I don’t read a lot of fiction anymore, but these titles made it on my radar and I’m so grateful they did. The best fiction, in my opinion, is the kind that makes me feel and challenges me to think. If you pull a tear from my eye I will not soon forget you as an author. Here are my top two fiction books of 2023.
Barbara Kingsolver won a Pulitzer for this work, and it is well deserved. I finished this book feeling like Demon was a real person whose life I was completely invested in. That’s when you know the writing was sublime!
From Amazon’s description of the book:
From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero’s unforgettable journey to maturity
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah simply stuns with this novel. This is the story of incarcerated individuals locked into a program called CAPE (Criminal Action Penal Entertainment), which is essentially a modern day gladiator-style reality TV show in which the prisoners fight to the death in hopes of gaining freedom.
Through gripping scenes, impeccable characterization, perfect pacing, and poetic prose, we are swept up by a story that is really a mirror held up to our faces. I was left questioning my stances on crime & punishment, humane incarceration, violent entertainment, and where the line should be drawn when it comes to making our society “safe” at the expense of human lives.
The ending was terrible and beautiful and left me haunted.
Non-Fiction
Every year I read at least one book about mortality. It’s a spiritual discipline that helps me stay grounded in the real and present to my life. Suleika Jaouad was struck with cancer the summer after graduating college. Her entire life was upended as she engaged in an all-out street fight with death for the next several years. She chronicles her struggles, triumphs, devastations, and lessons in this book that is both tender and bold, challenging and inspiring. She left me questioning what it means to survive the unthinkable.
I’ve referenced this book countless times this year, including right here in my Substack. I dog-eared so many pages that it made the book almost impossible to close. Theologian Catherine Mowry Lacugna provides a thorough history of Trinitarian doctrine throughout Christian history and teases out the implications of each school-of-thought for Christian life.
This is an academic work, I warn you now. It’s not easy to read and can be tedious at times. Yet, no other single work has contributed more to my understanding of God as a Being-in-relationship and what that means for us all.
I adore Substack. I love being exposed to thinkers, dreamers, and writers who don’t fit the mold of the algorithm-pleasing elites found elsewhere on the internet. Of all the folks I’ve been delighted to find here, Kirsten Powers has been the most delightful of all. She writes about important and interesting things like mid-life issues, embodiment, and how to live wholeheartedly in this chaotic world. This article was a favorite of mine this year because she named what so many of us have been quietly thinking — life as we know it right now in America is unsustainably hard. Though I don’t see another overseas move for my family in our future, I certainly paused and gave some thought to the years ahead after reading Kirsten’s piece.
I admit I’m not feeling as hyped for the New Year as I normally do.
The thing is, 2023 was a roller coaster of life-altering highs and lows for me. I’m feeling tired going into the New Year, which isn’t to say I’m not hopeful. These past six months of exploring disappointment and disenchantment have resulted in a surprising hope buried deep within my soul, but the exploration has come at a cost.
I don’t have any real resolutions, special words, powerful themes, or even much new direction for the coming year. I have the Spirit of God, who I trust to provide what I need as I do the next right thing.
How about you? Does any of that resonate with you? If so, I give you this blessing for the New Year written by one of my spiritual teachers, John O’Donahue. I hope you’ll allow these words to wash over you as you move, with ease, into the New Year.
On the day when The weight deadens On your shoulders And you stumble, May the clay dance To balance you.
And when your eyes Freeze behind The grey window And the ghost of loss Gets in to you, May a flock of colours, Indigo, red, green, And azure blue, Come to awaken in you A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays In the currach of thought And a stain of ocean Blackens beneath you, May there come across the waters A path of yellow moonlight To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours, May the clarity of light be yours, May the fluency of the ocean be yours, May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow Wind work these words Of love around you, An invisible cloak To mind your life.
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I've only read one book from Barbara Kingsolver, but it was definitely a masterpiece, so I hear you on her awesomeness. I love what you shared, and am entering 2024 with a spirit of of openness.
I've only read one book from Barbara Kingsolver, but it was definitely a masterpiece, so I hear you on her awesomeness. I love what you shared, and am entering 2024 with a spirit of of openness.