Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2024!
As promised in my previous post, here’s my 2023 reading summary – drum roll, please….
Books Read in 2023
Total Books: 60 Total Pages: 19167 Average: 319 Longest: 1045 Shortest: 83
Genres: 10 (Adventure Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction, Biography, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, Mystery, Mythology, Thriller, Travel)
Most Read Genre: Thriller\Mystery – 35
Most Read Authors: Vince Milam – 12; Chad Zunker – 5; LJ Ross – 4
Of the 60 books read this year, I bought 16, borrowed 35 on Kindle Unlimited, acquired 7 via Amazon First Reads, and got the final 2 via Kindle Rewards credits. The longest and shortest books read were both travel guides – Rick Steves’ Iceland (highly recommended) and Iceland Travel Guide 2023 by Stuart Hartley (don’t waste your time – get Alda Sigmundsdottir’s 128-page The Little Book of the Icelanders instead).
Favorites
With so many books read this year – a new record for me – I have several “favorites” this past year which I’ll discuss in the order read.
The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict. Benedict has written several biographical historical fiction books about women whose contributions and influences were often overshadowed, usurped, or ignored.
In this case, Hedy Lamarr’s (yes, that Hedy Lamarr) contribution to something we all take for granted today – wireless communication – wi-fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. Lamarr’s life story is fascinating, and Benedict does an excellent job of portraying the many obstacles she overcame with both her beauty and her brain. I also read Benedict’s The Carnegie Maid and The Other Einstein this year. Of course, The Only Woman in the Room, intrigued me the most as I could relate to being “the only woman in the room” many times in my IT career.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. This series of now four books was recommended to me by a friend at Baylor softball who has season tickets adjacent to us. She’s always reading between innings! I actually paid for the first 3 and devoured them in about a week.
The series is set in the UK at a retirement village where four septuagenarian residents meet weekly under the auspices of the Japanese Opera Club, but actually they are discussing cold cases and don’t want to attract attention as “the Thursday Murder Club”! The characters are delightful, and I immediately started assigning actors and actresses to portray them in a movie in my mind. However, I see that it is set to become a movie produced by Steven Spielberg – I can’t wait to see the real cast! But I’m going to be really disappointed if Helen Mirren and Dame Judi Dench aren’t Elizabeth and Joyce respectively, but they could flip roles, too, and I’d be happy. Also, in my mind, Ibrahim is Ben Kingsley and Ron is Donald Sutherland. Read it and convince me otherwise!
The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis. This was a well-written, highly satisfying multi-faceted story with dual timelines and a bit of mystery to solve for antique book dealer, Ashlyn Greer. This may have been my overall favorite book of the year. I plan to read more books by Barbara Davis.
The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen is the first in what I hope will be a long-running “Martini Club” series. A retired group of CIA spies are the “martini club” in a sleepy Maine town – what could go wrong? Having read Gerritsen’s Rizzoli & Isles series over a decade ago, I was excited to gobble up this Amazon First Reads selection from October.
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. This is my final “favorite” for the year and the competitor with The Echo of Old Books for my overall favorite this year. It’s another murder story within a story (within another story) format, or is it? I’ve not read another quite like it that I can recall. Definitely an engaging page turner – or in my case, a Kindle app scroller!
My most books read in a month was 10 in October – 10 books for the 10th month, I guess! I think I was making up for August and September. I only completed 1 book in August and 1 in September – both in preparation for our Iceland trip (see Note 1 – Note 25) which took up most of my time in August and September. I slogged through both The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson translated by Jesse Byock and Independent People by Halldor Laxness, introduction by Brad Leithauser (translator unknown), not finishing Independent People until after we returned. Much like the main character in Independent People, I was stubborn to finish all 506 pages of it! While it is a Noble Prize winner for Literature – I could have and perhaps should have stopped after reading the introduction. It may have been the most frustrating and depressing story I’ve ever read – thanks to the main character who was stubbornly independent to his own detriment and those around him. Definitely not on my favorite list, but yet, it has also frustratingly stuck with me – maybe that’s why it won a Noble Prize? Did I mention it was frustrating???
I’m looking forward to reading more of my favorite authors in 2024 while discovering some new ones, too! What are you looking forward to reading in 2024?
Notes By Nancy 
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