2025 Reading List

I set a goal at the beginning of the year to update this list when I finished a book. Here it is, December, and I'm frantically trying to get this done. It was a bit of a hodge-podge of genres and a fair number of multiple books from the same series. As always, let me know what you're reading; I'm always looking for a good book!

Books I loved and recommend:

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1-8, Beth Brower
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! Volume 8 was published and I decided to read them all over again. They are quick reads and they are so enjoyable. I'm so thrilled this book is gaining traction and getting noticed. Think Jane Austin (Pride and Prejudice) meets L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables). 

Saints, Vol. 1-4, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This year in Sunday School we studied the Doctrine and Covenants as well as church history. I decided it was time to read Saints. The first volume was a read, put it down to read something else, read, put it down... Volume 2 was similar. And then I got to Volumes 3&4. I was surprised when I could barely put them down. The stories of the members of my church are incredible. The Saints in South America are strong! The Saints in Africa were patient! The Saints behind the Iron Curtain persevered. So many things I feel I should have known and didn't. 

Arcanum Unbound, Brandon Sanderson
A collection of short stories from places familiar to Sanderson fans from other books as well as stories from new places in his made-up universe. I have read almost everything this man has written (and it's a lot) and I highly enjoyed this compilation. If you haven't read Sanderson and enjoy 'mild' fantasy, I think you'll enjoy what he offers.

The Marlow Murder Club, Robert Thorogood
I was ready to swear off British mystery authors after some appalling books but this one was quite enjoyable. A truly mysterious murder mystery with some really quirky characters. While I was able to figure out the who-done-it, there were enough other details, character side-lines, and the telling of the story itself that made it an enjoyable read.

Maisie Dobbs, Vol 2-5, Jacqueline Winspear
I read the first book in the series last year and it only ranked so-so. I decided to try the second book before dropping the series and I'm so glad I did. Excellent mysteries solved in a unique way, all set in post-WWI London and surrounding environs.

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
LOVED this book! A wonderful sci-fi about saving the planet.

Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins
For those familiar with The Hunger Games, this is Haymitch's story. Some of it you'll already know if you've read the other books, but this goes into detail and gives little glimpses into the background of other characters in other books. Always enjoyable, if a bit gory, to return to Panem.

Alive, Piers Paul Read
This popped up as a suggestion from my library. It said it was a true story so I thought I'd give it a try. Oh my! The story of a Uruguayan rugby team flying to Chile for a game and their plane crashes in the Andes and how those that survived did so for 72 days before they were finally rescued. The writing is okay and there are a lot of people to keep track of (which is a good thing in a survival story!) but the story itself is amazing. And true! 

Books I enjoyed or found interesting but would not necessarily recommend:

The Infernal Machine, Steven Johnson
Elder Renlund talked about the combination of nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth to make dynamite in an excellent conference talk last year. Re-reading his talk, I followed the footnote at this explanation in his talk and this book was the reference. I decided if it was something Elder Renlund read, I could too. An interesting history of anarchy, the beginnings of forensic detective work, and dynamite.

Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
We showed the kids the original "Mary Poppins" movie this year. Watching as an adult I found a whole different story than when I was a kid and I loved it even more! We then watched "Saving Mr. Banks" which we thought was so-so but it definitely got me interested in reading the book. Meh. It was fun to see where the inspiration came from, but this might be one of the exceptions where I like the movie better than the book.

A Redbird Christmas, Fannie Flagg
This was a book club read. It was an easy, light, predictable story about a man down in the dumps who is able to turn his life around, accompanied by a whole cast of other quirky characters. Fun, but not necessarily a must read.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, Margareta Magnusson
A few book club friends said they were reading this and, always on the search for ideas for home keeping, I decided to read it. It's a short and fast read and I don't know if there were any insights particularly. She stressed cleaning your house before you die so your children don't have to. I think that's a great thing to do. Otherwise, nothing too profound.

The Costly Journey, Stormin Brooks
Book two in The Centaur Hero series. I spent almost a year working with the author on editing and getting the book ready to publish. Not an easy read with heavy themes, but something I'm content with how it turned out. (Note: at publishing of this blog, this book hadn't been published for mass consumption yet.)

Books I did not like and would not recommend:

The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Oh, did this book have potential! A group of seniors living in retirement housing, all with different backgrounds -- nurse, psychologist, spy, accountant -- trying to solve cold cases. Then a real murder happens and they jump right in. Sounds great doesn't it? Unfortunately, it wasn't. Perhaps I had a preconceived notion of what this book should have been and was disappointed. Also, I like mysteries where you can figure it out with everything given in the text. Hiding stuff from the reader seems like cheating.

The Mistletoe Mystery, Nita Prose
This one bugged me. I've read the first two books in the series but I may be done after this one. It is so obvious what is going on to everyone except the main character it is annoying to the reader. I'm also no a fan of first person prose.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, Samuel Burr
Another book that sounded like it had potential and I was disappointed. I realized when one of the main characters was mugged I didn't care and I didn't finish the book.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
This was also a book club read. I remember a coworker reading it about ten years ago and was interested to jump in. I didn't finish. I got so bored with the repetition of the relationships between the main character and his parents, his son, and his friend from school. I guess I'm at an age where there's plenty of other things to read and I'm not going to slog my way through something that doesn't keep my attention.

The Forest of Vanishing Stars, Kristin Harmel
Like the rest on this list, the premise sounded really interesting and the book is loosely based on facts. During WWII, Jews in Poland escaped the ghettos and spent the war hiding and surviving in the woods. This is definitely something I'd like to learn more about, but this wasn't the book for it. The story/truth is compelling enough by itself, you don't need to add any "spice" to the story.

Thanksgiving Hike

 The Saturday before Thanksgiving we attempted a hike as a family. Lauren complained loudly that she didn't like hiking, then she tripped and fell. Twice. When we decided the hike was a bust and turned around to hike back to the trailhead, it was Wesley's turn to throw a fit over not making it to the top of the mountain.

We decided just Wesley and I would go hiking together the Friday after Thanksgiving. We decided on a one-way hike, with Gil and Lauren dropping us off and picking us up at each end. The night before, stuffed full from a wonderful Thanksgiving feast, Wesley said, "Mom, don't forget to wake me up at five o'clock tomorrow!" (That did not happen. We all slept in and needed it.)

We couldn't have asked for better weather to be out on South Mountain. Wesley is getting to be a good hiker and I enjoy his six-year-old stories. We made it to the top of the saddle, then headed up a bit higher to a little shelter. Gil and Lauren joined us there. There was a small group riding horses and Wesley was in awe watching the "cowboys" saddle up and head up the trail.

Family picture at the top.

I love this man I married and I love the life we are living together. I couldn't have asked for a better companion.

HookStitchPost

With Lauren in preschool two days a week, I've taken a few days to try and work on my Etsy shop. Mostly updating pictures and adding videos. The visual side of my shop is still not where I want it to be but I feel like it's getting closer.

I was able to create some new original patterns this year too which was so fun.

Feel free to stop by and browse. No pressure to purchase; visits and views help up my visibility on the site.

https://hookstitchpost.etsy.com

Any crochet design you think I should add? I'm always looking for ideas of things people are looking for that I can create.

October Conference 2025

We got home from Cortez, Huntington Beach, and Utah only to turn around and head out again to southern California to spend General Conference with Gil's cousins.

By the last session Sunday afternoon, Lauren was done. She was the youngest of the cousins and she played hard with the big kids.

Monday was a school in-service day for the kids and Gil took it off so we could go to the beach. 

My seaweed ballerina!

I love getting together with the Rubows and Allreds!

Cortez, CO

Wesley gets a lovely two weeks off for fall break. (Does this compensate for school starting in the middle of July? For me, no.) Thankfully Lauren's fall break overlapped with one of Wesley's weeks. (Not that my daughter having perfect attendance in preschool is important to me, but there's something about paying for preschool that influences some of my decisions.) 

I have two NPS friends living in Cortez, CO that I'd been wanting to visit for some time and I finally decided this September was the time. I'd found a perfectly priced tiny house to rent on Airbnb, bonus being able to cook and not eat out all your meals, and the kids and I were on our way. 

We arrived after dark on Thursday but found the house and got settled right in for a cozy first night.

The next morning, we explored our surroundings a bit.

Then we headed to Four Corners. In all the times I'd driven around and through the four corners area, I'd never actually been. We snapped a handful of pictures, wandered around, and had a snack before heading back to Cortez. The high desert is beautiful. 

We had lunch at our tiny house then headed to meet our friend. She works at Mesa Verde National Park. The kids and I toured around and worked on the junior ranger program before we meet up with LT. 

She got us a permit to explore a part of the park that had closed for the evening which was super cool. We had a picnic dinner, then she hiked us to some cliff dwellings (or cliff drawings if you're Lauren). Wesley is at an age where he understands a bit more and was awed by what we saw.

LT and I talked and talked and could have used another two hours but she had another appointment and I needed to get kids to bed. It was a wonderful visit. On the drive out of the park we saw two bull elk! So regal.

Saturday morning we met up with another friend and her daughter for a hike to see some other ruins and some beautiful views of the area. It was so fun to see our kids playing together and to get to chat and catch-up. We had a picnic lunch then headed to a playground to let the kids play so we could chat more. We parted for the afternoon for some quiet time then met up in town for dinner at a delicious Mexican restaurant. We snapped a few pictures.

Here's to almost fifteen years of friendship! Hooray for good friends!

On our last night, Lauren finally worked up the courage to climb up the ladder to the sleeping loft. (I shared the loft with Wesley and Lauren got the futon.) We took some pictures to celebrate and to remember our cozy home for the weekend.

We left in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday to drive to St. George for the blessing of our nieces. Thankfully, my brother's church starts at 1:30pm and not 9am. We got to my parents house and Gil surprised us by meeting us there! He'd gone to Huntington Beach the day before to surf, which we'd know he was, but we didn't know he was going to meet us in Utah!

The blessings were lovely and the twins looked beautiful. Getting some quality Aunt Kate time with one of the girls. 

Gil drove home that night and the kids and I the next day. Lauren was incensed when she realized we weren't going back to the tiny house, that we weren't moving in there. That took a few hours of screaming in the car to wear off...

I am so very blessed with wonderful friends!

Mommy and Wesley Trip 2025

This year was Wesley's turn to take a special trip with me. This boy LOVES trains. We decided to take the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams, AZ to the Grand Canyon.

My parents arrived Thursday to stay with Lauren and Wesley and I left that afternoon as soon as I picked him up from school. (Yes, I pulled my kid out of school on Friday to ride a train. No regrets.)

We drove to Williams and checked-in at the KOA where we had reserved a cabin. Wesley was enamored with the cabin and insisted on opening and closing the door each time we went in or out. We had dinner at our picnic table and read bedtime stories on the porch swing. It was quite cozy and so nice to finally enjoy some cooler temps.

We woke up early Friday, had breakfast, and headed to the train depot. Wesley was so excited and honestly, so was I.

I was a bit worried about him getting bored on the 4.5 hour round-trip ride to and from the canyon and brought card games and snacks. We played two rounds of Go Fish! in the dining car but otherwise, I kid you not, the Wee Lad spent almost the entire time on the train like this:

Window open, arms on the sill, head on his arms. Loved every minute of it! (Except the pretend train robbery, that he didn't like. Neither did I.)

We couldn't have asked for a better day. The sky was clear, the weather perfect, and it wasn't too crowded. We hiked along the rim trail a little bit and Wesley fell in love with every canyon layer rock example and asked for a picture with each of his favorites.

We found a bench with beautiful views of the canyon and ate the lunch that I'd packed. We then shopped (that kids likes to shop and he for sure doesn't get it from me) and he picked out a souvenir for the trip.

I insisted on hiking down into the canyon for at least a few minutes, just to say we did. Wesley wasn't too inclined until he saw this arch from the trail. We both decided that was a good goal to hike to and then turn around.

I love this boy!

We got back to Williams and had dinner at an old-fashioned Route 66 diner before heading back to our cabin. There was an indoor pool at the KOA and we went over to try it out. We ended up soaking in the hot tub instead - Wesley's idea. The next morning we watched the Grand Canyon IMAX movie. Wesley has never been to a movie in a theater before and I thought he'd find the IMAX pretty amazing but nothing, and I mean nothing, could overshadow the train ride the day before.

We headed home after this, stopping at a rest stop for a quick picnic lunch, before getting home and enjoying the rest of the weekend with my parents.

It was a wonderful trip! Wesley has already informed me that for his next Mommy and Wesley trip in two years we're going to go backpacking. I can't wait!

Lauren First Day of Preschool

This girl is so ready to be in school just like her brother. All the kids wore their preschool shirt, but she chose the rest of her ensemble, from bow, to skirt, to boots. This girl has a fashion sense I've never had.

When we got to the school, she was done taking pictures and this was the best I could get. She goes twice a week for two and a half hours each day. So far, she loves it and asks each morning if she has school. She'd go everyday if she could.

 What is Mom doing these two mornings a week? Lauren's first day I went to the church to play the piano. (We have a small keyboard at home but I wanted a full piano.) I played for almost two hours straight with no interruptions. It was wonderful. I play the organ for church but going through my old music, I realized just how rusty I am. Lauren's second day of preschool I went to our recreation center that has an indoor running track and ran. It was about 110 or so outside and so nice to be able to run and move my body. I'm planning on volunteering in both kids' classrooms but we'll see what I can accomplish this year.