My favorite reads from 2025

January 6, 2026January 6, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 27 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today, I’m sharing my favorite reads from 2025. I did not read as many books as I had hoped I would, but it was a year where I branched out a little bit.

Because I didn’t read as many books this past year as the year before, I don’t have as many favorite reads but I do have a few.

These are in no particular order.

Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals by Sharon Mondragon

I had never read any books by this author and just found this cozy mystery a lot of fun. I loved the characters and the story too.

Description:

Something is brewing in Raeburne’s Ferry, Georgia—and it’s not sweet tea.

In a small town where gossip flows, bedridden Mary Ruth McCready reigns supreme, doling out wisdom and meddling in everyone’s business with a fervor that would make a matchmaker blush. When her best friend has her world rocked by a scandalous revelation from her dying husband, Mary Ruth kicks into high gear, commandeering the help of her favorite granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth, in tracking down the truth. Finding clues in funeral condolence cards and decades-old gossip dredged up at the Blue Moon Beauty Emporium, the two stir up trouble faster than you can say “pecan pie.”

But just when things are starting to look up, a blast from the past waltzes in with an outrageous claim. But as Grandma Ruth always says when things get tough, “God is too big.” With him, nothing is impossible—even bringing long-held secrets to light. Grandma Ruth and Sarah just might have to ruffle a whole mess of feathers to do it.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

I had never read this before but had seen the TV movie. I didn’t think I would enjoy this but ended up loving it and want to read the sequels.

Description: The Scarlet Pimpernel is Baroness Orczy’s classic adventure novel about Sir Percy Blakeney, a wealthy Englishman who has a secret identity as a daring rescuer of aristocrats from the French Revolution. Orczy’s thrilling tale of heroism and romance is a timeless classic that has captivated readers for over a century. Set in 1792, The Scarlet Pimpernel follows Sir Percy as he outwits the forces of the French Revolution to save innocent lives. With a colorful cast of characters and an exciting plot, Orczy’s classic novel is an unforgettable reading experience that will leave you wanting more.

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

I probably read this years ago, when I was like 10, but I didn’t remember any of it so it was a lot of fun to follow along this magical story and find out what happened. This was technically the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Description:

Narnia . . . a land frozen in eternal winter . . . a country waiting to be set free

Witness the creation of a magical land in The Magician’s Nephew, the first title in C. S. Lewis’s classic fantasy series, which has captivated readers of all ages for over seventy five years

On a daring quest to save a life, two friends are hurled into another world, where an evil sorceress seeks to enslave them. But then the lion Aslan’s song weaves itself into the fabric of a new land, a land that will be known as Narnia. And in Narnia, all things are possible.

This is a stand-alone novel, but if you want to journey back to Narnia, read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

This one was out of my comfort zone. I don’t usually read fantasy, but I read The Fellowship of the Ring last year and ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. This upcoming year I am reading the last book in the trilogy, Return of the King.

Description:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

This was my first Wodehouse and it was so much fun. I love Bertie and Jeeves and all the other characters around them.

Description:

Upon their first appearance in 1915, Bertie Wooster and his highly competent valet Jeeves were destined to become Wodehouse’s most famous duo. The hilarious stories that feature the charmingly foppish Bertie and his equally lightheaded friends being rescued from tedious social obligations, annoying relatives, scrapes with the law, and romantic problems by the quiet interventions of Jeeves are among Wodehouse’s best-loved tales.

But First, Murder by Bee Littlefield

I really love Bettie from the Bettie Bryant Mysteries and this second installment in the series didn’t change my mind.

Description:

After years of slinging lattes, Betti Bryant is taking ownership of her life. She doesn’t need new friends or book club invitations to distract her from finding her way forward. And the unresolved situation with a guy she kissed a few weeks ago might as well stay unresolved.

But there’s one distraction she is not prepared for: finding a murder victim on her way to work one frigid December morning.

Suspicion falls on Betti’s roommate, Callista, who happens to be holding a baseball bat over the victim’s body when the police drive up. Almost totally sure Callista is innocent, Betti buys a new notebook, digs out her scrapbooking supplies, and makes the cutest murder board ever.

Now, on top of holding down a job (or two) and figuring out her entire future, she’s committed to finding the real killer before any more lives are ruined—including her own.

Every Living Thing by James Herriot

I’ve enjoyed all the James Herriot books but this one has been my favorite so far.

Description:

Every Living Thing: The Warm and Joyful Memoirs of the World’s Most Beloved Animal Doctor brings back familiar friends (including old favorites such as Tricki Woo) and introduces new ones, including Herriot’s children Rosie and Jimmy and the marvelously eccentric vet Calum Buchanan.

This book marks a perfect opportunity for existing fans of Herriot’s work to reacquaint themselves with his writing, and for those who’ve never read him to see what generations of animal lovers have already discovered: James Herriot is that rarest of creatures, a genuine master storyteller.

Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley

This was my first Philip Gulley book and I really enjoyed it and all the quirky characters and downhome feel of it. I literally laughed and cried while reading it.

Description:

In this acclaimed inaugural volume in the Harmony series, master American storyteller Philip Gulley draws us into the charming world of minister Sam Gardner in his first year back in his hometown, capturing the essence of small-town life with humor and wisdom.

Dave Barry is Not Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry

This was a collection of Dave Barry’s columns and it had me laughing so hard during some really difficult changes in my life this year.

Description:

Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry is a pretty amiable guy. But lately, he’s been getting a little worked up. What could make a mild-mannered man of words so hot under the collar? Well, a lot of things–like bad public art, Internet millionaires, SUVs, Regis Philbin . . . and even bigger problems, like

• The slower-than-deceased-livestock left-lane drivers who apparently believe that the right lane is sacred and must never come in direct contact with tires
• The parent-misery quotient of last-minute school science fair projects
• Day trading and other careers that never require you to take off your bathrobe
• The plague of the low-flow toilets, which is so bad that even in Miami, where you can buy drugs just by opening your front door and yelling “Hey! I want some crack,” you can’t even sell your first born to get a normal-flushing toilet

Dave Barry is not taking any of this sitting down. He’s going to stand up for the rights of all Americans against ridiculously named specialty “–chino” coffees and the IRS. Just as soon as he gets the darn toilet flushed.

Christy by Catherine Marshall

This one is on this list but there was a lot about it that bothered me. There were deaths that seemed unnecessary to me and some odd theological stances but at the same time it had me thinking long after I read it and the story overall was fascinating and kept me turning the pages.

Description:

Come, Tell Me How To Live by Agatha Christie Mallowen

This was a fascinating non-fiction book by Agatha Christie that showcased her humor, her dedication to supporting her husband, and her emotional and physical strength in traveling to a foreign country.

Description:

Over the course of her long, prolific career, Agatha Christie gave the world a wealth of ingenious whodunits and page-turning locked-room mysteries featuring Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and a host of other unforgettable characters. She also gave us Come, Tell Me How You Live, a charming, fascinating, and wonderfully witty nonfiction account of her days on an archaeological dig in Syria with her husband, renowned archeologist Max Mallowan.

Something completely different from arguably the best-selling author of all time, Come, Tell Me How You Live is an evocative journey to the fascinating Middle East of the 1930s that is sure to delight Dame Agatha’s millions of fans, as well as aficionados of Elizabeth Peters’s Amelia Peabody mysteries and eager armchair travelers everywhere.

Honorable Mentions:

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie

This was my first read of the year this year and it was a favorite because of the humor in it. I would have liked a bit more Miss Marple in it but when she was in it, she was entertaining and fun.

Description:

It’s seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing an evening dress and heavy makeup, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry?

The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple into their home to investigate. Amid rumors of scandal, she baits a clever trap to catch a ruthless killer.

Other books I enjoyed this year:

Rebecca by Daphne De Mauier

Peg and Rose Solve A Murder by Laurie Berenson

Killer in the Kitchen: A Murder She Wrote Mystery by Donald Bain

The Case of the Careless Kitten by Erle Stanley Gardner

The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

Have you read any of these? What were some of your favorite reads in 2025?

Sunday Bookends: Disappointing books, Cagney movies, and clueless mom

January 4, 2026January 4, 2026 / Lisa R. Howeler / 12 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

My 11-year-old daughter was upset at me the other night but the funny thing is I had no idea and was just skipping around through life and our bedtime routine while she was all stewing under her covers.

She later told me she kept sighing heavily and changing positions to see if I would notice she was upset but I never did.

I even suggested we do our nightly prayers, having no idea she was holding a grudge over something I said that she took wrong.

Why this is so funny to me is that when she shared with me how upset she’d been I kept thinking of a video I recently watched where a cat owner is saying she can’t be upset when her cat does something annoying because she imagines the cat with some derpy/dorky music in her head and feels sorry for her. I just kept imagining myself as the cat, skipping along through life, clueless while my kid was all annoyed at me. I even shared this with Little Miss and let her know that the next time she is sitting there annoyed at me just imagine that most of the time I have no clue I’ve said something wrong and am instead just listening to dumb music in my head.

Luckily Little Miss and I worked things out when she was able to tell me how she felt and I was able to clarify what I actually meant by the comment.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

Just Finished

Nothing yet.

In Progress

My Beloved by Jan Karon is growing on me and I’m glad I didn’t give up on it but it is still disappointing in many ways overall. I feel like Jan’s notes, in their chopped up form, were just shoved into a book without flushing it out or connecting it.

I do recommend the previous 14 books in The Mitford series, however.

I started the first book in the Miss Read series, Village School, this week, putting the second book, Village Diary, aside after realizing it was the second book and I should probably read the first book in the series…first.

It’s a very slow paced book so to move things a long a bit I started The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie and am realizing that sometimes the “Britishness” of her books goes over my head.

Chimneys is an area in the country, not the appendage on a house roof, it turns out.

Up Soon

After these books, I plan to read The Tiger in the Smoke by Margaret Allingham and start Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

What The Family is Reading

The Husband just finished his first book of the year —

The Boy is listening to a Warhammer book.

Little Miss is reading Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock.

What I/We’ve Been Watching

The past week or so since my husband has been off work so we’ve watched a variety of things together. We watched some Murder, She Wrote, Parks and Recreation, Car 54 Where Are You, and Midsomer Murders which The Husband likes better than me. The series is a bit dark for me, but the mysteries are interesting.

The Husband got caught up in a movie called Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but I didn’t realize he was going to keep watching it and that I should follow along so I didn’t pay attention at first and then when I did tune in, I was so confused that I had to take to Google to catch up with what was really going on.

Even after reading the summary, I was completely confused but sort of figured things out.

I also rewatched McLintock with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

And I watched Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney, which I wrote about on the blog.

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link-party.

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Jumping cats, crazy sleepovers, tons of movies, and slow moving books

December 28, 2025December 28, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 22 Comments

I am starting this post on Christmas night, cuddled up under a blanket with a heating pad because we chose not to light our fire since we were going to be gone most of the day, visiting my parents for Christmas. We have another heat source but it’s hard to get the house warm on cold nights like this with just the baseboard heat. It’s 18 degrees tonight and tomorrow (Friday) we are set to get a few inches of snow as well as ice. We are definitely lighting our fire tomorrow.

The Husband is off work for the next couple of weeks, and Little Miss is off school as well.

We don’t have any grand plans, other than going to see a light display at a golf course near us.

On Monday, The Husband took our new cat Cass up to an animal clinic about 45 minutes north to be neutered in the morning. The kids and I headed up in the afternoon to pick Cass up but the trip took longer since we had to run to the Wal-Mart near there to pick up a gift for my dad and some grocery items at the pickup area in the parking lot.

The wait to get those items turned out to be a lot longer than we had anticipated because of how busy it was since it was three days before Christmas. My son was driving and it was very nerve-racking for him (a new driver) to be driving in a packed parking lot while people walked to their cars, without even paying attention to the cars trying to get through the parking lot and back onto the street.

There were cars everywhere in this town, which is much bigger than where we live now and by the time we reached the road that would lead us to where we could pick up Cass, The Boy and I were both a bit on edge. I took over the driving to the animal clinic when we stopped to grab a couple slices of pizza but let The Boy drive again after we picked Cass up because it was getting dark and I can’t see as well in the dark as I once could.

We were given a cone to put on Cass’s head to keep him from licking or chewing at the stitches and it was while working to put that on him Monday night that I smelled something awful. Apparently, Cass was having some issues controlling his spraying because before I knew it, I smelled like cat urine.

It was on my clothes and somehow in my hair so I had to head up the stairs to take a shower and on my way up the stairs I mumbled, “Well I didn’t have getting cat pee in my hair on my bingo card for today.”

When we left the clinic, the woman at the front desk gave me a long list of guidelines for Cass. At the top of the list was to make sure he didn’t lick his wounds too much. Next, we were told to make sure he didn’t jump and leap around too much. Huh. Yeah right.

We have two archways (or whatever they are called) in our living room, high windows in our laundry room, and his food is on a counter, so the dog doesn’t eat it.

By the second day, he kept jumping on anything high to try to find a way out. On the third day he fell into a laundry basked under our laundry room window while trying to get to the window to see if it was a way for him to get out.

The day after Christmas, he climbed the glass doors in our living room — how, I have no idea.

Last night I found him in the other laundry room window and when I told him to get down he jumped about three feet, landing on top of the washer. I am beginning to think he’ll be safer when he can go outside and stalk birds or whatever he does out there.

Back to Sunday now and I am writing after Little Miss had a wildly fun sleepover with her friend, complete with sledding, cooking making, and general mayhem without devices other than the ring camera where they kept recording hilarious messages for me.

The friend is going home today as we try to beat another freezing rain winter storm coming in this afternoon.

It will continue into tomorrow and then there will be just rain.

This weekend has been very nice and cozy, though, and so much fun. It was fun to watch the girls have so much fun together. We still have another week with everyone off work/school, so there will hopefully be more of these fun moments.

Our Christmas was nice and quiet with my family visiting my elderly parents for the day.

I didn’t finish anything this past week but am reading My Beloved by Jan Karon and The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. I might give up on The Christmas Quilt because it is more like being told the story instead of being immersed in the story.

My Beloved is not what I expected and while the story is a cute idea and there are sweet moments so far, it also seems oddly set up with individual very short chapters from the POV of different characters. I sort of wonder why Jan’s editors didn’t combine some of the chapters instead of making them separate chapters. I love Jan’s books and her writing, but this one simply isn’t clicking with me like most of her previous novels. I am withholding my final opinion until I have finished the book, though.

Coming up next week, I hope to read some more mystery books. I did not receive any new books for Christmas, which is okay because My Beloved was my birthday/Christmas gift and because I have sooo many books on my shelves already. I did receive a very nice journal/personal planner, though, that I am already starting to use.

Little Miss and I will be starting a new historical fiction book when our new year starts and I purchased fantasy books by Ted Dekker and his daughter for Christmas for her so I am hoping she will start one of those.

The Husband just finished a Cormac McCarthy book called Stella Maris.

I watched a few movies this past week, either with the kids or The Husband, including:

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, The Thin Man, White Christmas, The Bishop’s Wife, The Benson Murder Case, Tenth Avenue Angel and part of It’s A Wonderful Life.

I also started Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney for my Winter with Cagney movie event for the blog but had to stop it to go to bed. That movie is a lot longer than I realized. So far, I am enjoying it, even though it is a bit schmaltzy at times.

I also have to finish A Child’s Christmas in Wales today, which my brother recommended to me on Christmas Day. I got interrupted watching it and just remembered I haven’t finished it yet!

Last week on the blog I shared:

We are also hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas until the end of this week! As Erin said on her blog, “Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky.” You can find the link for that at the top of my page in the menu or here.

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this. You can copy my blog graphic to your computer if you want to participate in my link party or you can join the other awesome link-ups below.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies

December 21, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 15 Comments

I can’t believe that Christmas is this week. This month went so fast! This year went so fast for that matter.

Tomorrow we will have to take a trip almost an hour north to pick our cat up from being neutered. The Husband is taking him there in the morning and we will be picking him up in the afternoon. Otherwise we will be mostly laying low this week until Thursday when we will visit my parents for Christmas.

I still feel like there was so much more I wanted to do to celebrate Christmas before we got here, but, as usual, we are behind. One thing I do regret is that we never got our nativity set up this year. We had such cold weather for about two weeks and The Husband, who is the one who usually puts it up for us, has been super busy at work. Those combining factors made finding the time difficult.

Maybe we can get an Easter display up instead this year.

We are also hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas! As Erin said on her blog, “Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky.” You can find the link for that at the top of my page in the menu or here.

I finished Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin this past week. It was a cute and sweet Christmas novella.

I’m now reading My Beloved by Jan Karon and so far I am enjoying it even though it is bouncing back and forth between characters. I was so excited to get the book back from my mom who I let borrow it before I read it because I know how much she enjoys the Mitford books. She was afraid to read it anywhere other than her chair so it took her a month or more to finish it but I was fine with that. Now I can sit down in the days leading up to Christmas and savor it.

This is most likely the final Mitford book since Jan is 88 now so I will definitely savor it.

I am also reading an Elm Street Quilters book called The Christmas Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini but only at night when I don’t want to hold my big hardcover of My Beloved up in the dark in bed.

Coming up I am looking forward to Miss Read Village Diary by Miss Read, which is an author Jan Karon actually said inspired her Mitford series.

The Husband is reading Showdown by Mike Lupica.

The Husband and I watched The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant and David Nivin last night.

Earlier in the week I watched a Christmas special from 1957 with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

I also enjoyed a new-to-me vlogger who shared suggestions of books that are written with each chapter representing a month of the year.

We also watched an episode of Murder, She Wrote, Car 54 Where Are You?, and Shakespeare & Hathaway.

This week I will be watching only Christmas movies. Maybe. We will see.

The kids and I tried a Hallmark Christmas movie last night and couldn’t make it through. We got about a half an hour in but only survived by making copious amounts of fun of it. Hopefully we will find something better this week.

This week I shared on the blog:

I’ve been listening to Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien off and on.

Now It’s Your Turn

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books On My Winter 2025 To-Read List

December 16, 2025December 16, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 17 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s prompt was: Books On My Winter 2025-2026 to-Read List. I have a lot more than this on my list but I picked out ten to list today.

Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

2. The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie

3. Miss Read Village Diary by Miss Read

4. My Beloved by Jan Karon

5. A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse

6. Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart

7. ‘Tis Herself by Maureen O’Hara

8. The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner

9. Murder She Wrote: Brandy and Bullets by Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain

10. Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble by Laurien Berenson

Have you read any of these books?

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Sunday Bookends: Dick VanDyke, Hercule Poirot, and a cat falling off the roof

December 14, 2025December 14, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 19 Comments

I usually mention what I have been watching down below but today I thought I’d mention part of what I’ve been watching here because I have been watching a lot of clips of or interviews with or about Dick VanDyke since yesterday was his 100^th birthday and he’s still alive.

When I was a kid, I watched The Dick VanDyke Show on PBS in the evenings after dinner and it became a comfort watch to me. As my mom said last night, The Dick VanDyke Show was something you could watch and know it was just going to be good, clean comedy and fun.

The show still holds up today too. I still watch The Dick VanDyke Show, especially when I am down about something.

In fact, when I am down or sad about something my husband will ask, “What can I do? How about I make a cup of tea and find you a Dick VanDyke episode to watch?” Sometimes he doesn’t even suggest it, he simply turns an episode on and backs away — much like a man might toss a bar of chocolate to a woman on her period and run away.

Of course I have also watched Dick VanDyke in movies like Mary Poppins, but, for me, my memories of him will always circulate around The Dick VanDyke Show.

I loved this interview with him from People Magazine. My brother sent it to me last night and I cried because it was just nice to see him doing so well at his age and hearing all his memories of the various projects he was involved with over the years.

This past week we were plunged into deep cold and also had snow a couple of days which left it hard for me to back out of our steep driveway. Yesterday was my first day out all week and the kids and I took some bean soup to my parents…yes, that bean soup from my post yesterday.

We are facing below freezing temps today, but later in the week temps will rise into the mid-40s. Why do I give weather reports in my blog posts?! I have no idea, but I always do it.

Our cats aren’t sure what to think of the weather. Somedays they want to go out but within ten minutes they are back at the kitchen window begging to come in.

We had a bit of cabin fever this week so Little Miss took Zooma The Wonder Dog for a walk down the street. Scout decided she wanted to see what was going on but she didn’t last outside long, dashing back inside through our side door when I wasn’t looking.

Since I wasn’t looking, I panicked a bit later when I couldn’t find her in the house and it was getting dark

I feel like I spend most of my days counting fury heads and asking, “Has anyone seen…” whichever cat I haven’t seen for a while.

Cass is our “new cat” who we’ve had since the end of October. He is a he and not a she like we normally thought and we are getting much better at calling him “he” as we get used to that change. We called him “she” for the first month of his life.

Our cat Scout has always been the crazy one, climbing up trees and having to be rescued by the fire company or falling out of them and almost dying, but now Cass is the craziest because we’ve found him on our snowy roof twice this month and twice he stole chicken from the stove or counter when I wasn’t looking.

I discovered him on the roof after a small snowstorm this week when Zooma was barking at him and snow trickled down from the roof as I opened the door. Our son looked out his upstairs window to see if he could bring Cass in but he had already found a way down to the porch so he could come in the door the normal way.

Yesterday, the same thing happened, but this time Cass thought he could climb onto the open door frame and jump down. The only problem was once he got on the narrow door frame he tried to step on our wreathe which kept moving and then panicked. He had no idea how to get off the door frame so eventually our son reached up for him and Cass fell, upside down, into his arms.

I’ve learned to duct tape the knobs on the stove so he won’t hit them with his foot when he thinks he can jump up. I’m also learning not to leave food on the counter that I plan to eat unattended. I hope to break him of these stealing habits soon — probably with a spray bottle, which is how I had to stop Scout from climbing our window screens when we first adopted her.

I’m curious if he will calm down once he is neutered a few days before Christmas.

This is off the subject — I don’t know about any of you have bots on your site or not lately, but I have tons from China and have for about three months. I’ve contacted WordPress but have been told to ignore them unless I start receiving a ton of comments. That’s great, I guess, because right now I get 30,000 fake views a week from China and I’ve heard and read on forums that this happening to a ton of other blogs and sites in the United States.

REMINDERS*: Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

At the beginning of the week I stayed up past 1 a.m. one night finishing Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. While I felt it was a bit wordy at times and maybe even a little repetitive with all that comparison by the second Mrs. DeWinter of herself to Rebecca, I really enjoyed it and do think it is as good as so many reviews I have read said it was (that sentence doesn’t make much sense but hopefully you can decipher it.)

Last night I finished Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie. It was very good, (though a bit rushed) but I think I’ll look for sweeter reads for the next couple of weeks as we make our way toward Christmas.

Little Miss and I also finished Caddie Woodlawn’s Family (also known from it’s original title Magical Melons).

I will probably read a couple of Christmas short stories by Dickens and L.M. Montgomery, as well as finishing reading A Christmas Carol to Little Miss. I will also read at least part of Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon.

Coming up soon will be a book of short stories by Louis L’Amour, Damsel in Distress by P.G. Woodhouse, and Murder, She Wrote Brandy and Bullets. I’m also hoping to start Glorious Intruder by Joni Eareckson Tada as a slow read. After all that or somewhere in between I want to start The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis.

This past week I rewatched part of Meet Me In St. Louis, Wartime Christmas, and on YouTube a couple episodes of Real Vintage Dolls House. I started a couple of movies too but have not finished them yet.

I’ll be making a formal announcement later, but I’ll be watching James Cagney movies this winter and I’m looking forward to it because I’ve only ever watched one Cagney movie, so I will probably add one of his movies into my Christmas movie watching this week.

This morning, we watched the first episode of the new season of Shakespeare & Hathaway. It wasn’t as good as the earlier seasons (we skipped Season 4 filmed during “You Know What” because the one episode was just bad beyond bad) but it was nice to see their banter again after a two-year break. We will see how the rest of the season is.

I also watched “my farmer”, Pete, on Just A Few Acres Farm, which I do almost every Sunday after watching online church.

I made a lot of progress on Gladwynn book four this past week. I thought I’d share a little description I put together:

Small town newspaper reporter Gladwynn Grant is not going to get involved in any more mysteries. She’s learned her lesson. The hard way.

Her resolve starts to crumble, though, when someone tries to drop an industrial size light fixture on the Brookstone School District Superintendent during an interview. Was Superintendent Ellerton the intended target, though? Or was it actually Gladwynn herself?

While all this is unfolding her ever-busy grandmother, Lucinda, has been told by her doctor she needs to rest more and run around less while Gladwynn’s sister, Iona, is feeling overwhelmed with her role as a mother of three.

A new friendship between State Police Detective Tanner Kinney and Pastor Luke Callahan, the two men family and friends like to joke are battling for Gladwynn’s affections, has Gladwynn a bit perplexed, but also relieved.

Will Gladwynn be able to help find out if someone wants Superintendent Ellerton out of the picture, all while trying to keep Lucinda resting, Iona from cracking, and everyone in town from spreading rumors about her and one of the men in her life?

Find out in the latest Gladwnn Grant Mystery, Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School.

If you want to read the previous three books, you can find links at the bottom of the page. They are available as ebooks and paperbacks.

On the blog I shared:

I’ve been listening to Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Mystery of Stillness by BettieG’s RA Seasons

Gingerbread and Pear Pudding by Scratch Made Food and DIY Homemade Household

Silent Movies: Christmas Dream by Cat’s Wire

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs

Now It’s Your Turn

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Snow. Beautiful book. Old movies.

December 7, 2025December 7, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 24 Comments

Some husbands show their wives their love by buying them flowers or chocolate. My husband shows me love by buying me books and I’m here for it.

A couple of months ago he bought me My Beloved, the new book by Jan Karon, for my birthday/early Christmas gift. I haven’t read it yet because I gave it to my mom to read first.

Yesterday The Husband went Christmas shopping for the kids and came home with gifts for them but also a pretty copy of A Christmas Carol for me.

It’s a reproduction of a reproduction but that doesn’t matter to me. I love it, and I love how it includes the original introduction and preface that was in the 1922 version. To explain, there was a version of Dicken’s original version of A Christmas Carol published in 1922 by the National Book Trade Provident Society. Their version was republished this year by another publisher. So, a reproduction of a reproduction.Whatever it is, I love it. It’s little and cute and inside it features an introduction by GK Chesterton and original illustrations published in the original A Christmas Carol.

I read the story to my son several years ago so Monday I plan to start reading it to Little Miss.

This week we received our first snowfall of the year, and since the temps dropped so fast afterward, we still have snow on the ground and probably will for a while. Temps are going to stay very low for several more days.

I took this photo at my parents yesterday. I love this view.

This past week I breezed through a novella called Christmas in Harmony by Phillip Gulley. I really enjoyed it. It’s part of the Harmony series by Gulley, which I recommend if you’ve never tried it.

I almost finished Rebecca and probably will finish it by tomorrow. It was very slow at first with so much melodrama and description but it picks up halfway through and now I have to read to the end, even though I did see the movie in the past. I forgot the ending of the movie so this will remind me if the two are the same.

I am taking part in the 13^th annual Ho Ho Ho Readathon from November 26 to December 17^th. I finished my first Christmas/winter themed book with Christmas in Harmony.

This week I’ll be starting A Christmas Carol with my daughter and also continuing Hercule Poirot’s Christmas and A Christmas Scrapbook, a short story by Phillip Gulley.

I will also be reading excerpts from Little Women and Shepherd’s Abiding (a Jan Karon book and part of the Mitford series) at some point.

If you want to know more about the challenge, hop over here:

https://caffeinatedbookreviewer.com/2025/10/13th-annual-ho-ho-ho-readathon-sign-up.html

Little Miss and I will finish Magical Melons or Caddie Woodlawn’s Family (which the name was changed to) by Carol Ryrie Brink this week. This is the sequel to Caddie Woodlawn, which we listened to on Audible. We’ve been slowly reading it along with other school books for quite a while now. Each chapter is like its own short story. I really enjoyed a chapter we read this past week about Christmas and ended up crying over it. I’ll share more about the book in a future post.

I have a Murder, She Wrote book, The Murder of Twelve, by Donald Bain on tap for sometime soon, but will probably end up reading more Christmas stories/books throughout December.

This week I watched an old movie called Ball of Fire, part of the PBS Little Women mini-series, and tried to watch a movie called Wonder Man with Danny Kaye but couldn’t get into it.

I honestly can’t remember what else I watched this past week so I guess it wasn’t very exciting.

Today I will be watching some sort of Christmas movie but I am not sure which one yet.

I added a couple thousand words to Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School last week.

Last week on the blog I shared:

I am listening (off and on) to Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Now It’s Your Turn

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

Top Ten Quotes from my favorite Christmas book: Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon

December 2, 2025December 2, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week we could choose whichever topic we wanted so I chose: Top Ten Quotes from my favorite Christmas book (or one of them): Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon.

A description of the book:

Experience the joys of a small town Christmas in this novel in the beloved Mitford series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jan Karon.

Millions of Americans have found Mitford to be a favorite home-away-from-home, and countless readers have long wondered what Christmas in Mitford would be like. The eighth Mitford novel provides a glimpse, offering a meditation on the best of all presents: the gift of one’s heart.

Since he was a boy, Father Tim has lived what he calls “the life of the mind” and has never really learned to savor the work of his hands. When he finds a derelict nativity scene that has suffered the indignities of time and neglect, he imagines the excitement in the eyes of his wife, Cynthia, and decides to undertake the daunting task of restoring it. As Father Tim begins his journey, readers are given a seat at Mitford’s holiday table and treated to a magical tale about the true Christmas spirit.

I try to read either all of this book, or parts of it, each year at Christmastime.

“Lord, make me a blessing to someone today!” He uttered aloud his grandmother’s prayer, raised his umbrella, and, beneath the sound of rain thudding onto black nylon, turned left, and headed to Lord’s Chapel to borrow a volume of Jonathan Edwards from the church library.

The day after his visit to Oxford Antiques, he realized that the angel had seized his imagination. He was surprised by a vivid recollection of her face, which he’d found beautiful, and the piety of her folded hands and downcast eyes. As for the missing wing, wasn’t that a pretty accurate representation of most of the human horde, himself certainly included?

In the back room of Happy Endings, Hope finished reading the second letter on her desk and held it for a moment close to her heart. She had never received a love letter before. She was, of course, the only one who would think it a love letter, as there was no mention of love in it, at all. Yet she could feel love beating in each word, in every stroke of the pen, just as it beat in the heart and soul of the chaplain of Hope House and expressed itself in everything he did.

His father gazed at him for an instant more, then walked up the steps and into the house. He sat there, numb with a mixture of joy and bewilderment. In one brief and startling moment, he realized that he was, after all, seen — and perhaps even loved.

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.

Blast it! No! He would not forfeit the glad rewards of this rare, unhurried moment. He took a deep breath, exhaled, and closed his eyes. Thank you, Lord, for the grace of an untroubled spirit, and for the blessings which are ours in numbers too great to count or even recognize. . . . He sat for some time, giving thanks, and then, without precisely meaning to, remembering. . . .

But, no. He didn’t want the Holy Family to go faster. He’d developed a special tenderness toward the last of this worshipful assembly, and wanted to give them his best effort, his deepest concentration. Indeed, it seemed to be the wont of most people in a distracted and frantic world to blast through an experience without savoring it or, later, reflecting upon it.

“I brought it home and thought, Timothy gave Hélène his beautiful bronze angel, I want to do this for him. Because if I could do it, it would represent the very reason Christ was born. He came to put us back together, and make us whole.”

“Christmas is real,” he said. “It’s all true.”

“Yes,” she said. “It’s all true.

“Merry Christmas, my love.”

“Merry Christmas, dearest.”

“I’m a sinner saved by grace, Lew, not by works. It doesn’t matter a whit that I’m a priest. What matters is that we surrender our hearts to God and receive His forgiveness, and come into personal relationship with His Son.”

Bonus: He leaned down and took her chin in his hand and kissed her, lingering. “I like to see your eyelashes go up and down and the little stars come out of you.”

This post is part of Comfy, Cozy Christmas, being hosted by me and Erin at Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Bookish Link Up For December

December 2, 2025December 1, 2025 / Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea (A Monthly Bookish Link Party)!! This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!).

Each link party will be open for a month.

My co-host for this event is Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs! You can link up with either of us!

Some guidelines.

1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.

2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.

3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.

4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.

5. If you add a link, you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).

Thank you to those who linked up last month. Here are some highlights from that link party:

|| My October Books by Cat’s Wire ||

|| Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set During or After World War II by The Intrepid Reader ||

|| I’m Spoiling You With These Books by Is This Mutton ||

|| Top Ten Tuesday: Books Outside My Comfort Zone by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs ||