What to Read in January 2025

I really don’t know what to tell you to read for the beginning of 2025 from the books I’ve already read. I have yet to read a real winner from my list of best New Years books, and I have already told you my favorite reads from 2024. Perhaps I should reiterate them. Best reads…

Holiday Book Review: Winter Street

Despite listening to her podcast (Books, Beach and Beyond) occasionally and hearing about her for years, I hadn’t read Elin (pronounced like Ellen) Hilderbrand (notice the r in the middle) before. So since Winter Street came up on a lot of best-of Christmas reading lists—and people love her—I bought a copy and settled in with…

Holiday Book Review: Whiteout

While I read Whiteout by a bunch of authors, I was unimpressed. It probably didn’t help that I didn’t understand what I was reading until much later. But as the book went by, I was charmed by the idea of it as well as the spirit of it. And some sections were written better than…

Book Review: When Among Crows

When Among Crows entered my personal library when I attended a Halloween season reading event featuring a few authors of horror. I chose the book that looked less scary as my “with ticket” book. Or maybe I chose it because it was by the most famous author there, one that I recognized. But then I…

Best Books of 2024

I was going to wait until the beginning of 2025 to post about the supposed best books of 2024, but it seems that by then I will have missed some sort of train. So here we go. Hugs to all those books yet to emerge as a favorite, in the next four weeks or so.…

Book Review: City of Ghosts

This is a cute and spooky read for upper elementary and middle grades readers. It’s an easy read and is pretty pitch-perfect for the intended audience. For an adult reader, it’s a bit thin on the ground. But still cute. And still full of thoughtful thoughts and kid-problems. And hopefully the premise is intriguing, because…

Book Review: Giovanni’s Room

I can’t get away from references to James Baldwin. It seems he is a writer’s writer. And, unless there was a short story or essay somewhere along the line, I have never read him. Until now. I started with Giovanni’s Room simply because we were reading it for book club. Perhaps I should have read…

Holiday Book Review: The Book Club Hotel

When asked at book club if I would read another book by this author, my answer was “No.” However, reading this Christmas cozy really got me wondering about possible (probable?) authors out there who write cozies but with a good (or great?) writing style. Because to tell you the truth, The Book Club Hotel by…

What to Read in December (2024)

We’ll start with my Christmas recommendations, which won’t be tremendously different from last year’s. Here are some of the Christmas/holiday books that I haven’t yet read, but that I’m planning to read some day. Maybe not this year. So many books, so little time! But if you don’t just want to sit around reading holiday-related…

Book Review: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

I thought the afterword to Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Jonathan Letham was rather clever. Among other things, he says, “Jackson is one of American fiction’s impossible presences, too material to be called a phantom …. too in-print to be ‘rediscovered,’ yet hidden in plain sight.” He goes on to…

Book Review: Trail of Lightning

I am very enthusiastic about Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. I loved this book, and I am going to very soon go on to read the next in the series. But I can’t just leave you at that because this book has some graphic violence including some nasty scenes that involve children and the…

What to Read in November (2024)

As far as Thanksgiving reading recommendations go, I have nothing different to recommend from last year. My favorite Thanksgiving-esque book is Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin. It doubles as a cookbook, at least a little. And many of the recipes are perfect for this time of year. Beyond that, I…