Books Read in November and December 2025

 

I had some very good reading in both November and December of 2025. Seven books per month. I completed two short story books, which is unusual. I usually read a few stories from a collection and take forever to finish the book. Plus two nonfiction books! And a book from my Classics Club list. I managed to complete my goal of reading six books by Elizabeth Strout in 2025.

So here are the 14 books I read...

Nonfiction

Eight Days in May (2020) by Volker Ullrich, translated by Jefferson Chase

The subtitle of this book is "The Final Collapse of the Third Reich." My husband suggested this book to me. It was a perfect nonfiction read for me and the text was very readable, not dry at all. It covers the events that took place in Germany in the eight days following Hitler's death by suicide on April 30, 1945. May 8th, 1945 was the day when Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces. I learned so much about the events in Germany at that time. The book was a good length, 271 pages of text, plus a section of notes citing the author's sources. Volker Ullrich is a German historian and journalist.

Dear California (2023), edited by David Kipen

I borrowed this book from my husband; he read it in 2024 and liked it a lot. I read it off and on throughout 2025. For the most part I found this to be a very interesting book, but it had its highs and lows. Some of the entries are over a page long, but many are only a few sentences. The entries for each day may cover several years, sometimes as early as the 1600s or the 1800s, and others as late as 2020, during the height of Covid. That can be confusing at times. 

Examples of events covered:  For April 18 there are two entries for 1906, immediately after the San Francisco Earthquake. The third entry is from Dylan Thomas, while in Hollywood, to his wife back in Laugharne, a town on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales. The entries from various famous writers who spent some time in Hollywood were especially interesting; same for the entries from people who were interned in the American internment camps during World War II.

Fiction

The Women (2024) by Kristin Hannah

One of the author's goals in writing this book was to recognize the contribution of the women in the armed forces who went to Vietnam and worked as nurses in the hospitals which were near to the fighting. I don't think the book was perfect, but I learned so much about the Vietnam War between 1966 - 1968, and the role of the nurses in the hospitals there, that it eliminated all quibbles that I had with the book. I was born in 1948, and I felt like I should have known much more about the events that took place there. About half of the book is about the years that the protagonist was in Vietnam, and the second half is about her return to the US and the difficulties of adjusting to normal life and dealing with the traumas that she experienced in Vietnam. Not a fun book but an important one, for me.

Lucy by the Sea (2022) and Tell Me Everything (2024) by Elizabeth Strout

I read Oh, William! by Strout in early October. I read Lucy by the Sea and Tell Me Everything in November. I have loved all the books that feature Lucy Barton. But I find it almost impossible to review them. Personally, I would not have enjoyed reading them if I had known much about the books in advance. In My Name is Lucy Barton, Lucy tells of one event in her life while she is married to William, and I really disliked him in that story. In each succeeding novel about their relationship I grew to understand him and Lucy more. Lucy by the Sea takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Tell Me Everything, Olive Kitteridge meets Lucy, and Bob Burgess plays a bigger part. I loved all of those books.

Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood 

This book was on my Classics Club List. I did not particularly enjoy reading it, I found it too depressing, but I think I am in the minority. Before reading it, I did not realize that it is a series of six connected short stories. "Sally Bowles" is about one of the characters in the film, Cabaret, although I did not see many similarities between the story and the film. I liked the connections between the stories, although it took me a while to pick up on some of them. "On Ruegen Island" is about three young men spending the summer on an island.  "The Nowaks" is about a strange and impoverished family that Christopher lives with; Otto Nowak was one of the characters in the previous story. In "The Nowaks", they talk about the Landauer family, which is the subject of the fifth story.

Anxious People (2019) by Fredrik Backman, translated by Neil Smith

This is another book that is really impossible for me to describe. This is only the second book I read by Backman. I was very impressed by this book; it is very humorous, but it also has its sad moments and talks about some serious subjects, such as suicide, divorce, losing a spouse to an illness. A person decides to rob a bank, but they don't really know what they are doing and it ends up turning into a hostage situation. I found the book very confusing at times, but still very readable and uplifting. My favorite characters are the two policemen.

Mystery / Time Travel / Science Fiction

The Frozen People (2025) by Elly Griffiths

This is the start of a new time travel/mystery series. Ali Dawson is a detective in a Cold Case department, and the group attempts to solve crimes by going back in time for clues. I liked the premise, the characters, and the story was good. The level of tension was just right. Some of the story strains disbelief, but the story is enough fun that I was not bothered by that.

Crime Fiction

El Dorado Drive (2025) by Megan Abbott

The first book I read by Megan Abbott was Queenpin, which won an Edgar award. It was a great book, beautifully written, but also very, very tense. I knew I would like the setting of El Dorado Drive (Detroit, Grosse Point, in 2008-2009, when the economy was in such bad shape) and it was not as tense as I expected. It is a thriller; I found it to be fast-paced, a page turner. And it is about a family of three sisters, and their money problems. The family relationships pulled me in. Some reviewers talked about it being too slow but I did not see that at all. So I will be reading more by Abbott. I have three of her novels, including Turnout, Beware the Woman, and You Will Know Me.

The Guest List (2020) by Lucy Foley

I was surprised that I ended up reading two thrillers in December. They were both entertaining, but El Dorado Drive had more depth. The Guest List is set on a tiny isolated island off the coast of Ireland; the characters are on the island to attend the wedding of a TV star and the publisher of a well-known magazine. Many of the characters have baggage from their childhoods; most are unlikeable and/or superficial. 

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (2012) by James Runcie

The Grantchester Mysteries is a series of short story collections by James Runcie. The stories are all connected and follow the investigations of Sidney Chambers, a vicar in Grantchester. There were only six short stories in the collection, and they are all novella length. I covered two of the short stories HERE and HERE.

The Shanghai Moon (2009) by S.J. Rozan

This was a reread of the ninth book in the Lydia Chin & Bill Smith series. I read it about 15 years ago, and I remember at the time I did not enjoy the story, even though Rozan is one of my favorite authors. I have no idea why I did not like it originally, because the subject matter is something I am currently interested in. Lydia is working on a job to help recover stolen jewels that once belonged to a Jewish refugee who fled from Austria to Shanghai in 1938, so it includes some history from that pre-WWII time. For me, the biggest attraction of this series are the characters. Not only are the main characters interesting, but Lydia's family members who have recurring roles in the books are well done, and many of the secondary characters are fully developed. After this reread, I rank this book as a favorite in the series.

The Big Four (1927) by Agatha Christie

I have read many negative comments on The Big Four, but in my opinion it is not that bad. It is sort of spy fiction and adventure. I certainly would not recommend this one as anyone's first Poirot book; it is not representative of the series. I mostly enjoyed the interplay between Captain Hastings and Poirot, and did not take the plot all that seriously. I read that the novel was a mashup of several short stories that Christie wrote earlier, and that explains why it feels disjointed and disorganized at times.

Christmas Stalkings (1991) edited by Charlotte Macleod

This was the second Christmas short story anthology edited by Charlotte MacLeod. All of the stories in the book appeared in print for the first time in this book. I covered all of the stories in this book in three posts in December. My favorite short story in the book was "A Political Necessity" by Robert Barnard (reviewed here), although all of them were good.

End of Year notes

I read 78 books in 2025, compared to 89 in 2024. The longest book I read was 800 pages: The Charm School by Nelson DeMille. The average number of pages for the books I read was 323. In 2024, that number was 302, which means I must have read more longer books in 2025.

• I read less mysteries than last year, 40 as compared to 48 in 2023. Only 6 of the mysteries published were before 1970, which is a big change from my early blogging years, but in line with last year's reading.
• I read 6 nonfiction books.
• My reading included 13 books in the science fiction or fantasy genres, which is higher than last year.
• I read 16 novels that I categorize as general fiction.

• I completed 8 short story books, and read 16 books by authors from Japan, Ireland, Canada, Denmark, Argentina, Australia, and Germany.

Books Read in September and October 2025

 

I am so far behind on summarizing my monthly reading that I decided to combine my September and October books in one post. I read 5 books in September and 7 books in October and I enjoyed all of them.

Nonfiction

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (2017) by Margareta Magnusson

The subtitle of this book is: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. I read it about six years ago, and enjoyed it. On a second reading it did not inspire me so much, even though I have plenty of things to get rid of. This brief book (only about 100 pages) is full of humor and useful hints and reminders of how much you need to let go of as you get older, and written from the author's personal experience. 

Fiction

State of Wonder (2011) by Ann Patchett

This book is set mostly in Brazil. The story is about Dr. Annick Swenson, an older woman who has been researching a proposed fertility drug for a pharmaceutical firm based in Minnesota. She is living in the Amazon jungle working in a lab but she has not reported back on her progress for a long time. The other major character is Dr. Marina Singh, a pharmacologist working for the same firm; she is sent to Brazil by her employer, to find out the status of Dr. Swenson's research. There are many other characters, and they are all interesting. It is a very bizarre story, although it gets very much better at the halfway point. In the end, I liked the story very much. 

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf

Reading Mrs. Dalloway was a good experience for me. It was the first book I had read by Virginia Woolf, plus I had never read anything written in stream of consciousness style. It did take me a good while to adjust to that style of telling a story, and it got even more confusing when the story moves from Mrs. Dalloway's thoughts to various other people's ruminations.

The story is basically a day in the life of Mrs. Dalloway, but as Clarissa Dalloway goes through her day she muses about her past and her future: her daughter; her daughter's friend, who she doesn't like; and her own relationships with men over the years. My review is here.

Get in Trouble (2015) by Kelly Link

This short story collection was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. There are nine short stories; there are some that are science fiction, some are fantasy, and even one story that is straight fiction. I liked the stories and plan to read more by this author. My review is here.

Oh William! (2021) by Elizabeth Strout

I have loved all of Strout's books that feature Lucy Barton. In My Name is Lucy Barton, Lucy tells of one event in her life while she is married to William, and I really disliked him in that story. In each succeeding novel about their relationship I grew to understand him and Lucy more. The books are all about relationships; in this book, William is married to his third wife and Lucy's second husband died recently. See my thoughts here.

Alternate History / Espionage / Fantasy

At the Table of Wolves (2017) by Kay Kenyon

This is a spy story set in an alternative version of the UK and Germany in the years leading up to World War II. In both countries, there are people with fantastical paranormal abilities; these powers started showing up after World War I. For the most part, the "superpowers" are not very obvious and people have to be trained to use them. See my review here.

Fantasy

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (2022) by Rebecca Thorne

My son purchased this book at the book sale this year.  I was interested in checking out what a cozy fantasy was like so my son let me read it first. The story is about a lesbian couple who want to leave their current lives behind and open a bookstore in a remote location where no one can find them. The problem is that Reyna is a private guard to a powerful and cruel queen, and Kianthe is a powerful mage. Somehow they both manage to leave their responsibilities behind and move to a small town far from their previous lives to set up a book shop. My review is here.

Guards! Guards! (1989) by Terry Pratchett

This book is the 8th book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and the 1st book in the City Watch sub-series. The series stars Sam Vimes, but in this novel, the City Watch police force don't function very well in keeping the peace, because of the corruption at high levels in the city of Ankh-Morpork. This is only the third Discworld book I have read by Pratchett; I read Mort in 2016. So I had to get used to Pratchett's style of writing again. I enjoyed the book, even though it took me about half of the book to get into it and be able to keep track of the characters. The characters are all very strange and the book is satirical. I now have the next book in the City Watch series to read (Men at Arms).

Crime Fiction

The '44 Vintage (1978) by Anthony Price

This is the eighth book in Price's David Audley series of nineteen books, all published between 1970 and 1990. The series is in the spy fiction genre, and the stories are Cold War espionage. Except for this one, which takes place near the end of World War II, and is kind of an origin story for the two main characters in the series, historian and intelligence agent David Audley and Colonel Jack Butler.  I loved this book and all the other books I have read in the series; each book focuses on different historical event. The '44 Vintage would not be a good place to start the series, though.

The Satan Sampler (1979) by Victor Canning

This is the 6th book in a spy fiction series called the Birdcage books. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. I enjoyed this book, although it wasn't as good as earlier entries in this series. See my thoughts here.

The Dentist (2020) by Tim Sullivan

This is the first book in a series that features an autistic police detective. I was very pleased with the book. The plot was very good,  complicated but realistic. I liked the protagonist, Detective Sergeant George Cross, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I liked everything about the book, including seeing what a person with Asperger's would encounter in a job, and how the person's coworkers may be affected. 

This series started in 2020 and there are already eight books in the series. I have already purchased the second and third books in the series and will be reading them in 2026.

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect (2023) by Benjamin Stevenson

This is the 2nd book in the Ernest Cunningham series; I read the 1st book earlier this year. Both of the books are highly entertaining and humorous. Ernest, who narrates the story, makes a living writing about how to write mysteries. Prior to this book he has written a memoir about his experience with a serial killer. As the book begins, he is attending a writing conference set on a train.

More cat pictures...

London has now been with us five months. We are still adjusting to London and he to us. When we first got him he sat or slept on cat beds. Now he ignores them and uses the furniture (or sits on books). Click on the images for the best viewing quality. 

Oh William!: Elizabeth Strout

I read this book in early October. I read Lucy by the Sea and Tell Me Everything, later books by Elizabeth Strout, in November. 

I have loved all the books that feature Lucy Barton. But I find it very hard to review them. For one thing, each story moves Lucy to a new place in her life, and that was why I read the books in order and did not read any reviews of the books until I had read the book. In My Name is Lucy Barton, Lucy tells of one event in her life while she is married to William, and I really disliked him in that story. In each succeeding novel about their relationship I grew to understand him and Lucy more. The books are all about relationships, and in this book and the next two books are also about relationships and aging.  

At the beginning of Oh William!, Lucy's second husband, David, had died about a year earlier. They had been married five years, and she misses him very much. Lucy talks about her marriage to David a bit, but most of the story focuses on her previous marriage to William, which lasted about twenty years, and their relationship since then. William was an only child, and very close to his mother. So Lucy and William and their two daughters spent a lot of time with her. After having a paternity test, William learns things about his mother that he did not know. 

The writing style that Elizabeth Strout uses in the books focused on Lucy Barton drew me into the story. It feels like Lucy is talking to the reader. Some of her other books are more a sequence of related stories, and the style in those seems different to me, although they are just as compelling to read.

If you liked My Name is Lucy Barton, you would probably like this too. Anything is Possible also has stories related to Lucy Barton.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Random House, 2022 (orig. publ. 2021)
Length:     240 pages
Format:    Trade Paperback
Series:     Amgash series
Setting:    USA
Genre:     Fiction
Source:    I purchased my copy in 2024.

My Books from the 2025 Book Sale

Every year we look forward to the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, which was held between September 12 – 21, 2025. We go to the sale five times, and the last day the books are half price. So, two months after the book sale, I am listing seven of the many books that I purchased at the sale. I have not read any of these yet, but I will read the first one on the list before the end of the year.

These are listed in no particular order, although I started with books that were not mysteries, and ended with mysteries.

Tell Me Everything (2024) by Elizabeth Strout

Why did I buy this book? It was on my list of books to look for at the sale. I just finished reading Oh, William! by the same author in October. I will be reading Lucy by the Sea this month (November). And I want to read Tell Me Everything by the end of 2025. All of those novels have some of the same characters. So I was happy to find a copy.

I don't know much about Tell Me Everything (and I don't want to at this point), but it is set in the fictional town of Crosby, Maine, and features several characters from previous books by Strout: Lucy Barton, Bob Burgess, Olive Kitteridge and more.

Pearly Everlasting (2024) by Tammy Armstrong

Why did I buy this book? It was another book on my list that I had hoped to find. The author is Canadian and the setting is New Brunswick during the Great Depression. If I hadn't found a copy I would have been buying a copy soon, probably for much more than I spent at the sale. 

I don't know much about this story. The Goodreads description notes that it is about a cook in a logging camp who rescues an orphaned bear and brings it home. The bear lives with him and his wife and daughter. Years later the bear is sold and the teenaged daughter goes to rescue it. I have seen Pearly Everlasting classified as a fantasy. I don't think it fits well into my definition of a fantasy, but I think the basic story of a bear bonding with a girl is not based on realistic bear behavior. So it sounds more like a folktale to me. See Susan's review at The Cue Card. In that same post, Susan also reviews Tell Me Everything (above).

The Grammarians (2019) by Cathleen Schine

Why did I buy this book? I saw the cover, read the description, and was intrigued by the book. The author is new to me. I don't focus on grammar so much but I love words, so it sounded good.

From the dust jacket on the book:

The grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but, lo and behold, this love, which has always bound them together, begins to push them apart.

Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk (2017) by Kathleen Rooney

Why did I buy this book? It was pretty much the cover that decided me. I had heard of the author vaguely but had seen this cover here and there. The description sounded good, AND the book has a map of New York on the end papers.

From the dust jacket of the book:

Now it’s the last night of 1984 and Lillian, 85 years old but just as sharp and savvy as ever, is on her way to a party. It’s chilly enough out for her mink coat and Manhattan is grittier now―her son keeps warning her about a subway vigilante on the prowl―but the quick-tongued poetess has never been one to scare easily. On a walk that takes her over 10 miles around the city, she meets bartenders, bodega clerks, security guards, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be, while reviewing a life of excitement and adversity, passion and heartbreak...

The Spy Coast (2023) by Tess Gerritsen

Why did I buy this book? I like espionage books, and this one is by an author who I am familiar with. The ratings are good. I have read five books in the Rizzoli and Isles series. 

From the back of the book:

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her.

Invisible Helix (2021) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray

Why did I buy this book? My husband introduced me to this author and I have read as many books by him as we can find. This is the fifth book in the Detective Galileo series that has been translated to English, and I have read the four previous books.

From the description at Goodreads:

Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in a case where hidden history, and impossible crime, are linked by nearly invisible threads in surprising ways.

The body of a young man is found floating in Tokyo Bay. But his death was no accident-Ryota Uetsuji was shot. He'd been reported missing the week before by his live-in girlfriend Sonoka Shimauchi, but when detectives from the Homicide Squad go to interview her, she is nowhere to be found.

To Fetch a Thief (2010) by Spencer Quinn

Why did I buy this book? This was another one I bought for the cover. I have read the first book in the Chet and Bernie series and enjoyed it. I like books about the circus, although I haven't read that many. It was too good to pass up.

The books in the Chet and Bernie series are narrated by a dog named Chet. Chet is not a superdog; he flunked out of K-9 training, but still has the heart of a detective. His owner, private investigator Bernie Little, is not perfect either but never gives up on the case. The setting seems to be Arizona.

Books Read in July 2025

 

Another month where every book was a very good read. I finished seven books in July. Two were short story books; that is unusual. Four were crime fiction, including one espionage thriller. And one science fiction story in a military setting. At the end of July I had only read 12 books for my 20 Books of Summer list. It is now mid-August (unbelievable!) and I have only read two more. So I don't think I will finish all 20 books for the challenge. We'll see.

Fiction

Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021) by Lily King

I started this book of short stories in December 2024. I read the first four stories and I liked them all; you can check out my thoughts on those stories here. In July, I read the remaining six stories in the book. Many of those stories are slice-of-life stories. I especially liked the characterizations; the stories were serious but ended on an upbeat note. Check here for my thoughts on the last six stories.

Olive, Again (2019) by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge.  It is a very good book but not an easy read. Olive is in her seventies in this book. She is widowed and has a tenuous, troubled relationship with her son and his family. This is described as a novel composed of interrelated short stories. Only seven of the thirteen stories are directly about Olive and her life in Crosby, Maine. The other stories take place in the same area or nearby but Olive is not the main focus. See my thoughts here.

Science Fiction

Ninefox Gambit (2016) by Yoon Ha Lee

Ninefox Gambit is a military science fiction/science fantasy/space opera novel. I did not know a lot about the book going in, although I assumed it was a space opera because of the cover illustration. The world building was very complex and confusing for me, but the writing was very good and pulled me into the story. I loved the ending. See my thoughts here.

Crime Fiction

At Bertram's Hotel (1965) by Agatha Christie

This is a Miss Marple mystery with a huge cast; the plot can be confusing, but it is an entertaining story set at a lovely hotel. Chief Inspector Fred Davy is a Scotland Yard detective who does most of the detecting. See my thoughts here.

The Amateur (1981) by Robert Littell

Charlie Heller is a cryptographer for the CIA. When his fiancée, Sarah Diamond, is murdered by terrorists at the American Embassy in West Germany, the CIA decides not to pursue her killers. Heller is determined to find them and kill them himself. So this is a revenge thriller. Heller has none of the necessary skills, but he forces the CIA to train him. Nothing in this book is predictable; the story was compelling and I enjoyed it very much.

The novel has an interesting history; the story was first written by Littell as a screenplay, and was made into a Canadian film released in 1981. Shortly after that, the novel was written based on the screenplay. Recently another film adaptation was released starring Ramie Malek.

The Murder of Mr. Ma (2024) by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan

Reading this book was a no-brainer for me. I will try anything written by S.J. Rozan. I was a bit uncertain about a book that she co-authored but still, it seemed like a safe bet. 

The two protagonists of the book are fictionalized versions of Judge Dee Ren Zie and Lao She, a Chinese academic and author. I have never read any of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries, but my husband has. The story focuses on their investigation into the deaths of Chinese immigrants in 1924 London.

I was very happy with this book. It felt like an adventure story as much as a mystery, and was a lot of fun to read. John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan have come together in a great writing partnership and you can read about that at CrimeReads and Mystery Fanfare. The second book in the series is already out and I will be reading it.

A Death in Tokyo (2011) by Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray

This is the third book in the Tokyo Police Detective Kaga series to be translated to English from Japanese. I have read the two previous books that are available in English, and they all work well as standalones. Detective Kaga is not part of the homicide division, but he often works with the homicide detectives when the case in in his district. He works in an intuitive way, and follows up painstakingly on every detail. In this case a prominent business man has been murdered; he is found at the base of a statue on a bridge, but that is not where the murder took place. His wife and two teenage children don't know why he was in that area of town. It is a very complex case, and has an interesting and complex resolution. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post were taken by my husband at the garden center during our last visit. We enjoy both buying plants and supplies and viewing the variety of plants and pots and decorations on display. Click on the images for best viewing quality.

Short Story Wednesday: Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout is the follow-up book to Olive Kitteridge.  It is a very good book but not an easy read. Olive is in her seventies in this book. She is widowed and has a tenuous, troubled relationship with her son and his family.

This is described as a novel composed of interrelated short stories. I would quibble about considering this a novel, since only  seven of the thirteen stories are directly about Olive and her life in Crosby, Maine. The other stories take place in the same area or nearby but Olive is not the main focus. I am going to briefly summarize some of the stories, but there are several of them I don't want to discuss because it could impact the reading experience.

The first story, "Arrested," focuses on Jack Kennison, a man near Olive's age that she met near the end of the previous book. He is a widower and has been estranged from his daughter for many years because she is a lesbian. He drives to Portland, and on the way back to Crosby, he is stopped by the police for speeding.

In "Labor," Olive attends a baby shower and ends up delivering a baby when one of the pregnant guests goes into labor. Two days later, she calls Jack Kennison and they meet again after she had been avoiding him for a while.

"Cleaning," the third story, focuses on a 14-year-old girl who makes money cleaning houses. This is a complicated story. Kayley regularly visits an older woman at a nursing home. The only connection to Olive in this story is that Olive also visits a friend at the nursing home and she has a supportive conversation with Kayley, who is the younger sister of some of Olive's students when she was teaching. 

Next is "Motherless Child," and it is an important story. Olive is the focus; she has invited her son Christopher and his wife and four children to visit her in Crosby. She has not seen them in several years, and she is not prepared to host four young children, but they all muddle through. In this story and others in the book, Olive realizes that over the years, she failed both her son, Christopher, and her first husband, Henry, in many ways. Patricia Abbott reviewed this story at her blog.

In "Helped," the main character is Suzanne Larkin, who returns to Crosby to handle business details when her father dies in a fire in his home. An excellent and moving story. Olive shows up in this story only peripherally.

Cindy Coombs, a former student of Olive's, is the center of the sixth story, "Light." She has cancer and Olive takes the time to help her out at the grocery store when she has problems, and later visits her at home.

"Exiles" is a story about Jim and Bob Burgess; Jim lives in New York and he and his wife visit Bob and Margaret, who live in Crosby, Maine. I enjoyed this one a lot, but it does have what I consider a major spoiler for Strout's book The Burgess Boys.

Although I have liked all of the books I have read by Elizabeth Strout, I found Olive Kitteridge to be the most challenging. All of the stories in that book were depressing, and I could not read more than one story a day. Olive, Again was different. I was prepared for the tone of the stories and the issues addressed showed the changes in Olive. Although many of the stories were very serious and sometime sad, I enjoyed the read much more. 

Books Read in June 2025

 

I read six books in June, and all of them were from my 20 Books of Summer list. I liked all the books; four of them were upbeat and fun; two of them were more serious and somewhat depressing.

Fiction 

Table for Two (2024) by Amor Towles

This is a short story collection. There are six stories plus one 220 page novella. The short stories are all set in New York City. See my post on some of the short stories here.

In the novella, "Eve in Hollywood," Towles returns to a character in his first novel, Rules of Civility. I did read that book, but I don't think you need to have read it to enjoy the story. "Eve in Hollywood" is set in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and it features Olivia de Havilland as a character. I enjoyed the novella very much.

The Burgess Boys (2013) by Elizabeth Strout

I have read four books by Elizabeth Strout, and I have rated all very highly, but they are always difficult reads, with hard to like characters and family difficulties. This one is my favorite so far. My review here.

Fantasy / Time Travel

Oona Out of Order (2020) by Margarita Montidore

I read this book because I like time travel books and this one was on a list of "time loop" novels (the film Groundhog Day is a good example of a time loop). In this book, Oona jumps from one year to another year in her life, randomly. I liked it. I have been thinking about it off and on since I read it. But it can be frustrating. My review here.

Crime Fiction

Death by Accident (1998) by Bill Crider

This book was my first read for 20 Books of Summer. The Sheriff Dan Rhodes series by Bill Crider is set in a small town in Blacklin County, a fictional county in Texas. It is a cozy series; Sheriff Rhodes solves crime mostly with his intuition and avoids computers where possible. Death by Accident is the 9th book in the series. See my review.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone (2022) by Benjamin Stevenson

This story takes place at a remote ski resort in Australia, where Ern Cunningham's family is having a family reunion. They are coming together because Ern's brother is getting out of prison, after having killed a man. Family relationships are strained. Shortly after the majority of the family arrives, a man's frozen body is found near the resort,  and the weather begins to get very bad, threatening to snow in all the guests.

This is a very unusual mystery. Ern Cunningham, who is narrating the story, writes books about how to write mysteries. The books starts with a list of classic rules for mysteries as published by Ronald Knox in 1929. So it is a traditional fair play mystery, but of course there is lots of misdirection in the clues, and for the most part the author kept me fooled for most of the book. I enjoyed the book, although I sometimes got frustrated with the repetition of the "rules." I liked it enough so that I will read the next one to see how it goes.

A Death in Summer (2011) by Benjamin Black

This is the fourth book in the Quirke series written by John Banville, under the name Benjamin Black. Quirke is a pathologist in Dublin, Ireland in the 1950s. He often is called in to examine dead bodies before they are moved, and to perform autopsies. Inspector Hackett will sometimes seek his advice on crimes, when he thinks the case is tricky. I like the slow pace of the writing and the emphasis on the characters as much or more than the crime investigation. I like the continuing characters. This one was about a sordid subject, and depressing. Yet I will persist and read more of them. 

The photos at the top and bottom of this post are recent pictures of plants in our back yard patio area. The top photo is of a cuphea plant (on the left) and a blue sage plant that are hummingbird attractors. They have been doing a good job of attracting hummingbirds and bees.

The two photos below are closer shots of blue sage plants. We have two other pots of those plants in the back. I love the little buds on the blue sage. Click on the images for best viewing quality.