My Baker’s Dozen of Top 2023 Reads

Another year is very nearly in the books, so to say, which means it’s time to reflect on the assortment of tomes I’ve read over the past 52 weeks. I was pleased to ever-so-slightly surpass my Goodreads goal of reading 45 books in 2023. Looking back over the list, I couldn’t settle on an individual favorite or rank the top 3 or 4. Instead, honors for 13 different books I most enjoyed are spelled out below (arranged in the order I read them):

• Inside One of the Modern World’s Most Influential Lives: Many months before learning about the existence of the biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix, I plowed through Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts. Rich in narrative detail with coherent and compelling analysis of the Corsican emperor’s rise and fall from power, this book must stand as an essential Napoleon Bonaparte biography.
• Professional Insights for the Aging: Have you advanced in your career but find frustration that your familiar skill sets have deteriorated or shifted? Arthur Brooks’ From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness And Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life helped me understand why, giving encouraging and practical advice that I’ve since been able to translate into a professional role with more managerial responsibilities.
• Moving, Compelling, Memorable: In The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah weaves a masterful tale through the eyes of two French sisters who endure and resist the harrowing occupation of their homeland by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. This seems to have become a rich milieu for modern works of historical fiction, but I found this 2015 award-winner particularly moving.
• Unbelievable Quest for Survival: We often use the word “incredible” too lightly. But in the case of the harrowing Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, the subtitle may undersell the retelling of an ambitious early 20th century expedition to the South Pole that goes wrong, unfolding a long, cold quest for survival.
• The Highest Pursuit: A very different kind of classic, A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God does not take long to read but lives up to its esteemed billing. The Christian earnestly seeking a stronger bond with his or her Savior can glean much from the author’s earnest spiritual passion and keen insights.
• Imaginative Retelling of Trauma Redeemed: There are probably several different ways to peruse the unique, page-turning Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Push through the opening part of this immigrant’s childhood memoir, blended with colorful shreds of Persian mythology, and you’ll find a richly rewarding tribute with depth beyond its narrator’s glib and lighthearted style.
• The Latest from Today’s Master of Fiction: After being introduced to (and devouring) The Gentleman from Moscow, I looked for other works by the author. Amor Towles’ The Lincoln Highway did not disappoint in the least – excellent characterizations, pacing, and plot twists crisply told in the backdrop of 1950s America. A finely crafted novel takes time, and so I may have to wait impatiently for his next masterwork.
• You Might Delay Coming Up for Air: You won’t regret picking up a copy of Robert Kurson’s Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II. Just be sure to set aside enough time for this rich retelling of a subterranean quest-turned-obsession to identify U-boat wreckage off the Atlantic coast, and better appreciate the dangers of scuba diving.
• Mississippi Madness: I’m not sure how you might take The World’s Largest Man: A Memoir by Harrison Scott Key. But I found the offbeat tribute by the bookish author to his thoroughly redneck dad ultimately endearing, even as laughter at the quirky mélange of Mississippi characters (most especially the larger-than-life title character) kept bursting forth at regular intervals.
• Humanizing D-Day: I’ve found reading any obscure World War II-era tale revived by Alex Kershaw to be consistently worthwhile reading experience. No regrets about going back to read one of his earliest works that brings back to life an epic historical event through the poignant experience of one small Virginia town: The Bedford Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-Day Sacrifice.
• ‘As God Gives Us to See the Right’: From one who has studied the U.S. Civil War extensively and has a deep appreciation for Lincoln’s consequential presidency. Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln by Edward Achorn paints an exceptionally vivid picture of the scenes and players — prominent and obscure — in the days surrounding Lincoln’s solemn declaration of the waning war’s higher purposes.
• Rich Food for Thought: This book, recommended by a thoughtful friend, almost merits a separate category. James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World gave this slow-learning disciple a lot to chew on. It certainly challenges some prevailing views about how Western Christians should engage with the world.
• Amazing and Even More Sobering: The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland left a deep impression, especially reading it in the light of Israel’s military response to the Hamas massacre. The protagonist Rudi’s life defies simple adulation, but his remarkable escape from a Nazi death camp in 1944 saved many lives, despite being based on faulty assumptions.

Here’s to happy reading in 2024!