I thought I’d share what books I’ve read so far this year.
I haven’t been as concerned with reading a certain quantity of books this year..
I’ve tried some different authors for me and I’m trying to add in some classics, but otherwise I am not being super strict with what I am reading or with keeping track of how many I read.
I do see that I am averaging about four books a month.
January:
My Beloved by Jan Karon
The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie
Miss Read’s Village Diary by Miss Read
Miss Read’s Village School by Miss Read
February:
The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham
Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie
Murder, She Wrote: Bullets and Brandy by Donald Bain
March:
Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
Whispering Walls by Mildred Wirt
Murder On the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
Crooked House by Agatha Christie
The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy
April:
Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse
A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim
Nancy Drew: Nancy’s Mysterious Letter by Carolyn Keene
May:
Murder, She Wrote: Aloha Betrayal by Donald Bain
The Labors of Poirot by Agatha Christie
The Cat Who Brought Down the House by Lilian Jackson Braun
June:
Stolen Past by Tara Randel
Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
The Ivory Dagger by Patricia Wentworth
July:
The Unsolicited Journals of Emma Lion Vol. 1 by Beth Brower
Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck
I’m looking forward to a lot of good books I have on tap for the next six months of the year.
How about you?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin, Cat, and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
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.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate) with Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and Cat (Cat’s Wire). You can find a link to it at the top of the page. The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday, if you want to link your top ten there too!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: Top Ten Tuesday July 7
Book Titles That Include the Word “[insert word of your choice here]” (Pick a word and share ten book titles that include that word!) I chose the word “secret.”
This is a list of books I have read, want to read, would very likely, or possibly, read.
I should note that I could make this entire list out of just Nancy Drew titles alone, since a ton of the books in that series have secret in the title, but I decided to give some variety to the list and instead have three Agatha Christie titles. Ha!
|| The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett Hodgson (have read) ||
|| The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene (a Nancy Drew Mystery. Have read) ||
|| The Secret Adversary (Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries, #1) by Agatha Christie (haven’t read but sure I will at some point) ||
|| The Secret, Book & Scone Society (Secret, Book, & Scone Society, #1) by Ellery Adams (haven’t read but will probably soon) ||
|| The Secret of Chimneys (Superintendent Battle, #1) by Agatha Christie (have read and enjoyed) ||
|| The Codebreaker’s Secret by Sara Ackerman (haven’t read but it looks good) ||
|| Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells (haven’t read but probably will eventually) ||
|| The Secret Life of Walter Mitty James Thurber (haven’t read but it interests me because I’ve seen one of the movie adaptations) ||
|| The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad (never read it, think I’ve heard of it. Probably will read some day.) ||
|| The Secrets of Hartwood Hall by Katie Lumsden (I don’t know anything about it but it popped up when I was searching for books with the word secret in the title and it looks good.) ||
Have you read any of these? Let me know in the comments, especially for the ones I have not read yet.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
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.
The Ivory Dagger was my first Patricia Wentworth book so it was also my first Miss Silver Mystery as well.
This was number 18 in the series and it didn’t matter that I had not read the previous 17 books. I was able to catch on with the characters and their backgrounds very quickly. Wentworth was a British Mystery writer who published books between the 1920s and the 1960s. The Ivory Dagger was written in 1953.
I liked Maud Silver, the elderly woman called in to help solve the crime, immediately. I also liked Detective Inspector Frank Abbott immediately.
It was made clear, without too much supposition on past cases, that these two had worked together before and had a very teasing and affectionate relationship because of that.
I absolutely loved their interactions.
Let’s go back and grab a description of the book from online, though:
Bill Waring, collecting his wits in hospital after a train crash, receives only one letter from Lila Dryden, his fiancée. When he discovers Lady Dryden, Lila’s guardian, has pressured her into an engagement with Herbert Whitall, he is furious. Herbert Whitall is aggressive, with a cold-hearted possessiveness that expands past the bounds of his ivory collection he can’t bear to lose. His employees hate him, Lila is terrified of him and it appears he has a hold on Lady Dryden. When a dagger in Whitall’s collection becomes the instrument of his own death there are many suspects. Maud Silver must see that justice is done, not merely to punish the guilty, but to protect the innocent.
One thing left out of this particular description, but is in others, is that Lila becomes the prime suspect because she is found standing over his body, holding an ivory dagger that belonged to him.
She has a history of sleep walking, though, and this seems to be another one of those incidents. Could she have killed Herbert in her sleep? Even she is worried about that.
I won’t lie – I wasn’t a big fan of Lila through parts of this book. She was pretty weak and cruel to Bill and others at times, but, then, she was also very young and inexperienced at life.
It’s Lady Dryden who calls in Miss Silver because she has heard about the previous cases Miss Silver has solved.
Miss Silver doesn’t know when she comes to the mansion, that Frank Abbott has been assigned the case but she is pleasantly surprised. Frank is pleasantly surprised with her appearance as well.
“Frank Abbott took the hand and reciprocated the smile. Adrian Gray having mentioned that there was a Miss Silver staying in the house, he was by no means unprepared for the appearance of the lady who he had been known in moments of expansion to address as Revered Preceptress. They were, all jesting apart, on a footing of deep attachment, and, upon Frank’s side, of a most unfeigned respect.”
Miss Silver knows that the focus is on Lila but there is a list of people who didn’t like Whitall, so she must look at them all. She doesn’t think Lila is guilty. Neither does Frank so they will need to join their efforts to find out who really is guilty.
Miss Silver reminds me of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and has similar hobbies and mannerisms. Miss Silver also has similar great comebacks or lines as Miss Marple.
They both appear to be innocent old ladies just sitting and knitting away while they are actually listening in to solve the crime. In this one, Miss Silver is knitting a vest for a great niece or relative, I can’t remember which. Wentworth likes to remind us she’s just simply knitting along with such lines as, “The crocket hook went in and out, making a delicate shell pattern about the neck of little Josephine’s vest.”
One difference between Miss Silver and Miss Marple is that Miss Silver is an actual private investigator and Miss Marple is simply a spinster living in a small town who becomes involved in solving crimes.
If you’re curious which one came first, it was Miss Marple by a year. Her first story was published as a short story in 1927. The first Miss Silver book came out in 1928.
What I like about Wentworth’s writing is that she is light on description of characters, scenery, and other aspects of the story, but still heavier than Christie. She provides more literary imagery to draw from to create an image in the readers mind of the main characters and the surroundings than Christie does. This doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. Christie was a brilliant stripped back storyteller and Wentworth is also a wonderful storyteller who simply adds a bit more personality and description to her characters.
Wentworth’s writing reminded me more of Margery Allingham, another Golden Age mystery writer, than Agatha’s. Both Wentworth and Allingham were great at creating engaging and well-written sentences or paragraphs that left you wanting to read it again, highlight it, or write it down.
“They sat facing one another. Feature and expression were hidden by the darkness, yet each knew the other so well that his darkness was only a black screen upon which memory could throw its pictures. Bill holding doggedly to what he had said and saying it all over again, as if battering repetition was an argument in itself. Ray on the defensive – quick thrust and parry to met his bludgeon blows, eyes wide and the colour in her cheeks like flame.”
Though this wasn’t the first book in the series, it was a good introduction for me and I am looking forward to reading more.
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin, Cat, and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Notice: This post may contain affiiate links. If you purchase the product from these links I will receive a small compensation at no extra charge to you.
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.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate), and you can find a link to it at the top of the page.
The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday if you want to link your top ten there too!
Now, on to today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt, which is: My Favorite Books by My Favorite Authors (Pick your ten favorite authors and your favorite book written by each one of them.) (submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext)
I’ll be honest, I don’t know if these authors are all “favorites,” but they are authors I enjoy.
Jan Karon
Jan’s book A Light In The Window is my favorite because it is the one where the romance between Father Tim and Cynthia begins.
If you have not read this series, it centers around an Episcopal priest in his 60s who finds love and fatherhood late in life. The 15-book series features sweet, challenging, and thought-provoking stories of faith with a myriad of quirky, fun, and lovable characters.
Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts is my favorite in Lilian’s The Cat Who series. The series is about journalist, and later former journalist, Jim “Qwill” Qwilleran, and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, who help him solve various mysteries.
In this one, a close friend of Qwill’s passes away and he travels to where she lives to find out what happened to her. During the visit he meets a precocious little girl (he is older and in a relationship but has no interest in children), an abused young woman, and other interesting characters.
C.S. Lewis
I still have a lot of C.S. Lewis to read so this book could change, but I really liked The Magician’s Nephew from the Chronicles of Narnia series.
The Chronicles of Narnia are about a magical land called Narnia where children disappear into from the modern world and become kings and queens and meet magical creatures. There is much more to it than that, but that is the short version. The Magician’s Nephew is very magical and where the story of the chronicles really begins.
Agatha Christie
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans is my favorite book so far from Christie.
I know that this is not one mentioned as much when someone talks or writes about Agatha Christie but it is one of my favorites because there is a little bit of romance in it and a lot of humor between the main characters Bobby and Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent.
A body is found at the bottom of a cliff by the ocean and when Bobby reaches the man, he isn’t in good shape but manages to utter five words: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?”
Bobby decides to find out who “they” are and who in the world was/is Evans and why no one asked this person whatever they were supposed to ask him.
Craig Johnson
I have a lot more to read of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series, but so far my favorite book is The Dark Horse.
Here is a quick description of it from Goodreads: “Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past and a gift for making enemies, burned his wife Mary’s horses in their barn; in retribution, she shot him in the head six times, or so the story goes. But Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn’t believe Mary’s confession and is determined to dig deeper. Unpinning his star to pose as an insurance investigator, Walt visits the Barsad ranch and discovers that everyone in town–including a beautiful Guetemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor–had a reason for wanting Wade dead.”
Anthony Horowitz
Moriarty is my favorite book of Horowitz’s so far, but I have a lot more of his to read. Moriarity takes place after Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis, Moriarty, have plunged over the Reichenbach Falls.
Now Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York to find the man who wants to take Moriarity’s place as the most sinister criminal in Europe. Horowitz was given permission by the Arthur Conan Doyle Trust to write this and another book, Silk, using Sherlock Holmes’ character.
L.M. Montgomery
The Blue Castle, which I wrote about in a series of posts earlier this spring, is my favorite of L.M. Montgomery’s books for a variety of reasons. It is poetic, thought-provoking while also being sweet, romantic, and enchanting
Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes is my favorite Carolyn Keene book so far.
The Nancy Drew books were written by several different authors under the same pseudonym and this one, about a trip Nancy takes to Scotland to investigate a theft at her great-aunt’s house. This one was not only fun but it was full of interesting facts about Scotland.
P.G. Wodehouse
A Damsel in Distress is my favorite read by P.G. Wodehouse so far. Full disclaimer, I have only read three of his books, but this one, featuring many romantic misunderstandings, is so much fun and full of hilarious moments, if you can push through the old style writing.
Here is a quick description from online: “When Maud Marsh flings herself into American George Benson’s cab in Piccadilly, he believes he has met a damsel in distress. George traces his mysterious travelling companion to Belpher Castle, home of Lord Marshmoreton, where life is hilariously muddled.”
Francine Rivers
A Voice in the Wind (from the Mark of the Lion series). This first book in a series that takes place in Jerusalem during Roman rule fascinated me and kept me on the edge of my seat. It follows the story of a young Jewish girl named Hadassah who is made a slave in the home of a Roman leader.
Have you read any of these? And who are some of your favorite authors?
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
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.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month : https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
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.
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5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).
Have fun everyone and I hope you find some wonderful book recs by visiting the links throughout the month!
Thank you to everyone who participated last month! Be sure to tell your followers about the link-up so we can all get more recommendations for our bookshelves.
This is the month when adults read chapter books that were actually written for children. Middle Grade March. Sometimes, they are so good that we don’t even realize they were written for children.I read a lot of middle-grade books throughout the year because I have a middle-grade child. She and I have already read many of the books other readers have on their lists each year.
If you participate or want to participate in Middle Grade March, I have a few suggestions of books you can choose from to read. Many of these are “lesser known” middle-grade books that don’t always get a lot of attention in bookish circles.
Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
Return to Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
The Green Ember by S.D. Smith
Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
The Good Master by Kate Seredy
Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry
Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac
Freedom Crossing by Margaret Groff Clark
Miracle on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson
The Moffatts by Eleanor Estes
The Middle Moffatt by Eleanor Estes
The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Spear
The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.
King of the Wind by Marquerite Henry
Do you participate in Middle Grade March, or have you?
If you have, what did you read or if you are this month, what are you reading?
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.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
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.
This week’s prompt was: Books for Armchair Travelers (Submitted by Laurie C @ Bay State Reader’s Advisory)
I have not read a lot of travel or adventure or even non-fiction books, but I do have a list I want to read so I thought I’d share that list today.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
I actually had this book in my Libby at the end of last year, but ran out of time to read it. I’ll try again this year.
Description: The Appalachian Trail stretches from Georgia to Maine and covers some of the most breathtaking terrain in America—majestic mountains, silent forests, sparkling lakes. If you’re going to take a hike, it’s probably the place to go. And Bill Bryson is surely the most entertaining guide you’ll find. He introduces us to the history and ecology of the trail and to some of the other hardy (or just foolhardy) folks he meets along the way—and a couple of bears. Already a classic, A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).
2. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
I will be reading this one in March for the Christie 2026 Challenge.
Description:
“The murderer is with us—on the train now . . .”
Just after midnight, the famous Orient Express is stopped in its tracks by a snowdrift. By morning, the millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett lies dead in his compartment, stabbed a dozen times, his door locked from the inside. Without a shred of doubt, one of his fellow passengers is the murderer.
Isolated by the storm, detective Hercule Poirot must find the killer among a dozen of the dead man’s enemies, before the murderer decides to strike again.
3. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
A relative recommended this one.
Description:
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.
4. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
I’ve always wanted to read this one but have never got around to it.
Description:
At the age of five, little orphan Heidi is sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps. Everyone in the village is afraid of him, but Heidi is fascinated by his long beard and bushy grey eyebrows. She loves her life in the mountains, playing in the sunshine and growing up amongst the goats and birds. But one terrible day, Heidi is collected by her aunt and is made to live with a new family in town. Heidi can’t bear to be away from her grandfather; can she find a way back up the mountain, where she belongs?
5. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mays.
I’ve seen this movie but have not read the book.
Description:
Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.
6. Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
Description: To hear the speech of the real America, to smell the grass and the trees, to see the colors and the light—these were John Steinbeck’s goals as he set out, at the age of fifty-eight, to rediscover the country he had been writing about for so many years.
With Charley, his French poodle, Steinbeck drives the interstates and the country roads, dines with truckers, encounters bears at Yellowstone and old friends in San Francisco. Along the way he reflects on the American character, racial hostility, the particular form of American loneliness he finds almost everywhere, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.
7. My Life in France by Julia Child
Description: Here is the captivating story of Julia Child’s years in France, where she fell in love with French food and found “her true calling.” From the moment she and her husband Paul, who worked for the USIS, arrived in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn’t speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu. She teamed up with two fellow gourmettes, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, to help them with a book on French cooking for Americans. Filled with her husband’s beautiful black-and-white photographs as well as family snapshots, this memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia embraced so wholeheartedly. Bon appétit!-
8. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou
In 1962 the poet, musician, and performer Maya Angelou claimed another piece of her identity by moving to Ghana, joining a community of “Revolutionist Returnees” inspired by the promise of pan-Africanism. All God’s Children Need Walking Shoes is her lyrical and acutely perceptive exploration of what it means to be an African American on the mother continent, where color no longer matters but where American-ness keeps asserting itself in ways both puzzling and heartbreaking. As it builds on the personal narrative of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name , this book confirms Maya Angelou’s stature as one of the most gifted autobiographers of our time.
9. A Room with a View by E.M. Forester
I have seen this movie but thought I should read the book some day.
Description:
“But you do,” he went on, not waiting for contradiction. “You love the boy body and soul, plainly, directly, as he loves you, and no other word expresses it …”
Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George.
Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?
10. Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan
I have read this one and enjoyed it.
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.
Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them, if you did?
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.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so 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.
This week’s prompt was: Bookish Discoveries I Made in 2025 (New-to-you authors you discovered, new genres you learned you like, new bookish resources you found, friends you made, local bookshops you found, a book club you joined, etc.)
2025 was the year my husband I discovered a small bookstore in a tiny village about 30 minutes from where we live, which is sad considering we’d lived here for five years before we found it.
The store features mostly used books, some antique books, and a few new ones.
There are books from all kinds of genres, including a large history section.
The cozy mystery/mystery mass paperback section was the most exciting for me because they sell those for $1.50 each. I picked up some Murder, She Wrote books that I have enjoyed so far. The ones by Donald Bain anyhow. Not so sure about the Jon Land ones. I started one and … well, it was rife with odd writing in only the first few pages.
We haven’t been back since the end of summer but I think another trip there is due soon. I am hoping to explore their shelves for Nancy Drew books which they’ve had a collection of the last couple times we’ve been.
2. 2025 was also the year I discovered Storygraph to track the books I’ve read. I track my books in my reading journal but liked the idea of doing it via an app too. I don’t use Goodreads to track because my mom is connected to my Kindle/Goodreads account and reads a lot more than I do. I can’t find the books I’ve read in the mass amount she’s read so I wanted a place I could track my reads.
Storygraph does that for me. I enjoy logging on as I progress in a book and marking the progress as I go along. It also helps me keep a list of books I want to read.
I’m not as worried about the other stats it provides at the end of the year. I read to have fun and stats aren’t as important to me as they once were.
3. 2025 was when I discovered P.G. Wodehouse.
I have started with the Jeeves series by Wodehouse and have enjoyed the first two books I read. The dry British humor/sarcasm is perfect to me because it fits my sense of humor. That’s probably I’ve often preferred British shows, sitcoms, and books to American ones.
I’m looking forward to reading more of his books this year.
4. I discovered that my new favorite genre is “gentle vintage fiction.”
I would describe this genre as fiction that takes place in a small village or simple location and is written before the 1970s. They are usually books that are almost about nothing in particular. They detail the everyday lives of the main characters and take the reader on a leisurely walk that doesn’t lead to too much stress or sadness.
I would place the Miss Read books by Miss Read and P.G. Wodehouse books in this category.
I have a list of books in this genre that I hope to read this year, including more by both of those authors.
5. Another new author for me in 2025 was Sharon Mondragon.
I read two of her books in 2025 — Grandma Ruth Doesn’t Go To Funerals and The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady.
I hope to read the sequel to The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady sometime this year.
6. I discovered Murder, She Wrote books by Donald Bain in 2025.
They are actually not bad. The books give a more detailed look at Jessica’s personal life, with a lot of emphasis on her emotions as she solves the murders, and also on her being a widow. In the first book of the series, Gin and Daggers, she remembers her late husband Frank quite a bit, and it’s bittersweet to see her spending time in London in the same hotel she and Frank once stayed in.
Bain also included a lot of history of wherever Jessica was visiting in his books.
I haven’t read any of the books in the series by other authors but I will be trying a couple of them this year while also reading Bain’s books.
The attribution for the books is actually Jessica Fletcher and Donald Bain, but…you know…there is no real Jessica Fletcher so Donald really writes them. Other authors took over later because he passed away. line up. I plan to read more of them for fun in 2026.
8. I rediscovered my love for The Chronicles of Narnia in 2025 and decided to re-read the series, which I had not read in 30 years. I read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in 2024, but in 2025 I read The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
I will be reading The Silver Chair and The Last Battle this year.
9. In 2025, I discovered more Golden Age Crime Fiction authors such as Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. I read one by Dorothy Sayers and enjoyed it and hope to read more of her and Allingham this year as well as discover other authors in this era/genre.
10. In 2025, I let go of reading what I thought others would want me to read or suggested I read – unless it was a super good suggestion. I just mean that I worried a lot less about reading what was popular or everyone else was reading and just read whatever I wanted to. If it interested me, then I read it, even if I hated it later. I also stepped out of my comfort zone several times to try a book that looked interesting to me but that I wouldn’t have tried in the past. I definitely plan to do more of this in 2026.
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.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so 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.
I should be able to manage this one since I am in a Christie reading challenge for 2026. I tried it last year and failed but I think I’ll do better this year.
I read The Secret of Chimneys for January and already have the book for February — Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.
I will be reading An Autobiography by Agatha Christie for the challenge as well, which will actually cross off another of my goals down below.
Two. Read at least three classic books this year
I want to read at least two classics this year, and I hope one of them will be The Count of Monte Cristo.
I will be reading Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien as well.
Other classic book goals for me this year are to read at least one book by a Bronte sister, finish Mansfield Park (despite the gag factor I have with it), and a re-read of Tom Sawyer, which I haven’t read since I was maybe 11.
To get through these classics I will be using advice that a booktuber I just found gave on his channel and that I mention more in detail below. Keep reading if you want to find out what that advice is.
Three. Read at least two autobiographies
I already have a couple I want to read — Maureen O’Hara, Myrna Loy, and Paul Newman’s, but then I heard that James Cagney’s is very good, so I am looking for that one on Thriftbooks.
Four. Read at least two non-fiction books
I hope to read at least one C.S. Lewis book, Mere Christianity, and as for another non-fiction, I’m not sure yet. Feel free to recommend a good one in my comments.
Five. Read more Christian Fiction books
I did not read a ton of Christian Fiction books in 2025. Not for any bad reason. I just didn’t seem to find a ton that interested me last year. I was also more interested in mysteries. I have a few lined up for this year, though, including:
Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davison Politano, Stories That Bind Us by Susie Finkbeiner, A Desperate Hope by Elizabeth Camden, and Long Way Gone by Charles Martin.
A lot of Christian Fiction is very intense.
Do any of my blog readers know of Christian Fiction that is less intense? Rom-coms, I know, but those are hit or miss for me.
Mystery and thriller books in Christian Fiction seem to be all overdramatic and formulaic and not a simple, fun mystery like Agatha Christie or the Golden Age crime writers, which is why I don’t often read Christian Mystery.
Six. Weed out books I’m not reading or probably won’t to straighten shelves
My shelves are overflowing with books I grabbed at used book sales and will probably never read. I need to weed them out and make more room on our bookshelves. As the vlogger I watched this morning said, we buy new books because we get an endorphin hit at the idea of what the story will hold but then when that endorphin hit wears off, we just end up leaving the books piling up and not reading them.
Seven. Find another place in the house for another bookcase
This brings me to seven — we need more bookcases, even if I weed some of the books out. I really want another one for our bedroom since we are currently using an old coffee table and piling them up there. A bookcase would look better there, and it would be easier to find the books we want to read if we had a bookcase. Right now, most of those books are The Husbands, but to find one, he has to shift through the stacks. I’m not sure how we would get a bookcase up the stairs, but I suppose we could get one that can be assembled after we buy it.
And a few writing goals:
Eight. Finishing Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School and start a planned Christmas cozy mystery
I watched a video this morning from a booktuber who was sharing about how to read more books instead of buying them and never reading them. One thing he said was to set aside a certain time for reading, and while reading, don’t think about all the other things you need to do. Instead, tell yourself, “I am reading for one hour, and I can do those other things later,” and then immerse yourself in the story. Focus on the words and the use of them and the play of them. Don’t think about the end goal of finishing the book, but instead think about the words as you read them and really be mindful of what you are reading.
While I want that goal in reading, I also want it in writing this year.
I want to set aside an hour or two a day and just write and enjoy the act of writing instead of constantly being focused on the need to finish this book and add it to the series. I think that’s what has been holding me up. I haven’t been having fun with writing — I have been looking at the end and how far I am from it instead of taking one step at a time and focusing on the path in front of me. I’ve been so focused on the thought, “I need to get this done” that it has become a chore rather than a joy.
So, I will be enjoying creating scenes and scenarios for Gladwynn and her friends more and looking at how far I am behind in word count etc. less.
Nine. Figure out a way to finish my small town contemporary romance series, The Spencer Valley Chronicles
I am very behind on this one. I released my last Spencer Valley Chronicles book, Shores of Mercy, in 2022. I really need to wrap up the series and how I want to do that is to write a final book with Alex Stone, Molly Tanner’s love interest, as the main character. He has some demons he needs to tackle, mainly from his broken relationship with his verbally and emotionally abusive father.
The one problem is that I don’t write contemporary romance or any romance anymore. I would have to rewrite a lot of the series because I don’t really enjoy looking back at it and seeing my writing at that time.
Ten. Figure out how to advertise my books (without breaking the bank) and sell more of them
This one will be an ongoing process. Right now, my free ways of advertising my books are here on my blog and various social media accounts. It gets tedious to plug the books all the time, though, and I prefer to have fun posting bookish memes and reels and talking about old movies or books.
I’m horrible at self-promoting. Even doing it in this post is making me feel icky.
Still, I write the stories so I should have people read them, and it’s fun when they do and let me know they like them.
I don’t have deep pockets for paid advertising, but I hope to find a few ways to do that this year.
So…..these are some of my bookish and writing goals for 2026. What are some of yours?
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.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
I also post a link-up on Sundays for weekly updates about what you are reading, watching, doing, listening to, etc.
If you would like to support my writing (and add to the fund for my daughter’s online art/science classes), you can do so 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.
