A Melodious Sonnet - Notes from a word-chaser

April 2026 TBR List: History, classics, and continued series

April 9, 2026 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

9 Apr

I was a little shocked this morning to look back and realize that my last TBR list blog post was from last June—almost a year ago! It’s been a busy year, and to be honest, I’ve been struggling with a certain amount of content creator’s fatigue (not sure if that’s a thing, but we’re going with it). I’ve consistently been making TBR lists, and oh, have I found some good books, but generally speaking, I haven’t had the mental space to try to write about them.

Anyway, I’m back—and I’m eager to share the titles I’m looking forward to reading this month!

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy cover

Read Your Bookshelf Challenge:

A weapon on the cover: I’ve been intrigued by Gold for Prince Charlie ever since I thrifted this book a year or two ago. Since I know hardly anything about Prince Charlie or the Stuart line, but know this is a notable event in English history, I was excited to pick this up. Definitely an adult read (due to some language and a few off-color references), but a good read so far!

The title has a conjunction: I’m so excited to have Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy back on my TBR list. Gary D. Schmidt is one of my favorite authors, and if the first chapter is any indication, this will be a great read.

5 x 5 Reading Challenge:

A classic: I’ve loved reading the Anne of Green Gables novels over the past year, and I’m sad that Rilla of Ingleside is the only one left (guess I’ll just have to re-read the series). I’ve heard great things about this one and am eagerly anticipating diving into it!

A recommended book: While one of my brothers was in the hospital recently, a friend brought Torpedoed in for him to read. It proved to be a gripping story, and I’ve been wanting to read it ever since he finished.

A Christian classic: The Screwtape Letters has been on my mental TBR list ever since I missed out on reading it in school. I’m hoping to read it a little at a time after my morning devotions this month.

A backlisted ARC: I have a few ARCs that I’m still trying to get through, and Under the Bayou Moon is one of those. It’s been long enough since I got the book that I know nothing about it, but I’m drawn to the beautiful, peaceful-looking cover.

Buzzword Reading Challenge:

A title that includes an occupation: I was thrilled to realize that the next book in The Starlore Legacy series, Merchant, fits this prompt—it also goes along with my goal of catching up on this series this year! I’m expecting this will be a quick, enjoyable read.

A title that includes a part of a house: Eric and Karlsson-on-the-Roof is a book I picked up a while back at a thrift shop. I’ve loved some of Astrid Lindgren’s books, and this was one I wanted to try. Unfortunately, my 6-year-old sister got bored with the story about halfway through, and we weren’t appreciating some of the attitudes coming through, so we DNFed it. I’d like to finish reading it before passing it on, so I know how the rest of the book plays out.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion- Vol. 8 cover

Just for fun:

I picked up The Wind Blows in Sleeping Grass the other night, because I wanted something light to read just before bed. The first chapter? Delightful. I love the idea of a character with a pet pig, and the descriptions and story set-up were spot-on. I can’t wait to read more!

In my last post, I mentioned that I’ve been enjoying the Emma M. Lion series. I finished volume 7 yesterday, so I only have one more volume to read before I’m caught up. I’m eagerly anticipating reading volume 8, but I’m also sad that I’ll have to stop flying through these books soon and wait for volume 9 to be released.

What are you hoping to read in April?

A Few of My (Current) Favorite Things

March 13, 2026 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

13 Mar

Favorite book(s):

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion series has delighted my heart in the last few months. Full of heartwarming whimsy, hilarious escapades, and rich, diverse, relatable characters, if you’re looking for a fast, easy, engaging read, I’d highly recommend these stories. Plus, I’m in love with the new British covers—aren’t they cute?

Emma M. Lion books 1 and 2 by Beth Brower

Favorite song:

This one has been playing on repeat in my head for a while. I love the new-to-me tune and thoughtful style, and the solid Biblical truths in the lyrics are a great encouragement.

Favorite craft:

I experienced something of a revival in my crocheting around the beginning of the year. With some gentle encouragement from Grandma, I finally completed an afghan that’s been in the works for years, and I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying the results! I’m now working on a lacy tablecloth for my dresser top—such fun!

Favorite poem:

Okay, this probably technically should go under the “song” category, but since I haven’t sung it before—only read it in a hymn book—I’m counting it as a poem. It was written by Paul Gerhardt, translated by John Wesley, and is a paraphrase of Psalm 37. I found the words quite encouraging!

Give to the winds your fears,
Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears your sighs and counts your tears;
God shall lift up your head.
Through waves and clouds and storms
He gently clears the way.
Wait now this time, so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.

Favorite drink:

A dear elderly friend inspired me to try a small cup of tea just before bed, as a way to relax before going to sleep. Since it pairs well with my preexisting habit of reading before I go to sleep, I gave it a try, and I’m in love with the routine. Chamomile tea is my go-to, and I’m thrilled that we can grow it ourselves. The other day, I enjoyed listening to Emma M. Lion and picking chamomile flowers to dry for the winter.

What are some of your current favorite things?

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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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?