Happy (almost) New Year, readers!
In January of 2013, I began blogging about everything I’d read that previous year. This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.
I couldn’t begin to give him an answer to that question, but it did make me decide to start keeping track from that moment forward. The previous posts in this series are as follows: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.
In 2025 I had a lot of DNFs of full-length novels due to some very difficult times my family and I have gone through these past couple of years, so I did not read as much nonfiction as I normally would. Short stories and similar types of writing were much more my speed in 2024 and 2025, especially if they were closer to the cheerful end of the scale.
Thirty full-length books read is honestly impressive given everything I was dealing with behind the scenes, and I have hope that 2026 will be easier for all of us. Some of them were comforting rereads, too, to be honest.
Books I never finished are only occasionally included in my lists of what I read. For example, if there was something memorable about that tale and I want to remember that, yes, I have already tried to read it, I’ll add it in. The other 99% of the time, I do not.
Autobiographies, Biographies, and Memoirs
“Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins” by Barbara Demick
“No One Taught Me How to Be a Man” by Shannon T.L. Kearns
“Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World” by Jessica Slice
“Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
“Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
“Little House on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
“On the Banks of Plum Creek” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
“By the Shores of Silver Lake” by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Fiction
“A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman
“Isaac’s Song” by Daniel Black
“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
“Reindeer Moon” by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
“The Blue Castle” by L.M. Montgomery
History
“Born: The Untold History of Childbirth” by Lucy Inglis
Horror
“The Hunger We Pass Down” by Jen Sookfong Lee (My review)
“Horsefly” by Mireille Gagné (My review)
“I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib” by Ben Farthing (My review)
“I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall” by Ben Farthing (My review)
Psychology and Sociology
“The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution” by Dixon Chibanda MD
Science Fiction and Fantasy
“Apis” by Liz Boysha (My review)
“The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood (My review)
“The Golden Key” by George MacDonald
“Mob Lodge” by Krrish Anand (My review)
“The Last of What I Am” by Abigail Cutter (My review)
“Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People” Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir
Science, Health, and Medicine
“Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” by John Green
“Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care” by Shelley Sella, MD
Young Adult
“Where the Water Takes Us” by Alan Barillaro
“For the Rest of Us: 13 Festive Holiday Stories to Celebrate All Seasons” by Dahlia Adler (My review)
“The Lost Girls” by Sonia Hartl
“Clan of the Cave Bear” (Earth’s Children #1) by Jean M. Auel
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“Insulin: A Hundred-Year History” by Stuart Bradwel
I own ebook copies of all of these titles, but there are so many incredible books out there that I have not yet managed to read anything from this list yet.
Happy New Year, readers!
“After the Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz, and Beyond” by Bas
“Destination Prairie” by Cathie Bartlett
“50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food” by Susan Albers
“The Girl With All the Gifts” by M.R. Carey
“Cave of Bones: A True Story of Discovery, Adventure, and Human Origins” by Lee Berger and John Hawks 
“Still Stace” by Stacey Chomiak 
Happy New Year, readers!
“The Child Who Never Grew” by Pearl S. Buck
“Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott
“A Short History of the World According to Sheep” by Sally Coulthard
“You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion and Why It Matters” by Vanessa Bohns
“World War Z” by Max Brooks
“The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World” by Riley Black
“Empty Smiles (Small Spaces #4)” by Katherine Arden
anuary of 2013, I began blogging once a year about everything I’d read that previous year. This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.
“American Bastard” by Jan Beatty
“White Unwed Mothers: The Adoption Mandate in Postwar Canada” by Valerie Andrews
“The Children of Green Knowe” by Lucy M. Boston
“Why Smart People Make Bad Food Choices: The Invisible Influences That Guide Our Thinking” by Jack Bobo
“The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town” by Brian Alexander
“Dark Waters” by Katherine Arden (Review coming in 2022)
In January of 2013, I began blogging once a year about everything I’d read that previous year. This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.
“Mrs. Beaton’s Question: My Nine Years at the Halifax School for the Blind” by Robert Mercer
History
Science Fiction and Fantasy
“The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behaviour, Health, and Happiness” by Emily Anthes
“The Narcissist in Your Life: Recognizing the Patterns and Learning to Break Free” by Julie L. Hall
I was originally planning to write about walking meditation today, but I’ve been dealing with a stubborn headache the past few days that’s kept me from doing the research needed to properly put that post together. It’s such a cool concept that I want to make sure I do it right. So we’ll save the walking meditation discussion for a later date and have a quick chat about winter holiday reads now instead.