My Top Ten Reads of 2025

In spite of spending more concentrated time in prayer (praying and fasting once a week), I read more books in 2025 than in 2024. I read a total of 73 books. Over half of those (41 books, or 56%) were 4 or 5 page-turners. 38% were 3 page-turners. Only 4 books were disappointing.

My top ten reads of 2025 (in order read, not by preference):

The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

Letters from the Mountain by Ben Palpant

Saving the Saved by Bryan Loritts

The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry

Good Catastrophe by Benjamin Windle

Coming Clean by Seth Haines

The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett

Five Mere Christians by Jordan Raynor and Kaleigh Cox

Heaven and Nature Sing by Hannah Anderson

I wish to give the following five non-fiction books an honorable mention:

You Are a Tree by Joy Marie Clarkson

Becoming Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn

Being Elisabeth Elliot by Ellen Vaughn

E. M. Bounds: Man of Prayer by Lyle Wesley Dorsett

A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst

It appears only 2 of these highly recommended reads were fiction. I focused on nonfiction reads more than fiction this year. I read 39 nonfiction books and 34 fiction books. Plus, 11 of these 15 titles are Christian books. Out of 73 books, 44 were Christian reads. I still like to read a wide variety of books, but have been selecting more from my worldview.

2025 - Fourth Quarterly Review

To assist my blog readers, I summarize my reading four times a year, providing a brief description, genre, the page count, and a grading scale (💖5 page-turner - highly recommend, 4 page-turner - enjoyed, 3 page-turner - good, 2 page-turner - meh, and 1 page-turner - regret, wishing I could get back the time invested). I read the following books during the fourth quarter of 2025 (links to full reviews can be found in the side-bar, or after 2025, found through the search bar at the right):

Quiet Places: A Woman's Guide to Personal Retreat by Jane Rubietta - When busyness of life overtakes, it is imperative to set aside some time to get away and contemplate life's problems and purpose. Christian Living. 178 pages, 📃📃📃-1/2

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls - This novel, based on the lives of Jeannette Walls' mother and grandmother, was a romp of a read. All kinds of outlandish characters and events. Novel. 270 pages, 📃📃📃-1/2

💖The Deconstruction of Christianity: What it is, Why it's Destructive, and How to Respond by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett - I loved this clearly articulated, soundly supported, and desperately important book. So many are turning from Christianity to create a religious framework on their own terms, rejecting the authority of God's Word, and embracing a view of Christianity that aligns with societal perspectives. Like the Bereans, I want to scour scripture and use it as my guide for interpreting this world and Satan's agenda. Apologetics/Christian Living. 304 pages (I listened in audio form on Hoopla, 7 hours, then studied the ebook and study guide, also available on Hoopla), 📃📃📃📃📃

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst - When their yacht sinks, a British couple survive 118 days at sea on a life-raft and dinghy. Can they survive the attention swarming around them after they are rescued? Survival Biography. 256 pages, 📃📃📃📃-1/2

The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - Dennis' opinionated instruction rubs Nancy wrong, but perhaps her feelings can change toward him as he helps her make her dream bookshop a success. Romantic Comedy. 290 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 6 hours), 📃📃📃

Still Waters: Finding the Place Where God Restores Your Soul by Jane Rubietta - Like in Jane's earlier book, Still Waters encourages women to get away from life's demands and focus on time with the Lord. I loved the chapter on hospitality, even though that is not my spiritual gift at all. Christian Living. 175 pages, 📃📃📃

💖Five Mere Christians: Binge-Worthy Biographies That Show You How to Glorify God in Your Work by Jordan Raynor and Kaleigh Cox - Five brief biographies of a television personality, civil rights activist, Lego founder, abolitionist poet, and famed apologist. These bite-size bios are interesting and inspirational. Raynor proves, once again, that God intends to use those who are not in dedicated Christian service positions. Biography/Christian Living. 224 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 6-3/4 hours), 📃📃📃📃📃

The Harmony Within: The Spiritual Vision of George MacDonald by Rolland Hein - I picked this book because it was written by my former professor at Wheaton College. C. S. Lewis was impacted by George MacDonald's writing. I'm not familiar enough with MacDonald's writing to grasp this book well. Christian Biography/Literary Criticism. 155 pages, 📃📃📃

The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff - Two lawyers work together on a WWII war crimes case and fall tentatively in love with one another. Held interest, but not really my cup of tea. Historical Fiction. 304 pages (I listened in audio form, 7 CDs, 9 hours), 📃📃

Lenten Lands: My Childhood With Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis by Douglas H. Gresham - Although C. S. Lewis plays a role, this is Douglas' story of his life. It was especially fun to revisit this book because I spent time getting to know the author while he was doing research at the Wade Center. Memoir. 213 pages, 📃📃📃📃

Stories from the River of Mercy: The True Journey of Two Women Who Find Grace and Mercy in Deep Blue Waters by Sheila Walsh - A difficult relationship between a daughter and mother-in-law grows an deepens when cancer looms. Memoir/Christian Living. 144 pages, 📃📃📃

A Very Merry Matchup by Becca Kinzer - Travel nurse Ivy West is intent on matchmaking her current patient Beau Wall with her friend, Lucy. However, others hatch plans as well, leading to a hilarious comedy of errors. Christmas Rom-com. 184 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 4-1/2 hours), 📃📃📃📃-1/2

Christmas by Accident by Camron Wright - An accident throws insurance adjuster into the life of a bookstore worker named Abby. Everyone wants a miracle for Christmas. Christmas Romance. 240 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 5 hours), 📃📃📃

Some Like it Scot by Pepper Basham - Travel media sensation, Katie Campbell, is known for her "misadventures." During an Edwardian Experience in Scotland, her insecurities come to the forefront as she falls for a "Hot Scot." Christian Rom-Com. 345 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 12-1/2 hours), 📃📃📃📃

A Cross-Country Christmas by Courtney Walsh - Can Lauren Richmond survive a lengthy ride home for Christmas with Will Sinclair, the man who broke her heart? Will holiday magic bring second chances for both? Christmas Romance. 254 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 6-1/2 hours), 📃📃📃📃-1/2

Christmas With a Crank by Courtney Walsh - Olive and Liam were next door neighbor sweethearts as pre-teens but distance has grown between them. Liam's mother enlists Olive's help to create a final extravaganza on their tree farm. Will Olive win over grumpy Liam? Christmas Romance. 364 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 10 hours), 📃📃📃📃

Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging by Brennan Manning - God loves you, period. Stop trying to present a perfect life. "To think that the natural and proper state is to be without wounds is an illusion. Those who wear bulletproof vests protecting themselves from failure, shipwreck, and heartbreak will never know what love is. The unwounded life bears no resemblance to the Rabbi." Christian Living. 171 pages, 📃📃📃

💖Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Advent Reflections to Bring Joy to the World by Hannah Anderson - A marvelous assortment of essays on the natural elements of Christ's birth. I wish I owned this book! I will return to this again next year, if possible. Christmas Essays. 176 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 3-3/4 hours), 📃📃📃📃📃

A Carol for Mrs. Dickens by Rebecca Connolly - Charles Dickens' wife, Catherine, struggles to find joy in the holidays after the death of her infant. Three memory visitations restore her joy in the season. Christmas Novella. 176 pages (I listened on Hoopla, 3-1/2 hours), 📃📃📃

Merry Christmas 2025

Once again, life felt too depressing to send annual Christmas cards to friends. Besides, once I stopped sending cards, I realized that everyone else has abandoned the habit, as well. I think I received 5 or 6 cards last year. Written correspondence, though rare, is important! This make me sad!

In the final third of the year, we have settled into our empty nest reality. Things are quiet here. Thankfully, Sean is close enough that he sometimes returns home for a weekend (or week if he can snag it). We are also grateful that he knows other students returning home, enabling him to get a ride. Even so, we have made countless trips back and forth to the West Lafayette/Lafayette area, since both our younger sons are living there.

In August, Sean and Claire attended a Purdue game:

In September, Bryce and Elizabeth came to Purdue. Bryce was recruiting for his company and they took Sean to a game. We met up for lunch and the boys posed for me, squinting in the sun:

In October, Trev snapped a shot of his progress in the gym. He's been dedicated to sculpting his body and keeps very strict schedules and diets. He's hoping to one day compete.

In November, Bryce and Elizabeth returned to Indy to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. I'm sad I failed to get any photos of us all together. We also hosted my husband's older brother Rick and were so glad he could be with us instead of being alone on a holiday. He is missing his dogs, so he cuddled up with our Toby. Plus, he enjoyed watching his nephews play Rock Band together (something that makes my heart sing, as well).

At the end of November/early December, Bryce and Elizabeth bought a house. He sent me a video tour after they moved in. Praying they will be happy and blessed in their new home.

I was slow to put up our decorations this year. Indeed, I thought about only putting a small tree up in the living room, but Trevor begged to have the larger tree on the porch (he even offered to come help set it up for me, but I relented and put it up December 7th - late for me). I don't have the decorative touch many possess, but my boys love these decorations.

May you and yours have a blessed Christmas Day! And may God walk with you through every trial and triumph of 2026!

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Apologies! I am battling a new frustrating development in Blogger. G00gle is now adding links into blog posts unrequested. I am not proficient in the html script. I find it very difficult to know how to go in and remove their links without messing up the code so that everything reads as I desire. This is wrong! They have no right inserting themselves and their decisions into my writing. It is almost enough to make me abandon this blog altogether. At this point, I am altering my writing in hopes of avoiding words that trigger these intrusive links. Please bear with me as I figure this out.

Book Review: A Carol for Mrs. Dickens

Rebecca Connolly's A Carol for Mrs. Dickens provides a female protagonist for an additional consideration of Charles Dickens' famous novel, A Christmas Carol. This was an enjoyable, faith-filled jaunt into Victorian times featuring the Dickens family. It reflects several true historical aspects of this well-known family. In 1851, Catherine published a cookbook under a pen name. She and Charles also lost their 7-month-old daughter, Dora, in that year and Catherine struggled with this death. Charles often read from his own carol or from his family book, The Life of Our Lord, when celebrating the holidays. 

Historical details render a very human, conflicted image of this author (once my favorite author). On the one hand, he seemed determined to raise his children with an awareness of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, rumors say he was unfaithful to his wife. We cannot know if those rumors were true. Yet, he separated from Catherine in 1858, creating some division with other authors, including Thackeray and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. He even ignored her death with some sort of comment about where there once was writing, it was then blank. Poor Catherine! It must have been hard to be a spouse to a charismatic man much esteemed in the public eye.

Connolly's carol focuses on Catherine in her despair after losing her daughter. Catherine seeks a renewed vision of the true meaning of Christmas, not the one painted in her husband's well-received Christmas Carol. Through a series of three trips to forgotten memories, she finds her Christmas joy restored. These visions emphasize her husband's generosity and the joy of childhood wonder, the joy of new love relationships (especially hers with the younger Charles), and the joy of giving to those in need. Catherine grows and changes throughout the telling, as she leads the reader to prize the holiday and the various joys of the season.

Mid-month Mention #2: Christian Fiction Reading Challenge

I have never read a book by Robin Lee Hatcher, yet I love receiving her newsletters. One of these days (perhaps with this challenge), I will remedy that. Robin is the author of over 45 contemporary and historical novels. Her newsletters always share opportunities to explore other writers beyond her own works. She alerted me to a wonderful opportunity: a 2026 Christian Fiction Reading Challenge.

What great fun! A virtual book club with author visits! Who wouldn't want to read books, discuss with others, and interact with the authors? I'm not a big fan of Zoom, but I'd participate if it had something to do with books and authors. The Zoom calls are on the last Tuesday of each month and will be recorded, so you can watch later if you have to miss. I have signed up for this reading challenge. You only need to give an email address. This is free! Who can beat it? Won't you join me?

Mid-month Mention: Substack Fare

Since Just Between Us published my article, "When the Journey Becomes the Gift," on their Substack-based site, I have been frequenting Substack more than usual. It appears this is where all the creatives hang out. Although I don't like to be out of the loop, I'm not technologically savvy, so I feel mystified by some of what goes on. I gather writers post notes and articles and some people access this on a free basis, while others pay the writer to subscribe for more content. Personally, I cannot afford to subscribe to every writer I wish to read (thus, my great love of the library). 

I get it! As a writer, I want people to find my words. My main struggle has always been with that drive that seems imperative for writers, to establish "platform." Oh, how I hate that word. To me, it is like waving a flag that says, "Look at me! Look at me! Look at what I can do" (to quote a Saturday Night Live sketch with the obnoxious child who is always drawing attention to himself). When I put the Substack app on my phone, it began to offer up categories I might wish to explore. Through that, I have indeed found writers I enjoy.

I think I entered Substack Land originally to access the poetry of Randy Edwards, writings of Jeanine Joyner, and The Rabbit Room. Now, I have signed on for some Spurgeon. Spurgeon, in turn, recommended a new page with Advent content from one of my favorite prayer writers, J. C. Ryle (author of the outstanding pamphlet, Do You Pray?). This new Substack with J. C. Ryle content can be found here.

What blew me away, earlier this month, was finding a writer who understands and articulates the discomfort I feel with the marketing side of writing. Grant Herbel's Substack, called "The Writer's Calling," is another recommended site that I am so grateful to have found. He posted a two-part article on "How Christian Writers Can Use Substack Notes." In the first segment, he expressed my internal thoughts on how icky marketing makes me feel. 

He writes, "On the one hand, we feel the pressure of the internet age: the demand to be loud, to be everywhere, to build a platform, to 'stop the scroll.' Honestly, it feels exhausting. It often feels like the opposite of the quiet work we are called to do. On the other hand, we carry a fire.... You have been given a message that could help someone. And lighting a lamp just to hide it under a bowl doesn't feel right, either.... The answer lies in shifting our perspective from promotion to stewardship.... When we view visibility as stewardship--as faithfully carrying the bread to the hungry--all of that changes. We stop trying to be 'famous' and start trying to be findable."

His words articulate the internal struggle I have battled. His advice rings true. I hope to glean encouragement from his writing, so that my writing doesn't remain hidden under a bushel. I want to shine whatever light God has placed within me into a dying world, desperate for His light, and witness to His transforming power.

Of course, I don't even fully understand how all of this works, but am eager to learn. I really wanted to pay for a full subscription to Herbel's writing, but with lots of money going out for our prodigal and his needs, I will hold off on that for now. Still, I wanted to provide a link for my readers. If you follow this link to The Writer's Calling, I will receive a free month subscription for every 3 individuals who subscribe (paid or free). Win for you! Win for me! 

After so many months without writing, I am back to caring about where my words (the words God plants in me to bloom for others) land and grow. I am back to praying about my calling to write. If you are a regular reader, you know that I dedicated 2025 to fasting and prayer for my prodigal and other needs of friends and family. It has been rough going. Often, the extra time spent focused on the many impossibilities we face stirs exhaustion and defeat. Throwing a spotlight on the challenge, in spite of full belief that God's got this, tends to make me introspective and low.

This morning, I found a small note on Substack from Chloe Elizabeth. It is a Corrie ten Boom quote. She writes, "If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at Christ, you'll be at rest." Words to live by, indeed! And a fine example of how these notes/words on Substack provide something of value to the reader.

Book Review: Heaven and Nature Sing - Highly Recommend

Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Advent Reflections to Bring Joy to the World, by Hannah Anderson, is a book I wanted to place on my Christmas list. The writing is beautiful, and the insights fresh and deep. I wish I had read this earlier in the year so I could recommend it in time for Advent use. Since I listened to this in audio form, I struggled with two prevailing desires. I wanted to savor the words and take notes from the reflections. Plus, I hungered to see the illustrations provided by Hannah's husband Nathan. I'm so grateful someone recommended it in The Rabbit Room Chinwag group on Facebook and also grateful to find it available in audio form through Hoopla. Still, I think this is a book better consumed in hard form, and I would love to own a copy.

Heaven and Nature Sing contemplates various natural aspects of the Christmas story, exploring minor details like snowflakes, snakes, and swaddling clothes. It looks at Christ's birth through a new lens. It certainly earned its selection as an ECPA Christian Nonfiction Bestseller for Christmas 2023. I wish I had known about it in 2022, when first published.

Several points stood out. When feeling common and even sometimes worthless, we must remember that we have been sanctified and made holy by the Holy One. "When you feel common, remember that the holiness of God never runs out and His grace is as limitless as He is." I loved the Day 5 reflection on silence. Considering the silence between the Old and New Testaments, and the silence of Zachariah from his doubt (after years of pleading with God), was a great reminder for times when we feel we cannot hear God or He cannot hear us. She writes, "Our inability to hear God's words is no measure of His ability to hear ours."

Discussing family land, she remarks that inheritance is more about stewardship than about possession. She talks about our "kinsman redeemer," who takes responsibility for His offspring and calls us His own. How important it is to give our children a sense of the habits of faith! We long for peace in this chaotic world. She notes that in tolerance, we often ignore wrongdoing in order to avoid conflict. But, "the peace of God does not acquiesce." The habits and traditions of Advent rehearse the truth that, with heaven and nature, we sing, looking to the One who will crush the deceiver.

This is perhaps one of my favorite Advent books. I have been mentioning it to others. I also think this would make an excellent selection for a Christian book club in November or December. So much to contemplate and discuss. The thoughts are enlightening, personal, and universal.