Alternate mid-year reading checkup

In a comment on last year's (2025) reading challenge mid-year checkup post, I noted that Modern Mrs. Darcy had posted a podcast episode on the same subject! albeit with a slightly different focus. (I wonder if I got the inspiration for this post, at least in part, from a previous MMD post?) I did not listen but I did read the transcript. And in the comments, MMD team member Shannan listed 13 questions that guided their conversation.  

I've only JUST read 13 books (plus one more, for 14 total) this year to date (cough! and sob...), and not all of the questions were easy to respond to -- but here are the questions, and a few answers from me. (Links for books I've read go to my reviews on this blog -- the most recent review, in the case of re-reads. Links for books I've yet to read go to their Goodreads page.) If you decide to answer any of these yourself, I'd love to read your responses!

*** *** *** 

MMD Questions: 

1. Fav fiction book you’ve read so far this year.
2. Fav nonfiction book you’ve read so far this year.
3. Fav sequel you’ve read so far this year.
4. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.
5. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.
6. Biggest disappointment.
7. Biggest surprise.
8. Favorite new author (debut or new to you).
9. Newest fictional crush.
10. Newest favorite character.
12. Book that made you cry.
13. Book that made you happy.

*** *** *** 

My responses:  

1. Fav fiction book you’ve read so far this year.

In terms of new fiction I've read (i.e., not a re-read), that would be "The Queen Who Came in From the Cold" by S.J. Bennett. As I said in my review, "Queen Elizabeth is gone now, but long may she reign in these delightful books. :) "  I also wound up enjoying "The Mitford Affair" by Marie Benedict a lot. 

2. Fav nonfiction book you’ve read so far this year.

I haven't read much non-fiction so far this year, or in recent years generally (I used to read more non-fiction than fiction!), but I very much enjoyed the one non-fiction book I have read so far: "Gimme a Crisis" by Howard Green, about the Canadian bank and CEO I used to work for. 

3. Fav sequel you’ve read so far this year.

That would also be "The Queen Who Came in From the Cold." 

4. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to.

"London Falling" by Patrick Radden Keefe (which I've actually just started!). "Say Nothing" was mind-blowingly good, and has stuck with me in the 7 (!!) years since I first read it. I still recommend it all the time. (I have a couple of his other books in my TBR pile too.) 

(ETA:  I drafted this post in advance, and actually just finished this one this morning! -- review to come!) 

5. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year.

Looking forward to "We Chase Shadows," the next "We Solve Murders" mystery by Richard Osman, coming out this fall, and "Death on the Royal Yacht," the sixth book in the "Her Majesty the Queen Investigates" series by S.J. Bennett, also publishing this fall. 

6. Biggest disappointment.

Not exactly a disappointment, because I didn't have any great expectations going in, but "The Hacienda" by Isabel Canas is not something I would have picked up on my own if it wasn't a book club read.  Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by a book club pick -- but reading this one confirmed that -- although it wasn't necessarily badly written (and it did keep me turning the pages!) -- it just wasn't really my kind of book. 

7. Biggest surprise.

Probably "Regeneration" by Pat Barker. It sounded interesting, but I didn't expect to find such well-drawn female characters in it too. Also the presence of several of the best-known WWI poets (Sassoon, Owen, Graves) was a pleasant surprise. The group I was reading the book with checked out some of their poetry as a "tangent," and it still packs a wallop, 100+ years later. 

8. Favorite new author (debut or new to you).

Pat Barker was new to me, and I would definitely like to read the other two books in the "Regeneration" trilogy, as well as some of her other work. 

9. Newest fictional crush.

It's from a re-read, but that would definitely be Commander Graham Gore, the hero/love interest of "The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley.  :)  

10. Newest favorite character.

Not new, because it was a re-read, but William Single in "The Four Graces" is many D.E. Stevenson fans' favourite male character, and he would definitely be a runner-up to Graham Gore as a fictional crush for me.  

12. Book that made you cry.

"In Memoriam" by Alice Winn, especially at the end (even though I'd read it before). 

13. Book that made you happy.

Couldn't pick just one (all re-reads): "You Are Here" by David Nicholls, "The Ministry of Time," and "The Four Graces." 

Reading challenge mid-year checkup

For the last five years around this time, I've done a mid-year check-in on the status of my Goodreads Reading Challenge and other reading goals -- and since the year is now halfway over (ummm.... WTF?!)  I thought it was timely to do it again.  :)  

In my 2025 Reading Year in Review post in January, under "Goals for 2026," I wrote: 

• ...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.  :)   

So.  Here we are at the midpoint of 2026 -- which suggests I should be about halfway toward my goal -- i.e., I should have read 20 books by now to keep up the pace of 3-4 books per month in order to reach my goal of 40 by the end of the year. 

I'm not there. (Not even close.)  :(   As I said in my Reading Year in Review post, recent events in my life (in particular, the death of my mom, the sale and cleanout of my parents' house, and spending extra time with my dad) have meant reading has not been as much of a priority, or as easy to fit into my day. 

I am currently at 14 books finished  = 35% of my 2026 goal (5 books behind schedule to meet my goal). I read 1 book in January, 4 in February, 1 in March, 2 in April, 2 in May and 4 in June.  Percentage-wise, I'm well behind where I've been at this time in previous years (when my goal was larger, 45 books):  44% of my goal in 2024 and 2025,  56% in 2023, 64% in 2022, and I was already at 94% in 2021 (! -- albeit my goal then was just 36 books -- and, I should note, it was peak pandemic then too! = not much else to do but sit around and read!). 

The online book clubs and readalongs I've been involved in over the years have not been as active recently, and/or I've not had as much time or interest to take part, which may also have contributed to my declining numbers.  In the past, these groups have provided some gentle deadline pressure that's kept me reading (albeit not always books of my choice). 

Some of these groups have sadly gone by the wayside in recent years, but I'm still involved in the D.E. Stevenson group on Groups.io (which has been taking a bit of a hiatus recently  -- although we do have a book for the summer now). I'm also continuing in my role as co-host of the book club within the Childless Collective (formerly Gateway Women/Lighthouse Women) private online community (which involves a lot of re-reads of books I've already read and recommended to the group). 

I'm also still taking part in some of the slow readalongs hosted by Simon Haisell at "Footnotes and Tangents." I haven't had time (or, frankly, interest) to get involved in all of the new offerings this year, but I did read "Regeneration" by Pat Barker with the group this spring  (and am glad I did!), and am planning to join in when we read "The Children's Book" by A.S. Byatt later this year.  

Realistically (given the way the year has been going...!), it's unlikely I'll reach my goal this year (never mind improve on previous years' totals).  :(  But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying, or revise my goal at this point.  I realize that, realistically, I am never going to be able to read all the books I would like. (There are still a lot of books on my "priority TBR list" -- which has expanded considerably since I posted about it in 2021..! -- that I haven't read yet!). 

But it's still fun trying, right? 

Did you set any reading goals for 2026?  Are you making progress toward them? 

Odds & ends

A couple of personal notes: 

• I got a little choked up watching the launch of the Artemis II from Cape Canaveral in Florida yesterday, more than 50 years after the last Apollo lunar mission in December 1972. (There have been space shuttle trips in the interim, of course, but somehow without quite the same cachet.)
• I was 11 (almost 12 years old) and, I will admit, pretty blase by that time about trips to the moon. The early ones *were* exciting, and the first moon walk in July 1969 (when I was 8 -- witnessed on a black-and-white TV set, while at my grandmother's in Minnesota, on my dad's 30th birthday) -- but after a while, the novelty wore off -- and (likewise with the Watergate hearings, around the same time) the wall-to-wall coverage pre-empted my Saturday morning cartoons and other favourite TV programs. (Priorities, people...!)  But if I'd known I'd be a senior citizen before we headed back to the moon again, I might have paid a little more attention...!  
• I've seen a lot of people on social media commenting on how all they could think about was the doomed launch of the space shuttle Challenger, 40 years ago. I'll admit that crossed my mind as I watched too. (I was recently married, unemployed and ironing laundry in our midtown Toronto apartment when that happened.) Very glad that history did not repeat itself in this case. 
• Artemis is also notable for Canadians because there's a Canadian astronaut aboard, Jeremy Hansen. Other Canadians have been in space before, but he'll be going farther than any of them have. Godspeed.   
• Dh & I drove into the heart of the city today for my long-awaited appointment with the opthomologist who did a keratectomy (surgery) on my right eye four (!) summers ago.  As mentioned in this post from November, my optometrist thought she saw something similar happening with my left eye, and sent me to have it checked out. I had all my crossables crossed that I wouldn't need more surgery -- but was pretty much resigned that I'd need to have it done .  
• So I was thrilled when the doctor told me yes, there was a small, shallow area on the left cornea that should be monitored (also the beginnings of a small cataract) -- but she didn't think surgery was necessary, not right now, anyway.  What a relief!  (And this on top of my improved cholesterol readings a few weeks ago! -- maybe I should buy a lottery ticket??)  
• I hadn't thought much about it when I made the appointment, but today is the day before Good Friday (i.e., the kickoff to the Easter long weekend).  Moreover, it's the first day of Passover too -- and the route we took to the hospital where the eye clinic is located runs straight down a long street (about 20 km or 12 miles) through the heart of Toronto's Jewish community. (We counted almost 10 synagogues and temples, and a good half-dozen Jewish schools and community centres along the way.)   Given this confluence of holidays, plus rainy weather, I expected traffic would be heavy -- and it was! (especially heading out of the city in the late afternoon).  
• En route home, we passed by several police cars and vans-- and realized they were probably patrolling the area in case of trouble. :(  I'm glad they were being vigilant, but what a sad commentary on the times we currently live in... 

And now a few recent notable links to share:  

• Elizabeth Day at Daylight ponders "When Did Reading Become A Competitive Sport?"  (Many of her posts are paywalled;  this one isn't!)  
• Ali Hall at Life Without Children on "How Pronatalism Is the Oldest Ism of Our Time" is WELL worth a read!  
• And speaking of pronatalism, Ali Hall also noted this extreme example of pronatalism running amok:  "Russia Is Sending Women, Who Don’t Want Kids, To Have Their Heads Checked." (!) 
• Another wonderful interview with a childless/free woman from Anne Helen Petersen for her "Big No-Kids Energy" series in her Culture Study Patreon newsletter: "Christy, Who Cares For Herself." 

Happy reading! and happy long weekend!  

To read or not to read?

In mid/late March, PBS will be launching two new series on Sunday nights:  "The Forsytes," based on "The Forsyte Saga" novels from the 1920s by John Galsworthy, and "The Count of Monte Cristo," based on the 1844 classic by Alexander Dumas. I plan to watch both! (at least the first few episodes, to see if I enjoy them). 

(I remember my mother watching "The Forsyte Saga" when I was a kid, back in the 1960s -- or was it "The Whiteoaks of Jalna"?  -- Probably both, lol. Apparently there was a new version of "The Forsyte Saga" made for British TV in 2002, too. The original 1967 series is apparently available to watch on YouTube... hmmm...)    

I have not read any of the books these shows are based on. I generally do like to read a book first before seeing any movies/TV shows based on them, and I figured I would read these before the TV shows began. Of course, time zoomed by between when I first heard about the shows and the present... With just a few weeks left to go, I recently bought cheap e-copies for my Kobo reader, and opened them both earlier this week.  

I did not realize (until I did) that both are LONG books!! I checked on Goodreads, and the paperback Penguin edition of "The Count of Monte Cristo" is almost 1,300 pages long;  "The Forsyte Saga" is 900!  Granted, I suppose I could just read whatever I can before the shows start -- the first episode(s) won't cover the entire book, after all.

But do I really have the time, energy and focus right now to tackle two very long books like these?   Are there other books I could/should be reading right now instead?  (especially given my book club obligations). Will reading the books first enhance my understanding and appreciation of the shows -- or just annoy me, when I realize what they've left out and how they've miscast certain characters that I imagined differently??  etc. etc.  (lol)  Is it worth reading the books first when it's likely I'm just going to be annoyed by the TV show's lack of faithfulness to the subject material?? 

In the case of "The Forsytes," the project is being led by Debbie Horsfield, who adapted the first seven "Poldark" novels by Winston Graham for a TV series for a new generation (2015-2019), a few years back. (There was also a "Poldark" TV series in the 1970s, which my mother & I watched together.) The first several seasons of "Poldark" were mostly faithful to the books and very well done... right up until the final season, which completely departed from the novels, and was nowhere near as satisfying. (I've written about both the Poldark books & TV shows on this blog in the past, and tagged them all as "Poldark.")    

And I've been hearing rumblings that "The Forsytes" TV series led by Horsfield won't be a strict adaptation, but rather will be "reimagined" from the novels. (See, for example, this article from Drama Quarterly, and this one from Radio Times.)  Hmmm....  I don't mind a few tweaks and trims (you can't include EVERYTHING in the books, of course), but it does bother me when too many liberties are taken with the original story (especially when the author doesn't have any say in the changes!).  

What do you think?  Do you generally like to read a book before seeing the movie/show -- or do you think it matters?  (Have you read these books before?)  

(I was amused to see, while browsing through my past Poldark-related posts, that I wrote a similar post on this subject back in 2017!) 

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? 

Reading challenge mid-year checkup

For the last four years around this time (see the links at the bottom of this post), I've done a mid-year check-in on the status of my Goodreads Reading Challenge and other reading goals -- and since the year is now halfway over (ummm.... WTF?!)  I thought it was timely to do it again.  :)  

In my 2024 Reading Year in Review post in January, under "Goals for 2025," I wrote: 

• ...I ended the year with 37 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).  Nevertheless, I've decided to maintain my goal of 45 books in 2025 ( = 3.75 books per month on average)(and hope to do better...!). I may be repeating one or both of my slow readalongs of "War & Peace" and the Cromwell Trilogy, which took up a lot of my reading time this year -- but I think this is still a realistic & reachable goal for me right now (albeit a bit of a stretch one!). 
• I've read more than 45 books in four of the past six years (2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023), and almost 45 (i.e., 43) in 2020 -- so 45 books still seems very do-able.  But I'd be thrilled to be able to improve on that goal, too!  
• 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 2025, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

So.  Here we are at the midpoint of 2025 -- which suggests I should have read 22-24 books by now to keep up the pace of 3-4 books per month towards my goal of 45 by the end of the year. 

I'm not quite there yet.  :(   I am currently at 20 books finished  = 44% of my 2025 goal (2 books behind schedule to meet my goal). I read 3 books in January, 4 in February, 3 in March, 3 in April, 3 in May and 4 in June. I'm basically in the same place I was at this time last year (end of June 2024).  In 2023, I had reached 56% of my goal;  64% in 2022, and I was already at 94% in 2021 (! -- albeit my goal then was just 36 books -- and, I should note, it was peak pandemic then too! = not much else to do but sit around and read!). 

Whether I'll reach my goal by year end (let alone improve on previous years' totals) remains to be seen...! (although I'll never say never..!)  I'm still involved in several online book clubs and readalongs that keep me reading (albeit not always books of my choice) --  including one for D.E. Stevenson's books on Groups.io and the monthly book club on the Childless Collective (formerly Gateway Women & Lighthouse Women) private online community, which I co-host. 

Sadly, the L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook, which began as a welcome distraction during the early days of the pandemic in spring 2020, wrapped up at the end of our last book together at the end of May:  the main organizer has decided to move on to other projects.  :(   

Despite my stated intention in January (above), I decided not to repeat last year's slow readalongs of Leo Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace" and Hilary Mantel's "Cromwell Trilogy" -- "Wolf Hall," "Bring Up the Bodies," and  "The Mirror and the Light" -- hosted again this year by Simon at "Footnotes and Tangents" -- albeit I am very glad I read them with F&T last year!  I am, however, taking part in some of the other readalongs he's hosting this year, which started with "The Siege at Krishnapur" by J.G. Farrell, and is currently covering Mantel's novel about the French Revolution, "A Place of Greater Safety." 

Needless to say, there are still a lot of books on my "priority TBR list" (which has expanded considerably since I posted about it in 2021..!) that I haven't read yet! (And I realize that, realistically, I am never going to be able to read all the books I would like.)(But it's still fun trying, right?)  

2024 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2023 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2022 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2021 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

Did you set any reading goals for 2025?  Are you making progress toward them? 

#MicroblogMondays: Summer reading

The New York Times had several articles this week (they are probably in Sunday's print version books section) about summer reading. There were the usual lists of great picks to consider reading this summer. But there were also a couple of articles about the practice of summer reading itself -- in particular, a story about summer reading challenges (they're not just for kids anymore! -- gift link included), and a suggested "summer reading bucket list" (this one was for subscribers only, sorry).  

That got me thinking about my own relationship with summer reading. I was always a big reader when I was a kid. (I know, you are SO surprised, right??  lol)  In that time before cable TV, when we only got one TV channel (! -- unthinkable these days, I know...!) or the Internet, reading was one of the main ways we spent our free time. And summertime -- with no school or most other organized activities to worry about, no summer jobs (for my first one when I was 17), and many of our friends away on vacation -- gave us plenty of extra time to dive into one book after another.  We spent a good chunk of every summer at our grandparents' house in northwestern Minnesota, and regularly raided the local library there (they let us have cards even though we didn't live there, because it was a small town and everyone knew our grandparents). Grandma had a wonderful screened-in porch off the kitchen at the side of the house, covered in virginia creeper vines, and my sister & I sent many hours out there with our books.  

I remember the library had summer reading challenges/programs back then, and even though we weren't around for the entire summer, we usually breezed through the challenges. I remember one year in particular (possibly 1976/Bicentennial?) when we got maps of the U.S., and for each book we read, we got a sticker in the shape of one of the states to fill in the map. My completed map, with all 50 states covered in with stickers, sat in a drawer at my parents' house for many, many years (and may still be there, for all I know...! -- I'll have to check next time I'm there!). (If I threw it out, I wish I'd taken a photo first, because I was very proud of it!)  

I'm nowhere near the reader I was then -- but I still find myself hoping to get through a good stack of books every year when summer rolls around. I used to regularly pack a pile of books in my suitcase when heading "home" to spend time with my parents (almost) every summer (before e-reading took over most of my reading life -- and lightened my luggage weight considerably! lol), and I did manage to read a lot of them. I've been less successful in recent years, partly because of online distractions (cough!), but also because my parents have needed more help around the house as they've aged, and that's consumed more of the time I used to spend reading.  Still, there's a certain mystique to the image of lying on a beach or a pool somewhere, or sitting on a deck/porch with a glass of something cold and a good book to read...! 

While I usually set a goal each year for the number of books I'd like to read (via Goodreads), I have never attempted completing a challenge like the NYT's suggested bucket list ("read a book published in the last year... a book in a genre you don't typically read... a book that takes place in the summer..." etc. etc.).  I prefer to read what I want (in between book club obligations, lol) versus ticking off items on a list.  (What if I'm not in the mood to read a book that would fit one of the bucket list categories right now? Maybe I'd rather read something else instead?) I found myself nodding when I read one comment that said, "No, thank you. Reading challenges are too much like homework." 

How about you? Do you find you read more in the summertime? Do you look forward to "summer reading"?  Do you have any particular goals for summer reading this year? 

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

2024 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. Unfortunately, it became apparent by mid-year that it was going to be a stretch to reach it! (largely because I took on a few more book clubs/readalongs, including ones where we were reading & discussing some pretty LONG books!). 

• My Goodreads 2024 Year in Review report tells me I read 37 books with 15,320 pages (versus 48 books with 16.980 pages in 2023 and 50 books with 17,047 pages in 2022). That's 8 books below my goal of 45 or 82%.  (My best result ever: 59 books in 2021.) All the books I read were reviewed on this blog and tagged "2024 books." 
• The shortest book I read was "Things I Don't Want to Know" by Deborah Levy (167 pages); the longest was "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy (1,938 pages). 
• Average book length was 414 pages (up from 353 pages in 2023). 
• The most popular book I read ( = most shelved by Goodreads readers) was "Eat Pray Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (2.7 million readers);  the least popular was "No One Talks About This Stuff" edited by Kat Brown (279 readers).   
• The highest-rated book I read was "My Effin' Life" by Geddy Lee (4.68 stars). 
• My average Goodreads rating in 2023 was 4.2 stars (same as the last two 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 37 books with 15,658 pages (slightly more than Goodreads recorded). 
• Average time to finish:  2 months (!). (This would be because of the readalongs I take part in...!) 
• Fastest read/least time spent:  "The Cost of Living" by Deborah Levy (3 days).
• Most time spent:  "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy (362 days, at one chapter per day, with a few days off along the way). 
• The top "moods" of my books were overwhelmingly "emotional" (value: 17) and "reflective" (10), followed by "lighthearted" (9), "mysterious" (5), and "informative," "funny," "dark" and "challenging" (4).    
• The vast majority of my books were medium-paced (66%). 26% were slow and 9% fast. 
• 64% of my 2024 books were 300-499 pages;  19% were less than 300 pages and 17% were over 500 pages. 
• 81% of my 2024 books were fiction;  19% 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 2024 was historical, followed by literary, then contemporary and romance.     
• StoryGraph also tracks the format of your books, but selects print as the default. 68% of my reads this year were recorded as digital, 32% print.  Note that some books do not have a "digital" option, in which case I choose print. 
• Most-read authors in 2024:  D.E. Stevenson (6 books), followed by L.M. Montgomery (4 books) and Hilary Mantel (3 books).  
• Average rating 4.06 stars. (Unlike Goodreads, The StoryGraph allows fractional star ratings.) 
• Most shelved book:  "Persuasion" by Jane Austen (161,000+ users). Least shelved: "Queen High" by C.J. Carey (just 16 users). 
• Highest rated:  "No One Talks About This Stuff" edited by Kat Brown (4.56 stars;  my rating was 5 stars). 
• I explored the work of 14 new authors, read 15 books that were part of a series, and revisited/re-read 11 books. 
• Once again this year, fiction choices outnumbered non-fiction (many of them re-reads, but still...!):  24 fiction, 13 non-fiction.
• Re-reads -- which I started counting as books read in 2020 -- accounted for a good chunk of my 2024 total (11 according to StoryGraph -- see above). Some were books that I read on my own and then immediately afterward as part of a group readalong/discussion, while others were books that I've read in the past and revisited this year.  
• Online, the Childless Collective Nomo book club (I'm one of the hosts!), D.E. Stevenson fan group, L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook, and slow readalongs with Footnotes & Tangents on Substack helped boost my 2024 reading totals and provided me with a lot of reading/discussion pleasure. 
• My book groups were responsible for 19 of the 37 books I read in 2024 -- almost half!  I read 12? books as part of the Childless Collective book club or in preparation for other book-related discussions (including finishing Jody Day's "Living the Life Unexpected"), 6 for DES (3 different books, each counted twice as re-reads), and 4 for the L.M. Montgomery Readathon (2 different books, both counted twice as re-reads). 

Goals for 2025: 

• As noted above, I ended the year with 37 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).  Nevertheless, I've decided to maintain my goal of 45 books in 2025 ( = 3.75 books per month on average)(and hope to do better...!). I may be repeating one or both of my slow readalongs of "War & Peace" and the Cromwell Trilogy, which took up a lot of my reading time this year -- but I think this is still a realistic & reachable goal for me right now (albeit a bit of a stretch one!). 
• I've read more than 45 books in four of the past six years (2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023), and almost 45 (i.e., 43) in 2020 -- so 45 books still seems very do-able.  But I'd be thrilled to be able to improve on that goal, too!  
• 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 2025, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

2024 Highlights:  

• Like so many people, I tried reading "War & Peace" by Leo Tolstoy... once. It was 40+ years ago, and I think I got about 60 pages in before abandoning ship. But I always thought I should give it another try... someday. When I first heard about the Footnotes & Tangents slow read in late 2023, I was deep in other book club/readalong obligations and figured I needed another one like a hole in the head... but it was an irresistible opportunity, and I took the plunge. As 2024 draws to a close, I am so glad I did. One chapter per day is entirely do-able, and the character wiki, daily chat threads with other readers and Simon's weekly context posts all contributed to an enormously enjoyable (and -- dare I say? -- fun!) experience. I'll very likely be back for another round in 2025! Thanks, Simon, and thanks to the other W&P-ers for what's turned out to be one of the highlights of my year. ❤
• Likewise, "Wolf Crawl" -- Footnotes & Tangents' "slow readalong" of the three books in Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy -- was an amazing bookish experience this year. An absolutely stunning feat of writing, storytelling, characterization and historical scholarship (along with a healthy dose of imagination!).  
• 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 -- very few disappointments or "meh" choices -- and I gave lots/most of them four and five-star reviews on Goodreads. (4.2 stars was my average Goodreads rating.)  A few of my favourites, in no particular order (I haven't linked to them here, but they're all reviewed on Goodreads, StoryGraph and this blog): 
• "A Death in Diamonds" by S.J. Bennett 
• "My Effin' Life" by Geddy Lee 
• "Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies/The Mirror and the Light" by Hilary Mantel 
• "Widowland/Queen High" by C.J. Carey (both re-reads) 
• "You Are Here" by David Nicholls 
• "Code Name Helene" by Ariel Lawhon 

Did you meet your reading goals for 2024 (if you set any)? What great books did you read this past year? 

Reading challenge mid-year checkup

For the last three years around this time (see the links at the bottom of this post), I've done a mid-year check-in on the status of my Goodreads Reading Challenge and other reading goals -- and since the year is now halfway over (ummm.... WTF?!)  I thought it was timely to do it again.  :)  

In my 2023 Reading Year in Review post last December, I wrote: 

• ...I reached my Goodreads Reading Challenge Goal of 45 books by Dec. 7th, and ended the year with 48 books read -- but I didn't equal my 2021/best-recorded total of 59 books (when my goal was 36).  For 2024, I've decided to maintain my goal of 45 books ( = 3.75 books per month on average)(and hope to do better...!) -- which seems realistic for me right now. 
• I've read more than 45 books in four of the past five years (2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023), and almost 45 -- 43 -- in 2020 -- so that seems very do-able.  But I'm hoping I'll be able to improve on 2023's total, too!  
• 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 2024, I'm hoping to be able to read more of my own choices this coming year too.  :)   

So.  Here we are at the midpoint of 2024 -- which suggests I should have read 22-24 books by now to keep up the pace of 3-4 books per month towards 45 by the end of the year. 

I'm not there yet...  :(   I am currently at 20 books finished = 44% of my 2024 goal (2 books behind schedule to meet my goal). I read 4 books in January, 2 in February, 3 in March, 5 in April, 3 in May and 3 in June.

At this time last year (end of June 2023), I had reached 25 books (56% of my goal). In 2022, I'd reached 64% of my goal, and I was at 94% in 2021 (! -- albeit my goal then was just 36 books).  

So I'm 5 books behind versus where I was last year, in terms of number of books read  :(  -- and I'm a little behind pace to reach or exceed my goal of 45 books before the end of the year.  

Whether I'll reach my goal by year end (let alone improve on previous years' totals) remains to be seen...! (although I'm still hopeful at this point...!)  Last year, my BIL's health issues kept us fairly busy;  the year before that, I had eye surgery which slowed my reading pace down a bit, for a while. Theoretically, I don't have any such major distractions this year.  

However -- I'm still doing a lot of book club reads & re-reads. I enjoy them because, overall, they (mostly) keep me reading and move me toward my reading goals. Some of the books we read have long been on my to-read list (thus moving them up in the pile...!). Others are books I might not have picked up on my own -- including some really good ones. 

My online book clubs/groups include one for D.E. Stevenson's books on Groups.io and the L.M. Montgomery Readathon on Facebook. Last year, I took on the role of co-hosting the monthly book club on the Childless Collective (formerly Gateway Women & Lighthouse Women) private online community. I would have been reading the books there anyway -- but now I'm trying to make time to hunt down & read/screen books that might be a good fit for the group too.  The Notes From Three Pines Substack newsletter readalong, covering the Three Pines/Inspector Gamache novels by Louise Penny, petered out last year after just a few months (and while I really would like to get back to these books on my own, the last one I read was #5, "The Brutal Telling," in August 2023 -- review here).  

I also joined not just one but TWO other "slow readalongs" hosted by Simon at the Substack newsletter "Footnotes and Tangents" -- one that's tackling Leo Tolstoy's epic "War and Peace" (!), one chapter per day for an entire year (!), the other reading Hilary Mantel's "Cromwell Trilogy" -- "Wolf Hall" (finished;  reviewed here), "Bring Up the Bodies" (our current book, almost done) and  "The Mirror and the Light."  These are some pretty thick books -- so while I may not make or exceed my goal in terms of books read this year, I expect that my total page count, at least, should be pretty robust....!  

While I HAVE managed to fit in some books of my own choosing, they've continued to take a back seat to all these book clubs and readalongs -- perhaps (I'll admit) a little more often than I'd like. And I haven't been able to explore as many potential reads for the CC book club as I'd like either.  But I missed the CC book club when the hosts stepped down and it subsequently went on hiatus, and sometimes if you want something done, you have to be willing to do it yourself...!  

In 2023, I ventured into the world of ARCs (advance reader copies) on NetGalley by reading and reviewing Ashley Audrain's "The Whispers" (reviewed here). It was a good read and an interesting experience -- but I have enough book-related deadlines/obligations in my reading life at the moment as it is -- and many NetGalley books come with an expiry/"archive by" date -- so I haven't requested any others this year (so far, anyway).  Maybe I'll try it again in the future...!  

Needless to say, there are still a lot of books on my "priority TBR list" (which has expanded considerably since I posted about it..!) that I haven't read yet! (And I realize that, realistically, I am never going to be able to read all the books I would like.)(But it's still fun trying, right?)  

2023 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2022 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

2021 Reading challenge mid-year checkup

Did you set any reading goals for 2024?  How are you doing with them? 

#MicroblogMondays: Annoying things & small pleasures

 Annoying things: 

• MDay ads & marketing, reaching a fever pitch this week. Bah, humbug... 
• The master bathroom sink, which has always been sluggish, but always responded to a dose of baking soda & vinegar followed by hot water, clogged up a week ago Thursday (April 25th) and refused to clear.  
• Related annoying thing #1:  Called the plumber who handles the overall plumbing systems for our building on Thursday morning. He told me he'd try to come that day and, if not, would call me on Friday to arrange another time. He didn't show up all weekend :p -- but when I messaged him on Sunday, he did apologize and came early Monday morning.  
• Related annoying thing #2:  Paying him $250 (plus tax!) for half an hour's work (!!).  
• Related small pleasure:  Having a functioning second bathroom sink to use in the meantime...!!  (A second bathroom was not high on our list of "must-haves" when condo shopping, but this is not the first time we've been VERY glad we have it!)  
• There were a LOT of long faces around here last Saturday night/Monday morning:  The Toronto Maple Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs, in overtime, on Saturday night. I don't know how many times they've wound up playing Boston in the first round of playoffs -- when they've made the playoffs! -- and lost, but it's been a LONG time since they've bested Boston and gone on to the next round. 
• My beloved Winnipeg Jets were knocked out of the first round by Colorado. :(  
• There are still two Canadian teams left in the playoffs (Vancouver & Edmonton -- who are playing each other!). A Canadian team has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993 (31 years ago).  :(   
• The last time the Leafs won the Cup was in 1967 -- 57 years ago!! (My husband was 10 years old at the time and remembers it well!)   
• Someone in the neighbourhood blasting music at top volume on Sunday afternoon... it was mild enough that we had the balcony door open, but we had to close it (and we could still hear it faintly through the closed door/windows).  Hopefully this is not a preview of things to come this summer...!  
• How many guys (including my own dh.) are simply not getting the "man vs bear" debate going on right now (and why so many women are saying they'd choose the bear). One friend pointed out on FB that she probably wouldn't be in the woods by herself anyway (true for me too -- lots of things could happens beyond the whole man vs bear thing, right?). Another (a former blogger), lives in an area where close encounters with bears are not uncommon sight -- but, she added, "They never followed me off busses. Nor demanded I smile, nor catcalled me or slipped roofies in my drink." Exactly. 
• The price of books these days -- including e-books!  (All prices quoted Canadian prices/dollars.)  Hardcovers are now about $40, paperbacks $25. Current or recent e-books seem to start around $15 (minimum) lately, and are often priced at $18-20 or more. I keep a (very long!) wish list, consult it frequently, and snap up copies when they're on sale for for $5 or less. (Annoying thing:  It seems like the bargains have been further and fewer between lately.)  
• Example: I'm dying to read "Prophet Song," but it's not in paperback yet -- the hardcover is $40 and the ebook is not that much cheaper at $32 (!). (For an EBOOK!!) Seems kind of ridiculous.
• Example:  "The Postcard" by Anne Berest has been on my wishlist since it was published. Hardcover, $40. The ebook is $31. (!) The paperback just came out -- $29. (I caved and bought a copy -- I get a 10% discount with my Plum points card. But I still think it's ridiculous.
• Example: Barbra Streisand's memoir -- which, admittedly, has a pretty hefty page count -- is $63 (!!) for the hardcover!!  The e-version is $22 (which does seem more reasonable by comparison, albeit still slightly ridiculous for an ebook, I think...!). (No paperback yet.)  
• (Yes, I know the library exists...!  ;)  ) 

Small pleasures: 

• Our new vertical blinds! :)  (Why didn't we do this years sooner??)(The pandemic, for one thing...)
• Milder weather, finally!! (although not always sunny skies...).  
• Italian pastries with my tea for the last few days -- takeaway goodies from dh's uncle's 90th birthday party this past weekend. 
• Getting dressed up and putting on makeup (for the party -- I wouldn't want to do it every day anymore, but once in a while, it's kind of fun...!). 
• Putting on a pair of pants I hadn't worn in a while, and having them still fit!  ;)  
• Having a good hair day, too!  

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