Wrap-Up of Reading Goals for 2025

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In January, I listed a few goals for my reading this year. Here’s how they shook out:

I signed up to read 60 books for the GoodReads challenge and finished with 65. Unfortunately, they sent this graphic showing only 59 before last year ended. But except for the wrong number, I like the graphic.

Goodreads challenge

Some of the other challenges I signed up for:

Bev at My Reader’s Block hosts the Mount TBR Reading Challenge, where we set a goal to read a certain number of books we already own. Bev has set the challenge up in increments of twelve, each set represented by a particular mountain. I aimed for Mt. Blanc again, which is 24 books. In my list of all the books read this year, the ones I already owned are marked (MTBR) for the Mount TBR challenge. I had signed up to read 24, so I was happy to pass that goal an finish 30.

TBR 25 in '25

The TBR 25 in ’25 Challenge hosted by Rose City Reader dovetails nicely with the Mount TBR challenge. It’s the same idea—to read books you own but haven’t read it (though rereads count, too), only everyone aims for 25 since the year was 2025. I’m happy to have passed that goal by five.

Nonfiction Challenge

Shelly Rae at Book’d Out hosts the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. Shelly has twelve books in different categories that we can aim for. Or we can be a “Nonfiction Grazer” and make our own goals. I chose the grazer route and incorporated the nonfiction goals mentioned above. I ended up reading 18 non-fiction books, listed on my post of total books read this year.

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

Finally, The Intrepid Reader. hosts the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge. A lot of my fictional reads fit this category. I aimed for the Medieval level at 15 books but finished with 26. Here my list of historical fiction books in alphabetical order:

How did you do with your reading goals and challenges this year?

Favorite Books Read in 2025

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Favorite Books of 2025

I usually publish my bookish end-of-year posts the last week of December. But–it just didn’t happen. So here they are!

I posted the 65 books I read this year here. I’m doubling up posts today since they overlap.

I don’t have a set number of favorites I am looking for, though I try to aim between eight and twelve.

I usually try to keep it fairly even between fiction and nonfiction–but fiction won out this year. Though I read several good nonfiction books, there were more standouts in the fiction category.

Rembrandt Is In the Wind

Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey. I don’t know much about art. But I found Ramsey’s book drawing observations from the lives of artists and their art fascinating.

Honorable mention nonfiction:

The Return of the King

The Return of the King is the third in J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. There is so much to love about this book: the writing, the characters, the epic quest, the satisfying ending, the courage.

Between the Sound and Sea

Between the Sound and the Sea by Amanda Cox. An event planner helps a man and his grandfather restore an old lighthouse and cabin, uncovering a mystery concerning the lighthouse keeper’s daughter–who happened to have been an old love of the grandfather.

Christmas Book Flood

The Christmas Book Flood by Roseanna M. White tells how an Icelandic tradition, Jolabokaflod, got started. It involves people taking time Christmas evening to read the books they received that day. I knew very little about Iceland and it’s lore and loved that this book was so different.

Every Hour Until Then

Every Hour Until Then is the fifth in Gabrielle Meyer’s Time Crosser novels about a handful of people who lead double lives in different eras. Here, twenty-three-year-old Kathryn Kelly lives a privileged life in 1888 London with her parents and sister, and in 1938, she’s an assistant exhibit curator at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building. When the Smithsonian does a exhibit on Jack the Ripper, she discovers her sister in 1888 is one of his victims. She tries to discover information in 1938 that will help save her sister in 1888, even though deliberately changing history could cause her to forfeit her life in one timeline. This was one of the most riveting plots I have ever read, with a major plot twist I did not see coming.

Set the Stars Alight

Set the Stars Alight by Amanda Dykes Lucy Claremont is the daughter of an English watchmaker who loved to make puzzles and riddles for his daughter and a boy they befriended, Dash. Lucy loves the ocean and is especially fascinated with a ship rumored to have sunk nearby. Dash loved the stars. They are separated for a while but come back together to find more information about the ship. The timeline goes back and forth between current day and the 1800s, when the ship sank, telling what really happened to it. Amanda’s books have a way of touching the heart, and this one did in both timelines.

Unlikely Yarn

The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon was the biggest surprise of the year for me. I had never heard of the title or author, but I saw the title was free in Audible’s Plus Catalog at the time. It looked like an interesting novel about a group of knitters, which seemed like a relatively safe topic. I decided I’d give it a try. I am so glad I did. The four women meet weekly to knit prayer shawls for those going through a hard time and to pray for them. When the place they meet is being remodeled, their pastor encourages them to go to some public place, like the mall. They do, with their leader complaining all the way. But they have some interesting results in the people they come across, as well as each of them individually. I wouldn’t agree with every little theological aspect of the book, but the story, writing, and characters were great.

Waiting for Christmas

Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin. The main characters in this book appeared originally her earlier novel, All My Secrets. Addy and Howard are newlyweds when they discover a dirty boy, Jack, hiding in their bushes. He insists he is not an orphan: his father is working on a ship and coming back at Christmas. And his sister, who has some kind of problem (she only speaks to him) was hiding when authorities came to their home after their mother died, and he can’t find her. They take the Jack in and visit orphanages trying to find his sister. They are overwhelmed with the needs they see. Along with the search for Jack’s family and Addy and Howard’s adjustments to marriage and each other, it explores the truth that help doesn’t necessarily come from grand efforts at saving the day, but in small acts of kindness to those God places in our path.

What were your favorite books this year?

Books Read in 2025

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Books read in 2025

I enjoyed an eclectic reading year, with some classics, some contemporary; some hot off the press, some that had been on my shelf for decades; some fiction, some nonfiction. I ended up with 65 books finished this year.

Titles link to my reviews. “MTBR” behind a title indicates this is a book I owned before this year and am counting it for the Mount TBR (To Be Read) Reading Challenge,.

Nonfiction

Classics

Christian Fiction

Other Fiction

Next up: my top picks from this year’s reading.

How was your reading year?

Prayer Request

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Prayer Request

Hello, friends,

I’ve mentioned that I am due to have ablations for atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter. This is the week!

Some of you may remember that I had an ablation for atrial fibrillation about seven years ago. I knew it was possible to have that done more than once, but thought that only happened if the first one failed. Since then, I have learned that it’s not at all uncommon. Nerves grow back and make new pathways, so sometimes have to be “zapped” again.

Atrial flutter is new to me this year. The ablation for it is supposed to be a one-time thing. Since I had several weeks of atrial flutter in the spring and then again in the fall, we felt it would be best to go ahead and get that taken care of. And when I learned they could do both procedures at the same time, and I’d been having an increase in afib episodes, it seemed wise to go ahead and have both done at the same time.

One of my major concerns right now is exacerbation of some of my preexisting conditions, like IBS. I’d appreciate your prayers that, Lord willing, none of those things will be a problem, that everything would go well, that there would be no complications, that the procedures will accomplish what they’re supposed to, and that God would give me peace of heart and help me rest in Him.

I have some bookish posts prepared for the rest of this week–books read in 2025, my favorite reads of the year, and my reading challenge wrap-up. I hope to be back later this week with an update about how things went at the hospital and how I am doing.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you all!

The Light Shines in the Darkness

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Light shines in the darkness

Before we take the Christmas decorations down, I love to just sit and look at the lights for a while, to savor the season that passed so quickly. Besides lights on the tree, I have a lighted garland over the windows next to my desk and a small tree on my dresser, as well as the outdoor lights.

Christmas lights are one of the things I miss the most when everything goes back to “normal.” The rest of the winter can be hard with less light and barren, cold, colorless landscapes. Valentine’s Day is a bright spot for us. We have family birthdays in February and March. But that stretch of winter is usually my least favorite part of the year.

It helps to know that, after the winter solstice in December, we’re gradually getting more sunlight. It doesn’t look or feel like it at first. But I take it on faith that it is happening and it will be noticeable in several weeks.

Scripture mentions light over 200 times. God made it the first day of creation in Genesis 1. And the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, says that in the “new Jerusalem,” we won’t need lamps or even sunlight any more, because “the Lord God will be their light.”

Some of the Bible references to light are metaphorical. One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Matthew 4:12-17 says this was fulfilled in Jesus.

When Simeon saw Jesus as a baby, he said, “My eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel” (Luke 2:22-32).

In John 8:12, Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

After John the Baptist was born, his father, Zechariah, said, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79). Some other translations use “dawn” or “dayspring” in place of “sunrise.”

Josh Taylor shares this beautiful observation in Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity:

When you’re watching a sunrise, you can’t pinpoint the exact moment night becomes day. It spreads, seeps into everything, changes the whole landscape one shade at a time. That’s what God’s mercy does through Jesus. It doesn’t just blast away the darkness—it transforms it, warms it, makes things grow that couldn’t grow before.

Christmas isn’t just about string lights and wrapped presents. It’s about light breaking into darkness in the gentlest way possible. About God looking at our mess and instead of sending judgment, sending His Son—the Dayspring, the Sunrise.

Sometimes the quietest light makes the biggest difference (pp. 140-141).

Sometimes God appears in a blaze of glory: on Sinai, to Paul the apostle, in Revelation. But when Jesus came to save us, He came gently, spreading His light like a sunrise.

Sometimes it’s hard to see His light. As Andrew Peterson wrote in his beautiful song, “Is He Worthy,” the world feels broken. Sometimes it seems like the wrong side is winning. 

But John 4:9 assures us, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Maltbie Babcock captures something of this truth in “This Is My Father’s World”: “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet.”

His light is with us beyond Christmas. We see God’s light in His Word. We see it in His people. We see it when people turn to Jesus for salvation and serve Him and others. 

Those big, glorious bursts of God’s light are usually for a short time, for specific special occasions. Then life goes back to (a hopefully new) normal. After all the excitement Mary experienced with a visit from Gabriel, having baby Jesus, and running from Herod, she spent the next several years as an ordinary wife and mother. But she “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19). After the shepherds saw the angel host and followed the instructions to find the newborn Jesus, they likely went back to shepherding. But “they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. . . And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:17, 20). 

Like Mary, we can treasure and ponder what we’ve seen, heard, and experienced. Like the shepherds, we can share His light with others, glorifying and praising Him in our everyday lives.

2 Corinthians 4:6

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

I’m not quite caught up with my online reading, but here are some good things I found this week:

When You Don’t Get Anything Out of Devotions. “Sometimes God meets with us in a special way. Occasionally a verse or a phrase or a thought can revolutionize our lives, but I have found that those times tend to be rare. Rather, it’s the slow and steady repetition of reading God’s Word, asking Him to change me, and watching as that happens little by little through the weeks, months, and years.”

Jesus Is Unashamed to Take Awkward Family Christmas Photos, HT to Challies. “In many ways, the Old Testament can be seen as a massive coffee-table photo book. Sometimes the photos are stunning. But for any Old Testament family with a decent collection of pictures, there are—without exception—some awkward family photos. We read about priests and kings, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, who we’d be ashamed to claim as family. Would Abraham have stuck Lot’s picture on his fridge at Christmas? Would you?”

Don’t Be Duped by This Year’s Religious Trend, HT to Challies. “The religious zeal with which the world pursues self-help isn’t surprising. Lacking a Savior, nonbelievers will look inward to solve their problems. But it’s concerning when self-help methods begin to trickle into Christian thought and teaching. In Colossians, Paul warns the church not to be taken captive by any human doctrine that is ‘not according to Christ’” (Col. 2:8).

The Scopes Trial at 100: Fact, Fiction, and the Christian Historian, HT to Challies. “The trial remains embedded in the American imagination a century later. It was a key skirmish in what’s often depicted as the great ideological conflict of the modern world: science versus religion. However, this telling is too simplistic.” I learned some things I hadn’t known about the trial.

How Do We Measure Christian Maturity? (Hint: It’s not Just Bible Facts), HT to Challies. “We often measure maturity by the wrong metrics. We confuse information with formation, and equate Christian vocabulary with Christ-like virtue. Which is understandable because information is measurable. But I don’t think that it’s the right way.”

Being Ourselves in Heaven, HT to the Story Warren. “These are common portrayals of the afterlife, disembodied ghosts—pale reflections of a person’s former self—floating in a nebulous netherworld. But these stories do not accurately reflect what our lives will be like on the New Earth. A central part of our bodily resurrection will be the continuity of our identity.”

The Coming of the Light, HT to the Story Warren. “Soon the winter solstice will be upon us. On the twenty-first of December the sun will struggle into the sky for just a few short hours before sinking below the horizon once again. Taken in isolation, this day could be viewed as a victory for darkness. Without the benefit of history we could be forgiven for believing that the light will gradually be swallowed up and disappear. Armed with the bigger picture, we know that the longest night is simply a turning point. There are dark days still ahead but, from this night on, the coming of the light is inevitable.”

Mary: Enduring Shame for the Cause of Christ. “Pain? Sure. Hardship? Yes. Poverty? OK.  Hard work? Count me in. Death? That one is very hard, but yes. Public humiliation? Uh, maybe not.”

Don’t Fight the Wrong War, HT to Challies. “I reject the framework that Christians are at war to maintain conservative and Christian values. In fact, adopting this worldview may cause us to lose the real war God calls us to fight.”

AI Griefbots? HT to Challies. “With the powers of generative AI technology, we can summon the voices of our friends, family members, and even heroes from beyond the grave. . . . But just because we can doesn’t mean we should. The apostle Paul writes, ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful” (1 Cor. 10:23).”

Single This Season? Prove He’s Sufficient. Though the context here is the difficulty of being single during the Christmas season, it’s truths are applicable year round.

Renewal From Wreckage: How A Near Death Experience Changed Trevor Gearhart (video). I’ve mentioned the Dead Man Talking podcast a couple of times. Bob Roberts, camp speaker and creator of Kids 4 Truth, has been dealing with stage four cancer in his liver and discussing what God is doing through that with four longtime friends. They had a guest on this episode: a pastor friend who had a massive heart attack while driving, crashed into the stairwell of a building, and was pronounced dead. He was resuscitated and had triple bypass surgery. Though my own physical issues have not been that serious, I identified with several things he said.

Spurgeon New Year quote

“What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, aye, and every drop of their fulness in him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, thou art the present portion of thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus” (From Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening reading for January 1).

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

We’ve had another full but lovely week. Well, except that some have been sick. But hopefully all are on the mend. Here are a few favorites, shared with you all and Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Family time. Jeremy, our oldest son, was here until yesterday. He had to work remotely from our house this week, but popped in for lunch and coffee breaks. It’s so nice he could do that rather than having to cut off his visit last weekend.

2. A mixed outing. Mayfield Dairies Farm Park advertised a Merry Mayfield Christmas.with all kinds of activities. We went on the last day, but it was strangely deserted. Only one other family was there besides us, though more came later. I only saw two employees on the field. About half the advertised activities were not available. Jeremy said it looked like one of those weird empty carnival movie sets where a maniacal clown was going jump out at us at any moment. But we played in what was available and had fun. The best part was an apple cannon, where you shoot old apples at targets. Strange as it sounds, it was very satisfying to do!

Apple cannon:

apple cannon

Me taking aim:

Big slide:

big slide

Tire swing:

Tire swing

Lassoing the fake cows with hula hoops. 🙂

Photo op:

3. More adventurous cooking. I mentioned last week that all my kids have become good cooks, though they didn’t show much interest in it while they were in high school and college. They’re also much more adventurous than I am. 🙂 Jeremy made Hungarian Chicken Paprikash for us one night. And I was amazed and delighted to learn from him about a couple of products I hadn’t known about–tomato paste in a tube (for when you only need a tablespoon or two) and frozen minced garlic.

4. Low-Key New Year’s Eve. We had an assortment of snacks, then played games. Everyone went home between 9 and 10. Jim, Jeremy, and I fell asleep in the living room, but Jeremy set his alarm so we could turn on the TV in time to watch the ball drop in NYC. 🙂

5. Coupon from Audible. Audible had an offer saying if you spent three credits within a specified time, they’d gift you a ccoupon of $15 towards audiobook purchases. I was able to find two Christmas novellas and one novel with my coupon.

Bonus: Good news from a friend undergoing a kidney transplant. All went well with the surgery and his numbers have improved immensely the first day after. One of my simple pleasures is getting new wall calendars set up for the year. Jeremy made it to RI with no scheduling problems. Though we miss him already, his cat was glad to have him back. 🙂 Jason and Mittu got me some much-needed larger plastic storage containers, unasked and unexpectedly (I think prompted by my sending soup home with them in the only large container I had which had a broken lid 🙂 ). We finally got some family photos New Year’s Eve:

Happy New Year to you!

The Threshold of a New Year

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This poem comes to mind as we face a new year:

Thou standest on the threshold
Of days which are unknown;
Thou standest at the gateway
Of paths unmapped, unshown;
But God Himself is with thee-
Thy Saviour, Keeper, Friend;
And He will not forsake thee,
Nor leave thee to life’s end.

Thou standest, and thou askest-
“What have the days in store?”
He answereth thee. “Blessing!
Yea blessing more and more.”
What form the blessing taketh
Thou mayest not yet know,
But blessing upon blessing,
He waiteth to bestow.

Thou waitest – and He waiteth:
He waiteth now to bless;
To link His sovereign greatness
To human helplessness;
To show, through all life’s journey,
His tireless care for thee;
To fill thy incompleteness
With His sufficiency.

Thou pausest on the threshold –
Enfolded lies the year;
But with God’s arms beneath thee,
There is no cause for fear.
Through shadowed days or sunlit –
Whate’er the year may bring –
This fact may be thy comfort;
God reigns in everything.

James Danson Smith

I couldn’t find much information about the author, but his poem speaks to me. Whatever the new year holds, God is with His own and loves them.

May you all be His own and walk with Him closely in the new year and beyond. May you know more and more of His greatness, love, and sufficiency. 

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

“But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:11-12).

December Reflections

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December Reflections

I know I often comment on how quickly time seems to go by, but, wow, December flew by in a blur! It’s hard to believe it’s almost over.

Most of the first part of the month was preparation for Christmas, as I am sure it was for many of you–ordering and wrapping presents, writing our Christmas letter, addressing and mailing cards, making cards for the family.

When we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I did something to my back. I wasn’t aware of wrenching or pulling anything at the time, But about 11 that night, I started experiencing spasms that left me in tears. Those subsided after a few days, but I’ve had lower back pain the rest of this month until this week. My dear husband stepped in to help in a multitude of ways. Icy Hot, Tylenol, and and heating pads have been my friends.

We celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary this month at a new-to-us steakhouse, bringing home Krispy Kreme for dessert.

Our oldest son came in from RI the weekend before Christmas. We had a great Christmas with all the family as well as lots of time together to chat and play games.

But we have been trading colds around, so some have missed different activities. We’re hoping to have at least one more dinner all together before Jeremy has to leave.

Watching

A few things we watched this month:

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. A boy’s life is turned upside down when his father dies (I think in the Civil War). The boy and his mother have to move to be with her sister. On the trip, he loses a treasured Nativity set. They ask a woodworking recluse in their new town to carve a new one for them, and gradually, a friendship forms, healing both hearts.

Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas. This was a documentary with much of it acted out. I wasn’t expecting a lot from it, honestly, knowing how these things usually go on TV. But I was pleasantly surprised. They got a couple of things wrong, but overall, it was very good. My favorite part was the scene with Simeon realizing he was seeing the promised Christ.

Christmas on the Square was a cheesy, badly lip-synched musical, but it was still kind of cute in a way. Dolly Parton wrote it and stars as both a homeless woman and an angel. A Scroogish woman who owns all the buildings in the town square plans to sell the place and evict everyone right before Christmas, until she’s shown the error of her ways.

Joy for Christmas was a pretty typical modern Christmas movie. It caught our eye because we had seen the actress in something else. A publicist whose family holds an annual charity event for children fights to keep it going. When she meets a famous athlete, she tries to recruit him to appear at their benefit. But he’s not into Christmas, so she tries to kindle some Christmas spirit in him. A clean, sweet film.

We also watched the original black and white Miracle on 34th Street for the very first time. It was cute, but I’m not fond of stories that involve trying to convince people that Santa is real. I’m not militantly anti-Santa–we treated him as any other fairy tale or storybook character when our kids were small. But I don’t want to give him the credit for gifts we lovingly chose for our children, not convince them to believe something they’re going to find out later is false.

Creating

This was a busy month for cards. When I am making a lot at one time, I rely more on stickers and simple designs.

This first one was for my friend, Melanie, whose birthday is near the end of November. She likes purple, so I try to feature that color prominently. This looks grey in some lights, but it’s really purple.

Birthday card

This was for Jim for our anniversary. The wording in the center was a sticker. It’s not very readable here: it says, “As I give you my hand to hold, I give you my heart to keep.”

Homemade anniversary card

This was Jim’s Christmas card. I loved this frame that came with a packet of Christmas scrapbooking materials. I’m wishing I had done something a little different with the middle part of it. But he liked it. 🙂 The trees, snowflake, and words were stickers. The lamppost was in the same packet as the frame.

This was Jeremy’s. He likes foxes. The fox, trees, words, holly, and Santa hat were all stickers.

This was Jason’s, adapted from an idea seen at Pinterest. The “Noel” and a couple of the snowflakes were stickers. The song books and noses were cut out freehand. I used stencils for the snowmen bodies and heads and a hole punch for the mouths.

This was Mittu’s. I’ve seen a lot of Christmas decorations this year with this “sweets” theme and pastel colors. I’d love to decorate for Christmas with these if they didn’t clash with the stuff I already have. The wording as well as the candies under the words were stickers.

This was Timothy’s, also adapted from a Pinterest find. It’s supposed to look like a s’more with a snowman marshmallow. The snowman was cut freehand from stick-on felt. The arms, nose, chocolate, and graham crackers were cut freehand. The words and snowflakes were stickers. The eyes and smile were made from little stick-on beads, but they didn’t stick very well to the felt. I had to use dabs of Elmer’s glue.

This was Jesse’s. For years I have gone with a tech or gamer theme for him. But he also likes medieval things. The knight was done with the Cricut, the wording with the computer.

Reading

Since last time I have finished:

  • Exodus for You: Thrilling You with the Liberating Love of God by Tim Chester
  • Amy Snow by Tracy Rees. A little girl from a well-to-do family finds and brings home an abandoned baby on the family’s grounds. The girls grow up good friends though the first girl’s parents strongly disapprove, When she knows she is dying, and that Amy will likely get kicked out when she’s gone, she plans an elaborate adventure with clues to lead Amy to people who will be her friends and supporters. This was a secular story, so I disagree with a couple of things. And it moved slowly in places. But overall I enjoyed it.
  • My Beloved by Jan Karon, the unexpected newest in the Mitford series. Father Tim writes a love letter to his wife for Christmas, which accidentally makes it through the town before getting to her. Some of the results were comic, some touching. It’s always good to visit the folks in Mitford.
  • A Royal Christmas by Melody Carlson. A young American woman studying to be a lawyer finds out she’s related to the king of Montovia and next in line for the throne.
  • The Christmas Book Flood by Roseanna M. White. Neat story about the Icelandic tradition of reading books received as gifts Christmas evening.
  • Tidings of Comfort and Joy by Davis Bunn. A young girl misses out on a longed-for family vacation at Christmas due to illness. Her grandmother tries to distract and comfort her with her own story of heartache from one Christmas after WWII when her fiance abandoned her and she was stuck in England for weeks. She helps out at an orphanage during a hepatitis outbreak and finds new meaning and purpose. Good.
  • Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler is an almost totally secular take on Christmas. An avid Christmas lover sets up a scavenger hunt for her boyfriend, but the wrong man finds and follows the clues. Or is he the right man after all? A very Hallmark-type Christmas story.
  • Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin. A young boy from an orphanage insists he is not an orphan: his dad is working in a ship and will be back at Christmas. He runs away from the orphanage insisting that his sister was hiding when he was taken in. He ends up in the bushes of a young couple who try to help him, not sure whether to believe him or not. Sweet story, tying with The Christmas Flood as my favorite Christmas novella this year.
  • Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn by Pat Nichols. Three women arrange to meet their husbands at an inn for Christmas, but are snowed in before the husbands can get there. They learn they are not there by accident, and their worlds are about to be turned upside down. An interesting premise, but it fell a little flat to me.
  • The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin. Two boys obsessed with the Sears Wish Book catalog in 1951 get lessons from their mothers about giving and the true meaning of Christmas.

Most of the Christmas books were novellas, which is the only reason I got so many in this month.

I’m currently reading:

  • Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany compiled by Sarah Arthur. I’m not liking this as much as I thought I would, but I have found a few good nuggets in it.
  • The Characters of Christmas: 10 Unlikely People Caught Up in the Story of Jesus by Daniel Darling
  • Mercy Mild: A 25-Day Christmas Devotional Tracing Christ’s Love from Eden to Eternity by Josh Taylor
  • The Book of Hours by Davis Bunn.

I set aside James for You by Sam Allberry and The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield this month for some Advent reading. I should probably not try to read three Advent books at once, but I couldn’t decide between them.

Blogging

Besides the weekly Friday Fave Fives, Saturday Laudable Linkage, and book reviews, I’ve posted these since last time:

  • Is God Disappointed In Me? It can feel like it when I fail Him so often. But Scripture offers comfort, instruction, hope, and examples of God’s dealings with His own who have failed.
  • A Plea to Older Women. Condescending memes about how our generation supposedly did things so much better are not helpful. Let’s encourage and edify younger women instead.
  • What Would Mary Say? People have conflicting views about the mother of Jesus, but her words in Scripture give us a clear idea of who she was.
  • The Wonder of God With Us. After 400 years of silence from God, after millennia of access to Him only through the OT sacrificial system, finally the promised Messiah is born. It was prophesied centuries earlier that He would be called Immanuel, God with us. What a wonder! What a privilege!
  • When God’s Story Crashes Into Ours. Many people’s lives were upended by Christ’s coming. And He interrupts ours as well sometimes. Will we respond with faith, acceptance, and submission?

Writing

Nothing on this front, other than the blog, as you can imagine! I hope to get back at it next month.

Looking ahead

I usually share the books I’ve read for the year and my favorites among them during this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but that will have to wait til next week.

I’m scheduled for ablations for atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation next week. I’d appreciate your prayers that all would go smoothly with no complications and that the procedures would accomplish what they are supposed to. I don’t remember how recovery went after my last ablation seven years ago except that I couldn’t lift anything heavy for a while and my heart was more erratic than usual for several weeks due to all their poking around in it. But I imagine I’ll be taking it easy for a bit.

I hope and pray for a blessed 2026 for you!

Two More Christmas Books

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Wish Book Christmas

The Wish Book Christmas by Lynn Austin takes place in post-WWII America. Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson are best friends who came to America after being ambulance drivers in England during the war. That story is told in If I Were You, which I have, but have not read yet.

Each of the women has a young son in kindergarten in 1951. Bobby, Audrey’s son, is quiet and reticent. Eve’s son, Harry, is outgoing and a natural leader.

When the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalogue arrives, the boys are obsessed with all the toys (as well as a dog and a daddy) that they hope Santa will bring them.

At first, Audrey and Eve are at a loss as to how to turn their sons’ attention away from their own desires and towards to the true meaning of Christmas and serving others. But gradually, ideas start coming to them.

Reading this novella without reading the book that came before it means I probably encountered a lot of spoilers. But I don’t think it will ruin my interest in the first book when I get to it.

I thought the story went in the same circles at first, but then picked up as the moms began implementing measures to help their sons.

The moms are dealing with issues of their own: Eve feeling she needs to atone for a past sin, and Audrey feeling she needs to make her own way without relying on others for help.

I’ve had the Kindle version of this for a while, but just got the audiobook via a special coupon from Audible. Once again, it was nice to go back and forth between them since they automatically synced with each other.

Blizzard at Blue Ridge Inn wasn’t described as a Christmas book, though it is set in the weeks before Christmas.

In this story, three women end up at the Blue Ridge Inn at the same time. Amanda Sullivan has been married to her second husband for nine years. She knows she doesn’t love him as much as her first husband, her soul mate, who was killed in a car crash. She’s hoping this romantic get-away will revitalize their relationship.

Erica Parker fears her husband is hiding something, possibly an affair. She’s on a mission to find the truth.

Wendy Peterson is in her twenties and loves having a rich husband and the ability to buy whatever she wants. She’s pregnant with her first child and is a little immature and naive. She can’t wait for her husband to join her at the inn.

However, all three husbands are delayed by work. And then an unusual blizzard traps all three women at the inn for a couple of days. They have nothing else to do but get to know one another better.

When the snow begins to clear, they’re informed that a stranger wants to meet with them together. They learn that they are not at the inn by accident. And it’s no coincidence that none of their husbands have arrived.

What the stranger shares will turn their worlds upside down. Each woman has to decide how she will navigate the changes to her life.

I didn’t know when I started this book that it was the first in a series of six about the women. I was frustrated to find that Wendy doesn’t have her baby until the third book, and apparently the antagonist still hasn’t been dealt with by the sixth. I don’t feel inclined to read the rest of the series–at least, not any time soon. The story was compelling, but the writing didn’t really grab me. It wasn’t terrible, but it just didn’t resonate with me. I have too many other books stacked up that I really want to read to spend time with some that I am not into.

I also wasn’t sure if this was meant to be Christian fiction or not. About 80% of the way through the book, one of the women meets with her pastor, who gives her some good advice.

According to the reviews, though, lots of people love the series. So you might get more out of it than I did.