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.
#3 - Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages - 5*
Grace Hamman
Lately, I’ve fallen in love with pretty books—books with beautiful illustrations as well as lovely covers, pleasing fonts, and even pleasant-to-the touch pages. Jesus through Medieval Eyes is a beautiful book and includes many pictures of the art it discusses. It also helps to have the internet to search and see even more detail. It was so interesting to learn about what medieval paintings were “saying” that is not apparent to our eyes. I have been following the advice I read somewhere, too, when looking at a piece of art, slow down and just notice what you see. I often have marveled at the way art experts can look at a painting or sculpture or whatever and speak at length about what they see. I was in the habit of sort of summarizing quickly what I saw, “Oh, there’s a girl.” Or maybe, “There’s a girl standing in the wind.” It seemed like that was all there was to see, and then I’d move on. But you’d be surprised at what you see if you just stop and notice. Maybe there’s something in the shadow. Maybe something is hidden in a pattern. You can wonder where the light hits and where it’s coming from. I often have no insight as to what each thing I notice means or signifies, but just noticing it gives me more to receive from the art, and perhaps wonder.
#s 4 and 5 - Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth and Worth Celebrating: A Biography of Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline - 4* and 3*
Richard J. Foster and Miriam M. Dixon
I read these two books when I joined the Renovare Book Club at the beginning of this year. Renovare describes the online book club as “an intentional journey through four carefully selected books to help you create space in your mind and heart for God to work.”
Celebration of Discipline was a good book, and I greatly admire Richard Foster for breaking ground as a Protestant, talking about a longtime Catholic tradition in a way that encourages people to embark on the journey I have taken to find joy and a deepening relationship with God through the Spiritual Exercises.
Miriam Dixon’s biography of Foster’s book was something new for me and many people—a biography of a book. I enjoyed reading about how the book developed and necessarily also about Foster’s thinking, influences, and the process that he went through to create it. The podcast episodes with both authors were fun to listen to, too.
I would encourage anyone, especially anyone just starting to explore the Spiritual Disciplines, to read Celebration of Discipline and learn more about practices that can deepen your relationship with Jesus. The Ignatian Adventure: Experiencing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius in Daily Life by Kevin O’Brien, SJ, is the book I use as a guide when giving the Exercises to someone. IgnatianSpirituality.com has a wealth of information and resources from which to learn. I have more resources; contact me if you are interested.
#6 - Kitchen Hymns - 5*
Pádraig Ó Tuama
Kitchen hymns are sung at home rather than at mass or the church. From what I understand, in Ireland, where Padraig grew up, kitchen hymns were in the common vernacular and were not allowed at formal mass celebrations in the church. I learned this by watching a video of the book launch with Padraig and his close friend, Marie Howe, a poet. Watching the two of them talk to each other is one of my favorite things.
Most anyone who knows me knows I love Pádraig Ó Tuama. (Whenever I write the name Pádraig Ó Tuama, I have to copy and paste it from something on the web so I get those special marks above the “a” and “o.” By the way, it is pronounced Pad-dreg O-Tuma.) I love his podcast, “Poetry Unbound,” the books that came from that, Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (anthology). Canongate and WW Norton, October 2022; and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other (Anthology) Canongate and WW Norton, Jan 2025; and anything else that Padraig does.
I read a quote I cannot find now that likened poetry to a slot machine—you pull the lever, and emotion comes out. I like that. The poems in Kitchen Hymns evoke emotions and also a lot of thoughts. It’s interesting to wonder what it is like to have grown up in a faith-filled world, then leave it, yet still love it. It fills me with awe to read others’ ideas, things I never would have thought of, such as Persephone and Jesus having a conversation.
#7 - You Could Make This Place Beautiful - 5*
Maggie Smith
This is a memoir by the poet Maggie Smith (not the British actor, “the American one,” as Meryl Streep said. She is a poet most known for her poem, “Good Bones,” which went viral. The book is a series of vignettes, usually a page or less long, where Maggie tells us about what happened to her marriage and her thoughts and reflections on it all. She says it is not a “tell-all,” but rather a “tell-mine.” Not surprisingly, being a poet, Smith’s writing is beautiful, creative, lyrical, evocative, all the things. This book was full of “gems”—lines that seemed to shine on the page like beautiful gemstones. I have been married for 45+ years and could relate to everything Smith wrote. I thought of divorced friends and imagined that much of what she wrote would describe their thoughts, even as it does mine.
I highly recommend this book. The writing is elegant and literary and still an easy read. It will make you think about your relationships, yourself, and your life. It will make you both cry and laugh.
#8 - Beautiful Ruins - 4*
Jess Walter
SuperSummary says:
At its core, the novel is the story of a would-be actress who is all but destroyed by an ambitious Hollywood publicist vying for power, the Italian hotelier who becomes infatuated with her, her floundering rock star son, an alcoholic World War II veteran who spends years trying and failing to write his war novel, a chief development assistant longing to produce high-brow films, and an aspiring screenwriter looking for a chance to redeem himself.
I enjoyed the book. I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 because I felt it didn’t hit it out of the park. I liked the characters and loved the beautiful Italian setting. Who could not love stony Italian cliffs, blue shining water, a hidden cave with paintings, and sunny skies. The characters were interesting in addition to being likeable and there was a little bit of mystery as you wondered if the star who planned to have an abortion actually did, and what would happen to the hotel no one came to and the writer who stayed there. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor made cameo appearances, too. It’s excellent writing and a fun read.
#9 - Angela’s Ashes - 5*
Frank McCourt
If you haven’t read Angela’s Ashes yet, you’re missing out! I read it at some point years ago and re-read it now because I’m taking a memoir writing class. This book is one of the best memoirs ever.
A joy to read. I wrote a blog about this one.
#10 - No Two Persons - 5*
Erica Bauermeister
I read this because it was a “Whatcom Reads” pick this year. Whatcom is the name of the county in Washington where I now live. I liked it! The title comes from a quote about everyone who reads a book reads a different book than anyone else: “No two persons ever read the same book, or saw the same picture.” Each chapter or part is a story about a different person who reads the same book, named Theo, including the author. You get a vignette of each person’s life leading up to when he or she runs across and then reads the book and usually a little bit about how that reading affected them. You never actually read the text of the book, just hints such as the first line or a description of the plot. I think it’s better that way. I don’t think the text could live up to what you imagine.
Circles at the beginning of a section.
At the end of the version I read, there were interviews with the author that I found very interesting. Near the last story, I realized that the characters in each vignette had a connection to the others. In one of the interviews, Bauermeister tells readers:
Each character in No Two Persons is connected to at least one other character in the book. Sometimes this connection is quite direct and obvious…Sometimes it can be as subtle as a poster on a wall.
Want a little help? Pay attention to the graphics at the beginning of each section or chapter…the first circle is the story itself, and as each character is introduced, so is their circle in the design, which will also ell you where the overlaps are.
Cool! I went back and tried to figure out the connections. Fun. Good read.