My Bookstack, January-February (2026) 📚

It's National Reading Month! How will you choose your next book?

March is National Reading Month! So what could be better than bragging on my local libraries? We live on the border of Indiana and Michigan, so we’re members of libraries in both states.

Our Michigan library opened its brand new location last week and it is just beautiful! I can’t wait to spend more time there.

Although we have to pay for our Indiana library membership, it’s worth it! For their winter reading challenge, my husband and I picked up our “bingo” sheets, crossed off tasks as we completed them, and returned them for a new FREE book! Some tasks were easy, like read in your pajamas, while in bed, or for twenty minutes. Others were more challenging, like read a book whose title starts with W, a book with a person’s face on the cover, an award-winning book, or a book that’s been made into a movie.

Most of the books I read over the past two months were picked to help me earn my free book. (FYI, the prize I chose was There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak.) Some books were already on my TBR list, and one helped me prepare for the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin University that I’ll be attending in April. With so many books on my TBR shelves, it’s hard to decide which one to pick up next!

How do you decide what to read when? Do you follow a reading plan or choose on a whim?

And now, on to the reviews.

*BookStack, vol. 13, January-February 2026.

Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand (Jeff Chu) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Highly Recommend. In this beautifully written memoir, former journalist turned ordained pastor Jeff Chu opens up about his life’s journey. After leaving the church that rejected him because of his sexuality, he eventually found his faith again, left NYC with his husband, and enrolled in Princeton’s Farminary—a farm-based seminary program. He writes vulnerably about his experiences—the relationships that shaped him, the “soil” from which he came, and the love that grew there. His sensuous prose brings the farm and the food it produces to life.

Shortly after finishing the book, I had the pleasure of hearing Chu teach a class on finding meaning from beauty, and then preach a sermon on repentance, grace, and community that produces fruit. His honest messages and unpretentious speaking style made me love this book even more. (Audiobook)

The Light Between Oceans (M.L. Stedman) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommend. I read this book as part of our library’s winter challenge—for a book that has been made into a movie. The setting was a central character in this book, with a remote island in Australia being home to the young lighthouse keeper, Tom, and his wife, Isabel. The author’s ability to bring me into that setting was wonderful. The story was engaging, but also emotionally draining.

Having chosen to keep a baby they found in a boat that washed ashore (after they had lost three pregnancies), Tom and Isabel struggle with their decision, especially after discovering the baby’s grieving biological mother lives on the mainland. At four years old, the child has bonded with them, and they are the only parents she knows. So there is no simple answer to the question: What’s the right thing to do?

Despite knowing that any ending would be heartbreaking, I felt the author’s choice was satisfying and believable. Stedman’s use of metaphors—light, water, oceans—throughout the novel added to the beauty of this book. As a side note, I also watched the movie. It was disappointing in its cursory attempt to tell such an emotionally complex story. (Kindle)

Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë , narrated by Anne Flosnik) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommend. I remember watching the old black-and-white movie on TV as a kid. It was probably the 1970s version, so I would have been a tween by the time it hit television. It made quite an impression on me, because, although I'd forgotten the plot, I never forgot the passionate love between Catherine and Heathcliff.

With the story again hitting the big screen this month, I finally read (listened to) the book. And oh my, what a sad, depressing saga! Unrequited love and revenge; mistreatment of wives, children, and servants; premature deaths; and ghosts haunting the desolate moors of Northern England—it was not a happy story, and yet it pulled me in and its ending brought a little light to an otherwise dark story.

In fact, there were many aspects of the book I did enjoy. Being transported back to the early 1800s was an adventure. In a unique style, Emily Brontë chose to narrate her only novel primarily through the tenant, Mr. Lockwood, and Nelly, the servant. The book is also a poignant reminder that adults are often shaped in early life, and how children and teens are treated can produce both positive and negative character traits for life. (Audiobook and Paperback)

The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir (Kelly Bishop) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommend. My girls and I started watching Gilmore Girls (a.k.a. GG) when both were home from college during the pandemic. We finally finished the seventh season in 2025, and watched “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” this past Christmas break. I was sad to see it end, as much for this special time with my daughters, as for the quirky characters and tender stories in and around Star’s Hollow.

One of those characters was Emily Gilmore, matriarch of the “GGs”, and played by Kelly Bishop. When I saw she had published her memoir, I added it to my TBR list, and when our library challenge asked me to read a book with a person’s face on the cover, it fit the bill!

The audiobook, narrated by Bishop, traces her career from dancer to show girl to TV and big screen actress. We often think of only the glamorous lives of these Hollywood actors, and forget the stress they endure—with auditions, rehearsals, travel, and often not knowing where their next paycheck will come from. Bishop’s life was not without difficulty as she worked through family and financial struggles, fell in and out of relationships, and supported her husband during an extended illness. I especially enjoyed the behind-the-scenes GG moments she shares, and admire her tenacity to keep working well into her late 70s.

Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church (Abram VanEngen) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Highly Recommend. From the clever, welcoming title to the rich, intelligent content, Van Engen's book on poetry was an inspiring eye-opener. At times, I felt like I was chatting and reminiscing with an old friend over coffee, and at other times, I was sitting in an introductory college course on poetry with a wise professor (which VanEngen is, at Washington University in St. Louis).

When I was younger, I was drawn to both reading and writing poetry. But over the years, for reasons I can't explain, I became intimidated by it. This book has encouraged me to get beyond my apprehension and dive back into poetry. Van Engen provides a roadmap for how to do that and also explains why we, specifically Christians, should read poetry. His examples of psalms, songs, and poetry in the Bible fit seamlessly alongside examples from past and modern-day poets.

A personal note: Abram (as I know him) grew up in the church I attend, and was a student in the second-grade Sunday school class I taught (way back when). It was surprising and gratifying to read his recollections of our church family, former pastor, and even his Sunday school classes! (eBook) (A CCFW recommended read.)

Malibu Rising (Taylor Jenkins Reid) ⭐️⭐️⭐️

You might like it, but it wasn’t for me. I loved Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six, and although there are many similarities between it and Malibu Rising, this book left much to be desired. Themes of celebrity lives, a deadbeat dad, infidelity, promiscuity, and drug and alcohol abuse (all similar to Daisy Jones) abound in this California beachside saga of four hot surfer siblings.

Reid, again, finds a unique way to tell the story, i.e., by using a dual timeline—alternating between the day of Nina Riva’s big end-of-summer party in the 80s (told hour by hour) and flashbacks to the siblings’ past family drama in the 50s and 60s. The emphasis on sibling strength in the face of adversity and Nina’s selfless care for the younger Rivas were positive takeaways from the otherwise dysfunctional lifestyles the Rivas and their friends portray. I guess I was hoping for a more redemptive conclusion, as I’d come to expect after reading Daisy Jones. But, like the ocean waves on a hot summer day, this one left me only lukewarm. (Hardcover and Audiobook)

And…that’s the stack!

Let me know if you’ve read or plan to read any of these books! Or, just let me know you were here by “hitting the 🖤.”

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Happy Reading! 📚

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