Reader's Journal 2025 • Sage Parnassus

It’s time to share my 2025 Reader’s Journal! It’s been such a busy year for me and that shows up in my shorter list this year. First I share my top 5 picks and then all the others, some of which were great, too. I would love to hear your feedback on some of these titles. My list does not include my Bible reading, The Cloud of Witness, Charlotte Mason’s 6 Volumes, or school books. If you post your list somewhere, feel free to share or link in the comments. I would love to see what you enjoyed this year. An “*” denotes a book also highly recommended. Happy reading!

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Consumption? Tuberculosis? Sanatoriums? For years, especially while homeschooling, these things were often in the background of all our reading. I never fully understood what tuberculosis was. This is a beautifully written and engaging book on this unlikely subject. So interesting!

2. Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West by Andrew Wilson

I want to reread this one. He takes the events from around the world around this date and shows the changes that ensued and how they were all impacting each other. He goes on to show how these events impact us today. It’s so brilliant and I’ve never read a book that pulls all these seemingly disparate events together – events we have all read so much about but perhaps never understood the connections.

3. Awaking Wonder – Opening Your Child’s Heart to the Beauty of Learning by Sally Clarkson

Awaking Wonder by Sally Clarkson was a delightful surprise read for me this year. Why? Because the advice that she so beautifully shares is literally the same advice from my own experience that I share in my mentoring and consulting – from how to schedule your school day to how to nurture neurodiverse children. But the thing that struck me was that it was all Charlotte Mason principles even though she never quotes Charlotte Mason. Sections on the will, relationships (she calls it nurturing), wonder, and character are spot-on but articulated in modern terms. In fact, this might be a good choice to share with a new homeschooling mom who leans toward a Mason education but isn’t ready to read her six-volumes.

4. Big Dumb Eyes by Nate Bargatze

We listened to this on Audible. It’s read by the author and is just hilarious. I think he’s my favorite living comedian, lol.

5. Sister, Sinner – The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson by Claire Hoffman

Ever since I did some research on her in high school I have loved reading about this famous and controversial woman. This book focuses on her strange disappearance and the media circus that followed.

Here are the rest!

6. Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple

7. Lighthouse by Eugenia Price

8. New Moon Rising by Eugenia Price

9. The Beloved Invader by Eugenia Price

10. St. Simons Memoir by Eugenia Price*

11. Educated by Tara Westover*

12. A Liberal Education For All by J. Carroll Smith and John Thorley

13. The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary d. Schmidt*

14. The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson

15. Where the Deer and the Antelope Play by Nick Offerman

16. The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff