2025: A Year in Books

Last year ended up being a really good year of reading for me. I've been setting a reading goal for a number of years, pretty much since I started using Goodreads to track my reading, but it's always been rather arbitrary and never much of a stretch. So it wasn't a surprise that I exceeded my goal of 110 books in 2025, but it was a surprise that I recorded my largest number completed since I started tracking.

I would have thought that I would have read less this year, given more demands on my time (Ruthie, increased responsibilities at work), but this graphic from my Storygraph reveals a very likely explanation:

More than a third of the books I read were on audio -- all those hours running, walking, and taking the dog out ended up being very productive!

Those of you who follow my book reviews know that I tend to be very stingy with my 5 stars, so I thought you might like to see which of my 2025 reads earned this rare honor. In only the order in which I read them, they were as follows:

• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
• Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
• Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell
• Heart the Lover by Lily King
• Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• The Antidote by Karen Russell
• Heartwood by Amity Gage
• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• My Good Bright Wolf by Sarah Moss
• Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
• Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
• The Salt Stones by Helen Whybrow
• Flashlight by Susan Choi
• More than Enough by Anna Quindlen

What were your favorite reads of 2025? Do we have any overlap?

* * *

Today's our last day in Florida and we're headed home tomorrow morning. We decided to go home on a Saturday so we'd have most of the weekend to get the house back in order, restock the fridge, and get ready to get back to the normal routine on Monday (though lucky Molly doesn't have to go back until Tuesday). It's been lovely to have this break, but I'll admit I'm looking forward to being back in my own home and especially being reunited with my puppy!

Unraveled, Week 53/2025

It feels pretty special that the last Wednesday of the year is also the last day of the year -- and it feels like we've gotten a bonus week, too! I don't think Kat is doing a link-up today, but I'm always happy to join her and the Unravelers.

Our vacation has gotten a bit more chaotic this week because my brother and his family came down to join us on Sunday, so we've shuffled bedrooms and bathrooms and had to reorient our schedules around those of a 1-year-old and a 2 1/2-year-old. But it's been fun. My aunt and uncle, who spend their winters on the other coast of Florida, drove over to spend some time with us on Monday, and yesterday nearly all of us (the Mister stayed behind to do some work) went to the Naples Zoo. I've even spotted some unusual wildlife in the housing development:

Don't worry; I took this photo from far away and cropped it.

There are man-made bodies of water throughout this place, and there are signs up all over saying not to go in the water or disturb the alligators, but I always figured that was just bluffing. I've never spotted one this close before that wasn't in a zoo or nature preserve!

I honestly haven't been knitting a ton, especially in comparison to years past, but I did finish the cowl -- even weaving in all my ends and blocking! And I also wrote up a draft of the pattern so I can get it to my tech editor before we head home! (See how much I can get done when I'm not working and catering to the whims of a very cute but demanding dog?)

For the last couple of days, I've been focusing on what I hope will be my last finished project for the year:

I had about 40 g of yarn left on Monday night, so I'm hoping if I give it a lot of attention today, I just might get it done.

Reading time has, of course, been more plentiful, and I've finished several more books in the past week.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 2 was just as delightful as the first. I can imagine that one day I might want to own physical copies one day, but they've been great on audio. In the second installment, Emma learns more about the mysterious tenant who is renting Lapis Lazuli Minor, makes the acquaintance of a friend's "cousin" serving as her chaperone, comes to the aid of current and former classmates at her school, and has an interesting interaction with a duke. She continues to work to ensure she can keep her home, in spite of her cousin's efforts to spend all the money left to her. I gave it 4 stars -- and I expect to finish Vol. 3 today!

In Kin, we meet Niecy and Annie, two motherless girls raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, Niecy left orphaned by a murder/suicide and Annie abandoned when her mother left town. United in friendship from their early days sleeping in the same cradle, they together have to navigate life as Black women in the Jim Crow South as they approach adulthood and their lives begin to diverge. For Niecy, that means going to Spelman College and being exposed to a more privileged life to which she can aspire. For Annie, it means heading to Memphis in the middle of the night to search for her long-missing mother. Both encounter the racism of segregation, the challenges of being poor, the complications of failed first relationships, and the unreasonable expectations of women. Through it all, their friendship is a constant.
What Tayari Jones has captured in this novel is the power of female relationships and the deep impact that the lack of a loving mother can have on a girl's development. She also paints an unflinching portrait of what life was like for a poor Black woman in the South in the '60s, when the limitations imposed by segregation only added to the lack of options available to women in general. More than anything, she shows that it's not blood that makes someone kin. Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in return for an honest review. This book will be published February 24, 2026. I gave it 4 stars.

My Chanukah gift to myself this year (mainly because my request came too late for anyone else to buy them for me) was volumes I-III of On the Calculation of Volume. Translated from the Danish, these short novels tell the story of Tara Selter, who discovers on a work trip that she is trapped in time, reliving the 18th of November over and over again. While this might sound like the movie Groundhog Day, it's much more serious. In Vol. I, Tara is struggling to understand what is happening and, returning home to her husband, tries to come up with both an explanation and a way to get time to start working as it should again. Each day he is surprised to see her, and each day she explains what has happened again. Together they attempt to formulate some sort of logic to what stays changed and what reverts to how it was at the beginning of the day, but Tara realizes that this approach isn't sustainable in the long run. I gave 4 stars to Vol. 1 and immediately started Vol. II; in fact, as I'm writing this post ahead of time, I may have already finished it.

I took a pause in my listening of Emma Lion's journals to listen to 107 Days, read by Kamala Harris. Reading a book about a recent presidential campaign isn't necessarily exciting because you know the outcome and lived through it, but I was still interested to hear about the details and the experience from Harris' perspective. And of course I opted to get the audio because I wanted to hear it in her voice. Listening to this book brought back the hope and the excitement I felt last year, even though I knew that the outcome wouldn't change, and I think I appreciated the campaign even more getting the inside story. I also felt much more hopeful at the end hearing what gives Harris hope for our country's future. I won't recommend it to readers trying to avoid politics, but it was a bit of a balm for me after the year we've had, and I gave it 4 stars.

Tonight we'll be having a quiet evening in; even without taking the little ones into account, I'm well past the age where it's exciting to stay up late. It's gotten unusually chilly here, so I'll be going for a run this morning and then likely spending the day inside. I plan to knit and read, play with my niblings, and spend the day with my immediate family, and I really can't ask for a much better last day of the year than that.

Thank you, dear readers, for spending another year with me. I think it was a hard year for many of us, and I don't expect the change of the calendar to magically make things better. My wish for you in 2026 is that it's a year in which you're able to find joy and love and good health. May the new year bring you happy times with your loved ones, an abundance of good books, and a world in which you can still find beauty and kindness. I will be back on Friday with a look back at my reading this past year. Until then, thanks for being part of one of the best parts of my 2025 and happy new year!

Less in 2025: December

Somehow it's the final Monday of December and the final Monday of the year. I know that every year I complain that time has gone by too quickly, but this year seems to have been especially fast. As we prepare to draw the curtain on 2025, I have to thank Kat for hosting our monthly One Little Word link-ups each month.

When I chose LESS as my word for 2025 at around this time last year, I couldn't have predicted how my life would change in the months ahead. All I knew at the time was that simplifying my life sounded good. Who could have guess that just a handful of months into the year, life would get a whole lot more complicated and busy?

While welcoming a puppy into our home meant much more work and more stuff (and the resulting less sleep and less free time), what I didn't anticipate was that caring for Ruthie would mean less time to focus and perseverate on the small things that in the past would have taken up residence in my head. Being focused on the here and now means less time and energy to think about the what-ifs, and for a worrier, that's a good thing. Especially given the current state of the world, it's been a relief to focus on things like when the dog last went out for a walk or if I need to order more dog food rather than whether I've lost any more personal rights on a daily basis.

Less also has proved to be a great word for me this year because it's helped me to cede some control and let go of some things that I previously would have had a hard time doing. One of the side effects of having less time to myself is that I've found I care less about looking perfectly put-together all the time. Years ago I never would have dreamed of going into work without a full face of makeup and styled hair. These days, I'm perfectly comfortably going in with a bare face and my dirty hair pulled back. I've realized (probably very late in the game) that no one else really cares whether or not I'm "done up" and that it's more about feeling good about myself -- confidence shows.

Finally, though it wasn't my main reason for choosing Less this year, it's been a main theme of how I've approached my job (especially since adopting Ruthie!). Since our leadership change about a year and a half ago, it's become very apparently to me that few people outside my immediate team at work had any idea of what I do and thus didn't value my efforts -- not to mention that our vice chancellor has decreed that no one can receive higher than "satisfactory" on their annual review even if their supervisor thinks their efforts are extraordinary. I realized earlier this year that my performance could be just as good if I actually spent less time on any given project and there was no need for my previously very time-intensive process and that putting in extra effort wouldn't benefit me in any way in any case. It's proved to be a good decision because I've been given more work and more responsibilities as the year has gone on, so needing less time for my editing process has enabled me to get the work done without getting too stressed out.

I don't plan on having a word for next year, unless one appears and insists upon it in the next couple of days, in which case Less has been an excellent wrap-up to my One Little Word experience. Each year I've had a word, it's led me to reflect on my inner life, to take stock of my values, and to focus my intentions. What Less has taught me this year is that it's okay to not do everything, to be less than perfect, and to simplify my life in favor of what matters most. I know I'll be carrying the lessons of this year with me for a long time.

It's Sort of a Time Warp

Don't you love it when you're on such a relaxing vacation that you have trouble remembering what day it is? It doesn't happen often to me, but it does usually happen on this vacation -- yet another reason to look forward to it. I kept thinking that Christmas was falling on a Wednesday this year, so all week I've been a little mixed up. Luckily I haven't had anywhere to be at any particular time. We've been very lucky to have gotten consistently beautiful weather since we've arrived, around 80ºF and sunny, with low humidity and a light breeze. It's been great for exercising and sitting out by the pool -- though the pool heater was broken when we got here and didn't get repaired until Wednesday, so we didn't actually go in the pool until yesterday. I haven't minded one bit, as I've just been happy to be able to wear a single layer of clothing again and to need sunglasses!

I've spent most of my knitting time working on my cowl, which is now about 2/3 done:

I took some time to weave in ends after I'd finished the first repeat because there are an awful lot of ends, but I'm actually not minding it all that much. With so many short floats on the inside, it's actually pretty easy to hide those ends.

We had a quiet day yesterday, as you would expect. After a breakfast of waffles and fresh fruit, I went for an eight-mile walk while listening to an audiobook, and then I spent part of the afternoon floating in the pool and starting another book. We had a nice dinner and a relaxing evening. It was all very satisfactory.

This weekend we'll look forward to the arrival of my brother and his family, at which point the vacation will get slightly less relaxing because there will be two toddlers in the house. But I'm looking forward to spending more time with them and to seeing my aunt and uncle, who are going to drive over from the other side of the state for the day early next week.

I hope your holiday week has brought a much-needed pause and time for what matters -- being with those you love, whether they're family, friends, or both. I know it's been a rotten year for so many of us for a number of reasons, so I hope you're going out of your way to find joy wherever you can.

Unraveled, Week 52/2025

Hello, friends, and happy Christmas Eve! I hope you all had a good Festivus yesterday, with all your grievances aired and your feats of strength well executed. It's Wednesday, so I'm joining in with Kat and the Unravelers for the weekly update on making and reading.

I'm happy to report that I actually finished my father-in-law's hat after getting my post ready Sunday night -- yes, I crocheted a hat in a day!

Pattern: Not-So-Chunky Guy Beanie by Elvee Dickinson (Ravelry link), size medium
Yarn: Knit Picks Chroma Twist Worsted (70% wool/30% nylon) in Cousteau, 0.7 skeins
Hook: 4.5 mm
Started/Completed: December 21

I had started this once before but didn't like the fabric; the pattern has you work through the front loop only for the body of the hat, and I felt that made it too floppy and loose. So I ripped it out and restarted, working through both loops on each stitch. I also joined each round with a slip stitch and chained to start the next one rather than working in a true spiral. I worked the the brim through the back loop as instructed, though, to give a bit of texture, and then worked the last few rounds as back post double crochet, one round of single crochet, and then the final round working the back loop of the penultimate round and the front loop of the next together in a single crochet (I'm not experienced enough to know if there's a technical term for that). Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But it has to be better than the ratty, machine-knit acrylic monstrosity I've been seeing my father-in-law wearing.

As that was the last holiday crafting left on my list, I've been using my vacation crafting for mainly selfish purposes. Designing has been something I've largely let go of this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it. Traditionally, I've used this vacation as a chance to work up design samples for the next year, though that hasn't been the case for several years. This year, I thought I'd reinstate it, and first on the list is a cowl version of my Xenolith hat (Ravelry link).

I'm using a set of six mini skeins from Fibernymph Dye Works, each one a semisolid from Lisa's Wild Atlantic Wildflowers colorway, which I used for a pair of socks for my sister-in-law last year. I'm planning to work at least three repeats of the stripes for a fairly tall cowl. There will be a lot of ends to weave in, but I love seeing all the colors so much I don't mind.

Now that I don't have to deal with work, I've had more time for reading and have finished three books since this time last week.

I am a big fan of Alix E. Harrow's books, so I immediately put her newest novel, The Everlasting, on hold as soon as my library had it and dropped everything else (other than work) as soon as I got it. This novel is part historical fiction, part fantasy, part something entirely new. It's a love story, a story about a female knight, and a story about how stories become history. There's a time travel element, and I'll admit that how that worked to change the story confused me a bit, but it turns out it didn't matter too much. What I love about Harrow's writing is how imaginative it is and how her female characters always defy stereotypes and expectations. I find it hard to even describe this book because it was so unlike any other I've read, even though it draws on fairy tales and stories of epic heroes. If you, like me, are an Alix Harrow fan, then I think you'll like this one. I gave it 4.5 stars.

I found a copy of The Idiot in my nearest Little Free Library several months ago and started reading it last month. It was slow going for a while, but I thought it was mainly because I was reading it right before bed, so I never managed very many pages at once. I was about halfway through when we left for vacation; I read a little more than 100 pages on the plane and finished it the next day. The premise is a young woman's experience in her first year at college. Like the author, she's Turkish American and attending Harvard. She also has very little experience in the wider world, both academically and socially. She takes a variety of classes and develops a crush on a classmate in her Russian language course. I kept reading because I kept expecting something interesting to happen, but frankly this book was just ... boring. Nothing much happens. There's a lot of thinking and talking without any real substance. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't really like it. I probably should have DNF'ed it, but I figured there had to be something of substance there if it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Maybe I'm just not smart to get it? I gave it 2 stars.

My first entirely-on-vacation read was the first in a series that came highly recommended by my friend Margene. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is a series following a young woman in 1880s London. In Volume 1, Emma has returned to her family's inherited home of Lapis Lazuli House, which has been inhabited by her cousin Archibald until she reaches the age of 21 and legally can take possession. Emma is an orphan and is relying on the house and a living left to her by a relative, but she soon discovers that Archibald has squandered much of the living, leaving Emma in a precarious situation. The entire book is written as Emma's diary, and she is a delightful and plucky heroine. I found this to be great on audio -- and all eight volumes that are published are available on Hoopla! Highlight recommend -- 4.5 stars.

I hope that those of you who are celebrating have a lovely Christmas full of good food and good company. We'll be having a quiet day here, though we'll have homemade cinnamon rolls and and big dinner because why not take advantage of a holiday to experience a little extra joy?

Dispatches from Vacation

Good morning! I am amazed that I remember what day it is after the weekend we had and how upset my normal schedule was. I was up at 3:30 on Saturday morning and we were out the door an hour later for our 6:45 a.m. flight, which amazingly (or perhaps not; I have a feeling the scheduled departure and arrival times are padded on purpose) got in a few minutes early. My parents were waiting at the airport and took us to brunch before we headed home to unpack. I went for a walk and showered before we went out to dinner, and I finally crashed at 9:30, having not taken a nap. I slept until a little after 7 yesterday morning. The day of travel was exhausting but went as well as it could have, and I feel 100% more relaxed.

Before we left town, I was working almost up to the last minute to get my niece's gift done so I could deliver all of them to my brother. I won't win any prizes for my embroidery, but I think they turned out pretty cute!

Pattern: Cat Stack by Claire Slade (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Fibernymph Dye Works Bona Fide (100% superwash merino) in Light Silver Green and a light brown (colorway name unknown), Fibernymph Dye Works Beguiled (75% superwash merino/20% nylon/5% stellina) in Love Notes, and Knit Picks Palette (100% wool) in black for embroidery
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Started/Completed: December 8/December 19
Mods: simplified the ears

These were a fun little knit, if a bit fiddly. They're worked using a series of short row wedges and finished by seaming the bound-off and cast-on edges and cinching the short ends (which become the top and bottom) tight. Though you can't see them here, they have tails at the back. Other than failing pretty miserably with the face embroidery, the only real modification I made was to simplify the ears. The pattern calls for knitting up two sides, seaming them, and putting a bit of stuffing inside. I was running out of time and patience, so these cats' ears are a single layer. They've all got a pouch with some poly pellets inside the stuffing, so they have a bean bag sort of feeling to them, and I hope that means my niece will enjoy playing with them.

I cast on a new project before we left so I'd have something to work on while we were on the plane. Surprise -- it's another hat!

When I found this skein in a bin in my stash, it had a Fibernymph Dye Works ballband on it but no label, so it took me a minute to remember what it was. This is Lisa's Nyan Cat colorway, and though I don't remember exactly when it was that I bought it, I know I did so because she had said she wasn't likely to be dyeing it again for a while. This is on her sparkly Bedazzled base. I'm making my pattern again, and this time I've ensured that both needles I'm using are the same size.

Speaking of hats, there's one I didn't finish before we left town, and in fact I ripped it out and started it over again yesterday. This is for my father-in-law, for whom I've knit several hats in the past that he seems to have misplaced, because every time I've seen him out recently in a hat, it's either been a baseball cap or some ugly synthetic store-bought thing that is fuzzy and has seen much better days. I decided to try my had at crochet, using this pattern (Ravelry link).

I originally followed the pattern, which has you work double crochets through the front loop only. But I thought the fabric was way too loose for my taste, and for a winter hat, you don't really want fabric with a lot of holes, so I ripped it out and started over, working the DCs through both loops as you normally would. What you see here was done in just a couple of hours yesterday, which gives you an idea of how fast crochet is!

We've got very little on the schedule for our trip, and that's just the way I like it. I have plenty of books to read, plenty of yarn with me to knit up, and a perfect forecast for running and walking. I'll admit I am missing Ruthie a lot, and she did have a rough first night with the dog sitter, but I've gotten videos of her running and playing with her new dog friends and I know she's in good hands. I'm resting and relaxing now so that when we're home, I can give her my patience and attention!

Ready to Relax

I'm not quite on vacation (as in I'm not out of town just yet), but I'm officially on vacation from work until January 5, and that goes a long way toward helping me unwind! Ruthie is being picked up by the dog sitter later this morning, and Molly is done with school at noon, so this afternoon will be all about cleaning the house (so I don't have to do it when I come home) and packing. I plan to drop the handmade gifts off at my brother's later on, and this evening we're getting together with the Mister's brother and his family to do our gift exchange. Tomorrow we'll be up at what I'm now referring to as "OMG o'clock" to get the airport for our 6:45 a.m. flight. It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 81ºF in Naples tomorrow!

I have to share one gift I received from the Mister for Chanukah that I think you will all appreciate:

This can sit on my bookshelf and I can update the number as I finish books. It felt pretty fun to be able to start with a big number, but of course it'll all reset come January 1.

My knitting for vacation is mostly set, though I'll have to wind a lot of yarn today. I'm taking supplies for two design projects (both colorwork cowls, one using mini skeins), a hat for me, and a pair of socks for my mother. I figure if I finish all of that, I'll go to the local Michaels and get some kitchen cotton for dishcloths.

And that's where I'm going to leave things for now, because I've got a lot of things to get done today and I need to go to bed early! I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll be back on Monday with a full wrapup of the holiday knitting and perhaps some shots of sunny Florida.