1st Quarter 2026 Book Review

Oops, I let the first quarter of the year get away from me, and I haven't talked about books once! I read too many books to do a post about all of them, so I thought it would be fun to do a summary of my favorites and least favorites. If I can get my act together I do want to go back to monthly reviews, but no promises. I am on Goodreads and also post my books to my Instagram stories so if you want to see everything I've read, let me know!

I read 39 books in January, February, and March. 7 of them I gave 5 stars to. As I was looking at my spreadsheet {because yes, I have a spreadsheet}, I was a little surprised that SIX of the seven are non-fiction/memoirs! I always talk about loving 'chick lit' - and I do - but my stats are showing I gave the best ratings to real stories.

For the worst books I read during this period of time, sadly, they all fall somewhat into the category of romance - fantasy romance, YA romance, and a rom com. Am I getting pickier? I don't know!

I will say I've been struggling with Nora Roberts for awhile {she used to be a go to author for me} - I think she is just recycling ideas and not for the better. I had also been told 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' series was not as good as Jenny's Han's other series, but man, I wasn't expecting it to be as annoying as it turned out to be. And I've really enjoyed Jesse Q. Sutanto's Vera Wong series, but I will NOT be continuing with this series, boo.

I can't finish this quarter without giving a shout-out to the Game Changers series. I read 5 of the 6 books in 2026, and I loved all of it! They were all 4 star reads {with The Long Game getting 5 stars}. Who doesn't love a queer hockey series? The second book, Heated Rivalry, was released as a show at the end of 2025 and took the world by storm. I cannot wait for the 2nd season!

And there you have it! My first quarter of 2026 in books!

Trad Wife

I don't know what has gotten into me, but I have taken up some new hobbies that are VERY unlike me - I'm making my own sourdough bread {and am starting to explore discard recipes} AND I'm making my own butter. How very 'trad wife' of me! {grin}

This all started with my company making changes to our wellness subsidy - we get money every year to support our well-being. A lot of includes fitness related items (it covers gym memberships, for example), but every year the program gets expanded and kitchen appliances got added this year! I've always wanted a Kitchen Aid mixer, but given I'm not much of a cook, the expense never seemed worth it. BUT when it's free? Heck yeah!

Isn't she so pretty?!

One of my co-workers told me about how easy it is to make your own butter with a KitchenAid, so I had to try!

You can see the buttermilk separating from the butter, yay!

And here's the finished product. It was SUPER easy, and I've continued to make it. I want to see if there are recipes for honey butter, cinnamon butter, stuff like that.

THEN at one of our Girl Scout meetings, we had a dad come teach the girls how to make sourdough, and we all left with a little of his starter. I decided I wanted to keep this starter going and learn how to make bread. {This dad is the dad of Drew's bestie, so we've enjoyed his sourdough many, many times, so I was very excited to get some of his starter.}

I got off to a rocky start with bread that wouldn't rise.

Womp, womp

I did some internet sleuthing and had some help from a friend who makes her own, and I figured out my starter needed some help, and I didn't NEED this, but I decided to use more of my wellness subsidy to buy a bread oven! Who am I?

Growing starter, yay!

Beautiful bread oven

With those tweaks made and following THIS recipe, I finally had some success! I've now made at least 5 loaves and I think I've got it down. I want to do add-ins here as well {jalapeño cheese sourdough bread, anyone?!?}, but I'm so excited about being able to make my own bread and butter.

My first successful loaf

Can't wait to see what tempts me for next year's wellness subsidy, ha.