"There are many little ways to enlarge your world.
Love of books is the best of all."
attributed to JACQUELINE KENNEDY
Books Read in 2025 = 1
I'm more than ready for a new year of books and reading, and no doubt you are too. I have a simple reading goal for 2025: I would like to read from my own bookshelves before acquiring more (but please don't hold me to that 😉). Without knowing for sure, I think I have around 70 to 90 books on my shelves that are as yet unread. They are a collection that includes brand new, gifts, library sale books, and thrift store finds. It never hurts to have a grand pile of possibilities waiting in the wings - it makes me happy to contemplate.
I also have books on my shelves I haven't read in a while which I'm interested to revisit some as I am drawn to read them. I know from my past experience that there are certain books that should be read in their 'season'—when it's the right time to read them, when we're ready for them, when we need their wisdom or beauty or strength or humour.
I enjoy memoirs, biographies, and inspirational books. I like poetry, anthology collections, and artsy/creative books. Fairy tales and a bit of fantasy. I like books that tell stories, even when they are nonfiction or full of data. I like to know how authors connect to the material they're sharing, how they work it out where they live. I read a lot of novels, including historical fiction—novels based on historical figures and events but told with artistic license. And mysteries continue to be a staple in my reading diet. From my youth, I have never stopped loving a good mystery - nothing too gruesome, but with lots of page turning twists and unexpected endings and great writing.
Some years I'm a slow reader, taking my time with books and savouring them, reading but a few. Some years I read voraciously, as in 2024, like I'm starving for the next adventure. We'll see how my 2025 reading journey unfolds.
My Rate List
Some years I'm a slow reader, taking my time with books and savouring them, reading but a few. Some years I read voraciously, as in 2024, like I'm starving for the next adventure. We'll see how my 2025 reading journey unfolds.
My Rate List
Note: The list below includes only books I have enjoyed reading at some level—I don't keep track of the books I didn't care for or finish. The list is in the order read - a kind of diary for me of what I was reading at the time.
**** = Forever Favourite. Loved it. A keeper. With unforgettable characters, a great storyline, beautifully written.
*** = Enjoyed very much. Enough to reread down the road. Great writing, great story, relatable characters.
** = Enjoyed the book enough but don't need to read again.
January to March (1)
The Winter Mystery by Faith Martin (mystery, 2018) ***
_________________________
2. A Thousand Feasts, Small moments of joy...a memoir of sorts by Nigel Slater (nonfiction, publ.2024)
3. The Secret War of Julia Child by Diana R Chambers (novel, 2024)
4. Nature Tales for Winter Nights edited by Nancy Campbell (nature tales, 2023)
5. Jane Austen at Home, A Biography by Lucy Worsley (biography, 2017)
6. Write It All Down, How to put your life on paper by Cathy Rentzenbrink (writing, 2022)
7. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (novel, 1980)
8. A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle (nonfiction, 1972)
9. Louisa May Alcott, A Personal Biography by Susan Cheever (biography, 2010)
10. Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson (fictionalized autobiography, 1945)
11. The Lives We Actually Live, 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie (inspirational, 2023)
12. Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands by Annie Worsley (nature, 2023)
13. Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson (biography, 1973)
14. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (novel, 1853)
15. Devotions, The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (2017)
16. Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year edited by Jane McMorland Hunter (2021)
17. The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood (historical novel, 2024)
18. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (novel, 2024)
19. An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor (novel, 2019)
20. 1984 by George Orwell (novel, 1949)
21. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (novel, 2012)
22. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz (novel, 2018)
23. The Only Necessary Thing, Living A Prayerful Life by Henri J.M. Nouwen, edited by Wendy Wilson Greer, (on prayer, 1999)
24. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Biography/Nature, 2021)
25. Apples on a Windowsill by Shawna Lemay (meditations on still life, photography, beauty, marriage, 2024)
26. You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (memoir, 2023)
27. Several short sentences about writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg (writing, 2012)
