When we arrived home from our travels, a few weeks before Christmas, I was ready for some cocooning and the library had Holds ready to accommodate that need. Alongside, I continued to work my way through an Italian novel for January book club, and I also made it partway through a more demanding novel that I’ll tell you about in my January post. But as you can see, most of my December reading was entertaining and accessible without compromising on style and substance. I hope you’ll find something to add to your own list! And when you’re done reading the post, maybe you’ll stay to add a few suggestions of your own. . .
As usual, the numbering in this post comes from my annual handwritten reading journal, and the italicized text below is directly transcribed from that journal’s pages (once upon a time, I simply included photographs of those pages, but too many of you found my handwriting tough to decipher, especially in the photographed format). Notes to myself, that is, so that I can remember a book and remember my response to it, rather than any attempt at a more polished, edited review.
I’ve used regular font for any additions to my journal notes.
72. The Correspondent. Virginia Evans. Literary fiction; Epistolary novel; Elderly female protagonist.
I enjoyed this so much and have already recommended it to a few friends — thanks to the reader who recommended it to me! Very clever, deft use of the epistolary form to show the character of a brilliant, crusty, buttoned-up, erudite 73-year-old woman, devoted to the art of correspondence.
Sybil Van Antwerp has retired from a distinguished legal career. A mother and grandmother (who seems to keep her son and daughter at arm’s length), long divorced, she lives alone and devotes herself mainly to gardening and to writing letters. She writes to a broad range of correspondents: to authors whose books she’s enjoyed (among them Joan Didion, Larry McMurtry, Ann Patchett); to the socially awkward teenage son of an ex-colleague; to her brother (and his husband) living in France; to her son and daughter, to her longtime best friend. . . .
through her letters (and through those written to her), we gradually gain insight into Sybil’s character and eventually discover the trauma that changed the course of her life and caused her to retreat behind the layers of formality and distance that are so manifest in her letters.
The correspondence also reveals Sybil’s innate kindness and vulnerability — and shows her being challenged by the persistence of a few wise and discerning letter-writers. And as she confronts her past and begins to see how much she pays for the social isolation she’s chosen, we get to see a 73-year-old making some exciting changes in her eighth decade. There is courtship and romance, reconciliation, new friendships made and old ones repaired and revitalized.
Poignant, observant, hopeful. Oh, and abundant humour throughout!
And if you like epistolary novels, especially featuring late-in-life changes, self-discovery, possible romance, you might also like Anne Youngson’s Meet Me at the Museum, which I wrote about in this post.
73. A Slowly Dying Cause. Elizabeth George. Mystery; Police Procedural; Inspector Lynley Series.
I’m always excited to see that Elizabeth George has written another in her Lynley series (I’ve been reading these books for almost 40 years, since I picked up a copy of A Great Deliverance sometime in late 1988, I believe). This is not one of my favourites, but I enjoyed it well enough, and there are elements in it that I quite liked: revelation of financial challenges in the Lynley family, keeping up the estate; being introduced to Lynley’s mother, sister, and their household help, especially seeing them through the eyes of Barbara Havers. And Barbara’s dilemma over her (deceased) mother’s body, her unwillingness/inability to talk to anyone about this dilemma, to get help. . . Quite moving, and it also shows us something more about the relationship between her and Lynley.
But the murder they’re helping to solve, the investigation Barbara becomes involved in to help Lynley’s ex-girlfriend? It all feels a bit strained to me. Elements that don’t ultimately seem relevant but that took up many pages: the teacher, for example, who lost his job over the student he continues to court in an exaggerated echo of the relationship between the murder victim and her much older husband; the car that’s seen speeding away from what turns out to be a murder scene — mentioned once by narrator to the readers but never followed up.
As I say, I enjoyed it well enough, read to the last of its 656 pages, and I would still recommend this series to anyone, but this is not a strong representative. Would have benefited from tougher editing.
74. How to Seal Your Own Fate. Kristen Perrin. Mystery; Castle Knoll Files #2; English village mystery; Young female detective.
Second in the Castle Knoll series featuring a young female wannabe detective and writer, Annie Adams, who inherited her great-aunt Frances’s estate after solving her long-predicted murder. (I wrote about the first in the series here.) Another murder inside what is now Annie’s huge home sends her back to her great-aunt’s diaries where she finds what she’s convinced are links between the latest murder and a number of suspicious deaths her aunt wrote about in her youth.
Well-written, fun, and I’m glad to see Perrin expands the setting to 1960s Soho in her next volume. This many murders in a small English village begins to strain credulity 😉
75. Tilt. Emma Pattee. Survival/thriller; Domestic fiction; Earthquake; Pregnancy; Marriage; Set in Portland, Oregon.
A devastating earthquake hits Portland, Oregon while 37-weeks-pregnant Annie is shopping for a crib at IKEA. She manages to get out of the damaged building but has left her purse inside — with both her phone and her car keys. She can’t call her husband, and she has no choice but to join all those trying to walk to their various destinations across a city where roads are blocked or damaged by the earthquake, bridges have collapsed, etc.
As Annie walks, she reviews her life choices, wondering whether she even wants to be a mother, wondering about her marriage — which she originally committed to so that her boyfriend could get his teeth fixed on her insurance plan. Along the way, she encounters significant challenges besides the expected fatigue, fear, hunger, thirst — and Pattee’s background as a climate journalist, the evident research that informs the setting she describes make the journey compellingly, disturbingly convincing.
As my daughter said after she’d read and returned the library copy I lent her, “What a ride!” Yes, it was! Recommended, and I suspect it will have you reviewing your earthquake prep!
76. The List of Suspicious Things. Jennie Godfrey. Mystery; Historical Fiction; Bildungsroman/Coming-of-Age; Yorkshire Ripper.
I loved this book! When Miv hears that her family might be moving “down south” from Yorkshire– thus separating her from her best friend, Sharon — she understands the move is being caused by the horror of the Yorkshire Ripper. Pre-pubescent, still innocent enough that they don’t know the meaning of “prostitutes” nor understand the nuances in the way Miv’s Aunt Jean pronounces “those girls,” “women like that,” Miv and Sharon nonetheless decide that they will try to solve the police’s case for them, finding out the Ripper’s identity. And so they begin to compile their “list of suspicious things.”
Along the way, they confront bullying and racism — and Miv learns how much she has inculcated suspicion of difference in ways that are hurtful to others. Before The Ripper is found there is tragedy — and for Miv’s family and others, there is also hard-won growth as well as redemption.
Reminded me throughout of Joanne Cannon’s The Trouble with Goats and Sheep (see this post from 2018, scroll down to #60), also featuring adolescent detectives and set during England’s heat wave of 1976, only three years distant from Miv and Sharon’s investigation.
Okay, that’s my 2025 Reading Journal finally uploaded and off to your mailboxes. Next up, I’ll be posting my 2025 Reading List which I’m currently compiling. It’s always interesting to look back over a year; I’m always surprised at what I can forget and/or remember from a year, or even six, or three, months ago.
But for now, I’d love to know which books had your attention as we ’rounded the end of the year and moved into this new one. Also curious about where you agree and disagree with me about some of the titles which I know some of you have already read.
Let’s chat books!
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After recently reading two memoirs by self-taught cooks, I’ve had to move on from that admittedly narrow genre and am currently reading The Italian Secret by dual Australian and Canadian novelist, Tara Moss. I’m sure I’ve read at least one of Moss’s other works but, without a reading journal, I can’t say which one. I was surprised to find that Tara splits her time between my state of New South Wales and your British Columbia. Lucky lady, I say. I’m not far into the book, but it’s off to a good start. The novel is the latest in Moss’s mystery series based on female private detective Billie Walker. Billie is feisty, sharp, well drawn and sympathetic. The story is set partly In 1948 Sydney, and I do love fictionalised glimpses of my home city in the period not far from my birth year. I very much look forward to those parts of the story that are set in Italy.
Author
What a fun connection between your state and my province! 😉 I haven’t met yet this character, Billie Walker — I think I’ll have to introduce myself soon!
I cannot wait to read The Correspondent! it will go on my reserve list next rip to the library. Spot on about the Helen George book. One of my favorite mystery writers but not her best.
Recently read books were Twice. Mitch Albom. I have liked his work since his iconic Tuesdays With Morrie. The premise of this is that a man as an adolescent discovers has the ability to repeat an event twice but than must accept the outcome of the second experience. A love story and a cautionary tale. Worth reading.
I read Brightly Shining by Ingvild Rishoi, a Norwegian author and translated from the Norwegian by Caroline Waight. A novella really. lovely in some ways, the narrator a 10 year old girl living with her older sister and alcoholic father in an area of Oslo. It takes place at Christmas time when the dad gets a job selling Christmas trees. I read it in a night. I was thinking, hoping, it might be another Small Things like These by Claire Keegan. It wasn’t. It was also the night when Renee Nicole Good was murdered. That night I felt so devastated I could not sleep. Lastly I have just finished The Raging Storm by Anne Cleves. Another favorite mystery writer. The latest in the Matthew Venn Series. A famous adventurer is found dead in a dingy off the coast of Dorset, and then a second murder occurs in the same spot. Interesting and believable characters, each with an interesting backstory and why they may have been involved in the crime. So that is it. In case I did not wish you and your family a happy New Year I send them now.
Author
Hmmmm, I’ve never read anything by Mitch Albom, but I remember the popularity of Tuesdays with Morrie and I remember my brother telling me how much he enjoyed it. So much catching up to do!
Your second review — yes, the night of that murder is affecting so many of us deeply, and you’re much closer to it than I am.
I read that Anne Cleeves/Matthew Venn book — I like the characters and the series!
Happy New Year to you and yours as well. xo
Currently reading The Correspondent, which my book club plans to discuss next month- everyone who’s read it already highly recommends it, and thus far I’m loving it too. Something about the main character is reminding me of Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kittredge…which I now need to revisit!
Author
Yes! definitely brings ES’s OK to mind. . .
I just requested The Correspondent through our interlibrary loan system. I’m #78 on the list!
Author
Worth waiting for, but wow! a real testament to the book’s appeal.
I enjoyed Meet Me at the Museum and Anne Youngson’s more recent book Narrowboat Summer, too. I put in my library hold for The Correspondent and am #73. I may break down and buy a used copy if I run out of books. Currently reading Murder on the Marlow Belle by Robert Thorogood as a distraction from current events, but it’s not really effective. I’m thankful for a recent stretch of strong sunshine.
Author
Ha! So you’re 5 places ahead of Elaine (different libraries, I know ;-). I’d say that if you see a used copy, grab it!
And as for Robert Thorogood’s book, I’d agree that it’s hard to find reading that can distract effectively from what’s going on. We’ve just begun a much-needed sunny stretch here as well, thank goodness!
I heartedly recommend “The Correspondent” … one of my favorite reads of 2025. I just finished “A Slowly Dying Cause” and must say it isn’t one of Elizabeth George’s best but I adore the Lynley/Havers story line and look forward to it continuing! I’m going to place “Tilt” on hold at my local library. Sounds intriguing!
Author
Sounds as if we’re on the same wavelength with EG’s latest — I’ll keep reading anything in the series and be grateful that she keeps finding ways to infuse some freshness, but this one fell short of her normal standards. Many years back, a friend who worked alongside me in a bookstore decided to read the series again from the beginning, so that the events followed one another in the same time frame as they did in the books, without the intervening year or two between publications. If my TBR stack ever diminishes enough, I’ve considered doing the same. . .
The Correspondent is such a wonderful book (although I’ve read it in January!)
I’ve utterly enjoyed The List of Suspicious Things-it was Wendy in York’s recommendation at Sue’s-this year there will be a new Godfrey’s book,can’t wait
Frances,what would I write in February :)? I’ve followed your suggestion and read the first Perrin’s book couple of days ago-How to Solve Your Own Murder
I’ve never read anything from last year Nobel prize winner László Krasznahorkai,hungarian writer,so I’ve read The Last Wolf in December, short but dense apocalyptic story about the Professor who,invited to the Spain region, promises and attempts,but fails, to write the story of the last wolf in Extremadura . Long,long one sentence,repetative,exhausting and slow ,describes the extinction,bleaknes,the world we are going to (eventually?)….apsolutely not the best book to read for me now. Give me Mark Twain or something
Following my chain of thoughts, through James and P. Everett, Danzy Senna’s Colored Television is a novel about a lot of things: midlife crisis , depiction of Hollywood machinery,exploitation of racial diversity (the main character writes a book about history of “mulattos”- her choice of word- in America), Aesop’s “The Ant and the Cricket”- like dillema: to write novels or tv-series,
theft of her series theme (that she stoled from her friend first) by her producer,….style and tone of the novel might be light but themes she describes are not
Colleen Cambridge’s Two Truths and a Murder,the fifth in Phyllida Bright series,love the series,didn’t disappoint
John Nettles’ Nudity in a Public Place…sometimes is better to love actors only in their roles
Jennifer L. Scott’s (from YT Channel The Daily Connoisseur) new book Living Well At Home
There were many good reviews about Liz Moore’s The God of the Wood- and it is very good. The girl went missing at Camp Emerson in the Adirondacks-not an ordinary girl,but daughter of the wealthy family who ,among other things,owns the camp. Her 8-year old brother Bear went missing a long time ago,as well. Drama,lies,disfunctional families….
Dottoressa