I don’t remember a time before I could read. For my entire life, books have been a comfort and a friend. In good times or in bad, when at home or away, for pleasure or for some specific goal, reading has been my companion. I’m pleased to share with you the list of books I read in 2023.
The first theme I noticed this year was the enduring power of certain classics. Both Killing Commendatore by the Japanese magical realist Haruki Murakami and The Guest by Emma Cline were inspired by The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s tragedy of wealth and desire has resonance today. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is a retelling of Dickens’ David Copperfield (and a rebuttal to J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy). And Lessons in Chemistryby Bonnie Garmus imagines the realities of a life like Kate Murray’s, the mother from A Wrinkle in Time. I recommend all these books, as well as the classics they draw from. It was much more rewarding to read The Great Gatsby now than when I was assigned it in high school.
I continue to love genre fiction, especially science fiction, fantasy and mysteries. The Broken Tower by Kelly Braffet, the second installment in her fantasy trilogy, is the best thing she’s written yet. Recurrence Plot is a strange and wonderful time travel novel by activist and artist Rasheedah Phillips. The fantasy novel Little, Big by John Crowley (first published in 1980) has stayed with me, even though not all of its themes have aged well over the past 40 years. Classics and science fiction came together in reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for the first time. I was surprised at how modern it felt in its musings on mothering, gender and identity.
Some books are practical. Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat has my dinners tasting better. My family now cooks with a bowl of kosher salt available for liberal use on the kitchen counter. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer was a revelation. How had I not read this sooner? That book and Honoring the Body by Stephanie Paulsell are both heavy influences on my preaching this year.
This year I’m listing the books in the order in which I read them. In past years I’ve split them up into fiction, poetry, essays, etc.; but my reading doesn’t actually proceed that way. I might read a book of essays for the joy of learning something new (like QED by Richard Feynman); I might read a novel to help me with a sermon (like Apeirogon by Colum McCann). Reading isn’t based on genre or even form. It is simply a lifelong friend, one I look forward to spending more time with in the year to come. As always, let me know what you’re reading right now!
In faith,
Rev. Sarah Stewart
Books I Read in 2023
A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz (audiobook)
Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuan
52 Ways to Ignite Your Congregation: Practical Hospitality by Randy Hammer
Babies and Their Mothers by D. W. Winnicott
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (audiobook)
The Broken Tower by Kelly Braffet
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
The Black Christ by Kelly Brown Douglas
Little, Big by John Crowley
Decolonizing the Body: Healing, Body-Centered Practices for Women of Color to Reclaim Confidence, Dignity & Self-Worth by Kelsey Blackwell
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread)
Bizarre Romance by Audrey Niffenegger, illustrated by Eddie Campbell
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Recurrence Plot by Rasheedah Phillips
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James
Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat, illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
It by Stephen King (reread)
Honoring the Body: Meditations on a Christian Practice by Stephanie Paulsell
Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami, trans. Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen
Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
The River Why by David James Duncan
Red Lip Theology: For Church Girls Who’ve Considered Tithing to the Beauty Supply Store When Sunday Morning Isn’t Enough by Candice Marie Benbow
Old Babes in the Woods: Stories by Margaret Atwood
Tales of Moonlight and Rain by Uyeda Akinari, trans. Kengi Hamada
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (reread)
The Curator by Owen King
Vladimir by Julia May Jonas
The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror and of Life on the Move by Sonia Shah
The Spare Room by Andrea Bartz
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Anthony Horowitz
The Prisoner by Marcel Proust, trans. Carol Clark
Without: Poems by Donald Hall
Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry by Margaret J. Marcuson (reread)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Apeirogon by Colum McCann
Prom Mom by Laura Lippman
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (audiobook)
QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard P. Feynman
Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, ed. Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca
Gravity: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Clifton
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (audiobook)
A Certain Justice by P. D. James
The Guest by Emma Cline
