What I’ve Read Since the Start of the Year

Nothing has knocked my socks off in these first 3 months of the year. And if ever there was a time when getting lost and swept away by a book is needed, it is most certainly right now. Around this time last year it felt as though I was reading hit after hit after hit, or so it seemed. This year? Almost everything has been just “okay”, “fine”, “pretty good” but nothing has been outrageously great and certainly no 5-stars have been awarded.

Bummer.

I’ve read a total of 14 books so far. I’ll group the books that I would consider the “best” so far, as they did provide quite enjoyable reading experiences, but nothing where I would say they picked me up and shook me around and left me bereft for parting with them.

The “Best” So Far

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel was the first book I finished in 2025. I did enjoy this one, I loved the actual book, as in the publisher’s spent care and time on it. This was a fun ode to Hitchcock and had interesting tidbits about him pulled out throughout.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. I love Liz Moore and I really did enjoy this one but my misgivings were that it was a touch too long and drawn out. Liz Moore writes fascinating character studies but I don’t think this was her very best and I have reacted strongly to the publishers perhaps “doing her dirty” with the marketing and promotion behind this one. I did like it, but I didn’t love it. Therefore, it wasn’t a knock my socks off.

Blood Ties by Jo Nesbo. Again, another where I did enjoy it while reading, and it was good to be back with the brothers from The Kingdom (I do believe you need to read The Kingdom before Blood Ties) but it just wasn’t the best one yet for me. Solid storytelling once again by Nesbo, but perhaps a bit too drawn out as well, like The God of the Woods.

The Lotus Shoes by Jane Yang. This was our book club book for March, as chosen by me. Our book club was founded by our previous Hoarder Jackie and the very first book we read together was Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. I felt nostalgic for Snow Flower when I read the premise for The Lotus Shoes and thought it would make for an excellent book club book. While good, there were elements that I did not enjoy, such as the whiny behaviour of one of the main characters, Linjing, and the ending was quite rushed. There was a part to the ending that was confusing as well – I don’t know if that was a mistake in how it was printed (I did notice a few other errors inside where a word, while spelled correctly, wasn’t the right one for that particular sentence, for instance) but it was enough to throw you off and question exactly how this was ending.

The other two “best ones so far” were ones I’ve just finished. I am expanding on those in another post because they are both CanLit novels.

Recipe for a Good Life by Lesley Crewe was picked because she never lets me down and I just needed a good boost to my reading at this point. She didn’t disappoint for sure, but again, it just wasn’t quite that absolutely awesome 5-star book. Pale Shadows by Dominque Fortier is beautifully written. It’s a lovely love letter to Emily Dickinson.

The Ones That Were Just “Okay”

There’s about 3 or 4 here maybe? Sorry, there’s 5. Let’s just quickly buzz through these ones:

The Safekeep. Nominated for many prizes I felt this debut read very much like one and upon reflection I found it was that I struggled with the vastly different voices used to tell this story. Like there were 3 distinct voices inside and they didn’t fit well together at all. I felt like I was reading 3 separate books where each was unfinished. Confessions. Well this one was supposed to knock my socks off. Or so I was told. It did nothing of the sort. I was bored to tears by it? The Long Water by Stef Penney. Seriously – I remember nothing about this book. Nothing. Did I even read it? Every Tom, Dick and Harry. I always find Elinor Lipman to provide a charming and humorous read and this one was, but again, the theme here is that it didn’t knock my socks off. Frankie. At the beginning of this book I was ready to crown this Norton’s best yet, and then it started to lose its way and the pages were filled with filler and emptiness.

The Worst Ones

I’m sorry, but I have to include these here because I just have to get it off my chest. These 3 did not provide enjoyable reading experiences at all. One being much worse over the other two, but those other two had some serious issues for me as well.

I watch Ann Patchett’s Friday videos quite religiously where she does “If you haven’t read this, it’s new to you”. On that particular Friday she talked about Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and it being a prequel to Jane Eyre. This was a case of, “what in the world did I just read?” So oddly convoluted and incoherent to me. I wasn’t happy to have spent time with this book at all. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa has been on my TBR for a long time. Kobo had it on sale for $1.99 so I grabbed it. A disappointing purchase even if it was only 2 bucks. I riddled Hoarder Elizabeth with texts showing the pages and pages and pages of math equations. I was determined to make her suffer through it as much as I was. Sorry! She joked that this was a workbook disguised as a novel. Buried so deep in these pages were hints of a really lovely story about the Professor, the Housekeeper and her son that I wished so desperately I could have enjoyed over the pressure of solving math problems. It caused trauma for me. Finally, Mrs. Nash’s Ashes. Sounded so cute, and our book club chose it but I hated it. So toxic was the behaviour of the male character Hollis and so ridiculously insipid was the behaviour of the female character, Millie, I just couldn’t work past it. By all means, this was supposed to be a super cute book but I can’t apologize for the shitty man trope and the women that love, change themselves so they’ll be accepted by him garbage.

There you have my reading experiences for the first 3 months of this year. Please send those thoughts and suggestions for books that will be 5-star, knock my socks off reading experiences. In an effort to combat this reading slump however, Hoarder Elizabeth and I are going to tackle Lonesome Dove. We have seen countless BookTok videos, Instagram posts, messages, sky-writing, you name it – we’ve seen it where everyone, every single person, has declared their love for Lonesome Dove. Which scares me considerably. What happens if this isn’t the book to sweep us away? But that many people can’t be wrong right? (And there have been a considerable number of people!) Have you read it?

Wish us luck!