Books I Read in 2025

January 

Sun sticker to cover the library sticker 

February 

March

I am a Tom Selleck fan and I enjoyed reading about his basically accidental journey to and through his career in acting. 

I did not realize Hayley Mills Dad was the Dad in the Swiss Family Robinson movie! It is one of my favorite movies, also Pollyanna and The Parent Trap! 

April 

Dirty Laundry refers to actual dirty laundry, not like dirty secrets. This book is written by an ADHD woman & her husband, who are both British. They also have a YouTube channel that is called ADHD Love & I totally love their videos & this book! 

This is a children's book about ADHD by the ADHD Love couple. :)

May

I love the original Taskmaster TV show and Fern Brady is one of the comedians who was a contestant on the show. 

Super interesting history of the lives of the Van Halen brothers and their family legacy as musicians. 

One of the doctors I work for recommended her favorite comedian to me and then I saw he recently published a book! If you need some LOLs, Nate Bargatze will deliver!

There is so much I didn't realize about musicians and how they basically created a family community amongst themselves. 

Alan Cummings narrates his own books and he is a great storyteller! I don't think I would listen to his books if he didn't read them, but he does and so I do.

June

This author and YouTuber has ADHD herself. Her videos are good and this book was great, too! She included plenty of research as well as personal stories & stories from her YouTube community. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I really enjoyed this autobiography by one of my favorite British pop stars!!! 

Barbara Eden's book was part autobiography & part history of Hollywood. I enjoyed it more than I expected!

July

The latest Country Club Mystery ♥ 

A GREAT book by Cas from Clutterbug (YouTube). She literally changed my life, teaching me my organizing style (I am a Bee) and she unlocked my brain and taught me how I can let go of things! I have vision and hope to finally get organized and stay tidy. And I am actually on my journey and transforming my house and my life!

August

Nothing completed in August 

September 

October 

Nothing completed in October..

November 

December 

I have been an Elvis Presley fan for as long as I can remember. This is the autobiography of his daughter and granddaughter. I learned about Elvis in the book, too, and I was glad it confirmed the personality of Elvis that I concluded from studying him myself. I did a term paper and presentation on Elvis's influence on American culture and history for my college level American History class in my Senior year of high school. 

This a a new 1920's historical mystery series from Julie Mulhern. I decided to check it out, since I am waiting on the next Country Club Mystery book, and I am hooked.

I started hunting for a fun book and looked up authors whose other books I enjoyed. Heather Fawcett is the author of the Emily Wilde series and I very much enjoyed the fantasy series. This is a retelling of Anne of Green Gables where the Anne type character, Grace, is a witch...like in a fairy tale. If you have read Anne of Green Gables AND you like fantasy and fairy tales, you will enjoy this book!

Books I Read in 2024

I wanted to write more about each book, but 2025 is nearly over and I haven't published my post of 2024 books. As the time passes after reading, it's harder to capture my thoughts and feelings to share adequately or properly. All that to say, here follows the books I read in 2024.

January 

I nearly finished Paul Stanley's book before the end of the year. I really enjoyed reading his story. His is yet another musician's autobiography that I see how I understand and think like a musician. 

Julie Mulhern is a Kansas City native who writes the Country Club Mystery series set in Kansas City, Missouri in the 1970's. My friend who is a former teacher and part-time librarian recommended them to me. If you can't tell, I adore them! The audio books are my favorite both because I can listen to them on my commute to work and because I can't see the typos some proofreader apparently missed.

A very interesting autobiography of one of the members of the Monkees and his other involvements in the music and entertainment business, including the concept for what would become MTV!

February 

While I was waiting on the next Country Club Mystery, I decided to try the other series by Julie Mulhern. It's more of a spy series and I ended up adoring it, too.

March

I watched the Phryne Fisher Mystery series on Hoopla, so I thought I would give the book series, that the TV series originated from, a try.

April

A fantasy Native American book written by a Native American. Not my usual read, but I really enjoyed the story!

May

June

A fantasy story about faeries and a university professor who studies them. I have now read all the books that have been published in the series. 

The prequel to Elatsoe. A very good and interesting story, too!

Not my typical choice and I don't remember how I came across it, but it had a mystery and I kept reading to see how it turned out.

I spotted The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley at the actual library and was excited to find it available on the library. It was right up my Pollyanna Alley. I highly recommend!

Forever Strong was an interesting book written by a doctor. It actually just confirmed to me that Trim Healthy Mama is good stuff & backed by science. And I really like Serene & Pearl's sister talk in their books and their podcast. 

July

Camper Van's, Cooking and Corpses turned out to be such an enjoyable story and interesting mystery! It's written by a  British author and is the start of a series that my library (at last check) doesn't have the rest of...which is so sad. Hopefully that will change in the future!

I read Beaches, Bungalows & Burglaries  because I couldn't read anymore of the Camper Van series above. It was cute, but not as good as the Camper Van book. I couldn't bring myself to read anymore of this series. 

This is the first in a series that I have continued to read. They are about a fox who is an investigative reporter and she goes around solving murder mysteries. There's a lot more to them. If you can suspend any troubling thoughts about the characters being woodland animals, they are quite fun!

August 

Steven Tyler is fascinating. I enjoyed learning about his life and his outlook on life. 

I decided to buy Self-Care for People with ADHD to have and to hold. I need to add tabs & mark it up so I can do the self-care.

September 

This is a super fun Manga that my daughter introduced me to. A former gangster turned house husband. He actually has useful housekeeping tips mixed into the funny adventures, too!

This was not super memorable. Not sure if I took anything away from it except that ADHD folks should not ever expect their house to look like that of a neurotypical. 

So far, Pat Benatar is the most non-wild rock star whose autobiography i have read. The real life love story of her & her guitar player husband was very sweet, it actually reminded me a bit of the teen romance novels i used to read (although they were in their twenties). The stories of her daughters and how they reacted to being on tour and on stage were really cute and obviously people who were at concerts would have seen the cuteness in person. Pat, as well as so many other rock stars I have read about, helped those coming after her, which I think is really cool! I had to read this with my eyes, so it took me a long time to finish, but it was worth the time for me. (Most of my books are audio so that I can listen on my work commute.)

Very interesting story about Jackson's life and how he came to know some much about cats and one of his own cats in particular who helped him learn. Also, really good information for those of us who have a cat to care for ourselves. 

This was a very good book by an Australian who was not diagnosed with ADHD until adulthood. I could relate to many aspects of her story and learning some useful strategies. The book was just enjoyable to listen to also & read by the author. 

October 

Another book about ADHD... not a high reccommendation from my recollection. 

November 

This series was another recommendation from my teacher/librarian friend. 

Another rock star biography... she led an exciting (and kind of scary, at times) life!

Fun comic about a villain who is not your typical villain!

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Warning ⚠️: The Perfect Crimes of Marion Hays looks like an innocent book by its cover. Do NOT judge this book by its cover. It is a fun, fast paced and interesting story, but includes descriptive "bedroom scenes." ⚠️ I almost excluded it from my published list, but I read it and here is the record that I read it.

See the Warning above for The Perfect Crimes of Marion Hays. 

December 

Some childrens books caught my eye at the library...

And I ended with another Evie Parker Mystery audiobook.