It’s been a busy few months of book deadlines and various other things, but I wanted to do a quick post to discuss some of my recent reads 🙂

First of all, I was in the mood for total comfort re-reads, which for me meant pulling out some American Girl books. It’s become a tradition of mine to read them at Christmastime, and this year I wanted to revisit the entire Julie series, which I was gifted the Christmas I was twelve years old. What a joy to read them again! In addition to the six book set, I also read the companion book (Good Luck, Ivy) and now I’m rereading the mystery The Puzzle of the Paper Daughter, which was always one of my very favorites. I like it so much that I mentioned it in my list of great historical fiction reads when I appeared on the Read-Aloud Revival podcast! I also think it was one of the reasons why I became a genealogist, because the genealogy research that Julie and Ivy conduct sounded like such fun. (Old newspapers! Microfilm!)

I also recently re-read Andrew Peterson’s Adorning the Dark, which I first read a few years back as an ebook. I saw that the print edition was on sale, so I bought it and had a great time revisiting the book, which is a kind of combination of writing instruction and memoir. Peterson is both a novelist and singer/songwriter, and it’s a fun read!

I’ve enjoyed quite a few middle grade novels by Patricia Reilly Giff over the last year (Lily’s Crossing, Willow Run, R My Name is Rachel, Pictures of Hollis Woods), and I loved reading Gingersnap earlier this month. It’s another WWII book about an orphaned girl who goes to find her grandmother who runs a bakery in Brooklyn, assisted in her quest by a helpful ghost. 🙂 It’s gentle and has a very happy ending!

I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading lately! Please leave a comment if you have any fun reads to share. 🙂