Category Archives: Lists

December 2025 Reading Recap

By | | ,
Leave a comment

December 2025 Reading Recap

December 2025 Reading Recap

Well, it took me all the way until December, but I finally got caught up on the reviews I promised to write for this year! I feel like I spent all year in a desperate scramble, and it feels so good to now look ahead rather than behind. The bulk of the catching-up efforts happened in October and November. By the middle of December, I was able to move on and start reading books coming out in 2026. Imagine!

This month, I focused on finishing up the 2025 releases I agreed to review, but I still managed to slip a few backlist titles into my reading, too. One of the books I … Continue reading →

November 2025 Reading Recap

By | | ,
Leave a comment

November 2025 Reading Recap

November 2025 Reading Recap

LOOK AT THIS. It’s the last day of November, and I’m posting a monthly reading recap. Cue the choir and toss the confetti because this is probably never going to happen again. Ha!

I feel pretty proud of my reading this month. While I did not come close to October’s 28 books, I read 20 titles, which still feels pretty good. I read over 4000 pages and listened to almost 36 hours of audiobooks. It was a great month.

I started the month really behind on books I’d committed to review. As of my writing this, I’ve got one more book to review that came out in October and one more from November, and … Continue reading →

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Witchy Middle Grade Books for Fall

By | | , ,
18 Comments

Top Ten Witchy Middle Grade Books for Fall

10 Witchy Middle Grade Books for Fall

Here in Florida, we have to use a little more imagination to feel the seasons. As we approach Halloween, I’m always looking for books with a cozy, witchy vibe that I can enjoy with a pumpkin-flavored treat. Today, I’m sharing a list of ten witchy middle grade books perfect for fall and the upcoming holiday.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme is a Fall Freebie, giving us bookish bloggers a chance to share lists related to any fall or Halloween theme we want.

Note: This list contains affiliate links, which don’t … Continue reading →

Summer 2025 Backlist Reading Check-in and Life Update

By | | ,
4 Comments

Summer 2025 Backlist Reading Check-in

Summer 2025 Backlist Reading Check-in and Life Update

Summer is always an odd season for my reading life. Since I do most of my reading in the evenings, it never seems to me like summer will change all that much, but somehow, it does. This summer I had the added complication of having surgery early in June. It sounded like the recovery would be pretty quick and easy, but my experience didn’t quite line up with my expectations there, either.

Which mostly meant that I read far fewer books in June than I anticipated. That was okay, though. It was good to slow down. I made up for lost time in July.

I’ve continued my poetry reading … Continue reading →

Monthly Recap: September 2025 Reading

By | | , , ,
Comments Off on Monthly Recap: September 2025 Reading

September 2025 Reading Wrap

September 2025 Reading Status Update

I’ve been wildly disorganized this season, so I haven’t been posting lists or updates as much as I’d like. I thought I’d try out a monthly wrap post to see if it’s something I can sustainably do. The one or two sentence summaries I create for posts like this help me later when I am doing themed lists or my reading challenge pages, so maybe this will be useful. We’ll see.

At any rate, I managed to finish 25 books this month, including 11 backlist titles. Most of those are audiobooks, but I read a few as ebooks this time. I average about 20 books per month, so that’s pretty good for me. … Continue reading →

Amazing Cat Books for Readers Ages 6 to 8

By | | , ,
4 Comments

Amazing Cat Books for Readers Ages 6 to 8

Amazing Cat Books for Readers Ages 6 to 8

If you’re a returning reader on The Story Sanctuary, you will probably not be surprised to learn we are cat people around here. I have two cats at home for the sole reason that my husband will not permit us to have three. We love our boys. One came to us through our vet’s office, when someone brought in a litter of feral kittens. The other came to us through an animal shelter. They’re both sweet snuggly furballs. One is a pretty constant reading buddy to me, but both of them love to sit with my daughter and me for whatever we … Continue reading →