....
Just started a new Miss Read Omnibus of Fairacre stories.
Best poetry collection I read (besides mine :-) is Abigail Carroll's "Cup my Days Like Water."
Worst book? The Extraordinary life of Sam Hell. Written like a collection of 372 essays divided into chapters. (I'm exaggerating), hardly a through line to the book, way too graphic tho' the ending was somewhat redemptive (I simply skipped like 40 "chapters" to get to the end.
Published by Amazon Publishing (not KDP) and woefully edited. Yes, I have thoughts.....
Anyway....Thanks for asking. Here's to reading!
I would like to read more Malcolm Guite poems. What I have read, I really loved. And I started Remarkably Bright Creatures, but I had a hard time getting into it, and then my loan ended. I did love the octopus!
I want to read some biographies this year. LM Montgomery would be a good pick!
Ohhhhhhhhh..... yes, all of Malcolm's work is rich, indeed. I'd encourage you to re-dive into Remarkably Bright Creatures if you can. The plot thickens :-)
L.M. Montgomery's story is interesting, I've learned a lot!
I finished “Spare,” but I’ve followed the BRF off and on for decades. My interest started when my aunt dropped off a garbage bag filled with secondhand clothes and Princess Diana books at my parents’ house. My mom had no interest, but as a young girl I was fascinated by all of the glossy photos of Princess Diana in her wedding gown and other outfits.