Tag: fiction

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What I’m Reading – January 2025

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!

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The Little Italian Hotel

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!

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Amazon First Reads July – December

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!

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Close Knit

I found Close Knit by Jenny Colgan to be quirky and enjoyable.  Gertie lives on a small island in the north of Scotland, where she spends most of her time working, knitting, and daydreaming.  When she develops a crush on the owner of the small local airline, she takes a job as an air stewardess despite never having been on a plane.

My favorite part of the book was the myriad of interesting characters.  I especially enjoyed the storyline about Struhan, a local elementary school teacher and musician who was Gertie’s high school crush.  Some of them, like Morag, appeared in an earlier book, The Summer Skies.  I prefer to read books in order, but this one does stand alone if you haven’t read it.

One thing I liked about Gertie is that, even though she lacks confidence in some areas, she is willing to step out and be herself.  For example, she knits using muted colors because that’s what she loves, even though the other women in the knitting circle keep pushing her to use bolder colors.  She also makes the decision to move out of her mother’s house and become a bit more independent.

By my count, this is the twenty-fourth book I have read by Colgan, so I am definitely a fan!  I highly recommend giving her a try.

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Library Haul

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.

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The Cookbook Club

The Cookbook Club by Beth Harbison is a feel-good chick-lit novel based around food, perfect for a cozy afternoon of reading. I was immediately intrigued by a book club that is centered on cookbooks – the women in the club pick a different cookbook each month and make dishes from that cookbook to share with each other at their meeting.  That sounds like a lot of fun!

In the club, we have three women who are all at a crossroads in their lives.  Margo’s husband has just left her and asked for a divorce (and left her a run-down farmhouse to boot), Trista has been fired from her law firm and bought a bar/restaurant to run, and Aja is pregnant and in an unhealthy relationship.

The book follows each of the women as they get to know each other through sharing food together.  There are a lot of mouthwatering recipe descriptions, including a monthly wrap up of each cookbook club meeting. I do wish there was more description of the actual club meetings, however; I think that would have been a better way to carry the story.  Instead, we get a couple of meetings and then it focuses more on the individual women’s lives, although they do interact with each other outside of the meetings at times.

This book has a bit of everything in the way of chick-lit tropes – a failed marriage with a farmhouse to fix up with an old crush, a lost job fueling a new business opportunity, and a pregnancy forcing a young woman to evaluate her relationship with the father.  Because of everything going on, it does jump around a bit, but I still found it an enjoyable light read.

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What I’m Reading – December 2024

What I’m Reading Now

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!

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The Christmas Inn

If you are looking for a feel-good holiday story as Christmas gets closer, then The Christmas Inn by Pamela M. Kelley is the book for you.  I started reading Kelley’s books in 2021 with The Restaurant and have since read a number of her books. Most of her books are set in the Cape Cod area of the United States, which provides a charming setting no matter the time of year.

In The Christmas Inn, we meet Riley Sanders, who has just lost her job and comes home to the Cape to help her mother with her inn while she looks for another job.  During her stay, we meet several other characters, including a possible love interest, and also get to experience what it’s like to be on the Cape during the holidays.

I read this in one day so I would definitely say that it’s an easy read and also very inviting.

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What I’m Reading – November 2024

What I’m Reading Now

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!

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Recent Reads from Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg is a prolific American author that I have enjoyed reading for many years.  I recently made a sweep through my Goodreads author list to see what books of theirs I hadn’t read yet, and I found several of Berg’s to add to my TBR.  In the last few months, I have read four of them.

Earth’s the Right Place for Love (2023) is the story of two young people growing up in Mason, Missouri.  One of those people is Arthur Moses, who is the main character in The Story of Arthur Truluv, published in 2017.  It focuses on love and grief and is an insightful, compelling story.

Tapestry of Fortunes (2013) is the enjoyable story of four women who live in a house together.  They decide to take a road trip together, each of them looking for a specific outcome.  It is great for anyone who enjoys feel-good books celebrating women’s friendships.

Once Upon a Time, There Was You (2011) follows Irene and John, divorced parents who are forced to come together when their daughter Sadie faces a tragedy.  There were some details that felt a bit contrived, but I still liked the book.

Open House (2000) 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.