Favorite Author – Susanna Kearsley

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I first fell in love with Susanna Kearsley’s stories with The Winter Sea and she’s captivated me ever since. It’s historical fiction, with varying degrees of romance and time travel, at its best. She reminds me of Diana Gabaldon in many ways.

The first book I read by her was The Winter Sea. I heard her tell someone that this is what some consider her ‘gateway’ book to introduce new readers to her work. If you want to judge her by the company she keeps these are the authors who wrote blurbs for the cover of the lastest book; Diana Gabaldon, Ariel Lawhon, Sarah Penner, Barbara Erskine, Susan Elia MacNeal.

If you like stories with historical intrigue, a little bit of magic and a hint of romance, and lots of great research holding it all together, she’s for you! I was able to meet her last year when she came to a local library to promote her latest book. She was every bit as wonderful in person as I’d hoped she’d be.

The Winter Sea (Slains 1) from my review in 2013

Satisfied. I finished this book tonight and I am completely satisfied.  I was drawn into the story right away.  Scotland, both now and in 1908, is an appealing setting and the idea of a successful woman being able to pick up and move anywhere in the world to world is exciting.  I admit to being a little confused in the earlier chapters by all of the people and politics of 1708, but I got a handle on most of them and dismissed the others until they became useful in the story.

I was rooting for Carrie and Sophia to find love and happiness. I was sure of Carrie’s fate and hopeful for Sophia, but I did get nervous.  I also kind of love that Sophia’s happy ending did not include everything she wanted.  I shed tears and that’s not something I do often when reading a novel.

My love of genealogy was celebrated and Carrie’s discovery of ancestral memory was a fun one to consider.  We all know we share DNA with our ancestors, why not the memories of them too?  It’s safe to say that we won’t come close to this romantic notion in our own experience, but it is fun to dream.

A book full of love, political intrigue, strong women, strong men, mystery, and both storylines were good.   I wish there’d been more of Carrie’s story but that’s because I’m greedy.  I didn’t want it to end!

The Firebird (Slains 2)

I loved The Winter Sea and this is a continuation of that story. I didn’t love it as much as its predecessor for one big reason. It also tells two stories, a modern one that links to a historical one, but in this book the modern story is not at all engaging. It involves two people who can read minds and travel in time by using their paranormal abilities. It was just to hard for me to care about Nicola and to a lesser extent, Rob. They could do too much. It was too easy. This was pretty much the first third of the book so I made a slow go of it. Once we got to Anna’s story in Imperial Russia, I loved it! Anna is the true star and I loved every minute of her adventures.

The Vanished Days (Slains 3)

This was my least favorite of all of her books. If she hadn’t written it I would have given up on it before the halfway point. There was a nice twist at the end that was a reward for making it that far, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Mariana, one of my favorites, from my thoughts in 2017, the only one of her books I’ve read twice.

Here were my first thoughts on Goodreads when I finished this one, “My love affair with Susanna Kearsley continues. This was one of her first books and it may be my favorite so far. I didn’t want it to end. I was worried that the ending would be all wrong. But it wasn’t. It was perfect.”  There is something so magical and romantic about her stories.  There is history, romance, and a perfect sense of place in all of her books.  This one also felt a little like a ghost story.

Julia was sure she’d found her house and she packed up and moved from London to a small English village without a second thought.  She was a children’s book illustrator and was able to make a few friends right away just as she was being transported back in time at unpredictable times.

It’s tricky when you are going back and forth between time periods and characters.  Inevitably, you are drawn more to one story than the other.  This one did a great job of tying the two together so I was invested in both.  Was this book, the first time she tried the time travel travel romance, perfect? No.  Was it perfect enough to have me rereading the last few chapters again and again because I wasn’t quite ready for it to end?  A resounding YES!

The King’s Messenger set in 1613 Scotland.

I love all of Susanna Kearsley’s books, but this is a favorite. King James has tasked Andrew Logan to find Sir David Moray and bring him back to the king to answer for the death of the prince. I LOVED the group making their way to the king while trying to escape from groups with competing interests.

There’s history, love in all its forms, second site, betrayal, respect, loyalty, and revenge. It’s fun and left me feeling satisfied for the futures of the characters. The authors note at the end tells what is based on truth (quite a bit) and what was made up in the mind of a gifted storyteller.

A Desperate Fortune, from my 2020 review

Sara, as explained early on, has Asperger syndrome.  Her best friend is her cousin, who is offering her a chance at a code breaking job in Paris.  A famous writer wants her to decipher an almost 300 year old diary and she accepts since she is between jobs.  She gets put up at a nice home with a cook and with a good looking man who catches her eye as a neighbor.  She begins to uncover Mary’s story, one that could easily be called a thriller, and it’s there that this book finds its heart.

I liked Sara and enjoyed the honest portrayal of a character on the autism spectrum, but it was Mary that had me turning the pages, hoping that she would get her happily ever after.  For a girl abandoned by her family and then used to curry favor, she was easy to love.  In the 1700s a trek from Paris to Italy was fraught with danger, especially when you were caught with a man who recognized the bounty on the head of her travel companions.  I won’t spoil Mary’s end, but I will say that it was fitting.

Kearsley is a master at the dual storylines set in different time periods.  Usually the storylines match up a bit better than they do in this one and there is most often more of a mystical aspect, but I was still happy to be reading.  

The Shadowy Horses, from my 2019 review

I fell in love with Susanna Kearsley’s storytelling with The Winter Sea which connected to The Firebird which is connected to this one.  They are all standalones, but you’ll recognize the Roman soldiers from this one in The Winter Sea and Robbie from this book appears all grown up in The Firebird.  Just go ahead and read them all (you know you want to).

Verity makes a temporary move from London to Eyemouth, Scotland, a border town with a rich history.  She is to help find evidence that the famed Ninth Roman Legion had been there.  Archeological digs are not that exciting when they’re just starting out, so the slower pace allows Verity to get a feel for the new place and the new people who will feel like family before all is said and done. While most of Kearsley’s stories have contained dual story lines, one in the past and one in the present, this one was different with just a modern story and one active ghost.

Kearsley is one of my favorites. I always enjoy the trip into her magical worlds. This one had history, mystery, danger, just a touch of romance, and some paranormal shenanigans. 

The Bellewether, from my 2019 review

This was my first book of the year and it took me a while to become invested in the three characters whose stories make up Bellewether.  Charley who moved to the area so that she could live with her niece after the untimely death of her brother, took a job as museum director of the under construction Wilde House.  There she encountered maybe my favorite character of the book, the ghost.  There was also a cute contractor and some animosity toward the grandmother she’d never met who lived nearby.

As for the 1700’s storyline, we move between Lydia and Jean-Philippe’s perspective as the former tries to come to grips with unwanted houseguests and brothers with problems of their own.  Jean-Philippe only spoke French, so for much of the book he didn’t communicate freely.

I liked getting a deeper understanding of the war and what was happening in the region.  Some of these characters were based on real people or compilations which made the story richer, but maybe not quite as fanciful as I’d hoped.  There was romance, sure, but most of Kearsley’s books feel magical and this one didn’t quite get there for me.  It’s still good and I really enjoyed the multitude of characters and history.  My favorite ghost saved the day and the end was excellent and worth reading 400+ pages.

Season of Storms, from my 2018 review

Any book that takes me to Italy starts as a winner and when Kearsley does it, well, don’t talk to me until I’ve turned the last page. This one felt different than all of her others, there was a gothic atmosphere that I always like. I liked the setting and the dark nature of it, Italy and Kearsley will always save a bad day.

Named of the Dragon, from my 2018 review

Susanna Kearsley is a perfect escape for me.  I fall into a different world, both geographically and historically, get a little romance (never too much), and close the book with a smile on my face a little smarter than when I started. This book took me to a small village in Wales, where literary agent, Lyn, is accompanying one of her clients to her boyfriend’s home for Christmas.  He happens to be a successful author and Lyn hopes she can land him as a client.  He also has a cute brother, but the real thrill is when she discovers one time flavor of the month writer, Gareth, hiding himself from the literary crowd.

Splendour Falls, from my 2015 review

Kearsley has officially become a comfort read for me.  This was my third read from her and each of them has left me satisfied and happy.  There is always a back story that takes place in another time that connects with the current story in some way.  This book had less of the back story, which I think it suffered for, but the mystery, romance, and yes, evil all combined to make this a fun read. 

The essence of the setting is always so easily felt and her writing is so accessible that once I get started I find it hard to put down.  There were so many potential bad guys in this one that I didn’t really have and handle on it until late in the game, but those smarter than I probably figured it out much sooner.

The Rose Garden

The Rose Garden was set on the Cornish coast with Eva traveling between today and the time of the Jacobite Rebellion. I had to resist the urge to peek at the last page to see how things ended up. Rest assured, everything was good.

This one had an extra twist to the time travel storyline that was as confusing to my brain as it was a fun twist at the end.

The Deadly Hours

This book is a collaboration with three other women, none of whom I’ve read before. I’m going to ruin the surprise and tell you that I loved this.

There once was a watch made from cursed gold and it ruined the lives of all who touched it. The four women seamlessly tell the tale of the watch, from its inception in 1700s Spain (Kearsley), to 1831 Scotland (Huber), 1870 London (Trent), and finally to 1944 Kent (Harris). The authors use characters from their previous books or series which will make their readers happy, but didn’t confuse me when I wasn’t familiar. It only made me want to read more about them.

You can see who else is on my Top 100 Authors list here.

Reading the World Challenge – Sweden

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Since I sort book donations at the library and frequent bookstores I decided to start this challenge with countries that cross my path organically, we’ll see how far that gets me. Sweden was the next country to have both a fiction and nonfiction book come through the book donations which makes it country number 3.

I think the nonfiction book was great in representing Sweden and its traditions. I enjoyed the fiction for more on what the day to day looks like.

Nonfiction

The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson, 2022, 160 pages.

I first started with this slim memoir. The subtitle Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You gives you a sense of the author’s humor. Magnusson shot to notoriety with her first book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and although I didn’t read it, she does touch on it in the book, even giving some tips at the end. Essentially, once you hit middle age you should start decluttering little by little so that when you die, the ones you leave behind don’t have to deal with it.

This book was more about stories of her life. During WWII her parents evacuating Margareta and her sister to a farm to stay with friends to keep them safe when their town was considered a target of Hitler. She moved to the United States for a few years with her family and leaned English from dubbed TV. Due to her husband’s job they and their five children moved to many countries briefly before settling back in Sweden. Now she lives alone in an apartment in the city and here gives her thoughts on getting older along with stories about Swedish life. I loved learning about the traditions.

“The moment you start thinking it is too late, then you begin to die.”

I was completely charmed by her and loved this book! Highly recommend and I’ll be looking for her first book now. Sadly, she died this month at the age of 91 and her daughter confirmed that she let her attic and basement empty.

“Another thing I’m happy about is my old books. I like the books of Somerset Maugham-my husband introduced me to his work. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tove Jansson, David Sedaris, Kristina Lugn, Kazuo Ishiguro, and many more. I don’t want to get rid of any of them. Many new ones get published every year that I should perhaps read for a first time, but instead I read my old ones for the fifth, sixth, or seventh times. They are old friends.”

Fiction

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman, 2013, 372 pages.

I read and loved A Man Called Ove by Backman a few years ago and yet still managed to not read any of his other books. This is a book about the beauty of fairytales.

Elsa is just 7 and leaps and bounds smarter than anyone she goes to school with. She gets into fights at school daily. Her grandmother is 77 and Elsa’s best friend. And she is a hoot. I loved her character so much.

The book opens with Elsa and her grandmother in an interview room at the jail waiting for Elsa’s mom to come pick them up 😆.

While I shed a tear or two and I ended up liking this one, I was not invested in the first half. It may be because I listened to it while driving and maybe I missed some important stuff in the beginning.

“If you can’t get rid of the bad, you have to top it up with more goody stuff.”

That certainly applies to the state of the world these days.

Other books I’ve read set in Sweden

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman was a 5 Star read!!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson was a 5 Star thriller. I’m not sure why I never read the rest.

My goal is to read a fiction and nonfiction book set in and written by someone who was born in that country. As recommendations have trickled in I realized that it’s the ‘born in that country’ part that is going to make some books not work. I’m excluding the immigrant experience. It wasn’t my intent, I just didn’t really think it through in those terms. I’m not going to change the rules at this point. Maybe I’ll do a spin off challenge for that.

Countries completed…

  1. Israel
  2. Japan

Favorite Book – A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

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A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. Thriller. 417 pages, 1993

I’m rereading books from my long ago compiled favorite books list to see if they should make my Top 100. This is a slow moving project, but one that this list maker enjoys. So, I first read this book when it came out in the 1990s and I remember being blown away by how good it was. I saw the movie they made with Billy Bob Thornton and was less than impressed, but I’m going to give that another try while the book is fresh.

Two brothers and one of their best friends happen upon a plane crash with a dead pilot and $4.4 million inside. They agree to a simple plan. One of them will take the money home and keep it for six months and if no one comes forward claiming it then they’ll divide up the money and go their separate ways. Obviously if that had happened there would be no book. What did happen was one bad decision after another that left the narrator, one of the brothers, hurtling toward the point of no return. He had a wife with a baby on the way and while he threatened to burn the money to keep the other two in check, it became obvious to everyone that he would never do that.

“Greed is what’ll get us caught,’ she said.

What’s so great about this book is that the moral questions are timeless. There is a depth to these characters because they are not criminal masterminds, they are just normalish people in small town Ohio. And parts will make you uncomfortable. Quite a few parts probably. As I reread this, I realized that three of the most disturbing parts didn’t even register in my memory, although I have no idea how I could have forgotten them.

The money, by giving us a chance to dream, had also allowed us to begin despising our present lives.

Will their plan work? It’s simple after all. As a reader you need to know what happens to the money and Smith escalates, shocks, and has you questioning what you would do at every turn. I don’t think that many thrillers will make it on my Top 100 list, but this one hits differently

“What we’ve done is horrible,” Sarah said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re evil, and it doesn’t mean we weren’t right to do it. We had to save ourselves.”

My other Top 100 fiction books.

Reading the World Challenge – Japan

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I finally finished my second book for this challenge. I really need to pick up the pace. Since I sort book donations at the library and frequent bookstores I decided to start this challenge with countries that cross my path organically, we’ll see how far that gets me. The fiction book showed up in my quarterly TBR box and the memoir came through the library donations.

Nonfiction

The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori 1995, 275 pages

A memoir by Kyoto Mori telling of her trip back to Japan after living in the US since college. This took me a while to finish. I had a hard time getting into it, but the last half was good. The first half was a lot of looking back at her childhood in Japan before her mother committed suicide and her father remarried. The second half interspersed those memories with what was happening on her trip more smoothly and I found myself picking up the pace as I finished.

I liked getting to know the traditions and stories. Her father’s family was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. Her grandparent’s lived in the country in poverty. Even the way her family interacts with her and each other was an interesting observation.

Her relationship with her father was a recurring theme and I totally got it. Reading some of the other reviews that was a complaint by many, but I thought it made sense. If your father was the big reason that you left, going back would color all of your interactions with family.

Fiction

We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida 2024, 297 pages

The book is a collection of stories with a central location, the Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul in Kyoto. The clinic can only be found when a person is struggling with life and the doctor only ever prescribes one thing, a cat!

Such a charming story with each chapter the name of the prescribed cat with a picture. Cat lovers will like the sweetness of a cat being able to cure all ills. A fun magical fiction book for Japan. 

***

That being said here are four books I’ve read and liked in the last few years that were set in Japan.

A Bowl Full of Peace: A True Story by Caren Stelson and Akira Kusaka – This 40 page kids picture books about the bombing of Nagasaki has stuck with me.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up: A Magical Story by Marie Kondo

My goal is to read a fiction and nonfiction book set in and written by someone who was born in that country. As recommendations have trickled in I realized that it’s the ‘born in that country’ part that is going to make some books not work. I’m excluding the immigrant experience. It wasn’t my intent, I just didn’t really think it through in those terms. I’m not going to change the rules at this point. Maybe I’ll do a spin off challenge for that.

5 Word Movie Reviews- January

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I’m bringing back my 5 word movie reviews for my own sanity. As before, if you want to add your own five word review, just leave it in a comment.

The Breakfast Club, 1985 (Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy) This is on my Top 10 List and we watched it with Gage for the first time. Grade A

Quintessential 80s attitude and style.

Flow , 2024. Grade A-

Silence also tells a story.

Hamnet, 2025 (Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn) Grade A-

Shakespeare’s wife steals the show.

Eurovision, 2020 (Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams, Dan Stevens, Pierce Brosnan, Graham Norton, Demi Lovato) Grade B

My latest ridiculous guilty pleasure.

Anaconda, 2025 (Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, Selton Mello) Grade C+

Provided much needed laughter & jumps.

Arthur the King, 2024 (Mark Wahlberg, Simu Liu, Juliet Rylance, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ali Suliman) Grade C+

True story of stupidest race.

History of the World, part 1, 1981 (Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Gregory Hines, Sid Caesar, Shecky Green, Mary-Margaret Humes) Grade C

Parody sketches gave laughs & eyerolls.

January Reads

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I read 12 books on January, a little bit of everything. Five nonfiction is a pretty good start to the year.

Five Star Books

On Freedom by Timothy Snyder. Nonfiction. This is such an important read. “In dehumanizing others, we make ourselves less free.”

These are not the most profound thoughts of On Freedom, but they are the most relevant to today. If you have an interest in the fascism we are seeing today read On Tyranny. If you want a more nuanced discussion about how free we really are as a nation, read his latest On Freedom.

I can’t recommend both of these books enough. On Tyranny will get you started. At just over 100 pages it packs a punch with little time commitment. I loved the graphic novel adaptation. On Freedom is longer and takes more time to absorb, but is so worth it. I almost gave up on On Freedom because it felt a little too textbooky, but once it got past that it was gold.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick. Fiction. This was my book blub read this month and we all really liked it. Four women form a book group to read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, thus giving themselves the name the Bettys. This is the early 1960s so women’s role were different and although each of them were married, they each were constructed by things out of their control. Can a woman ‘have it all’?

It focused on the bonds between the women, and ALL women. It explored what these friendships mean through these book group meetings with the fun cocktails, even if sometimes the book didn’t get read by everyone. Hey, it happens! There’s plenty of drama to keep you turning the pages making this a fast, satisfying read.

She Changed the World: 100 Portraits & Essays Celebrating Inspiring Female Icons by Karen Hallion. Nonfiction. It’s visually beautiful with the full page portraits. I love a beautifully laid out spread and the art is just so fantastic!

I loved that it was a good mix of women I did and don’t know. And a range of ages too. The essays were written by different people so there was a mix of writing styles too, some choosing a more biographical approach and other leaning into their personal connection with person. Let’s lift each other up. Our country needs it now more than ever.

4 1/2 Stars

The Art and Life of Hilma af Klint by Ylva Hillstrom and Karin Eklund. Nonfiction.  A 64 page biography about someone who I didn’t really know anything about. And now I know about her and have seen her art, but I also know what was going on in the world in the late 1800s/early 1900s with spiritualism, homemade ouiji boards, thoughts on communicating with spirits, theosophy, alchemy…. It was so much more than I thought it would be.

Hilma af Klint really thought that the spirits were showing her the secrets of the universe. So she painted it. But no one wanted to see them until decades after her death. Now they hang in the most prestigious museums in the world.

4 Stars

The Onion Came First by Elinor Wilder. Paranormal romance. STEM Meets Supernatural is right on the cover. Annelie is a neurodivergent numbers gal from Wall Street. Reed is an alpha wolf shifter. They both become neighbors in the Claw Ridge Mountains. I loved how Annelie found a place and people who felt like home. Could you love a wolf? One that did math with rocks that it brought to your porch? Somehow Reed made that work🔥

I love this book and it’s not just because my friend wrote it, her first novel. Not only did it feel like a love story between Reed and Annelie, it also felt like a love story to and for neurodivergents and the people who love them.

The Soulmate Equation by Christina Lauren. Romance. The duo Christina Lauren has become a favorite of mine in the last few years. I’m a little later to the party so there’s a huge backlist, yay for me!

In the Soulmate Equation two people who barely tolerate each other are matched up as the perfect couple based on their DNA. She’s a single mother barely making ends meet and he is the creator of the matchmaking science. I thought this one was funny and sweet, a perfect escape from the news.

Sandwich by Catherine Newman. Fiction. I finally got around to the book most of bookish friends of a certain age have already read. It’s definitely for the woman who can understand what hormones, or lack thereof, can do to person and for the men who love them! You’ll feel seen even if Rocky is a bit much.

I like people who can be a bit much. I usually find them fascinating and Rocky was that for sure. The book takes place over a weeklong vacation with her husband, two grown kids, one girlfriend, and her two elderly parents. It’s a vacation they always take and the familiarity brings memories, both bittersweet and painful. I can see not liking this one if Rocky is too loud, too liberal, or too narcissistic for you. But for me, I found an underlying truth to this stage of life and Rocky made me feel a little less like a hot mess myself.

The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton. Romance. This was a sweet debut with likable characters. The main characters agree to pretend to be dating even if the pretend doesn’t seem so fake.

Vincent is prepping to fly to the moon, yes, a real astronaut, and Amerie is trying to start her own business. Was it the most believable story? No.the engagement and her moving in with him only days after meeting were both pretty crazy. BUT I was still invested and enjoyed their journey.

The Midnight Lock by Jeffery Deaver. Lincoln Rhyme series #15. Thriller. No lock is going to stop the Locksmith 🔓. He likes to break into women’s apartments and watch them while they sleep, leaving clues all over that he’d been there. Lincoln Rhyme, Amelia Sacks and crew are back and ready to catch the bad guys! I love the team, the science, the twists and turns, NYC. It all works! It’s best to start at the beginning with The Bone Collector.

3 1/2 Stars

The Dream of Water by Kyoka Mori. Memoir. This took me a while to finish. I had a hard time getting into it, but the last half was good. The first half was a lot of looking back at her childhood in Japan before her mother committed suicide and her father remarried. The second half interspersed those memories with what was happening on her trip more smoothly and I found myself picking up the pace as I finished.

I liked getting to know the traditions and stories. Her father’s family was in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. Her grandparent’s lived in the country in poverty. Even the way her family interacts with her and each other was an interesting observation.

Her relationship with her father was a recurring theme and I totally got it. Reading some of the other reviews that was a complaint by many, but I thought it made sense. If your father was the big reason that you left, going back would color all of your interactions with family.

3 Stars

Rena Glickman, Queen of Judo by Eve Nadel Catarevas & Martina Peluso. Nonfiction picture book. When Rena was growing up only boys could compete in judo so she became Rusty Kanokogi. A great women empowerment book for girls.

I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider. Comics. I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider is a perfect gift for that capacious reader or writer in your life. It’s for readers, writers, poets, and those who want to understand them better. So, do YOU judge a person’ bookshelf? I judge only if they don’t have one!

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

Favorite Book – The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

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Before I add books to my Top 100 I do a reread, or in this case a re-listen last year, to make sure they still belong on the list. As I read the review I originally posted in 2015 I still agree with everything I said. but the most compelling part is what I didn’t say. I didn’t spoil Hanna’s big secret. But Hanna’s big secret is the thing that turns the story into something worth reading, contemplating, and discussing. I think the emphasis on the relationship between a 15 year old boy and a 30 year old woman is obviously worth debating, but it isn’t what makes this story stick.

So much story in 200 pages. It’s translated from German so it may not feel the most poetic, but it packs a punch. I’m drawn to books that can say much with few words. I recommend the audio book and the movie.

From my 2025 review

The Reader by Bernard Schlink

Unabridged audio read by Campbell Scott. 4 hours, 30 minutes

Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover–then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

from Goodreads

I watched the movie made from this book in 2009 when it came out because I love Kate Winslet and I ended up being very moved by it.  And it was with those images in my mind that I listened to the book expertly narrated by Campbell Scott. He became the young and then the adult Michael for me.  Between the movie and Campbell’s narration there was a warmth and richness to this story that I don’t know if I would have found in reading the book alone.  At just over 200 pages it tackled a lot and much of it had to be personally considered by the reader.  What I’m saying is that I can vouch for the audio, but I don’t know it I would have loved it as much if I had read the book alone.

The first part is the love? story between the 15 year old Michael and the 30 something old Hanna.  I didn’t ever truly figure out the why of it on her end, but it’s an easier sell for a 15-year-old boy to be captivated by a woman who teaches him all about sex .  I found it realistic especially since as he started to spend more time with his peers he began to question Hanna’s place among them.

Flash forward a few years and Michael is at university studying law and his class is studying a trial of women accused of Nazi crimes and he sees Hanna for the first time since he was 15.  She was a guard for one of the concentration camps and now must face her day in court.  Michael is riveted and doesn’t miss a day.

I loved this for how much it manages to pack into such a short book.  There was the strange physical relationship between the two, but then it moved into things more thought-provoking, horrifying and sad.  It’s a great book for discussion and those who are interested in post-war Germany.  Not a happy book, but one that left me satisfied and enriched.

My Top 100 Fiction list

First Book of 2026

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Sheila over at Book Journey has hosted The First Book Event for the last 13 years. Go over and check out the full line up of readers and authors with their intended first book of the year. You’ll find me here with our newish kitten Pepper. He totally lives up to the black cat rep and we are dealing with some bad behavior so positive thoughts appreciated. Anyway, I chose my friend’s first novel, The Onion Came First by Elinor Wilder. I’ve started it and I’m really liking it. It’s got great reviews on Goodreads too. She calls it STEM meets Supernatural.

As happens with many bookworms, sometimes another new shiny book crosses our path and we must take a minute to check it out. As was the case with this graphic novel that I found while sorting library donations. So I took 40 minutes and read through the fun truths of readers and writers everywhere.

I Will Judge You By Your Bookshelf by Grant Snider is a few years old, but timeless in the understanding of his target audience. I chuckled. I smiled. I nodded my head in agreement. This was fun and a perfect way to start my reading year. And a perfect gift for any bookworm!

2025 Reading Wrap Up

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I was a terrible blogger the second half of this year, but with a new year on the horizon I’m feeling optimistic about 2026!

I read 132 books for a total of 35,642 pages. Four of them rereads. My most read author was Michael Connelly as I devoured the Lincoln Lawyer series from beginning to end. I started my Reading the World challenge and made it only to Israel. I’m in Japan now. I read 20 new to me authors and did a fantastic job of reading from my own shelves. Without further ado…

My Top Ten

1 The Lincoln Lawyer series by Michael Connelly (my list and cheating is allowed). Mystery series
2 Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Manu Larcenet. Graphic novel
3 The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Historical fiction
4 The Reader by Bernhardt Schlick. Historical fiction reread
5 Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. Historical fiction
6 Life and Other Inconveniences by Kristan Higgins. Fiction
7 Dear Martin & Dear Justyce by Nic Stone. Companion fiction books for teens
8 The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer by Joan Chittister. Nonfiction
9 The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians edited by David Rubenstein. Nonfiction
10 Around the World in 60 Seconds by Nusseir Yassin. Nonfiction

My only regret from this reading year is that I wish I’d wish I’d read more nonfiction so that becomes my goal for 2026. What about you?

How Do I Say Goodbye

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How Do I Say Goodbye by Dean Lewis made me cry when I heard it the first time. It also hits a little harder now. My dad died suddenly a week before Thanksgiving. I’ve always called him an energizer bunny or said he had nine lives, but at 78 his time came. He was my protector, provider, and role model growing up. He was loud, a jokester, and always lending a helping hand. He took me on trips, accepted my friends as family, and showed me that book smart wasn’t the only kind there was. I hold that view of him while still seeing the complicated relationship we were in these past ten years. I’ve already felt levels of grief over the loss of who we were making this sudden end feel not quite real.

The holidays were spent on the road traveling home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Memorial, and a wedding. A busy time spent with family, the people who knew and loved him. It was exactly what we, my mom and Jason and Gage, needed. Now the quiet of January looms.