The Books of 2023

I Passed My Reading Goals for 2023

It was a weird year, but not a bad year for reading. I certainly had ups and downs, sometimes I just could not focus on reading anything in print so I relied heavily on audiobooks. Six of the 74 books I read were re-reads. I mostly stuck to fiction, but did read 12 non-fiction books. I read across many different genres, but fantasy took the lead with 34 books. I read some books with friends (one in London, one in Tennessee) based on a Nashville bookstore's reading challenge. I read other books with friends in my local book group. I completed the Popsugar Reading Challenge for the year.

I love books. I love going to the library. I love getting free kindle first reads. I love logging my reading on Goodreads and StoryGraph. I love talking about books with friends and reading books that friends share with me. I don't watch a lot of tv or movies. I escape into books. 

Apparently I like to read adventurous, emotional, dark, and mysterious books. 

Here are a few of my very favorite reads from the year:

• This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel - My first read of 2023 and I still think of it from time to time. The family connection, the struggle, the acceptance, and the love. A well written heartwarming story. 
• Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson - Lighthearted, silly, adventurous, with the character development and storytelling I've come to expect from Sanderson. If you read anything from my list, read this one. Please. 
• Hail Mary by Andy Weir - A reread for me, but I just have to mention it again because the audiobook version of this tale is so very good. 
• The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell - Beautiful storytelling! Historical fiction set in Renaissance Florence following a daughter in the Medici family. 
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver - A story that shines a light on the people surviving institutional poverty, the foster system, and our present day opioid crisis with lovable characters that I keep thinking about weeks later. A heavy topic presented in a way that is truly beautiful. 
• Belladonna and Foxglove by Adalyn Grace - Murder mystery ghost story type fairytales with fun characters and plot twists. Not too heavy, easy to digest tales. I just really loved the audiobooks of these. 

All of the books, in reverse order to how I read them...

Did you read any books in 2023? Any recommendations for me? What books or stories do you love?

I'm hoping 2024 brings me many happy hours with books for company, and I hope your new year is filled with the hobbies that bring you joy and relaxation. :) 

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*Currently Reading: A Power Unbound by Freya Marks (audiobook) & slowly working my way through The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (paperback)

No No November

There are only four days left in my favorite month. November really flew by in a blur.

First, some good parts: 

The kids and I attended a Dia de los Muertos celebration at our local library. I went to book group with friends. I celebrated my birthday and my friends made me feel special. I bought myself a boxed set of Jane Austen novels with birthday money from my extended family. I went to the movie theater to watch The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes with another mom and a bunch of middle schoolers. We had a lovely Thanksgiving at home with family and good food. Yesterday we celebrated friends at fun birthday parties.

Before the bad parts, let me introduce myself:

Hi, my name is Sarah and I care a lot. I think that's why I have built the life I live. I am primarily a parent, the organizer of and caregiver within my home. My career in veterinary medicine has always been about caring for others. My brief detour as an elementary school educator was also rooted in my desire to care for others and help them grow. 

Caring a lot is what I do. Also, I worry. 

I'm really skilled at waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about what will happen in the future. I can stay awake in the wee hours planning what I will do to make a scenario run smoothly the next day. Sometimes I can't plan my way around a situation, so I just imagine all of the possible outcomes and get nauseous. 

So, you can probably imagine how I was doing when October ended with a family member in the hospital. He was quickly diagnosed with several health issues, including a cancer called Multiple Myeloma. He's doing okay and is home now, but he is weak, fatigued, and well... fighting cancer. Thankfully, this particular type of cancer responds well to treatment, so hopefully it goes away fast. He lives around the corner from us, so my husband and I have been walking over there daily to visit him and offer any help we can. Also, because I'm a medical professional who is very skilled at caring and worrying, I really want to get involved in any way I can to make his medical experience less stressful and more successful. I'm helping him stay organized, I'm explaining things when his care teams fall short, and I'm giving lots of hugs. And sometimes, afterwards, I go home and cry. 

Next up in Bad News November, my dog has cancer. It's lymphoma. It can go into remission with treatment, but it always comes back. It kills dogs quickly. Thankfully, Myrtle feels well, is still extremely happy, pain free, and doing really well on steroids. However, we likely only have a couple of months together. We could have chosen to treat with chemo to buy an extra year or so of time, but that won't work very well for our lives right now. So, sometimes I lie awake at night and become increasingly nauseous. It's okay, I guess. 

November, November. You have hurt my heart this year. 

Guilt for Resting + 504x2

Springtime finally showed up! Yay! Also, Boo! It's too hot in the afternoons, my cork oak tree is pooping pollen everywhere, and my allergies are trying to kill me. I know that I will survive, but I also plan to spend time hiding indoors for the next week or two. That means my messy yard will just have to stay messy for a little while longer.  It's fine, I'm just feeling self-imposed, overachiever guilt associated with not getting my yard work done in a timely manner. 

Inhale. Exhale. Let it go.

In other Type-A, "Gift Child, Anxious Adult" news: I'm trying to rest this week. Last week was busy with my usual chaotic/stressful work, overtime associated with my usual chaotic/stressful work and working from home. It left me feeling like a zombie. So this week, in addition to avoiding outdoor chores that make me sneeze while my eyes itch and water, I am also NOT taking on more work inside my house. I'll still do my usual everything, but instead of cleaning the oven or mopping, or something extra special, I'm going to sit on my couch and take a virtual class for ME. I'm going to lie in the sun and read a book -but only for 20 minutes because it is hot out there and my pale skin will burn to a crisp- for myself. I'm going to sit here and compose this blog because writing makes me happy.

It's hard though, because I feel guilty for not doing something else... something that feels more like work.

Gah.

I'm trying to teach my kids that it's okay to rest. I think one of them gets it, the other one got my neuroses.  

I had a meeting at the school today. Now both of my kiddos have 504 Plans and accommodations in place to help them be successful students. It's not that I need them to be perfect students or anything, I just need them to feel good about themselves while they are in school. I don't want either of my kids to feel like they are dumb or failures for struggling in a classroom setting. Hence the 504s to provide some protections so they can be successful little unicorns in a system that wasn't made with individuality in mind.

Still, I'm grateful that children with certain health diagnoses that affect their experience in general education are entitled to accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Did you know the freaking ADA wasn't even a law until 1990? It only took 214 years of our nation's existence to guarantee equal access to public places, public schools, and employment to disabled citizens. America is such a shit show. I'm glad the ADA exists now. Better late than never, I guess?

This society is good at cranking out little workers for capitalism and leaving behind anyone who doesn't fit the mold perfectly. That's probably why I feel so wrong sitting on my couch for an hour in the middle of a Wednesday. 

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Currently Reading: In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune and Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell (on audiobook)