Well, here we are at the start of another brand new year. To be completely honest with you, I am not sad to see 2025 go. There were a lot of crummy, hard, sad things this year. It was maybe even worse than 2020 for me. But like I did in 2020, I want to thank God for some of the blessings that made 2025 a little more bearable.
Like marking year 13 of life together with the best guy ever.
Like welcoming a new niece and a new nephew into the family and getting to have all my Hancock chicks together at my favorite place: the beach.
Like honoring my amazing parents' 40th anniversary by surprising my mom with all her kids in the same place at the same time.
Like trying our hand at growing some things and seeing the tomatoes go gangbusters.
Like having my best friends visit me this summer and going to baseball games galore.
Like getting a full-time job at Walmart which is exhausting but also great for my mental health.
Like fun little surprises in the mail, and going to the lake, and the leaves changing color, and late night movie dates, and Christmas lights, and little hands helping decorate the tree.
And, of course, always having books, books, and more books to read. Especially on the front porch with something cold—or hot, as the case may be—at hand to drink and my husband reading his book beside me.
Yes, there have been hard things. Yes, there are things I wish I could change about this past year. But God is faithful, He has given me strength and protected me from the evil one.
Okay, now back to all those books. This year, I made a starting list for myself of twenty books....and I read thirteen of them. Whomp whomp. But let's talk about my secret goal. This year, my secret goal was to actually finish David Copperfield. Which has been on and off my book lists since 2019. Which I started reading back in February of 2023. Which I kept picking up all year but didn't ultimately finish it till last night at 8:18 PM, and yes I did in fact mark the exact time I read the words "The End." Another down-to-the-wire finish, but I'm just super-jazzed I did it.
Overall, I finished the year with a nice round total of 40 books read. And you know the drill: here they all are with my quick thoughts on a bunch of them.
January
A Separate Peace by John Knowles : completed 1/25
Broke my heart. A masterpiece.
Little Men by Louisa May Alcott (re-read; read aloud) : completed 1/30
I've been bugging Cody to read Little Men ever since he finished Little Women and he finally just let me read it aloud to him. Great way to start the year.
February
Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare : completed 2/23
Silvia the GOAT!
Open Your Heart by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 2/28
Can't go a year without some Robin Jones Gunn.
March
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah : completed 3/7
Definitely lived up to the hype.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) :
completed 3/13
Cody and I read the whole Harry Potter series together this year!
Cinder by Marissa Meyer (re-read; partial read aloud) : completed 3/16
I started reading the Lunar Chronicles to Cody but it proved to be too YA and girly for him, so we switched to Harry Potter instead. (I still had to finish my re-read of Cinder though.)
April
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) :
completed 4/9
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand : completed 4/27
Phenomenal. Please give us a collection of Laura Hillenbrand's freelance work, Publishing People.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) :
completed 4/29
May
Fervent by Priscilla Shirer : completed 5/14
Still planning to recap this one, but suffice it to say: I needed this book this year.
Tales of Peter Rabbit and His Friends by Beatrix Potter (read aloud) : completed 5/22
You can never have enough Beatrix Potter.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : completed 5/28
Franklin Pierce by Michael F. Holt : completed 5/31
Still s l o w l y working my way through my presidential biographies goal.
June
Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (library book) : completed 6/9
Completely without guile. Loved this sweet Norwegian book.
Animal Farm by George Orwell : completed 6/29
Oof.
 |
| -David Copperfield still hanging over my head halfway through the year- |
July
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 7/25
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han : completed 7/26
Meh.
Desiring God by John Piper : completed 7/30
Helpful but wouldn't necessarily recommend.
August
It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han : completed 8/12
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate : completed 8/23
Did not live up to the hype. Recap coming.
We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han : completed 8/25
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) :
completed 8/28
This was the point in the series that Cody had not previously read by himself so I really enjoyed reading the last three books with him.
Coriolanus by William Shakespeare : completed 8/30
Going into another new year behind on my Shakespeare recaps. Will definitely be writing one soon!
September
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp : completed 9/6
One of my favorite books of the year. This was so good.
Home by Julie Andrews : completed 9/14
Home Work by Julie Andrews : completed 9/18
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter : completed 9/22
Instantly achieved All-Time Favorite status.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) :
completed 9/23
Cody said this was his favorite book of the series.
Time Will Tell by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 9/29
October
The World's Best Fairy Tales edited by Belle Becker Sideman (read aloud) :
completed 10/3
Not planning to do a full recap on this so I'm going to do a mini one here. Starting in July of 2024 I read all 69 fairy tales aloud—we couldn't find one more story to make it an even 70??—to various people in my life, including nieces, nephews, my husband, my best friends, and kids I babysit. It was a wild ride. Probably the craziest story was The Bronze Ring which I read with my nephew. I don't even know how to describe how crazy that story is to you. Right when we thought it couldn't possibly get zanier, we were wrong. You should look it up and read it sometime. It's by Henri Carnoy.
The Poetry of Robert Frost : completed 10/28
Also not planning to do a recap on this. How do you even recap poetry? Some of it I loved, some of it went over my head, some of it I don't care if I ever read again, some of it I bookmarked to read over and over. I loved incorporating poetry more consistently into my overall reading.
November
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 11/8
When I started working at Walmart, Anne Shirley went with me to keep me company on my breaks. I'll never get tired of Avonlea.
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson : completed 11/14
Still waiting for someone to explain how this became so mainstream.
Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 11/25
December
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley : completed 12/2
"How dare you sport thus with life?" So good.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) :
completed 12/21
NEVILLE!!! I'll never get over him chopping off Nagini's head. I actually lost my voice reading this one to Cody with all the screaming at the end. I put my all into it.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (re-read) : completed 12/24
Did I or did I not say you will catch me reading this every Christmas for the rest of my life?
Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon : completed 12/31
They don't call him the "Prince of Preachers" for nothing.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens : completed 12/31
It felt so good to check this one off. Recap coming so soon, I promise.
So many good books read, and so many more to read. I hope your 2026 is better than your 2025. Even if you had a great 2025, I hope 2026 is still better. May we all be as unbothered as Colonel when little hands are decorating him for Christmas. You know what I'm going to say...
...keep reading the best books first.
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