Well, there’s really no excuse. I don’t know what happened, except to say that “December happened”, the only excuse I can come up with. I guess I haven’t been posting this past month because I’ve been reading so much! I have five books to tell you about (very briefly!), then I’ll have my usual “Best of” lists to start off the first post of the new year.
The first book I’ll tell you about is A Family Matter by Claire Lynch. This debut novel tells the story of a lesbian mother’s fight for custody of her daughter in Britain in the 1980s, and is set in dual timelines, one in 1982 and the other in 2022, focusing on family secrets, prejudices, grief, love and loss. It was an excellent novel that explores the ways in which the past affect and shape the present and future, and how what we know can come unraveled when family secrets are brought to light.
The next book is Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong, book #3 in the “Haven’s Rock” series. Casey and Eric are still ironing out the bugs of running a town and trying to do better than Rockton, and their efforts are complicated by Casey’s complicated pregnancy. She’s already had two scares and has been prescribed more rest, less chasing criminals, a prescription she’s (mostly) adhering to. When one of the women from the town leaves The Roc after a night of drinking and socializing, only to find herself woozier and more dizzy than her few drinks warrant, she gets nervous but is attacked and dragged in the woods before she can do anything about it. Fortunately she’s rescued by another resident and no harm comes to her, but as they try to figure out what happened and who slipped the drugs into her drink so that they can reprimand the perpetrator, another woman goes missing during a snow storm and is found naked in the snow days later. Who can Casey and Eric trust, and who will conduct the investigation and keep the townspeople safe in case they have to leave town due to yet another pregnancy scare or early labour? Armstrong’s books are always a pleasure to read, and this was no exception. They are dependable, consistent and complex, and while at first this one seemed more focused on “baby” than “crime”, the plot got very twisty very quickly and it was really a race against time and the elements to see if peace and safety could be restored to Haven’s Rock… but the very ending, which I can’t tell you about, was the icing on the cake!
I also read a new mystery by Michael Robotham, The White Crow, featuring Detective Constable Philomena McCarthy. Phil is the daughter of a renowned London crime boss, but no convictions ever stuck. She’s hoping that she can keep the two sides of her identity separate and secret, at least from her colleagues, but when she discovers a child wandering the streets one night while on patrol, she unwittingly becomes entwined in a complicated case involving her father and uncles, as well as at least one ruthless killer. Can she help solve the case despite her family connections, and is it even safe for her to do so? This book was as good as I’ve come to expect from Robotham, not his best, in my opinion, but still very, very good. I suspect that this will be another new series, along with the “Joseph McLoughlin” and “Cyrus Haven” series, all excellent series.
I read Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, a post-apocalyptic thriller set in a northern Anishnaabe community, for my January book club meeting that will happen on Saturday. When the satellite service, then cell service, then electricity all go out in this small community, at first no one worries too much, as these things are always going out, just not usually all at the same time. But when two college boys from the South return to their community, they bring tales of the same issues happening in the cities and the chaos and deaths that ensue. The community members mostly know how to hunt and can take care of themselves and each other, but when a mysterious white man arrives asking for help, they don’t know if they can, or should, trust him. You’ll have to read the book to find out what happens, but let me tell you that it’s not uplifting and left me with more questions than answers. I guess there’s a sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, that may provide answers, but I’m not ready to read another depressing book yet… maybe in the spring.
And last but certainly not least, I read This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, which was awesome! This novel explores the challenges of raising a transgender child, but it was so much more than that. It explores marriage and family, growing up and staying together, and so very much more. It reminded me so much of Catherine Newman’s book Sandwich (probably my favourite book of the year), but was like a prequel. I loved it!
OK, now it’s time to sum up the year in reading. I read 58 books and listened to 18 audiobooks last year. Here are my “Best of 2025” lists:
Best Adult Fiction
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip WIlliams
Audition by Katie Kitamura
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Endling by Maria Reva
Denison Avenue by Christina Wong
A Great Country by Shiilpa Gowda
Code Name Hélène by Auriel Lawhon
Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger
Storm Child and The While Crow by Michael Robotham
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell
Last Flight by Julie Clarke
Sandwich and Wreck by Catherine Newman
The Believers by Zoë Heller
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
We Are Watching by Alison Gaylin
The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Cold as Hell by Kelley Armstrong
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
WOW, that’s 24 books, which means nearly half of the books I read last year were winners ! And many of the others were great books but they were for the Silver Birch award and I’m not listing them here. I do have a few others on a separate list, combining Non-Fiction and YA:
Red Pockets by Alice May (NF)
The Secret Life of a Cemetery: the wild nature and enchanting lore of Père LaChaise by Benoît Gallot (NF)
No Mud, No Lotus: the art of transforming suffering by Thich Nhat Hanh (NF)
Someone is Always Watching by Kelley Armstrong (YA)
And the Best Audiobooks of 2025 are:
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
The Women by Kristen Hannah
How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
The Lie Maker by Linwood Barclay
The Better Sister by Alifair Burke
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Stay with Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò
Phew! That’s a lot for a single post! But now I’m all caught up and will try to post more regularly in the new year. Happy 2026! May your year be filled with an abundance of books books!
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