Good evening and welcome to our set here in the Sarachek Studio at PBS Kansas.

We hope that you've enjoyed our new home for season five.

And I want to thank the staff and our volunteers who have created this comfortable environment for our show.

This is Inside the Cove and I am your host, Ted Ayres.

Over the years, we have devoted a program t discussing my annual booklist.

Since 1993, I have been keeping and sharing with famil and friends a list of the books read during the previous 365 days.

While my annual book list has varied in size, format and content, there has been consistency i regards to the listing of books read and in offering a selection of my top ten reads for the year.

That tradition continued for 2023, although in a more limited fashion.

2023 it was a banner year as I read 157 books, which is an all time high for me.

I read 114 in 2022 and my previous high total was 141.

I enjoyed some favorite authors such as David Baldacci, C.J.

Box, Scott Turow Michael Connelly, Rinker Buck.

David Grann, David McCullough, Jeannette Walls, John Irving, Richard Russo And Rober Goldsborough to name just a few.

I also discovered some ne authors such as Robert B Parker.

I really like his protagonist, Spencer.

And I enjoy the book's setting in Boston.

Donald E Westlake.

Katherine Hall Page and Dorothy Bel Hughes were other new authors.

My classic reads included Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, several books by Agatha Christie, Showboat, Cimarron and So Big by Edna Ferber.

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume Two and The Fixer by Bernard Malamud.

For what it's worth, my personal top ten reads for 2023 are now displayed on your screen.

By the way, the books are listed chronologically as read and not in a priority order.

We will also make this top te list available on the website.

Books deserving of an honorable mention include The Fifties by David Halberstam, Agatha Christie by Lucy Worsley, The Book Woman of Troublesom Creek by Kim Michele Richardson.

The Pacific Alone by Dave Shively, And Somebodys Fool by Richard Russo.

It should be of no surpris to you that I have done a show on each of my top ten reads and the honorable mentions.

Again, I want to remind you that all of our prior shows are available at kpts.org and then clicking on the Inside the Cover icon.

In her book I'd Rather Be Reading, Anne Bogel wrote: In this vein, Buck's book shared the Perils hazards, dangers and highlights of piloting a riverboat down the Mississippi River in modern times.

From McCullough, I learned that the construction of the Panama Canal was a 44 year project involving France and the United States.

Menninger vividly share the ferocity and destructiveness of the 1966 Tornado that struck Topeka.

Cep offered insight into the life of Harper Lee.

Dent and Dodd provided me with insigh into the history of Kansas City, as well as sharing some of the story of Patrick Mahomes and The Chiefs.

Delmont told me the story o James Grant Thompson of Wichita, who was troubled by the fact that he might be called upon to defend the nation in which he was treated like a second class citizen.

Finally, American Prometheus tells the story of an amazing and complex man, his heroi efforts on behalf of his country and then his country's efforts to destroy him.

The following books are in the queue for 2024.

The Old Lion by Jeff Shara.

Founding Partisans By Dr. H.W.

Brands, Goodbye Eastern Europe by Jacob Mikanowski Astor by Anderson Cooper And Katherine Howe.

Oath and Honor by Liz Cheney, Empire Falls by Richard Russo and The Expendable Man by Dorothy Bell Hughes.

That's our show.

I hope you enjoyed it, and that we have offered some exciting new opportunitie for you and your reading list.

See you next time right here on PBS Kansas, as we look forward to Season Six of Inside the Cover.