Earlier this month I posted my “favorite books” of the year, but I should have titled it “favorite nonfiction.” As my Goodreads account shows, I’ve read far more fiction this year than anything else, and several of them are worth sharing with you.
First, though, I must mention the one memoir
on my list. I don’t usually read memoirs, but when longtime Bible teacher Beth Moore released her life’s story, All My Knotted-Up Life, I knew I had to read it. Rarely has a book lived up to my hopes so completely. I cried a lot—both kinds. When a book is one part hilarious and the other part heart-wrenching, you find yourself cackling through a story only to be stopped in your tracks. The tears turn on a dime.
Beth shares her story of growing up as a small-town Southern girl steeped in the Southern Baptist Convention, secretly sexually abuse (she outs the perpetrator, finally), then finding her calling as a Bible teacher. If you’ve heard any of her journey over the last six years, you will appreciate the perspective she brings to those troubling events. Beth is a flat-out talented writer, too. Her turns of phrase will impress and tickle you. Friends have said that hearing her read the audiobook is the best way to “read” this one.
Fiction
The Rose and the Thistle
by Laura Frantz
Any historical fiction by Frantz will immerse you into the world she’s exploring and the characters she’s created. But when she sets her story of politics, love, and intrigue during the Scottish Jacobite rebellion, I hand over my money forthwith. So I’m a sucker for Scotland. In this 2023 Historical Romance Christy Award Book of the Year, Frantz pits an English lord (the rose) against a Scottish heiress (the thistle), giving them crackling dialogue, emotional maturity, and a thorough sense of history. No clichés here. Start early because you’ll stay up late to finish.
The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip
by Sara Brunsvold
This one blindsided me. Aidyn, a young, ambitious reporter, is assigned the menial task of interviewing and writing up the obituary for an old woman waiting to die in hospice. Frustrated with the idea of withering away in a boring manner, Clara Kip tells Aidyn, “For every extraordinary death you create for me, I’ll answer three questions.” Not the typical hospice patient, Mrs. Kip has a story to tell, and Aidyn works hard to discover why this woman is anything but ordinary. Did I stay up way past my bedtime finishing this? Absolutely. Grab a tissue or two, and be prepared to be inspired. You’ll want to grow up to be just like Mrs. Kip.
Lessons in Chemistry
by Bonnie Garmus
I confess I first noticed this book because of the Apple TV commercials advertising the video series they’ve produced. In my world, the book is always better than the show, so I grabbed a copy to read rather than try to schedule time with the TV (a rarity for me). Now that I’ve read it, I will work on watching it too.
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist in 1961 California, a rarity in the man’s world of science. She suffers through the expected sexism and the unexpected love of a fellow chemist who appreciates her mind (shocker!). Years later, a single mom, she becomes the unlikely star of a hit TV show, “Supper at Six,” where she teaches the women of 1960s America both how to cook and how to take down the patriarchy. Oh yeah.
Honorable Mention
I’m a perennial fan of Tamara Leigh‘s inspirational medieval romance series, the latest of which is Age of Honor. Once you meet the Wulfriths, you will return again and again to walk alongside each warrior as he—or she—overcomes adversity and finds love. Lots of hand-to-hand combat, English history, and spiritual references.
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