Sunday Summary – 23rd November 2025
Today’s Sunday Summary brings plenty of reading progress. I’ve enjoyed the week off work, and the good news is, I’ve got another one next week! I’ve enjoyed doing some jobs round the house, and reading… of course!
On the blog, I shared a book review for Stephen King’s The Waste Lands. I’ve enjoyed reading this series so far, and The Waste Lands is probably my favourite book so far!
On Friday, I shared a Shelf Control post. In this series, I look at upcoming books on my TBR. Friday’s feature was a historical fiction classic that’s nearly 1000 pages long.
Books Read
The Shadow of What Was Lost
Last week, I shared in my Sunday Summary that I was about 50% through the book. It’s a long audiobook, and I had approximately 14hrs audio left. I wasn’t sure if I’d manage to listen to it all this week. Progress so far was pretty slow. However, I shouldn’t have doubted myself!
I’ve spent a good portion of the week doing household jobs that allow me to listen to audio as well. That, and working on a large cross-stitch project! I love listening to audiobooks at the same time. Thankfully I’m not having to wrestle kittens off my work too frequently anymore and the two hobbies go side-by-side very well 😂
I finished The Shadow of What Was Lost yesterday and I have lots of thoughts! The epilogue did so much for convincing me to pick up the sequel. I’m looking forward to documenting my thoughts on this one properly.
Empire of the Dawn
Another finish I was hoping for this week, but didn’t quite get to, was Empire of the Dawn.
I’ve read the book spasmodically over the week. And I’m enjoying it! However, with the jobs I’m doing at home at the moment, I’ve not done much in the way of conventional reading. I was also out watching Wicked: For Good last night.
My focus will be to finish Empire of the Dawn next week. As of this Sunday Summary, I’m about 20% through. I’m intrigued where the story is going to take us.
The Housemaid’s Secret
The final book I’ve progressed with this week is one I started today – The Housemaid’s Secret. Just as I was settling down to read Empire of the Dawn, one of the kittens decided to fall asleep on my arm and rendered holding a hardback book impossible.
So, I started my next audiobook instead! It’s been a good few months since I listened to The Housemaid earlier this year. My efforts to continue series whilst they’re still fresh in my mind motivated me to start The Housemaid’s Secret.
Already, I have listened to 2 hours and 30 minutes of the housemaid secret so far. If you are a stats boffin, that puts me at 26% progress in one sitting. Not bad, eh? I always feel like progress goes really quickly when I pick up a short audiobook straight after a lengthy one 😂 When you consider this audiobook is just under 10 hours long, it’s only a fraction over a third of The Shadow of What Was Lost in terms of page count. Big difference!
I’m actually enjoying the shorter and more faster post read. I do enjoy a lengthy epic, but sometimes something short and sweet (and a thriller to boot) helps pick up the pace.
Books Discovered
It’s another quiet week here in terms of new additions to my monthly TBR. I actually took a book off my reading list when prepping for Friday’s Shelf Control post. It’s fair to say things are moving in the right direction…
Coming Up…
Next week is the last week of November. Please tell me where that’s gone! I’ll have to start mentioning the C word before long 😂
Before that though, I’ve got plenty of non-festive related content to share with you. I’m pointedly avoiding this week’s Top Ten Tuesday post theme to get away from the festivities – how bad is that?
My first post of the week will be a recap on where I’m up to with my reading goals this year and an opportunity to set my final intentions for the last month of the year. How close am I to my reading goals? Is there anything I can do to get myself over the finish line with some of these before the end of the year? That post is all about setting out my intentions. I hope you can check in with me and celebrate my progress so far.
On Friday, I’ll return with a First Lines Friday feature post. I’m in the mood to set myself a challenge for next week’s post. Sometimes I like to make my life difficult, okay? 😆 For next week’s First Lines Friday, I’m challenging myself to feature a book that is either for a young adult or new adult audience. Most of my reading list falls outside of these two genres, so I’ve got my work cut out for me to feature something interesting that meets these criteria.
Last, but certainly by no means least, I’ll be back the same time next week with another Sunday Summary. Fingers crossed, I’m able to use my time off work to get a lot more reading done before I’m back to the daily grind.
That’s all for me in this Sunday Summary update, however. How have you spent your weekend? What projects do you have ongoing at the moment, bookish or otherwise?
Top 1% in Epic