Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon is book 1 of The Deed of Paksenarrion and was published in 1988. I originally read this as a teenager shortly after it first came out, so this was a reread for me, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.
If you enjoy high fantasy, this book would be a great choice for you. Moon wrote it after playing Dungeons & Dragons, and it reads like the best D&D campaign you could want to be involved with.
One thing that really caught my attention was that the main character, who goes by Paks for short, is asexual and aromantic. I don’t remember hearing those terms back then, but her orientation is very clear in the book and is understood and accepted by the other characters.
I am so glad I decided to reread this one, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (Cerulean Chronicles #1) – I have seen this book around a lot and decided to give it a try.
How God Sees Women: The End of Patriarchy by Terran Williams – Good book but pretty dry. I keep avoiding going back to it, so I may have to skim the rest.
What I Recently Finished
The Cyprian by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #18)
Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth (Bella Beach #8)
The Seven Day Switch by Kelly Harms
Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg
The Dandelion and the Thistle by Pip Dolyn
Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon (The Deed of Paksenarrion #1)
Butterfly Inn by Kate Wentworth (Butterfly Lane #1)
What I Added to my TBR
Driving with the Top Down by Beth Harbison
Is This a Cry for Help? by Emily Austin
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Fury in Death by J.D. Robb (In Death #63)
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain
Life: A Love Story by Elizabeth Berg
Chasing the Clouds Away by Debbie Macomber
Meet the Newmans by Jennifer Niven
Book Club at Butterfly Inn by Kate Wentworth (Butterfly Lane #2)
Divided Allegiance by Elizabeth Moon (The Deed of Paksenarrion #2)
Oath of Gold by Elizabeth Moon (The Deed of Paksenarrion #3)
Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kay Mills
TBR Stats/Updates
I currently have 184 books on my TBR. Of these, 7 are nonfiction and 177 are fiction.
I have read 8 books so far in 2026. My goal is 100.
I have not finished any nonfiction books so far in 2026. My goal is 6.
I am still on my 3-month free trial of Kindle Unlimited. I have read 12 books on KU so far and have 2 currently borrowed. I only have 1 more book planned to borrow, so I should be able to cancel before the free trial is over.
Bookish Question: How do you decide when to DNF a book?
I ask this because I recently had my first DNF of 2026. It was women’s fiction, which is normally right up my alley, but I picked it up twice and both times just felt stressed out by it.
I am not going to name the book, but I will say that I found the situation the main character was in to be very stressful and I also thought the book was kind of dated. When I checked my progress in the Libby app, I was only at 10%, but I just decided to be done with it. I have plenty of other books on my TBR.
I feel a mild sense of guilt about this, although I will say that is a vast improvement over where I was a decade ago when I wouldn’t have considered not finishing a book. So that makes me curious how other people decide when and why to DNF a book.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
In So Many Words 