Monthly Review: January 2025

Does it still count as your birthday after you die? You are gone—have been for nearly four years now—yet here is your spiked handwriting and sketchy directions. You have misspelled “whisk” and you have included no measurements except for the flour (3/4 of a cup). I try to think when I must have had your pork chops last. You only made them for me a few times, but my mother sometimes cooked them when I was growing up, our stovetop crowded with our two biggest skillets and a stew pot for mashed potatoes. I don’t know that I’ve made your pork chops since I got married; I certainly haven’t since you died.

I scoop flour into a shallow bowl and sprinkle it liberally with Lawry’s and cracked pepper. I started cooking with Lawry’s again after you died. Like Irish Spring and LL Bean, it is a brand I associate entirely with you. I gently dredge each pork chop, pressing the flour into the pink slabs before laying them into my cast iron skillet. Once they brown, I pour in the water, followed by the rest of the flour mixture. Despite my ministrations of whisking and flipping, my gravy looks lumpy and one of the chops keeps sticking to the bottom. I am not losing hope, but I am losing confidence.

Nevertheless, I add more water. I keep whisking. I think about you, standing at the stove in one of your flannel shirts with a dish towel slung over your shoulder. I think about your glasses steaming when you lift the lid. I think about the trays of coffee cake and pots of potato soup and tins of caramel corn you whipped up whenever we’d visit. Once I grew up, it was my turn to cook for you, and you grinned as you told me how much you loved whatever I had made.

You would be 87 today, Grammy told me this morning. It is hard for me to imagine what you’d be like, since you never really seemed to age. You mowed the lawn in your sun hat. You drove out to see us at least once most years, from West Virginia’s winding mountain roads to the country highways of the Midwest. You remembered everything and could still do most of it, so you were never truly old. Even so, I always felt that I should hug you extra and remember you each time we said goodbye because one day you would not come back. I suppose I always knew you would be my first grandparent to go.

Now you are gone, and I am here, making your pork chops. They’ve cooked for the requisite hour, and it’s time to see whether I’ve done the thing correctly. I set my table. We sit for dinner. In Minnesota and South Carolina and Wisconsin, our family is eating potato soup and Heath Blizzards and your pork chops, a birthday feast in your honor.

The first bite is exactly as good as I remember. Like everything you made and everything you did, your pork chops are unassumingly wonderful. They taste like gravy and Lawry’s. They taste like you are still here to love me.

---

Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of January.

What I Read

• The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese (★★★★★)

• The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins (★★★★)

• The Davenports, Krystal Marquis (★★)

If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.

What I Cooked

• Brussels Sprout and Bacon Frittata

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★

Keeper: Probably not

Comments: I love both frittatas and Brussels sprouts, but I'm not sure I love them together.

• Baked Cheeseburger Sliders

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: The proportion of meat to buns to pan seemed off. I ended up trying to make this in a 9 by 9, which kind of worked except for that the meat was an absolute slab. I would probably use less meat next time, but there would be a next time, so I would consider this a win on the whole.

• Best Breakfast Casserole

Difficulty: ★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I thought there was no possible way that everything the recipe called for would fit in my humble 9 by 13, but miraculously it did, and it was delicious. It's hard to label any recipe "the best," but it's a great one.

• Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken and Potatoes

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★

Keeper: No

Comments: Aggressively lemony.

• Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea, and Arugula Salad

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: I made this for dinner, and it was so good the two of us ate the entire pan in one sitting. In the future, I would definitely serve this with chicken or salmon since I'm not sure it's hearty enough to stand alone as a dinner, but the flavor was outstanding.

What I Created

• Some magnet poems while I was playing with a website "for school"

May your days be filled with beauty, and may your heart be filled with the willingness to see and give thanks for it.

Monthly Review: December 2024

Perhaps I never see again

such wonders,

which I never saw before. Perhaps

this utter silence

where only snowflakes stir

will splinter

at a step. What then?

It may be

I come not this way again,

not in such timeless hours.

Yet if the sun climbs not, nor falls,

perhaps there is no coming day when I depart,

for here is where forever lives

and as it goes go I. I shall not die, nor age—

The flurries vanish in my palms.

The sparkling branches pawn their jewels.

The long exhale marks one less steaming breath

until death closes overhead,

ice on a lake

in failing light.

I shall not glimpse such mysteries again.

---

Here's what I read, cooked, and created in the month of December.

What I Read

• Revering God, Thaddeus Williams (★★★★★)

• The Frindle Files, Andrew Clements (★★★★★)

• The Hotel Balzaar, Kate DiCamillo (★★★★)

• Mysterious Ways, Wendy Wunder (★★★)

If you want to hear the rationale behind my rating, head to my Goodreads for full reviews.

What I Cooked

• Carrot Soup with Caramelized Onions

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★

Keeper: No

Comments: I ended up having to make this soup twice because I accidentally boiled the pan dry the first time, and I don't know whether it was worth the trouble. It just tasted like carrots.

• Rolled Spinach Omelette

Difficulty: ★★

Flavor: ★★★★

Keeper: Yes

Comments: Once again, I did a half-recipe in my quarter sheet pan. I was honestly unsure whether it would work, but it actually turned out quite fabulously. If I were to make it again, however, I would not use frozen spinach. It has a certain pondwater taste to it that I find off-putting.

• Honey Buffalo Pretzels

Difficulty: ★

Flavor: ★★

Keeper: No

Comments: I've kept the bag around for the last week hoping that every time I have one they will magically taste better than I remembered...haven't been successful yet. Sadly just not good.

What I Created

• Original essay "A Year in Books"

• Unpublished original poem "Letter to the Student Who Has Decided to Try Passing My Class the Day of the Exam"

May your days be filled with beauty, and may your heart be filled with the willingness to see and give thanks for it.

A Year in Books: My Most Memorable Reads of 2024

Back in the day, when I used to write actual articles for my blog, I ended the year with a reading roundup. After a hiatus of a few years in which I often thought “You know, I really should do that again,” I am finally exchanging my guilt for action. If you are wondering what to add to your TBR for 2025, here are some of my most memorable reads of the year.

---

Best Reread

Although I remember a battered paperback copy of The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster floating around my home when I was a child, I only ever watched the movie until the semester I student taught, at which point I hastily read the novel in order to ensure that a gaggle of 8th graders derived some level of education from the story. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience but did not return to the book until I got a great deal on a beautiful annotated special edition and decided to sit down and enjoy it again.

This 1961 children’s classic begins with perhaps the best piece of characterization in all of literature:

There was once a boy named Milo who didn't know what to do with himself -- not just sometimes, but always. When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd bothered. Nothing really interested him -- least of all the things that should have. "It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time," he remarked one day as he walked dejectedly home from school. "I can't see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February." And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all.

Upon re-reading this passage, I realized that I know many Milos—they are my students. And, like Milo, they are capable of embarking on a fantastic journey toward true wisdom, which consists not in the gathering of facts but in the applying of knowledge toward virtuous ends. Although this book is nearly 65 years old, its protagonist could easily be a 21st century iPad kid, and watching him mature over the course of his hero’s journey through the Kingdom of Wisdom is hopeful and delightful. Everybody over the age of 10 should read this book at least once.

Most Encouraging

Though I had never read any of this author’s work before, when I saw the title Now and Not Yet by Ruth Chou Simons, I knew I needed to not only read the book but also join the launch team. Ruth invested in the launch team in a way I have never before seen during a book launch, and it was such a sweet experience to read the book and be involved with getting it out into the world. The book addresses the experience of not being where you want to be in life (or, conversely, being where you don’t want to be). Ruth’s gentle exhortations are deeply scriptural, not platitudinal. She doesn’t make false promises about coming breakthroughs or imminent deliverance. She simply encourages readers to trust God’s character and cooperate with His purposes of sanctification through each season of our lives. If life feels less than ideal for you right now, no matter the reason, you would benefit from this book.

Most Gripping Historical Fiction

Ruta Sepetys has a knack for making obscure moments in 20th century history not just understandable, but fascinating, and she's done it again in The Fountains of Silence. Set in fascist Spain during the 1950s, this historical fiction novel depicts a romance between a Spanish girl and an American boy with Spanish heritage. The setting and characters are gorgeously drawn, and the plot is masterful.

Favorite Book Club Read

This novelization of Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway takes on the difficult task of honoring a famous and beloved professional life while also fleshing out a sketchy (both in terms of historical detail and in terms of integrity) personal life. Cleverly, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell focuses on Anne’s perspective, never even referring to Shakespeare by name, as she weaves together the family’s origin and its defining tragedy: the loss of the Shakespeares’ only son. Even though I knew what was coming, I positively wept reading this book. What a beautiful portrait of marriage, grief, and family.

Craziest Memoir

If my spouse cheated on me twice (or at all, really), I simply would not write a book about it, much less such a good book as How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key. To a) go through that awful experience and then b) write a book about it which is c) not just insightful but also actually funny is a true feat. Key’s marriage does not represent the typical marriage, but it does represent the grace, repentance, and commitment that are necessary for a good marriage, making it a worthwhile read.

Biggest Heap of Flaming Garbage

Given that the author is such a darling of the intellectual morass that is Bookstagram/BookTok, I did not have high hopes for Verity by Colleen Hoover. Its opening scene features a fatal hit-and-run that is then leveraged into a meet-cute between the protagonist and the love interest (whose eyes are chartreuse to match his tie), and it only gets worse from there. It was so bad that I literally took notes on all the terrible, ridiculous things these characters say and do over the course of the absurdly contrived plot.

If I could make one reading resolution on behalf of the Internet, it would be this: in 2025, we have to stop pretending books are good just because the plot holds a reader’s interest the entire time, ends with an unexpected twist, or contains graphic and improbable sex scenes. Colleen Hoover cannot write her way out of a paper bag, and if this is one of her best books, I’d hate to spend even one moment of the coming year on the others.