Well, for some reason I thought there were only two days left in the year, then this morning I realized there are THREE days left. Then I keep forgetting throughout the day and remembering again. Par for the course for that weird no-man’s-land between Christmas and New Year’s. I have no idea what day it is or what’s happening!

Regardless of all that, here are five more mini-reviews.

My sister gave me this book when I was maid of honor in her wedding years ago, and being pregnant with three kids four and under was a good time to read it. It can be hard in these years to see the value in the mundane work of homemaking, of nonstop dishes and diapers and trying to figure out what in the world to make for dinner this week every single week.

And I appreciated the way the author brought the value in these things back to Christ, rooted our work in how we reflect Him, and reminded me of the true importance of the things I do. I did, however, feel it was perhaps aimed more at someone who is drawn to working outside the home and feels like it’s more valuable, which has never been me, so I found some of it unrelatable. Overall good, though.

The 17th and final (for now) Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes book (she’s coming out with the 18th next year, apparently) was a pleasant surprise. When I read the synopsis and saw the word “vampires” I groaned. Surely, I thought, this is the last straw in the shark-jumping for this series.

But the book was actually pretty good! I was drawn into both the setting and the mystery, and it felt fresh after a string of “meh” installments. I really did enjoy this one.

So, once I finished listening to all the Mary Russell books that are currently out, I had to find some other audiobooks to listen to, and I landed on Agatha Christie. This year, I’ve lost count of how many of her books I’ve read–I’m going to guess it’s at least 50. But this was the first one I had read in a long time, and I really enjoyed it.

The highlight of a Christie book is always when there’s an ending that makes perfect sense that I didn’t see coming–rare for someone like me, who has watched way too many murder mystery TV shows. And yet Christie manages it about 90% of the time, and this was certainly one of them. I did not guess the mystery’s solution, and it was terribly satisfying.

Continuing my Agatha Christie audiobook streak (at this point I was picking them off a list I found online of which Christie books to read), this was another one that absolutely floored me with its ending. And I actually just watched this episode of the Poirot TV show, so the plot is fresh on my mind.

With most of these, there’s not a lot to say other than that they were great. I was hooked, I was fooled, I was surprised. A successful murder mystery.

I bought this book at a thrift store years ago, and it was next on my shelf, so I grabbed it. Thinking back on it, I’m not sure whether it quite deserved five stars overall, but parts of it had such an impact on me that I think I mostly rated it for emotional reasons at the time. Which is fine, of course. But if I were to rate it in hindsight, I might say four stars.

A lot of the book, especially the first several chapters, just felt a bit repetitive. But Chan is definitely right that many Christians, especially those of us who are more conservative, tend to forget the Holy Spirit when thinking of the Trinity and the role of God in our lives. And later in the book, there were some things that really hit me and showed me how much more I need to be aware of the Spirit in my life. I didn’t realize then how timely that was, but it turned out that the next year (this year, 2023) was the year I was going to be especially learning what it means to surrender to the Holy Spirit. God is sovereign even over our reading lists, y’all!

One more post, and I’ll be done for the year! Thank you to everyone who has come on this journey with me!