A Year in Books
The 2024 Book List
I always feel a little sheepish when my stack isn’t as large and varied as my husband’s and children’s. But then I remember that I immerse myself in books. I stay for a long time steeping there within the pages.
This was a good year for steeping. Artists, poets, writers and the things they had to navigate in order to stay true to their stories. I met a man who made me fall in love with the Liturgy through its metaphors. And I learned how gardens had a lot to do with how stories and poetry are written. How someone with the weight of physical and emotional deformities would overcome them in the most beautiful and astounding ways. How anxiety does not need to overwhelm and define a person. How great mystics dwell behind enormous glasses and bright red hair and chain smoking addiction.
It was a smaller but mightier pile this year. I am glad to have discovered each.
1. Caryll Houselander: Divine Eccentric
- Maisie Ward
2. GUILT
- Caryll Houselander
3. The illuminated Life Of Maud Lewis
- Lance Woolaver
4. Unearthing the Secret Garden
- Marta McDowell
5. Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life
- Marta McDowell
6. May Alcott: A Memoir
- Caroline Tickner
7. The Upside-Down World: Meetings With the Dutch Masters
- Benjamin Moser
8. A Forest of Symbols
- Abbe Claude Barthe
9. A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep
- Rumer Godden
10. A House With Four Walls
- Rumer Godden
11. Poems of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
- Edited by Rhina Espallier
12. Jayber Crow ❤️
- Wendell Berry
I really enjoyed The Upside-Down World: Meetings With the Dutch Masters last year! A nice surprise seeing that on your list. I read Five For Sorrow, Ten for Joy and In This House of Brede by Godden two years ago. I thought her writing was excellent in both, though Five For Sorrow was a bit dark for me. But I'll be looking into those other two Godden books you shared!
This is an inspiring list, Denise! I'm so glad I came across your substack this year. It's been a joy to steep in your words :)