It was after I finished reading My Friends  by Fredrik Backman , which was recommended by a friend, that I discovered it won the 2025 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fiction. I can understand why. I found this unusual story about friendship memorable and poignant, and as quick to make me laugh as to cry.   The story toggles between what happened twenty-five years ago to four teenagers who found refuge in their bonds of friendship against difficult home situations, to the curr

World Without End is my third Ken Follett read, and like the other two, The Evening and the Morning,  and its prequel Pillars of the Earth , it is set in the town of Kingsbridge, England. However, this time, we visit the fourteenth-century during the time of the plague or Black Death; a time when new ideas compete with old ways and beliefs.   Typically, my fun reads are mysteries and thrillers, followed by historical fiction. After a stellar recommendation from my avid read

While this small, 42-page pocketbook is certainly not the only book I read this month, it was the most important. The first time I read the Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence was decades ago in college. This is only my second reading and is, I believe, an important refresher. Not because reading it is some kind of statement, but because I felt it important without the noise of social media, news outlets, and political banter to be reminded o