Best Books I Read in 2023

The best books I read in 2023, in mostly no particular order. 

I read 82 total books this year.

I did not finish quite a few as either they did not keep my interest or I had to return to the library and haven't had a chance to reserve again.  These are the best, not all that I finished. The ones with stars were my favorites of these.

Best Books of 2023

Fiction:

Cottage at Bantry Bay by Hilda von Stockum

The Borrowed House by Hilda von Stockum

Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite deAngeli

Elin's America by Marguerite deAngeli

Black Fox of Lorne by Marguerite deAngeli

Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman

A Little More Beautiful by Sarah Mackenzie

Come Rack, Come Rope by Robert Hugh Benson

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther

The Masterful Monk by Owen Dudley

**Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

*Jane's County Year by Malcolm Saville

Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher (reread)

 

Homeschooling:

Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie

Better Late than Early by the Moores

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

Morning Time by Cindy Rollins

 

Catholic nonfiction:

The Forgotten Language by Rev Michael Rennier (beauty of the Mass)

The Incorruptibles by Joan Carrol Cruz (awesome)

Eat Fast Feast by Jay Richards (eating based on liturgical calendar)

A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz (liturgical living)

The Year and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland (liturgical living)

 

Non-fiction; mostly memoir with a few others

Salt Path by Rayner Winn (newly homeless couple navigates walking path)

Silence by Rayner Winn (continued from above; partially housed) 

(now I need to find Landlines)

Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson (make plans for your possessions before they possess your decedents)

Cottage Fairy Companion by Paola Merrill (cottage life and simple living)

New Naturalism by Kelly Norris

Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden (lovely nature diary)

Civilisation by Kenneth Clark (art history; youtube companion)

*How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger (family journey through England literature landmarks)

The Carolingians (medieval royal family)

Luttrell Village by Sheila Sancha (medieval)

Walter Dragun's Town by Sheila Sancha (medieval)

Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka

Essentialism by Greg McEwen (reread)

Flesh and Blood by N. West Moss (memoir of infertility and acceptance)

**Forty Autumns by Nina Willner (German family separated by Berlin Wall and Cold War)

The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift (English garden memoir)