"You Are Here" by David Nicholls (re-read)

The April book for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club is one of my recent favourites, and one I thought would be perfect for the group: "You Are Here" by David Nicholls, who's written several other books I've enjoyed. I first read this one in June/July 2024 (reviewed here).  

Our main characters are two lonely, awkward people: geography teacher Michael, 42, has recently separated from his wife (Natasha), and is avoiding their empty home in York by taking longer and longer solo walks in the English countryside.  By contrast, Marnie, 38, a freelance editor and proofreader who works from home, spends her days holed up in her small London apartment, increasingly isolated since the departure of her husband Neil, as well as the pandemic lockdowns. All her friends are married and busy with their families. (Hmm, this sounds familiar...) 

Both Marnie and Michael are invited by their mutual friend Cleo to accompany her and a group of friends to hike a section of the Coast-to-Coast Walk through the scenic English countryside. Michael agrees -- but he intends to keep walking the entire 192 miles -- a journey that will take about 10 days to complete (and will end close to where Natasha is now living).  And Marnie finds herself deciding to walk "just one more day" along with him -- day after day after day...  

It's obvious these two are destined to fall in love (despite Cleo's plans to matchmake them both with other members of the group!). But there are plenty of twists and turns and unexpected stumbles and disappointments and discoveries along the way.  

I loved following Michael and Marnie on their journey together (physical and otherwise).  (I imagine there's been an uptick in people walking this trail since the book came out -- and I think a movie, properly done and filmed on location, would be wonderful!)  I loved that Marnie was an editor/proofreader (echoes of my previous life in the corporate world...), and some of her observations about the job made me laugh out loud.  :) 

And as someone who is childless not by choice, I very much appreciated the revelations that both Marnie and Michael are too.  As I said in my original review, "This is one of those rare novels where we CNBCers see our stories clearly and sympathetically reflected." Beyond the childless angle, it was nice to see two middle-aged characters gradually awakening to the possibility of second chances and new possibilities. 

My original rating for this book stands -- 4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded up to 5 on Goodreads. 

This was Book #3 read to date in 2026 (and Book #2 finished in February), bringing me to 8% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

"Crooked Adam" by D.E. Stevenson (re-read)

My D.E. Stevenson fan group recently concluded its group readalong/discussion of  "Crooked Adam," one of several DES novels written and set during the years of World War II in Britain. I read this book through myself back in early November before we started it as a group (my review here). 

"Crooked Adam" is Adam Southey -- "crooked" because he's lame and walks with a limp. His disability has kept him out of military service, and he's stuck teaching school at his alma mater (and frustrated about it).  

The school's headmaster, Sam Cooke, has developed a secret weapon that will help the war effort, and possibly even end the war -- and he enlists Adam's help to transport his work to a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands during the school's break, where a working model of the weapon will be constructed and tested. 

But enemy agents are after the plans -- and Adam and Dr. Cooke are in danger.  

A spy thriller/adventure novel is a bit of a departure for Stevenson from her usual cozy family dramas and romances. It's mildly entertaining (particularly the final section of the book, as the plot to steal the plans comes into clearer focus), with a cinematic quality to it (I could clearly picture some of the scenes -- in black & white, like a 1940s movie!). My enjoyment of the book was somewhat marred by a number of weaknesses, including meandering tangents and gaping plot holes (most of which I detailed in my original review). Chatting about the book with my fellow group members did help me to appreciate its merits more!  

I originally rated this book 3 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph, and that rating still stands. 

This was Book #2 read to date in 2026 (and Book #1 finished in February), bringing me to 5% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 1 book behind schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

Right now

Right now...* 

*(A (mostly) monthly series/meme.  Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first (similar) "The Current" post, here.)

**Note:  This post is a LONG one, covering two months:  both December 2025 & January 2026.**

December was a busy month.  The cold I contracted at Little Great-Nephew #1's 6th birthday party in mid-November hung on for quite a while, and when I finally did start feeling semi-human again, I was WAY behind on getting ready for Christmas!  Then we headed "home" to my parents in Manitoba on Dec. 21st. My parents have needed more and more support in recent years, and my time is never my own anymore whenever I'm there. (It was more than a week after our arrival before I finally managed to get out my laptop and sit with it for a while, vs my phone, which I find impossible to type more than a sentence or two on at a time...)  I only had a few days before Christmas to finish my shopping, decorate the house (according to my mother's exact specifications), buy all the supplies we needed for Christmas Eve and Day dinners, make salads, etc.  My sister & her partner arrived from the city just before Christmas Eve and we all had a (mostly) nice couple of days together, until... 

January:  The new year did not begin well (to put it mildly):  my mother died suddenly on New Years's Day, just days before she would have turned 85.  :(   We extended our stay another two weeks, until Jan. 18th to deal with the funeral and its aftermath, and support my widowed father.  I turned 65 (and officially became a senior citizen!!) on Jan. 12th while still in Manitoba -- and my dad forgot it was my birthday. :(  (One of these years, I'll get that birthday-on-the-beach I've been fantasizing about...!)  Once we got back to Toronto, we were busy again, unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning, restocking the fridge and cupboards, taking down our own Christmas tree, etc.  

And now here we are, already in February...! (My LEAST favourite month!) 

Some of the things I/we did these past two months include: 

• Met with our financial advisor. (Dec. 1st)
• Made multiple trips/stops to the supermarket for groceries and takeout pizza slices and/or soup, as well as to the drugstore to pick up prescriptions and sundries. 
• Went walking and shopping at the local mall (Dec. 2nd -- first time since Nov. 11th, before I got sick! -- as well as Dec. 9th & 16th, and then Jan 20th & 27th). 
• Did some Christmas shopping and errand-running locally on a busy afternoon (Dec. 5th):  Michaels (photo frames, Christmas stuff), Carters/Oshkosh (presents for the kids), Chapters (ditto, plus some cards), supermarket and drugstore (dh picked up a prescription while I got some stamps for my Christmas cards at the Canada Post outlet). 
• Had shellac polish removed from my toes (the remnants of a late September pedicure), and a pedicure without new polish (Dec. 10th). 
• Drove out to the mall in our former community for haircuts, lunch & shopping (Dec. 12th & Jan. 23rd). 
• Stopped at the cemetery on our way there for a brief visit with Katie (both times).  
• Slipped in the bathtub and banged up the back of my left thigh, just above the knee (Dec. 14th). Noticed a big bruise on Wednesday, Dec. 17th. Fretted about it for the rest of the week, throughout my month in Manitoba, and then again following our flight back to Ontario on Jan. 18th...!  
• (Finally) Went to see our family doctor about it on Jan. 21st.  He agrees I banged it up pretty badly, but did not think the lingering aches & pains were the sign of a blood clot ( = what I was afraid of, especially after flying -- albeit just for 2-2.5 hours!).  He said it will probably need further time to resolve. (I was greatly relieved! -- and, oddly enough -- or maybe not?? -- my leg has felt a lot better since then!)
• Went to Staples for supplies and then to the bookstore for a browse and some gift cards. (Dec. 15th) 
• Consulted a local dermatologist about my rosacea (on the advice of my optometrist). Got two prescriptions, including one for a month's worth of doxycycline, and another for Rosiver cream (which I'll be using indefinitely). (Dec. 16th) 
• Stopped at the bank for some cash from the ABM (Dec. 17th). 
• Celebrated Little Great-Nephew #2's first birthday with the rest of the family at BIL's house (Dec. 20th). 
• Headed to Manitoba for Christmas (Dec. 21st). 
• Renewed my driver's license and health card and had a new photo taken (which will be used for both) at the local Service Ontario office on Jan. 19th, the day after we returned (and a week past my birthday -- which is when both cards expired -- erk!).  
• Took down our own Christmas tree -- on Jan. 21st! (erk!)  Definitely the latest we've ever done that!  
• Went to a local Italian restaurant for a belated birthday celebration (Jan. 23rd). (See "Eating," below.)  
• Spent some of my Christmas gift cards and used my birthday discount at the local bookstore (Jan. 28th).  :)  
• Headed up to Older Nephew's with BIL & SIL for lunch & some great-nephew (and dog!) spoiling. :) (Jan. 31st) 

While in Manitoba, we:  

• Played cards almost every night. My dad loves it and, as he said after Mom died, "It's something to do."  I think it helps keep his mind off things. 
• Also played TV bingo on Saturdays (and won!).  
• And did jigsaw puzzles, which Dad borrows from the local library. 
• Sister & I visited the library to return completed puzzles, get new ones and ensure Dad could continue using Mom's library card. (The librarians had already heard about Mom, and changed the card to his name. As I've said, gotta love small towns...!) 
• Made multiple trips to the local grocery store, as well as the drugstore, dollar store and ABM at the credit union, before and after Christmas. 
• Assembled and decorated the tree and the house to Mom's specifications (and then took everything down again after her birthday and funeral).  I've generally been the person in charge of decorating the tree (it's usually been up already by the time we got there), but I think this was the first tine I've taken it down since I spent a year living with Mom & Dad, 41 years ago!), 
• Helped Dad & my sister with Christmas dinners, including prepping and stuffing the turkey on Christmas morning, and doing cleanup, as well as other dinners later. (My mother stopped doing most of the cooking years ago, although she did make a salad for Christmas Eve dinner, and she & my sister made butter tarts together earlier in the month. She was still talking about making our traditional shortbread cookies after Christmas -- which, of course, never happened...)  
• I'm not sure what we'll be doing for Christmas 2026, but I'm already thinking I should set aside time to bake some of our traditional cookies. I did that for Christmas 2020 (during the pandemic), since I realized I wasn't going to get any otherwise...! 
• Made and fielded umpteen phone calls and visits to and from relatives, friends and neighbours after Mom died. 
• Planned & attended Mom's funeral, picked out her urn, delivered an outfit to the funeral home for her to wear on her final journey, wrote her obituary and posted details on social media. 
• Rebooked our flights home (originally scheduled for Jan. 4th; changed to Jan. 18th). 
• Visited a local lawyer with Dad & my sister to discuss Mom's will. 
• Began clearing out Mom's things from her closets, drawers, bathroom vanity, etc., and dropped some bags & boxes off at the local thrift shop. (My sister is continuing to work on this.)  
• Browsed through through some old letters, clippings, etc. that Mom's cousin's daughter brought with her from their hometown in Minnesota, as well as a box full that Dad produced from the garage!  Sorted them into piles according to sender and date (some written by my sister & me to our grandparents when we could barely print (!), some from my mom that I've saved for myself, some that I'll send to the writers' families). 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 3 books in December and 1 in January (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads & StoryGraph, & tagged "2025 books" and "2026 books"   

• "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald -- a slow readalong with Footnotes and Tangents, which started Nov. 3rd and ended the week of Dec. 15th. (3-3.5 stars; my review.) 
• "How To Kill Your Family" by Bella Mackie (the January pick for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club). (4 stars;  my review.) 
• "The Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman. (5 stars;  my review.)  
• "Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott (the February choice for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club). (3.5-4 stars, my review.) 

Current reads: 

• "You Are Here" by David Nicholls (the April selection for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club;  previously read in 2024 and reviewed here).  
• Crooked Adam by D.E. Stevenson, together with my DES fan group (after initially reading through it myself). I'll count it as a re-read when we finish, on or before Feb. 3 (2026). 96% completed (one chapter to go!). 
• "Childless: A Woman and a Girl in a Man's World" by Fabiana Formica.  This one is beautifully written, but slow going, and I was reading it (or trying to...!) at Mom & Dad's last summer, where there were a lot of distractions. I've put it aside for the moment to focus on other reading priorities, but I've completed 33% to date.
• "L.M. Montgomery and Gender," an essay collection edited by E. Holly Pike & Laura Robinson. Slowly working my way through, in between the other books...! 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club:  
• "The Safekeep" by Yael Van der Wouden (March). (I read this one recently and will likely not revisit it, particularly since I'm not leading the discussion.)  
• (Books for May onwards to be determined...) 
• For my D.E. Stevenson group:  
• The Four Graces, likely beginning in mid-February 2026 (original 2015 review here). 

• Footnotes and Tangents slow readalongs for 2026 include:
• "Midnight’s Children" by Salman Rushdie (January–March):  I was debating whether to take part in this one. Needless to say, when it began in early January, I was otherwise preoccupied.  :(    Hoping to tackle at least a couple of the other slow reads planned for this year, including.... 
• "Regeneration" by Pat Barker (April–May)
• "The Inheritors" by William Golding (June)
• "Treacle Walker" by Alan Garner (July)
• "The Children’s Book" by A.S. Byatt (September–December)

A few recently purchased titles (all in digital format, mostly discounted ($5-10 or less) or purchased with points):  (Not adding links this time around...!) 

• "Freedom" by Angela Merkel. 
• "Bone of the Bone" by Sarah Smarsh
• "Possession" by A.S. Byatt 
• "Elbows Up!  Canadian Voices of Resistance and Resilience" ed. by Elamin Abdelmahmoud
• "August Lane" by Regina Black 
• "Nesting" by Roisin O'Donnell 
• "Night People" by Mark Ronson 
• "Awake" by Jen Hatmaker
• "The Trouble With Fairy Tales" by Plum Johnson 
• "Bread of Angels" by Patti Smith 
• "Softly, As I Leave You" by Priscilla Presley & Mary Jane Ross 
• "We Breed Lions" by Rick Westhead 
• "The Smiling Land" by Alan Doyle 
• "John Candy" by Paul Myers 
• "Vagabond" by Tim Curry 
• "Book of Lives" by Margaret Atwood 
• "Sorry, Not Sorry" by Mark Critch 
• "Throwing Rocks at Houses" by Colleen Jones & Perry Lefko 
• "Future Boy" by Michael J. Fox & Nelle Fortenberry 
• "Paper Girl" by Beth Macy 

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Watching: 

• Figure skating: I watched some of NBC's coverage of the the Grand Prix final in Nagoya, Japan, on Dec. 7th;  some of the U.S. & Canadian national championships in early January, while at my parents' house, and the European championships later in the month.  
• I can't believe the Winter Olympics start soon...! 
• Lots of curling! My dad is a big fan, and dh likes to watch too. I don't mind;  I've never curled myself, but I spent a LOT of time watching my parents at the curling rink when I was growing up, and I was amazed at what I was able to pull from my memory to tell dh about the sport when they started including it in the Olympics some years ago!  (It beats watching football!  lol)  
• (As I wrote in this post) We watched "Wicked" at my sister's house in Winnipeg the night before we headed home to Toronto from spending Christmas (and the aftermath) with my family. I thought it was OK, but to be honest, it didn't thrill me. 
• "Finding Your Roots" -- a new season on PBS, Tuesday nights, which began in January. 

Playing:  

• Heardle Decades: 
• Heardle 60s: 
• As of Dec. 31st:  73.6% (840/1141, ?? on first guess), down 0.1% from Nov. 30th. Max. streak: 20 (up by 5 since Nov. 30th!).
• As of Jan. 31st:  74.0% (855/1167, 340 on first guess), up 0.4% from Dec. 31st. Max streak:  20. 
• Heardle 70s: 
• As of Dec. 31st: 76.0% (670/882, ?? on first guess), down 0.3% from Nov. 30th. Max. streak: 18. 
• As of Jan. 31st:  75.9% (681/897, 378 on first guess), down 0.1% from Dec. 31st. Max streak: 18. 
• Heardle 80s: 
• As of Dec. 31st: 41.6% (309/742, ?? on first guess), up 0.4% from from Nov. 30th. Max. streak: 5.
• As of Jan. 31st: 41.6% (315/757, 113 on first guess), unchanged from Dec. 31st. Max. streak: 5.
• Heardle 90s: 
• As of Dec. 31st:  33.9% (269/814, ?? on first guess), up 0.9% from Nov. 30th. Max. streak: 9 (up by 4 from Nov. 30th). 
• As of Jsn. 31st:  34.0% (292/858, 78 on first guess), up 0.1% from Dec. 31st. Max. streak: 9. 
• NYT Connections: 
• By Dec. 31st, I'd played 520 games and won 89% of them (1% more), including 276 "perfect puzzles" with zero errors, including 16 where I got the most difficult/purple category first (3 more than in November).  Maximum winning streak: 45 (unchanged). Current streak: 33. 
• As of Jan. 31st, I had 535 completed games, won 89% of them, including 283 "perfect puzzles," including 16 where I got the most difficult/purple category first (unchanged from Dec. 31st). Maximum winning streak:  45 (unchanged).  Current streak:  12.  

Listening:  I mostly use Spotify to listen to podcasts -- but last fall, I found a couple of playlists that reflected my tastes and reminded me of the songs & artists I used to listen & dance to in my youth. As a result, for the first time, I wound up with one of those year-end "Wrapped" reports in early December. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the entire thing again :p  but I did share the list of my top 5 artists on FB:  The Monks (their album "Bad Habits" became a cult classic when I was in university in the early 1980s -- but only in Canada, apparently, and Ontario especially), Joe Jackson, Squeeze, The Knack and Devo (lolol). My top genre was Power Pop, I listened for a grand total of 282 minutes, and my listening age is 62!  (You can read more about The Monks and "Bad Habits" here, here and here.) 

Following:  

Eating/Drinking:  

• Less-than-stellar bloodwork results in the cholesterol/lipid categories in mid-November (as mentioned in November's Right Now post, published in early December) left me certain that my family doctor was going to put me on (more) medication. But in a follow-up phone call on Dec. 3rd, he simply encouraged me to keep trying to get those numbers down, and said we'll retest in March. REPRIEVE!  lol  Was I relieved!! 
• (I may need to ask for a further reprieve, given that my stay in Manitoba was a little longer than I had anticipated -- and needless to say, diet was not the top of my mind...)  
• (To recap, we'd both had cholesterol numbers that were out of normal range back in fall 2024, but managed to wrestle them down by January 2025, by making a concerted effort to eat better and lose weight.  I will admit we've done a bit of backsliding on the diet front, albeit we are still eating better than we were in fall 2024.  We've both resolved to try to do better, again! in 2026.) 
• When I weighed myself mid-month (a few days after our return from Manitoba) for the first time since Dec. 19th, I was down 2 pounds! -- which was a pleasant surprise, given the fact that my diet was not exactly stellar while I was away. 
• On the other hand, I was more active than usual, doing things around the house -- including a lot of stairs...!
• I was down another 0.4 pounds the following week (this past Friday). 
• I ended January 2.8 pounds lighter than I was at the end of November. Overall, I'm down 14.2 pounds since late October 2024, and a little over 26 pounds from my heaviest-ever weight  (August 2021). 
• (Dh gained a few pounds over Christmas and is down not quite 20 pounds overall since fall 2024.)
• At my parents' house, we ate pretty well over the Christmas period (turkey and all the trimmings for Christmas dinner, with lots of leftovers stretching over the next few days, pork tenderloin another day, etc.) -- a little less so afterwards. There were butter tarts, but no shortbread cookies got made, although Parents' Neighbours' Daughter brought over a container of cookies, and we had several apple pies in the freezer, one of which we baked and had on New Year's Eve. 
• As I mentioned in this post, neighbours and friends brought over a lot of food after my mother died.  Not all of it was stuff I could eat because of my tomato allergy (hamburger soup, pasta dishes), but it all helped. A couple of things I remember:  
• We got a TON of buns -- many of them homemade. I think at one point we had something like 6 or 8 dozen buns in the house!  (My sister took some home and some went into the freezer.)  
• One of my dad's former coworkers brought over an entire home-cooked dinner one night -- a big chunk of excellent roast beef (from a cow from their own farm!), mashed potatos, really tasty gravy, veggies, two dozen homemade buns, and a dessert called Harvest Cake with thick caramel icing that was absolutely fabulous. The five of us (dad, me, dh, my sister & her partner) had it for dinner that night, and my sister took home leftovers that they had for dinner the next night -- but there was still enough for another full dinner for dh, Dad & me, as well as meat for sandwiches for lunch for a couple of days after that too.  
• A neighbour brought over an apple pie (warm from the oven) and homemade perogies (yum!).  
• One of Mom's good friends and a former coworker brought over two dozen buns, two packages of sliced deli meat (black forest ham and roast beef) and a package of two-bite mini-cupcakes (chocolate, Mom's favourite). 
• My parents get government-subsidized meals for seniors a couple of times a week -- and since my sister and I and our partners are all 55+, we can get them too whenever we're there.  They're available on weekdays -- eat in (at a local seniors residence), delivered or pick up. Dad prefers to pick up most days (gets him out of the house), but neighbours will pick up and deliver to him when it's cold & icy outside.  The meals are usually pretty tasty, nutritionally balanced and always include a protein (meat), starch (usually potatos or rice), veggies/salad, a bun and a dessert -- all for $7.50 (Canadian dollars).  Not bad!  They're ready for noon/lunch, but Dad prefers to refrigerate his and then heat it up in the microwave for supper. 
• We also had takeout a couple of times from local restaurants, including some really good chicken fingers, fries and coleslaw from one place, and a chicken caesar wrap with fries from another. 
• The chicken fingers come with honey dill sauce, a Manitoba specialty! -- albeit it's not something I grew up with;  it only became popular after I grew up and left the province. (One of these days, I'm going to bring a jar home with me! -- you can't find it in Ontario!) 
• Went to a favourite nearby Italian restaurant on Jan. 23rd for a belated 65th birthday dinner... I had a Caesar salad, orecchiette pasta with chopped sauteed rapini and crumbled sausage, and tiramisu for dessert.  (And a glass of white wine.) Yum!  (The portions were huge, so I took home leftovers for dinner the next day too!)  
• Older Nephew's Wife (who is an excellent cook!) made us a yummy orzo pasta with shrimp & cheese, airfryer chicken strips & potatos, and salad for lunch (Jan. 31st). 
• We also indulged in some of our usual takeout meals from the supermarket for lunch once or twice a week (pizza slices & soup), plus teriyaki rice bowls for occasional Saturday night dinners. We also indulged in Swiss Chalet's annual Festive Special before leaving for the holidays -- 1/4 rotisserie chicken with choice of sides, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bun-- and five Lindor chocolate truffles! lol.

Wearing: My collection of holiday-themed waffle-weave shirts from Old Navy, were brought to the forefront of the closet again during December, and I brought several of them with me to my parents' house for the holidays. Of course, I then wound up wearing them a whole lot more than I had anticipated, and well into mid-January, when we wound up staying longer than we had originally planned.  

I also wore my heavy winter coat and boots there, vs my lighter-weight (and shorter length) down jacket (and was glad I did!).

I hadn't brought anything with me to Manitoba to wear beyond jeans and yoga pants (now I know why the Royal Family always travels with a set of mourning clothes, just in case... although of course, they have servants to carry their luggage for them...!). Likewise, dh just had jeans and pajama pants.  We were considering an emergency shopping trip into the city to find something suitable to wear to Mom's funeral -- but then my sister dived into our mother's closet and found a pair of black twill pants for me. Size 12 (!) but they FIT!!  I had brought a nice grey sweater with me and I also wore that.  Dh wound up borrowing a pair of grey pants from Parents' Neighbours' Daughter's husband -- they fit perfectly too!  Thankfully, the small town/rural area where my parents live is pretty casual these days (I've seen people wearing jeans and even shorts at weddings there in recent years....!), and I don't think anyone would have faulted us even if we had worn jeans. 

Buying (besides books, lol):  Presents for both Christmas and Little Great-Nephew #2's pre-Christmas birthday. (Now I'm collecting things for their Valentine's Day goodie bags, as well as LGNiece's 3rd birthday, coming up in February.)  

Christmas gifts for my parents, sister & dh, as well as the three Little Princesses. 

Two lighter-weight sweaters with polo necks/collars from Old Navy (one black, one white) and a cropped henley sweatshirt from American Eagle, all on sale. 

A blouse and a sweater from Reitmans, using a Christmas gift card from dh and my birthday discount.  :)  

Noticing: The Rosiver cream prescribed by the dermatologist I saw in December appears to be more effective at dealing with rosacea than it was for covid.  ;)  (Look up the more popular name for it and you'll understand what I'm referring to! -- the "iv" in the name is a hint...!)  I have noticed an improvement in the redness and (minor) breakouts I was experiencing. Not perfect, but better.  Yay!  

Appreciating:  My parents' wonderful neighbours and friends, who brought tons of food over for us to eat after Mom died, and have been keeping Dad company (and keeping an eye out for him) since we returned home. 

Trying:  To get back to "normal" after a couple of pretty stressful months, including a full month away from home...!  And: to get at least one thing crossed off my lengthy to-do list that's piled up even further over the past month or two...!   

Hoping:  That this extreme cold spell ends soon.  (Brrrr!)  (Related:) Prioritizing:  Staying safe & warm. (It was the snowiest January on record in Toronto!). 

Wanting: A little more sunshine vs grey & gloom. (It IS clear and sunny today!) 

Wondering: How the rest of the year is going to unfold...

Anticipating: That this will be an expensive year...  :p  

• We still have another installment on the special assessment levied by our condo corporation to cover repairs to the roof as well as the parking garage -- and a new boiler has been ordered, since one of the two we use went kaput over the Christmas holidays, creating hot water shortages (!).  
• The master bathroom shower needs another look from a plumber (as detailed here.) (We've been showering in the other bathroom/tub in the meantime.)  
• We'll likely be back & forth to Manitoba a few more times than usual this year, for obvious reasons. (Flying within Canada is not cheap, and neither is driving -- and we certainly won't be driving until the weather improves...!)  
• My sister & I split the cost of Mom's funeral between us -- and there's still a plot or niche to buy and the interment of Mom's ashes to organize.  
• My heavy/warmest winter coat (which I mostly wear in Manitoba) is almost 20 years old and showing some signs of wear, and so is probably due for replacement soon. (Maybe next fall...) 
• I am going to need new glasses sooner vs later, and likely both regular and reading/computer glasses, since both are more than 10 years old and horribly scratched up. (Just waiting to see if I'm going to need more eye surgery, after I my opthomologist appointment in April -- backstory here.) 
• And... the springs on the door of our dishwasher have both snapped (first one, last year, then the other, this weekend -- made a horrible BANG that scared the crap out of us...!).  It still works (no leaks, we've checked!), but you have to lower the door VERY SLOWLY and not let it just drop, because it weighs a ton! -- and it came off one of the hinges this morning (we were able to rehinge the door and close it again, whew!).  Debating whether it's worth fixing vs just buying a new dishwasher. It was installed when the building was new (about a year before we bought this unit = about 11-12 years old), and the racks are also showing some signs of wear, although it's still cleaning the dishes well. (Knocking wood...!)
• (Any recommendations on dishwashers?  This one is a GE Profile, 23.5" door -- probably 24" wide total, including the frame, etc. We always had Kenmores at the house, but Sears Canada, where we bought them, is no more. The less noisy the better, since our kitchen/dining/living area is relatively small.)  

Enjoying:  Sleeping in my own bed again!  

Loving:  The big box of Lindor milk chocolates I got with my stocking on Christmas morning.  ;)  I've been limiting myself to one per day (there can't be THAT much cholesterol in one chocolate, can there??).  

                           

Feeling: Stunned by my mother's sudden death. (I know, she WAS almost 85, and I was lucky to have her for as long as I did, but..!). Sad (and guilty) to leave my 86-year-old dad by himself. Relieved that my sister is not that far away, and will be spending more time with him over the next while. (Nevertheless)  Glad to be home again. Also:  Disbelieving that I could actually be 65 years old (!!).  And: (partly) glad that my proudly Minnesota-born mother is not around to see what has happened there over the past month. She would have been heartbroken.  :(  

"Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott (re-read)

"Ex-Wife" by Ursula Parrott is the February choice for my Childless Collective Nomo Book Club. I first read this book in November 2023, when Lyz Lenz (an ex-wife herself) chose it for the book club she ran as part of her Men Yell at Me Substack newsletter (which has since moved over to Patreon). You can find my original review here (which includes more background and some interesting links about the book & the author).  . 

I'd never heard of this book, but it was a best-seller when it was first published -- anonymously -- in 1929, and actually more successful at the time than "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald!  It was republished in 1989, and again more recently, along with a new biography of Parrott, "Becoming the Ex-Wife" by Marsha Gordon. 

The plot:  Patricia and her husband Peter, both in their early/mid-20s, live and work in New York City. They have a busy social life, and an open marriage -- but when Patricia sleeps with Peter's friend, he (hypocritically) calls her a slut and leaves her for another woman. Patricia moves in with another "ex-wife," Lucia, and embarks on a life filled with parties, cocktails, speakeasies and men, all the while hoping to win Peter back. 

"Ex-Wife" is both dated -- a portrait of a very specific time and place -- and yet strangely familiar to modern readers.(In some ways, it made me think of "Sex and the City."). It was considered shocking/scandalous in 1929, with its frank depictions of "career women" indulging in smoking, drinking, extra-marital sex and one-night stands, as well as miscarriage and baby loss, abortion, rape and domestic violence. It won't appeal to everyone, but it's worth a read if you're interested in the period, or in forgotten/ignored books written by female authors, showing the complexities of women's lives. I appreciated the honest portrayal of a woman learning to roll with the unexpected punches of life, and the way the women support each other throughout the book. And, needless to say, the story of a woman who is suddenly faced with rebuilding her life and finding new meaning and purpose, certainly resonated with me!  

3.5 stars on StoryGraph, and (after some internal debate) rounded up to 4 on Goodreads. 

ALI alert: abortion, baby loss and coping with other women's pregnancies. 

This was Book #1 read to date in 2026 (and Book #1 finished in January), bringing me to 3% of  my 2026 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 40 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 2 books behind schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2026 tagged as "2026 books." 

2025 Blogging Year in Review

A hat tip to Mali, whose post "2016: Looking back on the blog" has inspired me to do the same for the past several years. Also to Mel, whose Crème de la Crème lists from 2007 to 2012 prompted me & other bloggers to review our posts from the year past & pick out our favourites to share.  (There was a list in 2006 too, but that was before I started my blog.)  If the Crème de la Crème list still existed, one of these posts would probably be the one I would have submitted. :) ) 

*** *** *** 

2025 was not as prolific in blogging terms as the past several years have been. 2021 was my best year ever in terms of numbers of posts (213). I ended the year with 132 posts, the fewest since 2016, when I published 133 posts.  

That's (still) an average of 11 posts per month (one fewer than my average 12 of the past few years). My least-chatty month was July, with 6 posts. My most verbose was September, with 15 (thanks in large part to daily posts during World Childless Week 2025!  lol)  Not bad, especially after 18+ years of blogging!  

I don't check my blog stats very often, but I had a look at the ones for the past 12 months (which now includes part of January), and (as of today), I had 1.76 million views (!) 71,000+ views and 185 comments this year (page views more than doubled over last year (!), but comments were down). As I noted in this post from September, I suspect that huge spike in views was due more to some kind of bot activity than actual eyes on screens. :p  

The top-viewed post of 2025  that was written/posted IN 2025 -- was this "odds & ends" post from Sept. 2nd, with 431 views to date. (Not sure what was so attractive about it??    

In addition to posts about or related to childless/free issues or other adoption/loss/infertility issues, I tried to do a "Right now" post at the beginning of each month, participated in 38 #MicroblogMondays this year, and reviewed all 38 books that I read in 2025.  

I also wrote a lot about other things going on in my life, including aging, retirement, memories of the past, being an auntie & great-auntie, and condo living. There were lots of "odds & ends" posts, passing along and/or commenting on news items, blog & Substack posts and podcasts, etc. (usually ALI-related) that piqued my interest,.as well as lists of recent "small pleasures & annoying things."  I stopped doing monthly pandemic updates in my Right Now posts in May, and mostly stopped masking by summertime. Which is not to say that covid isn't still out there...! 

Normally, I would choose a few favourite/noteworthy posts from the past year to highlight here -- but in the interests of time and getting this (finally!) published, I'm going to skip that this time around.  (Did any of you have a favourite or memorable post from here this past year?)  

#MicroblogMondays: A few odds & ends, after holidays & loss

• 
  We are home... four weeks/one month after we left, and two weeks later than we'd originally planned. 
• I still have to (mostly) unpack. 
• There are 20 gazillion things on my to-do list.
• I am exhausted. 
• The original plan was for my sister and her partner to come out from the city on Friday night, and for her & me to spend Saturday clearing our our mother's drawers and at least some of her closets, then head into the city on Sunday morning before our early afternoon flight back to Toronto.  
• Those plans were somewhat derailed when high winds and blowing snow reduced visibility to nil in many areas of southern Manitoba and closed several highways leading to & from the city, including both routes to the small town where my dad lives. (What can I say? -- it's winter -- in Manitoba... snow happens, lol.)  
• Saturday was much better, and they arrived late that morning -- BUT, the forecast called for more blowing snow overnight, into Sunday morning, including blizzard conditions in some rural areas. (Not to mention extreme wind chill values that could lead to frostbite within minutes, if stranded.)  
• So we decided that we'd head back into the city after supper, spend the night at my sister's house, and she'd take us to the airport the next morning. (Dh frets about getting to the airport in plenty of time, even in the best weather conditions, so he was much relieved.)  
• Our plans to do some closet cleaning went by the wayside as we wrapped up some loose ends, packed, ran a few errands for Dad and rounded up some dinner. 
• It was very hard to leave our newly widowed 86-year-old dad alone for the first time since Mom died (barring a few times when we'd been out briefly, shopping and running errands).  :(  His neighbour was coming over that evening after we left to watch the hockey game with him, thank goodness. Knowing he has great neighbours who will look out for him and help him out made it a little easier to go.  My sister will be taking some long weekends and working remotely from time to time over the next while as well, so that she can spend time with him (and time working on the big house clearout...!). And I promised him we'd be back in the spring to help;  sooner, if needed.   
• We watched "Wicked" that night at my sister's house before heading to bed, exhausted.  Dh actually did go to bed before it was over -- he was exhausted (and later confessed to me that he was bored stiff by it).  I thought it was OK -- Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo can certainly sing! -- but it didn't thrill me. (I've never seen the play.)(Perhaps the movie played better on the big screen??)  Your mileage may vary, of course...! 
• The roads in the city were far worse than the highways outside had been. At the airport on Sunday morning, the visibility was so poor we could hardly see the airplanes parked at the gates!  But things were running relatively on time, and visibility began to improve while we sat in the waiting area.  Our flight touched down in Toronto just six minutes later than scheduled!  
• In the waiting area outside our gate at the airport, they made the standard request to have a piece of government-issued photo ID ready, along with your boarding pass. Unusually this time, they emphasized that it must be a valid piece of ID.  (I don't remember them saying that before.)  
• "Uh oh," I said to dh, as it dawned on me: my driver's license and health card had expired on Jan. 12th (my birthday) while we were still in Manitoba. I've always just used my driver's license as photo ID when travelling within Canada, and had not brought our passports with us (which are only required when travelling to the U.S. and other destinations outside the country). 
• I could not just renew and pay my fee online, because it's been 10 years since my last photo was taken, and I was required to have a new one taken at a Service Ontario office. (The same photo is used on my Ontario health card, which also expired on my birthday.)  
• I had received a reminder to renew about a month before my birthday, but of course we were busy with pre-Christmas stuff (and behind schedule after recuperating from the nasty cold I'd had in late November/early December), and I assumed I'd have time (a full week!)  to renew when I returned home. (The best-laid plans...!)  
• I called Service Ontario (would I have to do a road test again??), and they'd assured me that I could simply show up at one of their offices once I was back in Ontario, pay my fee and have a new photo taken.  BUT, until then, my license/health card would be invalid, 
• Sure enough, when I presented my boarding pass and driver's license at the gate, the flight attendant did a slight double-take as he scrutinized my card. "Your license expired on January 12th," he pointed out. I explained that we'd originally been booked to return on Jan. 4th, but had to rebook and extend our stay because of a death in the family. He beckoned dh (who'd already been cleared to board) back and looked at HIS ID, and then looked at my profile on his screen. "You arrived here on Dec. 21st?"  he asked me and I said yes. He made a few more clicks and then said, "Okay," handed me back my ID, and turned to the next person in line. Whew!  
• (Moral of the story: renew your ID as soon as possible, even if it's not a convenient time and you think you will have plenty of time later before the deadline...!) 

• Here at our condo, one of the building's two hot water boilers is on the fritz. A part has been ordered, but until it's fixed, the property manager is asking residents to conserve hot water and try to use it during off-peak hours. Oh dear...! 
• The Christmas tree and other decorations are still up. I have the tree lights plugged in today (because, why not??).  We will take it down later this week, before we clean. 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

2025 Reading Year in Review

I started doing a specific "Reading Year in Review" post in 2020. I figured that since I was doing an overall year in review post (which includes some book information anyway), and a blogging year in review post -- and since keeping track of my books is a big thing I normally do on my blog -- my reading life deserved its own year-end wrap-up post too.  :)  

(Note:  I have not linked to all the books mentioned here, but they are all reviewed on this blog.) 

How did I do?  

I increased my Goodreads Reading Challenge goal from 36 books in 2021 to 45 books in 2022, kept (and met) that goal for 2023, and retained it for 2024 & 2025 -- although, unfortunately, I was not successful in reaching my goal in either year.  

• My Goodreads 2025 Year in Review report tells me I read 38 books with 12,413 pages (versus 37 books with 15,320 pages in 2024, 48 books with 16.980 pages in 2023 and 50 books with 17,047 pages in 2022). That's one more book than I read in 2024, but still 7 books below my goal of 45, or 84%.  (My best result ever: 59 books in 2021.) All the books I read this year were reviewed on this blog and tagged "2025 books." 
• The shortest book I read was "Peter West" by D.E. Stevenson (130 pages);  the longest was "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel (772 pages).  
• Average book length was 326 pages (down from 414 pages in 2024, and 353 pages in 2023). 
• (Note that one of the books I read in 2024 was "War and Peace"...!)
• The most popular book I read ( = most shelved by Goodreads readers) was "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang  (2.3 million readers);  the least popular was this one, a memoir written by my dear late friend R. (42 readers).   
• The highest-rated book I read was "I'm Sorry for My Loss" by Rebecca Little & Colleen Long (4.38 stars). 
• My average Goodreads rating in 2025 was 3.8 stars (lower than the 4.2 from the previous three years).  
• In 2021, I also started tracking books on The StoryGraph, which provides slightly different stats (and even more, with a paid subscription -- although I don't have one of those!). 
• StoryGraph reports that I read 38 books with 12,688 pages (slightly more than Goodreads recorded). 
• Average book length according to SroryGraph was 334 pages (slightly more than Goordreads reported). 
• Average time to finish a book: about 20 days. (This would be in good part because of the readalongs/slow reads I take part in...!) 
• Fastest read/least time spent:  "Peter West" by D.E. Stevenson (3 days).
• Most time spent:  "Anne of Windy Poplars" by L.M. Montgomery (143 days = not quite 5 months, part of a chapter-by-chapter readalong and discussion with my Montgomery Readathon Facebook group). 
• This year, StoryGraph provided a "mood map" of my reading during the year:  you can see a steady upward trend in the moods of my books over the year. 
•  The top/most dominant mood of my books was once again overwhelmingly "emotional" (value: 15 vs 16 last year), followed by "funny" (12), "reflective" (11), mysterious (8) and dark (7). 
• Like Goodreads, StoryGraph logged the longest book I read as "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel (768 pages), but the shortest according to StoryGraph was "Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole (200 pages).   
• The vast majority of my books were medium-paced (69%). 19% were slow and 11% fast. 
• 53% of my 2024 books were 300-499 pages;  45% were less than 300 pages and just 3% were over 500 pages. 
• Most pages read/finished:  1,852 in October. 
• 84% of my 2024 books were fiction;  just 16% non-fiction. This is a big change from recent years! (I credit the many book clubs I take part in, which mostly focus on fiction.)
• My most-read genre in 2025 was historical (value: 13), followed by literary (9), contemporary (7), mystery (5) and thriller (5)(similar to 2024).     
• StoryGraph also tracks the format of your books, but selects print as the default. The majority of my reads this year -- 76% -- were recorded as digital, vs 24% print.  (Note that some books do not have a "digital" option, in which case I choose print.) 
• Most-read authors in 2025:  D.E. Stevenson (7 books) and Richard Osman (3).  
• Average rating 3.81 stars (vs 3.8 on Goodreads, and 4.06 last year).  
• 5-star reads in 2025:  "I'm Sorry for My Loss" by Rebecca Little & Colleen Long and "The Impossible Fortune" by Richard Osman. 
• My highest average ratings came in June (4.25); the lowest was in August (3.38).
• Most shelved book:  "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang (445.598 users). Least shelved/popular: this one, a memoir written by my dear late friend R. (1 user, i.e., me!  lol).  
• Highest rated:  "I'm Sorry for My Loss" by Rebecca Little & Colleen Long (4.43 stars;  my rating was 5 stars). 
• I explored the work of 22 new authors, read 10 books that were part of a series, and revisited/re-read 5 books. 
• I read 6 books in October, my most prolific month, and just 1 in July. 
• I continued to take part in several online book clubs/groups/readalongs, which provided me with lots of reading/discussion pleasure, and helped boost my 2025 reading totals: they were responsible for 25 of the 38 books I read in 2025 -- more than half!   
• Sadly, the L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook, which began with "Rilla of Ingleside" in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, concluded earlier this year with one final book, "Anne of Windy Poplars" (review here). (The group still exists on Facebook, and members still post Montgomery-related content there, but we are no longer doing readalongs together.)  
• I continued to co-host the Childless Collective Nomo Book Club, where we read & discussed a book a month together ( = 12 books).  
• My D.E. Stevenson fan group read & discussed 3 DES books together in 2025, chapter by chapter (currently on #4). (I read each book first myself, and then counted our group read as a re-read.)
• I initially thought I would repeat one or both of Footnotes & Tangents' 2024 slow reads ("War & Peace" by Leo Tolstoy and Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy) -- but I soon realized there were lots of other books calling my name, and abandoned that idea. Perhaps someday... I do highly recommend the experience, especially if these are books you've always wanted to read!  
• I did take part in the 4 other slow reads offered by F&T in 2025, including "The Siege at Krishnapur" by J.G. Farrell, "A Place of Greater Safety" by Hilary Mantel, "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Adebe and "The Blue Flower" by Penelope Fitzgerald.  

Goals for 2026: 

• As noted above, I ended the year with 38 books read. I did not reach my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal of 45 books (nor did I come anywhere near equalling my 2021/best-recorded total of 59 books, when my goal was 36).  I initially thought I'd keep my goal of 45 books in 2026 -- but, given the recent events in my life, reading has taken a back seat for the time being (sadly, I have yet to start a book in January).  So I've decided to downsize my 2026 goal slightly to 40 books (and hope to do better than that...!). It's still a "stretch" goal, based on the past few years, and still works out to 3-4 books per month on average). 
• While I'm grateful for my book groups and the boost they give to my reading totals, and while I intend to keep up with them in 2026, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

2025 Highlights:  

• It's always very hard for me to pick a single book as "the best" that I read in any given year. I read some really good books this year, a few really great ones  and very few "meh" choices (3.8 stars on average.)  A few of my favourites, listed in the order I read them (I haven't linked to them here, but they're all reviewed on Goodreads, StoryGraph and this blog): 

• "Yellowface" by R.F. Kuang. I still find myself thinking about this one! 
• "The Mermaid of Black Conch" by Monique Roffey.  A lovely surprise. :)  
• "The Wedding People" by Alison Espach. A depressing-sounding premise that evolved into something absolutely delightful, especially as a childless-not-by-choice reader!  
• "I'm Sorry for My Loss" by Rebecca Little & Colleen Long. Both infuriating and validating.  
• "Rules for Visiting" by Jessica Francis Kane. This one grew on me as I read it! 
• "Kills Well With Others" by Deanna Raybourn, So much fun!!  :)  
• "Mania" by Stuart "Woody" Wood. I enjoyed reliving my days as a teenaged Bay City Rollers fan through the words of my favourite band member. 
• "The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley.  Love, love, loved this one. If I had to pick just one favourite book from 2025, this might be it.  
• "We Solve Murders" and "The Impossible Fortune," both by Richard Osman. Osman does it again -- both of these were pure delight.  

Did you meet your reading goals for 2025 (if you set any)? What great books did you read this past year?