I’m going through these a bit more slowly than I did last year. I limit myself to about two hours of work time a day, so that I’m not working while my kids are awake, which means that most of that time needs to go to actual writing and more concrete business matters. But these reviews and this blog are still important to me, so here I am finally getting to books 21-25!

Someone on Facebook asked for a list of five favorite and five least favorite reads from last year, and this one easily made it into the top five. My mom had it on audiobook and highly recommended it, so I chose to listen towards the beginning of the year.

It was truly life-changing. Just the practical perspective on being intentional with your life and your time was thought-provoking and motivating. I credit this book largely with getting me to actually move towards being more serious with my writing, doing more reading than ever, and building better habits in devotions, housekeeping, and weight loss. It was that powerful. My favorite takeaway from this one was the idea that with every action we take, we are casting a vote for the kind of person we want to be. Do I want to be someone who sits scrolling through Facebook and lets life pass me by? Or do I want to be a serious writer and present mom with a clean house?

Again, I can’t recommend this book enough!

I’ve already read this book many, many times. It’s a longtime favorite. But I’d only read a couple books of the continuing series, and I decided I wanted to actually read more. However, it had been so long since I’d read the first three, I decided to revisit them first.

It’s honestly quite an improbable premise. A fifteen-year-old girl with a brilliant and analytical mind stumbles upon a retired Sherlock Holmes and becomes, his apprentice, friend, and companion. Spoiler alert (I feel okay about this since the book has been out so long and there are so many books after it), they do later end up marrying, which makes them traveling and working together much more convenient.

But there’s just something charming about the books and the characters that makes me love them despite the far-fetched setup and the many problematic elements (there’s a lot of feminism and other idealogical issues, and some quite serious moral failings among the peripheral characters). You’ll be getting reviews of the entire rest of the series throughout the year, as I did read all that are out so far, but, another spoiler — this one remains my favorite by far. Not even a close contest.

Yet another one I listened to on my mom’s Audible just to have something to listen to when I ran out of podcasts. Coben is still far from my favorite author, but I did enjoy this one more than any of his so far, I think. I liked the characters a little better than usual, and the revelation at the end was more surprising and satisfying than what I usually find in his stories.

It still isn’t my favorite book of all time or anything, but Coben is indeed talented at weaving a story that sucks you into the suspense until the end. Of course, due to immorality and violent content, I can’t really recommend this one, but it was nice to find one I could enjoy.

This is another one I’ve read many, many times. It may qualify as my favorite C.S. Lewis book, but I don’t know if that’s something I can even really pick. I certainly do find it very powerful, though. And extremely creative and clever. I read it this time because I had CDs I had bought years ago of the Andy Serkis dramatization that I’d never got around to listening to.

It is just such a strong and amusing way of causing one to think seriously about life and what influences us how and what actually matters to the Kingdom of God. Every time I read it, I come away with fresh insights and new things to ponder about my walk through life and what God wants–and doesn’t want–from me. Highly recommend this to everyone! And the Andy Serkis audio version is excellent.

I read this aloud to my girls, thanks to a suggestion from a listener to my podcast. They are still too little to appreciate a lot of the books I want to share with them, but this was one that had stories they could grasp and enjoy as I read to them each lunchtime.

I’ve read A.A. Milne over and over and his books never cease to charm. I appreciate these stories in particular even more as an adult than I did as a child–they are full of so much dry wit and such entertaining characterization. And SO different from the Disney versions. I’ll definitely have to read these to my girls again at some point.

So there at last are the next five books! I’ll be back when I can with five more, but in the meantime, please let me know–have you read any of these? If not, are there any you’ll be adding to your to-read list? This post in particular certainly contained a lot of five-star ratings from me!