I’m still celebrating #Sonderbooks25 – my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks! In fact, in a couple months – in August – I will hit the actual 25th anniversary.
My original plan was to reread my reviews of the Sonderbooks Stand-outs for each year, choose one of the books to reread, and blog about one year’s Stand-outs each week or two.
Ha!
I began this project in January 2025, and now in June 2026, I have just finished going through my 2005 reviews.
Let’s just say the project expanded, because I was having so much fun.
First, I’m redoing the Stand-outs pages so that they are in phone-friendly form. This was much harder with years 2001 to 2005 (or so I’m telling myself), which were in a completely different form and had to be almost rewritten from scratch. I’m hoping it will be easier from here on out. But meanwhile: Here’s my new 2005 Sonderbooks Stand-out page.
But beyond that, once I got to reading reviews, I started reading ALL the reviews. And the first five years of that is also a bigger job, because at the time I was working half-time and had more time to read. Those early reviews were posted in Sonderbooks “Issues” with books from each category in every issue, and issues came out every three weeks or so. Those reviews are not on this blog, but you can find them on the Back Issues page. 2005 covered Sonderbooks #91 through Sonderbooks #104
And while I was doing that, it was fun to read about what happened in my life when I was reading those particular books, on my Project 52 posts.
But 2005? That was the year my life fell apart as my husband left me. So It took five Project 52 posts: Heartbreak, Please, Let Me Fix It!, Into the Wilderness, I’ll Always Have Paris!, and Separation and Spain.
[And – as it happens, the day after I reread those posts – on vacation in France – I just revisited the Abbaye de Royaumont in a full circle moment. It was at the Abbaye in November 2005 that I decided to become a librarian and keep writing and gained hope about my life, even though it was falling apart at the time. It was awesome to go back and say to my past self – The librarian thing and the writing thing? They turned out even better than you dreamed!]
I should add that this is the first year the two lists have changed slightly. Last year, because of reading Sheila Wray Gregoire’s work, I took down my reviews of two 2005 Sonderbooks Stand-outs on marriage, Love and Respect and For Women Only. I’ve got links as to why on the pages, but I did leave them out of the new Stand-outs page.
As for the individual books, there were some incredibly good books among the 2005 Sonderbooks Stand-outs.
The one that most changed my life, that was absolutely the most crucial for my well-being was The Script: The 100% Absolutely Predictable Things Men Do When They Cheat, by Elizabeth Landers and Vicky Mainzer. That was the book that finally helped me realize that despite what my husband said (even though I still believed him he wasn’t having an affair) – it was not all my fault that he was divorcing me. I was not, in fact, impossible to live with. That was all part of The Script. I won’t be rereading that book. Rereading my detailed review was enough.
There are several books that are going in my I-definitely-plan-to-reread-these pile:
Confessions of Super Mom, by Melanie Lynne Hauser
Q & A, by Vikas Swarup,
The Folk Keeper, by Franny Billingsley (met her at Royaumont!)
Once Upon a Midlife, by Allen B. Chinen
Writing About Your Life, by William Zinsser
Walking a Literary Labyrinth, by Nancy M. Malone (I brought this one along on my France trip and already finished rereading it. Review will post soon.)
2005 was a tough year to live, but it was a great year for reading!
I hope 2025 readers may discover some of these gems.