January, January, that month had a thousand days…

F’real, how long was January??????? And now that we’re in the shortest month of the year, how long will THIS month be? Anyone have any idea?

I’m tired, boss.

But there have been some good things peeking around the edges here and there. A good doctor’s appointment with good test results. My kids being awesome. Work being fabulous, even though it’s been an absolutely wild month there as well. We have to take the little things where we can find them, right?

But more on all of that later. Let’s get this recap started, shall we?

Books I Read in January 2025

1. A Widow for One Year by John Irving

2. Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

3. Thirteen Never Changes by Budge Wilson (read out loud to my daughter)

4. Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying More by Elaine St. James

5. The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Jolen (read out loud to my daughter)

6. Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America by Talia Lavin

7. Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

8. Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood by Lonnie Mann

9. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky

10. Mister Magic by Kiersten White 

11. County: Life, Death, and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital by David A. Ansell

12. Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman (read out loud to my daughter)

13. In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré

14. Mennonite Valley Girl: A Wayward Coming of Age by Carla Funk

15. Can’t Look Away by Donna Cooner

16. The Climate Diet: 50 Simple Ways to Trim Your Carbon Footprint by Paul Greenberg

17. The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine (read out loud to my daughter)

18. My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit 

Weird month for reading, kind of. I’m still reading a lot from my own shelves, so my picks seem super random a lot of the time, and honestly, it’s a lot of hit or miss. The John Irving was the WEIRDEST John Irving I’ve ever read. Stick with A Prayer for Owen Meany or The Cider House Rules. This one was full of weird sex stuff and was just bizarre. Wild Faith was a tough read with everything going on in the world right now, but my goodness, does Talia Lavin know how to write. The way she uses words is just incredible. If you’ve never read her nonfiction before, you really, really should. 

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books was an absolute delight. Every page was wonderful. It’s a bit of a modern-day fantasy (LOLSOB), about how things *could* be, how people *could* grow and learn and improve if they wanted to, but seriously. Five stars and exactly what I needed to read at that point in time. Don’t sleep on this one!

Eighteen books total. Eight fiction, ten nonfiction. One from my TBR, fourteen from my own shelves (one of these includes a kindle book, but I’m okay with that! Those need to be read as well!). Not bad! 

State of the Goodreads TBR

We’re up to 4 books this month! One, I’m working on and should finish this month; the other three don’t come out until February, March, and September, so, you know, nothing I can about those right now!

Books I Acquired in January 2025

My sister-in-law clued me in to an out-of-print cookbook called Cookmiser, which is a super frugal cooking book, including a method of making yeast bread that includes very little yeast, so I used an Amazon gift card to purchase a used copy for a little over six dollars. I also purchased used copies of a medical terminology book, and a pharmacology book, for future school stuff (and I’m already making use of them!).

My daughter and I cleared four bags of too-young-for-her or she’s-not-interested books off of one of our shelves, so not only do we have some space, but the Little Free Libraries in town will be super happy once the weather gets nice! : )

Bookish Things I Did in January 2024

I worked at the library. And it was a wild, wild, wild month there, lemme tell you.  Pretty sure that’s all I’ve got, though.

Current Podcast Love

Still listening to Big Mad True Crime. I took a break for a while and was enjoying Science Vs., which takes a hot topic (vaccines, abortion, the keto diet, chiropractic) and breaks down the science – or lack thereof – of whatever controversy there is surrounding this. It’s a fabulous podcast and I was truly enjoying it, but unfortunately, I had to stop, because it kept including Agent Orange’s voice in quotes from the news, and I just cannot. I’d rather listen to nails on a chalkboard. So I switched back.

Stephanie’s Read Harder Challenge

Lemme tell you, that pharmacology book I’m going through is NO JOKE. I’ve never read anything this difficult in my life. I’ve learned some really interesting things, and was able to warn my kid off a potential future drug interaction – nothing she’s on right, just a kind of, ‘Hey, if they try to prescribe you this, it’s contraindicated for this thing you take…’ so that’s cool. But WOOF.

Real Life Stuff

Seriously, how long was January??? A whole lot going on. I hope you’re taking care of yourself, what with *gestures broadly at everything*. It’s okay to take a step back, turn off the internet in whatever way you can, and just exist outside of all of that for a bit. Head out into nature, go sit in the library for a bit, close the laptop. Doesn’t mean the dumpster fire isn’t still burning, but give your nervous system a rest for a bit here and there.

Work is that place for me. The world doesn’t quite penetrate when I’m there, so it’s a nice break, even when things get hectic, as they’ve been doing. Last Saturday, there were just two of us running the department, and I swear, that library has never been so busy. Even with two of us working the front desk, we STILL had lines (and people were using the self checkout as well!). My coworker told me the only day that has been that busy was the day our new building opened, so you can get an idea of what it was like in there (the week before, I was covering that Saturday for a coworker as well, and children’s was seriously uncomfortably crowded. Turns out that’s because they had over 100 people show up for storytime!!!). I clocked over 14,000 steps that day and earned 342 Zone Minutes on my Fitbit, so, you know, it was a LOT (and, uh, we had an incident that involved the police having to come, because that’s how it is in public libraries). Still the greatest place I’ve ever worked!

Not much outside time this month due to weather and my work schedule, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to get back to the garden a few days in February- I did this morning! We do rewilding in the winter, which I really enjoy. It’s good for both my body and soul. 

I had my yearly checkup with my doctor this month. I had a bad cholesterol test years ago, before my daughter was born, and that’s been a concern to me ever since. But this time, my doctor actually called my blood test results ‘awesome,’ so that was nice! My total cholesterol is just five points over the threshold, but my doctor said it’s because my good cholesterol, which you want to be high, is so high! They want it to be at least 40; mine is 79, haha! I was thrilled with that. One less thing to worry about, you know?

So that’s that. Find joy in the little things when you can. And support the people in your community. We all need it now more than ever.

Wishing you a calmer (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!) February, with all the great reads you can imagine. Be well. : )