All Booked for 2026

plus my 2025 Bookish Wrapped

Hello everyone! I hope y’all are all doing well. I meant to send this sooner, sorry about that!

Anyway, just wanted to drop in and share my favorite books of each month in 2025. My goal was to read 65 books, but, by counting the Bible, I actually ended up reading 66 books (although, if you broke down the books of the Bible to be 66, I’d actually have read 131 books ;) ).

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January 2025: 10 books read

I started 2025 strong by finishing ten books, so choosing my favorite is a hard job. Missing Isaac by Valerie Fraser Luesse (fiction) and Miracle on Voodoo Mountain (memoir) by Megan Boudreaux were marked as “forever faves” in my reading journal, and I do distinctly remember enjoying them! You can click on the pink titles for my more detailed Goodreads reviews!

February 2025: 7 books read

Hands down, Do Hard Things by Brett and Alex Harris (nonfiction). I’m really glad I own a physical copy because I underlined and dog-eared so many pages!

March 2025: 8 books read

Two books made it: Ignite by Kara Swanson (fantasy) and Design Your Day by Claire Diaz-Ortiz (self-help). I’m super exctied for the sequel to Ignite and I really should have bought my own copy of Design Your Day!

April 2025: 8 books read

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrick Backman (fiction). Thank you, Molly McTernan, for recommending this book to me! I would love to delve more into Backman’s works this year. His words are so poignant!

May 2025: 15 books read

I read 15 books in May, which caused a good many late nights. Although I enjoyed almost every book, I didn’t really have a favorite. Maybe T. I. Lowe’s The Resolutions series (fiction)?

June 2025: 5 books read

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall was cool (fiction)!

July 2025: 1 book read

The Heart of Bennet Hollow by Joanne Bischof Dewitt (historical fiction) was the only book I finished in July, but it was still very good! The concept is quite unique and interesting (if Pride & Prejudice were set in the 1800s in the Appalachia).

August 2025: 1 book read

Fantastical Summer by Vella Karman (fiction) was the only book I finished in August. It was very entertaining and summer-y.

September 2025: 2 books read

Thank you, Bella Raine, for recommending my September favorite: A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus (historical fiction)! It’s a super cozy, super sweet book reminiscent of the Pevensies from Narnia!

October 2025: 1 book read

Cedar Chips and Cherries by Jennie Marie Ryan (fiction) is a novella but I still count it as a book!

November 2025: 3 books read

I reread (well, listened to) Christy by Catherine Marshall (historical fiction), which was as good as ever, and finished rereading the first two Harry Potter books (fantasy)! They were all excellent.

December 2025: 5 books read

In December, I finished rereading the Bible in a year, I reread Harry Potter three through five, and re-listened to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett! All of them were amazing.

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I ended up not finishing 16 books in 2025, because of (1) LGBTQ+ content, (2) inappropriate scenes, and (3) too much gore, violence, and/or curse words.

What about you? What is your 2025 bookish wrapped?

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Let’s talk about 2026:

My goal is to read 70 books, ten of which are to be classics, ten are to be memoirs/biographies/autobiographies, ten are to be Christian faith, five are to be poetry collections, and five are to be mysteries! We’ll see what actually happens as time goes on. :) If you have any recommendations for poetry collections or poets, please let me know. I don’t want big, fat volumes, though, because I’d never finish them!

I’ve already finished one book (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and am halfway through All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot (memoir. Absolutely loving it!). Also, I have only about 45 minutes left of Gentle and Lowly by Dane C. Ortlund (Christian nonfiction) on my Audiobook. This book…wow. My Goodreads review might be lengthy, or it might be a one-liner, depending on how the book leaves me. It’s going to get a 5-star review, nonetheless!

So tell me, what are your reading goals for 2026? I’d love to hear about them down in the comments!

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Here’s some news you might want to know:

This semester is my last year in high school, which entails a busy few months. Plus, I want to devote more time to growing my business (who knew making Instagram reels took so long?!) and a bunch of other things in my life! Blogging on A Bibliophile’s Notebook and postscript will have to move to the back burner, and although I will be reading and writing letters more than ever, I will probably not be sharing them online. Perhaps, if I happen upon a wonderful new book and just have to share it with you, I’ll pop into your inbox! However, I will remain active on Substack by reading other people’s posts, commenting, and sharing my thoughts in Notes. I’m a little sad about not posting on ABN for a while, but happy that I now have more time on my hands for other things!

I hope you understand, and I thank you for being with reading and supporting me! I’ll understand if you’d like to unsubscribe since I can’t guarantee posting, so no worries about that!

Lots of love,

Nicole

P.S. if you’d like to stay in touch, you can do so by following me on my Instagram. It’s my business account but I sometimes share bookishness in my Stories!