Review 656: Winter

Winter: The Story of a Season by Val McDermid
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars

Suppose it was my mistake in understanding what this book was about...I thought it would be about nature in winter time. Instead it is more an autobiography of sorts. The author writes about different traditions and festivals in Scotland, but mostly her memories of being a child experiencing these. Also, I did not realize this is an author of thriller, mystery books perhaps well known for those who enjoy this type of genre.

The beginning of the book begins with what McDermid typically does in a new year, preparing to write a new book. Then it backtracks to the Fall with Halloween, and how that was for her growing up in Scotland. How different things were, such as using a neep, or rutabaga, instead of a pumpkin. This becomes a pattern for the festivals and holidays that occur during the winter, with McDermid’s personal recollections. Often those are of her in childhood, but not always. There was a section on comfort food, which for her is soup.

It is decent enough, and I didn’t mind reading about Scottish traditions and her experiences. I just wish I had known that going in. Again, fully my part in not understanding as I sometimes just glance at descriptions not wanting too many spoilers beforehand. The book included some drawings peppered throughout the book. I quite enjoyed those images.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Review 655: The God Peak

The God Peak by Patrick Hemstreet
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars


This second book in the trilogy was fairly similar to the first book. The team we met in book one had been split and remained so. One group was being kept hostage, Team Chuck, much like what happened in the first book, but by a different sort of organization.

Most of the book was about Team Chuck plotting to escape and get back to the other group, try to control them, along with what that group was up to…world peace, anyone?

Overall the book was somewhat okay, but far from great. Again, the ending was left hanging, not everything was resolved. Looks like this third book failed to happen, which is okay, as I’m not sure I could take another one.

Review 654: The Lost Van Gogh

The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer
My rating: 2.75 of 5 stars


Apparently this is a second book in a series. I did read the first book, but was long ago enough that I have forgotten the characters. No wonder I felt off-kilter with the characters and background. I didn't realize it until listening to the author's note at the end. Otherwise, the story was too much of spy-type book for my liking.

The gist of the story is Alexis Verde buys a painting at an antique store. Turns out underneath that painting is another, a Van Gogh self-portrait. The boyfriend Luke Perrone, also an artist and figures as the main character. Before Alexis can get someone to authenticate the painting it is stolen from her by some street thugs, on behest of someone that had been tracking the painting. Luke and Alexis go to his friend who was with INTERPOL to help track it down. There are more characters involved as well, but these are the main ones.

The odd thing about this book was the shifts in POV, some chapters were in first person, some in second, while most chapters being in third person. It was jarring, particularly when some of the characters were assumed the reader knew who they were with defined backstory.

The author’s note at the end discussed aspects that were based in facts, but a second self-portrait by Van Gogh is not one of them. Other aspects of stolen/looted art being traded internationally is something that is not fiction.

I listened to the audiobook, but the print version includes at the end of the book sketches the author did, as he is an artist himself. The pencil sketches relate to this book, such as places that are important in the book and some of Van Gogh, and Amsterdam.

Review 653: The God Wave

The God Wave by Patrick Hemstreet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The concept of this book was intriguing to me, or at least what I knew about it – a neuroscientist has tapped a region in the brain that allows humans a new ability. Well, a neuroscientist along with a mathematician and a robotics engineer – it took a team, plus the research subjects from various fields.

After their initial success the mathematician Matt, became the business driver of their new start-up, Forward Kinetics. Matt was relentless in wanting a good contract with deep pockets and when a military contract was offered Matt pushed the team to sign on. Of course this goes in a direction most the rest of the company founders wasn’t interested in.

A good portion of the book was about how the new technology was developed and starting up the business. It ended with quite a lot unresolved, but not quite a cliffhanger.

Most of the characters feel somewhat flat and not fully fleshed out, with many of few the attempts at doing not working well. I grimaced a few times while reading this. Not stellar writing, yet with the ending, it feels like part one of a two part book, so I’m continuing on for now.

2025 Year in Review: Summation and Statistics - facts and details

2025 Year in Review - mostly about the numbers.

Books read: 124

including 3 partial read books.

This was a year of reading more books than any other. A previous record was 122 books, and generally a large increase over the past few years.

One way this happened was I read a few more short books than have in the past. Last year I tried to concentrate on very long books, although I only read 10 it did mean I had a good page count for the year. This year the average book-page count came to 294, while in 2024 it averages 311 pages.

2025 was a year where I read more of my owned books than in years prior, however I still accumulated more books in my collection than I read. So the mountain of owned books grew by 22 books.  Not too bad, actually, but I would love to have this number much smaller. My goal in 2026 will be attempt to accumulate less books. Maybe even read the new ones as I get them.

I also want to mention I read 79 of my owned books, which averages 63.7% of owned to borrowed or NetGalley books. Somehow I thought that percentage would be higher for my owned books. In any case the total number is the largest in any year.  

Generally, the format of owned read was mainly print books, and that is reflected in the end totals since I actually acquired more print books throughout the year out of any format. But I accumulated more audiobooks, since I bought more of those than listened. It will be a goal of mine in 2026 to get to these audiobooks. 

Like last year the next week or so I am going to go through the books I have tagged, ensure I own them still or delete eBooks I no longer have access to. I also have a few omnibus books to split out so each book will count, so one may become three. So the starting 2026 the numbers may vary slightly than the final totals below.

January.01.2026: 

Own-to be read total: 1,168

📕  Print books: 772

🎧 Audio books: 176

💻 eBooks: 220

Numbers: end December.31.2024

Own-to be read total: 1,149

📘 Print books: 765

🎧 Audio books: 165

💻 eBooks: 219

Tracking the books I own and how long I owned the books and the age of TBR book read:

current year: 2

last year: 18

less than 5 years:  7

5 to 10 years:     17

10 to 15 years: 5

15 to 20 years: 2

20 to 25 years: 15

> 25 years:  11

If you consider anything over 20 years, that would be the largest number with 26 books, otherwise the most read are the books I acquired last year in 2024. I had a goal of reading 12 books owned over 20 years, so reading over double that number feels like a great success. And in those oldies I found some gems I should not have waited so long. And a few where I would have enjoyed the book more way back then. 

The past few years I have tracked where my print books reside on my bookshelves and tried to read “around the shelves”. This means trying not to read from just one bookcase, but read from all of them. The fiction bookshelves are the most heavily read from, with the non-fiction more spread out. This year I pulled books out of 23 different bookshelves, which is more than prior years. 2024 I had read from 20 different shelves. This is another way I would like my reading to continue. 

Overall I'm very pleased with my 2025 reading year and expect to have another interesting reading year in 2026.

2025 goals:  - How did I do?

🗄️ Read around my bookshelves, from most of them. (33 shelves) ✔️ Read from 23

🗃️ Read at least 12 books super old owned books ✔️🚀Read 26

🗃️ Overall gain less new books in the year than I read (net zero/negative) ❌ fail

Total gain: 22

Goals for next year in Reading:

Since the country I live in is turning 250 years old, my plan is to read six or so American History books, mostly from what I already own and unread. I would like to read more than I accumulate and with not going to the annual library conference this year it may be achievable. I usually get a bunch of free books at the conference. 

I have been diving deep into my bookshelves that have books sitting there for more than twenty years and would like to continue pulling these off and getting them read, finally. Also, I want to focus on my bought and owned audiobooks. I heavily listen to audiobooks and tend to get most of them from the library, although a good percentage are an audio version of a print or eBook I own.  Still, I want to listen to those I paid good money for and hope to get through a higher number of those books than in previous years.

In year’s past I listed a few books I’d like to read, and generally didn’t do well with that, so I’m not going to list any books. 

2026 goals (maybe too many):

📒 Read at least one book from the majority (20+) of my bookshelves (33 shelves) 

📒 Read 12 super old owned books (20+ years)

📒 Read 4 of the partially read-owned books 

📒 Read 6 books on American History (most being owned)  

📒 Listen to 12 audiobooks owned (16 is better)

📒 Read 12 eBooks (mainly from nook, but from kindle also)  

📒 Overall gain less new books in the year than I read (net zero/negative)