books

Top 25 Books in 2025

DeniseLeave a comment

I read (by eye or by ear) 174 books this year, and here’s my 10 favorite nonfiction and 15 fiction, listed by alphabetical order.

Nonfiction

  1. Accountable: The true story of a racist social media account and the teenagers whose lives it changed, by Dashka Slater. Many takeaways, but the one that was the most relevant with a 15-year-old boy in the house: boys’ social cache is how funny they are and boy humor is “edgy” (which quickly becomes racist/sexist). And follow up, this is very hard to manage well by anyone called to deal with it.
  2. Awake, by Jen Hatmaker (memoir). I am surprised how simpatico Jen was to my life, as a darling of evangelicals … until she wasn’t. She wrote this book a few years after her divorce after being radio silent for a while. The raw honesty of this book kept it from being muckraking, but aside from the ‘he did WHAT?!?’, Jen is a role model for her wisdom, thoughtfulness, her diverse friend group and openness to other ideas, and her strong stance for her love and beliefs in spite of being  punished for them by previous followers. Her humor (especially the absolute schizophrenia we both felt about educating our kids through the pandemic) drove her writing– this is the sort of book I wished I could write if I ever upgraded from my annual Christmas letter.
  3. Being Mortal: Medicine and what matters in the end, by Atul Gawande. This book stuck with me for the rest of the year. With examples across time and cultures and countries, what is the best (housing and medical) practice for aging humans? What many of us Westerners assume would be best– cultures where the extended family lives together and takes care of their aging parents — might not be at all. But there also might not be a practical best idea, at least not yet.
  4. Eve: How the female body drove 200 million years of evolution, by Cat Bohannon. What if we consider evolution from a female lens?  As soon as we swap out “she” for the ubiquitous “he”, we start imagining perhaps some of our more remarkable “upgrades” were born more from the mother of necessity– carrying food AND a baby, outliving our fertility, language and stories, and the absolute necessity of gynecology as a part of reproduction and society. Fascinating read, if too long (meaning that the most interesting points were buried in my memory by less important ideas).
  5. Girl on Girl: How pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves, by Sophia Gilbert. Ugh, there are some ugly truths here. ‘Back in the day,’ pop stars could be older, bitchy women. What does it say about misogyny that the more you look and sound like a prepubescent girl, the better you do? What about advertisements (Abercrombie) that seem more like porn– what does “real porn” have to do to still be a draw? Answer: it must be edgier. This is not good for women. Or men. This book covers many topics, and it gave me some perspectives that resonated, especially in this year of MAGA II, as much as much of it made me ill.
  6. How To Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success, by Julie Lythcott-Haims. The wisdom that has remained with me is that many of us traveled a very non-straight line from A to B (and then added C and D to our life journey before ending up at J or Q), but we want to give our kids the “wisdom” of taking the straight path from Here to Where-I-Want-You-To-Be, to save them from mistakes. Of course, those mistakes may not be mistakes, or just valuable life lessons. This book is written more for the Palo Alto crowd trying to get into Ivy Leagues, but that is only a more extreme Woodinville, honestly.
  7. Memorial Days, by Geraldine Brooks (memoir). I did not know she was married to another author (Tony Horwitz, who I also should now pick up a title or two) and in 2019, lost him very unexpectedly when he was just sixty. Her time of grief is recorded here, jumping between when it first happened and a few years later when she spends time alone in Australia to face her grief head on, for really the first time. I was touched.
  8. Notes to John, by Joan Didion. How embarrassing that I did not know of this famous author before this collection of notes was published, I believe after her death. This is mostly a story of John and Joan’s daughter, and the true heartache Joan has for this child, this adult as she wanders through the world, debilitated by mental health struggles. It is intimate and beautiful and wrenching and crushes the lie that “it will all be okay in the end, and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”
  9. Tiny Beautiful Things, by Cheryl Strayed. How have I not heard of the online advice column Dear Sugar? This is the wisdom, compassion and love I want to give the world. This is what she has in addition to being a wonderful writer/wordsmith. Now I will need to read her novels and other collections.
  10. Unshrunk, by Laura Delano. Wow, this tickled my brain with new ideas. In short, what if the medicine for mental illnesses actually causes mental illness? This very honest memoir reflects closely on her life (with medical and therapist records) from ages 13 to 27 when she was treated for worsening mental illness. Did she have bipolar disorder or did the withdrawal from meds make it seem like she had? Is “borderline personality disorder” the new “this woman is too hysterical to deal with” diagnosis? She rejects the sacredness of the DSM-5 and points out that PhD’s are far better trained to prescribe meds than to get patients off them. Lots to think about!

Fiction

  1. The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick (Historical fiction). Yes, please. I really liked the setting of the 60s and 70s and the reality for (white) women– a women couldn’t get her own credit card until the year I was born. And I finally, peripherally, “read” The Feminine Mystique through this accidental book club of four new neighbors. Maybe this book is best enjoyed by troublemakers, but I was glad I got my hands on it.
  2. The Briar Club, by Kate Quinn (historical). I loved this perfectly crafted story so much, from the house-narrated interludes to the almost-short story sections as characters told their own stories, dancing around Grace’s presence in this 1950s boarding house. The twist was everything I could hope for, and Kate Quinn remains one of my favorite writers.
  3. The Correspondent, by Viginia Evans (fiction). A book I wish I had written. A story told through letters to and from Sybil, a retired lawyer, who eschews most phone and text communication for hand-written letters. The book is poignant with an achingly beautiful ending.
  4. Deep End, by Ali Hazelwood (romance). I do not care for romances with college students and particularly student athletes (I’ve tried to read some pretty misogynistic hockey stories). I also don’t care for this protagonist’s particular brand of kink. And yet. And yet. Ali Hazelwood takes unabashedly smart women, gives them character flaws and personal difficulties, and watches them work through their issues, have break throughs, and great sex. She definitely delves into brains and feelings and allows them to both be important. I love Ali.
  5. The Framed Women of Ardemore House, by Brandy Schillace (mystery). Possibly a new favorite detective. Jo Jones is autistic and hyperlexic, an American who has inherited a crumbling English manor in a small town where she’ll never fit in…but might make friends anyway. I’ll read the sequels!
  6. The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon (historical fiction). There are the briefest entries in the 27 years of diary keeping of the remarkable Martha, a real midwife who delivered over 800 babies, often just involving notes on the river and whose baby was born that day in a small Maine town in the late 1700s. From this real diary, Lawhon creates a tale murder, justice, and the reality of women-as-second-class citizens. It’s fascinating and the images of this 1789 winter will stay with me for a long time.
  7. Full Speed to a Crash Landing (#1), How to Steal a Galaxy (#2), Last Chance to Save the World (#3), by Beth Revis (Frolic = SciFi + Heist + Romance). So, so, so fun. Female protagonist, long-game heist, cute boy, excellent twists, secrets held from first book to last– chef’s kiss for perfect reading frolic. Best listened to–the narrator is far better than the voice in your head for this one. (Books are 4 hours long each so lumping them together.)
  8. Heartless Hunter (#1) & Rebel Witch (#2), by Kristn Ciccareilli(Witchmance thriller).

(#1) I was thrilled to see the author was influenced by The Scarlet Pimpernel— the  too shallow aristocrat/socialite couldn’t possibly be the outlaw Crimson Moth, who was helping persecuted witches escape, even if the most famous (and sexy!!) witch-hunter has his suspicions. The magic is a clever system, which I appreciate the author making sense of, and the writing makes the sexual tension palatable.

(#2) The sequel and final ending to Heartless Hunter and I loved it so much. I didn’t get bored of the characters and continued being surprised and angered and amused and hopeful. My favorite trope is a couple who like each other, and I kept forgetting this didn’t start out this way, but there was something about these characters that even when they completely betrayed each other, it still worked. I do like the cat-and-mouse games– which of them is 3 steps ahead of the other and for how long?

  • Help Wanted, by Adelle Waldman (fiction). A Barak Obama best book that gives some Xray insight into a group of blue-color workers at the bottom of the food chain at a box store in Small Town, USA. I crave these insights while sitting in my golden, over-educated, upper-middle class progressive tower. I like that there aren’t really any heroes, but no villains, either. We are a product of personal and social circumstances and not many can make heroic thrusts out of their own stratosphere.
  • The Impossible Fortune, by Richard Osman (mystery). #5 of the Thursday Murder Club. I don’t know if the stories/mysteries get better each book, but the characters certainly do. I read Osman’s first book in a new series this year, and I have every hope for the next books based on how well he has written this series.
  • Lily and the Octopus, by Steven Rowley (fiction). I think this will make the TOP! TEN! BOOKS! THIS! YEAR! Lily is Ted’s life– even if he had much of a life, his dog would still be important. I loved the voice Ted (and the author) gives to Lily as she (or Ted) grapples with the “octopus” growing on her head. It gave me all the good feelings with a particularly excellent ending.
  • My Friends, by Fredrik Backman (fiction). If I ignore his Beartown novels, Fredrik Backman’s writing started off excellent and has only improved. This book stabbed me in the heart and brain, and only sweet tears came out. I loved how he unraveled this parallel story of friends and art and genius. It is a love letter to friendship.
  • The One In My Heart, by Sherry Thomas (romance). Before she wrote The Elemental Trilogy and Lady Sherlock, Sherry Thomas loved romance novels, and she is quoted to write what she loves to read. This is an unabashed modern fairy-tale, too easy to pick apart for his “millions and millions” and aristocrat background, but I absolutely adored the banter and he-loved-her-first trope. Maybe I shouldn’t give such cotton candy five stars, but it was the perfect book to finish at 2am on my first day of summer break.
  • Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles (historical fiction). I loved the dialogue in this 1930-40’s novel that felt like contemporary fiction. This author “shows, not tells” about his characters, and I liked this intelligent, scrappy New York protagonist very much, even if I didn’t love her romantic choices. There was a hint of a more readable Proust in this book and Towles always writes with wit and insight.
  • Scythe (#1), Thunderhead (#2) and The Toll (#3), by Neal Schusterman (Sci-Fi). I read the first two books twice (the second time so I could be ready for the 3rd book). Once human conquer death (but don’t institute birth control), then the eventual outcome is Scythes, or reapers who must choose humans to kill. I think what I liked about this series is that the AI was consistently good, mostly keeping the world from becoming dystopia. Without once mentioning current politics or Trump’s name, Schusterman clearly wrote the trilogy during Trump’s (first) term and even more clearly, hates the man. And yet, I think you could be MAGA and love epic Sci-Fi and not find warnings about Trump. My brain was obsessed with this series for a decent amount of time in 2025, so I had to include it.

Top 20 Reads for 2024

DeniseLeave a comment

Of the 160 books I consumed this year, these rose to the top, somewhat in order and split between fiction and nonfiction. I want to know what you loved this year!

 Fiction  
1Just for the SummerAbby JimenezEven better than a good Emily Henry story (and she is one of the best) is a new Abby Jimenez novel. Again, supposedly a romance (and in this case, a bold romance where they actually really like each other, without contrived plot twists) but really, this is about how to be a better human, recognizing brokenness, working both with repairing relationships and rejecting harmful one and putting yourself first sometimes. Best when read after Part of Your World.
2Funny StoryEmily HenryA reread, for the lovely social-emotional learning and insight and good romance story, dealing with trauma, assumptions, families.
3The WomenKristin HannahThis made the list because I know little about the Vietnam War but, as is Hannah’s magic, I was immersed in this field nurse’s experience, both during and after her service. I didn’t relate much to this character, but I learned more about the Unites States in context of recent-ish history.
4Not in LoveAli HazelwoodAs Ali says in her intro, this is more erotic than romantic, but I love her complex (spectrum, likely, heroine) characters and how they bravely try to translate their feelings into communications skills.
5Warrior Girl UnearthedAngeline BoulleySequel to Firekeeper’s Daughter, loved it. I feel like this is a place I’ve visited now, a quality shared with Kristin Hannah, but Boulley has better, realistic characters.
6The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 1/4 Years OldHendrik GroenSupposedly observations of an elderly man in an assisted living home in Amsterdam, but Hendrik comes to life and even becomes a model of how to get older and better. This is the first in a series that is thoughtful, mundane, funny, morose, bittersweet, and all the other reflections of a good human life. And I will be starting my own “Old But Not Dead Yet” club someday.
7The Running GraveRobert GalbraithI love the Cormoran Strike series but hate some of the books. The latest brought our gumshoes into a UK cult, which paired well with my NF readings about fundamentalism in the US. Not only a good story, but an excellent continuation of the story arc. She is an excellent writer.
8The Fragile Threads of PowerV.E. SchwabYes! The first book in a series that takes place 7 years after the Shades of Magic trilogy. Love the old characters and adore the new ones.
9Plan ADeb CalettiWow, what a heartbreaking story of a bright girl in small town, TX, who gets pregnant (neither by having sex or by consenting) and the difficulty of getting an abortion on this side of the overturning of Roe v Wade. I was fully immersed in the story, even when I had look away because the treatment this girl received was beyond my capacity to witness. I want all my kids to read this book. I will need to read more by this author.
10A Ruse of Shadows (Charlotte Holmes, #8)Sherry ThomasConsidering this was the 8th book, I was very surprised when I finished and immediately had to reread it to unravel the story once I knew the ending. Bravo, Sherry, bravo!
BonusEveryone in My Family Has Killed SomeoneBenjamin StevensonPicked it up for the title, stayed for the narrator’s voice. I’ll read more of him.
BonusA Line to KillAnthony HorowitzThis is the third Hawthorne book, and the clever narration still amuses me through the entire novel. And, no, I did not guess the ending before poor Horowitz had it unraveled for him.
NonFiction
1A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s plot to take over America, and the woman who stopped them.Timothy EganA book that rattled me the most, which, considering #4-6 on this list, is quite a feat. The title says enough.
2Revenge of the Tipping PointMalcolm GladwellPossibly his best yet. Opioids & triplicate prescriptions; college admissions–race v. athletics; gay marriage and Will & Grace; Miami’s outrageous Medicaid fraud culture; how the Holocaust came to be remembered decades and decades after the end of WWII. Gladwell tackles all this, and suicide clusters in high achieving high schools and how this relates to cheetahs, this in his inimitable style. I want to listen a few more times to get a good grasp on his bigger ideas. Oh, and a tipping point, such as women in the board room, is about 1/3 to go from token to part of the community.
3The Small and the MightySharon McMahonProfiles-in-courage-esque, but really focusing on Americans overlooked in history, usually because of their gender, skin color, or religion. Even if the topic were dull (and it’s not!), McHahon is gripping in her storytelling. But she is very much an educator (history prof, actually), and describes events and remarkable people in the context that they should be appreciated. She really needs to write more books, or I need to start listening to podcasts.  This is the American History that we’re not taught in school.
4A Well-Trained WifeTia LevingsRemembering scenes from this escaped-from-fundamentalist (ok, completely un-Christ-like) marriage still makes my stomach knot. But it gave me a chance to walk in shoes I would never willingly wear, and when the 2024 election cycle made voting differently than your husband an issue, I understood it better than I wanted to.
5BaptistlandChrista Brown“When Christa Brown first spoke out about the sexual abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church, she never imagined it would expose the ethical chasm at the core of the Southern Baptist male religious leaders so focused on institutional protection that they sacrifice the safety of children. A book about speaking out and speaking up, Baptistland weaves together Christa’s revealing story of hope amid Southern patriarchy and religious fundamentalism.”
6Disobedient Women: How a small group of faithful women exposed abuse, brought down powerful pasters, and ignited an evangelical reckoningSarah StankorbMore reason to hate fundamentalist Christianity, or any system deliberately made to benefit the powerful few and oppress women. This was a good summary of earlier reading I did by Christa Brown and Tia Levings. Yes, there was a theme to my reading this year.
7Maybe You Should Talk to SomeoneLori GottliebFull of, well, gentle truth bombs, as this therapist sees patients and is a patient.  I underlined many passages to continue to reflect on. She also writes an “Ask the Therapist” for The Atlantic.
8Monsters: A Fan’s DilemmaClaire DedererPremise: What do you do about art you love when the artist (author, musician) is someone you abhor?  Is there a difference between ethical thoughts and moral feelings? The author delves in to genius and Lolita and Little House on the Prairie. and monstrousness as a stain that can’t easily be removed. And people aren’t just a product of their time–often they had the opportunity to know better but chose otherwise. “If male crime is rape, the female crime is failure to nurture” (abandoning children). “I wondered: wasn’t calling them monsters, writing about their monstrousness, enumerating their monster sins, just a way of keeping them at the center of the story?” (p 45). End thought: With so many options, we can avoid what we naturally dislike and as humans, justify what we do; however, how we consume art is not morally good or bad.
9Shortest Way HomePete ButtigiegRead by author— wow, I need to vote for this guy for Pres someday!  Excellently written memoir of his life into his 2nd term of mayor, with plenty of admitting of mistakes, learning from them, matter-of-fact thoughtfulness and intelligence.
10The Salt PathRaynor WinnI did not think I’d like this as much as I did. She somehow did not get bogged down in the travelog nature, not dwelling on the best or worst of the hike itself but wove her tale together with social and political realism/commentary. They hiked because they were homeless and broke– and were treated differently depending upon what they’re fellow travelers knew about them.  She truly is an excellent, later-in-life writer.

Denise’s Favorite 23 in ‘23

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Note: I created this list a month ago and have read at least 10 good books since, so I feel this list isn’t as accurate as it should be. I’m also happy to embrace “good enough” so I can go play now. Love!

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I’m a Better Person For Reading These Novels

1Remarkably Bright CreaturesShelby Van PeltHe gives hugs. And this octopus is a remarkably bright creature. I hope the humans around him turn out as well. I already predict it is one of the best books I’ll be reading this year.
2A Gentleman in MoscowAmor TowlesAn oddly American perspective of 20th century Russia, as seen from a gentleman sentenced to live the rest of his life in (the finest) hotel in Moscow.  Towles takes that idea and rocks the characters, plot, and prose; he also made my 2022 list with The Lincoln Highway.
3Harry’s TreesJon CohenIgnore the dumb title. Here, fairy tale and contemporary tragedy collide and create… a beautiful novel about love and hope and goodness and guilt and growth. Even the Big Bad Wolf’s heart may grow a size or two.
4Snow Lane  Josie Angelini  I adored this “children’s novel” about family dynamics and secrets you don’t even really know you are keeping, because it is your normal. Fifth grader Annie also has dyslexia and is a positive model of what that can look like. This also adds to the list of stories of boy-girl friendship and learning how to talk and listen to each other.
5Kind of Spark, A  Elle McNicollAutistic heroine in Ireland embraces her differences and is heartbroken by the women who had been killed as witches in her Irish town’s past. This book has made Important Lists for tween and teen readers. Not only did I learn a lot about autism in girls, this novel nudged me to get my own daughter assessed.
6Demon CopperheadBarbara KingsolverI don’t know David Copperfield well enough to draw all the parallels, but wow, my Woodinville bubble burst when I entered this Appalachian “backwater” and had to live with the consequences of mine owners creating systems of poverty, poor schools, limited opportunities, which became a fertile field for opioids. You will cheer for Demon but your heart will break for humanity many times over—but broken hearts grow back stronger and with greater capacity to love.
7Star FishLisa FippsEllie has been bullied for her weight since elementary and survives middle school by living by the Fat Girl Rules. Every single cruel comment is taken from the author’s own childhood. This is a great YA book for confronting our own fat-ism. And Ellie is easy to cheer for and love on her own merits.
8One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich  Aleksandor Solzhenitsyn  Not my usual book at all, but 1) Russian literature is almost always excellent, if stark, 2) I have not had a reasonably good day in a Russian prison in winter before and thought it would be a good contrast to my daily life, and 3) the book is short. The author spent ten years in the gulag before writing this.
9FireKeeper’s DaughterAngeline BoulleyI heard enough about this book to know I’d like it, but once I picked it up, I couldn’t stop listening to it.  This book covered the multiple worlds that Daunis straddles as half-native, half-white, woman-on-men’s-hockey-team. Drug dealers are recklessly killing mostly native girls…and Daunis is ready to protect all her worlds.
10Violin ConspiracyBrendan SlocumbUnfairness and Racism were almost their own characters in this story of a Black teen becoming a classical violinist in a White world and the mystery of his stolen Stradivarius. Reading teaches empathy but I barely survived reading this book in the protagonist’s shoes. The book has earned its acclaim.


Series That I’m Obsessed With

(Very Escapist, because who wants to stay in this life all the time?)

11Shades of Magic TrilogyV. E. Schwab (author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue)I obsessed over this series of parallel Londons and good bad guys and bad good guys. Add a swashbuckling Lila, who fits no molds at all, other than as one who makes a third way when only two are possible, and I swoon.
12Charlotte Holmes TetralogyBrittany CavallaroCharlotte Holmes, the great-great-great granddaughter of Sherlock who inherited his genius and his faults, is quietly fighting personal demons at the New English private school that Jamie Watson just sent to. He should have stayed far away.
13Rook & Rose TrilogyM. A. Carrick  A con artist, fortune teller, crime boss, city guard, and two legendary shadows (and these make up just 3 people) are swept toward the same fate of saving their city. There will be plenty of intrigue and adventure to satisfy even this reader. Try to get past the confusing names—the story is worth it.
14Skyward Flight SeriesBrandon SandersonThis series is a family favorite—and we all want a Doom Slug when we grow up. Again, great fantasy author who somehow rocked YA sci-fi with a female protagonist. Final book was just published, making me very happy and very sad simultaneously.
15Legends of the First Empire The Rise and Fall Trilogy Riyria Chronicles Trilogy Riyria Revelations TrilogyMichael J. SullivanSullivan finally published Esrahaddon in 2023, the last book in this series that bridges Legends and Riyria. For reals, the combination of these books is my favorite series hands down. “So,” Royce said, “you want us to escape from this prison, kidnap the king, cross the countryside with him in tow while dodging soldiers who I assume might not accept our side of the story, and go to another secret prison so that he can visit an inmate?”

NonFiction That Made Me A Better Person—or Heroically Tried

16What Fresh Hell Is This? : Perimenopause, menopause, other indignities, and youHeather Corinna  Biggest takeaway (among many): That irritability we get in middle age may be the result of a fully developed person unable to live with the BS around her anymore.
17How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to every Moral QuestionMichael Schur“We should all care whether we’re doing something good or not, and thus try to do the best things we can.” Being a good a person is a job, and a hard one at that. But if you care about it, it may stat to seem less like work and more like a puzzle you can solve….You will feel like you are flourishing….Be the best version of yourselves.”
18Come As You Are: The surprising new science that will transform your sex lifeEmily Nagoski  Biggest Takeaway: “Women aren’t broken men.”    
19The World Record Book of Racist StoriesAmber Ruffin & Lacey LamarThe follow up to their first book doesn’t disappoint–infuriating, eye-opening, and hilarious–feeling appropriately guilty about laughing, thought it is certainly meant to speak truth with humor.
20Smart BrevityJim VanderHeiWrite concisely.  
21How the Other Half Eats  Priya Fielding-SinghInsight: [Moms] who have very tight food budgets have to buy only food their kid will eat—can’t waste it. Insight: [Moms] who have plenty of money are very hard on themselves and no one feels they are doing a great job with feeding their family well. Sigh.
22Fat Talk: parenting in the age of diet cultureVirginia Sole-SmithBiggest takeaway: “Fat doesn’t mean unhealthy.”  See “Star Fish” above for why fighting stereotypes with science and real people’s experiences is imperative to making us all better people.
23Poverty by AmericaMathew Desmond  I need to read this a few more times and make a slide presentation. The Pulitzer Prize–winning author reimagines the debate on poverty, making a ‘provocative and compelling’ (NPR) argument about why it persists in America: because the rest of us benefit from it.

Denise’s Favorite Reads: 2022 Edition

Denise1 Comment

~Because good fiction makes us better humans and these are some of the best.~

TitleAuthorDenise’s summarily poor summaries
1An Elderly Lady Is Up To No GoodHelene TursteinOh, dear. “Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family, no friends, and…no qualms about a little murder.”
2Crownchasers (and the sequel Thronebreakers)Rebecca CoffindafferAs soon as I started, I couldn’t put down this YA sci-fi with exactly the female protagonist I want to adventure with.  Great characters, a puzzle-chase, hilarious AI, it has all the things I love about Sanderson’s Starsight series and is still very much its own story.
3The Diamond EyeKate QuinnKate Quinn. Again. Why would I be interested in a Russian assassin, even if she’s female? Because Kate Quinn wrote it, and it might be my favorite Quinn novel–which sets an impossibly high bar for her books I haven’t yet read.
4It Ends with UsColleen HooverAfter seeing this author’s name everywhere, I picked up this must-read. Why do we stay with abusers, the author asks to understand her own mother’s life, and are abusers more than their abuse? And what if he’s fun, interesting, and mostly good?
5Lessons in ChemistryBonnie GarmusAnother book that is in everyone’s Top 10 this year. How does a brilliant woman in the 50’s become a chemist? Well, after years of being mocked, dead-ended, assaulted, etc, she falls into having a popular TV cooking show, using chemistry. If I could summarize the book well with one sentence, the book wouldn’t be worth reading, so know that there is much more to it than this.
6Liar’s KnotM.A. CarrickBook 2 of the Rook and Rose trilogy. My perfect escape: a fantasy adventure with a deceptive female character who is uber-competent and creative, and fascinating complex characters who have to create a third way when there only seems two options…it checks all my boxes.
7The Lincoln HighwayAmor TowlesThis sort-of road trip story confounded my expectations at each bend and introduced me to some of the most intriguing characters, even as male teens, that I have read this year. Neighbor Sally is my spirit sister. It was perfectly plotted and prosed.
8The No ShowBeth O’LearyMy fellow bibliophiles snatch O’Leary books as soon as they are published. Any book that takes me on a journey where I know I’m going, and then completely drops me on my head and makes me read the entire book again–right away–is my drug of choice. 
9Part of Your WorldAbby JimenezThese are not your grandma’s bodice rippers! Jimenez (like Helen Huang) definitely writes meet-cute-and-figure-it-out-from-there novels, but the romance is only a part of it. What are the real obstacles, what emotional baggage must be dealt with, who gives up what, is it worth it, what about careers and families? It is both mundane and impossible and very real.
10The Rose CodeKate QuinnKate Quinn continues to be my favorite historical fiction writer, though she is more like a time machine. Here, she takes you to the WWII code breakers desperately deciphering Enigma and its Axis siblings. The reader tramps all the way around Britain, and as well as up and down the emotional scale.

Sure, I left out Sullivan’s Farilane, Gaiman’s Good Omens, and Picoult’s Leaving Time, but I (painfully) narrowed down my ten favorite novels that I read in 2022, which gives me a little room for some delightful YA and worthwhile nonfiction:

YAThe Remarkable Journey of Coyote SunriseDan GemeinhartFrom the Sasquatch YA list. A young heroine for the ages.  Full of truth bombs and beautiful souls, as a young teen has to make it back to Washington, the only state that her dad won’t drive to.
YAPay Attention, Carter JonesGary D. SchmidtSasquatch YA nominee. I really enjoyed this book about a butler, a middle school cricket team (in NY), a sibling death, and a walk-out jerk father.  Many layers.
YAWhat I CarryJennifer LongoMuir was born into foster care and she hopes this is her last placement before turning 18.  However, instead of Seattle where she has been all her life, she is moved to Bainbridge, carrying only what fits in her suitcase, and refusing extra baggage, including relationships. So full of truth bombs, and feelings, and bittersweetness, this is a YA book that gave me all the feels.
 NF 1Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the CrematoryCaitlin DoughtyLet’s talk about death. And the death industry. And how much Americans don’t like talking about death. I learned much about what we don’t talk about—and now just want to be composted into a tree.
 NF 2Attack of the Teenage BrainJohn Medina Okay, I needed this perspective of the teenage brain.
 NF 3When Breath Becomes AirPaul KalanithiThe rarest of humans (neurosurgeon with degrees in philosophy and English lit) gets the rarest diagnosis and poignantly writes about dying as a young man.
 NF 4UntamedGlennon DoyleA third time read, I get something new each time I pick up St. Glennon. She started as a funny mommy-blogger but shifted into a hilarious truth telling warrior. Her spiritual peers are Brene Brown…and perhaps that’s it.
 NF 5How Jesus Became GOD: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from GalileeBart D. EhrmanI love new thoughts and perspectives and Ehrman writes a readable scholarship as he details the journey of Jesus from crucified prophet to complicated God.
 NF 6Fuzz: When Nature breaks the lawMary RoachHow do humans deal when animals are just being animals and it inconveniences, and sometimes endangers, us?
 NF 7Fair Play: A Game Chang-ing Solution for When You Have Too Much to DoEve RodskyWhat is all the invisible work and why, really, why do women do so much of it? Dig deep, and then deeper. This gave me both words for what I do and a way of thinking about it. 
NF 8 Invisible WomenCaroline Criado-PerezSubtitle: Data bias in a world designed for men. Need I say more?
 NF 9The Persuaders: At the front lines of the fight for hearts, minds, and democracyAnand Giridharadas“We meet a leader of Black Lives Matter; a trailblazer in the feminist resistance to Trumpism; white parents at a seminar on raising adopted children of color; Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; a team of door knockers with an uncanny formula for changing minds on immigration; an ex-cult member turned QAnon deprogrammer; and, hovering menacingly offstage, Russian operatives clandestinely stoking Americans’ fatalism about one another.”  Ideas burst, my brain explodes…all in a good, aha! way.

January Books

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I love spread-sheeting the books I’ve read, but I also like looking them up on my blog. This year, I’m going to try just listing the books I’ve read each month.

1A Long Petal of the SeaIsabel AllendeDemocracy is not the default.  Historical fiction.
2Big Finish, TheBrooke FosseyOld people are people, too. Perhaps more so.
3Dear Committee MembersJulie SchumacherProtagonist’s POV can be nuanced, right, and/or wrong.
4Rock Your RentalJoanne and Rosanne PalmisanoDesign, design, design.
5ProudIbtihaj MuhammadFirst Hijab-wearing fencer winning Olympic medal,
6Alice Network, TheKate QuinnWomen are underestimated, and war can break them as well as men. Be broken together.
7Front DeskKelly YangSasquatch. Rich people are on one roller coast, poor on another. 
8Grace Year, TheKim LiggettWell written, cleverly constructed. Handmaids’s Tale meets…Lord of the Flies?  Disturbing, which poignantly offsets true goodness, and an ambigous end.
9PLAIN JanesGraphic NovelMeh.
10Hate U Give, TheAngie ThomasWow, powerful, realistic voice. A perfect example of why fiction is the most open door to reality.   
11UnpluggedGordon KormanBrat of Silicon Valley sent to health camp, by a fav YA author.
12Lightest Thing in the World, TheKimi EiseleDidn’t blow me away, but may be worth a group discussusion on bird motif.
13Beach House, TheRachel HannaHope this is the worst book I read this year. Flat. Trite. Dull. Trope-ish.
14Thisby Thestoop and the Black MountainZac GormanSasquatch read aloud; quite delightful.
15Upright Woman WantedSarah GaileyMeh.  Queer lit in a dystopian pioneer America.  Gave too few details about setting.
16Tale Dark & Grimm, AAdam GidwitzRead aloud to Wes.  The end. Almost.  Wes loved!
17Pine Island HomePolly HorvathPenderwick-esque, but interesting themes about who you can depend upon.
18StargirlJerry SpinelliThe most unusual girl, told from boy’s POV. Piper loved movie.
19Switch, TheBeth O’Leary Grandma and Granddaughter switch English village and London locales for a month. As delightful as Flat Share was.
20Love, StargirlJerry SpinelliSequal, from StarGirl’s POV.  Appreciated her brain and voice.

Books Read in the Last Two Months

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I reported my first month’s books on February 6th.  Here’s what I’ve been reading since.  The *starred* ones I think my mother (and you) should consider reading.
**Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E Harron.  I wrote to one of my favorite bibliophiles: “This is the book I will always regret not being able to write.  The snark/voice I strive for with 100 times the talent.”  This is a Story, deserving of the capital S.  Read it. [Note: Kyla agrees with me.]

*A Murderous Relation (The 5th  Veronica Speedwell, by Deanna Raybourn.  Veronica!  Stoker!  The fifth adventure. The prince of England, intrigue, and excellent verbal repartee.  The only character I look forward more to this year is Lady Charlotte Sherlock, but that is an extremely high bar. 

*Whatever You Do, Don’t Run, by Peter Allison.  Super fun read! This was recommended after we booked our Kruger National Park safari (that will get rescheduled after travel opens up again) and I shared chapters with hubby and children as they were around. I loved the sense of place, and this guy can tell a funny story! The right amount of self-depreciation, humor, interesting facts, ’round the campfire tales–I’m picking up more of this author’s books.

*Planet Earth is Blue, by Nicole Panteleakos.  Wow, this is a bit of my childhood. I was in 5th grade during the Challenger launch, and [Super]Nova is in 6th. I can’t wait to finish this story with my kids (we’ve listened to the first half), as it is an important story with no early spoilers about the launch, and it tackles full on some topics dear to me: foster children, autism, special education, siblings. It even throws in mental illness, loss, heaps of facts about space, and “mental retardation” without feeling preachy or overstuffed. There are so many things to talk about here, and the author’s note at the end adds to conversation. Very well done. The only part that brought me out of the story is the foster parents who seemed to have perfect understanding and patience for a nonverbal girl with severe autism. Wish we were all that good!

*Hey, Kiddo, by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. On a librarian-friend’s recommendation, I checked out the audio of this graphic novel, a bit of a paradox. But I’m so glad I listened to it, particularly once I head all the recording notes. A lot of love, thought, and community went into this production, but an equal amount of work went into the graphic novel, so I will now need to eye-read this book as well.

First of all, this is truly a well done memoir. Its whole title is “How I Lost my Mother, Found my Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction”. This is one I have to keep for a while from the library, because I want my kids to hear it, too. It’s a book well written for both generations. It’s probably even worth my mother reading it!


**In a Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson.  I had first heard of this author, famous for his Walk in the Woods memoir of the Appalachian Trail, years ago but ignored urges to read it. [Note: I’m currently listening to it well walking miles a day in our neighborhood woods.  It’s dated and the author shows improved style in the five years between Walk and this newer book.]
This book made me fall in love with 1) Australia, and 2) Bill Bryson’s writing.  Our planned 3 weeks in Australia is not going to be enough, and I am already planning a second trip before our first trip is even off the ground…so to speak.  

I love Bill’s excellent research—he has read some really dry books about Down Under so that we don’t have to—and he relates it a way that is interesting, relevant, and humorous.  I can’t tell if at heart, if Bill is a historian, a journalist, a travel writer, a humorist, or just a gifted story teller. 
From Strength to Strength, by Sara Henderson.  I read this famous Australian’s memoir in conjunction with Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country, and the comparison is not flattering to this book.  This author earned her fame fairly after winning the Businesswoman of the Year in 1991. After reading Bryson, it is not fair to compare her inferior, self-conscious writing style as her many talents lie elsewhere, and what she lacks in talent, she makes up for it in absolute Outback strength.  She has more incredible stories to tell than Bryson, but even if they were told better, it was hard to get beyond her husband, who on a good day, was a jackass, and averaged out to be a multi-dimensional scoundrel.  It was hard to read about “oh, but I loved him”.  She gave up any control of her own life when she married, but after decades, wrested it back and came out well in a life not of her choosing. 

Here is my summary of reading these two Aussie books:  When they die, good Americans become Australians.  The bad wind up in the Northern Territory. 
I want to be a good American!
Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green.  Wow.  Green is hit or miss with me, but I always get something out of his characters.  This time, the teenage protagonist suffers, literally, from OCD, something the author also has lived and struggled with his whole life.  Mostly, it makes me truly grateful that my own headspace is a pretty fun place to be in.

Searching for Sylvie Lee, by Jean Kwok. Hmm, I’m glad I read it.  It was interesting to read the plot twists and the back and forth chronology, but the book’s aftertaste was from the characters, most who seemed real and hurting

Trickster; Native American Tales, a Graphic Collection.  Fairly interesting and a quick read.

The Home Edit: A guide to organizing and realizing your home goals,by Clea Shearer and Joanna Tep Yawn.  Slap me, friends, if I ever become this person.

The Book Charmer, by Karen Hawkins. This book was charming. I think it fell short in many ways, but I loved the idea of books being able to tell a certain gifted person what people should do, in the bossiest way possible. The book dealt gently with make-your-own families, and friends, and dementia, but in a way that never made me get lost in the story. But I will probably look up the next book when it comes out. Let’s see where this goes, shall we?

Room to Breath, by Liz Talley.  She could have had a hot affair, no harm to anyone, with a 24 year old really into her. Squandered. What’s the point of fiction, people?  Southern lady contemporary fic is not my first choice genre, but I was gladdened to see personal growth in the female characters.

Saint Anything, by Sarah Dessen. It’s fun when both Kyla (age 13 going on 35) and I (age 45) both read the same book. I was engrossed in the book, and Kyla and I had fun discussions about the characters, their dilemmas, parenting decisions, and even why the token black character was pretty one-dimensional. All said, I couldn’t stop listening to it, and when it was over, I mostly forgot about it. However, I am not the target audience, so I don’t hold that against the book.

The Broken Girls, by Simone St. James.  Another book not really appropriate for my 13 year old promiscuous reader, but that didn’t stop either of us from obsessively listening to it until it finished! It was an interesting mystery, ghost story, history lesson, and enough love story to make it interesting. I’d read this author again.

Dig, by A.S. King. Perhaps reading a deliberately surreal book in a very surreal time (COVID-19 work from home week 2) was not the best idea. Somewhere, I had read an intriguing blurb on the book and put it on hold. I will say that I kept coming back to it, and wasn’t able to not finish it. I do think that had I eye-read the book, I would have followed the different characters better than listening to the audio. And I’m glad I stuck with it through the ending. Overall, glad I read it, but I didn’t save the hold so my kids could also read it. 

Total Titles to Date: 36 (in 3 months).  Good enough.

Books Read in 2020, so far

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Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, by Annie Lamott. I need to buy my own copy so I can underline and note take to my heart’s content.  St. Anne, indeed.

Drama, YA graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier.  Meh. Not written for me.

The Mighty Odds, by Amy Ignatow, from Sasquatch list.  So disappointing.  Maybe the age group (tweens) it was written for will find it funny and clever, but I did not.

Shouting at the Rain, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (who wrote Fish in a Tree).  Also a Sasquatch, and now I will permanently add Hunt to my Must Read Author list.

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout (there’s a sequel and a 2014 miniseries…what?!?!)

Look Both Ways: A tale told in ten blocks, by Jason Reynolds, YA
Jason Reynolds gets a lot of well deserved credit for being a voice of urban teens.  Urban is often code for “black”, and yes, Reynolds and many of his characters are black, but the books 
Jason Reynolds and Jacquiline Woodson are masters of lyrical prose. 

Golden Tresses of the Dead, by Alan Bradley, YA-ish chemistry/mystery. 
Flavia DeLuce gets another book out every year or so. The schtick is getting a little old, but it’s been revived a bit as Dogger’s character comes out more.  I do appreciate that for a book about small English village tropes, there are very few stereotypical elements to Bradley’s acclaimed series.

My Fake Rake, Eva Leigh, NPR had a review of this https://www.npr.org/2019/11/30/783294614/my-fake-rake-turns-the-makeover-trope-on-its-well-coiffed-head.  Could have been frolicky, but I don’t have the stomach for romance-stories-for-the-sake-of-romance anymore.  (Though, if you are going to write a thousand page book, I’m am going to need a love story or two woven in.)

Beside Herself, by Elizabeth LaBan.  Meh.  Got this title from something, but the story falls short.  To get over an unfaithful spouse, a wife decides to have her own affair as they stay together.  

 Forever or a Long, Long, Time, by Caela Carter.  Wow, a Sasquatch book that I read aloud to the 5 of us over a series of weekend car rides together.  We were all really engaged in this story of siblings who had been recently adopted out of the foster system.  So much depth in this book, and I am really impressed by the author’s ability to get deep into the heart of family and particularly this heroine. 

So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oulo.  One of the top books for white people to get a real conversation about hot topics and long, long standing racial injustices and perspectives.  Worth it.

 The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming, by J. Anderson 
From this year’s Sasquatch list, this is the story of a Piper-aged girl who makes her way over to baby Seattle with the Mercer girls.  The geography might be a little inaccurate, or I am misinterpreting information, but as a read-aloud, it was an entrancing story.  No Pollyanna, but with a pioneering spirit, we Pacific Northwesters all learned more about our history.  

 One for the Murphies, by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. I how this YA author tackles problems–a 6th grade with dyslexia, and preteens tackling what it means to be family, especially when you have been abandoned by your mother. This one is close to my heart, as a girl is entering foster care after a brutal betrayal by her mother and stepfather.  

 Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson.  Woodson is a master of lyrical writing–her novels read like free verse and powerfully compacts a story of every member of a family in a generational transition.  

 Mrs. Everything, by Jennifer Weiner. “I think this book changed my life,” said BFF Susanne, and she might be right.  Her story telling talent has been contained in novels that were maybe a decade in duration–and could rightly be considered chick lit.  This, though, this is Every Women’s life, told over an entire lifetime with the generations before and after.  I’m still buzzed over this book, several days later.  
Ordinary Grace, by William Kent Krueger.
I had just read the forward to an Ivan Doig novel, and then pressed play on this William Kent Krueger story.  Dreamlike, Krueger’s 1961 Minnesota intertwined with Doig’s historical Montana and I was lulled into teen Frank’s brain and life.  The trestle outside their tiny town where Frank’s father is a minister is a more than an allegory of the trains and river that continually flows through their lives, both taking an extraordinary number of lives during this stranger summer.  I can’t quite dissect why I couldn’t put this story down, but as soon as I finished it, I bought another one of his novels.

Denise’s 10, I Mean 11, Favorite Books in 2019

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Denise’s 10 11 Favorite Books in 2019
[With the agreement that a series counts as one]
I can’t list them in true order, books just make it either in my Top Ten or they don’t.
1.     I’ll Be Your Blue Sky, by Marisa de los Santos.  Her first two books, Love Walked In and Belong to Me, are perennial favorites, so when she checked in on her characters a decade later, I swooned.  Blue Sky made me love the first two books even more.  She digs into complicated yet familiar situations and tells a compelling story that feels more like you are living it than reading it.  I try not to have favorites on my favorites list, but this may be it.
 2.     Legends of the First Empire hexology, by Michael J. Sullivan
Age of Legend (Book 4)
Age of Death(Book 5, pentultimate)—to be published Feb, 2020, but I got it early through Kickstarter.
I have brought up Michael once or thrice.  Amazing stories, strong female characters, dragons, magic, humor…legendary!

3.     A Dangerous Collaboration (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 4), by Deanna Raybourn. Oh my, I love Veronica.  Raybourn made a name for herself with the Lady Jane Grey series (Denise’s expert opinion—meh), but that was really just training ground for writing a truly excellent frolic.  Read these in order. 
4.      Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield.  I just gobbled this one up, once I recognized the author from her debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, which thrilled and intoxicated me.  (Editorial: her second novel was underwhelming, after setting the bar very high with her first.)  This, her third novel, clears the bar with room to spare.  When a story teller writes about story tellers and story telling, she has to do it well, and this author used the river to weave it together beautifully and movingly.  

 [I discovered Sherry Thomas this year, and it’s worth reading her older novels to see how she goes from better-than-average regency romance author to author extraordinaire, as she tackles a new take on Sherlock Holmes and a Young Adult SciFi/Fantasy frolic.] 
5.     The Lady Sherlock Series, by Sherry Thomas
A Study in Scarlet Women, Book 1
A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Book 2
The Hollow of Fear, Book 3
The Art of Theft, Book 4 (Barely About the Book Review: Sadly, Ash keeps his clothes on in this installment, but Charlotte never disappoints. Worse than a new complex evil scheme to unravel, she is in France with Maximum Tolerable Chins. Oh, dear!)
Oh, wow, I can’t tell you how much I like Lady Charlotte.  Besides excellent plot and characters, there are so many highlight-worthy lines sprinkled in the prose.  One should gobble this series up.
6.     The Elemental Trilogy, by Sherry Thomas
The Burning Sky, Book 1
The Perilous Sea, Book 2
The Immortal Heights, Book 3
This trilogy has me hooked in the first 100 words.  Check out the prologue to this trilogy—might be my favorite start to a book ever. 
7.      Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman.  This and the next one made lots of booklists this year. The story is a bit odd, because Eleanor is, but if we read fiction not only for enjoyment but also to experience the depths of the human experience, this one is a must read.  And an ENORMOUS one sentence twist at the end that made my heart stop.
8.     Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens. A debut novel that made the fiction world stand up and take notice (and gave me hope that I have a few more decades before I have to write a best selling novel). This one I finished and immediately wanted to talk to someone about it.  Really excellent.



[Brandon Sanderson is, fortunately, a prolific and masterful storyteller.  He brilliantly creates entire universes and original characters. I resisted reading him for so long, but his name showed up on every list that includes the best of the best: Patrick Rothfuss, Michael J. Sullivan, Jim Butcher.  I made up for lost time in 2019.]
9.     Starsight series, by Brandon Sanderson
Skyward, Book 1
Starsight, Book 2
10.   The Reckoners trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson
Steelheart, Book 1
Firefight, Book 2
Calamity, Book 3

11.     Stormlight series, will supposedly be 10 books long, and at 1200 pages per book…gulp, by Brandon Sanderson
The Way of Kings – Kaladin’s flashbacks.
Words of Radiance – Shallan’s flashbacks.
Oathbringer – Dalinar’s flashbacks.
Best in Nonfiction (I didn’t read that much nonfiction this year, but I went for important, if not pleasant).
Equipped for Reading Success, by David A. Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick is a god in the dyslexia world and science of reading.  I was able to immediately put into practice excellent phonological practices with Wesley.  All K-2 teachers should access this text and all excellent 3-12th graders should understand his work.  I finally *got* orthographic mapping.
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.  A super important read but not a fun one.  I couldn’t quite make it through the last section on Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony—too soon and ulcer inducing. (I absolutely believe Dr. BF, hence the ulcers.)
Unbelievable: The Story of Two Detectives’ Relentless Search for the Truth, by T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong.  Ugh, also too horrible in concept, but the writing was straight forward and clear, telling the true tale of a too-clever serial rapist.  The lasting damage done to an already damaged young women just aged out of the foster system was make even more painful for being a local case.  My ulcer is acting up just remembering it.  But again, too important to let the discomfort of reading to
The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–and How to Fix It, by Wexler, Natalie. When I started homeschooling Wes, I adopted the Core Knowledge curriculum.  It’s free online (though I pay to have the workbooks and readers printed for me, but save money by accessing the online teacher’s text).  I love CKLA because it uses explicit instruction to teacher Language Arts and focuses on knowledge—history, science, geography, in addition to a wide variety of genres withing decodable readers. I’m a HUGE fan of teaching knowledge, so I was the choir that smugly picked up hymnal.  She argues for a knowledge-based curriculum over skills-based, and that sounds counter intuitive at first, but I could bore you to death about it in person.  First of all, think of it as a chicken-and-egg problem.  Which comes first: background knowledge so you understand what you are reading, or reading to build your background knowledge?  The answer: yes.  
Educated: A memoir, by Tara Westover. Possibly the most poignant and painful book I read this year.  Kyla listened to it on Audible first, and had I read it first, I wouldn’t have forbidden her to read it, but probably would have cautioned her to wait years and years.  Bill Gates had it on his 2018 recommended reads.

 

Honorable Mentions:

The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
The Night Tiger, by Yangsze Choo
Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson
The Rosie Result (Don Tillman Book 3), by Graeme Simsion
When the Men Were Gone, by Marjorie Herrera Lewis
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane: A Novel and The Overdue Life of Amy Bylerby Kelly Harms
*You Can Thank Me Later (novella) by Kelly Harms, but I think only available in Audible.  I think she finally wrote an excellent story, and not just cotton candy that faded on the last page.
Tween and Teen, Worth a Read:
*Counting by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan
*Forever, or a Long, Long Time, by Caela Carter
The Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming, by Coats, J. Anderson
Far from the Tree, by Robin Benway
A Boy Called Bat, by Elana K. Arnold
**The Pumpkin War, by Cathleen Young
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
Eight Keys, by LaFleur, Suzanne M.
Meh Books:  I did the reading so you don’t have to
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue(Montague Siblings Book 1), by Mackenzie Lee
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy(Montague Siblings #2), by  Mackenzi Lee
Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir, by Liz Prince
All Summer Long, by Hope Larson
**How I Became A Ghost, A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story, by Tingle, Tim
**When A Ghost Talks, Listen, A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story, by Tingle, Tim
_____________________________
* Extra recommended
** Wes loved me reading these aloud to him

Piper is 7!

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How perfect for Piper—a birthday on both a Saturday and Valentine’s Day!  (It was beyond exhausting for Mama, but that’s another story.)

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Let’s be honest—I’m publishing this 6 weeks after her big day, just trying to catch up from the last two months.  My Piper is AWESOME, slightly terrifying, and I’m starting to find calling her a sociopath is less funny and more true!  If only she cared about people as much as she does about animals.  But, she has shown much personal growth as a sibling and no longer wishes she were an only child.  In fact, she and Wesley play so…energetically…together that sometimes Dwayne and I look at each other and wish they weren’t getting along so…boisterously.  And Piper and Kyla do really well together when they aren’t competing for Wesley’s affections.  Overall, the kids are doing great.  Thanks for turning 7, Piper—it’s going well for all of us!

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Besides a used fish tank, Dwayne and I got Piper a BoogieBoard, which is basically an e-whiteboard that you can erase with a button, but can’t save anything. It’s actually brilliant for kids.  I love that she drew this dress and tried to stick her head on it!

Happy Birthday, Piper. You are still my sweetheart baby.