What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? Please share! We’d love to know.
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Starting the year with a classic Journey to the Center of the Earth. I was inspired by the BookBrowse conversation about the percent of classics read in 2025. 
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Finished Waste Wars by Alexander Clapp, non-fiction selection for January book club meeting.
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I finished Zorrie by Laird Hunt. It made such an impression on me that I am thinking of choosing it for my book club when it’s my turn to select. I also read Call of the Wild by Jack London. I thought I had read it in high school, but it was all new to me. I am floored that it’s promoted as a children’s/young adult book. Although I’m sure it’s accurate of what happened in that time and place, the brutality and violence, especially toward animals, can be overwhelming. Still, it is a tremendous book that will stay with me. The prose is crisp and clean, yet lyrical. The characters, including the animals, are fully rendered and the descriptions of the land and climate put the reader exactly in the locale.
I’m now reading a mystery based on factual events, Mennonite Mystery by Michael D. Hankins, for my book club meeting at the end of January.
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#jansreading #thecorrespondent #virginiaevansbooks. First book of the year. I finished this one in the wee morning hours as the fireworks were going off over and over and over. There was no sleeping until well after four this morning. What a perfect time to read. This book has knocked me off my feet. I have never read a book all in letters. Sybil, an aging woman, shares her wisdom and her life through these letters. She is an amazing woman. But she has her own devils to deal with. I hadn’t really thought until reading this about how writing letters is no longer a thing. You can communicate with so many people that you may never meet just buy a letter. But we don’t take that time anymore. I think that is a skill that we all miss and should perhaps take back up. I will make it a goal to send out at least one letter this year. Won’t you do the same?
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I just finished WE WERE NEVER FRIENDS by Kaira Rouda. An ok mystery/thriller.
Started THIS BOOK MADE ME THINK OF YOU by Libby Page. A sweet read with wonderful characters.
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I’ve never read Call of the Wild for that very reason, @Lana_Maskus! I don’t think I could handle bad things happening to the animals.
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I am reading “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans and loving it. Last week, I finished “G-Man,” the J. Edgar Hoover biography, and enjoyed it. When I think that nonfiction is not for me, one comes along and proves its worth!
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I finished up the On the Calculation of Volume series (books 2 & 3) and I’m looking forward to the next one, which comes out in April. It’s a fascinating approach to the time loop plot. I can’t say I’m exactly loving it, but I’ve also found the books intriguing regardless. The author’s style reminded me a little of Orbital, in there’s not a lot of plot movement, but at the same time it grabs my attention.
Also finished The Last Page Cafe by Kate Storey, the author who wrote The Forgotten Book Club. It’s not out yet - won’t be for months - but I requested a very advance copy in preparation for the author Q&A here next week.
I started White Lies for the same reason - the author Ann Bausum will be here for a Q&A in a few weeks, too. And after that I’ll be rereading The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner for review. (BookBrowse has a “throwback issue” coming up at the end of January which will focus on deep reading.)
In audiobook format, I’m about halfway through This is Happiness by Niall Williams and it’s absolutely charming, not to mention laugh-out-loud funny in places. It’s reminding me of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion - only set in Ireland. There’s a loose plot, but really it’s a character study of this small Irish community.
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I read Call of the Wild as a middle grader and it has remained with me for decades. It definitely helped shape my stewardship for wildlife.
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OMG @Lana_Maskus I LOVED Zorrie. I’m glad to hear this from another reader.
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I just finished a novella called Lost Bread by Edith Bruck which is a novelization of her experience during the Holocaust. Really good
Now I’m ready to start my Q1 big book which is The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischvili. I think I will start the new Ian McEwan to read along with this.
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The Eighth Life looks wonderful. Did you read Hard by a Great Forest? Another Georgian author, excellent read. Actually, you may have recommended it.
I am still reading The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank for my book club 122 pages left! Book club next week! But I did read a Christmas gift, Early Morning Riser, it was very funny a break from Anne Frank! And just started another gift You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Anne Frank of course an important read but I just need to take a bit of a break now and then. I will probably be finished with it by Saturday or before. It reads quite quickly.
I have not read Hard by a Great Forest but I’ll look it up. Thanks @Gabi_J.
I read it for the Z title challenge in my book journal/planner. What serendipity! It was my favorite book of 2025.
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I’m just about to finish Town & Country by Brian Schaefer, which I liked better as I kept reading. Next on my list is The Three Lives of Kate Kay, which will be reading for my book club.
Starting the year with non-fiction…Stephen Puleo’s American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the the Gettysburg Address. Very approachable read and reminder of our history and what the founding documents have meant and hopefully will continue to mean to the United States and its people.
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I finished Lonesome Dove (had to take a break from it to read bookclub book) and want to say it is as wonderful a novel as everyone says it is. Nearly 1,000 pages long—and I would have happily read much, much more. I can’t stop thinking about those characters. I’m also listening to Margaret Atwood’s memoir, Book of Lives, and it’s charming. She tells interesting anecdotes from her life and often suggests that just maybe this is what turned up in one of her pieces of fiction. I also read The Satisfaction Cafe and found it disappointing. Not sure what it truly meant to say. More positively, Seduction Theory which is funny and twisty and meta and I loved it. Now I am about to begin “There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak, hoping for another great read. Happy reading to all!
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Sounds great! I need to add that to my reading list and then maybe I’ll read Jill Lepore’s We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution afterwards. Thanks for sharing!