I read 164 books this year, a total of 45,312 pages. On Goodreads my average rating was 4.1.
The longest book was The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith at 950 pages.
I read 49 books as a judge for the first round of the Cybils Awards. I switched from nonfiction to middle school fiction this year. So many great books!
To keep this short I’m letting my Top Ten stand for themselves.
For years I’ve kept track of the movies and shows I’ve watched here on the blog. This year, these last three months I’ve not kept track at all, so my information is incomplete. I know I watched these 56 movies. Here are a few I especially liked…
And I know I watched at least 20 different shows. I finally made it through all 15 seasons of Supernatural and it took me over a year! I especially loved these two…
Tell me some of your favorite movies or shows this year so that I can add them to my list!
I read 49 middle school or late elementary school fiction books this year. I wish I had time to talk about them all, but I did face up 18 of my favorites, although just looking at some of the great ones that didn’t make the cut makes me sad because they were so good!
If you have a topic that you want a recommendation for, please ask!
I read 6 fantasy books this year, 5 of them being the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. I really liked the first three the most, but do plan on continuing when there’s more.
I read 13 fiction books, my two favorites being The Guncle and The House in Cerulean Sea (technically also fantasy). These both have sequels that I’m excited about reading in 2025.
I really liked so many of the other books too, but those two brought so much needed joy that they stood out. The Women deserves a nod here because it was something so important, women serving in the Vietnam War. It was an addictive read with much to discuss for sure.
I caught up with some of my favorite series. Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike series is one of the best and the latest was excellent, yet again. I also love John Sandford’s Prey series and caught up by reading #30, 33&34. I read two more in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad, so good.
I also went and heard one of my faves Harlan Coben talk and sign his latest book for me. They are always quick and twisty and this one had Myron and gang!
Three new to me authors, also write some of my favorites this year. Amy Tintera has been on many favorites lists this year with Listen for the Lie. If you like podcasts, check this one out. Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders is a miniseries. I haven’t watched it, but the book was good. And Karen McManus’s One of Us is Lying was a very fun YA closed room kind of murder mystery.
The rest were good too. I always love a good thriller! Any other thriller lovers? Any great series that I should jump into?
The 6 graphic novels I read this year. Five were nonfiction. I can recommend all of the nonfiction, but that vampire book might need a special audience.
If you struggle to read nonfiction there are SO MANY graphic novel/memoirs choices to help smarten you up.
The Talk by Darrin Bell. Highly recommend. Darren Bell has a white mother and a black father and it was his mother who is the first to tell him that the world will see him as different. She embarrasses him when she causes scenes calling out bias and yet his father remains largely silent. This book starts when he is 6 and has a run in with the police and they take his water gun and ends after the George Floyd murder when he has to decide if it’s the right time to have the talk about race with his own young son.
Feeding Dangerously by Andres, Orlando, and Ponticelli. Tells the story of how Jose Andres started the World Central Kitchen, heroes. These volunteers go into areas ravaged by natural disasters like hurricanes, fires, and volcanoes, but more recently into areas of active conflict and war to heal the people through home cooked meals. I’m in awe of all that this organization does.
Nat Turner by Kyle Baker. Over 200 pages of shocking, emotional, and violent black and white drawings. The only words in the book are direct quotes, most coming from Turner himself as he sat in prison. The book is powerful and some will find the images too violent. It’s not for everyone, but it made me feel the horror, and for that I applaud it. It’s the story of the slave rebellion of 1831.
Coco Chanel by Megan Hess. I picked this up because the book is gorgeous. The art mesmerized me and I also learned more about Coco too. Win win. Learning about her Nazi ties was disturbing.
Bloodlust & Bonnets by Emily McGovern. What a hoot! Lucy is a 19th century debutante who is approached to join a vampire cult. Just as she’s about to go to the dark side Lord Byron whisks her off to his magic castle on his psychic eagle. It’s just as silly as it sounds.
Seek You by Kristen Radtke. A book about American lonliness in memoir form. Lots of research, and lots to think about. The monkey experiments were heartbreaking.
I read 20 modern romances this year. My friend Karen @cover.to.bookcover runs a monthly online romance book club so at least handful were from that. I have my ongoing faves and new authors too.
YA Romance
I will read anything Nicola Yoon writes. Everything, Everything was great. Ali Hazelwood is another author I’ve enjoyed over the last few years and Check & Mate felt older than most teen books. Still a girl owning the chess circuit was pretty cool.
My Romance Go Tos
My old faithfuls came through for me this year. Funny Story by Emily Henry was, by far, my favorite romance of the year. If you don’t like romances, give this a try and tell me what you think. Katherine Center and Susan Elizabeth Phillips both had new books I loved. I read two Ashley Poston and I really liked The Seven Year Slip. Kristan Higgins has some fantastic backlist romances and I love both of the Gideon’s Cove books I read. Jasmine Guillory is a newer fave and I really liked By the Book, I guess a take on Beauty and the Beast but it didn’t quite read that way for me. Still good!
New To Me
And I read these authors for the first time and I’m already excited about reading more from them in 2025…Christina Lauren, Denise Williams, Mariana Zapata, and Tessa Bailey.
More end of the year recaps. This is the perfect time of year for a quick romance pick me up. I read 6 historical romances. I’d recommend 4 of them.
Lisa Kleypas is one of my go-tos. These two, Then Came You and Dreaming of You, are both fantastic regency romances. The second one was better, but both good.
The Lily of Ludgate Hill by Mimi Matthews is the third book of four in the Belles of London series. I’ve enjoyed all of these books about four friends who met while horseback riding in London.
An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands was a sweet one about a Scottish laird taking an English bride and there’s some real danger to her life. This is the first if a series and I would like to read more.
End of the year list making is my favorite. It lets me reflect on the year and make some new goals for the future. Here are the 6 books I reread this year because I liked them so much the first time.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows how a mastery of spare prose can elicit strong emotions. First printed in 1937 and only 107 pages so it’s a quick way to add a classic to your reading.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafonis a historical thriller for book lovers. In 1945 Spain a boy is taken to the Cemetery for Lost Books and his life changed forever. “Books are mirrors- you only see in them what you already have inside you.” 487 pages
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. Nonfiction. Corrie’s family used a secret room to hide Jews when the Nazis invaded Holland. She and her sister were in their 50s, their father in his 80s when they were discovered and sent to a concentration camp. The one thing that sustained her was her faith in God. A master class about forgiveness and loving your enemies. 269 pages.
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende was my first introduction to magical realism. Set in Chile this story focused on the women around the monster Estaban . There was a focus in the last section on 1970s Chile when the ‘right’ overthrew the socialists by a coup, only to empower a dictator who ended democracy for the country. Hm. First published in 1982. 433 Pages.
Mariana by Susanna Kearsley is another magical realism book, but this one is has dual storylines. History, romance, danger, and the England setting make this a keeper. 364 pages
Better late than never? October reads minus two. 12 middle school fiction titles for Cybils, 1 fiction, 1 nonfiction. Some of these middle school titles are so good!
My one adult fiction book this month was perfect for the spooky season. Louise goes back to Charleston after her parents died and finds her relationship with her brother as rocky as ever and the house they grew up in full of the creepy puppets she remembered. But the longer she’s there more memories and secrets come to life.
Are puppets creepy? YES! Are they more creepy when they’re haunted? Again, YES!
Thich Nhat Hanh and I had the same birthday. Maybe that’s why his books connect with me so much. He was a Buddhist monk from the age of 16 and involved himself in engaged Buddhism to speak out against social issues. For his efforts to help end the war in Vietnam, where he was born and then exiled, Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
He wrote over 100 books, for me this is book 11 I think. His books on mindfulness will be an asset to anyone who reads them.
This book, No Death, No Fear: Comforting Wisdom for Life, focuses on how to look at death and even how to ease the passing of those you love. This has been a part of my morning reading the past few months and I finally finished it today. Powerful and thoughtful.
“We think of our body as our self or belonging to our self. We think of our body as me or mine. But if you look deeply, you see that your body is also the body of your ancestors, of your parents, of your children, and of their children.”
“If you live without awareness it is the same as being dead.”
Middle School Fiction for first round of Cybils reading.
My favorites
Rise of the Spider by Michael Spradlin. If there is ever the perfect book to read at the exact right time, this is one. This is the first of a series and should be read in middle school history classes everywhere.
How did Hitler rise to power? Who are the people that followed him and spread hate and violence? This tells the story of 11 year old Rolf whose brother joins the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, otherwise known as Hitler Youth. Hitler isn’t in power, yet, but he is collecting people more loyal to him than to their country. The next book is titled Threat of the Spider.
This book is only 138 pages and I have at least 12 pages marked with notes and tags. Read your history to avoid repeating it.
Coyote Lost and Found by Dan Gemeinhart. My notes have these descriptive words.. charmingly enchanting, found family, unconventional, quest, mature. This book is deals with grief head on since it focuses on finding a book where her mother wrote where she wanted to be scattered. I fell in love with all of these people and I think you will too. 278 pages.
The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy. A girl and her mother escape a cult, only the girl doesn’t realize that’s what it was and wants to go back. Heartbreakingly good.
The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry by Anna Rose Johnson. My notes have these descriptive words…tries so hard, loss, so much beautiful energy, imagination, belief in traditions, hero. Lucy is sent to live on a tiny island with a family who mans the lighthouse. Grief is fresh, but it’s about learning to move on and fit it with new family. 172 pages
Carter Avery’s Tricky Fourth Grade Year by Rob Buyea. My notes have these descriptive words…ADHD, special teacher, first friendships, self advocacy, feeling left out. Carter and his sister live with their grandma and the parents died when they were young, so that’s not the focus, but it’s there. 344 pages
These others were really good too
The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie. Three friends try to go into an old fun house to find treasure. Sure to thrill any escape room enthusiast.
Painting the Game by Patricia MacLachlan. A sweet story of a young girl trying to become a baseball player just like her minor league pitching dad. It has a rural throwback feel with a big ending. 134 pages
The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. Two storylines, one of Jakob who works at Bletchley to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher and one of his little sister Lizzie who believes her mother is still alive and is trying to stay off a boat to America so she can prove it. There was lots of adventure and mystery along with some legit wartime scariness. 392 pages.
The Misfits by Lisa Yee and Dan Santant. Kids with powers at a school being trained together in teams. If a kid likes superheroes, they’ll like this, the first of series.
Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan. The story of young Safiyyah who loves the library and whose father is in charge of the Grand Mosque of Paris who joins the Nazi Resistance and saves hundreds of Jewish people. So much love for books in this one. 329 pages
Amil and the After by Veera Hiranandani. 1948 India after Amil’s family had to move from the new Pakistan to Bombay. Shows the hardship of moving to a new place.
Faker by Gordon Korman. His dad is a conman and his sister is his competition to become his number two. What happens when Trey finally wants to put down some roots? This was my first Gordon Korman and I’m not sure he’s for me.
Stacy's Books 