Book List: September-December 2025

Well, here at the end of this year experiment, I don't like having done three book lists this year. I want to see everything I read all year, right now! I read a lot of adult fiction this fall, which is unusual for me, including forcing myself to get through some "classics." We're not together every day for lunch anymore, which is making it difficult to get through read-alouds as a family, so that's something I need to ponder for the future.

Green I loved, red I didn't, with an asterisk = audiobook. Open to questions about anything!

Adult Nonfiction
*Where the Light Fell
*Shakespeare: the Man Who Pays the Rent
The Fruitful Home

Adult Fiction
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #25
*Lady Sherlock #6 (I love this series, and the one above. Comfort reading at its finest.)
Absolution
Circe
Heart of Darkness
*Station Eleven
What the River Knows
*The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
Ariadne
*Widows of Malabar Hill
*Sweet Bean Paste
Alas, Babylon
*Thursday Murder Club #2
Elektra (too much blood and despair for me)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
King Solomon's Mines

Teen/Tween Lit
Itch (two-book series)
*Stamped (the young-adult version, nonfiction history of racism)
*Enola Holmes #3

Middle Grade Fiction
Benny on the Case
*Kingdom's Dawn series #1-4
El Niño
*Minion (sequel to Sidekicked)
The Girl Who Stole an Elephant
Lost Kingdom of Bamarre
*Concealed
Impossible Creatures + The Poisoned King (highly, highly recommended)
Wilderlore series #1-4 (not the greatest writing, but we're all eager for book 5 to come out!)
*Rooftoppers (Rundell)
Moving Target + Return Fire
The Explorer (Rundell)
Little Christmas Carol (read most of it aloud to the kids)
Siege at the Gates (fictionalized account of Hezekiah and Sennacherib)

Middle Grade Nonfiction
The Year We Were Famous (fictionalized true story)

Elementary Chapter Books
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody #2 (warrants discussion of two-mom household)
Giant (sweet, fictionalized account of a tiny bit of C.S. Lewis's childhood)
*Mishka
The World of Winnie-the-Pooh (read aloud to Tessa)
*Heidi (listened to a dramatization with Tessa)

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(And All My) Work Be Praise

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