It’s the last day of 2023. It’s time to look back at my creative projects and the changes in my personal life this year.

Honestly all I have to say about 2023 in general is this:

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Crafting 2023

Once again, I finished only a few projects this year. I knitted socks for my uncle, and sewed a curtain for our kitchen. On the bright side, I learnt a new craft this year. I’ve toyed with the idea of starting embroidering for a while even though I was sort of intimidated. This is why I bought a embroidery kit that seemed fairly easy. I love that charming little strawberry wreath!

Additionally, I’ve been working on a striped cotton sweater since the summer. At this point I’ve started sewing together the front and back pieces. I’m positive I’m going to finish this soon! After my first successful embroidery project I immediately started on another embroidery kit, but I’m afraid I haven’t really progressed far.

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Reading 2023

I did really well with my reading this year! All in all I read 53 books this year, surpassing my goal of reading 52 books in 2023. You can see the complete list over on my Goodreads profile. Numbers aside, I’m happy that I was able to establish a daily reading routine. Every morning after getting up, I read 50 pages. It gets my brain active and engaged for the day, and reduces my stress level at the same time.

Here are my five favourite books in 2023:

1. Fremd – Michel Friedman “Fremd” (= Foreign) gutted me in a way I don’t think I’m ready to talk about yet. Friedman talks about being the child of parents who survived the Holocaust. After the end of the war, the family lives in France but then moves to Germany – the country of the murderers. While his parents are immersed in grief, he struggles to find his place in life. Written in free form poetry, Friedman describes the existential feeling of not belonging yet wanting to belong. It was partly brutal to read, but at the same time it felt very cathartic and comforting to have someone put very precisely into words what, as the child of a migrant, I’ve felt all my life as well. I’m really, really thankful for this book.

2. Ich will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten – Viktor Klemperer Victor Klemperer was an esteemed philologist teaching at TU Dresden until 1933. His diaries from 1933-1945 show how the Nazis slowly stripped him of his rights. It’s honestly terrifying to read how they just took away and took away and took away. Klemperer captures the fearful, oppressive atmosphere in the Jewish community in Dresden, how they could be arrested for the most minor details, how arbitrary and demeaning the Gestapo terror was, how his friends, family and neighbours get deported or commit suicide out of fear of being deported. It’s a deeply impactful historical document, and it should serve as a warning in a time where fascism rears its ugly head in several countries.

3. Resurrection – Leo Tolstoy I’ve had a deep emotional connection to this book for years without having read it. Shortly before my Grandma died, she gave me this book. (Read more about my Grandma and what she meant to me here.) She was so proud because she ordered it in English! She didn’t speak a word of the language, but she knew I read a lot in English so she went to the trouble of acquiring it in that language. After her death, I couldn’t even look at this book, let alone read it, because it hurt too much. It’s only recently that I started feeling strong enough to start reading it. It’s a beautiful book. I enjoy Tolstoy very much anyway, especially his diverse cast of characters and his deeply empathetic way of describing them. Even though the book was written a hundred years ago, I felt deeply connected with them, and I think that’s an astonishing feat. I’ll always treasure this book as one of the many valuable things my Grandma gave me.

4. Der Zauberberg – Thomas Mann I’m going to admit it: I turned from a Thomas Mann hater in my teenage years to a sort of reluctant appreciation for his verbose writing, his meandering plots, and his sharp and insightful characterizations. I usually take the time between Christmas and January 6th to read his books, because with the absence of everyday stressors I can really disappear into the worlds between the covers. “The Magic Mountain” is possibly the longest of his books, or at least the one with the least plot. Hans Castor just wants to visit his cousin in a sanatorium in the Alps, but he is so spellbound by this weird, sort of haunted/sort of enchanted place that he winds up staying for years. There he meets and mingles with a dizzying array of peculiar characters, biding their seemingly endless time with strange hobbies and meaningless activities in morbid anxiety until death arrives – and not the individual death, but the great death of WWI.

5. Die hellen Tage – Zsuzsa Bánk If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be: beautiful. Or maybe: magical. It’s futile to describe its plot, because that isn’t what makes this book so special and moving. It’s a book about growing up, about friendship and motherhood and family. The one you were born with and the one you choose later in life. It’s also a book about loss and grief, and how that grief becomes part of your life, how it shapes and changes you. Reading the book, I kept taking breaks just so I could appreciate the magic of its words and sentences.

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Painting

I used to draw and paint all the time, but nowadays I’ll bring out the watercolours about once a year. This year, I made a watercolour painting of mistletoe branches, and transformed then into Christmas cards. It was really fun to give them away!

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Personal Life

One of the major changes in 2023 was that I resigned at my job at the afterschool daycare and started working at a cultural institution in Stuttgart. It’s been an exciting and challenging couple of months! Even though I was said to leave my kids at the afterschool daycare, it was the right decision that helped further my career.

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After the isolation of the COVID-19 years, I was over the moon to go on a real vacation again. It was sorely needed. We rented an AirBnB in a castle in Beaujolais, France, and had a marvelous time. We ate great food, we looked at pretty art, and we relaxed in the beautiful Burgundian countryside.

You can read more about our vacation here:

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Sadly, we had to say goodbye to our beloved cat Marchie this year. I’m still devastated by this loss. To be honest, I miss her every day. Our life with her was a bright and happy one, and I’ll always be thankful for the love and joy she gave us.