Hi all. It looks like we’re winding down the year … so I wanted to I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or whatever holidays you observe for the week ahead. May your time with family and friends and loved ones be special and dear. Or should I say deer … like this one who showed up yesterday evening to eat from our bird feeder, lol.
Anyways, thanks for taking time this year to stop by here, whether occasionally or regularly. It’s been a fun journey to discuss books and reading with you in particular … as well as shows and movies and music. Your thoughts and insights always make things more enjoyable and richer.
My husband and I will be having a quiet Christmas at home this year with our two Labrador dogs and some gifts. He always goes a bit overboard even when three gifts is the proposed limit.
Usually I get all my books from the library … but around this time of year I’ll make an exception and ask Santa for a few. Here is my Santa list this year (above). I have asked for three nonfiction books and two big novels to read. Have you read any of these or have them on your TBR? They look good.
And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood / Scribner / 176 pages / 2025
5 stars. This transfixing novel, which I read as a buddy read with Tina at Turn the Page, came at just the right time in my year-end reading and packs a lot in for a short book.
Set in the early 1960s, Thomas Flett, 20, is the young man who carries on his family’s business of shrimping with nets aided by a horse and a cart when the tides go out in his seashore town in northwest England. It’s cold and dreary hard work amid the Irish Sea, and Thomas does it almost by rote but not with much joy. He’d rather be practicing songs on his guitar, which he hides from his mother (since he bought it by selling his grandfather’s timepiece). But it’s just Thomas and his mother now in their meager home and he must provide.
Then comes a stranger to their door — an American film director named Edgar Acheson — who wants to hire Thomas to help on location. It’s just the grim shoreline and place Edgar wants for his next film. And Thomas can help by showing him the best spots and pointing out the dangerous “sinkpits” to avoid.
Edgar is quite the character and the plot takes a couple mysterious twists and turns … during which Thomas goes through an awakening of sorts. The writing wonderfully conjures up the frigid conditions amid the rain and stormy sea … with the steadfast horse by Thomas’s side while lugging the nets. It’s sort of a dark small gem of a tale, but it also has a shred of light too. It made a strong impression on me and I will look for whatever British author Benjamin Wood writes next. He’s one to watch.
That’s all for now. What about you — what books do you want for Christmas? Happy holidays.
I’m glad that you and Tina both liked Seascraper. Sounds interesting!
Thanks Joy. It was a good quick read with plenty of the elements. Enjoy your holiday week.
I enjoyed reading both your and Tina’s thoughts about Seascraper. It’s on my list for 2026.
It sounds like you and Robert will have a very nice Christmas together. Rod & I have switched our gift giving ideas around the past few years. We each buy ourselves a few gifts that we want, wrap them, and then unwrap them on Christmas morning. It’s fun to watch and see what the other has bought, and we wind up getting exactly what we want. Since we don’t really need much, we aren’t wasting money on silly items that neither would really want. I bought myself several books (including Buckeye!), as well as a weight bench for my workouts. I’m very curious to see what my husband bought! We do set a $$ limit so we don’t go crazy.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year!
Thanks Lesley. It sounds like you two have a good gift giving tradition these days. Ours has been a bit off or late this year due to my knee recovery which is having some complications. But this week our Christmas gift giving should come together. Robert has a bday the following week. So much to do still!
I enjoyed Seascraper — a pretty quick read. See what you think when you get to it. Hope your Christmas is great as well. & Happy New Year.
I read both The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and Raising Hare, and I found both of these books to be full of beautiful writing. I have Buckeye here for next year’s reading, I think. Both the nonfiction books on your list are new to me, and of course that makes me very curious about them.
We are also having a quiet holiday this year. Happy holidays!
Hi Deb, glad to get your report on Raising Hare and Sonia & Sunny. Excellent you have read them. I’ve heard much about Buckeye too. I did a bit of digging to get the two other nonfiction books — one about Pamela Harriman and the other a WWII true story that sounds too interesting to miss. I plan to explore it.
And thanks — enjoy your quiet Christmas week as well.
The Loneliness of S & S is definitely on my list of books to read soon, and more and more bloggers are reporting positive things about it. I liked your review.
Have a great Christmas week!
Hi Mae, yes Sonia & Sunny is a big one and I hope it will be great. I’m still figuring out when I’ll get to it. I look forward to hearing what you think of it — if you get to it first. And thanks — enjoy your holidays as well!
I hope you enjoy your quiet Christmas! We’re hosting my family for Christmas Eve, but we’re a pretty small bunch…only 11 of us will be there. Then on Christmas day I get to stay home and be quiet, too. Happy Holidays! and Happy Reading, too. 😀
Hi Lark, ha – eleven people sounds a bit like a large a group to me — but that’s great you’ll all be together. I wish you much solace & sympathy in the loss of your mother (very sad to hear). May you get several enjoyable reads for Christmas as well … that you can read and escape into. Cheers.
I have Raising Hare on my list as well. 😉
Happy Holidays!
Thanks Erin. I have no idea what to expect with the book Raising Hare …. but it’s received so many warm reviews that I must investigate. Hope it’s a good one for you too. Enjoy your Christmas.
Wow! A 5 star review near the end of the year, very nice.
I hope you have a lovely quiet Christmas this year. My family is arriving tonight so that will be fun.
Ha Helen, I seem to rarely give out 5 stars but you know maybe I’m feeling ready at the end of the year — and it’s just a well done vivid small gem with plenty of the elements. See what you think.
I hope you & your daughter & niece have a great time! Merry Christmas.
I love watching for deer in the yard! hope you have a good week
Thanks Bree. Yeah the deer in the winter come a lot. Glad you can relate. They seem hungry. Wishing you happy holidays.
Merry Christmas to you as well! That picture of the deer is precious; it almost seems like it is drinking milk from a bottle. I liked Seascraper but not as much as you; it seems I’m in the minority because other bloggers I follow have loved it too. I agree with your review, I just didn’t feel “the feel”. Today I will finally be finishing Sonia and Sunny. My previous 4* rating seems to stand as well. I have Buckeye on suspended hold at the library, but I’ll probably be starting the year with two or three smaller novels/novellas and then tackle three doorstoppers—King Sorrow, Katabasis, and The Secret of Secrets. This year was bountiful book-wise, so I still have many more that I want to tackle before I move on.
Hi Carmen, yeah the deer & I were looking at each other from the window — but she/or he seemed to say: I need a bit more first before moving on, so he wasn’t too worried about me there. lol.
And I don’t know why Seascraper seemed to get under my skin now … but it did for a short while. Maybe the cold water did it. It poured over me.
I’m glad to hear you’re finishing S & S — wow that’s a great achievement. It’s so long! Did it keep your interest the whole time? Or were there some down spots? You’ve done great in your reading this year. Such good ones too.
I’m looking forward to some on my Santa list, but I think I will finish Heart the Lover and Flesh beforehand. I think reading will be good this winter. & I look forward to hearing what you think of the doorstoppers. lol. Merry Christmas!
Yes, S&S kept my interest throughout. It’s a big tapestry with many different characters that are peripheral but related to the central plot, so it is engaging and not only because of the titular characters.
It seems that I will be able to meet my GR goal. Reading small novellas that I wasn’t expecting to read but will make me breeze past my goal. Yoohoo! Btw, I’m reading Pick A Color, which is an extremely fast read, if it doesn’t tank before the end. I’m liking it way more than you did. Hopefully it will stay that way (fingers crossed). I hope to finish it today or tomorrow.
Hi Carmen — that’s good to know about S & S. You’ve given me a good idea about what it’s like – which helps. I think I’ll be getting the ebook for Christmas. Hmm.
That’s great you’ll make your GR goal … and good on you if like Pick a Color. I was a bit interested to find out about the woman narrator & her shop … but some of it I found a bit dull or chiding? I have not been to a nail salon! I liked the boxing parts. lol. Enjoy & keep up the reading.
A quiet Christmas as home sounds lovely.
I have not read any of these. I hope you find a few of them underneath your tree.
Have a happy holiday.
Thanks Hena. I am looking forward to books under the tree! And I hope you get some too. A quiet end of year week is always a bit nice to refresh the batteries. Wishing you & your family much happiness over the holidays.
That looks like a great list, I hope you find them all under the tree 🙂 Raising hair has been a popular and highly thought of book for the Nonfiction Reader Challenge this year and is definitely on my list.
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas
Thanks Shelleyrae, yes finding books under the tree will make me happy! And I hope you find some as well. I don’t know what to expect of Raising Hare … but the reviews seem good, so I think it’ll be interesting. Wishing you a very happy Christmas as well with your family. Hopefully the card I sent will make it to you sometime soon!
Your review is spot on, that was a book you could be immersed in. Happy to have that as our buddy read. We should start a book club, lol.
Love that photo of the deer and the snow. Beautiful view.
Today I had a notice Flesh arrived for me on Kindle from the library! I am giving Horse back and will wait for the Kindle copy in about 7 weeks. It’s harder for me to read at night, smaller font and big fat book. That’s ok, I will make someone who has a hold on it happy as this copy will be available.
Raising Hare is also on my 2026 list as is Buckeye. Will go check out Sonia and Sunny.
Hi Tina, ha … we are a book club. A book club of 2. It was fun to read this novel together.
Glad you like the photo. Right now we have a group of 7 deer living near our house. I feel sorry for them since they are hungry and it is like 0 F outside. They steal the bird seed when we forgot to take it down at night.
Maybe we can start Flesh sometime this week. My library holds are starting to come in all at once. Ugh. I need to suspend a few. talk later!
Merry Christmas.
I love the deer photo. Those critters are EVERYWHERE this time of year. Have a great Christmas!
Thanks AJ. Hope you have a great Christmas too! The deer are especially hungry right now … we have to remember to take down the feeder in the evenings. Or else they’ll eat everything. Wishing you great reads & a happy 2026!
How lovely to have snow at this time of year. We will probably be having rain at on Christmas Day. We are also having a quiet Christmas, and that is the norm for us. Glen makes his Christmas spaghetti and we watch movies. We don’t really do gifts at Christmas but we only buy books between September and December so I consider those my Christmas presents.
Last week we went to the local independent book store and I bought The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, a mystery by Canadian author Gail Bowen, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, and Euphoria by Lily King.
I think you have convinced me to read Seascraper, but I will wait a while, maybe find it at the book sale next year. I am not familiar with Kingmaker or The Forbidden Garden; I will have to look into them. Earlier I thought I might be interested in Buckeye by Patrick Ryan because Glen grew up in Ohio. He and I both arrived in California around 1973, so have lived in California much longer than we live in our home states. Now I am thinking maybe I would like Buckeye because the story includes many events that we lived through. I don’t care for the length though (450 pages).
Hi Tracy, you selected some good books at your bookstore. I have read the Lily King novel (Euphoria) and Virginia Evans’s popular book too. I haven’t read the Fowler or the Gail Bowen books but they seem good. I hope you enjoy them all.
I don’t know too much about Buckeye yet but it’s gotten some rave reviews … so it’s on my list. Glen should read it if it has much about Ohio. And I like the sound of his Christmas spaghetti …. sounds yummy to me along with watching movies. Very cozy on a rainy day or evening. Have a lovely Christmas Day. & happy reading!
We had to raise our birdfeeder because the deer did the same thing here, haha! These last couple of years though they’ve had plenty of acorns on the ground to keep them busy so they weren’t as focused on the birdfeeder. I hope you enjoy your quiet holiday! Sounds wonderful to me!
Thanks Rachel — Hope your holiday is great as well.
Ha, the bird feeder is quite the target here in winter …. with the deer. We should get a taller feeder … we’ve just been taking it down in the evenings before the deer seem to appear. Not sure which are hungrier the birds or the deer. But it’s a fight for the feeder! Merry Christmas to you & your family.
Happy Holidays Susan to you and your family
Seascraper sounds very good. I love these remote settings by the sea and it sounds like Thomas finds out alot about himself when the film company comes to his town and your 5 star read is all the encouragement I need.
Thanks Kathy. And good to hear from you.
Yes Seascraper was short but imbued with a lot of atmosphere … I was rooting for the young protagonist from start to end. See what you think of it. It doesn’t take long to finish. Wishing you a Happy New Year. Look forward to your blog & reads.
“Kingmaker” and “Raising Hare” are two I’d like to read in the new year. I really wanted “the Black Wolf,” as I love Louise Penny’s Gamache series and this year also ended up with an autographed bookplate from her when Rick did his cycling ride in Canada and stopped at Knowlton.
I love your photo of the deer and hope your holidays were beautiful. Thanks for your visits in the year. I’ll be posting December reading and then the books-in-review post sometime early on next month. Meanwhile have a safe holiday!
Hi Jeanie, I’m glad I found your blog this year … I enjoy your posts. And great to hear you got a Louise Penny signed book — Wow nice! I think Kingmaker and Raising Hare should be great reads … so I look forward to those in 2026. Hope you get to them too.
Happy New Year and reading in 2026!
Happy Holidays to you and I like the list you gave Santa–I love my library, but I also love my personal stacks.
Seascraper sounds really good. I like the setting and premise, and at 5 stars, I will assume the writing is solid. Will add to the list. Thanks for the recommendation.
Hi Jane, You must have a lot of books at your house, lol. We all do … But I try to keep the chaos down. See what you think of Seascraper. It has some rainy atmosphere to it. ha. Wishing you a Happy New Year!