Hello all! I hope if you are in the throes of the winter blast, you're managing to keep warm. I just came in from a walk, and since I was truly bundled up, I enjoyed the walk instead of thinking I was cold the whole time.
Before January gets away from us, I wanted to let you know what I read at the end of 2025 and how I felt about it. So here you go, in no particular order.
Meredith, Alone, by Claire Alexander. Meredith Maggs is a young woman living in Glasgow, Scotland. She has not left her house in over 1200 days. She has a cat, a bedt friend, and is estranged from her older sister Fiona and her mother. Her best friend Sadie does a lot for her, and she x a n do most other things online.
But at the beginning of the book, a man named Tom McDermott stops by. He is a volunteer for an organization that tries to make sure that people with problems have someone to rank to. Meredith doesn't really feel the visit is needed, but she invites Tom into the house for cake and some tea.
Eventually they become real friends, and Meredith enjoys seeing him. She's also learning to deal with her situation, and kinda sorta reconnects with her sister.
This book is about family and the forms it can take. It's about accepting others' quirks and feelings, but still being helpful. Does Meredith change by the end of the book? Actually she becomes the best version of herself because she learns who she is.
Play Nice, by Rachel Harrison. The description of this book sounded kind of interesting. But it just wasn't interesting to me. The characters were annoying and the whole story was too.
Life is too short to finish this book.
In Five Years, by Rebecca Serle. At a job interview for her dream job, Dannie Kohan knows exactly what she will say when they ask, "Where do you want to be in five years?" She nails her answer, and feels pretty sure she'll get the job. She and her fiance go out to celebrate, and later in the evening, she falls into a deep sleep. During that time, she is in another apartment, engaged to a different man, and shenotices the date - December 15, 2025, which is five years in the future.
Though Dannie is a plan-it-out, sensible person, she is shsjen by the dream. But she tries brushing it aside, sharing it with her therapist only - not even her fiance or her best friend Bella, who would love knowing that Dannie had a "vision."
Just when you think you know how things will go, this story takes you sideways. It's difficult to read in places, and you do wonder why you are on the journey, but the ending is beautifully done.
Pretty Girls, by Karin Slaughter. This book is: interesting, disturbing, sad, weird, unbelievable, kind of insane. The subject matter in and of itself is disturbing enough, but the twists and turns take it to another level.
Claire Scott witnesses the murder of her husband Paul in an alley behind a restaurant where she met him for drinks after work. Paul, a well-respected architect, was the kind of person in charge of everything in their lives, including the design of their suburban Atlanta house, which has their most up to date everything.
Claire faced tragedy before - her older sister Julia disappeared years ago and her fate was never resolved. Her middle sister Lydia turned to drugs, and their parents eventually divorced. Claire always thought of Paul asher rescuer.
But when there is a break-in at their house on they day of Paul's funeral, Claire's life is thrown into complete chaos. She ends up learning things about so many people around her that seem outlandish, but put her and her remaining family in danger.
The book is the story of secrets that run deep, through generations, and seem too terrible to be true. How well do you really know the people you see every day?
Murder Wears Mittens, by Sally Goldenbaum. I was in the mood for one of these books, and ended up very confused. So let me tell you so you'll know. All of the books in this series previously were called "Seaside Knitters" and numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. This book is called "Seaside Knitters Society" and is called #1. Some research showed that it is the next book in the Seaside Knitters series, BUT, the series title changed and the numbering started over because the books have a new publisher. So now you know. And this is the kind of thing that makes catalog librarians stabby, FYI.
Anyway, in this installment, a local woman is found murdered in her home. Many people in town knew her to see, but didn't know her well. A woman who is new in town with her two young children who happened yo be friendly with the deceased womsn becomes a suspect, particularly seen she inherits a lot of money when the will is read.
With their usual combo of curiosity, conversation, and poking around, the Seaside Knitters investigate and eventually discover what happened. Though I often have a suspicion about who the culprit is in these books, this one was out of left field for me. But as usual, I enjoyed the company of the people in this book.
The Librarians, by Sherry Thomas. When the book begins, Hazel, a young Asian woman, is starting a job as a library clerk in a branch of the public library in Austin, Texas. She gets to know her co-workers: Astrid, a librarian; Jonathan, the deputy chief librarian; and, Sophie, the chief librarian for that branch. Everyone is friendly, but they aren't really friends.
That is until shortly after Hazel's first day, when two different library patrons are killed, one in a scuffle in the building. The police of course are questioning everyone, but it turns out that the people who work in the library have some pretty serious secrets that they would prefer not to become public knowledge. As they band together to figure out what happened, chance meetings with former acquaintances for two of them *might* just solve the murders - that is, if any of them survive.
This was an entertaining book, a bit wordy and full of superfluous scenes on occasion, but the characters are interesting people. The solution is extremely convoluted, but so are a lot of the circumstances.
Having worked in libraries the bulk of my adult life - first as a library assistant, and then as a professional librarian - a lot rings true here as far as the atmosphere goes. As far as I know, none of my co-workers had elaborate secrets. But then again, we were never involved in a murder investigation, so who knows?
Guilty by Definition, by Susie Dent. I really enjoyed this book, and if you are a word, language, or literature nerd, you probably will too.
One day, three people who are lexicologists at the Clarendon English Dictionary (CED - clearly standing in for the (xford English Dictionary) receive a very puzzling letter from someone who signed it "Chorus." The letter is a bit disturbing, but thr kore they all puzzle over it, the more they determine it's a clue to a missing young girl who worked part-time in the office about ten years ago. That girl also happened to be the sister of someone in the office.
And so the search begins. The book is a mystery, while also being about literary history, words and language. Each chapter has a title that is a word and definition related to what is happening in the story. And the story is such a good one!
The four main characters - Martha, the boss and sister to the missing Charlie; Alex, a divorcee who worked there when Charlie was around, as did Simon, also divorced and who thought he deserved Martha's job; and Safi, the youngest in the office - are all interesting and the portrayal if them as coworkers but not necessarily friends is spot on. Their interactions were very believable.
I enjoyed this book because I cared about each of the main characters, and how they worked together to solve the puzzle.
The Mad Wife, by Meagan Church. This is a very frustrating, very sad book.
Lulu Mayfield is a young housewife in the1950s in a newly opened development in suburbia. She has a young son, and at the beginning of the book, we learn she is expecting her second child. She has been doing everything a housewife should fo, though she feels like an outlier among the other women in her group of friends, because she just doesn't feel satisfied.
Her mother and brother still live on the farm where she grew up, far enough away that she doesn't see them often. So though she appears to have a perfect life, she just isn't content. When new neighbors move in across the street, she fees something is off. Then she learns a shocking truth that may end up affecting her.
We have all heard of, read about, and seen depictions of the perfect housewife of the 50s and 60s and what lies beneath the surface, but this book takes things further. It shows how men not only controlled the world, but their wives' health - the doctors told the husbands what was wrong, and what to do. In the case of Lulu, the diagnosis ignored something major.
Lulu is a tragic figure, and most of the time, it's out of her control. I read this book the week of Halloween, and it was scarier an I could have imagined.
Beautiful Ugly, by Alice Feeney. I usually find Alice Feeney books very enthralling. But this one just seemed off to me.
A writer is talking to his wife on the phone while she is driving home, when she stops, saying she nearly hit someone. And then ... she disappears. Or did she? And who is telling the truth here about what happened?
I'm just glad the dog survived - he was the only one I ended up caring about.
Welcome to Murder Week, by Karen Dukess. This was a really entertaining book.
Cath, an optician, lives in Buffalo, New York. She enjoys the quiet predictability of her life. Her mother, who flitted in and out of her life for all of the thirty-four years she's been alive, has recently died, and one day Cath decides to go through dome boxes sent up from Florida.
Most things are tossable, but she comes across tickets and an itinerary for a "Murder Week" trip for the two of them in a small village in England. She calls to ask about it, and learns that it was fully paid for snd that her mother had been corresponding with the coordinator, excited for a trip with her daughter.
Everyone she knows encourages her to go, so she sets out somewhat reluctantly for a week solving a fake murder. Fortunately when she gets there, her housemates are people she likes and they immediately bond.
As the week goes on, they work to solve the mystery. But when certain things in the village remind Cath of very specific stories her mother told her as a child, another mystery begins.
I enjoyed this. The villagers acting in the fake murder were funny, and at a certain point, the reader needed to find out why so many things seemed familiar to Cath.
Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, by Emmeline Duncan. This is a really enjoyable, pleasant book.
Bailey Briggs is now in charge of the Lazy Bones Bookshop, started by her grandparents. And she is running around like crazy these days, because she has organized the first literary festival for horror writers that will take place in the lead up to Halloween. She is also dealing with an extensive amount of damage to the store after a ghost hunting show films there.
This is an interesting story, with a lot going on, but nothing feels rushed about it. The story unfolds as it would if someone was telling you.
And it also reveals some secrets that changes the way Bailey looks at things.
Proof of Murder, by Lauren Elliott. gave this book four stars because it's a step up from the previous books in both the plot and the whole story. it's still an enjoyable cozy mystery, but a step above in the series.
Addie Greybourne is anxious to go to the auction at a local estate, hoping to find some rare or at least interesting old books for her bookstores's shelves. She runs into her cousin who she hasn't seen in ten years, and they end up helping to complete an inventory of some recently discovered books before the sale begins, under the direction of a miserably rude appraiser.
However, when the body of the appraiser is discovered in the locked library where they were working the next morning, things get problematic. Addie's cousin has also disappeared, and Addie herself becomes the main suspect.
With some additional aspects of possible paranormal activity, personal relationships of the romantic and friendship kind, there's a lot happening besides just Addie's efforts to clear her name. There's one part of the ending that I feel wasn't addressed, but maybe it will be in the next book, so I'm reserving judgment for now.
Wreck, by Catherine Newman. likes this book, though I'm a bit surprised to say so. Because sometimes it's seemed rambly for no reason.
Rachel ("Rocky") is living in western Massachusetts with her husband, her adult daughter Wiila, and her recently widowed father. Her adult son Jamie works in New York City for a financial consulting firm.
Her life is pretty average until a local young man who went to school with her children dies in a train/car accident. She ecomes weirdly obsessed with it. Then she also starts having physical symptoms of an uncertain medical condition that causes a rash all over her body.
Rocky is kind of everyone. Afraid of what might or could happen, but also just wanting to live her life and make sure her family us OK. She is terribly imperfect, and very relatable.
And I think the book ends on a perfect note.
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, by Sitoshi Yagasawa. This book is quiet and lovely.
When 25-year-old Takako finds out that her boyfriend is getting married(!), she is crushed and her world falls apart. Through her mother, she receives a call from an uncle who owns a used bookstore, who she last saw when she was in high school. He tells her she should come and stay with him. Somewhat reluctantly, with no other options, she accepts.
She has never really been too interested in reading, but while at the bookstore, she starts to understand his it's a way of being part of a community. And her uncle, though often kind of an awkward character, does care about her. She comes to care for him as well, and together they both learn that it's not a crime to not have it all figured out. She learns a kind of grace and understanding from him that she never even considered.
The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call, by Robin Hathaway. Dr Andrew Fenimore has been the family physician for Judith and Emily Pancoast for years, even though he is in Philadelphia and the two elderly sisters live on the Jersey coast. The Pancoasts are a wealthy family and the two sisters are the matriarchs.
In the family home, the sisters have installed a dollhouse that is a duplicate of the family home, complete with dolls representing each family member. The story begins on Thanksgiving, when someone notices that the doll depicting Pamela, a niece of the sisters, is slumped over the dining room table, and the room is in disarray. Shortly afterwards, the actual Pamela is discovered in the same pose and location, having been murdered.
Dr Fenimore begins searching for answers. He and his nurse Mrs Doyle have had small successes in the past with their investigations. But this one is particularly puzzling, with the addition of the dollhouse setup.
When Christmas and other holidays arrive with variations on the theme and more family members killed, Dr Fenimore feels he s racing against time.
This was an interesting take on a sort of closed room mystery, and had me wondering until the end.
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, by Ally Carter. This is what I get for reading a holiday book before its even Thanksgiving. But my hold came up at the library, so there you go.
Maggie Chase is a popular mystery writer trying hard to get over her husband and best friend having an affair. At her publisher's holiday party, she finds that she has been invited for an all-expenses-paid Christmas trip to a manor in England. But when she gets on the private plane, the only other passenger is another mystery writer Maggie can't stand.
Upon arrival, Maggie is amazed to learn that they will be staying at the home ofber favorite mystery writer. She begins to think it might be OK after all ... until the writer disappears!
Possibly interesting, no? No, not really. A story that could have been good just dragged too much for me. And by the end, I didn't like Maggie or the other writer. And the story's final scene just made me roll my eyes.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
The Christmas Murder Game, by Alexandra Benedict. When Lily receives an invitation to Endgame Manor for Christmas, she has no intention of going. The last time she was there was 21 years ago, when she discovered her dead mother in the property's maze.
But she is told that if she attends, she'll be able to learn the identity of her mother's killer - she didn't kill herself, as Lily always believed.
On arrival, Lily learns that her cousins will all be there as well. Her late aunt had devised 12 clues for the 12 Days of Christmas, with extremely strict elaborate rules. Whoever wins the game inherits the estate.
And so a puzzle that proves to have deadly consequences for some works towards a solution. With a severe snowstorm and no way to communicate with the outside world, everyone is forced to stay.
I found this book interesting and suspenseful. The puzzle clues were well beyond me, but the characters figured them out. There were also a puzzle or two for the readers explained at the start of the book, but I honestly wasn't interested.
Overall, worth the time to read.
An Eggnog to Die For, by Amy Pershing. Samantha Barnes is looking forward to a nice pleasant holiday season, and having the chance to get to know her boyfriend better. instead, she is investigating the murder of a town selectman who was pretty unpopular. Especially when it could affect the livelihood of the owners of a new restaurant.
Then she finds out her parents are coming from Florida to Cape Cod to spend the holidays. There goes alone time with the boyfriend.
But things end up being a lot more interesting than she expects. This is a fun book, with some intriguing characters. I enjoyed it more than I expected to.
In A Holidaze, by Christina Lauren. This was an enjoyable book, mainly because it written in a way that made the characters seem real. Mae Jones and her family have always spent Christmas in Park City, Utah, with a group of families headed by college friends of her parents. Mae has secretly always harbored a crush for Andrew, the oldest son of one of the families.
But before we ever find out if they will or won't get together, Mae and the reader have to figure out why and how she seems to be in a time loop. It's like the movie "Groundhog Day," but at Christmastime.
The book manages to be sweet and romantic, but not too much, which makes it very pleasant reading. And there are a few really laugh-out-loud moments amid all of the Christmas festivities.
It Came Upon a Midnight Shear, by Allie Pleiter. Somewhat recently divorced Libby Beckett has finally achieved her dream - opening a yarn shop in her hometown. Y.A.R.N. is a cozy spot that has built a wonderful community. She gas also recently been elected head of the Chamber of Commerce, and is excited for the upcoming Christmastime celebrations.
But when the book starts, she is excited to welcome an acquaintance who has become known for assisting in the conservation of the Peruvian vicuna. He will be at her shop with some vicuna, and do shearing demonstrations.
Everything is going well until Libby's ex-husband shows up. And things really go downhill fast when he's found stabbed to death on the shearing stand with bloody shears found in the yard.
This is an interesting story, in that some of the people who are obvious suspects endure being fairly benign as far as the murder goes, but full of interesting secrets otherwise. There was enough interest to keep me reading, and it was interesting to learn about vicuna.
Rest You Merry, by Charlotte MacLeod. Peter Shandy is a middle-aged professor at a New England agricultural college. It's the holiday season, and other faculty and college employees living in "the Crescent" (college on campus houses) are all decorated to the max for the Annual Illumination, a celebration of lights and decorations that draws people from all over the area. Shandy finds it ridiculous and tiresome, but after being hounded by neighbors, he hires professionals to provide over the top decorations for his house, then leaves for a cruise vacation.
When the cruise has to be canceled, he returns early to grind that everyone is scandalized at what he has done, and one of the neighbors told the others she w as going to his house to take them down.
The problem is, Shandy finds the woman's body behind his couch, with a decoration on top of her. The college Dr is quick to determine that it was an accident, but Shandy doesn't think so.
This is pretty entertaining - especially if you have ever experienced small-town college life. The characters, the rivalries, the gossip - all of it is here. When other incidents occur, Shandy figures out what is going on - while also finding himself in love.
I enjoyed this slice of small town holiday events.
Flight, by Lynn Steger Strong. This is the story of three siblings - Martin, Henry, and Kate - who are navigating the first Christmas holiday after the death of their mother. They and their families used to head to Florida every year to the family home to celebrate. This year, they are all in upstate New York at Henry and Alice's for the holiday.
The book does a good job of covering the individuals, and especially how the in-laws are feeling and how they are each perceived by the siblings. On the one hand, everyone is trying hard to be considerate of each other; but a request by one of them to the others begins to create awkwardness and even conflict.
I liked this book, and the way it showed the viewpoint of each adult child and the others' relationship to their dead mother. Without the parent present, adult siblings relationships can be tricky.
Last Rituals, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir. This was interesting and in some ways very grisly.
When the body of a German student who is studying in Reykjavik is found at the university, officials are not only looking at finding the killer, but trying to figure out what kind of killing it was. The body has odd symbols on it, and the eyes have been gouged out.
The student's family employs their own representative from Germany, who hires Thora, a young attorney who speaks German, Icelandic, and English, to do their own investigation.Thora has two young children of her own, and is not certain that she wants this case. But she does find it interesting, and the fee offered by the student's family would help her financial situation.
The more they look into the background of the student, the more disturbing information they find out about him and his friends. His dissertation subject was witch burnings in Iceland and how they differed from European practices. But it seems the further studied, the more disturbing and macabre side studies he took.
The book is interesting because of the weird subjects discussed, but also because it takes place in Iceland, with its own history that I am not as familiar with. It sounds like a place that could lure you into thinking it's somewhat similar in many ways to life in the U.S. ( well, maybe more how life used to be), and then surprising you with how much it is completely different. And the overall subject matter and how it existed in Iceland is also truly amazing and made me want to know more about Icelandic history.
it took me longer than usual to read this book, not just because of the holiday season happening around me, but because there was a lot to keep straight in the story. This is not an easy, casual read, but it is a good one.
***
There you go, some winners and some losers as usual. I'm already several books into the new year, with a hold list at the library that should keep me busy for a while.
Someone I follow on Instagram posted at the end of the 2025 that she read 12 books in 2025, and was going to try her best to read 15 in 2026. And I was shocked, but then I also reminded myself that not everyone reads as much as I do, or even wants to read as much as I do, even if they are readers. I have always been someone who reads every day, even if it's only a chapter. When I was working full-time, I used to have a book at home that I would be reading and one in my desk drawer at work to read a lunchtime. I am even more likely to be sure I have something to read than I am something to knit!
Anyway, let me know if you've read anything lately to add to my list, or to avoid at all costs. And happy reading to all of you, whether you read one book a year or one hundred. ❤
