December 2025 Reading

Finished off another year of reading with five books in December.

I continued to listen to Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books.  I would be listening faster, but I have to wait for each one from the library and they are still popular enough that the wait is pretty long.  Anyway, this month I listened to The Black Cauldron.  It is awesome.  There are twists, high stakes, and hard-won triumphs.  I am continually struck by what an efficient storyteller Alexander is.  The book is not long, but it is packed.

 

For Christmas, my mom got me two picture books.  If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff is exactly what you would expect from an entry in this series.  It’s cute and funny and chaotic.  The Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen is a great read-aloud (I know because I made my family listen!) with a rapping rhythm to the verse.  Sometimes our blub-blub-blub selves just need a kiss.  (This is not a huge issue, but maybe a little consent-modeling would make the book even better…)  Small children of your acquaintance (or other children masquerading as adults like me) will enjoy either one.

 

Also for Christmas, my son gave me A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn.  This is the latest in her Veronica Speedwell series.  It’s a fluffy good time with plenty of skullduggery and mayhem.  What’s not to like about a feisty Victorian lepidopterist with a hot boyfriend who solves mysteries?

 

Finally, I finished out my Year of Water by reading a book that I maybe ought to have started with, except that I didn’t know it existed a year ago.  Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner is a great book about water in the American West.  It’s an older book, but it lays out the issues that still face us in dealing with thirsty agriculture, growing populations, stressed environments, and that perennial human problem, greed.  It’s the kind of book that makes a person (well, me) mad and motivated to make changes.  It’s also an engaging read with great writing, memorable real-life characters, and good flow.

 

December total:  5

Fall 2025 total:  30

2025 total:  80.5