It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Dec 29

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.

Welcome to the last Monday of December. The new year will be here soon. Have you set any resolutions for 2026? I'm not a fan, but I do set goals for myself. 

Hope you all had a nice holiday last week. We had so many fun things going on. My final closing of 2025 happened on December 23, and I did my best to keep the rest of the week light on work stuff. We went to New York City for the first time since the pandemic. On Christmas Eve, we visited my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and the nephew. We hosted Christmas Day with all our kids here. Then on Saturday, we went to the Snowport Holiday Market in Boston. Sunday, I relaxed as much as I could because today it is back to work. 

As far as reading goes, I was able to accomplish most of what I wanted to. 

I finished my Advent devotional by Cynthia Ruchti. 

I posted my review of Captain LOL and Rubber Chicken by Craig Yoe at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection. You can read it here.

I finished The Man Next Door by Sheila Roberts. You can read my review here. 

I also finished Crescent City Christmas Chaos by Ellen Byron. That review is posted here.

I have also been reading I Heard The Bells Christmas novella collection by the Fab Four authors. Not sure if I will finish it before the year's end.

I've opted not to carry over anything else I had planned to read in 2025 but did not get to. Making my blog and my life a clean slate in the new year is important to me. I might come back to them, but I like a fresh start. I also updated my book spreadsheets for the new year. 

I've posted events below, but I plan to keep it lighter than previous years, unless something truly catches my eye. As of right now, I have only two reviews scheduled through mid-April. 

The next book I am reading is the novel Hooked by Cailtin Rother. It is scheduled for release at the beginning of February. After that, I hope to get into my list of books from this year's winter reading list. 

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

Grabbed these with some Kindle credits I had from shipping over the holidays.

Operation Mistletoe by Elizabeth Maddrey

Away in a Manager by Rhys Bowen

The Inn at Holiday Bay: Christmas in the Country by Kathi Daley

Then I grabbed these two with Audible credits.

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: 

Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

Next is Now: How to Move Forward When Distruption, Doubt, 

and Discomfort Hit All at Once by Leigh Brown (She recommended Ben's book.)

Upcoming Events

Hooked by Catilin Rother - January (Review)

Tender Dreams, Harsh Reality by John Beilharz - Jan 26 (Interview)

Artsy Rambler by Evy and Rich Journey - Feb 3 (Spotlight)

Winter's Season by R. J. Koreto - Feb 13 (Spotlight)

Hook, Line, and Murder by GG Calpo - Mar 2 (Interview)

Agatha Christie, She Watched by Teresa Peschel - Apr 15 (Review)

Recently, at Christmas Year Round, I asked readers when they take down their Christmas decorations. You can find that here. For my weekly Christmas... in the News post, I shared a link to PBS News' photos of Christmas celebrations around the world, Fox News' report on a revived family tradition that went viral on social media, and ABC News/Good Morning America's report on post-Christmas sales and gift card tips. You can find that post here. 

I posted my final 2025 writing goals update at The Children's and Teens' Book Connection. Though I didn't have the year I intended, God definitely gave me the year I needed. You can check out that post here.

At Laura's Little Houses, you will find my "Top 5 Favorite Episodes from Little House on the Prairie - Season 6" here. I also posted an update on where the readers of that blog are coming from here.

That's a wrap on 2025's Monday memes. Hope you enjoy your week! I look forward to visiting you today.