Thursday, February 5

January Bookshelf Review



Such is the effect of the excitement of novel reading upon the nervous system, that the only way to obtain momentary ease, is to plunge into another as soon as one is finished. 
~Confessions and Experiences of a Novel Reader, 1855.

So opened one of the novels I'm currently reading, and I enjoyed the quote enough to share it. 

January's Books Completed and Reviewed

Secrets of the Maison Fournier by Amelia Pine - Emma Greene is building a new life along with her business, a small English language bookshop in Paris in the shadow of the glittering Maison Fournier shop. When the owner of Maison Fournier is poisoned, Emma is the convenient foreign suspect, but with the help of her new friends, she sets out to find the real killer and clear her name. (Review coming soon!)



During January I started reading:

The Belle of Belgrave Square by Mimi Matthews - Julia Wychwood is beautiful and has a sizeable dowry but she is uncomfortable at balls and making small talk. She has caught the eye of Captain Jasper Blunt, a war hero with a tarnished reputation. This is a romance based on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.



During January I continued reading:

A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber - Verity and her husband Sidney are working together on two different investigations, but as they dig deeper, they see that the murders and motives may be intertwined. 

  


Where My Books Took Me in January . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month, and where each book fits in the reading challenges I'm working on.

Secrets of the Maison Fournier is set in late 1800s Paris and I used it for two of the 52 Book Club prompts. It has quite a lot of personification (#44) and there is a diacritical mark on the cover (#47).



A Certain Darkness started in London and is headed to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
The Belle of Belgrave Square also starts in London, and then moves to the English countryside.


Coming Up in February!

Among the contenders for my next read are:

Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn
A Tarnished Canvas by Anna Lee Huber
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt



 


On my blogs recently . . . 

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:



And on A Fresh Cup of Coffee:



This post will be linked at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life and Not In Jersey.




©2008-2026 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


Posted by at 10 comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, January 17

2026 Reading Challenges


Here we are, over halfway into the first month of 2026, and I'm finally getting around to sharing a little about my reading goals for the year. And I don't even have a book that I've finished to lead with! That's kind of the way it's been for the past couple of years though. I keep working on The 52 Book Club reading challenges, fully knowing that I won't read fifty-two books. Expecting and planning to read approximately half that many. But it's okay because it's not a contest! The challenge continues to be entertaining and motivational for me, and encourages me to choose books outside of my favorite authors and genres. A few of my favorite books over the past couple years are just such books - the ones that wouldn't likely have come to my notice except that they fit a challenge prompt. 

I will be doing The 52 Book Club Challenge for 2026, and my personal goal is to get about halfway through it. (Since my goal is approximately 26 books, I will be doubling up prompts when I can)

Find out more about the 2026 Reading Challenge HERE, and you might want to check out the 2026 Reading Challenge Guide.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2026


I've read through the guide and the list of prompts, but I haven't yet given much thought to the books I've started already or the ones on my TBR list to see which prompts they'd fit. 

There are mini-challenges throughout the year, and I may try to do those as well, but with books that do double-duty for the main challenge as well. I just look at them as they're released and decide if they looks appealing to me or not.

In 2025, there was a Connections Reading Challenge in the summer. Instead of a list of prompts that could be done in any order, this challenge was organized so that each book was connected in some way to the one before it or after it, so it had to be done in order. There were twenty-one books in the list! I embarked on the challenge (with books that doubled in the main challenge, of course), thinking that I would just see how far I could get by the end of the year. The answer was: not very far! But also I figured it would do no harm for me to keep plugging away through the list and try to finish it, and who cares how long it takes! (I'm currently reading a book that is #8 on this list.)



 I write bookshelf summaries, usually at the end of a month and about halfway through a month, and depending on how the posting dates line up, I may share with Book Date, at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life, and What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World.

I usually link my individual book reviews at the BookWorms Monthly link-up.

***************

So that's where I stand at the beginning of the year, as far as reading goals. Since I usually do a What I'm Reading post around the middle of the month, I'll add an abbreviated version of that here, and hopefully have more to share in a couple weeks!


I'm currently reading . . .

A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber




Up Next . . . On the TBR stack . . . 

One of the books I acquired over the holidays, but I haven't decided which one!



I finished reading . . . 

A Holiday By Gaslight by Mimi Matthews (Read my review HERE)
No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister (Read my review HERE)




***************

Happy Reading!



This post may be linked at What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World, and/or at the weekly reading list meme hosted at Book Date.

 It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

©2008-2026 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human.  http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Posted by at 12 comments:
Labels: ,

Friday, January 9

2025 Reading Challenges Wrap-Up


Here I am, finally writing my 2025 summary of books read and the reading challenges I've completed participated in. Looks like I can manage an average of one book every two weeks while working full time and doing the other things I do. Hard to believe I used to clock sixty or seventy books a year several years ago! 

As hard as it is for me to pick favorites, I think I should start off by choosing my top five that I read during the year:

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
10 Marchfield Square by Nicola Whyte
Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown

***************

I think this is the third year I've done the 52 Book Club Reading Challenge, and my goal was to make it about halfway through. Looks like I did get twenty-six books checked off the list, which makes me wonder if I should have doubled up prompts. To me, that feels like cheating. I'm fine with getting only partway through these challenges, because even if I don't read that many books, it does encourage me to keep reading and to consider books outside of my favorite authors and genres.

Find out more about the 2025 Reading Challenge HERE

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025


1.  A book with a pun in the title - Frauds On Favourite by PJ FItzsimmons
2.  A character with red hair - The Highland Heist by Pepper Basham
3.  Title starts with the letter M - Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber
4.  Title starts with the letter N - No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister
5.  Plot includes a heist - Monet For Nothing by PJ Fitzsimmons
11. A prequel - The Wedding Gift by Connilyn Cossette
12. Has a moon on the cover - While the City Sleeps by Elizabeth Camden
13. Title is 10 letters or less - Black Fog by KT McWilliams
18. A character who can fly - The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl
19. Has short chapters - The Blind Scribe by Connilyn Cossette
20. A fairy tale retelling - Before Beauty by Brittany Fichter
21. Character's name in the title - Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery
22. Found Family Trope - No Safe Harbor by Elizabeth Ludwig
25. Breaks the fourth wall - The Terrifying Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
33. A Standalone Novel - Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell
35. Written in third person - The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews
36. Final sentence is less than 6 words long - The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa
37. A genre chosen for me by someone else - Mountain Interval by Robert Frost
39. Has an epigraph - A Deceptive Composition by Anna Lee Huber
40. Stream of consciousness narrative - Village Books by Craig McLay
41. Cover font is a primary color - Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
43. Explores social class - A Holiday By Gaslight by Mimi Matthews
44. A celebrity on the cover - Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown
49. Set in a country with an active volcano - The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer - Ragnar Jónasson
51. A book that is 300-400 pages long - Harvest of Gold by Tessa Afshar
52. Published in 2025 - 10 Marchfield Square by Nicola Whyte



***************

There are mini-challenges within the 52 Book Club as well, and I completed the October one:

While the City Sleeps features a police officer for Pick Your Costume
Someone You Can Build A Nest In has both a sugary sweet and a mischievous character for Pick Your Treat
The Terrifying Tales is Pick Your Scare Level: Keep You Up All Night



Instead of a mini-challenge in the summer, there was The 52 Book Club's Connections Challenge. This is like a whole new reading challenge, so I decided I would work my way through it, but without an end date. I don't need that much extra pressure! Some people do these mini-challenges as separate from the 52 books, but that's out of my league at this point in my life. 



So I didn't get very far with this, because it was a little tough to choose a next book for this challenge that would also work for the regular challenge. I'm currently working on what would be the eighth book in this chain, so for now I'm going to keep going with it. Maybe I'll finish, maybe I won't. I will be perfectly fine with leaving it undone if it's too much for me. 


1. Pick any book - Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
2. Title shares a word with previous title - Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery
3. Set in the country where the previous author was born (Canada) - Village Books by Craig McLay
4. Published the same year as the previous book (2012) - No Safe Harbor by Elizabeth Ludwig
5. +/- 30 pages from the previous book - Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber
6. Similar title font to the previous book - Food For Thought by Alton Brown
7. Author shares name with character from previous book - While the City Sleeps by Elizabeth Camden

***************

I also linked up some of my books with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2025 hosted by The Intrepid Reader and Baker. This was such a simple challenge. Just link up my historical fiction reviews each month. I aimed for the Renaissance Reader level, which is ten historical fiction books over the year. Turns out I got a few more. That said, I will not bother doing this book link-up next year.

1. Harvest of Gold - Tessa Afshar (ancient Persia/Israel)
2. Frauds on Favourite - PJ Fitzsimmons (1920s England)
3. A Deceptive Composition - Anna Lee Huber (1832 Cornwall, England)
4. The Work of Art - Mimi Matthews (Regency England)
5. Black Fog - KT McWilliams (1618 London)
6. The Wedding Gift - Connilyn Cossette (ancient Israel)
7. The Blind Scribe - Connilyn Cossette (ancient Israel)
8. Jane of Lantern Hill - L.M. Montgomery (1920s Canada)
9. The Highland Heist - Pepper Basham (1910s USA and Scotland)
10. No Safe Harbor - Elizabeth Ludwig (1896 USA)
11. Murder Most Fair - Anna Lee Huber (1919 England)
12. While the City Sleeps - Elizabeth Camden (1913 New York City)
13. Monet For Nothing - PJ Fitzsimmons (1920s Paris)
14. A Holiday By Gaslight - Mimi Matthews (1880s England)


***************

There's a social media group called What The Dickens Book Club and I've been a member of the group for a few years, but unfortunately the posts often get lost in my FB feed and I lose track of when discussions are and such. I thought I'd find time to read a few of these classics and participate with the group in 2025, but wound up reading only two of the books on the list (Mountain Interval and Jane of Lantern Hill). 



I do try to be consistent with writing bookshelf summaries, and depending on how the posting dates line up, I've been sharing at the BookWorms Monthly link-up, at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life, and What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World.

This post will be linked at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life.


©2008-2026 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human.  http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


Posted by at 2 comments:
Labels: ,

Wednesday, January 7

December Bookshelf Review


I find December one of the hardest months to get my reading summary done before it's well into the next month, so here we are about a week into January 2026 and I'm still wrapping up what happened in my 2025 reading. I still have to do my reading challenge wrap-up post and new challenge post for 2026 too. 

December's Books Completed and Reviewed

Monet For Nothing by PJ Fitzsimmons - Teddy Quillfeather is on a jaunt to Paris where she is tracking down copies of Monet paintings and knockoff Hemingway manuscripts, and keeping her quirky and blundering friends out of trouble (hopefully!). Fast paced and witty, a humorous take on a whodunit cozy.  (Read my review HERE)


A Holiday By Gaslight by Mimi Matthews - I do like to read a holiday themed novel of some sort in December, and a good deal on this novella by a favorite author fit the bill. Sophie and Ned's courtship has been very reserved and formal and while she has no objection to marrying someone below her station, she does want a partner that she can share at least a friendship with. The Christmas house party at her family estate is the last chance for Ned to win her heart. (Read my review HERE)



No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister - an aspiring writer finally finishes her debut novel, and it affects her and its readers in different and life-changing ways. This unusual story combines a series of stories about how fiction touches readers at different points in their lives and help them navigate changes and relationships and give them insight into their own experiences. (Read my review HERE)



During December I started reading:

A Certain Darkness by Anna Lee Huber - This is the next in the Verity Kent series (I'm a couiple novels behind at this point!) in which Verity and her husband Sidney work on separate investigations but realize they may be intertwined after all. 

  


Where My Books Took Me in December . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month.

Monet For Nothing takes place in Paris, France

A Holiday By Gaslight starts in London, but moves to the countryside.

No Two Persons - and no two places either! It's all in the US - Maine, Florida, California, New York City, Pacific Northwest . . .

A Certain Darkness started in London and is headed to France.


Coming Up in January!

I received this book as a Christmas gift, so I think it has to be the next one I open up. I've read it before and enjoyed it so much I really wanted to own it. I bought myself a couple of new books at the Book Loft last week, so one of those is likely to be next as well.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt



On my blogs recently . . . 

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:



And on A Fresh Cup of Coffee:



This post will be linked at Share Your Shelf hosted by Slices of Life.


©2008-2026 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


Posted by at 10 comments:
Labels: ,

Sunday, January 4

Recent Reads - No Two Persons



No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister - I finished this book right after Christmas but didn't get around to writing my thoughts about it until today. The rave reviews were right about the fact that this is a really special book, thugh I had trouble deciding what tags to give it ― it's sort of a series of short stories that are all tied together, and though there are some romances and some heartbreaks, and there are characters of many backgrounds and ages, what connects them all is a story. So it's a story about how one writer's personal story affected the story she wrote, and how that story touched its readers and the stories they were living.

Alice is the talented debut novelist, and we're introduced to her in the first section. She discovers words and stories and writing at an early age and dreams of writing her own stories. A family tragedy derails her education and her motivation to write for a time, but eventually she completes the novel and submits it.

Then, in a series of stories, Alice's novel touches the lives of several others. First, it is read by a struggling editor's assistant who gives it a push towards publication. It is read by an actor who has become a recluse, and he transforms it into an audiobook. It deeply affects him and he gives it a voice that allows it to touch others as well. Other readers include a free diver who has pushed his own limits too far in his attempt to deal with the pain from his childhood; a homeless teenager just hanging on until she can graduate high school; a young man working in a bookstore and navigating a difficult relationship; a widower trying to cope with his grief and regrets; and a literary agent facing her own mortality. Each reader of the book has their own set of painful circumstances, past traumas, and difficult relationships; and each one connects with the story's character in a different but meaningful way. It's implied that Alice's writing style and use of words and phrases was beautiful to read and to hear, but also that it was the story itself that touched a nerve in readers.

The book was a delight to read, and had such a satisfactory―yet open-ended―conclusion that came full circle and was an almost bittersweet celebration of how stories can touch our hearts and help us feel connected and heard and understood. 


From the publisher:

One book. Nine readers. Ten changed lives. New York Times bestselling author Erica Bauermeister's No Two Persons is "a gloriously original celebration of fiction, and the ways it deepens our lives."

That was the beauty of books, wasn't it? They took you places you didn't know you needed to go . . .

Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice's novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.

Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways―and how we are all more closely connected to one another than we might think.


This is a title that begins with the letter N (#4) for The 52 Book Club's 2025 Reading Challenge.
#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025



This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot.

bookworms monthly linky

©2008-2026 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. This post was written by a human.  http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/ 

 This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Posted by at 6 comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)