"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 = 12 (so far)
I'm more than ready for a new year of books and reading. And my reading goal for 2025 is simple and loose-knit. I want to read from my own bookshelves as much as possible before acquiring more (but please don't hold me to that 😉). And I want to tackle the roughly 130 to 150 books currently on my shelves that have never yet been read. They include brand new acquisitions, gifts, library sale books, and thrift store finds. In my view, it never hurts to have a grand pile waiting in the wings, and it makes me happy to contemplate the possibilities and adventures yet to come.
On my shelves are also books that I have read—many are longtime favourites, others are newer to the roster—and I'm interested in revisiting a few of them as well. I know from past experience there are books that should be read in their 'season'—i.e., when it's the right time to read them, when we're ready to receive them, and when we need their wisdom, beauty, strength, or humour. I will continue to use that as my rule of thumb in selecting what to read next.
I enjoy memoirs, biographies, and inspirational/spiritual books. I like poetry, children's books, anthology collections, and artsy/creative books. Fairy tales and a bit of fantasy. Books on writing. I like books that tell stories, even when they are nonfiction or full of facts and data. I like to know how authors relate to the material they're sharing and how they work it out in their own lives. I read a lot of novels, including historical fiction—novels based on historical figures and events but told with artistic license. I have a special interest in these in this season of reading. And, of course, mysteries and whodunits continue to be a staple in my reading diet. Since my youth, I have loved a good mystery - nothing too gruesome, but with lots of page turning twists, unexpected endings, and great writing.
Some years I'm a slow reader, taking my time with books to savour them, reading but a few. Other years I read voraciously, as I did in 2024, almost as if I'm starving for the next adventure into another world. We'll see how my reading journey unfolds in 2025. Hence, no goals of how many to read by December 31st.
Some years I'm a slow reader, taking my time with books to savour them, reading but a few. Other years I read voraciously, as I did in 2024, almost as if I'm starving for the next adventure into another world. We'll see how my reading journey unfolds in 2025. Hence, no goals of how many to read by December 31st.
To start off, below is a tentative short list, from my own unread shelves, mixed with a few titles that I have read before but want to revisit this year. I made the selections in about 10 - 15 minutes, just reaching for titles that caught my eye, with little thought and more intuitive spontaneity.
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.
Read in January to March (12)
The Winter Mystery by Faith Martin (mystery, 2018) ***
An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor (novel, 2019) ***
An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor (novel, 2019) ***
If I Knew Then, Finding wisdom in failure and power in aging by Jann Arden (memoir, 2022) ***
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (mystery, 2020) *** (Christmas gift)
Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan by Deborah Reed (novel, 2020) *** (library book)
Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz (novel, 2018 - prequel to Fleming's 007 novels) ***
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (mystery) ***
Nature Tales for Winter Nights, ed. by Nancy Campbell (essays and excerpts, 2024) ***
The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen (historical mystery novel) ***
When the World Fell Silent, A Novel of the 1917 Halifax Explosion by Donna Jones Alward ***
The Piper on the Mountain by Ellis Peters (crime novel, 1966) **
A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater (memoir, short essays) ***
Currently Reading:
Jane Austen at Home, A Biography by Lucy Worsley (biography, 2017)
The Splendid and the Vile, A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson (history, nonfiction, 2022)
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On my shelves - never been read (NBR)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, 2024)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. Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands by Annie Worsley (nature, 2023)
12. Portrait of a Marriage by Nigel Nicolson (biography, 1973)
13. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (novel, 1853)
14. The Royal Librarian by Daisy Wood (historical novel, 2024)
15. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig (novel, 2024)16. An Irish Country Family by Patrick Taylor (novel, 2019)
17. 1984 by George Orwell (novel, 1949)
18. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (novel, 2012)19. Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz (novel, 2018)
20. Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Biography/Nature, 2021)
21. Apples on a Windowsill by Shawna Lemay (meditations on still life, photography, beauty, marriage, 2024)
22. You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (memoir, 2023)
23. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (novel, 1891)
24. Rewriting Adam by Connie Mae Inglis (novel, 2021)
25. The Third Grace by Deb Elkink (novel, 2011)
26. Vet in a Spin by James Herriot (autobiography/humour, 1971)
27. Why People Photograph by Robert Adams (photography, essays, 1994)
28. Beauty in Photography by Robert Adams (photography, essays, 1996)
29. Deep Play by Diane Ackerman (essays, 1999)
30. The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (fiction/humour, 1924)
31. Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling (historical novel, 2009)
32. The Call of the Red-Winged Blackbird, essays on the common and extraordinary by Tim Bowling (2022)
From my shelves - to be revisited (TBR)
1. The Lives We Actually Live, 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie (inspirational, 2023)
2. Rooms of Their Own, Where Great Writers Write by Alex Johnson (nonfiction, 2021)
3. Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman (art, 2022)
4. Several short sentences about writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg (writing, 2012)
5. Devotions, The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver (2017)
6. Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year edited by Jane McMorland Hunter (2021)
7. The Only Necessary Thing, Living A Prayerful Life by Henri J.M. Nouwen, edited by Wendy Wilson Greer (on prayer, 1999)
8. The Comfort Book by Matt Haig (hope/self help, 2022)
