I read some great books in 2025. Here are ten of my favorites:

The Carpool Detectives by Chuck Hogan. Nonfiction about 4 moms who work together during the pandemic to solve a cold case murder. Suspenseful and fascinating. I listened on audio and thought it was great in that format.

James by Percival Everett. This book was WOW. If I could only recommend one of these ten books, it would be this one. Page-turning retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of James, the runaway slave Huck traveled with. You don’t need to have read Huckleberry Finn to enjoy this—it stands on its own without the original.

What Happened Then by Erin Soderberg Downing. Compelling middle-grade mystery that kept me guessing. I was as invested in the characters and how things would work out for them as I was in figuring out the mystery. Great setting too!

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten. I’m not much of a cook, but I like reading about smart, accomplished women. I found Ina’s story about how she came to be the Barefoot Contessa fascinating. Highly recommend listening on audio as Ina narrates. Love her warm, calming voice.

The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey. This mystery felt like Nancy Drew set in 1920s India, but with more depth. The main character, Perveen Mistry, is the first female lawyer in India. She’s assigned to execute the will of a wealthy Muslim man who left behind three widows, but she notices something odd about the will. She investigates and finds herself involved in a murder mystery. There is a point where the story shifts from the murder mystery to a long flashback from Perveen’s past, which initially made me impatient to get back to the murder mystery. But I’m glad I hung in there, because the flashback turned out to be an interesting story in itself and was relevant to Perveen’s present-day mystery too.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach. I enjoyed this one so much! This might be the book I’m most likely to re-read out of this batch. It’s about a woman at rock bottom who splurges on a solo trip to a luxurious hotel. She checks in and discovers the entire place has been rented out for a wedding, and she’s not necessarily thrilled to be among all these wedding people. I enjoyed the different turns this story took, so I won’t say much more and spoil it for you, but if you want a funny, wise book with memorable characters, this is a great one.

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee. A young adult mystery set in 1932 Los Angeles. (Apparently, historical fiction murder mysteries worked well for me this year!)  The body of a famous Chinese actress is found by three sisters in Chinatown. The girls were once classmates and neighbors of this actress, and they believe she was murdered but the police aren’t convinced. The girls decide to investigate on their own, and of course things get more complicated from there. Really good mystery, and the 1930s Hollywood/Chinatown setting and history is really interesting.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler. I love Anne Tyler—she’s probably my favorite author. This book was so enjoyable from beginning to end. A simple story on the surface—a socially awkward woman is anticipating her daughter’s wedding that weekend—but there’s so much more to it than that. It’s a short, quick read that I wanted to hug when I was done.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Told in a series of letters written to and from the main character, Sybil. Sybil has a regular practice of writing letters. Lots of letters. She writes to family members and friends and colleagues and famous authors and neighbors and customer service reps. She’s a little bit of a prickly person, but it’s clear she’s also a caring person. I really liked this one on audio—there are different narrators for each letter writer, which helps distinguish everyone—although it took me a little bit to get a handle on who everyone was. (I’ve heard from others that they had the same experience in print, though.)

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd. Another historical fiction mystery! (I didn’t set out to read historical fiction mysteries, but they were apparently a hit for me this year.) This mystery is set in the 1950s and it’s about a former nun who leaves her convent and moves to an English seaside town where she lives in a boarding house called Gulls Nest. She’s there to investigate the disappearance of a friend, but she keeps this and her identity a secret from the people she meets. Soon after she arrives, there are murders and it’s just a really good book! It’s the first in a series, and I’ll definitely be reading the next one.

In my latest newsletter, I share an update on lots of things including my next book, my writing prompts, upcoming events, and a whole lot more. Plus I’m giving away a copy of my favorite book that I read over the summer!

September 19, 2025: I’m presenting a workshop on “Crafting Stellar Scenes for the Middle-Grade Audience” for the Writing & Illustrating for Young Readers Virtual Conference. The conference is a 3-day intensive and the line-up is fantastic! Learn more and sign up here.

October 18-19, 2025: I’m presenting two breakout sessions at the RMC-SCBWI Letters & Lines conference! I’ll be doing a variation of my “Crafting Stellar Scenes” talk as well as a plot workshop on weaving together internal and external narratives. Register for the conference here.

October 28, 7pm MST: Sisterhood of Sleuths is the October selection for the Writing & Illustrating for Younger Readers (WIFYR) Book Club. I’ll be meeting with the book club to share about my process writing the book and to answer questions. Sign up to participate here!

Did you remember when I did the Middle Grade Summer Reading Bingo game last year? I had so much fun with that, and several people said they hoped I’d do it again, and so I am! Like last year, I’ve collected a diverse mix of books from a variety of authors: some new releases and some backlist, graphic novels, a verse novel, nonfiction, funny, suspenseful, romance, historical fiction . . . Hopefully, there’s something here for every reader. I put Book Scavenger in the center “free” space to celebrate its 10-year anniversary this year. (Confetti throw, hooray!) If you’re here on my website, then I figure there’s a good chance you’ve already read it, so it likely is a free square for you. If you haven’t read Book Scavenger, you could still consider it a free square, or you could read it! It’s a good book. I’m very proud of it.

Similar to last year, I’ll mail an envelope of bookish goodies (stickers and bookmarks) to anyone who completes a Bingo. You can score a Bingo by reading any horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line of books. Or maybe you want to go for the “four corners” or “outside edge” Bingo, or if you’re feeling ambitious, go for a “full house” and read them all! After you’ve read your Bingo, if you’d like to receive a prize, please fill out this form.

Grownups are welcome to play too, of course! You’re never too old for middle-grade, in my opinion. This can be a great activity for grownups and kids to do together, too. Feel free to forward this message to the readers in your life and invite them to play along. You can find a PDF of the Bingo board here.

All titles are published in the United States, so they might not be as easy to find if you’re in another country, but everyone is welcome to participate, no matter where you live. You could even swap out titles that aren’t available to you for ones that are—I’m loosey-goosey with the rules here. My motivation is really to encourage you to make time for reading this summer and discover some wonderful middle-grade books!

I’ve included all the titles and linked to them on Bookshop, where you can learn more about each one. (If you end up purchasing one through my link, I earn a very small fee, which will go toward reimbursing my shipping expenses for the prize packs.) Purchasing books online through Bookshop also supports independent bookstores, or you can buy them from your local store. And, of course, you don’t need to buy the books to participate! All titles should be available at your local library, and if one isn’t, they might be able to add it to their collection if you make a request. You could also form a neighborhood book club and share the books with each other.

I’ll be sharing my Bingo reads over the summer on Instagram, Blue Sky, and Substack Notes, and I would love to hear about the books you read too. If you share on social media, please tag me so I see your post.

Let’s make this another summer of celebrating middle-grade books and having fun with reading!

This year I have a personal goal to do more writing “play,” so I’m creating weekly prompts for myself and sharing online, in case you’d like to join me too. I hope you will! Teachers, you’re welcome to use these with your students. I’ll be posting these every week on my website, Instagram, Blue Sky, and Substack.

♥ ♥ ♥

I love using a picture as a prompt, especially one that suggests a setting with hints of a character, but no actual character. It feels like an invitation to my imagination to fill in the blanks. Who lives in this little cabin in the woods? What are they like? Maybe the someone isn’t even human. Who might the character be then? What is something they wish for that’s difficult for them to have? Why is it difficult? If they made a plan to pursue this wish, what might that look like?

Let’s follow our imaginations and have some fun with this cabin in the woods. Join me?

You can find previous prompts and my responses here.

♥ ♥ ♥