Once again I find myself behind in sharing my reads. I know it doesn’t really matter, but I find great value & joy in thinking about and synopsizing my latest reads. And I love reading other people’s book lists. So, if you enjoy that too, here are my last 3 months reads.

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
With Annotations & Guided Reading by Trevin Wax

This book took up most of my November reading time. I started it earlier in 2025 and found it incredibly deep and hard to wade through amidst other reads and life. By November, I was determined to focus and finish it before the end of the year. It’s not that it is boring and a slog to read; but rather it is so deep and intellectual, you really need to bolster your attention and engage with it to grasp any of its meaning. I read quite broadly across genres and age ranges which is lovely and not always something I stop to notice until I hit a book like this one that is immense in intellect, value, and style of writing. This kind of book demands more of me as a reader. (C.S. Lewis books are always this way for me too.) Every time I read a book like this, I feel like an idiot. I wonder at calling myself a reader and how deep of a person I truly am. There is value in reading broadly and my busy life probably needs the variety of styles and content, but this kind of book is the deepest and most beneficial in many ways.

To the book at hand, Orthodoxy is an incredible read. I had heard about it from several Christian thinkers and bookmarked this precise copy since Trevin Wax’s notes was supposed to make it easier to engage with. I would definitely agree. I found Wax’s intros, summaries and footnotes immensely helpful. Chesterton was an immense man of his time and some of his references written in 1908 are quite lost on a more modern reader without some help. As is his style of writing and speaking. In our age of distraction and shortened attention spans, we need books like this and people like Wax to help read and decipher.

Orthodoxy serves as a kind of spiritual autobiography. It is revered as a classic in apologetics. Chesterton wrote it as a response to a non-Christian friend and critic who wanted him to clearly lay out what he believed. Boy, does he. I can only hope that one day I will be as deeply sure and thoughtful in presenting the truths of Christianity and what I believe.

I found sections of the book deeply moving and helped to scrape away some of the calcification around my heart regarding faith and truth. I love Chesterton’s illustrations and easily picture him like a grandfather sitting in his study with a pipe, patiently explaining aspects of faith to me and getting lost in his own thoughts about the wonders and joys of faith.

My favorite chapter was not surprisingly “The Ethics of Elfland” where Chesterton thinks about the spirit of the law of fairy tales. “I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by the mere facts.”

I could go on and on about just this chapter, but I think it speaks to the general thread of the book in pointing out how often we think we have gained wisdom and knowledge as we grow, when really we are gaining confusion and distraction about the amazing reality of existence in this great story that has an incredible storyteller.

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God said every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

I struggle to summarize this book well, but maybe I’ve at least given you a taste that will intrigue you. It’s not a book for the faint of heart or the quick bedtime read. But it is worth the time and energy, as the best of books always are.

Here Be Dragons by Sharon Penman

This book took the rest of my November and half of December. It is epic, in length and story at over 700 pages. I cannot remember why I came across this series, but it probably had to do with looking for more on Welsh history. I have attempted a few books on the history of Wales, but often get bored with all the names and dates and details. But give me a story and I’m all in. Enter Sharon Penman and her Welsh Princes trilogy!

I was a bit wary of this book as I struggled to find much detail on if it was just fluff or had “spice” in it – neither of which I like to read. But a few reviews gave me the confidence to dive in, knowing I could abandon it if it veered gratuitously racy. This book was just right for me. Historical novel that worked hard to stay true to what we know about the history of these characters, but gave a lot more humanity to their stories.

This book takes place at the end of the 12th century and into the 13th, following the lives of England’s King John, his illegitimate daughter Joanna, and the Welsh prince LLewelyn. I adored it and was completely captivated by the character developments and storyline. I really enjoyed Penman’s writing and am impressed with how she took the basic outline of these historical figures lives and wove the details together in a beautiful story of growth, loyalty, truth and redemption. So many times I wondered if something was true or just her addition and when I looked up what spare details history does have on their lives, I was fascinated to think through why Penman filled in details in particular ways. Really well done, faithful to what we do know for fact, and also a lovely imagining of why things went the way they did. I’m already looking for the next two books and time to read them!

One thing is for sure, I am so grateful to not live in the Medieval Times. I learned a lot about this time period through this historical fiction and had to remind myself often why the women were treated and acted as they did. Even with that in mind, I love what Penman says about the main character Joanna, "All we know about Joanna ... are the bedrock facts about her life. I took those facts and did my best to breathe life into them, seeking to create a woman who would have acted as we know she did. ... Women in history are too often overlooked; somehow they fall through the cracks. Joanna is a rare exception, a woman who made an impact upon her times and who is still remembered today in Wales as Llewelyn's Siwan."

A Publisher’s Weekly review described Penman’s writing as a “magnificent combination of history and humanity” and I would have to say I agree.

Glad & Golden Hours by Lanier Ivester

This is a book I purchased at the end of Christmas 2024 and I tucked it away with Christmas hoping that I would enjoy it in 2025. So grateful to my past self. It was a great gift during the incredibly busy Advent season of 2025.

Part memoir, part guide – Glad & Golden Hours is a beautiful walk through the weeks of Advent and Christmas. It is full of stories from Lanier’s life and includes lots of ideas for decorating, recipes for hosting, and other special ways to mark these holiday seasons. It is sectioned into weeks of Advent and Christmastide and I read it each week as I could and enjoyed adding some things to my own celebrating, and bookmarking things for possible years to come. It is mostly just a lovely book that didn’t demand too much in a busy time, but gave me lots of reminders to savor and enjoy the season in front of me. I was especially grateful for it during Christmastide when so much of culture has moved on, but there is still so much to enjoy and celebrate. Really a beautiful book and one I cannot wait to pull out again next year and revisit.

Mistletoe and Magic by Helene Sula

(I annoyingly put away these last two Christmas books with the Christmas stuff before I took photos of them, so please excuse the snaps I borrowed from the marketing of the books.)

I have followed Helene on Instagram for at least a year, when she was still living in Oxford. I enjoy her personality and zest for life and love seeing her traveling adventures. I decided to treat myself to her Christmas novel this year and I’m so glad I did. It was delightful. A light read about a Nashville girl taking a much-needed trip to England and finding a great mystery and herself in the mix of the adventure. Definitely a casual, Hallmark story type read; but it was just what I wanted over the busy Christmas days. The story is fun and a bit mysterious and while there is an obvious budding romance, there is no spice and it just makes you feel like all is right in the world. Definitely a reread another Christmas.

The English Masterpiece by Katherine Reay

What an absolutely fantastic book! I was so excited to see this one release last year as it has been a good while since I’ve read a Katherine Reay book. I always forget how much I love her writing. Just a few pages in to this one and I was completely hooked.

The story centers around two women in 1970s London working at the Tate. They each carry difficult secrets about their pasts that shape who they are. One in their 20s, still figuring out who she is as a person, daughter, professional and artist. The other much older, struggling to hang on to the person she’s crafted herself to be. The story is full of the 1970s art scene, WWII baggage, and fraud. It is a fantastic story that keeps you guessing as each chapter flips between the two women’s perspectives on events. I really couldn’t put it down.

I must remember to look for any Reay books I haven’t read yet. Such a talent.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

I’m not quite sure if this book was ever on my radar before recently. A friend posted about it several months ago and I was intrigued and added it to my Christmas list. I found it quite engaging, if a bit odd. Quite the fantasy novel, and I’m still not sure what to do with it in my head. I wouldn’t say I loved it, but I did enjoy reading it and I’m still thinking about it. I honestly think one of the best parts of the book was the introduction by Patrick Rothfuss. He really loves this book and waxed poetically about it in such a charming and humorous way… I’m a bit jealous I didn’t love the book as much as he, but I did enjoy it.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

Yet another book that I read because I kept seeing friends I admire mention it. What a fascinating novel. Once again, I don’t quite know what to do with it now that I’ve read it. I loved reading it, but always felt unsettled and unsure as I did. And I hated the ending. Literally saw it coming from one paragraph to the next and closed my eyes to take a deep breath before it hit me. I felt betrayed that Leif Enger was taking me there. I will never understand when an author has it in their power to write a different ending and they choose what they did. Days later, I’m still angry at the ending.

The book is so hard. And beautiful. Truly excellent writing which is why so many of my writing friends talk about it. The main character is 11, the middle child of three, and he is dealing with some really big stuff. There’s a bit of hunting, and there’s murder in this story. But there’s also lots of 11 year old stuff and his delightful little sister. My very favorite character of the whole book was his father. What a man. I cannot stop thinking about that father, Jeremiah Land, and especially his prayer life. I’m jealous of it. Not joking. I keep thinking about this fictional character and his immense faith in prayer and I crave it. That’s what’s going to stay with me from this book. I’ve been talking to God about it. Outside of the setting in 1960s midwestern life, hunting analogies, unfairness of life, poems about outlaws, and asthmatic issues; the part that I actually loved was Jeremiah Land’s praying. (I loved Roxanna too, but how could you not.)

I don’t know if I recommend this book or not. Might be a terrible connection, but the tone reminds me ever so slightly of Flannery O'Connor, where normal life is occurring alongside dreadful things and everyone responds differently to it. It was a beautiful read though. And I can’t stop thinking about it.

There are most of my latest reads. I’m nearly finished with another and dabbling in a couple more as always. I’ve done better this year immediately reading the books I got for Christmas. I always feel bad when I get books for a gift and then don’t read them for years. But maybe it’s true that certain books find you at just the right time. I’ll keep going with my gut on what to read next and enjoy the journey. Let me know what you’re reading and loving lately too! 💚

November, December, & January reads

a bit of January