📚 My 5-Star Reads of 2025

This year I seem to have gravitated toward speculative fiction. These are books and short stories that bend reality and question social systems. Whether dystopian, psychological, or quietly surreal, they offered me more than plot: they gave me perspective. Because of their unique stories and characters, these are my five star reads of 2025.

✨ Speculative fiction standouts  

- All Systems Red — M. Wells

- 1984 — G. Orwell  

- The Yellow Wallpaper — C. Gilman  

- I Who Have Never Known Men — J. Harpman  

- We Used to Live Here — M. Kliewer

💫 Unique romance with heart & humor  

- Good Spirits — B. Borison  

- The Fall Risk — A. Jimenez

🎨 Historical fiction that felt like art  

- Girl with a Pearl Earring — T. Chevalier

🚆 Psychological suspense  

- The Girl on the Train — P. Hawkins

If you love speculative fiction and stories that quietly whisper long after you finish reading them, then you may enjoy these too.
 

I hope to finish one more book but overall I'm very pleased with my reading this year.

Good Spirits: Love Knitted Through Every Stitch in Time

 

** Slight spoilers: 

Good Spirits is sweet and full of heart. I was pleasantly surprised. B.K. Borison transforms the Ghost of Christmas Past into a romantic lead who brings some wonderful Christmas magic to life for Harriet. Nolan’s presence is warm (for a ghost) and sincere, while Harriet’s journey from self-sacrifice to self-discovery feels relatable. Their connection is tender and cute. The way Harriet and Nolan step into and witness each other's histories make their connection believable despite the short timeline. Now, where are my knitted mittens?! ;) 

"I Who Have Never Known Men" - Between Captivity and Infinity

 

This book isn’t for everyone. It won’t tie up loose ends, but those answers aren’t the point anyway. 

The novel has no chapters, and in its 188 pages, you plunge into a place where time isn’t measured as we know it. The story is rich, quick, and deeply thoughtful. What does it offer most? Witness. A strange intimacy. The power of the mind, dignity, resilience.

Some of my favorite quotes are below:

“Perhaps you never have time when you are alone? You only acquire it by watching it go by in others.”

 “For a very long time the days went by, each just like the day before. Then I began to think, and everything changed.”  

 “I am writing… for some unknown reader who will probably never come… But if that person comes… my story added to their mind will become part of their thinking.”

A Year of Wishes: Inspired by Snow White (Dec)

My Wishing Well Jar

Across cultures, people make wishes in different ways. Examples range from coins cast into fountains to ribbons knotted on trees, from blowing out birthday candles to dreams whispered to shooting stars. 

This month, I am reflecting on Snow White. She's a character who is associated with innocence and kindness. The Brothers Grimm tale and the Disney’s version are quite different. Disney softened the darker edges of the original tale, giving us a young teenager who at one point sings her wishes into a well as she hopes to find her forever love. That image of Snow White has become iconic. 

When people revisit Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  today, they often dismiss her as naïve and outdated. But if you set aside society’s bent towards criticism and look at her simply as a teenager, this moment at the wishing well becomes strikingly authentic. At fourteen, wishing for "love" to find her is not foolish but deeply human. Disney’s Snow White sings about her hopes with sincerity and playfulness. That act of naming what she longs for mirrors the way many of us, especially when younger, give voice to our dreams. Her wishing well scene is less about naivety and more about the courage to hope openly. And this challenged me. 

In response, I created my own "wishing well' or jar so I have a space for my wishes and little seeds of possibility. Each slip of paper will become a reminder of what I longed for in the moment. I had AI help me with prompts!

For several years I've kept a ‘Good Things’ jar and filled it with positive moments which helped remind me how much good happens in one year. Check an example out here. This wishing well is different. It honors the act of hoping itself. At the end of 2026, I’ll revisit these wishes to see how they shaped my life, even if they unfolded in unexpected ways.  

Some may wonder about the difference between a wish and a prayer. To me, a prayer is a conversation with God, rooted in trust and relationship. A wish is lighter, more symbolic, and a way of naming desires or dreams without demand or expectation. One is about faith and the other is imagination.

I think this project is simple, but carries some quiet power in the way it can capture a bit of youthful magic again and give my hopes a home. 😉 If you want to do this project or something like it, below are some prompt templates. I plan to cut them out, draw one every few weeks and complete it to get me into the habit of wishing again. Enjoy! 

  

 

Rapunzel: Our Crowns and Creativity (Nov)

 Her story is teaching me to weave play and self‑acceptance as I age into my life.

November is Rapunzel’s month. When I watch the movie Tangled, I appreciate how much Rapunzel makes her life brighter with creativity. In that spirit, I recently changed my hair to a bold chocolate cherry color! It's delicious. Also, today I crafted a crown of leaves, and wandered into the woods for a photo shoot.  

These small acts of play are reminding me to be gentler with myself. Lately I have felt insecure about my body as it ages, noticing the aches and wrinkles more often. Thinking of Mother Gothel, the woman who stole Rapunzel and locked her away, I see how her cruelty was rooted in fear of aging and obsession with youth. Even though it is a fairytale, it shows how destructive self‑hatred can become and that has made me want to choose self kindness instead. 

So here's to November and shifting my focus from perceived flaws to confidence, wonder, and a softer way of seeing myself in my 50's.

Reclaiming Our Wildness: An Autumn Tea (Oct)

 

Our second annual Autumn Tea Party felt magical this year. We met again at the Lavender Ridge Farm in Gainesville under a warm October sun, surrounded by trees and bright gardens. The café serves simple, stylish lunches of fresh sandwiches, fruit, and drinks like tea or lemonade, with lavender if you like. It was the kind of meal that felt easy and nourishing, just right for the day. We sipped from handmade yellow tumblers with original paint drippings. They were crafted by a Cherokee artist in the 1980s and I had found them this year at a local antique store. Each one had it's own wildness but were comforting and nestled perfectly in our hands.

My October this year is Merida's month. The fiery-haired heroine from Brave is a symbol of wildness, courage, and emotional honesty. Her spirit shaped this tea party in theme and heart. We gathered not to perform, but to be. To speak freely. To laugh loudly. To cry gently. To reclaim the parts of ourselves that feel most alive. This year has been heavy for each of us in different ways, and we needed this space to breathe. It also happened to be my 27th baptism anniversary, so I felt held and happy in every way.

I had created an activity titled, Sip & Share  and after going around the table sharing our responses with each other, we also did a gentle ritual called Reclaiming Your Wildness, where each of us selected a tiny jar of either dried basil, rosemary, or mammoth sunflower seeds. These tokens came from my new garden and though small, my hope is that their sincere invitation leads our spirits to be more alive in the season ahead. [examples below]

As we were chatting, a woman from a different group wandered over, curious about our setup. My daughter and I offered up our jars so that I was able to gift each of those women with their own jar. It was a sweet exchange.

Another wonderful surprise was that the farm had a photographer offering mini portrait sessions! The talented Jae Grey captured our afternoon beautifully. You can find her work on Instagram at "heyitsjaegrey." The location photos and activity photos are mine. Enjoy! 

 

 

 

 

For my Grandma Mac - she found straight faced photos hilarious, because we do them so poorly. 

 

Reclaiming Your Wildness Activity

 

"To the wild within us: the parts that feel, that dare, and that dance with the leaves."
Consider what wildness you’re ready to reclaim, then choose a jar. 

 Let it be a gentle reminder for the season ahead. 

 

Basil 

Clarity: Quiet the noise, focus on what matters 

Voice: It’s confident, true expression 

Intuition: For trusting your inner knowing 

 

Rosemary 

Homecoming: Returning to your truest self 

Boundaries: Protecting your peace 

Courage: To be intense; without shame 

 

Sunflower Seeds 

Joy: Showing delight without apology 

Growth: Turning toward what feeds you soul and spirit 

Radiance: Letting yourself be seen, without shrinking  

 

I adore that I was able to make these tumblers look so similar. :)
I also hand placed each element of the design

Invitation. AI helped me by crafting one to match the theme and even the centerpiece!

The Gilded Scriptoria: October Is My January

For the past three years, I’ve set up my annual planner to run from October–September. It started as a gentle refusal to rush into resolutions while still recovering from the holidays. I had found that by the time NYE arrived, I was often too depleted to dream big and get organized. So, I began prepping in summer and starting fresh in October.

Since October marks the final quarter of the calendar and the beginning of a season filled with connection, celebration, and reflection, starting "my year” here felt intuitive and more honest. 

Today, without searching for it, a video from a psychologist surfaced affirming this idea that October, not January, is often the best time to change your life. Researching more, another psychologist, Dr. Julie Smith, agreed and calls this moment “eustress” which is described as a positive tension that energizes and motivates. So, with cooler weather and steadier routines, autumn naturally primes us to assess, recalibrate, and begin again.

This year, my planner is titled, The Gilded Scriptoria and it's shaped entirely around this rhythm. 

A Scriptoria (plural of scriptorium) were quiet, sacred spaces in medieval monasteries where monks copied and illustrated manuscripts by hand. Over time, the term has come to mean any space devoted to thoughtful writing and creation.

For me, The Gilded Scriptoria is a beautifully designed planner that feels like a regal, intentional sanctuary for reflection and planning. While leaning heavily into a royalty theme, each month is dedicated to a different Disney heroine but ones who are reimagined through a more adult lens: strong women who lead with courage, grace, and depth. 

This planner has activities that match the archetype of the month, which I plan to blog about in the days ahead. The Scriptoria also has seasonal bucket lists, secret pockets, and hidden journal areas. I opted for an entirely new format than the planners in previous years, with this one having the 12 months at-a-glance first and then all of the weekly pages with hourly planning after those. I've included pages for scribble journaling and quotes, a page dedicated to my health, my reading logs, garden planning pages, seasonal movie list to enjoy, and more. 

Below are some photos and I hope they peak your curiosity. 

These are written with a royalty flare for fun!

Unique written but I have the key to decipher the meaning

reading log