Tag: Stephanie Garber

2023 reading list

I here present, rather late, another instalment of my yearly reading list. Again, these are the books I finished reading this year, but I may have begun them previously.

  • Sands and Starlight, Charlotte E. English
  • Arm of the Sphinx, Josiah Bancroft
  • The Crimes of England, G.K. Chesterton
  • Call of the Bone Ships, R.J. Barker
  • Rob Roy, Walter Scott
  • Nevernight, Jay Kristoff
  • Judah the Pious, Francine Prose
  • Rumi, Farrukh Dhondy
  • In Defense of Sanity, G.K. Chesterton, ed. Ahlquist, Mackie, and Pearce [reread]
  • The Hod King, Josiah Bancroft
  • Essays, G.K. Chesterton
  • North! Or Be Eaten, Andrew Peterson
  • Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
  • The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl [reread]
  • The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie
  • The Art of Reading Poetry, Harold Bloom
  • The Imagist Poem, ed. William Pratt
  • The Victorian Age in Literature, G.K. Chesterton
  • 101 Folktales from India, ed. Eunice de Souza
  • House of Scepters, Anne Zoelle
  • Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo
  • Pirates of the Levant, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, trans. Margaret Jull Costa
  • Chesterton and Tolkien as Theologians, Allison Milbank
  • Dune, Frank Herbert [reread]
  • The Books of Great Alta, Jane Yolen
  • The Innocence of Father Brown, G.K. Chesterton [reread]
  • The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton [reread]
  • Three Hearts and Three Lions, Poul Anderson
  • Caraval, Stephanie Garber
  • Forge of the High Mage, Ian C. Esslemont
  • Before They Are Hanged, Joe Abercrombie
  • On the Study of Words, Richard Trench
  • The Narrow Road Between Desires, Patrick Rothfuss
  • Meeting the Protestant Response, Karlo Broussard
  • Walking to Mojácar, Di Brandt

By my count, 38. Not as many as I had hoped, but there were a number of life circumstances which I will use as handy scapegoats.

As per usual, I apprend a few notes and highlights from the year:

  • Quite a number of rereads again this year, but I’m not troubled by it. The re-experiencing of some of these books was a delight. Dune I barely remembered, and it was fascinating to compare it to the new Denis Villeneuve movie (plus, it makes me even more excited for Part Two this year!). Henry Sugar was just as good as I remembered, and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
  • Ian Esslemont’s new book was a surprise—I hadn’t realized it was out until I saw it in a bookstore. Of course I bought it immediately. It was fun to return to the Malazan world.
  • Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy was exceptionally good. A review may be in order…stay tuned.
  • Bancroft and Barker’s books were worthy continuations of their individual series. In fact, I read a lot of good fantasy this year. Garber’s Caraval was another—I admit I hadn’t expected it to be as great as it was. Highly recommended.
  • There is of course much controversy over the whole Pat Rothfuss…thing. Leaving that aside here, I will only say that Narrow Road is very good. Quintessential Rothfussian prose, and it’s been too long since I’ve read any of that.
  • There were a number of poetry books/books about poetry on this list. I feel my own writing has been lacking this year, but hopefully the reading I’ve done will be fuel for much more in 2024.
  • I’m not sure I can pick a single favourite from the year, so I won’t.

All that said, thank you for reading. A very happy and book-filled 2024 to you all!