An Open Book: November 2025

Carolyn Astfalk hosts the Open Book linkup: Share what you're reading and get recommendations from other readers.

Welcome to the November 2025 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler's Heart AND Catholicmom.com.

An Open Book is all about what my family is reading this month, from the adults down to the little kids.

Share what you're reading by linking up your blog post below.

Simply write about what you're reading. You can make it personal or, as I do, extend it to the whole family. Your post can be as simple as a few lines about the book or as in-depth as a 700-word review. That's entirely up to you. You can even forego writing all together and record a video or simply post cover photos.

No blog? No problem. Please share what you're reading in the comments.

Here are the books my family and I have read this month:

The busyness of fall activities and sports won’t let up, so I’ve not been reading as much as I’d like. I did, however, continue reading the next book in Crystal Walton’s Love in Willow Creek series, The Notebook. These are sweet, small-town romances, but this series is set apart by a couple of arcs running throughout involving the mystery love interest discovered in the journal of a deceased older character and ongoing crimes affecting Willow Creek residents and businesses. This book is a second chance for writer/editor Avery and her childhood sweetheart, musician Jax. They must wrangle with the challenges of their chosen careers and estrangements from family members before they can work out a future together. 

The Bennetts Bloom by Catholic Mom contributing writer Katie Fitzgerald was compiled from a series of non-chronological short fiction posts, but it reads smoothly as a decades-long romance that puts the SLOW in slow burn. Widowed dad Dave and his neighbor Fern weather Grace's growing pains while their mutual affection is left on the back burner. Ultimately, The Bennetts Bloom is a lovely family portrait that reminded me of God's goodness in working all things toward our ultimate good, however long that may take due to our own missteps. 

I read Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkien at the behest of my oldest son, who’s been recommending this short story which he read in Tales from the Perilous Realm. It’s perfect reading for this time of year as Catholics will recognize in this metaphorical story lessons about using our time wisely, death, and purgatory. It’s the kind of story I want to read and re-read to glean as much as I can from the life of a simple painter, Niggle, who is distracted from completing his masterpiece by his neighbor’s interruptions and pleas for assistance.  

Corinna Turner has a new and timely book in her Friends in High Places series. The Higher We Go follows familiar characters from other books in the series. This installment, featuring newly sainted Pier Giorgio Frassati’s inspirational life, involves Daniel, in remission from leukemia, and wheelchair-bound Miri on pilgrimage in the mountains the young Italian saint so loved. The bravery and charity modeled by Saint Pier Giorgio is inspirational to the group of youths making the challenging ascent. 

My oldest son has been reading a lot of G.K. Chesterton’s work. He listened to Heretics, one of Chesterton’s best-known books, on audiobook. This collection of essays tackles a variety of subjects and heresies, including nihilism, humanism, eugenics, utilitarianism, social Darwinism, and more. It combines Chesterton’s clever insights and wit. 

Chesterton’s What I Saw in America was also on my son’s reading list last month. (The edition linked and pictured is not the one my son read, but it does have a more attractive cover.) This is Chesterton’s account of his first trip to the United States of America. It is a compilation of articles he wrote on the topic for an English publication. I love his description of America as “a nation with the soul of a church.” 

Finally, he just finished reading I Also Had My Hour, a sort-of autobiography of Chesterton edited by Chesterton scholar Dale Ahlquist. Using hundreds of sources, Ahlquist compiled various poems and paragraphs that provide an intimate look at Chesterton from his youth to his travels, struggles, and conversion to Catholicism. My son shared so much wit and lore from this book. Full review coming for Catholic Mom. 

Going Deeper: How Thinking about Ordinary Experience Leads Us to God by Leo Severino has made a few appearances in this space. My oldest daughter read it for her own sake, and now my son read it for the sake of being better able to articulate these ideas to others. His review: “Explains arguments for the uncaused cause, unmoved mover, intelligent design, and creatio ex nihilo in a very concise and straightforward manner. Perfect for those unfamiliar with the arguments or those looking for a quick refresher on arguments for the reasonableness of God’s existence.” 

Returning to the Civil War, my son read David Herbert Donad’s best-selling biography Lincoln. The book covers Abraham Lincoln from his early life in Kentucky through his presidency. This book was recommended by one of my son’s college professors and covers Lincoln’s political career well. However, it covered little concerning economic policy, which was something my son had been hoping to learn more about. He would recommend this book as “a good introduction to the Civil War as it covers a lot of the politics leading up to and during the Lincoln administration.” 

Since we’re in spooky season, there were several spooky classics read here in October. My adult son read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and several other stories by Robert Louis Stevenson. The premise of this tale is one everyone knows — two opposite, competing personalities in a single man: a good nature and an evil nature. 

My middle-school daughter read two classics: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (her brother’s illustrated edition) about Victor Frankenstien’s monstrous creation and the havoc that it wreaks and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, a gothic tale of a young woman who marries a secretive, wealthy widower and moves to his grand estate by the sea. 

My oldest daughter read William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. If you haven’t read this one, it mostly takes place on a remote island where the magician Prospero lives with his daughter Miranda and servants Caliban and Ariel. Themes include revenge and forgiveness. (I remember watching the 1982 film adaption during my high school Shakespeare class. For fellow teens of the 1980s, it featured Molly Ringwald as Miranda. Wikipedia tells me it was a box office flop.) 

My youngest son enjoyed a book I found recommended by Catholic Mom contributing writer AnneMarie Miller on her An Open Book post last month. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantasy that drew my attention for my son because of AnneMarie’s description of it as being “King Arthur-ish.” It is the story of a young sorcerer’s testing. My middle school son enjoyed it, and I’m glad this series made it onto my radar, for his sake.

Join the linkup to share what you're reading — or leave a comment below.

Want more details on An Open Book?

You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up.

Copyright 2025 Carolyn Astfalk
Images: Canva
This article contains Amazon affiliate links, which provide a small compensation to the author of this piece when purchases are made through the links, at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting our Catholic Mom writers in this way.