I love the concept of hygge, which is a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling ofcontentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture). I was first introduced to it by a creator I used to follow on YouTube and loved the idea. I incorporate touches of it into my life wherever I can.
In The Hygge Holiday by Rosie Blake, we meet Clara, a young Danish woman who has just arrived in the small village of Yulethorpe. She is intrigued by the town and arranges to house and pet sit for Louisa, who has decided to close her toy shop and jaunt off to warmer climes. As Clara wields her hygge magic on Louisa’s flat and shop, she slowly becomes a part of the local community.Â
Not everyone is happy she is there, however. Louisa’s son Joe is suspicious of her motives and starts coming down from the big city to check on her. And Roz, a local who is contemptuous of both Louisa and Clara, makes her objections known very loudly.
I found this book charming. I liked the dual POV with Clara and Joe, which is interspersed with the emails Louisa is sending to Gavin, the owner of the local pub. I also appreciated how relatable all of the characters were (well, maybe except for Roz, who is completely unlikable). There is some humor (can you say unfiltered parrot), some romance, and a lot of the promised hygge.
This is the first novel I have read by Rosie Blake, but it certainly won’t be the last!
I love books about books, and The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers more than delivers on that front. After quitting her job, Erin Connolly decides she needs a fresh start and begins by decluttering her bedroom. Unfortunately, one of the items she accidentally gets rid of is her heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, when she drops off a bunch of books at a local community library. But then the book turns up back in the library a week later with new notes in the margins and an invitation to meet her new friend in Great Expectations.
Thus begins a conversation between Erin and her Mystery Man. As they share their favorite novels with each other, their friendship deepens and leads them both to hope for something more. Unbeknownst to them, however, they already know each other in real life, and their history is not good.
I enjoyed the juxtaposition between the relationship that develops through the book exchanges and the conflict that arises whenever the two meet in real life. The POV switches back and forth between Erin and James throughout the book, so we are privy to both sides as the story unfolds as to what happened in their past. Bickers does a great job with the second chance storyline, but the book encompasses a lot more than that as it also deals with grief, family relationships, and coming into your own as an adult.
There were a lot of great classic works highlighted in this book, and I was especially intrigued by the book the main characters had shared an interest in when they were in school together, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Somehow, I have never read it, and I am hoping to get to it this year.
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams is a debut novel that ticks a lot of boxes for me, most especially that it centers around the power of books to affect our lives. The two main characters are the Widower Mukesh and Aleisha Thomas. Aleisha is a teenager working a summer job in the local library when Mukesh comes in to try to find something to read. Neither of them is much of a reader at the start of the book, but then Aleisha finds a list of book recommendations and decides to start reading them and also to suggest the first book on the list to Mukesh.
As both of them embark on a reading journey, they also develop an improbable friendship which slowly deepens as time progresses. Each of them has challenges in their families, as Mukesh navigates life after the death of his wife and Aleisha juggles her need to become her own individual with the needs of her mother and brother. The lessons they learn from the books on the list help them find ways to handle their personal struggles and develop in new ways.
I loved how Adams weaves the books they are reading around the events happening in their lives in a compelling way. This story also shows us the power of community and how that can happen in a place like the library.
2024 was a great year for reading for me. I set a goal of 52 books and blew past it, finishing at a total of 99 books. Also, in the last few years I have not read much nonfiction, but in 2024 I finished 13, up from 4 the previous year.
Without further ado, here are my top 10 reads from 2024:
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
The Sister Effect by Susan Mallery
Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookstore by Bo-Reum Hwang
A brand new year – so exciting! It’s fun to look back on the year that we have just finished as well as to look forward to the next twelve months.
What I’m Reading Now
I currently have three books out from the library, so I am listing them all under this section. Hopefully I will finish them all before the due dates!
The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society by Darien Gee
What I Recently Finished
Fiction:
The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg
The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg
The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
Return to Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth
Miss Amelia’s List by Mercedes Lackey
Nonfiction:
Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans
UnClobber: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality by Colby Martin
Short Stories:
When We Were Friends by Jane Green
The Answer Is No by Fredrick Backman
Cruel Winter with You by Ali Hazelwood
Merry After Ever by Tessa Bailey
All by My Elf by Olivia Dade
Merriment and Mayhem by Alexandria Bellefleur
Only Santas in the Building by Alexis Daria
What I Added to my TBR
Happy After All by Maisey Yates
The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine
One Big Happy Family by Susan Mallery
Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth
My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes
Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry by Beth Allison Barr
Queer & Christian: Reclaiming the Bible, Our Faith, and Our Place at the Table by Brandan Robertson
The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick
The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance by Jemar Tisby
What Happened to the McCrays? by Tracey Lange
Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop: A Memoir by Alba Donati
Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das
Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin
A Bookshop Christmas by Rachel Burton
The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
Plymouth Undercover by Pamela M. Kelley
TBR Stats
I currently have 120 books on my TBR
Of those, 20 are nonfiction and 100 are fiction
All of the books were added in 2024
One of my goals for 2025 is to read 2 nonfiction books each month. I usually set an overall goal on the Goodreads Reading Challenge as well. Last year, I put down 52 and I ended up finishing 99 books. This year, I may be a bit more ambitious and put down 75.
If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!
The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick is a charming take on what to do when faced with sudden divorce. When Ginny Splinter’s husband tells her he wants a divorce, she impulsively invites four of her radio show listeners to join her on a trip to Italy that was originally planned as a trip for her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Each of her fellow travelers is facing their own heartbreak, which we learn more about as the novel unfolds.
The group meets up in a quaint hotel called Splendido and gets to know the owner and his daughter while they enjoy the beautiful surroundings. They take several day trips to scenic and historical spots around Italy as well as engage in various activities suggested by each of the members. As they begin to share their stories with each other, they form friendships and offer each other support and understanding that helps them start to move forward through their grief.
I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of the Italian culture and countryside, and I appreciated how much Ginny grew in her understanding of her marriage and herself throughout the trip. The ending was especially good, in my opinion, but I won’t say more than that because of spoilers!
One of the perks of having Amazon Prime is getting a free book each month from a short list of editor’s picks. Sometimes we get a bonus short story or even a second book for free. It’s a great deal, and even better because I have Amazon Prime at a discounted price since my son is on Medicaid.
Here’s what I have added to my Kindle for free over the last six months:
July 2024 – We could choose two free books that month, although I ended up only picking one of them. I chose The Bookstore Wedding by Alice Hoffman. It is the second in a series of short stories called The Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, so I also purchased the first story, The Bookstore Sisters, and pre-ordered the third one, The Bookstore Keepers.
August 2024 – We got one book free plus a short story. I chose Fatal Intrusion by Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado for the book. The short story was Natural Selection by Erin Hilderbrand. I have read the short story and it was good but I would have liked it to be longer.
September 2024 – We got one book free plus a short story. I chose The Anti-Heroes by Jen Lancaster for the book. The short story was When We Were Friends by Jane Green.
October 2024 – We were able to pick two books from the list that month. I chose When We Were Widows by Annette Chavez Macias and Grave Talk by Nick Spalding.
November 2024 – We were again able to pick two titles from the list. I chose Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick and The Answer is No: A Short Story by Fredrik Bakman.
December 2024 – We were able to pick one free book from the list and, after that, we got to pick a free book out of another list. I chose Happy After All by Maisey Yates and The Autumn of Ruth Winters by Marshall Fine. The Amazon original short story collection Under the Mistletoe is also free this month for Amazon Prime members. There are five stories, so I downloaded all of them. From the descriptions, it sounds like they might be a little bit spicier.
All together, I got seven free books and nine free short stories. Not bad!
I have been reading ebooks almost exclusively for a few years now, but there are some books on my TBR that I haven’t been able to locate for free electronically. So I have started going back to the library for physical books at times.
Here is my most recent haul from the library:
The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah
Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society by Darien Gee
First up is Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors. I am excited for this one because it is the first in a series that are based loosely on Jane Austen.
The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg – I am almost done with this book, and it is really good!
UnClobber by Colby Martin – This book addresses the “clobber passages” from the Bible that are often used to condemn homosexuality and also tells Martin’s own story of how his views on the subject changed and how it has affected his life. It is very easy to read and I am enjoying it.
What I Recently Finished
The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley by Mercedes Lackey – This is #16 in the Elemental Masters series and was very enjoyable, as all of them have been.
Holiday Hideaway by Mary Kay Andrews – This was a Christmas-themed short story and was a cute romance.
Gryphon in Light by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon – This is #1 in Kelvren’s Saga and who knows what book in the entire Valdemar series. It took me a little while to get into the story, but I ended up liking it by the end.
The Christmas Inn by Pamela M. Kelley – This is a heartwarming holiday romance. I couldn’t put it down – very sweet!
Nantucket Summer House by Pamela M. Kelley – This is #9 in the Nantucket Beach Plum Cove series. It wasn’t my favorite in the series but I did still enjoy it.
Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions by Rachel Held Evans – I loved this book. I will share a more detailed review in a few days.
The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship by Beth Harbison – This was a fun book about three women who start a book club based on cookbooks. It was charming and I really enjoyed it.
Close Knit by Jenny Colgan – I have read a lot of Colgan’s books and I still like them, although not as much as I used to like her older books.
What I Added to my TBR
Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick
The Answer is No by Fredrick Backman
Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith by April Ajoy
Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison
Hope in a Jar by Beth Harbison
TBR Stats
I currently have 111 books on my TBR
Of those, 17 are non-fiction and 94 are fiction
All but 1 of the books were added in 2024. I plan to read the last book added in 2023 this month
If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!
The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley by Mercedes Lackey – This is #16 in the Elemental Masters series. I added it to my TBR back in January 2022 and kept waiting for it to be added to the Libby app so I could borrow it. I recently decided to start investigating all the different ways I could access books (Hoopla, Kindle Unlimited – not a current member but could join if there were a lot of TBR books available there, and physical books from the library). I found several books from my list available as physical books, so I’m going to start from the oldest and work my way forward.
Gryphon in Light by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon – This is the 1st book in the Kelvren’s Saga series, but the 56th book in the overall Valdemar world. This is another one that has been on my list for a while, since July 2023, and I was able to get a physical copy from the library.
What I Recently Finished
Passions in Death by J. D. Robb – This is #59 from the In Death series about Eve Dallas, a police detective in futuristic New York City. Amazing, as always!
Open House by Elizabeth Berg – This novel is about a woman finding her way after divorce. Samantha’s husband has left her and, in order to keep the house she and her son Travis live in, she takes in roommates and begins working temp jobs. Along the way, she makes new friends and discovers the self she lost a long time ago. It seemed a bit slow at first, but as I relaxed into the pace of the story, I found myself drawn into it. The style of this book reminds me a bit of Jamie Langston Turner, who is one of my favorite writers.
The Last List of Mabel Beaumont by Laura Pearson – The whole time I was reading this book, I had the feeling I had read it before. So much of it seemed very familiar. I didn’t remember the ending, but it is still possible I had previously read it. I really enjoyed it.
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams – I very much liked this debut novel about a teenager and a widower who bond over a reading list. The story weaves the books they are reading around the events happening in their lives in a compelling way.
Ambush at Sorato by John Flanagan – This is #7 in the Ranger’s Apprentice: The Royal Ranger series, which is a spinoff of the original Ranger’s Apprentice series. I have read all of Flanagan’s books and always look forward to a new one coming out. Even though they are written for kids, I find them very readable and fun.
Freckles by Ceclia Ahern – I wanted to like this book because I have enjoyed several others by Ahern, but I just couldn’t. Perhaps it is because I could acutely feel the main character’s confusion at the situations she gets herself into due to her lack of understanding of how the world works and of people and relationships. This is one of the more obviously autistic-coded characters I have read, and I can see so much of her in myself as well as other autistic people I know.
What I’ve Added to my TBR List
When We Were Widows by Annette Chavez Macias
Grave Talk by Nick Spalding
I’ll Be Seeing You: A Memoir by Elizabeth Berg
Durable Goods by Elizabeth Berg
Joy School by Elizabeth Berg
True to Form by Elizabeth Berg
Ordinary Life: Stories by Elizabeth Berg
The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg
Lies and Other Love Languages by Sonali Dev
A Christmas Duet by Debbie Macomber
Did Not Finish
Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem by Bradley Jersak – I have tried twice to read this book and have finally given up. The writing is very dry and I just can’t stay focused on it while reading. I am interested in the topic, but I think I’ll stick to listening to podcasts about it from now on.
If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!
In So Many Words 