The end of 2025 is coming soon. (Thank Goodness!) It’s that time of the year when Kate and I start thinking about the books we liked the most this year. Before we post our lists, we were wondering, what our your favorite books you read in 2025? Drop them in the comments and let’s see which ones we all liked and which ones we need to add for 2026.
Tag Archives: Kate literally reads
Review: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Set on a small island North of the Arctic circle in Norway in the 1600s, this novel follows the lives of women in a fishing village who lose most of their men in a freak storm and then get caught up in the witch hysteria sweeping Europe. It is centered on the lives of Maren, a young girl woman from the island who lives with her mother, sister-in-law and her newborn nephew and Ursa, the Bergen born newly wed wife of the new Commissioner assigned to the town. Their relationship was an unexpected twist that I really enjoyed. Ursa is not prepared to find herself at the edge of the world in a one room house without so much as a maid and Maren is not expecting to stumble into a friendship with this helpless woman. As their friendship grows, a fever of distrust and poisonous religiosity spread through the village.
This book was compelling. I was infuriated, saddened, and touched. The ending caught me by surprise. If you like books that center women’s stories and historical fiction. I recommend you try this one!
Review: The Tenth Girl by Sara Faring

In this novel, a young woman attempting to escape the military dictatorship rounding up dissidents in Buenos Aires accepts a position at a school in Patagonia as an English teacher in the 1970s. The school is on the edge of the world, in a manor house built by an aristocratic family at the beginning of the century. The home had once been a school, but it has been shut down for decades because everyone caught a mysterious illness and many of the students and faculty died. They say that the house is built on land that was cursed by the indigenous people the family stole it from. Now the school is being reopened by the domineering business mogul who grew up in the house before she was forced to flee the mystery illness.
While this is creepy, our brave heroine Mavi likes her chances at the school overlooking ice fields in Southern Argentina better than her chances on the streets of Buenos Aires. Once at the school, she meets the other instructors and the son of the headmistress, heir to the wealthy family who owns the manor. And he’s a dick. Or, he starts off that way. But then his personality completely changes. That’s not the only strange thing that happens. There is a mysterious visitor in the night. The girls begin to fall sick. The house begins to decay. Everything begins to spiral out of control.
This book had an interesting twist that I was a little annoyed by at first. I could see it coming and I was hoping for another outcome. But the reveal wasn’t as clunky as I was expecting it to be and the resolution was interesting. This is an okay novel. I was hoping for a little more horror, but it kept me interested. If you like slightly creepy mysteries and need a reasonably quick read, this is pretty good. I am planning on checking out other books by Faring in the future.
Dracula Chapter 9

So, this is totally embarrassing. I recorded this more than a week ago and I’m just now getting to posting it. Sigh. Apologies.
In today’s installment, a flurry of activity happens as documented in various diary entries, letters, and telegrams! It is so exciting!
Chapter 9 can be found here.
You can get caught up here.
The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). And, the text is by Bram Stoker.
Dracula, Chapter 8
In which we discover what has happened to Jonathan Harker
In today’s installment, we find out what happened to Jonathan Harker. We also hear more about Dr. Seward’s most interesting patient and Lucy starts keeping her own diary!

The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). And, the text is by Bram Stoker.
Previous chapters can be found here.
Dracula Chapter 7
This just in! The news from Whitby!

The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Previous chapters can be found here.
Dracula Chapter 6

Cemetery in Whitby, England. Photo by Chris ( Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license)
In today’s installment, we hear more from Mina Murray and Dr. Seward! The chapter ends with some creepy foreshadowing! What will happen next?
The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Hear from Mina and Dr. Seward here.
Previous chapters can be found here.
Dracula Chapter 5

In today’s installment, we move on from Jonathan Harker’s trials and catch up on the correspondence of Miss Mina Murray and Miss Lucy Westenra.
So much correspondence awaits! Chapter 5 is here!
The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
You can catch up on previous chapters here, here, here, and here.
Dracula Chapter 4

In today’s installment, we continue with Jonathan Harker’s journal. Things are becoming rather precarious for Jonathan. What will happen next at Castle Dracula?
Find out by listening to Chapter 4!
The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Previous Chapters can be found here.
Dracula, Chapter 3!

Today we continue with Jonathan Harker’s journal. He is not in a good place, folks. Pray for Jonathan.
And, now, once again, for the technical details. The novel is Dracula by Bram Stoker. It’s read by Kate. The music is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) and this was edited in audacity.