#notbookrelated I spent the late morning and early afternoon with friends at the zoo. It was a nice break after spending the early morning looking at too much news coverage and crying. I didn't solve anything, but I got to build community, share some hugs, see meerkats, and celebrate the increased population of California condors in the wild since the 1980s when we learned in school about their near extinction. I sorely needed a bit of hope today.

My son is taking AP US History this semester in high school. The textbook for the class ends at the 2014 midterm elections and is making me nostalgic on a day (week, month, not quite a year) when the current situation is hitting really hard.

Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to my fundraising page for Words Alive (where I volunteer...today I read the tagged book and two others to 4- and 5-year-olds)!

The fundraising campaign runs until 1 Feb, and I am just $75 from meeting my goal. If you'd like to help me meet my goal while supporting a love of reading for kids in San Diego County here's how: https://charity.centuryclubsd.org/fundraiser/6848737

I found several elements of this novel difficult to visualize, but I love how much book rearranging plays into the plot. Tommy and Tuppence are now over 70 but still can't seem to retire from intrigue. I like how Christie has let their relationship develop over the years. They might be one of my literary models for a successful long-term marriage. And now I want a Manchester terrier and to buy a house that includes a stocked library.

Happy "Gotcha" Day to these reading buddies who joined our family on January 6, 2021. They are adorable agents of chaos who have never once tried to subvert the democratic process through violence (although they once stole a chicken breast off the stove, and Camille's body language suggests she's nurturing a grievance about what she perceives as the surveillance state (me taking pictures of her when I should be petting her)).

#12BooksOf2025
December: Gliff by Ali Smith

@TheEllieMo

This is a solidly creepy novel spanning most of the 20th century, and a really interesting take on confronting generational trauma. It's a little longer than I think it needs to be, but it kept my interest, and I found the setting to be quite vivid. The narrator really found her stride in the second half, but I would have preferred if the recording had maybe an extra two seconds of space between each section.

This is me on #TheStoryGraph. Same user name, if you'd like to follow/friend me.

#12BooksOf2025
November: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. I usually avoid epistolary novels, but I picked up the audio for this one because I know one of the narrators (I also usually avoid multicast narration, so this one was really starting at a disadvantage for me). I was surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, and it was my favorite from November.

@TheEllieMo

After several years' break, I have made a new list for Classics Club (I call my challenge the Cavalcade of Classics): 50 titles I aim to read and review within 5 years. For those interested in following along, I have the full list on my blog: http://imperfecthappiness.org/cavalcade-of-classics-redux/

Proust, Melville, Dostoyevksy, Tolstoy, Rousseau, Friedan, Woolf, Cather, St. Augustine, Marcus Aurelius, deToqueville, Arendt...and many more!

#12BooksOf2025
October: The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica

@TheEllieMo

#12BooksOf2025
September: another tie between a nonfiction title---Emotional Labor by Rose Hackman---and a fiction title---The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai.

@TheEllieMo

My January 2026 #bookspinbingo strategy involves some specific titles but mostly categories, the titles for which I'll fill in as I see what comes available from the library when, so there are a lot of blank spaces on my card at the moment (the categories and corresponding numbers are on the opposite page). #bookspin and #doublespin are both "Christmas books", and I finished my first of these last night before the spin.
@TheAromaofBooks

This darkly funny pseudo-stream-of-consciousness novel is a quick read and an interesting look at daily life when everything feels like it's falling apart. It feels also like a cautionary tale about refusing the connections that are around us and/or losing our selves in our connections. (One of my Christmas library books from my spouse.)

Photo: Brooklyn Public Library, December 2016.

It's a new record! My Year in Books is up within 24 hours of the new year starting! https://imperfecthappiness.org/2026/01/01/2025-my-year-in-books/

Many thanks to my spouse for being (mostly) patient about me using the device on which he would like to watch football to post about books.

#12BooksOf2025
August: One Man's Meat by E.B. White. My teenage son says, "Pause," whenever I say the title, but I love this quiet, reflective book of essays by the author of Charlotte's Web (before he wrote Charlotte's Web).

@TheEllieMo

Trying something a little different for January's #bookspin doublespin list. I have been having a problem putting titles on my list and then not getting them from the library in time to read them that month, so I'm being less specific with most of my selections. We shall see how this goes with this month's #bookspinbingo. I'm nervous that, without the titles right here, I'll just go full mood-read mode. Which is fine, too.
@TheAromaofBooks

Completed December #bookspinbingo card. 1 bingo! And a couple of books I *almost* finished before the ball dropped that will be on my January card.

@TheAromaofBooks

So...this is a conversion story masquerading as a crime thriller? Anarchists, a secret grotto, a great balloon chase, some interesting social commentary ("When duty and religion are really destroyed, it will be by the rich."). I have no idea why I put this on my TBR, but I'm done with it now. Soft pick. #Roll100 2025 (but first finished of 2026 because I was too sleepy to finish it last night)

#12BooksOf2025
July: Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. I loved this novel and thought it was brilliant. Earlier in the year I read Playground by Richard Powers (liked but not a fave) and was struck by how similar the themes are but how differently the two authors handle them.

@TheEllieMo

My son recommended this book to me, and when I got to Part II, I understood why (although explaining the connection would be a spoiler, so I'll leave it vague). I'm not generally a fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but this one is enjoyable. I like how the complexity comes from misjudging the path that led to the conclusion rather than from contrived and unlikely twists.

#12BooksOf2025
In June, my family continued our tradition of listening to Kevin Wilson books on road trips with Run for the Hills. It wasn't our favorite of Wilson's novels, but it was my favorite read from June.

@TheEllieMo

#12BooksOf2025 May was a tie, one fiction---Erasure by Percival Everett---and one nonfiction---The Bill of Obligations by Richard Haass.

@TheEllieMo

Finally, some time to read (with an appropriately hued beverage).

A note on the background: My kids played games with friends last night, and I'm waiting them out to see if they'll put them away on their own. Same with my spouse's scientific papers.

#12BooksOf2025 Day 4: The Home Place by J. Drew Lanham, another win resulting from trying to read what my kids are reading in school (this is one my college kid read for an environmental nonfiction class).

@TheEllieMo

When I read Modernist literature, I feel more empowered than usual to interpret it in exactly the way I want to regardless of the author's intention. I don't pretend to know what Nabokov means with this novel, but I see the many ways in which we are complicit in incarcerating ourselves in a false mode of existence. We are more than advertisers, corporations, and those seeking our votes think, but recognizing this takes awareness and courage.

A contemplative look at the nature of memory and how the experiences of our youth can stick with us in unexpected ways. It's also about the challenges of family and navigating both their expectations of us and how these are colored by their own experiences/biases/traumas, which reminds me of so many other books of the recent past. I like it quite a bit, but I'm not sure I love it. #BookerPrize2025 Longlist

#12BooksOf2025 Book 3: Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice

@TheEllieMo

Thank you for the lovely #NaughtyListHolidaySwap, @BarkingMadRead ! I'm so excited to read the books, the bookmarks are awesome, and the decorative sign is perfect for the "Spirits and Spirits" (ghost stories and cocktails) party we're hosting this weekend!

And thank YOU for hosting #nlhs, @WildAlaskaBibliophile and @TieDyeDude !

January: The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
February: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

#12BooksOf2025 @TheEllieMo

Christmas book stack, including both new books and the traditional library books my spouse has gotten for me every year for the past 25-ish years (different books each year, always library books). Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and a very lovely Thursday to all who celebrate...Thor's Day? (Spouse also got me bee-themed coupe glasses, which I appreciate along with the tagged.)

My #jolabokaflodswap with detail of the beautiful presentation (I kept the book paper to use on future gifts!). I can't wait to curl up with some dark chocolate treats and see what this book I've been hearing so much about is like. Thank you so much, @LMJenkins !
@MaleficentBookDragon

Is Cincinnatus in perimenopause? Because I can totally relate to this paragraph. The rest of this very Modernist novel-in-translation...I'm not sure.

Our epic Christmas Week rainstorm is rolling in so the lighting is icky, but the cookies are yum. Cookies, coffee, book: The holiday has officially begun at my house.

1) Gained clarity around my goals and priorities for teaching and volunteer work.
2) Made progress recognizing my unhelpful/maladaptive behavior patterns and taking responsibility for addressing them.
3) Narrated my first full audiobook.

2025 has been an uncomfortable learning year, and I suspect 2026 will be similarly challenging, but thank you, @Eggs , for the reminder to celebrate the positives. #majicmonday

#Jolabokaflodswap arrived! @LMJenkins @MaleficentBookDragon

Did someone from Litsy send me this sweet tote? It arrived from the store/distributor with no note, and I'm 97% certain I didn't order it for myself and then forgot I ordered it. I'd love to know whom to thank!

It took me a while, but I finally got my November Bookends Post up: https://imperfecthappiness.org/2025/12/20/bookends-november-2025/

Now to settle in and enjoy some tea and a book (and maybe a cat or two) while I try to fight off the winter cold I've managed to come down with this week. Fingers crossed that with that prescription (cats, tea, books, rest), I'll be 100% (or close to it) before the big holiday hustle begins!

This novel takes the term "housewife" literally. It's a creepy and emotional look at the way that patterns of behavior and cultural expectations keep women tied to certain roles and how little time changes that. It reminds me a bit of "The Yellow Wallpaper." Despite the spooky occurrences, the direction the novel took left me feeling more hopeless than creeped out.

I usually audiowalk, but I opted not to listen to the tagged while walking through the fog the other night. The ambience was creepy enough without adding a creepy story. I'm content to listen at home and let my family startle me by walking into the room.

I was a little surprised that I only missed one question. I don't think of myself as a huge Home Alone fan, but I guess I saw it during my formative years so it stuck with me. Also I'm pretty sure I saw it about a dozen times, so that probably plays into it.

Thanks for the tag, @dabbe ! #TTT

I appreciate the nonlinear way that this novel is told. It mimics the way that memories come to mind, one leading to another without respect to chronology. The father-daughter relationship here also feels accurate, portraying the desperation that can overtake even the most settled of grown-ups when their connection to a parent---especially a parent whose presence is unreliable---is threatened. Insecure attachment...the gift that keeps on giving.

This book is not perfect. It's got more of the author's own life in it than I prefer, and Clayton invokes two individuals whose writings I find insufferable, but it also brings together so many elements that speak to me and puts different experiences, relationships, and reactions into context. It offers validation, research (such as it is), and actionable suggestions, and these are valuable enough to me that the positives outweigh the negatives.

I visited the rose garden in the mist yesterday, and the roses looked candied. #beautybreak

I had a lovely morning! Dropped my teen off to rehearse for Tuba Christmas then audio-wandered around the park and the zoo listening to the tagged and pondering what it is I want separate from others' needs. The highlights were misty roses (I'll probably share those photos later) and a pair of red-shouldered hawks in the Andean bear enclosure. And the tuba playing, of course. I love brass ensemble music at the holidays.

1) Both a joy and a ?: Younger kid drove to school today (learner's permit fun!).
2) Birthday week brought exploration of parts of town I don't usually get to explore, including a cute coffee shop, AND a class of 4-year-olds sang me "Happy Birthday".
3) Seasonal foliage and decor at the park.
4) I adopted an avocado tree and named it Larry.
5) Semiannual haircut!

#5JoysFriday @DebinHawaii

My teen had a concert at a local college, and after we dropped him off for his call time, his dad and I wandered campus and (of course) ended up at the library where we found these adorable reshelving carts with "Hello! My Name Is" badges. The names are Shelvester Stallone, Arnold Shelvinator, Buffy the Vampire Shelver, and Mishelve Obama. I find them delightful.

I'm not a big fan of the Creative Writing MFA Meta-fiction genre, but I love an unreliable narrator, so those two things together kind of even each other out (and Robbie is unreliable, even to the point that it's difficult to tell when the story takes place...Robbie says she's a "Zoomer" at 23, but Simone is GenX at not yet 40; the math doesn't work*). Like young MFA students, the novel is a bit precious, but also clever and reasonably enjoyable.

I had a busy but fun birthday yesterday. I even had a few moments to start a book while enjoying patio coffee. I always worry that I bring sadness to artistic baristas by opting for alternative milks that don't do well for foam art. I should probably always pick oat milk (except that I like almond better).

Today is lots of meetings, recording auditions, and later a concert my teen is playing in, so I'm glad I got a little downtime yesterday.

#NLHS and #JolabokaflodSwap went out today. #NLHS is in two boxes because one thing was the tiniest bit too big for the one box and I knew if I delayed to wait for the right size box for everything, I might not get the swap out in time.

@WildAlaskaBibliophile @TieDyeDude @MaleficentBookDragon