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12/1: The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt by Chelsea Iversen (library, 2025) - Last book club pick of 2025. Lots of traumatic events happen to Harriet Hunt and there's a magical garden. So much trauma. 3/5 stars
12/4: Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (library audiobook narrated by E.B. White himself, 1952) - You guys, this was a truly delightful listening experience. There is a reason we all read this book in elementary school. The author's narration was perfect. It's so great. 5/5 stars
12/6: The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen (library, 2019) - You know what? I am not the target audience for YA. Boring, safe, and a character who was so unaware of her own privilege that it made me want to scream. Maybe that's fine for teen readers, but I was frustrated. 3/5 stars
12/14: The Secret Garden by France Hodgson Burnett (library, 1911) - Still lovely. It hurts my heart a little to read it and think about how much I connected with Mary Lennox as a child, though. 4/5 stars
12/15: Moby-Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville (own it on Kindle, 1851) - Look, if you're a person who likes to get in-depth on a topic, this book might be for you. I thought Ishmael was hilarious and didn't mind all the whale stuff. 4/5 stars
12/16: Chain-Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (library audiobook narrated by Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch, and Lee Osorio, 2025) - Sometimes I don't know if I'm not smart enough for some books. I honestly thought at about halfway through that I should care if some of these people die, but I did not. My biggest critique is that if you want to talk about prison conditions, you need to make me care about how poorly these people are treated, not provide them with better food than I eat. I think the point of this entire book was lost on me. 2/5 stars
12/17: When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén (library, 2025) - So sad. So beautiful. I cried a lot. 5/5 stars
12/20: The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen (library, 2004) - Great Sarah Dessen book. The main character is fully developed and I like that she's not perfect. 4/5 stars
12/24: Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Sea #2) by TJ Klune (library audiobook narrated by Daniel Henning, 2024) - Cozy fantasy with low stakes since you know it will all work out. Klune is fairly preachy though. I agree with his message, but I don't need it to be lectured at me. 3/5 stars
12/25: I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane (library ebook, 2023) - Read this for a Pop Sugar Reading Challenge for a "dystopian book with a happy ending" and I'm not sure it really met the mark for me. 3/5 stars
12/26: What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (library, 2025) - Dystopian academic mystery. It should have been perfect for me, but it was not. 3/5 stars
12/30: Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey (library audiobook narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, 2012) - The Earth is a toxic poisonous place, but a few fortunate humans live in underground bunkers and everyone must do their job and only their job or they will be sent outside. You know how in A Game of Thrones, you just get to know someone and then they are killed? I thought a lot about that book as I was reading this one. 3.5/5 stars
Average star rating: 3.54/5 stars
DNF:
The Princess and the P.I. by Nikkie Payne - I hardly gave this one a chance, but I was on page 60 and couldn't imagine reading 400 more pages because I was bored and done with it all. DNF at 13%.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy - This is a well-reviewed, buzzy book, but I did not have the patience to wade through the scene setting and when the father left his three children at home with an unconscious stranger, I just noped out. DNF at page 42 (13.9%).
Want: Sexual Fantasies by Anonymous, edited by Gillian Anderson - I am too much of a prude for this. DNF at 7%.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai - I hardly gave this one a chance. I was bored and confused by the family backstories. DNF at like page 12.
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Who's mad at my DNFs? Don't hurt me, please. I saw at least two of those books appear on other people's favorite books of 2025 and I felt bad, but at least I'm honest about it. Maybe someday I'll come back to them.
We all DNF for different reasons! This is my evergreen rollover goal - DNF when I'm not feeling it!
ReplyDeleteRight? I need to really be better about DNFing. Maybe then my star ratings would go up!
DeleteI’m choosing to DNS Wild Dark Shore after DNF’ing another book of hers. She’s just not for me! I was relieved when Sonia and Sonny wasn’t chosen for our 2026 book club - it was one of the books we voted on. I’ve heard it takes 200 pages to get into it which is too many for me. I don’t think you should feel bad about DNF. I’d rather you DNF a book I loved than read it because then surely your review will not be great! I feel zero shame when someone DNFs something I love. I feel an unhealthy amount of shame when someone bashes a book I loved. Which is admittedly not healthy.
ReplyDeleteI used to read Sarah Dessen books years ago as a sort of palette cleanser.
Oh, I never thought about it that when I write a harsh review that's even worse than just not finishing it. Imagine how boring it would be if I just said "I liked this book" every time, though. Ha! I don't think that's ever going to happen.
DeleteSarah Dessen's Just Listen might be in my top ten favorite books ever.
Ruh Roh, my Ted bought Sonia and Sonny for his mom for Christmas. I hope she can manage it, she’s 88 and I’m not sure she has 200 pages to get into a book. I finished Wild Dark Shore today and really loved it. I wholeheartedly respect and support DNFing any book you’re not into, for whatever reason.
ReplyDeleteI loved Secret Garden, loved. But I loved Little Princess even more. Is Sara too good to be an interesting protagonist, vs. Mary who has to make a greater personal journey? I don’t know. Poor Mary had negligent crappy parents, while Sara was more of an orphan. Both have their problems, but looking past those, they both have great, hopeful messages.
Oh, I loved A Little Princess, too. Such foundational texts to my childhood. Sara IS too good, but the real protagonist of the book is Becky and she was perfection. Bah! Maybe I'll reread that this year.
DeleteI do not judge anyone for the books they DNF. I read a fraction of the books a lot of people manage to read so I want to really like the books I end up reading. Although even if I read hundreds of books a year- I would want to read books that I thoroughly enjoyed, so either way it makes sense to drop a book when it isn’t working. There are just so many great books out there.
ReplyDeleteDo not ask me why I am plugging away at the contrived icky book I am reading right now - although it is for book club and I sort of want to be able to speak to All the ways it bothered me, so I’m planning to finish it. (Book Club for troublesome Women- the name of the book, not the name of my book club).
I guess I just don't want people to be upset if I DNF one of their favorites!
DeleteWe read a book once in our book club about a book club and we all hated it and it made us laugh and maybe think we were self-hating.
DNF's are privilege. It only means we have more books to choose from. I had so many this year. As I said previously I add When the Cranes Fly South to my TBR. I want to read the secret garden again. I remember loving it as a child/teen.
ReplyDeleteOh, I want everyone to read When the Cranes Fly South. It really left an impression on me.
DeleteWild Dark Shore is a book that did not live up to the hype for me. I’m still scratching my head why it’s so beloved. I missed something!
ReplyDeleteThe setting is super interesting, I think. The whole seed bank, isolated island, near future climate change. But that's not enough to hold a book together for me!
DeleteI have DNF-ed The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, involuntarily at first because the ebook expired, but I might choose not to re-borrow it, because the student's affair with the old guy grossed me out. I loved The Inheritance of Loss but this one may not be for me. I also loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, but didn't feel it needed a sequel, so will probably skip that. I think I agree with your rating of Wool also.
ReplyDeleteI honestly didn't get far enough into Sonia and Sunny to really judge it. *sigh* I'm struggling with anything more complicated than Jack and Jill at the beginning of books. I'm sort of hypocritical because if the beginning of the book just drops me into a world, I get frustrated, but if there's too much exposition, I also get frustrated. I'm hard to please!
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