Books I Read in 2025
from ggprints on Etsy
* = Stars (rating)
#1 - Family Family - 5*
Laurie Frankel
Loved this book! Fun, funny, great lines that made me laugh and nod in agreement. The main character is a girl, then a woman named India Allwood. Sometimes you also get to know the thoughts and actions of other characters, such as her children, or adoptive parents. India gets pregnant twice, and gives up both children to adoption. In the story, you get to know the kids and their adoptive parents as well as India’s boyfriends/birth fathers. India becomes a famous actress so the story includes shenanigans necessitated by the trappings of fame—such as paparazzi.
I wrote a blog about this book that includes several funny passages.
#2 - The Grey Wolf - 5*
Louise Penny
Another great book in the Armand Gamache series. I continue to marvel at Louise Penny’s imagination and ability to weave such details into an engrossing story. Once in a while the details get a little confused in my mind but never enough to make me frustrated or lose the thread of the story.
In the Acknowledgments, Penny writes
The Gamache books are proudly crime novels, as you see in The Grey Wolf, but at their core they are about community. Acceptance. Belonging. Courage. The books are about the triumph of love and the power of friendship. About trying to do better.
In this book, Gamache and his team are running against time to figure out how to stop the poisoning of drinking water in a large Canadian city. It’s exciting, the clues are (at least for me!) hard to figure out, and you get to spend time again with Gamache’s wonderful friends and family. I’m looking forward to the next one in the series.