2023 Reading Year in Review

2023

I read 21 individual works: 11 novels/novellas; one Sherlock Holmes short story;  one Shakespearean comedy; one biography; three other works of non-fiction; three Christmas reads; and The Bible: 1 Corinthians thru The Revelation.

 

 

Novels:

Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

Daphnis and Chloe by Longus

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers

Killing Floor (Jack Reacher series #1) by Lee Child

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm

 

 

Sherlock Holmes short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb

 

 

Shakespeare Comedy:

The Taming of the Shrew

 

 

Biography:

James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham

 

 

Non-Fiction:

Thru the Bible: Volume 5 by J. Vernon McGee

Doing Life with Your Adult Children by Jim Burns

The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis

 

 

Christmas reads:

A Letter from Santa by Mark Twain

The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

Christmas Bells, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

I completed two Reading Challenges:

What’s in a Name? 2023

A Literary Christmas 2023

 

 

And finally, I read 2 books for The Classics Club, thus completing Round III, and I read another 5 for Round IV.

 

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Christmas Tales 2023

The Magi honored the Christ child with three gifts. 

In honor of the magi, I read three Christmas tales each December. My Christmas reads are also part of A Literary Christmas – sponsored by In the Bookcase 

 

 

 

A Letter from Santa Claus by Mark Twain

A letter Twain wrote to his three-year-old daughter Suzie. Writing as Santa he explains that he got her and her sister’s letters and that he would fulfill all he could. He directs Suzie to take certain actions, to which he will respond, all to keep the fantasy of Santa alive for his daughter. It is of course very sweet, with a bit of Twain’s humor coming out in Santa. 

 

The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

As you would expect from the creator of Peter Rabbit, this is a sweet tale with anthropomorphized animals, kindly but sometimes inept humans, and a happy ending. The only surprise was the eventual peace and cooperation between the tailor’s cat, Simpkin, and the mice. It is beautifully illustrated by Potter.

 

Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A poem, which is now the carol we know as I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. It is one of my favorite carols, though it is absolutely essential to sing the final two stanzas (as opposed to the practice of picking a couple stanzas at random). Some hymn books do not include all seven stanzas, but I believe they always include the final two, and as I say, you cannot omit those two.

Wadsworth wrote it as the American Civil War raged. It is his lament that there was no peace on earth. I think we can relate. He was near despair, and then…

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not Dead; nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail

With peace on Earth, good-will to men!”

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

          ~ The Wanderer

 

May you be blessed with

the spirit of the season, which is Peace,

the gladness of the season, which is Hope,

and the heart of the season, which is Love

 

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A Literary Christmas 2023

Brought to you by In the Bookcase

 

 

The Rules are simple – pick your Christmas reads for 2023, write a blog post about them, and link back to In the Bookcase.

 

I honor of the Magi, who brought the Christ child three gifts, I read three Christmas tales each December. This year I will be reading:

 

A Letter from Santa Claus by Mark Twain

 

Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(now more commonly known as I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day)

 

The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

 

 

Have a Blessed Christmas

The Wanderer

 

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