I first read Barbara Comyns in 2024, starting with Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead, and it was such a strange and excellent book that it has really stayed with me. When someone recommended her other book, Our Spoons Came from Woolworths, I knew I wanted to read it–even if just for that title!
The book follows the life of a young, impoverished woman, who is an artist, but is held back by sexism and classism and the burdens that come with it. She seems somewhat unaware of her unfair circumstances, or at least perceives them in a unique way, and so the reader gets a new view, one that avoids commonplace thinking around victimhood.
For the doulas and birth workers who follow me, there is also quite a lot of content about hospital childbirth during the middle of the last century. It was…rough. (And there’s still so much more work we can do to improve hospital childbirth, but that’s an aside.)
In the last few years, I’ve gone from Elena Ferrante to Barbara Comyns to Moa Martinson and back to Comyns again. I’m so grateful to have discovered these authors, and my interest in finding more is renewed.
I’ve tried to read The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende a few times over the years, but I guess the timing has never been right. However, I recently read a positive review of her more recent book, The Japanese Lover, and so decided to read it for starters.
I once knew, and felt quite close to, a woman who was of Allende’s generation and, seemingly, of her social class too, and wow could I see the similarities in thinking in this book. The Japanese Lover seems to leave no stone or topic unturned and does a lot more telling than showing as it persistently weaves characters and backstories to a poinant conclusion. It’s all effectively done and stands apart as literature in a sea of popular fiction.
There’s a progressive attitude in most of the characters that will be palatable to most readers. There may be an exoticization of the Japanese lover that some readers could find problematic. There’s an upper class persnicketiness that is…accurate. There are longer suffering men who seem to go to any length for the women in their lives, no matter how difficult or secretive, out of touch or confused they may seem. That’s the piece that seemed unrealistic to me: this world where strong women nevertheless are happily managed by their families, and especially the fathers, grandfathers, brothers, cousins, and uncles. As I said, the perspective is of a generation and a social class that is interesting, but is also definitely of an era and of a time. Maybe others will recognize it too.
Once again, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book does not disappoint. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World is a beautiful little book that is so worth reading. Kimmerer invites readers to imagine alternative economic models and theories, all while helping us understand and appreciate natural systems and especially plants like the serviceberry.
Serviceberries are common wild plants and they flourish in the countryside where I grew up. They can be tart and coarse and crunchy. They are not the pure treat of huckleberries or raspberries, but they do seem naturally healthy and normal and good when you eat them. More than ever, it seems important for people to know and consume natural foods. Kimmerer helps us get there.
Again, not by typical genre, but after several people recommended the new book Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid to me, I added it to my tbr pile. I found the first section of the book to be really gripping and engaging and I also started to recommending it to people. This was the story of women (a woman?) who had passions and intellect, fully developed character sketches were emerging.
However, while most readers are going to love this, I found the center to be a deeply indulged love story, not unlike your typical Hallmark narratives, and again, most readers are going to deeply love this aspect of the book, I think, but for me, I guess I wanted more space content, more empowered women exploring space. This reaction kind of surprised me because while my interest in space has piqued in the last 6-ish years, I don’t consider myself deeply interested in space. Maybe I am!
This book has the two key elements of entertainment–love and adventure–and most readers are going to love that. The very ending, especially the very last sentence, are great and probably worth the read to arrive there.
This book has a special place in my heart as Victor Villanueva has been a mentor of mine throughout my scholarly pursuits, and so I had glad to see that his friends and colleagues put together this collection in his honor.
Memoria: Essays in Honor of Victor Villanueva is a collection of essays that contextualize his scholarly contribution to the field and also offer accounts of how his teaching and mentorship informed thinking and writing and even transformed lives. Victor has clearly touched the lives of many, and I am so grateful to be among the group of people who have learned from him.
A few years ago, a colleague recommended I read Silvia Federici for my scholarship. At the time, I tried her Caliban and the Witch, but it was not what I was looking for. Fast forward to now, and I Federici’s Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women is what I was looking for! This past fall, it was finally time. I started learning more specific history about the European witch hunts and started reading more theory about it. Federici’s Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women offers an interesting Marxian feminist lens to the phenomenon, which helps inform my study.
While typical academic texts may not be for everyone, Federici’s Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women may be the exception. I think the book may have a wider readership. The concepts are fairly accessible. And, it’s short!
I didn’t really intend for this to happen, but Heart the Lover by Lily King was my first book of 2026! This book is a plot-driven piece of popular fiction, so it is not my typical go-to book. However, I read so many rave reviews of it that I decided to add it to my list.
My conclusion is that this is an excellent book for the nostalgic English major. In this book, college feels rich and heady, the best it could be. This book probably gets its best reviews from those nostalgic English majors (and I am one!), who recall college warmly. In the book, characters develop, the plot weaves, and meanings deepen.
Because it is so plot-based, literary prose readers may not be deeply interested in this one, no matter how nostalgic they are for days of yore. However, meanings don’t beat you over the head and conclusions are fairly subtle and I find that all to be very likable. For many, this will be an all-time favorite. At the very least, I think most readers will like the book.
As I look back on 2025, what stands out most is the increased flexibility in my schedule. I had more time to move freely, to travel solo, and to hear myself think. I need this quiet time to thrive, and so 2025 was a step in the right direction–with even more schedule flexibility coming around the bend.
Last spring was marked by a bumper crop of new baby Shetland lambs, in so many colors! It was a charming time to shear and sell fleeces and to watch the sheep grazing in lush green pastures. I am so grateful for my little farm, for the renewing cycles of living with livestock and for the peace that the animals bring.
Professionally, I’ll also remember that spring as simultaneously deeply successful and deeply stressful. A promotion process went sideways, and it took months to resolve (thankfully, it did resolve positively in my favor). There was also amazing book news. This is the year that I saw my first book begin to populate on all major bookselling websites. 2026 is shaping up to be another big year for reading and writing, with my first book expected to be published in spring and my second book to follow shortly thereafter in the fall. Not one, but two books in one year?!?! I have to pinch myself. It’s truly a dream come true. And there are more projects in the works too, in addition to the books. Look for more birth work, birth classes, and more writing projects from me! Although all of this takes time, years even, these projects are now well underway.
The summer was spent in pure bliss–I spent my days writing hard toward daily goals and my afternoons reading outside on the porch where the weather was perfect for months on end. I beat my previous 5k time by an entire minute, coming in at 25.51 minutes, 4th in my class, 11th female, 39th overall. The weekends were spent on tiny adventures, and, of course, more work, because I still love my work. It was hands down one of the most productive AND restorative summers I’ve ever had, and I hope to repeat that schedule in years to come.
The highlight of the fall was a solo trip to Louisiana to celebrate 10 life-changing years with my love, and that was truly a transformational trip. I felt my old self again. I felt possibilities opening up. I felt freedom and satisfaction. It was also something I hope to replicate in years to come–finally breaking away from old routines and rigid “to do” lists. To be fair, those routines and “to do” lists have also saved my life over the past seven years, so I’m grateful for those too, and they will certainly continue!
Despite neglect and precarity, in the fall my garden produced a bumper crop of pumpkins and zinnias, along with the usual jungle of colorful hollyhocks, which I love. I also traveled to San Francisco for a work conference in the fall. These conferences usually feel less like work and more like rejuvenation and inspiration too. I returned in time for the avalanche of holiday activities and “to do” lists and I felt deep gratitude for my family and this season and tried to savor the swim lessons and holiday concerts and artwork–all of those unique and fleeting hallmark moments.
The big theme in 2025 was stretching my wings a bit more than previous years allowed, and it felt so good. I felt more myself again, more room to breathe, more room to move. I am looking forward to so much more of that in the years to come. It sometimes seems counter intuitive, but I feel that I have more to give to my loved ones when I also have time to care for myself. In numerology, 2026 is a 1 year for us all and turns into a strong 2 year for me personally, which is supposed to be about connection. I look forward to it!
Here’s my 2025 reading list! It’s longer than I thought it would be, since I didn’t read much in the spring, summer, or even fall, it seemed. Summer is normally a big reading time for me, but my literacy energy this summer was mostly spent in writing. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of my reading was that this was the year that I became obsessed with Moa Martinson. There are other treasures here as well…
At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll get through any more books from my tbr pile, so Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh might be my last book of 2025! I found this little gem in a little free library awhile back. Mostly these little libraries are full of throw away titles, but there’s one a few blocks from the house that is carefully curated, and I’ve found several high quality children’s books and decent literary titles over the years.
I took a quick glance at this book and saw that the writing was literary-quality and that the author was female and that it was old–all good signs–so I grabbed it. Here’s why they are good signs: there were not a lot of women writing 100 years ago, so those who were published tended to earn their place, and secondly, this book was a reprint from the original, which was published in 1955. The fact that publishers are still putting effort into keeping the book in publications is a good sign!
The book itself is, perhaps, not the feminist anthem that some hope it would be, but the message is important, if not too class-based, and that message is the fact that a woman should have the opportunity not just to have a room of one’s own, but also to have an annual two-week vacation of one’s own. And I agree!
After reading a chapter, I got curious and looked up the author. I quickly realizing that the author is also the mother from the famed Lindbergh kidnapping! I read on.
The book’s setting is lovely, in rustic a vacation home on a tropical beach, admiring the sea and the seashells it offers to the shore. How idyllic! The insights are not inconsequential and demonstrate an understanding of social class and the social movements of the time, which was before second wave feminism.
This book is worth reading for those interested in tracing feminist thought over the last century because I do think the author’s writing adds to that opus. However, the writer is also cautious and relatively safe with her ideas. I would have loved a deeper sense of place, and a deeper sense of self. Instead, it read more like theory in that regard. As a reader, I found myself wanting more specific personal reflection, one that pointed to a unique person (Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life on paper was fascinating!), but she reveals none of that and instead mostly sticks to pairing insightful platitudes with observations inspired by nature–in this case on the beach during her two week vacation–which is a worthwhile endeavor.
SHEREWIN 