Currently reading (December 2025)
It’s that surreal part of the year between Christmas and New Year’s. On the surface it looks like endless free time but in reality I’m staying up far too late at night and am useless. I needed some page-turners to keep me from mindlessly looking at my phone.
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation
by Cokie Roberts
Too soon to tell if this will result in a wealth of doodles to use in my upcoming Virtual Presidential Series or if it will slow me down while I constantly revise my presentation. It’s not easy to draw my way through, since a lot of the women featured don’t have oodles of portraits like their husbands.
In any case, I have to pace myself. I can’t get too far ahead of my doodles with this one. The beautiful deckled edge stubbornly spits my book darts out at me.
How to Solve Your Own Murder
by Kristen Perrin
Oh, for a full day without plans so I could just snuggle under a blanket and read this all at once. Then run off to the library to get How to Seal Your Own Fate because apparently this is a series. (How to Cheat Your Own Death comes out at the end of April.)
This book is exactly what I needed.
Up next:
FICTION
Basket Case
by Carl Hiaasen
I was actually on the hunt for a different book from my must-read list: V is for Venom: Agatha Christie's Chemicals of Death by Kathryn Harkup. Instead, I saw a Bad Monkey spine and holycrapIlovedthatshow. Looking forward to reading this book by the same author.
NON-FICTION
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
by Sarah Wynn-Williams
I’ve had a library hold on this one for a while. When it came in a few days before Christmas, I realized I’d put the hold on the eBook. Dang it. So instead of reading this book about the power tech has over us, played a block game on the phone for hours while kinda watching White Christmas and The Grinch.
The irony was not lost on me.
In any case, the day after Christmas I went to the library to make sure I had a big enough stack to hold me over the next few weeks. As soon as I checked them all out, I discovered this hold was ready for me.
Poems by First Ladies: The First-Ever Anthology
Louisa Adams, Mary Todd Lincoln, Dolley Madison, Michelle Obama, Edith Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt and More
by Michael Croland
To be honest — I find poetry intimidating. Croland generously sent me an advance copy. I’m nervously excited to read it — particularly the poem by Mary Lincoln that nearly lead to a duel (I read about that near-fiasco recently).
More!
You can find all the books I’ve read this year or am reading this year in my Bookshop:
Or check out my related doodles:
🐼☁️👆