Every year I set myself a target number of books that I want to read before the year is over. For the past few years, that target has been 50 books and with only one exception I’ve managed to exceed it. However, while I managed to meet my target in 2022, I wasn’t entirely satisfied with how I did it. Reading 50 books didn’t leave much room for the kind of doorstopper reads that I enjoy from time to time. So, with that in mind, I decided to lower my target for 2023 to 40 books - and at the same time to be less stringent on what constituted a book for the purposes of recording my reading. I managed to read exactly 40 books, just barely making my target, but I also read some hefty tomes so I’m pretty happy with the result. Just like for 2022, I’ve decided to pull out some of my favorite fiction and non-fiction I read last year and discuss them, in brief, below.
Non-Fiction
For anyone who has been following my other projects, especially We Intend to Move on Your Works, this will come as no surprise, but 2023 was really the year of the American Civil War. My non-fiction reading was dominated by research for this project as I desperately tried to bring myself up to a tolerable standard of knowledge on a subject outside of my professional expertise. Besides that, work continued apace on research for a medieval history book I’m working on and I very occasionally got to reach outside of those two subjects for something a little more unusual. My favorite non-fiction books of last year were:
Battle cry of freedom by James Mcpherson
One of the first books I read in 2023 and exactly the kind of massive history I had avoided in years past due to wanting to hit that 50 book milestone, Battle Cry of Freedom absolutely lived up to its reputation. A thorough, deep, and engaging single volume history of the American Civil War. It’s remained the gold standard for thirty years and with good reason, it’s a masterful piece of scholarship and writing.
Robert e lee and me by ty seidule
Ty Seidule’s deeply personal history of growing up in the Lost Cause mythology and idolizing Robert E. Lee before learning how flawed his past beliefs had been and preaching with the fervor of the converted makes for a fascinating and totally engaging read. Seidule does an excellent job of showing why history matters and how it can be powerful and dangerous, especially when it is abused. An excellent book.
Race and Reunion by David Blight
David Blight’s account of how Civil War memory was formed in the decades after the war and the tensions of the Lost Cause, the Reconciliationist, and the Emancipationist narratives helped immensely to deepen and expand my knowledge of how the American Civil War has been remembered by both its participants and their descendants. This is a deep and dense history, but it is also engaging and absolutely worth a read for anyone interested in the legacy of the American Civil War.
Hundred Years War by anne curry
With my main writing project being the Hundred Years War, I of course had to read more Hundred Years War history. I read a lot of books, but Anne Curry’s excellent survey history (the Routledge one, not the Osprey one) does a great job at covering the historiography of the war as well as the narrative while remaining approachable and engaging.
Fiction
I didn’t read as much fiction in 2023 as I would have liked. I got absorbed in various historical research projects and didn’t quite leave myself enough time for fun. One of my goals for this year is to read more fiction. Much as I love reading history, sometimes I need a good story to give my brain a bit of a rest. My favorites last year were:
Akira by Otomo Katsuhiro
I’m a huge fan of Cyberpunk and I’ve loved the film version of Akira for years but I’d never managed to read the original manga. In 2023, thanks to my local library, I finally corrected this oversight. I’m not sure if I prefer the manga to the anime, I think both tell really interesting versions of a similar story, but I’m so glad I’ve read it now. After years of only knowing Akira as a background narrative device in the films, it was really interesting to see the character himself exist so prominently in the manga version.
Looking Glass sound by Catriona Ward
Looking Glass Sound doesn’t always work, but I have to really admire its ambition. A deeply meta murder mystery, where the solution is revealed at the end of the first act but the narrative continues to swirl and add weirder and weirder layers after that. It lost me a bit in the middle, but it came together surprisingly well at the end. I can’t say that I love Looking Glass Sound but I have thought about it a lot since. A really interesting read.
All Sinners bleed by S.A. Cosby
The perfect cross section of my reading this year: a murder mystery novel that includes as one of its themes the long shadow of the American Civil War and Lost Cause mythology on the American South. To an extent I think the core mystery is the weakest part of the book - it’s perfectly adequate but the mood and character work are far superior which means that the book’s solution is a little bit disappointing as you’ll have to say goodbye to this place and the people who live there.