>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>* Updated a few days later to say that my current read (listen), The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, has QUITE THE SCENE with pie!Sweet potato pie. Dare ya to read it and not think of me. LOL Happy New Year! (this note added on 12/28) <*<*<*<*<*<*<
Total Books read: 100+ (again, I read a few children’s books to make it to this century mark.) This year was actually quite similar to last year.
Pages read: 27,127 ………………………………2022: 27,952
Average pages per book: 268……………………………..274
Average pages per day: 76.4……………………………….77
Hours listened: ~255 compared to 240 last year.
Audiobooks count: 26
My TOP 23 in the year 2023:
Top Ten: Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, Hello Beautiful, Tom Lake, The Rachel Incident, Buried in the Suburbs, The Bandit Queens, LaRose, Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, The Book of Delights
Random Stuff:
| 31 FIVE SLICES OF PIE |
| 43 FOUR |
| 22 THREE |
| 8 TWO |
| 0 ONE |
Books read that were over 400 pages: 14 with only 4 of 500 pages or more. Where have my chunksters gone?
Female to Male Ratio: 68 / 34 (~12 of that 26 being US or Brit white dudes…)
Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 77 (compared to 42 last year, but 72 in 2021)
Repeat Authors = 22 and some multiple time in 2022 (Wilson, Patchett, Morrison) A few were new and I read a second: McDermott, Kuang
Total Books by Authors of Color/LGTBQ+ = 19 (best guess estimate – didn’t do thorough research into backgrounds; assumptions might have been made)
Oldest Book: 1919 – The Haunted Bookshop – fun!
Number of Books Pub’d in 2023: 27 (and 22 pub’d in 2022!, 57% pub’d in the last 3 years.)
Books over 25 years old = 12 – These count towards my Classics Club – Round 2 which is due this time next year.
Number of books read on the list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die: 4
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Once & Future King (uh,DNF! eek)
Beloved – a reread, and
Jazz also by Toni Morrison
Hardcovers 29
eBooks 23
Audiobooks 26
Tradeback 26
paperback 1 . . . . . . . . also spookily similar to last 2 years.
Genres
Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 34
Total YA Fiction Books Read = 0
Children’s = 9
Total Memoir Books Read = 11
Total Nonfiction Books Read = 23 (22 LAST YEAR)
Short Story / Essays = 6
Poetry = 6
Mystery/Thriller = 9
Translated = 2 (Japanese and German)
Fantasy = 6
SciFi = 1
Historical Fiction = 2
Cookbooks = 1 – not really a cookbook but was about pie, go figure.
Adventure = 0 – what IS this anyway? Maybe the 2 art books I read?
Business = 1
Graphical = 0
Number of debuts: 8 (best guess)
Best debut: The Bandit Queens by Parini Schrof
Interesting Coincidences – Three books with CAT in the title? I am allergic to cats, as cute and feisty as they are – I don’t own one. I seem to have read quite a few titles featuring animals: goat, dog, cat, lamb, sloth, horse, bird, snake (copperhead)
Books that mentioned pie: 50
And… the Care’s Books & Pie 2023 Pie in Literature Award goes to:
First Honorable Mention: A Gathering of Old Men had a pretty good scene about pie as a way to charm the man you love but doesn’t seem to notice you; but also, that you have your maid/cook bake that pie…
I had Lucy bake me an apple pie, because I knew how much Jack just liked his apple pie. I told Lucy when she came to work that morning if she baked me the best apple pie she ever baked in her life, I would give her half the day off.
Second Honorable Mention: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Set on a cherry farm, so a good bet cherry pie would make a mention.
Emily has made bread and pie and after a day of work, bread and pie are really all we want.
Finally, drum roll please.
And the winner goes to The Guncle for baking pie for a birthday and also the discussion of what KIND of pie to make. I then proceeded to post a recipe on Litsy for Snowman Pie!
“We could get a cake,”
“Okay. But your father likes pie.” . . .“Pie is hot.” . . .
“One of every cold pie we can find and then everybody will have a choice. Satisfied?
Thnowman pie.
Snowman pie? What‘s that?
Grant shrugged. “It just sounded good.”
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Best Pie Quote:
“At Adrian TX, we stop at a little place called the Midpoint Cafe, located at the exact “Geo-Mathematical” midpoint of Route 66, whatever that means. I finally got my appetite back, even though I’m not sure what I can keep down. They do have homemade “Ugly Crust” pies, which intrigue me.”
The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian
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Care's Books and Pie 