Earlier this year, I finished an audiobook of Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans by Michaeleen Doucleff.

Overall, I loved this book. Doucleff details how various ancient cultures parent their children and how we in the western world can implement some of these ideas to raise well-behaved, helpful children. It was fascinating to dive into these cultures and their bents toward the “it takes a village” model of parenting. A lot of it is extremely helpful, especially the concept of including children in the family as productive, important members, even as babies. 

Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot was my favorite book from 2023. In a collection of letters Elliot wrote to her then newly-engaged daughter, Valerie, Elliot tackles the question “what is a woman?” What she means is, “who am I?” and to answer it, she first askes, “Whose am I?”

Hi Friends! I’m back with another virtual bookshelf review, as well as a general 2023 year in review!

I’ve been listening to the Percy Jackson book series on audiobook and suddenly, I’m 14-year-old Kayley in love with 15-year-old Percy Jackson again.

This book list overview is very late - I got engaged in October of 2021 and in a lot of ways, life stilled as much as it picked up. In the chaos of the planning, I confess I lost my love of reading and writing there for a minute.

Not having to read for school is wonderful.

I always forget this feeling until I have it again, and now that I’m finished with school for good (well, at least for the next few years...I’ve been floating the idea of seminary but I’m not fully sold just yet), the possibility of reading whatever I want, whenever I want, is both intoxicating and overwhelming. So. Much. To. Read.

Andrew Klavan is one of my favorite authors, speakers, and political commentators. I listen to his podcast, aptly named The Andrew Klavan Show, weekly (I used to listen daily, but he’s slowly retiring, and has switched his show to once a week). I stumbled upon his young adult novels as a teenager (and I’ve just recently started them again!), when I found them on the shelves of the only Christian book store my mom would let me buy books from. Years later when I first started dating Tucker, he suggested Klavan’s podcast, and I’m ashamed to admit that it took me a few months to connect the podcast host to one of my favorite author’s as a teenager. I think it’s the way he spells his name (that’s a Klavan-inside-joke for fellow fans).

As my favorite of the Chronicles of Narnia, A Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis provides more insight into writing from the perspective of a child without losing profundity and power that I hadn’t realized until reading it for the nth time late last year. Lewis is a master at this endeavor in general, writing for all audiences in a way that neither panders nor overreaches.

I recently read My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul. As the first official biblio-memoir that I’ve read, I must say I’m inspired but not impressed.

I read 30 books in 2020, a large part in thanks to being quarantined for most of it, and here’s my list! Now I get to make a new one… :-)

A special thanks to all who helped me achieve this goal:

I’ve read a lot of books in the last few months – most amazing, some just eh, and I figured I’d write reviews on a few of my favorites. I read My Name is Asher Lev last fall and it remains pretty far up on my list of “highly recommended” books.