Category: books

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The Dandelion & The Thistle

The Dandelion & The Thistle by Pip Dolyn

Most of the time these days I read in short bursts, usually while I am having a meal, but I could not put this book down. I was so invested in the friendship and possible romance between Addison and Colin that I just had to keep reading until I got to the end.

Addison and Colin meet at Makers Market, a monthly market for local artists. Addison has been there forever and is the go-to person for anyone who needs anything, and Colin is a new vendor who is trying to make ceramics his full time job. Over time, they become friends and explore the potential for a romantic relationship.

This book has its share of lighthearted fun, but there are also a lot of serious topics raised as the two share their stories with each other and learn how to navigate around each other’s unique characteristics and past trauma. The author has a note at the beginning of the book listing the sensitive topics so you can decide whether you are comfortable reading it. It is also an open-door romance.

I felt like Addison was autistic-coded, but I don’t want to read anything into the story that wasn’t there, so I will just say I could relate to them in a lot of ways.

One neat thing about the ebook is the inclusion of several song playlists Colin makes for Addison. There are links to them for both Apple Music and Spotify so you can listen to them yourself, which is really cool.

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The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted

Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite writers, and I really enjoy her short stories. She has a way of telling (mostly) women’s stories that brings out the deeper truths behind our mundane lives. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation is a collection of thirteen stories, with one bonus story in the edition I read. Several of them, as you might guess from the title of the book, are about our relationship with food.

My favorite story was “How to Make An Apple Pie,” which is a letter from an older woman named Flo to Ruthie, a neighbor’s daughter who has moved away. Ruthie’s mother has asked Flo to send her recipe for apple pie, and Flo does so in the form of a meandering letter filled with memories of their times together and a lot of exposition on the making of the recipe. I would love to have Flo as my neighbor lady. The bonus story was another letter from Flo to Ruthie entitled “P.S.” where she talks about how to have a dinner party without being a nervous wreck. So good!

One of the quotes that really spoke to me was from “Sin City,” about a woman named Rita who takes a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas: 

“But time does not hold still, and Rita thinks now that it’s a blessing, she thinks that what it means is that your life is free to make or unmake every day.”

To go along with that quote, Berg shares this in the Reader’s Guide: “I like to celebrate the things in life that make it worth plowing through each day.”

I love books like this that allow me to reflect on my life in comparison to what is going on in each of the characters’ lives and that affirm the choice to keep pushing forward and make new decisions when we need to. Highly recommend!

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Never Meant to Stay

Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das is a romantic comedy set in Delhi, and I loved it! I especially loved everything about the female main character, Samara. She is capable and kind and fun, and I wish I had her ability to make people feel cared for and encouraged. Sharav, the male main character, is a good man who has been carrying the burden of leading his family since his father died. In an effort to be responsible, he has found a suitable woman and gotten engaged.

When Samara needs a place to stay before returning to New York, she comes to live with Sharav’s family for a while. Finding them all still grieving their husband and father in different ways, she looks for ways to help them through it. 

I am so glad I picked up this book. The characters were well developed and interesting, and I enjoyed the setting and culture. The story was fun and warm, and I thought the romantic aspect of it was well done.

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Week in Review: January 18, 2026

This has been a pretty quiet week. I had a Zoom meeting on Monday for the autism mothers luncheon I am helping to plan again this year. The luncheon is in April, and I am in charge of registration and the handouts (the program and such). On Tuesday, I took Michael to his therapy appointment.

On Wednesday, Michael and I had dinner together and played a game. That may sound odd to highlight since we live together, but we are both very independent people who get absorbed in our own pursuits and we also eat completely different things most of the time. We recently decided to work on spending more time together.

The game we played was called Hive. I had gotten it for Christmas for us a year ago, but we had never played it. It was quite easy to learn and was a lot of fun. The goal of the game is to surround the other player’s Queen Bee, and each of the bugs has a different rule for how they move. It was close, but I did manage to win (you can’t see his Queen Bee in the photo because his beetle is on top of her.)

Later in the week, I received a pair of headphones from my workplace. Evidently one of our suppliers had sent them for all of us, so my boss mailed a pair to my place. They are very nice and were a great surprise!

At church, my pastor has been preaching a series called Beloved Community. The first week was about Howard Thurman, and the second week was about Fannie Lou Hamer. This weekend was about MLK. There was a short play about him and then a conversation with the leaders of our justice team. After the first sermon, I asked the pastor what book of Thurman’s to start with and he immediately suggested Jesus and the Disinherited. The second week, he gave a book recommendation during the sermon – This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kay Mills. I have added both to my TBR.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

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The Seven Day Switch

The Seven Day Switch by Kelly Harms

Celeste Mason and Wendy Charles can’t stand each other. Celeste is the epitome of a stay-at-home mom, while Wendy is the ultimate working mom and a productivity consultant to boot. Then after a neighborhood potluck where they drink too much sangria, they experience their very own Freaky Friday and wake up in each other’s bodies.

What follows is a humorous, messy week as they try to live one another’s lives while figuring out how to get back to their old selves. I appreciated how they each move back and forth between trying to change things they don’t like about the other person’s life and having moments of empathy for each other.

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The Cyprian

What a great way to start the year! The Cyprian by Mercedes Lackey was my first book of 2026, and it did not disappoint! I have been reading Mercedes Lackey’s books since the 1980s, when she started the Valdemar fantasy series, so I am definitely a long-time fan.

This book is number 18 in her Elemental Masters series, which is set in an alternate reality where magic exists. They take place in the early 1900s, mostly in England, and an Elemental Master is someone who has magical control over air, water, fire, or earth. Each book has its origin in a famous fairy tale, this one being Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans, but that is just the starting point for Lackey’s magical storytelling.

In The Cyprian, we meet Elena Whitstone and her seven brothers. Their mother has fled and now their father is bringing home a new stepmother, who is certainly neglectful and possibly evil. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I’ll just say how much I enjoyed this story and highly recommend checking it out. It can be read as a standalone book, although you may want to go back and read them all afterwards!

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Get Lucky

Get Lucky by Katherine Center

This is a fun book. I enjoyed getting to know Sarah Harper as she finds her way after making a dumb mistake and losing her job in New York City. She goes home to Houston to visit her sister Mackie, who is dealing with infertility issues, and ends up offering to be her surrogate! On top of all that, she also runs into Everett, the sweet guy she dumped in high school.

There were a lot of humorous moments between the pregnancy, her old boyfriend, and her new job. Center also does a good job exploring the ups and downs of the sister relationship, and I really liked how things ended up with them.

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The Half of It

The Half of It by Juliette Fay

This may be a weird take, but I had trouble enjoying the first half of this book because we are told early on that the two main characters (Cal and Helen) have been estranged for 40 years, but it takes many chapters and several jumps between the past and the present before we find out what the event that broke them apart was. I have a hard time relaxing into a story when I know there is something coming but have to keep waiting for it.

Once we had the whole story of what happened, it was easier for me to care about the characters and enjoy letting the story unfold. I especially liked Helen’s colorful friend Francie; she was a lot of fun.

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2026 Reading Goals

I have been thinking for a while about my reading goals for 2026. In 2025, my main goal was to read 75 books in the course of the year, and I finished with 126. I also had a goal to read 12 nonfiction books, which I met exactly.

Early in the year, I came across the #25in2025 tag on Instagram and decided to participate by making a list of 25 books I wanted to read in 2025. By the end of June, I had finished that list, so I made another one for the second half of the year, which I finished in December.

I am really pleased that I met all my goals for 2025 and am looking forward to some more great reads in 2026. This may change as the year progresses, but here are the goals I am starting out with for 2026:

  • Read at least 100 books.
  • Read 6 nonfiction books.
  • Join Kindle Unlimited to read the books from my TBR that I can’t get from the library. (I have gotten a headstart on this one as I recently was able to get a three month free trial.)
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Week in Review: January 4, 2026

This was a nice, quiet week. I worked Monday-Wednesday and then had the rest of the week off. I also had no appointments or planned events for either Michael or myself, and he went to his dad’s for the weekend. It was lovely!

I did spend some time looking back over my progress on my reading and puzzling hobbies. I am a total nerd and love tracking things, so I track my puzzles in an app called Puzzle Tracker and also on a spreadsheet (so I don’t lose the information if anything happens to the app). This image shows my puzzle stats for 2025:

I also compiled some stats for my 2025 year in books. I am pretty happy with what I read last year, especially since there were only 5 books that I rated 2 stars and 2 books that I DNF’d.