My very first 5 start review of 2025 – woohoo! I loved this book. The author is an intellectual and it came across the pages in a way that wasn’t condescending or obnoxious and had a lot of things I could relate to, especially when he was talking about his children. The book was about a lot of food – it made me hungry (a good thing)! I’m so glad I decided to borrow it from the library. So far, the best read of the month.
5/5 stars
It took me a while to get into this one. I was not a fan of the dungeon at all – the entire train sucked. The last 25% of the book was fantastic. I continue to adore Princess Donut. Also the whole story involving Frank and his kid was absolutely heartbreaking.
I borrowed this as an audio book first, and then immediately bought the entire series. Loved it. The story was fascinating, characters robust. Can’t wait to continue the series.
To be honest this book was not on my radar at all, but I had some free time and saw it was available at the library, so why not. The book does a great job of reminding you that humans are small and know very little about the universe. It’s important to question things and ask why – and to trust in science. I’ll be honest, a lot of this book went over my head, but I’m still glad I listened to it, and I still feel like I learned a bit about the universe, dark matter, and how we’re all joined. Not a great read, but it was OK. Just not really for me.
2.5/5 stars
A pretty brainless romance, which I was looking for. A city girl heads to the country for Christmas to escape her overwhelming life, meets a fellow musician, then her family shows up with all of their own issues, and even her ex-boyfriend shows up. In true Debbie Macomber style though it all works out in the end and everyone lives happily ever after. It’s basically a Hallmark movie in book format. Not a fantastic earth shattering read, but I wasn’t expecting it to be, so no big deal. Sometimes I just want to shut off my brain for a while.
2/5 stars
Not a bad month of reading at all! Even though I didn’t read any 5 star books, I still managed to get a lot done. It was also a great combination of audio and physical/e-book. I’m absolutely loving The Storygraph for tracking my reading. If you’re looking for more friends to add over there, you can check out my profile. Happy reading!
This book was beautifully written. I loved the language and while it was a very slow start, the last 25% of the book more than made up for it. I loved the world building, and the characters. The loss the main character felt was something I could feel and understand. It took me too long to read, but that is all on me. Very pleased with this book.
4/5 stars
It was an OK book that I probably won’t remember by the end of this year. I was looking for something relaxing and available as an audio book from my library. I’ve read a lot of Nora Roberts before but this book felt forced and played on so many stereotypes that it felt awkward. We know the best friend is gay, we know he works at a bar with cross dressers, but it felt like every single time he spoke it was to remind us, the reader, of these facts. It did not feel organic at all. I would have loved to have seen queer representation done better. 15 hours was also one incredibly long time for a book where almost nothing even happens for the majority of it.
2.5/5 stars
I borrowed this book from the library to listen to while I was working on other things like cross stitch. This system has been super popular but honestly I’m not as enthralled with it. I don’t like how little room there is for flexibility, and how relapse is guaranteed if you don’t follow the rules exactly. I did like learning how to fold clothes, but everything else was a lot of hit / miss. Sometimes it’s just not practical, plus what ‘sparks joy’ could change day to day, or year to year. What if Anne Frank threw out her diary one day while cleaning. I think it’s important to look at a bigger picture. So for these reasons it was an ‘OK’ read, but not the greatest.
2.5/5 stars
I love making lists and tracking all of the things. For the past few years I’ve done this in a bulletjournal, combining all of my ‘stuff’ into a single book – however – for 2025 I’ve decided to go ahead and make a dedicated reading journal, just for books (well, sort of, it’s for books, tv shows, movies, and tracking things that I enjoy like knitting).
I figured I’d post a few pages here on the book blog to showcase how I’ve got it set up this year. I’m taking a lot of inspiration from other reading journals out there, and just customizing it a bit to suit my own needs / designs. In the picture above, is my TBR pile (to be read) for the year, along with my rating system. Whether or not I actually make it through all of these books will be another story. I plan on crossing them off as I read them (if I read them), and then of course further on in the book I’ll have the actual reviews written.
Since I’ve joined a book club, it will also give me space to track challenges and events with that. I’m excited! It’s nice to have it all in one place, physically, besides just keeping it around on GoodReads (which I have been trying to move away from a bit).
Do you keep a reading journal? Let me know in comments!
