Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Butterfly Inn by Kate Wentworth is the first book in her new series, Butterfly Lane. It is set in the same location as the Bella Beach series she just wrapped up and includes many of the same characters as that series.
I enjoyed the book; it was a fun, quick read. I did feel that she spent a lot of time setting things up and explaining who everyone was, but that’s not unexpected when starting a series.
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
I love looking back over my reading log to see what books rise to the top. A few months ago, I posted my top books from the first half of 2025, and now I am sharing my top books from the second half of the year.
These were all 5 star reads for me:
I don’t read a ton of nonfiction, but I set myself a goal at the beginning of 2025 to read at least 12 nonfiction books over the course of the year.
My plan was to read one each month, and I kept pretty close to that plan. I doubled up one month and missed one month, so it evened out to 12 total for the year. Most of them were related to Christianity, but I did also read one memoir and one autism-related book. Here’s a breakdown by month:
January – Followers Under 40: The journey away from church for Millenials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha by Rachel Gilmore and Kris Sledge
February – The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
March – Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark?: The Bible and Modern Science and the Trouble of Making It All Fit by Janet Kellogg Ray
April – The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended by Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky
May – Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley
June #1 – God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vine
June #2 – How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby
July – Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry by Beth Allison Barr
August – The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins by Peter Enns
September – Autism Out Loud: Life with a Child on the Spectrum, from Diagnosis to Young Adulthood by Kate Swenson, Adrian Wood, and Carrie Cariello
October – I missed this month, but thankfully I read two in June so I was still on track to meet my goal for the year!
November – Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir by Alba Donati
December – Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table by Brandan Robertson
Do you read a lot of nonfiction? Were there any standouts this year?
In So Many Words 