Let's Bust a Recap : 2025

Well, here we are at the start of another brand new year. To be completely honest with you, I am not sad to see 2025 go. There were a lot of crummy, hard, sad things this year. It was maybe even worse than 2020 for me. But like I did in 2020, I want to thank God for some of the blessings that made 2025 a little more bearable. 

Like marking year 13 of life together with the best guy ever. 

Like welcoming a new niece and a new nephew into the family and getting to have all my Hancock chicks together at my favorite place: the beach.

Like honoring my amazing parents' 40th anniversary by surprising my mom with all her kids in the same place at the same time. 

Like trying our hand at growing some things and seeing the tomatoes go gangbusters. 

Like having my best friends visit me this summer and going to baseball games galore. 

Like getting a full-time job at Walmart which is exhausting but also great for my mental health. 

Like fun little surprises in the mail, and going to the lake, and the leaves changing color, and late night movie dates, and Christmas lights, and little hands helping decorate the tree. 

And, of course, always having books, books, and more books to read. Especially on the front porch with something cold—or hot, as the case may be—at hand to drink and my husband reading his book beside me.

Yes, there have been hard things. Yes, there are things I wish I could change about this past year. But God is faithful, He has given me strength and protected me from the evil one. 

Okay, now back to all those books. This year, I made a starting list for myself of twenty books....and I read thirteen of them. Whomp whomp. But let's talk about my secret goal. This year, my secret goal was to actually finish David Copperfield. Which has been on and off my book lists since 2019. Which I started reading back in February of 2023. Which I kept picking up all year but didn't ultimately finish it till last night at 8:18 PM, and yes I did in fact mark the exact time I read the words "The End." Another down-to-the-wire finish, but I'm just super-jazzed I did it. 

Overall, I finished the year with a nice round total of 40 books read. And you know the drill: here they all are with my quick thoughts on a bunch of them. 

January

A Separate Peace by John Knowles : completed 1/25

Broke my heart. A masterpiece.

Little Men by Louisa May Alcott (re-read; read aloud) : completed 1/30

I've been bugging Cody to read Little Men ever since he finished Little Women and he finally just let me read it aloud to him. Great way to start the year.

February

Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare : completed 2/23

Silvia the GOAT!

Open Your Heart by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 2/28

Can't go a year without some Robin Jones Gunn.

March

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah : completed 3/7

Definitely lived up to the hype.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : 

completed 3/13

Cody and I read the whole Harry Potter series together this year! 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (re-read; partial read aloud) : completed 3/16

I started reading the Lunar Chronicles to Cody but it proved to be too YA and girly for him, so we switched to Harry Potter instead. (I still had to finish my re-read of Cinder though.)

April

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : 

completed 4/9

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand : completed 4/27

Phenomenal. Please give us a collection of Laura Hillenbrand's freelance work, Publishing People. 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : 

completed 4/29

May

Fervent by Priscilla Shirer : completed 5/14

Still planning to recap this one, but suffice it to say: I needed this book this year.

Tales of Peter Rabbit and His Friends by Beatrix Potter (read aloud) : completed 5/22

You can never have enough Beatrix Potter.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : completed 5/28

Franklin Pierce by Michael F. Holt : completed 5/31

Still s l o w l y working my way through my presidential biographies goal. 

June

Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (library book) : completed 6/9

Completely without guile. Loved this sweet Norwegian book.

Animal Farm by George Orwell : completed 6/29

Oof.

-David Copperfield still hanging over my head halfway through the year-

July

By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 7/25

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han : completed 7/26

Meh.

Desiring God by John Piper : completed 7/30

Helpful but wouldn't necessarily recommend.

August

It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han : completed 8/12

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate : completed 8/23

Did not live up to the hype. Recap coming.

We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han : completed 8/25

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : 

completed 8/28

This was the point in the series that Cody had not previously read by himself so I really enjoyed reading the last three books with him.

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare : completed 8/30

Going into another new year behind on my Shakespeare recaps. Will definitely be writing one soon!

September

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp : completed 9/6

One of my favorite books of the year. This was so good. 

Home by Julie Andrews : completed 9/14

Home Work by Julie Andrews : completed 9/18

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter : completed 9/22

Instantly achieved All-Time Favorite status.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : 

completed 9/23

Cody said this was his favorite book of the series.

Time Will Tell by Robin Jones Gunn (re-read) : completed 9/29

October

The World's Best Fairy Tales edited by Belle Becker Sideman (read aloud) : 

completed 10/3

Not planning to do a full recap on this so I'm going to do a mini one here. Starting in July of 2024 I read all 69 fairy tales aloud—we couldn't find one more story to make it an even 70??—to various people in my life, including nieces, nephews, my husband, my best friends, and kids I babysit. It was a wild ride. Probably the craziest story was The Bronze Ring which I read with my nephew. I don't even know how to describe how crazy that story is to you. Right when we thought it couldn't possibly get zanier, we were wrong. You should look it up and read it sometime. It's by Henri Carnoy.

The Poetry of Robert Frost : completed 10/28

Also not planning to do a recap on this. How do you even recap poetry? Some of it I loved, some of it went over my head, some of it I don't care if I ever read again, some of it I bookmarked to read over and over. I loved incorporating poetry more consistently into my overall reading. 

November 

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 11/8

When I started working at Walmart, Anne Shirley went with me to keep me company on my breaks. I'll never get tired of Avonlea.

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson : completed 11/14

Still waiting for someone to explain how this became so mainstream.

Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 11/25

December 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley : completed 12/2

"How dare you sport thus with life?" So good. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (re-read; read aloud) : 

completed 12/21

NEVILLE!!! I'll never get over him chopping off Nagini's head. I actually lost my voice reading this one to Cody with all the screaming at the end. I put my all into it.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (re-read) : completed 12/24

Did I or did I not say you will catch me reading this every Christmas for the rest of my life?

Morning and Evening by Charles Haddon Spurgeon : completed 12/31

They don't call him the "Prince of Preachers" for nothing. 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens : completed 12/31

It felt so good to check this one off. Recap coming so soon, I promise. 

So many good books read, and so many more to read. I hope your 2026 is better than your 2025. Even if you had a great 2025, I hope 2026 is still better. May we all be as unbothered as Colonel when little hands are decorating him for Christmas. You know what I'm going to say...

...keep reading the best books first.

Let's Bust a Recap : Animal Farm

On Monday, I shared my recap on Frankenstein, literature's definitive horror story. Today, I'm reaching back in the archives of my mind to finally recap Animal Farm, the other book I put on my 2025 book list specifically because of a new movie adaptation. Animal Farm turned 80 this year and I read it in June. As far as I'm concerned, it's far more horrific than Frankenstein, and after finally reading this slim classic, I have no desire to watch Andy Serkis' new adaptation, the release of which has been pushed to next May anyway.

If you're unfamiliar with George Orwell's Fairy Story about the anthropomorphised animals on Manor Farm, it's basically just Orwell crapping all over Stalin and the Soviet Union. 

"It's important political satire!" "It's an allegory!" "It's dystopian literature at its finest!"

It's about as subtle as a sledgehammer, is what it is, and I felt sick the entire time I was reading it. By the time the glue truck turned up to take Boxer away, I wanted to chuck the whole thing in a fire and watch it burn. 

I'm not one to go looking for the symbolism or deeper meaning in books that just isn't there. But Animal Farm is unapologetically political and if you have two brain cells to rub together, you can't escape what Orwell is writing about. Old Major is basically an amalgamation of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. Napoleon (the most despicable character in the whole of the novella) is Joseph Stalin. Snowball is Leon Trotsky. And Squealer represents the Soviet nomenklatura and journalists, justifying every little thing Stalin says and does. Then you have the other animals who are worked to death under Napoleon's regime and the poor puppies who are stolen at birth and trained to be his terrifying security force. Orwell drives his point home hard at the end of the novella when the animals look in the window at the pigs' dinner party with the neighboring human farmers and they can no longer distinguish between the pigs and the men. 

Animal Farm is a searing portrait of how a revolution for equality is corrupted by power, leading to an even worse tyranny. The silencing of dissent, the manipulation, the utter betrayal of ideals all vividly portrayed by Orwell in his Fairy Story are important topics and things we absolutely must be attuned to recognize. The whole those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. But reading Animal Farm is not a fun time, and I'd caution you against picking it up unless you're prepared to grapple with the boundless depths of human depravity—depicted by a bunch of literal pigs. It's rough sailing but I do think it's worth reading if you can stomach it. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Frankenstein

Well, here we are, ten days till Christmas and what am I recapping on the blog today? Some cozy holiday story á la The Best Christmas Pageant Ever? No. Today we're talking about what is possibly the most classic horror story of all time. The story of Doctor Victor Frankenstein and his creature.  

"It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils..."

When I heard last year that Guillermo del Toro was making a new adaptation of Frankenstein to be released in 2025, I knew it was time to finally read my copy of this classic and so I added it to my book list and planned to read it in October or November around the time the movie was slated to be released. Despite the enduring fame of this 200 year old ghost story, I knew relatively little beyond the fact that "Frankenstein" is the name of the doctor, not the monster. *insert massive eye-rolling about here* My lit teacher friends have all told me that this is one of those accessible classics that even high schoolers love and that I'd breeze through it, easy peasy. 

Well, yes and no. First of all, Frankenstein is a bit convoluted in that it's a story, inside of a story, inside yet another story. The preface begins as a series of letters from a certain Captain Walton who is on an expedition to the North Pole. As it happens, the captain met with some strange circumstances in which he picked up a lone man called Victor Frankenstein who determines to tell Walton his history. As a young man, Frankenstein was fascinated with alchemy and, through a series of events, discovered he could create life. After piecing together a bodily form from cadavers, he actually does succeed in animating his creation and then immediately regrets it and runs away from it. I'm not going to get too into details here but after a lot of time passes, his creation finds Frankenstein and determines to tell him his own story and make a request of him. 

See what I mean? Convoluted. Which makes sense because Mary Shelley was a teenager herself when she wrote it. The teen angst is palpable in this novel. It's a brilliant story though and I get why the appeal of it has endured. The feelings that Frankenstein's creature (I will not call him a monster, I loved him too much) has to grapple with concerning his loneliness and where he belongs are all too relatable, and the consequences Frankenstein has to face as the result of playing God raise so many questions we're still asking ourselves today. 

But my expectations for this book were out of line with my experience when I finally picked it up to read it. The mind-numbing descriptions of the natural world were too much even for me and took me out of the story. Victor Frankenstein is one of the most insufferable characters I've encountered in a very long time. And the creature's story was by far my very favorite part of the book, but unfortunately it was also the most brief. (Or if it wasn't, it definitely felt that way.) After reading it and having a little time to think about it, I think it's a novel that bears re-reading with my expectations adjusted accordingly. 

As for the brand new film adaptation that came out November 7th on Netflix, I took a break from my annual slate of favorite Christmas movies yesterday to watch it. And I have a lot of feelings about it. The movie itself is absolutely beautiful. A sweeping epic if I've ever seen one. The love Guillermo del Toro has for the novel is apparent, even though he drastically changed the story in his screenplay. At first, I did not appreciate the liberties taken with the source material but as the film unfolded, del Toro's choices started to make a lot of sense to me. I'm still not sure how I feel about the twist ending, but on the whole, del Toro's Frankenstein is a film I'd watch again. Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi managed to bring the essence of Mary Shelley's original characters to vivid life on the screen and I felt the same way about the portrayal of their Frankenstein and his creature on film as I did when I was reading the novel. I don't say this about a lot of movies, but del Toro's Frankenstein is art. 

All things considered, I think Frankenstein is a fantastic story and definitely worth reading, but it's a slow burn so proceed accordingly. 

And if you've read it and you sympathize with Frankenstein and think his creature is a monster, let's talk about that because I'd love to hear your perspective. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Ramona Quimby

Here's the thing about Beverly Cleary: of all the books I've ever read in my entire life, Beverly Cleary can write a book that's supposed to be from a child's perspective, like it's actually from a real child's perspective. She has the uncanny ability to tap into a child's psyche so well, and it makes actual kids want to read her books. I love children's literature. Truly, it may be my very favorite genre. Children's books make it into my reading rotation every single year. And Beverly Cleary is the absolute queen of writing books about kids, for kids.  

Back in 2021, I started reading Beezus and Ramona with my nieces while they were visiting in the summer. It was just a quick trip and I wasn't quite able to finish the book with them, but of course that didn't stop me from finishing it by myself shortly after they left. Last year, during a week-long slumber party at Uncle Cody and Auntie Hannah's house, I picked up the next Ramona book to read to my niece and nephews. For the purposes of this post, I'll call them Thing One, Thing Two, and Thing Three. During that week, we flew through Ramona the Pest and Ramona the Brave. The kids immediately fell in love with Ramona and when Thing One realized there was actually a book before Ramona the Pest that I hadn't read to them, she checked it out of her school library to read for herself. If that's not a testament to Beverly Cleary's genuine connection with children, I don't know what is. For the rest of 2024, if I showed up at a family gathering without our current Ramona book, I was ordered back home to get it so total anarchy didn't ensue. (It's a good thing we all live in the same neighborhood!) We actually finished Ramona's World, the final book in the Ramona series, on Christmas day. 

There are eight books about Ramona Quimby, from Beezus and Ramona, published in 1955, all the way to Ramona's World, published in 1999. The very first book is from the perspective of Ramona's older sister Beezus who gets very annoyed with Ramona's antics but learns she can always love her little sister—even if she doesn't always like her. The following seven books are all from Ramona's perspective as she goes to kindergarten with her neighbor Howie in Ramona the Pest, up until her fourth grade year in Ramona's World. Ramona finds herself facing all sorts of challenges like bullies at school, teachers she loves and teachers she doesn't like, her dad losing his job, her family expecting a new baby, a family pet dying, making a best friend, and a beloved aunt getting engaged and married. While all these books were written and published before the twenty-first century, the struggles and triumphs, growing up and all the big feelings that go with it, are timeless, and Cleary's books have given children a protagonist they can honestly see themselves in for generations now. Thing One, Thing Two, and Thing Three were all absolutely riveted by Ramona Quimby, and the Ramona books are the only books I've ever read to them where I had the undivided attention of all three whenever I was reading. After we finished reading the entire series, I asked them each to tell me their favorite parts of the books and here's what they said:

Thing One liked when Ramona put the hard-boiled egg on her head (from Ramona Quimby, Age 8) and when she made the tiara out of burrs (from Ramona and Her Father). 

Thing Two liked it when Ramona made an engagement ring out of a worm in Ramona the Pest. (I love that Thing Two's favorite part was one that wasn't depicted in the phenomenal film adaptation starring Joey King as Ramona Quimby. Which we watched twice.)

And Thing Three loved drawing the longest picture (from Ramona and Her Father...and also from our basement because we obviously had to draw our own longest picture), and his other favorite part was when Ramona fell through the ceiling in Ramona's World. 

If my glowing review hasn't already tipped you off to my feelings about it, let me say this loud and clear: the Ramona Quimby books are an absolute treasure and I highly recommend them—specifically to be read aloud to children or for children to read for themselves. As I alluded to above, the movie is also a delight and one of my all-time favorites. Scenes from every single book are lovingly incorporated into it and I cannot get through it without laughing and sobbing—every. single. time. Don't miss out on Ramona Quimby. 

What is your favorite children's book? Seriously, please tell me. I'm always looking for good ones to ward off the cynicism that seems unavoidable in this world. 

Let's Bust a Recap : Seabiscuit

Y'all. I would read the phone book if Laura Hillenbrand wrote it. I've read Unbroken twice now; I've read her piece in The New Yorker about the sudden onset of a then unknown illness which she has suffered from ever since; and now I've finally read Seabiscuit. I think I waited so long to read it simply because it's her only other book and who knows if she'll ever write another one. Consider this my official plea to have all her freelance writing collected and offered in book format. At least all the stuff she wrote for Equus magazine. Pretty please with cherries on top?

Incidentally, I have discovered that my toxic trait (well, one of them anyway) is reading one-star reviews for objectively exceptional books. (Or maybe just my favorite books. Semantics.) One Goodreads user in their one-star review of Seabisuit said—and I quote: "I want to read about people, not horses."

FOR A BOOK ENTITLED SEABISCUIT.

Oh for the love of Lori Loughlin. 

And while Seabiscuit is certainly a thorough biography of one of the most beloved racehorses of all time, it is also a biography of three men: Charles Howard, Seabiscuit's owner; Red Pollard, Seabiscuit's best jockey; and Tom Smith, the horse trainer to end all horse trainers. 

Laura Hillenbrand first covered the subject of her 2001 biography Seabiscuit in an essay that was published in American Heritage magazine. After getting so much positive feedback, she proceeded to write a full-length book which went on to become a bestselling, award-winning masterpiece and the source material for the 2003 film starring Tobey Maguire as Red Pollard which went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards. (The film ultimately didn't win in any of the seven categories but what can you do when you're up against the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy which beat it out in six of the seven categories??)

Much like her later biography Unbroken, Seabiscuit absolutely captivated me and I had a hard time putting it down. For probably a solid month while reading it and afterward, I talked Cody's ear off about every single detail and made him listen to excerpts that I'd read to him aloud. And don't get me started on those one-star reviews again. My poor husband was audience to a passionate tirade about all the idiots who wouldn't know good writing if it bit them in the armpit. 

Seabiscuit is a true underdog story and I think therein lies the appeal. Of Charles Howard, the bicycle-repairman-turned-millionaire that no one took seriously as a horse owner. Until Seabiscuit started winning. Of Tom Smith, the unconventional horse trainer that everyone ridiculed and dismissed, mocking his unorthodox methods. Until Seabiscuit started winning. And of Red Pollard, the most accident-prone jockey you ever heard of that everyone actually gave up for dead. Until he rose from the grave and saddled a horse people thought would never race again and won. 

But the undisputed star of Hillenbrand's sensational book is Seabiscuit himself. This awkward little horse with his Eggbeater gait won the hearts of the entire country back in the 1930s and he completely won mine as well. I was on the edge of my seat for every single race Hillenbrand covered and what I wouldn't give to have seen him run in person. I cried when I came to the end of the book. Charles Howard was known to silver Seabiscuit's race-worn horseshoes, mount them on ashtrays, and give them as gifts. I may or may not have done an internet search after finishing the book to see if any are still in existence and what it might cost to obtain one. (Spoiler: they're rare and completely out of my budget.)

And you guys. What jockeys would do to make weight will forever be seared into my memory after reading Seabiscuit. I somewhat expected the fasting, the sweatboxes, the laxative use. But intentionally ingesting tapeworm eggs?? Horrifying. The lengths these men would go to for their profession was life-threatening and absolutely appalling, but fascinating nonetheless.

On a final note, after finishing the book I watched—for the first time—both the 2003 film adaptation of Seabiscuit and also The Story of Seabiscuit starring Shirley Temple that came out in 1949. Neither one can touch Laura Hillenbrand's phenomenal writing and I'm sad to report that the Shirley Temple film just isn't any good at all. Whoever decided that my beloved Shirley Temple should attempt an Irish accent should be criminally tried. 

While I may not recommend Seabiscuit as widely as I recommend Unbroken, it is an absolutely brilliant piece of storytelling and a gripping bit of history. If you have any interest in horses at all, this is a book you cannot miss. 

Who's your favorite non-fiction writer?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Devil in the White City

Hello there! I think we can all agree that there is no longer any rhyme or reason to this blog. 

Do I have eight or nine other recaps sitting in drafts? Yes.

Are some of those recaps for books I read last year? Also yes.

Am I recapping the book I most recently finished reading? Another resounding yes.

Obviously, there is no order here, no posting schedule, and certainly no goals—stated or unspoken—of getting caught up in any particular timeframe. It just is what it is and that's all it'll ever be. So if you've stuck around, thank you for your loyalty and I hope you enjoy what I have to say whenever I randomly pop in to say it. 

The Devil in the White City is the tenth book I've completed from my original 2025 book list which, may I remind you, consisted of only twenty titles. I have a flickering hope of finishing three or four more from that list by the end of the year. We'll see what happens. 

But to get to the actual recap: The Devil in the White City is Erik Larson's 2003 historical non-fiction book which interweaves the stories of Daniel Burnham, the chief architect of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (aka the World's Fair), and H. H. Holmes, a cunning serial killer who lured his victims to his "Murder Castle" in Chicago, many while the World's Fair was going on from May to October of 1893. 

Larson has been lauded for the novelistic style he brings to writing his factual subject matter, and The Devil in the White City is easily his most famous book. So many people have recommended it to me, and I've been meaning to read it for ages. I bought a copy back in 2018 and, as you can see in the photograph, I've even been collecting Larson's other books since then. I knew I wanted to read The Devil in the White City first, and I actually put it on my book list a couple years ago, but just didn't get to it. I was determined to finally read it this year, and my sister-in-law agreed to buddy read it with me which is sometimes just the kick in the pants I need to get started. 

So what did I think? Larson's writing is very good and he definitely does have a talent for bringing what could be dry material to life. His coverage of what it took for Chicago and Burnham specifically to bring the World's Fair to fruition was actually fascinating. What Burnham managed to accomplish in just two years' time despite the physical (devastating windstorms, fires, Chicago's challenging soil) and financial (the Panic of 1893!) hardships he faced is nothing short of miraculous. Larson's handling of Dr. H. H. Holmes and his elaborate "Murder Castle" was deeply unsettling and extremely compelling. I particularly enjoyed the saga of George Ferris and his architecturally "impossible" Wheel. I love when a book I'm reading connects and contextualizes things outside of itself for me that I wasn't expecting and in The Devil in the White City, I felt like my own personal little Easter eggs were popping up throughout the book. Like how Olmstead, the landscape architect of the World's Fair was simultaneously working on the Biltmore, or how Walt Disney's father Elias was enamored with the World Fair and visited several times. Larson also details how Holmes managed to dispose of several of his victims by having their skeletons articulated and selling them which wasn't suspicious because of how widely accepted grave robbing was at the time. Medical schools in particular were so desperate for cadavers that they didn't ask questions about where bodies came from and would even send envoys with armed guards to rob graves. Unapologetically! This gave me a deeper appreciation for Robert Louis Stevenson's short story "The Body Snatcher" which I read last year. 

But for all that, I felt like I was reading two separate books. I don't think Larson successfully ties his subject matter together, and when I got close to the end of the book and he threw in even more subplots like the assassination of Chicago's extraordinarily popular mayor, and a bit about Theodore Dreiser, it felt very disorienting to me. Don't get me wrong, it was all very interesting and it definitely hasn't put me off Larson as an author, but it wasn't cohesive and I'm a little surprised at just how mainstream The Devil in the White City has become. It will be very interesting as I continue to read Larson's books if The Devil in the White City will stand out for me as his best. My mom has read this one and also Dead Wake, his book about the sinking of the Lusitania, and she has said that Dead Wake is far and away the better of the two. That's probably the one I'll read next, but I'm also very curious to compare The Devil in the White City to his 2006 offering entitled Thunderstruck in which he employs the same device of interweaving two historical events. 

For a history buff like me, The Devil in the White City was a good read, but at this point, I wouldn't recommend Erik Larson over say, Laura Hillenbrand or David McCullough. We'll see how I feel once I have a few more of his books under my belt. 

Have you read any Erik Larson? If you've read any of his other books, did you think they were better than The Devil in the White City?

Pumpkin Carving 2025

Happy Halloween! 

The time has come around again for my favorite little tradition: pumpkin carving! And it just so happens that this year, we combined our love of reading with our love for spooky season. Can you guess what books inspired our pumpkins this year? Hint: my apparel is a clue. Keep scrolling to see what I mean.

After sitting outside on our front porch for a couple of weeks, our pumpkins were positively frosty when we brought them in last night for our annual fun. We both agreed that digging out nearly frozen pumpkin guts while sitting next to our cozy fire is exceedingly preferable to hot, steamy ones, something we've experienced a time or two in Florida Octobers. 

Can you make out Cody's design? Back at the beginning of March this year, Cody and I began reading the Harry Potter series aloud together. As you know if you've been around a while, I read Harry Potter for the first time back in 2019 and ended up loving them. Cody had read the first four books prior to this year, but had never read Order of the Phoenix, the Half-Blood Prince, or the Deathly Hallows. At the beginning of October, we started the final book in the series, so when we were deciding what to carve on our pumpkins this year, I had the brilliant idea to make them Harry Potter themed. Cody immediately got on board.

The result?

Cody decided to do the Sign of the Deathly Hallows, very apropos. I attempted Harry's messy hair, spectacles, and signature lightning bolt scar. We did both of these freehand—no stencils—and I just love how they turned out. 

We put Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone—my favorite of the film adaptations—on the TV while we carved, lit our glass pumpkin candles from the Dollar Tree, set up next to a cozy fire, and had a marvelous time of it. After our pumpkins were finished and we took them back outside to see how they looked all lit up, we made some hot chocolate and snuggled in to watch Harry discover the wizarding world. A successful night all around, I'd say, and certainly another successful year of our fun tradition. 

From us to you, a very happy Halloween and a jolly start to the holiday season. Can you believe there are only 61 days left in 2025? 

October 30, 2025