Our Dining Table, by Mita Ori (2017, transl. 2019)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A reclusive young Japanese man learns the value of connecting with others through food.

Review: This is a cute manga, but I didn‘t buy the particular baggage of the main character and it felt overwrought. (This is part of the genre, I realize, but it just left me ambivalent.) The highlight is absolutely the younger brother character.

My number 1 read of 2025!!!! 🥳

My number 2 read of 2025

My number 3 read of 2025

My number 4 read of 2025

My number 5 read of 2025

My number 6 read of 2025

My number 7 read of 2025

My number 8 read of 2025

My number 9 read of 2025

My number 10 read of 2025.

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) [RE-READ]
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A young man from the American Midwest is introduced to the life of jazz-age New York by a high-living neighbour with a mysterious past.

Review: There‘s no way I can add to the discourse around this, so I‘m not going to try. It does what it does exceptionally well, and I was glad to make it my final read of its centenary year.
⬇️

The Magician‘s Nephew (Chronicles of Narnia 6 / 1), by C.S. Lewis (1955)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: Two friends are sent into the mysterious wood between the worlds by a scheming dark magician, and stumble into the land of Narnia at the moment of its creation.

Review: This was my favourite of the Narnia books as a kid. Returning to it now the plot itself feels very basic, but it‘s worth a read for the chapter about the creation of Narnia alone.

The Brothers K, by David James Duncan (1992) [RE-READ]
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A large Washington state family experiences rapid changes during the tumultuous 1960s.

Review: Duncan masterfully explores the the iconic decade through archetypes such as the activist, the spiritual seeker, the all-american-Jesus-loving-boy next door, and the fundamentalist, and how the ups and downs of the decade tear them apart and bring them together again.⬇️

Good Material, by Dolly Alderton (2023) [RE-READ]
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A thirty-something failing comedian spirals in the aftermath of a break-up he didn‘t see coming.

Review: I loved this as much on seven read as first. The main male character is a bit of a man-child, but the book never suggests anything else. And, it‘s refreshing to see the flip side of the ‘cast off the unsatisfying relationship to live the life you‘re meant to live!‘ motif.⬇️

The Christmas Catch, by Toni Shiloh (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A teacher is shocked when her high school boyfriend — now a star NFL receiver — returns to his parents‘ house to recover from an injury.

Review: There‘s a lot to enjoy about this: I enjoy the second chance romance trope, it‘s great to see Black characters centred in a holiday romance, and it‘s nice to see Christian characters whose faith is just a natural part of their life. ⬇️

A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway (pub. 1964) [RE-READ]
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: The famed writer looks back on his time as a struggling writer in Paris in the 1920s

Review: There are few times and places as iconic Paris in the 1920s. In this memoir we have personal reflections on that epoch and its most important figures by one of its biggest and brightest names. For that alone it warrants a full five-stars, even if it‘s a bit unfocused at times.

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (Inspector Hercule Poirot 37), by Agatha Christie (1960)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: In this short story, the search for a missing jewel takes Inspector Poirot into a traditional English country Christmas, while his hosts struggle to adapt to changing times.

Review: This is far from Christie‘s best effort, but it delivers a fun little mystery and excellent Christmas vibes, which is all I wanted from it. ⬇️

Sweet Sorrow, by David Nicholls (2019) [RE-READ]
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: An average British teenager joins a Summer stock Shakespeare company to impress a girl, and distract himself from the anxieties of increasingly complex life.

Review: I think this is the most underrated book I‘ve read. This was my third time reading it, and I‘ve only loved it more every time. It perfectly captures the feeling of the end of high school.⬇️

Christmas and Other Horrors, ed. Ellen Datlow (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An anthology of horror stories engaging with the darker traditions of the the Winter holidays

Review: As with most anthologies, this was very uneven, but it contains some great stories. And I really appreciated how it brought in so many different holiday traditions, from Christmas to Festivus to Kwanzaa to Theophany. ⬇️

The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (1982) [RE-READ]
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The story of one group of Black folk‘s search for love and beauty amidst the horrors of the Jim Crow American South.

Review: If any book published in the last fifty years deserves to be in the canon of Western literature, it‘s this one. ⬇️

Murder Under the Mistletoe (Jane Wunderly 4.5), by Erica Ruth Neubauer (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Amateur detective Jane and her mysterious fiancé arrive at his father‘s manor to find him engaged to a woman notorious for outliving her husbands.

Review: This is the 2nd time I allowed a glowing review to sway me to read this series; it will be the last. But the mystery itself works very well, and if that‘s what is important to you, then this works ⬇️

Ring (Quincunx 5 (3)), by André Alexis (2021 ??)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️?

Premise: A woman falls in love for the first time, only to learn that the women of her family have a magical ability to change three things about their potential spouse. But of course, it comes with a warning, and at a cost.

Review: Of all the books in this odd series, this is the one that took me the longest to get into. But I think it will also be the one that will stick with me. ⬇️

Tough Guy (Game Changers 3), by Rachel Reid (2020 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A defenceman struggling with the enforcer role he‘s forced to play finds a new lease on life when he bumps into a flamboyant singer with whose family he billeted as a teenager.

Review: So this series is everywhere now because of its viral television adaptation, but I‘ve been dipping in and out of it for a few years. ⬇️

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol 8, by Beth Brower (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: This volume takes our heroine through the rigours of The Season and a welcome reprieve with all her lovely man-friends at a gorgeous country estate.

Review: My love for these books is strong and unwavering; that said, I‘d love for the series to show some signs of coming to an end lest it ever suffer from diminishing returns.

The Body in the Library (Miss Marple 2), by Agatha Christie (1942)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An English town is thrown into a tizzy when a young woman‘s body is found in the library of a prominent family‘s estate

Review: Sometimes you just need a ‘Golden Era‘ detective novel, and this did not disappoint. It‘s well-written, and my brain was still piecing together the solution the day after I finished it. There‘s a reason why Christie is the master.

Life, & Death, & Giants, by Ron Rindo (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Lives are changed when a shockingly large baby is born into a Wisconsin Amish family.

Review: There are things I could criticize about this book, but as I leave it I simply don‘t want to. In the end, it‘s a gorgeous story about life in all its beauty, pain, and complexity and it handles complex issues of faith, community, and choice with all the nuance they deserve. ⬇️

Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An elderly man changes lives in a small Southern town when he begins a conspiracy of kindness.

Review: Even a cynical grump like me was prepared to give five stars to this story about the power of connection and truly seeing others in all their created and creative potential. Unfortunately, it almost lost me completely with a truly amateurish and emotionally manipulative ending. ⬇️

The Hitchhiker‘s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (1979)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A series of improbable events leaves an Englishman on an adventure in deep space.

Review: Shocking as it may be, I‘d never read this, and boy did it ever live up to its weird and wonderful reputation. ⬇️

Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, by Judi Dench and Brendan O‘Hea (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: One of our greatest living actors reflects on her career and Shakespeare‘s plays.

Review: I mean… This is just perfect. I‘m a respecter of Shakespeare far more than a lover, but this made me wish I loved him as much as the authors do. ⬇️

Booked for Murder (Juniper Book Store Mysteries 1), by P.J. Nelson (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: An actress returns to her Georgia hometown to run her late aunt‘s bookshop, only to be beset by arson and murder. And, alongside a professor and a priest, she takes it upon herself to solve the case.

Review: This is VERY much a cozy mystery, with all the joys and the ridiculousness of the genre. But it‘s a very good one.

Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Premise: A boy gets pulled into a magical world just in time to collaborate to save it from a horrible threat.

Review: For me, this was well done but a bit of a struggle as an adult reader. The premise was very “fantasy 101”, and there were so many twists and turns that it was hard for me to keep up with the plot. ⬇️

Brownstone, by Samuel Teer (illustr. Mar Julia) (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A New York teenager meets her father for the first time one summer and learns about her Guatemalan heritage.

Review: This is sweet and effective, if very, very simplistic. It does deal with some hard subject matter — child abandonment, biracial identities, homophobia, and gentrification — but in ways that came off a bit too easy. ⬇️

Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An insightful, intellectual, literary, and unflinching memoir about life after losing two children to s—cide.

Review: This is obviously a book that deals with very serious and traumatic life experiences. So it feels a bit gross to swoon over it, but I simply cannot express how brilliant this is. ⬇️

The Call of Cthulhu (and other stories), by H.P. Lovecraft (1928 etc)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Classic tales of terror and dread about the potential awakening of a long-dormant power.

Review: This is as powerfully atmospheric and dread-inspiring as reputed. It‘s also as unabashedly racist as reputed. It‘s a telling window into the anxieties of an age that has sadly proven to be not as bygone as we‘d thought. Yikes. ⬇️

Take Two, by Danielle Hawkins (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A woman answers an SOS from her long-time ex‘s family, only to fall for her ex‘s brother.

Review: It‘s becoming increasingly hard for romances (or other light genre books) to stand out from the crowd, but this really blew me away. ⬇️

Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom (2003)
⭐️⭐️

Premise: A crusty amusement park worker has five transforming encounters when he enters the afterlife.

Review: Stories about the afterlife are generally either cynical or sentimental, so I was expecting a certain amount of cringe here. But wow. ⬇️

The Axeman‘s Carnival, by Catherine Chidgey (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A magpie raised by the wife of a competitive log cutter rises to viral fame that masks darkness in the household.

Review: This is wild but still a soft recommendation. It tackles possibly too many issues in one story. ⬇️

The Grief of Stones (The Cemeteries of Amalo 2), by Katherine Addison (2022)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: A cleric who advocates on behalf of the dead inherits an apprentice just as he takes a case about the murder of an aristocrat.

Review: I was critical for the first book in this series for being diffuse. This was much the same, but it didn‘t bother me as much since I had a better sense of the world and the protagonist‘s job..This was very satisfying.

The Bookseller‘s Tale (Oxford Medieval Mysteries 1), by Ann Swinfen (2016)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: In an Oxford deeply divided between town and gown, and still recovering from the Black Death, a bookseller discovers the body of a student in the river and takes it upon himself to ensure justice is done.

Review: Overall, this was a satisfying amateur detective murder mystery, with a unique and fascinating setting and a strong set of characters. ⬇️

A Terribly Nasty Business (Beatrice Steele 2), by Julia Seales (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Newly arrived in London to start work as partner to Inspector Drake, Beatrice Steele gets sucked into a case involving the upper echelon of society.

Review: I was excited to read this, as the first in the series was good charming fun with a twinkle in its eye. Sadly, for me, this sequel was a compete dud. ⬇️

This Is Your Mind on Plants, by Michael Pollan (2021)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: An exploration of humanity‘s longstanding relationships with three plants that produce mind-altering substances

Review: Part memoir, part popular science, this is very effective. I could have used less memoir to allow for him to include more plants and more types of mind-altering effects, but it does what he wanted it to do.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol 7, by Beth Brower (2023)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The still continued journals of a bright young woman navigating her uncommon life amidst the mores of Victorian London.

Review: It‘s a testament to his good these are that I‘m still excited to spend every moment I can with these characters. Here we have quite a bit of plot development in addition to the delightful sensibility and voice of the series.

Ruth, by Kate Riley (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: The life of a devout yet independent-spirited woman living in a traditionalist Christian commune.

Review: This novel does a wonderful job in crafting its feisty and irreverent, yet deeply devout, protagonist. This sympathetic realism extends to the community itself, as it shows what life in one of these Anabaptist communities, scattered across Great Lakes region, is like, in all their idiosyncrasy. ⬇️

The Forsaken and the Fated, by Camilla Raines (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: In this duology conclusion, our hero tries to save his enemy-turned-boyfriend from his fated doom.

Review: I was upset with the first book in this duology for not having a proper ending, and this one made it worse by not really having enough plot to warrant the second book.⬇️

The Dog Who Followed the Moon, by James Norbury (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A kids‘ picture book about a lost puppy who is accompanied by an aging wolf as he tries to find his family

Review: I don‘t read a lot of picture books these days, but this felt special. It conveys profound truths about creativity, resilience, the journey of life, and equanimity, in memorable and age-appropriate ways. It‘s also accompanied by stunning illustrations.

The Witness for the Dead (Cemeteries of Amalo 1), by Katherine Addison (2021)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: A cleric with the ability to communicate with the dead is brought into several mysteries upon his arrival in a remote region of his world.

Review: I was intrigued to read this spin-off from The Goblin Emperor, which follows one of that book‘s most compelling characters in his new adventures. ⬇️

Buckeye, by Patrick Ryan (2025)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Premise: Over the course of four decades, secrets connect and divide two families in a small Ohio city

Review: There have been hundreds, if not thousands, of novels telling the ‘Story of America‘ in the 20th C, so any novel that does this today needs to do it really, really well, in order to make its mark. And this does just that. ⬇️

Dating and Dragons, by Kristy Boyce (2024)
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Premise: After moving to a new school, a teenager develops a crush on a member of her new D&D party, which has a strict no-dating policy.

Review: This was a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, it has some great intergenerational family content and an easy-to-root-for couple. ⬇️

Wildful, by Kengo Kurimoto (2024 🇨🇦)
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Premise: A suburban teenager learns to connect with nature, and with her grieving mother in the process.

Review: This is a delightful graphic novel powered by its illustrations more than its writing. There‘s nothing new or startling in this book but it‘s a great reminder of the wonder that is available all around us if we choose to see it.