Author: Trish

Into reading, decluttering, budgeting, and doing jigsaw puzzles!
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Short Story Reviews November 2025

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years by John Scalzi

⭐⭐⭐/5

This short story is the first of The Time Traveler’s Passport, six Amazon Original stories that are free to read with Kindle Unlimited. I found this one quite interesting with a good twist at the end. Scalzi has an intriguing take on how time travel could work and what part it would play in society.

The Toy Car by Rose Tremain

⭐⭐/5

This is a coming-of-age story about a young man from Greece who visits his mother’s home country of England at her insistence so that he can see what else is out there before he follows in his father’s footsteps as the owner of a small taxi company. I didn’t really connect with the characters, so this was a miss for me.

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Puzzle Haul

I have had some fun puzzle mail recently and wanted to share it here.

  • A Day at the Bookstore from Galison, Michael Storrings
  • Cat Stamps from Re-marks
  • Starry Seasons from 1canoe2
  • Spooky Sweets from 1canoe2
  • The Chocolate from Magnolia, Alice Celia
  • Corner Bakery from Ravensburger, Elissa Della-Piana
  • Princess on the Pea from Enjoy

This Saturday I am attending a puzzle swap that is part of a puzzle competition at a local game store. I purchased a spectator/puzzle swap ticket and will be taking 15 puzzles to swap. I am really hopeful that there will be some good options for me to choose from.

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Brigands & Breadknives

Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree

I love the cozy fantasy world Travis Baldree has created in the Legends & Lattes series. This is considered Book 2 in the series, although it is actually the third book published. First we had Legends & Lattes, which was Book 1, and then we had Bookshops & Bonedust, which was Book 0. The settings were a coffee shop and bookshop, respectively.

This book starts out with Fern, the bookseller from Book 0, moving to Thune, where Viv from Book 1 has her coffee shop, to open a new bookshop. Things quickly take a turn as Fern finds herself far from home after a night of drinking and desperation. She ends up on an adventure with an elven warrior and a chaotic goblin captive.

I was surprised at first by the turn this book took–away from the cozy fantasy shop setting and towards an action-filled adventure plotline. It felt a lot like some of the D&D campaigns I have been a part of. That’s not a bad thing, just different and unexpected after the other two books. It had some good fights and some fun, quirky elements. 

The parts I most enjoyed were seeing the evolving relationships between the characters and following Fern’s internal journey through her writing of letters to Viv back in Thune. I am hoping there will be more books in the series and that they will be more like the first two that were written.

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Wilder Podcast

I posted a few weeks ago about the podcast Wilder on the Prairie, a fascinating podcast which explains a lot of the terms, items, or references in the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The podcast I am referring to today is simply called Wilder, and it was produced in 2023 as a deep dive into Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy. It consists of 10 regular episodes, 3 bonus episodes, and a 50th anniversary special published in 2024.

I found this podcast to be incredibly well done and also very balanced. They cover so much ground, discussing Wilder’s life as well as her books and even the TV show. They discuss how the books came about and how they compare to her real life experiences, while also explaining the questions about the series authorship and the difficult relationship between Laura and her daughter Rose. 

Throughout the episodes, they are constantly balancing the love people have for the series with the problematic aspects of the books. One of the largest issues is how Native Americans were portrayed, and they do a deep dive into that history. They also spend time on the TV show, and one of the bonus episodes is an interview with Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura in the show.

Highly recommended!

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Rainbow Sunrise

Rainbow Sunrise is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Josie Lewis. This was such a relaxing puzzle to put together, and the rainbow gradient is so beautiful.

I have actually started collecting Josie Lewis puzzles because of how much I love them. I have five so far, three of which I still have left to do. I also started following her on TikTok, where she shares her current art as well as spotlights other artists who are doing interesting work.

Buffalo Games puzzles are very good quality. The pieces have a nice smooth finish to them that is very pleasant to the touch. I wish I liked more of their images, but unfortunately a lot of them are not my preferred style.

Here are the three Lewis puzzles I have on my to do shelf right now:

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Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir – written by Alba Donati and translated by Elena Pala

After working in Italian publishing for many years and being a poet herself, Alba Donati returned to her very small hometown of Lucignana to open a tiny bookshop called Libreria Sopra la Penna. The bookshop opened in December of 2019, and the memoir takes the form of a diary that she kept from January to June of 2021. Each day’s entry ends with a list of the books that were ordered from the shop that day, and it was fascinating to see what people were getting and which books showed up multiple times.

Throughout the memoir, we learn a lot about life in a small village of only 180 people, where everybody knows your business almost before you do. Donati also shares a lot of her childhood, her family history, and how she handles the relationships with her elderly parents. And, of course, there are many stories about books and authors and the many readers she encounters.

As Donati puts it, “People want stories. It doesn’t matter who wrote them; they need stories to take their mind off things, stories to identify with or to take them elsewhere. Stories that won’t hurt, that will heal a wound, restore trust, instill beauty in their hearts.”

I love that quote, and I found the entire book very engaging. I enjoyed hearing Donati’s thoughts on literature, especially on the importance of championing women authors. I found myself imagining living in a small village and getting to spend my days around so many books, which sounds like heaven.

I don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but I have enjoyed several memoirs over the years. I think I need to add some more of them into my rotation.

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Boho Camper

Boho Camper is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. I like this artist a lot and most of the puzzles I have with her artwork are smaller piece counts, so it was nice to find this one.

I started it with my friend Suzanne the other evening. She loves doing borders, so she worked on that while I started on the interior. We got a couple hundred pieces done by the time she had to leave, so it was a good start. After she left, I was working on it a little bit more when I did something I have never done before–I spilled soda on the puzzle! I mopped it up as best as I could and then just left it to dry overnight.

Once the puzzle was dry, I found that a few pieces had separated from the cardboard backing, unfortunately. I was able to finish the puzzle, and you can’t tell there is anything wrong from the photo, but I think I might try to glue the pieces back together.

Despite my mishap, it was a fun puzzle. I really like the Boho elements against the background of camping in nature. I have done a few Magnolias and been happy with the quality. It’s one of the few I have found where you can move whole sections around easily, which is nice when you have two people working together.

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Canyon Camper

Canyon Camper is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. This is part of the Happy Camper series that I am collecting. She also did a series of 500-piece food trucks that I love.

I really enjoyed this one. There was one day that I wanted to puzzle but didn’t feel like tackling any of my larger puzzles, so I pulled this one down and it definitely scratched the itch. The quality was not great, but I have found it to be hit or miss with this brand, so I wasn’t totally surprised.

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What you are looking for is in the library

What you are looking for is in the library, written by Michiko Aoyama and translated by Alison Watts

I love the idea that a wise librarian could point you in a direction you had not thought of, which would turn out to be the perfect answer to what you were struggling with. In this book, we meet five different people, each of whom is unhappy with their life in some way:

  • Tomoka, 21 womenswear sales assistant
  • Ryo, 35, accounts department of a furniture manufacturer
  • Natsumi, 40, former magazine editor
  • Hiroya, 30, NEET (not in employment, education or training)
  • Masao, 65, retired

Somehow, each of them ends up at the community library and meets Sayuri Komachi, a librarian who asks them what they are looking for and gives them a list of books that includes one unrelated book as well as a bonus gift, a small felted object. The seemingly unrelated book ends up leading them to the answer they need to find happiness in their lives.

One thing that I found jarring was the reaction each of the characters had to the librarian when they first saw her. She is a large woman, and the descriptions of her appearance are quite derogatory. They each assume that she is an angry, unapproachable person and are surprised when she is friendly and helpful.

Putting that aside, I found the conclusions that each person reached to be very satisfying and thought-provoking. I am glad that I read this book.

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Harvest Feast

Harvest Feast is a 500-piece puzzle from Galison, and the artist is Kathryn Selbert. I fell in love with this image when I saw it on Instagram a few weeks ago and starting tracking it on ebay until I found one that had a price I was happy with.

I am so glad I got it. It is such a charming image with all of the adorable woodland creatures sharing a feast together. I especially like the little mouse standing on a ladder so he can reach the table.

The only downside was that the pieces had a weird feel to them. It is hard to describe, but it was almost kind of oily. It was unusual for this brand to be unpleasant, so I’m not sure what happened. I still enjoyed the puzzle, but it was odd.