Speaker 0:02

Hi, I'm Kristen with an E, and this is Talk with Kristen with an e. A place to slow down. Be honest, without having all the answers and feel a little less alone together. Let's talk it out.

Kristen 0:20

Everybody, welcome back. Hi Alexis. How excited are you to be here? Almost in real life.

Alexis 0:28

I'm very excited. It's been a while since we've done this

Kristen 0:31

so today we wanted to talk about books, and last year, one of the first episodes in season one, we had one it was called, something about escaping life and finding joy in books we were really excited about it and I wanted to do a follow up because in that episode we talked about our reading goals and books we wanted to read. And so I wanted see like kind of how did we do for 2025 and what are we looking forward to in 2026? Alexis, do you remember what you said your goals were last year when we recorded?

Alexis 1:07

Yeah, I do. So I was gonna read through the Bible

Kristen 1:09

Mm-hmm.

Alexis 1:10

and then I was going to read, some epic fantasies kind of go from there. So yeah,

Kristen 1:19

So what I have, because I have listed Alexis's primary goals. Read 75 books in 2025. Read the entire Bible using the Bible, recap and finish priority of the orange tree, your epic fantasy to continue and complete the series. You also had some additional goals that you wanted to expand your reading, that you're going to try to read more New to you authors like Cindy Steele. Danielle Steele, and you wanted to read more. Kristin Hannah.

Alexis 1:50

Yes, yes, and I did all that. I did everything. The only thing I didn't do is continue the series of the Epic fantasy.

Kristen 1:57

Oh,

Alexis 1:58

can get into that more, but that's purely because, yeah, we can get into that more.

Kristen 2:02

Didn't

Alexis 2:02

I

Kristen 2:03

have

Alexis 2:03

I did change my goal to 140 books because there's

Kristen 2:07

that's double.

Alexis 2:08

Well, okay. But I took the Bible and I was to keep track. I was putting each book in and I think there's 66 books in the Bible,

Kristen 2:17

Okay.

Alexis 2:18

I ended up with 146 books.

Kristen 2:20

Wow.

Alexis 2:20

Keep in mind some of the Bible books are, only two or three chapters,

Kristen 2:25

doesn't

Alexis 2:26

There's a lot of deep information so if you're

Kristen 2:28

study.

Alexis 2:29

reading it,

Kristen 2:29

It's still

Alexis 2:30

So

Kristen 2:31

yeah,

Alexis 2:31

of what I did

Kristen 2:32

I did it.

Alexis 2:33

either way

Kristen 2:33

I've.

Alexis 2:34

It was just a better way for me to keep track.

Kristen 2:35

Okay. And it's funny because when I saw you released your total on Instagram, I was like, oh my gosh. She had so much, and I did wonder, I was like, I wonder if she's counting every Bible book as a separate book, which legit, that's totally fine.

Alexis 2:49

When I came back through, my Bible is this thick, it's a study bible. If you've gone through that, it's a lot.

Kristen 2:54

Yeah.

Alexis 2:54

And it wasn't just like reading it, like I spent time studying it because, you know, the Bible's not just like this, easy Romance that you can just quickly, read through, like there's some stuff in there. So it was good. I am not reading through the Bible again this year. And I don't mean that in a bad way, but I really wanna take more time and study,

Kristen 3:13

so let's see. For my reading goals, I said I was going to read 50 books in 2025. I was aiming for four per month with some higher reading months mixed in, and books I was most excited about were atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins, Reed. Sounds like love by Ashley Poston. It's a Love Story by Annabel Monagan. And yes, those were all new releases coming out in 2025 that I remember being very excited about and still excited about. Now, spoiler alert. I may or may not have reached my 50 book goal. There's a little bit of debate on that between, story Graph book Maury and Good Reads. Good Reads said I'd read 52 books. Story graph said 49 and book Morey had 51 or 52, so nobody could agree on how many books I read. I swear I update each of them every single time I'm not sure exactly how many I read, so I either met my goal or I didn't. When I did book more, I had like a little chart of all the books I read and when I counted them, it was 52, so I'm saying it was 52. Even though I don't know for sure, let's just say I met my goal.

Alexis 4:17

reads is weird, like they had me as one more, but if you've read a book and then you do it again. Good Reads does weird stuff.

Kristen 4:24

Yeah,

Alexis 4:24

don't love Good Reads,

Kristen 4:25

no.

Alexis 4:26

of stuff on there,

Kristen 4:27

well, and that's the thing too, and good reads, you've gotta be careful because if you've shelved something on your good reads, but then you read it on your Kindle and you mark it red in good reads, it will sometimes count it twice because it's counting that you read it on your Kindle and it's counting that you marked it as red on good reads. So I had cleaned up most of those, maybe there's another one that. Snuck through or something, but yes. Before we go more into books, can we talk about book trackers for a minute? Which ones do you like? Which ones do you don't like? How do you use book trackers? Because I have similar feelings on good reads, and I feel like this would be a good discussion point.

Alexis 5:04

The book reads was good when it first came out,

Kristen 5:06

Yes.

Alexis 5:06

Like, did Amazon own it when Good Reads came out?

Kristen 5:09

I don't know if they owned it when it came out or if they bought it after

Alexis 5:13

okay.

Kristen 5:14

I'll Google it.

Alexis 5:14

either way it was a good theory, but there are so many more. Options now that, I think are better. So I use story graph. But the one that I love the most, and it's newer, it's Fable, I just love it. It doesn't track audio versus Kindle versus an actual physical book, which is why I still keep story graph, but I don't, I, wanna kind of ditch

Kristen 5:41

Figure that out.

Alexis 5:41

because

Kristen 5:42

I have Good reads and story graph and book Morey, and for similar reasons, like you said, I've been using Good Reads forever. I think I started using it in 2010 so I can go back and see books. I was reading in 2010 and I used it very much from like 10 11. And I think I dropped off'cause I was actually looking at it recently'cause it saved so much of my stuff.'cause I can see my year in review for all these years, but then there's several years where there's none and I don't think, it wasn't that I wasn't reading any, I don't think I was reading as much, but I definitely wasn't tracking it. I feel like Good Reads is the basic one and it's kind of the easiest one to use. And that's still where I've got a lot of I don't know if social is the right thing, but I've got, many connections on there. I see what my friends are reading and I comment on things, so I still use it that way. But I love story graph the most because I love all the charts and graphs it gets. I love to see the different, moods that I had while I was reading. I like seeing the different genres. I like them breaking them down. I like the little line graph of showing how many books and pages I'm reading. I guess I'm a nerd with all that, that I love all the visualizations from it

Alexis 6:45

I will say it, that's superior it com. their graphs and stuff are actually really fun to look back, but I think maybe I like the more social aspect of Fable and I can see what people are reading, but I don't have very many friends on there,

Kristen 6:58

no, and I like Book Morey and I started using Book more a couple years ago, and I find that it's Interface is really easy. Like you know, on Story Graph or Good Reads, you have to click on additions and pick whether it's the ebook or the physical book or the audiobook. Whereas in book it's just a dropdown because it's like how are you going to read it? Ebook, paperback audio, and you could just pick it right there. And it's just, it's so much more user friendly. And they do a monthly calendar and they show your book that you finished and the rating of it on a calendar, which I love. And then at the end of the year, it showed all of the books, like the book covers and the stars. Good reads, when they give you your image at the end, they'll put some of the ratings by like your five stars, but otherwise it's just a list of books. I feel like I need all three of them for different reasons. It's funny, like whenever I add a book that I'm reading or I finish a book, I have to go to let me go to this app and update it. Let me go to this app and update it. I guess you need somebody, app developers out there. If you're listening, I need the functionality of Good Reads. I need the ease of book more. I need the reports of story graph. If you can put all of those things in, that would be the best book tracker for me.

Alexis 8:03

It's interesting to hear about bookmark'cause Fable has that with the calendar, but they don't have the ratings.

Kristen 8:08

Oh,

Alexis 8:08

Like adding the ratings to it. Okay.

Kristen 8:10

Right,

Alexis 8:11

So

Kristen 8:11

yes.

Alexis 8:12

I have to delete an app to get decisions.

Kristen 8:15

I put my ratings on Good Reads and book Morey, but not on story graph because story graph, I'm focused more on the information it shows. So I guess I only put a couple reviews on my story graphs. At the end of my report, it was like, your average rating is whatever, and these are the books you rated. It was literally like. Two or three books and I was like, that's not a good way to come up with an average rating.'cause I didn't actually rate all of the books. It's messy, I guess.

Alexis 8:39

And I will say the one thing I despise about Good Reads, like this is my main complaint, is I am a like 4.5 star or 4.75. And they don't give that. And that's the thing I love about Fable is as soon as you finish it, you could put like.

Kristen 8:54

Yep.

Alexis 8:54

I always have to round on good reason.

Kristen 8:56

Yes.

Alexis 8:56

my true, review of it. That's probably the thing I actually despise the most.

Kristen 9:00

Yes, book Morey will let me do half stars and story graph. The few times that I have done it, it does let you go 0.2 5.5 0.75, so you can do any range of scores there. So yeah, good reads, get your stuff together and be more like these other companies. All right. So those were our goals. And you said you met yours? I said I met mine. All right. So let's talk about the books what were some of the ones that, you talked about that you wanted to read in 2025, or even if they weren't ones that you talked about, what were some of the best books you read in 2025?

Alexis 9:36

2025 was. An amazing year for me with reading and I don't know if I'm gonna ever be able to top it. And I don't

Kristen 9:44

I

Alexis 9:44

it's just because I

Kristen 9:46

discovered how much I,

Alexis 9:47

really like fantasy books,

Kristen 9:49

but now I'm

Alexis 9:50

This will lead into this. It was so

Kristen 9:52

I'm,

Alexis 9:52

I'm scared to go into it

Kristen 9:53

I don't wanna be disappointed.

Alexis 9:56

Books because they were good. So read the Priory of the Orange Tree she has two other books with it, but one of them's really thick. That one took me six months to get through and I, it was a lot. I had to do audio and that now that I'm through it, I can totally get into the series and be fine it was really good for me. It stretched my brain and made me think not just like read for pleasure and just what I call junk book, you know what I

Kristen 10:24

Oh yeah.

Alexis 10:25

about junk

Kristen 10:25

Mm-hmm.

Alexis 10:26

versus like good literature, but because I read that, it flung me into her other series called The Bone Season, and so that's why I didn't read the rest of that series. I do wanna read it this year. I don't know, it's not a goal of mine, but I do wanna read rest of that series. The bone season. Kristen Hannah's Four wins,

Kristen 10:48

And then we went dark

Alexis 10:50

Duology taught books. I couldn't honestly pick a favorite because I loved them all for different reasons.

Kristen 10:57

the boat. I

Alexis 10:57

st I

Kristen 10:58

on

Alexis 10:58

all the time.

Kristen 10:59

the

Alexis 10:59

Four Wins by Kristen Hannah.

Kristen 11:01

out.

Alexis 11:01

that book

Kristen 11:02

All the time. All the time. And when I read that together, yes. And it was so good.

Alexis 11:07

I love that. I wanna throw this in we read Atmosphere Together and I do love that book. It was such a good book. It's so well written. This. Story just is so gripping. So

Kristen 11:18

I.

Alexis 11:18

I just read so many good books and reading through the Bible was so good this year. It grounded me in a lot of time when we had a rough year, so it grounded me in a lot of that. I had a really hard time narrowing it down to 10 books that I loved, the bone season though it's got a little bit of aliens. They're not really aliens, but they kind of are aliens, dystopian and fantasy and like a very slow, slow, slow burn romance. So it's can't be considered romantic. But yeah, I don't know.

Kristen 11:48

Sounds like a very good list. Before we started recording, I'm like, well, let me go through,'cause I know there's a few books that I read that I really, really loved, that I still remember, still think about throughout the year. I was like, let me go see like the ones that I rated five stars on Good reads. The ones I loved the most this year, and I didn't write down the authors but all the ways we said Goodbye. Hidden Potential by Adam Grant. That one was amazing. The Great Alone. Ugh. We're gonna deep dive into this one a little bit, Alexis, if you're up for it. Because the Great Alone

Alexis 12:16

I'm good

Kristen 12:17

was so good. Like, and it's funny, I have them right here because they were so monumental, right? The four wins, which you already mentioned, which I did a reread of this year. This is still one of my favorite books of all time. I will probably read it again and I don't normally read books again, but reading it the second time was so good. And then the Great Alone, oh my gosh, this book. This book, we will, talk about it more. The other books I love though too.

Alexis 12:45

need a Kristen.

Kristen 12:46

We do

Alexis 12:47

do.

Kristen 12:47

You're right, we do. Let's mark that one down because yes, I have so many thoughts and we could talk about all of her books at once and how they're ranked. Yes, we will do that. But then atmosphere, which we mentioned Taylor Jenkins Read can't go wrong with her. And oh my gosh, that book was so good. The Last Twilight in Paris. First Lie wins. This was the first book I'd read from Ashley Elston, and she has another book coming out. It's either out already or it's coming out later this month'cause I'm gonna go see her yay. And get a copy of it. That book was so good. And West with Giraffes, which was a book I probably would've never read except it was in the book. Club Girls or the The book Girls Guide that I was doing their reading through the Decades Challenge and it was the book from like the thirties or something. Oh my gosh. So good. And then Perfect is boring. We mentioned that one'cause it's the one we read for our book club podcast last year. But I really enjoyed that one as a nonfiction too. Now.

Alexis 13:47

Yeah, we could del. That was on my list and that book changed me a lot this past year. So

Kristen 13:51

Yeah. Well, do you wanna talk about that part now then?

Alexis 13:55

we

Kristen 13:56

Okay.

Alexis 13:56

I set boundaries and it caused a lot of issues, but honestly it was the best thing for everything in my family I had to. Exit my introverted comfort zone, and we joined a small group at church, which has been so good. I've been doing stuff with the ladies, like we did a Christmas party and now we're doing a book club together. an in-person book club. So, yeah, honestly, it really, the time I was like, oh, Kristen, not one of

Kristen 14:29

I believe you were saying. You're like, I don't actually read nonfiction or like self-help books. Like, this is not something I'm going to enjoy. And I'm like, okay, well thanks for being a part of this. You're gonna read it anyway.

Alexis 14:41

And I was like, I'm gonna

Kristen 14:42

Mm-hmm.

Alexis 14:42

be

Kristen 14:43

Yeah.

Alexis 14:43

I loved our time together,

Kristen 14:45

Yeah.

Alexis 14:45

did and it was so good. then at the end of the year, I had to reflect back and I'm like, wow. I think that book outside of the Bible might have changed my entire year more than anything else. So yeah.

Kristen 15:02

I don't know how it all comes together. I'm always looking like, oh, everything happens for a reason and if this hadn't happened, this wouldn't happen and this wouldn't happen. The three of us, like you and I know each other from college 20 plus years ago now, Kelly married my brother. God lover and for you both to be so willing to read this random book that I'm like, Hey, you guys wanna read a book and talk about it on my podcast? So many crazy things came together for that to happen and the meaning that it had on your life when you needed it. The timing of it was such a God thing, and I'm so excited that you've come out of your shell, that's huge.

Alexis 15:38

it's true. Honestly, I chose to change a lot of things that needed changed and I'm not so introverted anymore. I might actually even dance one day. We know that's a big thing, you know?

Kristen 15:50

I love that. So excited. All right. So those were the books that we loved. Let's talk briefly about any books you really didn't love, any books you had to DNF or any books that you were excited about that you had high expectations for that maybe didn't live up to that? Simple.

Alexis 16:10

that's been on the bestseller list for months. It took 36 months for me to be able to read it.

Kristen 16:18

Oh my gosh.

Alexis 16:19

Okay. So I expected this, like, I don't wanna start this reader. It's like the colors of something. I can't even remember what it was. I think it's by, I don't even wanna say who. It's written so beautifully. But there's just so much trauma. I had to put it down. I rarely put books down, but I was like, I can't do this. It's just too much trauma. Maybe it was my frame of mind, I don't know, but it down, 36 month wait and I put it

Kristen 16:48

Wow, that is huge

Alexis 16:51

yeah, it was not, terrible. I think people either love it or hate it and I've seen people read it and say the same thing that I did, and then decide to come back to it. So, you know, there's always that, it's all the colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker.

Kristen 17:08

I'm not familiar with that

Alexis 17:09

I mean, it was recommended to me, so I put it

Kristen 17:11

Yeah,

Alexis 17:11

and yeah, I'm glad I didn't buy it

Kristen 17:13

right.

Alexis 17:14

at one point and I'm so glad I didn't buy that.

Kristen 17:18

no.

Alexis 17:19

And then the other ones were probably, okay, this is a whole nother topic in and of itself. There was a couple romantic ones that I started, and then I just put down because I'm just like, okay. These are so poorly written

Kristen 17:32

Or need.

Alexis 17:34

too many SM scenes that I can't just like fast forward them and I'm not listening or reading them.

Kristen 17:39

Yes. I thankfully had fewer of those this year, but I was more deliberate in the choices I made of what I was going to read, I feel like so many times, like you said, taking a recommendation, I would take recommendations from anybody. And then I started realizing that just because somebody loved a book doesn't mean I'm going to love a book. We all have our own preferences, what we like, what we don't like. So I was much more choos. Of the suggestions I would take from people. So this month or this year, I focused more on reading what I wanted to read and not what other people thought I should read. So I still did my book club books, but they were for the most part, very, very good. And then the ones that I was doing for the Decades Challenge, the Book Girls Guide, I was still able to pick which book from each decade I wanted to. Read. So I was still in control of that, reading what I wanted to read. And then of the other books I read, I'm still a mood reader, so it would depend on my mood or what I felt like reading. I was making those choices. So in general, this year, I liked most of what I read. There were a few things that I didn't, well, first there was one, one and a half that I did not finish. So I did not finish the illegals, which was about Russia's most audacious spies, which I thought I was really going to like because I love the show The Americans. I love reading about that kind of spy craft and it was just. Not good I was doing the audio version. Maybe if I'd been reading it, it would've been different, but I just could not get into it. I dnf that one. The other one, which I'm not counting as A DNF, but also. Did not finish the Hobbit, my son was, wanted to read a book and my husband's like, oh, you should read The Hobbit. It's a great book. Keep in mind, my son is 12. He's not a reader like I am. But then mom was all supportive and I'm like, oh, if you're gonna read The Hobbit, I'll read The Hobbit. I love those movies. This'll be so good. It was not so good. It's very well written. But I was just like. I don't wanna read this, so I did not put it on a DNF list. In fact, I think in book more, I just have it on pause and it's got like 176 days, pause, whatever it is, because I want to go back and finish it. I made it past 50%. I would like to finish it sometime. But not right now. But the other ones that were disappointing to me, there was a book I read about Y 2K that I thought was gonna be more like nostalgia and good vibes it ended up being like political and the author's, personal opinion of current day things. This isn't what you guys sold me on the cover and the description the one that I did wanna talk about briefly,'cause I think you've read this one too, is Home Front by Kristin Hannah.

Alexis 20:14

Oh yes. Home front.

Kristen 20:16

Okay.

Alexis 20:16

I had to think about it because when I was reading that, I read a couple other military ones,

Kristen 20:20

Yeah.

Alexis 20:21

But yes, I know which one you're talking about.

Kristen 20:23

Did not love it. I do think part of it was the audio book.'cause the narrator was not Julia Whelan and I was pretty sure Kristin Hannah always had Julia Whelan do all her books. The narrator was not good. I didn't love the character development I typically love Kristin Hannah books. This I did not like. I finished it because it was one of the decades books that I was reading, but did not love it. Sorry, Kristin. You've got lots of other better work.

Alexis 20:50

I think that there are some that are hit or miss. I cannot stand her Winter Garden book. People love that

Kristen 20:55

I love that book.

Alexis 20:57

I didn't love it. I think there's, it's either hit or miss The great alone, I really liked it,

Kristen 21:02

okay.

Alexis 21:03

we just need a whole

Kristen 21:04

That's, we're gonna do that. We are gonna, we're gonna set it up. We may even schedule it at the end of this one, because I have so many thoughts on it. Same thing with Nightingale. People love the Nightingale and that was a eh book to me. So yes, we will save all of this for a future Kristin Hannah episode. That will be amazing and we will deep dive into all of them. Were there any other books that were kind of misses for you this past year?

Alexis 21:27

No, not really. I mean, there was some books that I just read because, I'm a mood reader, so I would just pick it up and read it. They weren't necessarily anything amazing, but they weren't bad either,

Kristen 21:37

Okay, so let's talk about surprises for a minute then. Were there any new authors that you found that you ended up loving or any new genres that you got into that you didn't realize you would enjoy?

Alexis 21:49

So Samantha Shannon is probably become one of my favorite authors. She's a British author. She wrote her first series when she was 17 and was compared to JK Rowling. Her writing is just very well done, but. don't know that her books are necessarily for everyone.

Kristen 22:08

Okay.

Alexis 22:09

Do you like, Harry Potter?

Kristen 22:10

Mm-hmm.

Alexis 22:11

She kind of became a favorite author of mine. I would probably read anything she wrote at this point.

Kristen 22:17

Oh wow.

Alexis 22:18

you

Kristen 22:18

Yeah.

Alexis 22:19

because I really just loved her. I mean, she's The Bone Series and the priority of the Orange Tree was, okay. So that book was so long and there was things that I think that could have been cut out. But on the other hand. As a whole. I didn't look back and be like, I wish I would've never read it. It was so thick.

Kristen 22:34

Oh my gosh.

Alexis 22:34

I don't question whether I read it. Like I really enjoyed it. So there's that one. I'm trying to think if there was any other authors I read the Cindy Steele ones, and then there was another author that passed away tragically, and I read her books. They were just romance, kinda like Cindy Steele books, and I really enjoyed those. I read all of those on Kindle Unlimited to kind of support her

Kristen 22:57

I remember when that happened.

Alexis 22:58

I really was surprised at how well I enjoyed them,

Kristen 23:00

yeah, so similar. What's funny is, I think when we recorded last year, and I was talking about how I did enjoy historical fiction, but I got tired that, you know, oh, there's so much historical fiction. It's all World War ii, like I don't wanna read any more Holocaust books. Several of the books that I really enjoyed this year were historical fiction books, said in World War ii. But they weren't necessarily Holocaust specific. The last Twilight in Paris was kind of Holocaust adjacent, not necessarily a total Jewish story and I really love that one. All the ways we said goodbye was around World War ii. What I've found this year, and based on my stats from story graph, historical fiction really is my favorite genre with a very close second to romance. Contemporary, like that stuff is all kind of in the top still. But I love historical fiction and by doing the book Girls Guide Decades Challenge, it exposed me to even more historical fiction from different time periods that I wouldn't normally have read. Like the West with Giraffes book from the thirties and there were so many other books from the seventies. That was the great alone and there were so many. Different time periods that I got to read that expanded my view that, no, not all historical fiction is World War ii. There is other historical fiction out there and I loved getting more involved in that. And those really are the books that I am drawn to. I still love romance books. One of the new authors to me this year was Catherine's Center. I had never read her before, and I even heard about her when I went to a Sophie Cousins event at the end of 2024. This lady, Allison was like, oh my gosh, if you love Sophie, you would love Catherine's center. And I was like, oh, okay. Thank you. I never thought about it again. And then when there was a Catherine Center book on net galley, I was like, all right, I'm not losing anything by reading this free book from Catherine Center. I'll see if I like it. Oh my gosh, it was so good. It was the Love Haters by Catherine Center. I met her last spring and had a fun little chit chat with her. Absolutely loved her. The book was so fun. So, my plan this year is I'm gonna start reading through some of her backlist. I already got, the Romcom and the Bodyguard. I think I'm gonna read at least one, if not both of those. And, just kinda get more into Catherine's Center because it's romance, but it's like, there's heartfelt meaning to it too. It's not just cheap romcom stuff, if that makes sense.

Alexis 25:29

Yeah,

Kristen 25:29

that's one of the ones that I got into. And like I said, Ashley Elston, I read a first lie wind of hers last year, so Good. Anatomy of An Alibi is the book she has coming out this year, and I plan on reading that one as well. She's more, thriller too. So like thriller mystery kind of stuff. I still dabble in all the genres, even though I lean more towards historical and romance. So looking forward in 2026, what are your goals for 2026? Do you have a number? Are there any specific goals or books you are looking forward to?

Alexis 26:07

Yeah, so I have struggled since November to really sit down and read. My brain cannot like calm itself to read.

Kristen 26:17

Menopause

Alexis 26:18

I don't

Kristen 26:18

probably.

Alexis 26:18

it

Kristen 26:19

That's my excuse for everything anymore. I'm in perimenopause.

Alexis 26:23

Well, I am struggling

Kristen 26:24

Mm.

Alexis 26:25

my mind to read. And I think we've just had so much going on.

Kristen 26:28

I was.

Alexis 26:28

to a lot of audio books and I don't know if maybe that kind of messed it up, but either way I. struggling to read. So this year I had this grand idea. Keep in mind I was sick going into the new year, so when I am sick, I don't always make the best choice, but we're gonna go with this. I was reading this is gonna be controversial, but I wanted to read it because I read both sides. So I read Eric Trump's under Siege. It's a new book that came out. It's talking about his dad. And I found it really interesting. So when I was reading that I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just read a biography of all of our presidents this year. What was I thinking?

Kristen 27:08

Wait, there's 46 presidents. I know some of them had multiple terms,

Alexis 27:12

right. But I'm gonna do this because here's where I was at. I just feel like I needed some, because we have homeschooled for so long, I have avoided a lot of nonfiction books just purely because my brain is tired and I need just something that's. Fun. And I already am learning. I'm reading these to my kids. So I wanted something else. Well, we're kind of at a stage where my kids are doing their own stuff now, so I'm not reading as much. So I thought, okay, I'll do this. Apparently there's somebody that's already had this grand idea because there's a whole website of the best biographies of all the presidents so I started with George Washington. And the problem is the book is 42 hours long and I'm like,

Kristen 27:54

you're not gonna get through all the presidents

Alexis 27:56

so, okay, now I've kind of lowered my expectations. I'm gonna read 75 books. I'm gonna read some more nonfiction books. I'm am still such a mood reader, but I am. Kind of being a little more picky and choosing about what I'm gonna read. But I have, some more historical fiction books because I do enjoy them. Book Club is kind of, kind of decide, you know, some of those. So right now I'm reading a book, club book, the Potato Pill, Guernsey Potato Pill Society. I think I got the title on that wrong.

Kristen 28:29

Everything.

Alexis 28:30

I am enjoying it, but I don't like the format.

Kristen 28:33

It's a.

Alexis 28:33

War II book, but it's not. Okay. So it's set after World War ii, but they reference what happened during World War ii, and we have talked about this, like we're kind of over the World War II books, but I'm enjoying this, so it's kind of like you with yours, I haven't really fully fledged out my goals because I started the year off sick and messed up with

Kristen 28:51

Everything so.

Alexis 28:53

just more nonfiction, 75 books, and maybe being a little more picky about what I read instead of just reading to read, if that makes

Kristen 29:01

Yeah, it does, and I love that because that's what I did last year being more particular about the books that I chose to read. And it really did make a difference because reading what I wanted to read meant I was already gonna like it even the books I didn't like, were my choices I wasn't reading because of somebody else. I actually lowered my goal this year, 50 while I thought it was gonna be doable I. Did get it depending on which tracker you ask. I feel like I cheated on some of it because I did read some short stories, like Amazon does those like a holiday. They've got like short stories that you can read, like an hour or less. So I had read a couple from their Halloween series and their Christmas series. Not a lot. I think I read two from each as it got towards the end of the year, I'm like, story graph is all like four more books till you're back on track. I started struggling. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna make my goal. Oh, I've gotta read more books. And I ended up just kind of reading just to get the goal, and that's not a really great thing to do. My friend Laura pointed out when I was kind of complaining about the Hobbit too, and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's just so long, like it's taking me so long to get through it. And she's like, your problem isn't the book. Your problem is because you focus so much on your number and it's taking you longer, and you're getting behind because this book is taking longer for you. And then my husband told me the same thing. He's like, maybe you need to focus on just reading good books instead of trying to meet your number. And I'm like, okay. So having said all that. I've gone back to something that I used to do. I think starting in 2020. I was like, I'm gonna read 20 books because it's the year 20. So I went back to that and I did it for 22 and 23. Also, usually going over, but that's fine. I am going to read 26 books and 26, and I will probably still beat that because I typically read three to four books every month I usually have at least two audio books because I listen a lot on my commute to work. And then if I even read one book, I'm already at three, so I'm confident I'll meet this goal. I didn't wanna stress myself out by trying to have to meet a number because the books that I really didn't enjoy the most last year are ones that I just kind of added to make my number. I'm gonna read 26 books. I'm already two and a half in, and as we're recording, this is still early January, so I am, on track This year I am doing, so last year I did the book Girls Guide Decades Challenge, which every month you read a book from a different decade. The year before I did the Book Girls Guide, in Case you missed it. I'll link it in the description. So this year from the Book Girls Guide, I am doing the book Girls Bingo. There is a bunch of different categories on it and then each month they put a surprise prompt up. So January Surprise Prompt was reading a book that was made into a movie or TV show. I'm currently reading all her Fault, which oh my gosh, I'm like 70% in and I'm still like. What is happening? Who did what? Um,

Alexis 31:47

one

Kristen 31:47

that's on Peacock? Yes.

Alexis 31:49

Okay, so you told me about that. I bought it. It's on my next to read

Kristen 31:53

Good.

Alexis 31:54

because I have Peacock and wanna watch

Kristen 31:56

Yes.

Alexis 31:56

We could read it.

Kristen 31:57

Yes, we're gonna have to discuss it. Yes, because I need to talk about this book. But that's the January prompt. So what I'm gonna do is read the books I want to read and figure out where they fit on my bingo board. Each month they're gonna have a surprise prompt, and some of the other ones are about a woman in stem, a book that explores the senses. A book from our animal lovers list, a book about books, a backlist title from one of your favorite authors. And they said you can either get, bingo, like the five in a row or you can fill up the board. So I'm really just gonna kind of do it and fill in the boxes as I read a book that fits there. We'll see how my bingo board is at the end. And then I've got my book club books. We do our book club every other month. So I'll be reading six books from there also. I will easily trample over my 26 book goal, but I wanted to do something realistic to not burn me out.

Alexis 32:47

I found that last year, like fantasy books are just long. They really are. They're long books. They're typically over five. Hundred pages. Some of them are 900. And so I kind of had to give up this idea of a lot of books. I may change my number halfway through

Kristen 33:00

Yeah.

Alexis 33:00

I'm hoping I get my reading mojo back,

Kristen 33:03

Yeah.

Alexis 33:03

I've got a Kindle full of books and don't really wanna read.

Kristen 33:07

I feel like that sometimes, and I go through kind of phase, it's like that. There's some times where I'm like, all I wanna do is read, I wanna get home from work, have dinner with the family, spend time with them, and then go read. Other times after dinner with the family, I'm like, let me watch these 1800 different YouTube videos. It's just about where I'm at mentally and emotionally and the energy that I have. If we can talk about your president's thing for a minute. I don't think that's a terrible idea maybe it's not all in one year. Maybe it's a multi-year goal. Like maybe your plan is to read a biography on every president before 2030 and it gives you four years, like a presidential term, and just kind of go through them. I actually kind of love that idea. I mean, I'm not gonna do it, but I love that for you.

Alexis 33:50

I love history and I like politics, and I know that's taboo, but I love politics and I love history, and so I realize how much, presidents really do influence politics. If you guys really dug into who George Washington is, 2026, America would hate George Washington.

Kristen 34:08

I.

Alexis 34:09

going to be blunt, he left some Native Americans beat'em up.'cause they turned on him. just left them.

Kristen 34:14

Mm-hmm.

Alexis 34:15

that would never pass. Now, and I'm not saying it's right by

Kristen 34:19

Right.

Alexis 34:19

These men really had a lot to start this country. Like they had some fortitude to start this country. And so it's really fascinating. I have learned so much, and my kids on my birthday asked for the Manners book that he

Kristen 34:30

Oh, wow.

Alexis 34:30

because he didn't have an education like Thomas Jefferson or Hamilton and he was resentful of that because they would've learned Latin and had this higher education and he didn't have it. So he took it upon himself, but he copied painstakingly a hundred manners from an etiquette book

Kristen 34:45

Because it.

Alexis 34:46

He could maybe be considered the first one to like good wages because he wouldn't even get paid he said, I will work for free versus getting paid what you wanna pay me to be like a surveyor, or when he was kind of starting to be like general and stuff. So, yeah, and it was interesting.

Kristen 35:04

That is learned interesting.

Alexis 35:05

It's hard because I really have to think. It's been good. It's really good and I'm gonna keep it up. Although I've been told that the middle president's like. Some of the 18 hundreds, you know, they're really boring,

Kristen 35:18

Probably are,

Alexis 35:18

Yeah, we'll see.

Kristen 35:20

Before we close, any other thoughts about anything you read last year, anything you're looking forward to reading this year? Any recommendations you wanna make for anybody?

Alexis 35:34

I will say Kristin Hannah, just always like the four wins I think.

Kristen 35:39

Oh, good.

Alexis 35:40

And then I think the bone season, if you like dystopian fantasy, you should do that. I am looking forward to the author that I've told you about that I got into Zombies. She's supposed to be releasing her last book in this series, and I am so looking forward to delving back into that.

Kristen 35:56

Oh, wow. That's awesome. Well, for me, I know there's, several new releases coming out this year that I don't know if I'll read as soon as they come out, but I'm at least tracking. Spencer Pratt's book is coming out soon. Spencer Pratt, soon to be mayor of Los Angeles. His book's coming out, I'm really excited about that. My favorite authors all have books coming out this year. Well, not Taylor Jenkins, Reen doesn't, as far as I know, but she and Kristen Hannah are kind of every other year or every three years kind of people. Annabell Mongan has another one. Catherine Center has one coming. Ashley Poston, they all have books coming that I'm very excited.

Alexis 36:32

Kristen Hannah has one

Kristen 36:33

I haven't seen it yet.

Alexis 36:34

I think so. I might be wrong, but I am almost positive she has one coming out this year. She released the women two years

Kristen 36:41

That's right. So it is about time for that. Let's see. We'll look it up real quick. Kristen. Hannah. New release. 2026. She doesn't have a new book confirmed for 2026.

Alexis 36:53

not

Kristen 36:53

Yeah.

Alexis 36:53

I thought she did.

Kristen 36:54

Yeah,

Alexis 36:55

Maybe it

Kristen 36:55

It's rumored in 2027 that her first draft was completed in 2025, according to Google, but we'll see.

Alexis 37:03

yeah.

Kristen 37:04

I don't know if you ever read the Midnight Library by Matt Hague.

Alexis 37:09

I started it, but got one page in and then

Kristen 37:11

I feel like people either.

Alexis 37:12

to return it to the library.

Kristen 37:13

I think people really like it or really don't. I enjoyed it. So he has a second book coming out called The Midnight Train that I think is supposed to be a follow on from it. I don't know a lot about it, but I'm planning on reading it anyway, so that's another new release that I'm looking forward to. So that's what I'm looking forward to in 2026.

Alexis 37:31

there's never a lack of books

Kristen 37:33

There's so many and you can never get ahead of it because there's more being published all the time that's why people's tbrs will never be done because you're just gonna keep adding more books that you want to read. It's a never ending cycle, but not a bad cycle. It means we'll always have something to read.

Alexis 37:51

Hopefully.

Kristen 37:52

Yes.

Alexis 37:53

I actually wanted to buy books this year I did get a couple books, but I honestly, cannot read a physical book anymore. I read physical books for my kids for school, but for personal reading, I just need my Kindle

Kristen 38:03

Yeah,

Alexis 38:04

go to the free little library,

Kristen 38:05

Yeah, I,

Alexis 38:06

got.

Kristen 38:06

I read the Great Alone in Hard Copy because I wasn't able to get it through my library, like when I needed it or whatever. The weight was too long. So I did read and I thought it was gonna be really hard because I've been so spoiled. My old lady eyes, and I can make the font bigger on my Kindle. It was an adjustment to go back to a physical book. But I got myself this little light that puts on it. So I've got the light right on the pages so my husband can have the lights off. I still prefer eBooks, but I can read a real book if I had to. But yeah, I prefer eBooks and audio, alexis, any final thoughts or closing bits of wisdom you'd like to leave with our listeners?

Alexis 38:50

That's all I'm

Kristen 38:51

I love that.

Alexis 38:51

reading.

Kristen 38:52

That's great advice. All right, everyone, keep reading and feel free to, reach out and let us know what your favorite books are or what you are looking forward to reading in 2026 or if there's recommendations of books you think that Alexis and I should read. Until next time, we'll talk to you guys later. Bye.

Speaker 3 39:15

Thanks for spending this time with me. I hope this conversation made you feel a little less alone. Take care of yourself and I'll talk with you soon.

39:25

I.