Tag: book reviews

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How to Stop Time

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

📚Summary

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. 

But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history–performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

📃My Thoughts

Simply put, I loved this book! I love the idea of someone living for so long and all the challenges it would bring. Having to move around so people don’t get suspicious, falling in love knowing your loved one will age much more quickly than you, not being able to share your life story with people. 

Add to that a society of people like you with their own rules and motivations and you get a gripping story with exciting twists and turns. Highly recommend!

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Autism Out Loud

Autism Out Loud: Life with a Child on the Spectrum, from Diagnosis to Young Adulthood by Kate Swenson, Adrian Wood, and Carrie Cariello

Summary

Kate Swenson, Adrian Wood and Carrie Cariello are from different parts of the country and backgrounds, but they were brought together by a singular experience: they are each a mother to a child with autism. Together they have shared laughter, tears, victories and the unconditional love that molds their lives.

Kate, Adrian and Carrie have children with very different autism profiles, and in Autism Out Loud they write about their unique experiences on a variety of topics, from diagnosis to caregiving, schooling and aging. Through their varied stories and lessons they’ve learned, these incredible women provide a glimpse of what to expect on the autism journey and show parents that they are not alone.

My Thoughts

I really appreciated how all three of the authors gave us such an intimate view of their lives. They were so willing to be vulnerable in sharing their experience as moms of autistic children. I could relate to a lot of their feelings in this book, and I am thankful I was able to read this book.

The part that I connected with the most was the anxiety about helping an autistic child transition to adulthood and planning for their future. This is a huge source of worry for me and I know I have not done enough yet. It helps to know I am not alone in my struggle.

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Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. I used to read a lot of fantasy but have moved toward contemporary fiction over the last fifteen to twenty years, so I didn’t know whether I would like this book. However, I was pleasantly surprised and I enjoyed it very much.

The main character is Emily Wilde, a professor of faerie folklore at Cambridge. She makes a trip to a small town far north of where she lives to study the local faeries. She is surprised to be joined by a fellow academic, Wendell Bambleby, and the story continues with them working together on this project.

The thing I liked most about the book was Emily’s internal monologue as various events unfolded. She is an autistic-coded character, so I could relate a lot to her thoughts and feelings about things. Bambleby’s character was harder to relate to, although that got easier as I learned more about him.

Highly recommend!

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Smells Like Tween Spirit

I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire Class Mom series by Laurie Gelman, and this one was no exception.This first three books were about Jen Dixon’s adventures as class mom for her son Max during his elementary school years, and this one covers her involvement as he moves into middle school and gets into wrestling.

She is also juggling helping her parents as they get older and her adult daughters as they are finding their way in the world, in addition to teaching spin classes and spending time with her adorable granddaughter, all while facing symptoms of perimenopause.

I love Jen’s character so much; she is snarky and fun and truly cares about the people in her life. The situations she finds herself in vary from serious to comical, but she always comes through. I devoured this book in one sitting and found it just as good as the first one.

I would recommend starting with the first book in the series so that you get to know the characters and their stories before getting to this one.

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Wedding at Bella Beach

Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Bella Beach #7

This is the final full-length book in the Bella Beach series and covers the wedding of Emma Sinclair, who was the main character of the first book. There is a novella about Emma’s daughter Alexis coming out this December called Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach.

This was a fast, feel-good read. It’s probably good that the series is ending because the author spent quite a bit of time making sure we remembered what had happened with each of the characters in the previous books. It did still have some new developments and, of course, there were all the fun things leading up to the wedding.

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The Lonely Hearts Book Club

The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore

In small-town Washington, an eclectic group of misfits–spearheaded by young librarian Sloane and curmudgeonly reader Arthur–forms a unique book club that leads to unexpected bonds.

I had enjoyed Gilmore’s more recent book, The Library of Borrowed Hearts, so I decided to go back and read this one. It was a fun read, and I liked the characters and how their relationships develop over the course of the book.

I did have trouble following some of the characters’ feelings and motivations, but I can’t say whether that is because of the writing or because of the way my autistic brain works. The story got easier to follow during the later chapters.

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The Evolution of Adam

The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins by Peter Enns

Summary

Can Christianity and evolution coexist? Traditional Christian teaching presents Jesus as reversing the effects of the fall of Adam. But an evolutionary view of human origins doesn’t allow for a literal Adam, making evolution seemingly incompatible with what Genesis and the apostle Paul say about him. 

For Christians who both accept evolution and want to take the Bible seriously, this can present a faith-shaking tension. Popular Old Testament scholar Peter Enns offers a way forward by explaining how this tension is caused not by the discoveries of science but by false expectations about the biblical texts.

My Thoughts

I really appreciated this book. The reading I have done so far on Christianity and evolution focused on the various beliefs about the origins of life as well as the stories of a worldwide flood, and I hadn’t really thought about the implications of this as it relates to the existence of Adam.

Enns spends time discussing the appearance of Adam in the Old Testament as well as the mentions made of Adam by Paul in the New Testament. He explains a lot about the cultural and theological environments of both times and how those environments affected the way the Scriptures were written, as well as how the time we live in affects the way we interpret it.

As he states in Chapter 6: Paul as an Ancient Interpreter of the Old Testament:

The authors of Scripture did not speak at a safe distance from their culture but wrote as people living in a particular time and place in human history….The Old Testament already does in principle what Paul is doing here: reworking the past to speak to the present….It is the very act of altering the past to address present circumstances that ensures Scripture’s continuation as the active and abiding Word of God, not a relic of a bygone era.

The Evolution of Adam gave me a lot to think about, and I am glad I got the chance to read it. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the topic.

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What I’m Reading – September 2025

What I’m Reading Now

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – The Infernal Devices #2 – I was encouraged to read this series by a good friend who loves fantasy books. I used to read a lot of fantasy years ago but have gotten away from it in the last couple of decades. It’s well written and an interesting story.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett – I have seen this around for a while and was intrigued enough to check it out. The main character seems to be autistic-coded, which is interesting.

What I Recently Finished

Fiction

  • The Bride Test by Helen Hoang – The Kiss Quotient #2
  • The Emma Project by Sonali Dev – The Rajes #4
  • The Sandy Page Bookshop by Hannah McKinnon
  • Every Time You Go Away by Beth Harbison
  • The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
  • Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Bella Beach #7
  • Smells Like Tween Spirit by Laurie Gelman – Class Mom #4
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle – Time Quintet #1

Nonfiction

  • The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins by Peter Enns

What I Added to my TBR

  • The Storytellers by Sue Heath
  • Something to Look Forward To: Fictions by Fannie Flagg
  • The Road to Cardinal Valley by Earlene Fowler – Ruby McGavin #2
  • The Incredible Kindness of Paper by Evelyn Skye
  • Confessions of the Other Sister by Paige Harbison
  • Once Upon a Time in Dollywood by Ashley Jordan
  • If I Could Turn Back Time by Beth Harbison
  • Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth
  • Butterfly Inn by Kate Wentworth – Butterfly Lane #1
  • Once and Again by Rebecca Serle

TBR Stats/Updates

  • I currently have 163 books on my TBR. Of those, 10 are nonfiction and 153 are fiction.
  • At the end of June, I created a focused reading list of 25 books I would like to read by the end of the year. So far, I have read 11 of those books.
  • I have read 89 books this year (my goal was 75).
  • My nonfiction goal is 1 per month, which I have met so far with a total of 9.
  • Here are some more stats from StoryGraph:

Feel free to add me as a friend on Goodreads or StoryGraph. I’m always looking for new recommendations!

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Every Time You Go Away

Every Time You Go Away by Beth Harbison

Willa Bennett’s husband Ben passed away three years ago while he was up at their beach house to do some work on it. She has not really been living her life since, including not being very present for her teenage son, Jamie. Now she is heading to the beach house to get it ready to sell, hoping it will help her to move on. Once she arrives, she is surprised to encounter her husband’s ghost.

When it turns out there is a lot of work to do before she can sell, she summons her son Jamie, her best friend Kristin, and Kristin’s daughter Kelsey to come for the summer. Even with their company, she continues to see Ben and is even able to talk with him, reminiscing about their life together and how she is dealing with being on her own.

I enjoyed this book so much. The writing was engaging and emotional, with well-developed, relatable characters. The touch of the supernatural was handled very well–I loved the interactions between Willa and Ben. For me, it was a satisfying story about moving through grief and finding healing.

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The Sandy Page Bookshop

The Sandy Page Bookshop by Hannah McKinnon

Leah is fresh out of a job and an engagement, so she moves back to her Cape Cod hometown. Once there, she impulsively decides to rent and renovate a historic home so that she can open a bookshop. A cast of characters forms around her, some of whom we get to know quite well as there are chapters told from their point of view. 

There’s Lucy, a teenager whose older sister has been severely injured in a car accident; Eudora, a widow who has become afraid to leave her home; and Luke, a local woodworker who knew Leah in high school. 

I enjoyed this book very much. The characters are likable and the bookstore is a charming setting. I would definitely recommend this when you are looking for a lighthearted, feel-good read.