December 13, 2023

My 23 Favorite Books of 2023

December 13, 2023/ Emily Hessney Lynch

I always enjoy writing my annual ‘Year in Books’ blog post (check out my roundups for 2022, 2021, and 2020 if you missed them!). Reading is the hobby that’s been there for me consistently, year after year, regardless of whatever changes may be happening in my life.

2023 has been busy! In January, my husband Tim left his day job in engineering to pursue murals and design work full-time under his business Tenderchomps Art. I helped him run a community art event for elementary schoolers at a local library, ghost wrote blog posts for his website, started running his social media, and offered guidance based on my own experience as a business owner.

In May, I celebrated four years of running Serve Me the Sky Digital! And in August, I dove into a new endeavor: teaching a social media course for undergraduates at Nazareth University. It’s been a year full of learning, new experiences, changes, and great books! At the time of writing, I’ve read 163 books so far this year.

Let’s get into it! Here are my 23 favorite books of 2023, organized by genre.

February 17, 2020

I Tried Not Reading for One Week. Here's What Happened.

February 17, 2020/ Emily Hessney Lynch

If you’ve visited the Serve Me the Sky Digital blog before, then you may already know: I love reading. I love reading so much that I read 118 books last year. I’m well aware that I can’t perpetually read more books, so I decided to cut back in 2020. Still, I never would have guessed that in 2020 I would take a week-long break from reading.

Following the recommendation of my therapist, I skeptically picked up a copy of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. The book is a twelve-week course where you’re supposed to get in touch with your inner artist-child by journaling daily, doing a fun activity once/week (your “artist date”), and trying out recommended tasks that make you sit with your feelings. The whole way through, I’ve been doubtful that any of this will work. What would it even mean for it to “work”? I’m about five weeks in, but I’m plugging away.

One recommendation in a recent chapter stopped me in my tracks. “Engage in a week of reading deprivation.” I stared at the book aghast. I nearly threw it across the room. Excuse me? ME? Not read for a week?! It’s true that I’m an obsessive, habitual, voracious reader. But it’s also true that I’m extremely stubborn. So I decided to try it out.

January 30, 2020

What I'm Reading for Black History Month 2020

January 30, 2020/ Emily Hessney Lynch

Last year, I read 118 books, and one thing that made my reading challenge extra-enjoyable was spending specific months focused on a particular reading topic. I read books by Black authors for Black History Month, by women authors for Women’s History Month, and by LGBTQ+ authors for Pride Month. Of course, it’s important to read diverse authors year-round and not just in certain months, but it helped me to diversify my reading list all around. If you’re interested in diversifying your reading list, you can catch my best tips on the 540WMain blog.

This year, I’m slowing down my reading pace a bit, but I have four books I’m eager to dive into for Black History Month.

January 02, 2020

20 Books for 2020

January 02, 2020/ Emily Hessney Lynch

If you know me, you know I’m an obsessive reader. I devour books like some people binge TV shows or podcasts. Last year, I read 118 books (the goal was 100, but I hit that goal in October and kept going) and blogged about them along the way. I guess I should have seen the whole hitting 100 books in October thing coming when I hit the 50 book mark in May.

You can’t read more every year, so no, I’m not upping my reading goal again. In fact, I’m cutting it in half. My goal for 2019 is just 59 books. I’m hoping to read a bit less (and some longer books that I skipped in 2019 so I could read more books) and to try out some new hobbies and creative pursuits.

But of course, there are still plenty of books I’m looking forward to reading in 2020. Plus, people are always asking me for recommendations, so without further ado, here are 20 books I’m looking forward to reading in 2020.

July 03, 2019

Pride Month Reads

July 03, 2019/ Emily Hessney Lynch

This year, I embarked on the ambitious adventure of reading 100 books in 2019. By the end of May, I’d already read 50 books. I knew this year of breakneck-speed reading would get a little dull after awhile if I continued to reach for all the same types of books I usually do (AKA extremely dark and twisty works of fiction), so I planned out some themed months to explore different perspectives and genres. June, of course, was Pride Month. My Pride Month reads were super fun, so I wanted to share them with you.

May 22, 2019

50 Books in 5 Months

May 22, 2019/ Emily Hessney Lynch

I’ve reached the big five-oh! No, I’m not turning fifty, but I have read 50 books in five months.

For 2019, I set a lofty goal for my Goodreads Reading Challenge: 100 books. I’ve never read that many books in one year before. The most I’ve done is 70 books, and that was back in 2014. I was still in grad school, and that included some of the books I read for my graduate work.

I’m tracking this endeavor with my own hashtag, #emilys100books2019, on Twitter and Instagram. It’s been a good way to hold myself accountable and it’s started some interesting conversations too!

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