A Melodious Sonnet - Notes from a word-chaser

2026 Reading Goals (& 2025 Goals Recap)

January 13, 2026 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

13 Jan

I love setting goals, whether or not I actually end up achieving them. Last year, I set rather ambitious goals for my reading life, and surprisingly, most of them were met! I can’t say the same about some of my personal goals, but hey…maybe that can improve. 2026 is a chance for a restart, right?

One of the biggest things that helped me achieve these goals last year was that I wrote them down where I could easily access them, and I frequently refreshed my memory on what exactly they were. That’s something I’m currently trying to figure out how to do with my non-reading goals for 2026, as that was a game-changer for me last year on the reading front.

First, a few stats, because I love calculating them each year:

Total books read: 130 (my highest yearly total since I started tracking!)
Total nonfiction: 35 (27% of total)
Total audiobooks: 57 (44% of total)
New-to-me authors: 51
Most read author: L.M. Montgomery (6 books, which I’m very pleased about, because they were all 5★ reads!)

I’ve mentally tossed around ideas for names for 2025’s reading year, but haven’t settled on one. It could be The Year of the Audiobook, because I listened to FAR more audiobooks last year than any other year. Or, it could be Nonfiction Wins!, because last year, I finally felt like I found my groove in the nonfiction world (maybe I’m finally old enough to appreciate it?).

2025 was also the year I branched out the most in my reading, it feels like. I know I pushed myself more to embrace different genres and stories than I would normally gravitate toward, and looking at the number of new authors I tried (compared with the total number of books for the year), that feels like a success.

My goals for 2025 were many and varied. One of my unofficial goals was to try to read more deeply—to allow myself to pick up a longer book and savor it, rather than rush through because I had a certain number of books I wanted to read in a given timeframe. You’ll see that reflected to some extent in this list, but unfortunately, for the most part, I don’t feel like I did that goal justice. I was hoping to take time for a couple of longer classics from my shelves, and that didn’t happen in 2025. Oh, well—I can try again in 2026!

Read 75 books (YES!)
Read 2 Christian living/devotional-type books (YES! I hardly read any in 2024, so I was hoping to expand my reading in this area. I ended up with around 10-12 in this genre.)
Read 4 Christian biographies/memoirs (YES! I’m not sure how many of these I ended up reading in 2025, but I know my number was much higher than just four.)
Finish the 5×5 reading challenge (YES! This was basically a set of five sub-goals for me, reading 5 books each of books I’d recently purchased, books over 500 pages long, old unread ARCs, books on the writing craft, and books published in the 1970s. I loved how this both stretched and focused my reading over 2025, and I’m really looking forward to trying it again in 2026!)
Finish at least 2 reading challenges (YES! I finished 5 in 2025, just didn’t manage to complete the 2 readalongs I was hoping for—boo!)
Finish 6 series/book collections (YES! I just squeaked through on this one.)
Read approximately ⅓ of Josephus (NO, I read about 7 pages total)
Read 20 books from my TBR shelf (YES! I just barely managed to get the last two in in the last few days of December.)
Read 4 O’Henry short stories (NO, I was hoping to diversify my reading this way, but that didn’t happen.)
Read 6 Chautona Havig books (NO, I read 4, which felt like a decent effort. She’s one of my favorite authors, and I have quite a backlog to catch up on, plus I’d love to reread some of the ones I first read 8-10 years ago, so maybe I’ll be able to do more in 2026?)

Whew! That was quite the list, but I’m thankful to have completed or almost completed so many of them. It was fun pushing myself last year, and I’m hoping to do that again this year.

My reading goals for 2026 look somewhat shorter and simpler than for 2025, but I think they’ll end up being just as challenging:

Read 75 books (again, I’m hoping to read more deeply rather than trying to make a new personal record)
Read 26 books from my TBR shelf (I barely managed to read 20 from that shelf in 2025, so it’ll be interesting to see how this goes; I am planning to use the ABC reading challenge for this one, choosing one book for each letter of the alphabet.)
Get down to 12 in-progress series (I currently have 22 series in progress, so this will take some work, but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get there!)
Read 4 O’Henry short stories (trying this one again…2026 is the year to accomplish everything, right?)
Read 5 devotional/Christian nonfiction books (last year was such a success in this area that I’d love to continue it in 2026)
Finish the 5×5 reading challenge (this is basically a set of mini-goals for myself this year: 5 Christian classics/nonfiction titles, 5 books written by Chautona Havig, 5 classics (not the same ones as the Christian classics category), 5 old unread ARCs, and 5 books others have recommended to me (because I can never seem to remember to get around to them!))

And that’s it! Do you set yearly reading goals for yourself? What, if anything (even if it isn’t measurable!), are you hoping to accomplish in 2026, reading-wise or otherwise?

My Top 10 Favorite Reads from 2025

January 6, 2026 by Esther Fil · Leave a Comment

6 Jan

My reading life in 2025 was the best year so far, in my opinion. 2025 sure brought its own surprises, but it was probably my favorite reading year hands down, and I’ve closed out December with 130 books finished for the year (WHAT??!!), and no less than 34 five-star reads on my list for the year!

Let me tell you—narrowing 34 down to 10 is hard! It was so much fun going through my lists and remembering all these books that delighted, encouraged, especially touched me, and/or stayed with me long after I read “the end.”

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Here they are, in the order I read them in (ranking is impossible, y’all):

1. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Spunky, determined to see beauty wherever she can find it, and equally determined to help those around her, Anne quickly found a place in my heart this year, and it does not surprise me that every. single. one. of the five books in this series that I read this year ended up being a five-star read for me!

2. The Edge of Belonging by Amanda Cox

Deep character arcs, a complex plot, a heartrending situation, an adopted child…this book reminded me all over again why I love well-done Christian fiction.

3. The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria Augusta Trapp

Our favorite family read-aloud this year, this story told with much self-deprecating humor, a surprisingly strong faith element, and a lot of heart and hope, was quite possibly my favorite memoir this year.

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers by Maria A Trapp

4. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I’ve put off reading Austen way too long. This one took me quite a while to get through, but I loved this story (especially Elinor!), and am already looking forward to rereading it!

5. To Love a Sunburnt Country by Jackie French

This is one of those books where even though I disagreed with the author on some things, the story itself swept me away, and now, six months after finishing it, I still think about it frequently. The characters were not given a break for a single moment; the portrait of what the Pacific War looked like was heartbreaking; yet the story also contained unexpected moments of hope. Definitely a bittersweet read, but the journey was amazing.

6. Orbiting Jupiter by Gary D. Schmidt

I was unprepared for this story on so many levels. I feel like I’m still reeling, in some ways. This heartfelt story of a foster brother with a broken past, this story of family, friendship, and love, touched my heart, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

7. Endurance by Alfred Lansing

This is the only true survival story that made it onto the list this year, but it’s a doozy! The things these men went through…absolutely incredible! Fascinating history, too.

8. When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

Slow burn, deep internal conflict, a bit of a medical drama, a sweet little girl in a picture-perfect setting…I don’t know quite how to quantify this book, but it’s the kind of book I love from start to finish.

9. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

(Seeing as I could easily have four more Montgomery books on this list, I’m doing well to have just two, right? Haha!) I connected with Valancy right away (OK, maybe I do feel old-maidish sometimes), and loved watching as her dreams slowly came true. A sweet, heartwarming read.

10. Enjoying God by Tim Chester

This is one of 5? 6? devotional/Christian living-type books I read this year. Each was good, but this one spoke directly to my heart. Throughly encouraging, very gospel-oriented, this was balm to my soul.

Have you read any of these books? What were your top ten books from last year? (Bonus points if you share the link to your post about them! 😀 )

June TBR List: Classics and Miscellany

June 1, 2025 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

1 Jun

As you may remember from my May TBR post, I was really hoping May would be a good reading month. And, thankfully, it turned out to be just that! I’m still a couple of days out from the end of the month as I write this, and so far, I’ve finished 15 books. I’m hoping to squeeze one or two more in before May is officially over, but I must say—I’m thoroughly enjoying being back to having more sit-down-and-read time! Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a blog post up sometime in the next week sharing all my favorite reads from May—there are quite a few!

June’s TBR list doesn’t really reflect the time I anticipate I’ll have to read this month, so I guess we’ll see what happens. Lord willing, I’ll be bookending the month with two 7-hour road trips, and I’m also hoping to spend two weekends in the middle of the month with different friends (each of whom lives 3 hours away from us, in different directions), so…yeah. Probably not as much time to read, but that’s okay. I’m making this list in the hopes that I’ll get to at least a few of them. One can always dream!

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Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy cover

An Upcoming Release/ARC:

Publishing June 17: The Atlas of Untold Stories by Sara Brunsvold: This was on my TBR list last month, but I didn’t have time to pick it up. I’m definitely looking forward to it, though—I’ve enjoyed her last two books!

Read Your Bookshelf Challenge:

This month’s prompt is “bird”, and I’ve got a bunch of books with a bird on the cover. I decided to read Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt, partly because he’s my newest favorite author and I haven’t read this yet, and partly because the used copy I bought is—ahem—highly annotated. If I enjoy the book the way I think I will, I’d like to get myself an unannotated copy. Yes, I’m one of those people who believe it’s a crime to write in books.

This Year’s Reading Goals:

I never did get my 2025 reading goals post up in January, like I planned. Maybe I’ll still do that, but as a bit of an update? We’ll see. Anyway, I’m hoping to check off at least two more books from my goals this month.

A Christian biography/memoir: Peril by Choice by James C. Hefley: I’ve had this on my TBR shelf for years, and it’s high time I finally got around to reading it! I’m expecting it’ll be a difficult but inspiring read.

Finish a series: Light of the Last by Chuck Black: I’ve been avoiding this series for years, but finally got around to reading book two last November. I think I’m ready to finish it now, and anticipate a fast read, once I finally get up the courage to pick it up! It’s a great story; I just find the thriller elements slightly too thriller-y for my comfort sometimes.

A Year of Maud:

I’m still playing catch-up with this challenge, so I’m hoping to read Anne’s House of Dreams and The Blue Castle, both by L.M. Montgomery, this month. I’m over the hump of struggling with the Anne series—as it turns out, having recently heard the first two books did make it harder for me to stay engaged when I was reading those. Both Anne of the Island and Anne of Windy Poplars were a joy to read this past month!

5 x 5 Reading Challenge:

A backlisted title: Behold the Dawn by K.M. Weiland: I read Weiland’s Dreamlander back in 2014, and loved it, but I haven’t read any of her books since then. I’m definitely looking forward to this one!

A creative/writing craft book: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron: I wrote about this in my book recs post, and realized I can probably fit the audiobook in this month (assuming it comes available from Libby in time; there’s quite a wait list on it!). I’ll be interested to see what I think of it, as it sounds like it has some new-agey stuff in it, but I’m hoping to put that to one side and use what is beneficial.

Published in the 70s: I’ve gone book shopping several times this past month, and my TBR shelf is currently threatening to overflow. One of the new books that came in was Dreams of Victory by Ellen Conford, which looks like it will be a sweet, easy read, and, as a bonus, was first published in 1973!

Buzzword Reading Challenge:

I’ve been trying to figure out how to fit The Disenchanted Club by Penelope L Roiall into my TBR list for months, and I suddenly realized today that the prompt “event” works perfectly for this title—a club meeting is an event, right? Mom’s been trying to get me to read this book for close to a year and a half now, I think, so it’s about time I got around to it, anyway!

Celebrating Jane Austen Readalong:

I still haven’t managed to get to April’s book, but oh, well. Maybe soon? Anyway, Mansfield Park is on the cards for June, and I’m cautiously optimistic I’ll enjoy it. I wasn’t impressed by a retelling I read of this book several years ago, but knowing how many people love this story, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and try reading it myself.

Well…that ended up being a longer list than I thought it would be! Oh, well. Some of the books are short, and others I’m certain I’ll fly through. And in the end, this is more of an ideas guide than a hard-and-fast list that I have to stick to.

What are you hoping to read in June?

My Book Recommendations List Keeps Growing!

May 26, 2025 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

26 May

Whenever I see a book that sounds interesting being recommended, I try to remember to put it on a list to return to later. So far, I’ve only actually read maybe three books from my list, but I’m intending to keep referring to this list, and maybe one day I’ll get to all of them. (One can dream, right?)

For now, maybe something here will catch your eye and give you an idea for what to read next! (You’re welcome in advance! 😉)

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I Am In Here by Creston Mapes

Recommended by: The Avid Readers of Christian Fiction Facebook group

Why I’m interested: It’s about someone trapped in their body after an accident. With some personal experience with a dear young woman who suffered something similar, this story intrigues me.

Fierce the Conflict by Allan Crane

Mentioned in: Minka and Margaret by Phyllis Thompson

Why I’m interested: Minka and Margaret made a strong impression on me, and this book was inspirational to one of the women in that story. Also, I’ve never heard of Lilian Hamer before, so I’m interested to get to hear her story!

The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

Recommended by: Two different friends

Why I’m interested: A friend’s book club read and thoroughly enjoyed it, and another friend said it contains one of my top-favorite romance tropes, heroic sacrifice. Plus, it’s a classic adventure story, and I tend to love those!

Last Light over Galveston by Jennifer L. Wright

Recommended by: Amanda Barratt (author of The Warsaw Sisters, which was both overwhelming and amazing)

Why I’m interested: I’ve never heard of the 1900 Galveston hurricane before, plus it has a solid faith journey story. Win-win.

The Resurrection Project by Tanya Sparks Belvin

Recommended by: JustReads (I saw it on tour there)

Why I’m interested: I haven’t read many dystopian stories, but one that involves science, children, grief, and hope sounds like one I’d find fascinating.

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Recommended by: Noah James (from The Chosen)

Why I’m interested: I’m always interested in books on creativity, and this one sounds like it will be both inspiring and helpful. Plus, I know I’ve heard of some of the concepts espoused in this book, so it’s probably about time I read it myself. (I’m not sure about the “spiritual path” part of the blurb…I guess I’ll see what I think once I get into it.)

Columba by Nigel Tranter

Recommended by: a friend

Why I’m interested: I’ve heard of Columba, but know next to nothing about him. A novel about this historical man sounds like a great idea!

Constantine by Frank G. Slaughter

Recommended by: a friend

Why I’m interested: I’m familiar with Constantine, but again, I know very little about him. This looks like an interesting way to get to know him.

Emperor of Rome by Robert Fabbri

Recommended by: a friend

Why I’m interested: I’ve been fascinated by the fall of Jerusalem for years, and even wrote a novel set at that time! But I’ve never heard of this series, and don’t think I’ve ever seen a book about Vespasian or Titus—I’m intrigued!

Crusader King by Susan Peek

Recommended by: a friend

Why I’m interested: Again, I’ve never heard of this man and don’t remember reading any adult novels set at the time of the crusades, but it sounds fascinating!

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Recommended by: a friend

Why I’m interested: A classic, set at the time of the French Revolution, and it has one of my favorite tropes in it—definitely one I’m interested in!

Here Burns my Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs (and the sequel)

Recommended by: a friend

Why I’m interested: A historical romance set in Scotland about bonny Prince Charlie (who I don’t know much about at all), plus it’s a retelling of the book of Ruth? Um, yes, please! This one is on my short list for sure!

There are other books on my list, as well, but mostly more general book lists from different people that sounded interesting for one reason or another.

Oh, and one more I forgot: The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright—I won’t bother to look up the cover, but this was recommended by my good friend A.M. Heath, and since I love mysteries but have gotten out of the habit of reading them in recent years, and haven’t read any of Wright’s books yet, she suggested I try this one. I’m hoping to fit it in soonish!

Do you keep a list of books people have recommended to you? What books are on your radar right now that you’d like to get to someday?

For the Love of Sourdough

May 22, 2025 by Esther Filbrun · 2 Comments

22 May

A couple of months ago, I had a boring, repetitive job to do, and while I did it, I ended up watching a lot of YouTube videos. Around the same time, I became interested in a couple of Facebook ads for sourdough-making groups, and I fell down the rabbit hole of watching other people’s videos about their sourdough-making processes.

Before too long, I was itching to get my starter out of the fridge, and I’ve been baking with it ever since!

Sourdough Focaccia picture — sourdough tomato olive focaccia bread

I’ve dabbled in sourdough on and off for close to 10 years now. For the longest time, the only thing I consistently used it for was sourdough pancakes; the family liked them, and they were easy and pretty much failproof. Bread? Now that’s a different beast!

My first introduction to sourdough was through Traditional Cooking School. We bought (and still have) their sourdough cookbook, and I’ve had fun experimenting with many of their recipes.

Unfortunately, the bread recipes they had in the book didn’t work for me. They were sour, didn’t hold together, and while the occasional artisan-type loaf was nice, I never enjoyed the fact that it looked like a frisbee or a brick when it came out of the oven.

So for many years, aside from making pancakes, I mostly ignored my sourdough starter—and at times, didn’t even have a starter!

Sourdough Vanilla Cake picture — sourdough vanilla cake

Occasionally, I’d get the sourdough bug. Surely there’s a way to do it, I’d think, and try again—only to meet with more failure. It must not be possible with our flour, I thought—New Zealand flour did seem to act differently from what Mom had in the US, after all!

So until around the beginning of April, my sourdough starter was mostly a forgotten fridge ornament.

Then came this boring job, and the advertisements from Facebook that grabbed my attention. Before I knew it, I was watching 2-3 hours of video each day from many, many different sourdough enthusiasts from around the world. They said encouraging things like,

Just start!”

Pick a recipe, and stick with it until it works for you.”

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be a win!”

Sourdough Egg Noodles picture — sourdough egg noodles

I came across an interview with Mike from Rosehill Sourdough, and loved the way he made sourdough feel accessible. Doable. No longer mysterious, but fun and (dare I say it?) yummy. (I’ve since watched some of his YouTube videos multiple times, trying out different recipes.)

Then I came across Rebekah from That Sourdough Gal, and again her tips and tricks and “here’s how it works for me”s made me feel like yes, I can do this, too.

Sometimes, I just watched videos of people with micro-bakeries, pumping out loaf after beautiful loaf of the most delicious-looking bread. I wished we could have smell-o-vision (h/t the Mr. Lemoncello books). Many of them explained the process as they went; the ones that stick out in my mind are Urban Treats from Australia and Simpel Sourdough from Denmark.

Oh, and there’s The Bread Code from Germany—not a micro-bakery, but he does sourdough demonstrations for the more nerdy ones of us, and I love his sense of humor!

sourdough pie crust picture — buttermilk pie (with a sourdough crust!)—it looks burned because I accidentally sloshed it while baking

So…armed with all these great bakers’ words echoing in my head, and knowing that if I had any trouble or needed questions answered, I could turn to the (very active) Facebook communities I found, I pulled my jar of sourdough out of the fridge and started.

I’ve since made two successful batches of sandwich bread, inspired by Christine’s Notebook’s video, but modified to match what I knew worked for our yeast sandwich breads. To my delight, they turned out beautifully! Not quite as fluffy as my normal yeast bread, but not so sour that it shouted “I’m sourdough”, and boy, were they ever tasty!

And, inspired by other bakers, I started experimenting with other sourdough products. Fudgy brownies (we couldn’t believe they were sourdough, since they didn’t taste like it at all—they disappeared!), pizza dough (I got mixed reviews on that one, mostly because I used some too-sour starter for it), foccacia bread, egg noodles, vanilla cake, waffles, pie crust…a good mix of normal bread-type recipes, and surprisingly delicious desserts.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I’ve been baking a lot more desserts the past couple of months. Which probably isn’t a good thing, but I’ve had such fun experimenting that I’ve kinda ignored it. 😉

The biggest surprise in this journey so far is that sourdough doesn’t necessarily have to be sour to work—almost everything I listed above tasted just like you’d expect a “normal” recipe to taste, except better, somehow. Something like what you’d experience with a stew put together and simmered for a couple of hours, versus a stew made from homemade stock that was simmered for several days and then turned into a meal.

Not everything turns out perfectly every time, of course. I just baked two loaves of bread last night (one of the loaves is pictured above) that were half the size of some loaves I made a couple of weeks ago. My process for these loaves was slightly different than the other two trials I’ve made, and obviously, I did something wrong—or my starter wasn’t in a happy place (which is also quite possible).

Trial and error, and trial and error, and sometimes, trial and success! I’m planning on continuing to experiment, learn, and hopefully grow in this method of bread-making, taking notes in my trusty Dough Diary as I go, and perhaps one day I’ll find myself in a rhythm that works well.

What are you experimenting with in the kitchen right now?