All of the Books I Read in December

Hi, there. 

Last you heard of me, I decided to update you about all of my reading habits in the last five months of 2025.  The SparkNotes version: I read two books in September, two in October, and, unfortunately, zero in November... leaving us on the brink of December 2025, eleven books away from the end of my Goodreads goal for the year. Based on that critical context, I can understand if you might not have had a ton of faith about my reading much else before 2026. 

Shows what you know! 

In fact, I became a woman transfixed, blind sprinting towards the finish line, in order to make one last valiant attempt at meeting my reading goals for 2025. You saw it in the image at the top of this page: I read those eleven books in that month! Ha ha! 

To be honest, I don't know if my local library should ban me or not: in the month of December alone, desperately casting as wide a net as possible for easy reads I could feasibly complete in less than the two weeks left available in 2025, I checked out a total of 29 (!!) various ebooks, audiobooks, and even one physical copy. I still ended up reading three books that were already on my shelves, of course, as these things tend to go, but all of those library holds really came through for me... well, eight of them, specifically. 

And before you even need to say anything, yes. The ugly part of my brain is already hard at work doing crisis control so that they don't lose the parliamentary seat sitting somewhere at the front of my cerebrum: One of these was Middle Grade, two of these were Romance, one was a Mystery, two were Food Writing, one was a Novella - not to mention that most of them were audiobooks, and two of them were less than three hours long! 

It's a little hard to hear his voice, though, over all the confetti going off, and the loudmouth on roller skates speeding around the floor yelling, LOOK WHO'S BACK, BABY! 

Best American Food Writing 2021, ed. Gabrielle Hamilton

four stars 

It's exactly what it says on the box: a collection of some of the best American short-form food writing published in 2021, curated by accomplished chef and author Gabrielle Hamilton. 

I love these collections, and this one certainly stands out for its notable commentary and perspective on what life was like during the Covidtimes. It could be utilized as its own sort of time capsule, a niche and comprehensive reminder of what was going on in the world (and what was important to us) when everything shut down. 

Some favorites include: 

• An exploration on how Sikhs were uniquely equipped to provide public aid to their communities when food access became questionable
• Yet another takedown of the long-chewed "why are there so many life stories on food blogs" complaint
• An impassioned perspective on how a rabbit hole on dairy farming led one woman to strike out all milk from her life, while breastfeeding her child during lockdown 
• A joyous documentation of how a man dying from AIDS in the '80s celebrated and promoted recipes to help those suffering during the crisis
• An appreciation for one woman's diligent and dedicated construction of the internet resource, The Food Timeline 
• A brief perspective on what it feels like to be quarantining with a Michelin-star-chef, when neither of you can leave your apartment 

Dear America: Christmas After All, Kathryn Lasky

a very nostalgic five stars! 

A fictional account of a young woman's difficult December during the Great Depression, from one of the best Middle Grade series ever written. 

There's only so much I can say that's new, novel, or interesting about a book that was published for the benefit of preteens over two decades ago, and that I reread on an annual basis. 

Maybe that this year's read felt even more poignant than ever before. I'm not being melodramatic about the subject matter: I am incredibly, bone-deep grateful that there are few ways my life mirrors that of a preteen girl in the 1930s. But at a time in American history that often feels worth of its own Dear America installment, it prompted me to stop and think about how our everyday documentation can translate extraordinary points in time through ordinary recollections. 

It will never be 2025 again, and it's both a blessing and a shame... a mixture of emotions that makes me want to prioritize my journaling habit again. 

Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf #3), Charlie Adhara

four stars 

In the third installment of Adhara's Big Bad Wolf series, investigators Park and Cooper journey to Park's hometown for his grandfather's memorial... only to learn the old man died under mysterious circumstances. Not to mention that similar attacks have been happening to other members of the family... 

It took me FOUR months to finish this book, not because I didn't care about it, but because I cared far, far too much: genuinely, I bailed at the 51% mark, during a scene where Cooper walks into a room where Park is talking to his ex-boyfriend, and it became so immediately distressing to me that I had to walk away for, again, FOUR MONTHS, until I had adequately forgot my cause for alarm, and tripped directly back into the action. 

Being that I already knew that they'd be fine - being that there are still two more books to go in this story until the end, being that its a Romance series, for goodness' sake - this is definitely one of the most pathetic things I managed to survive in 2025. 

Because they're Cooper Dayton and Oliver Park, for crying out loud! They're up against werewolf gangs, government interference, shadowy organizations, gun-happy hunters, reclusive family members, and more. You really think they're going to come undone over a surprise appearance by an old ex-whatever? (Eli ends up becoming a favorite of mine by books' end, so there ya go.) 

Not my favorite out of the three in the series thus far - that honor still belongs to the original, which was one of the most happy surprises of my reading life in the last decade - but a clear, positive progression of world-expansion, sociocultural detail work, and, of course, Oliver and Cooper's relationship. Remarkably health and communicative, despite the fact that my boys are each toting several large suitcases' worth of emotional baggage. 

Yeah, obviously I'm continuing on with this series. Let's see how long it takes me to finish the next installment in 2026. 

Tanqueray, Stephanie Johnson and Brandon Stanton

three stars 

A brief, joyous memoir of the life of Stephanie Johnson - also known as Tanqueray, the viral photo focus obsession - detailing her life in New York. 

I was a dedicated fan of Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York project, back when I was someone who would check Facebook multiple times a day (I am a product of my generation, after all). I appreciated his straightforward photography style; the fact that he let people speak for themselves... and of course, I loved the days where you'd see that the photo was one in a series, which meant that something really exciting was on the way, so you could check in multiple times between classes, meals, and club meetings to see what would happen next. 

It's why I have to assume that the print copies of this book are stuffed end-to-end with pictures... because the audiobook version is less than three hours long. 

It suited my purposes, and honestly, Stephanie's life stories are vibrant and colorful enough to fil in the blanks, and be compelling regardless of contextualization. But I think in the future, I'll check out a physical copy, just to have had the chance to really enjoy the full extent of it. 

RIP, Stephanie Johnson (She passed away in October of this past year, due to complications from a stroke). One of my favorite quotes from the book: "When I get to Heaven, I hope God shoes me a movie of my life. But just the funny parts, not the in-between parts, 'cause then we'd both start crying. Underneath all the laughs and the gags, it was always about one thing: survival." I'm glad your voice lives on in Brandon's collections, and in this audiobook. 

The Wake-Up Call, Beth O'Leary

three stars 

Working at a boutique country inn close to going under, two rival coworkers compete to see who can return missing wedding rings from the Lost and Found, in the hopes of saving their jobs. 

There's something about the holidays that just call for Romance: it's why our family ends up watching an average of at least ten Hallmark Countdown to Christmas movies each year. 'Tis the season for many things, and that include a good love story. So, I went on a hunt for a Romance set during the Yuletide, and found this one. 

I loved the setting: it's hard not to fall in love with the idea of a boutique bed and breakfast hotel in the English countryside, stocked with a diverse and eclectic cast of characters. Descriptions of the grounds, the decor, the food, were all stunning, and it was a great mini-universe to inhabit for a while. 

I also enjoyed the greater majority of its characters, most of whom were fascinating and specific, with fully-realized backstories and stakes in the main couples' quest - I fully expect there to be a continuation of some of the characters further down the line, and I think I'd really like to read them. 

I do wish a couple of things had been tweaked a little - I wish the main mystery had been teased a little bit more consistently over the whole course of the story, I wish that our main characters were a little less bone-headed (and that our heroine wasn't SUCH a colossal brat, because it made it almost impossible to recognize what our hero saw in her), and I wish things didn't wrap up so tidily at the end (though I did love Mandy's ending, and hope her role expands in the future). 

And to be so clear, this book SHOULD have been called "The Ring Thing," and the only reason I can imagine it wasn't was probably due to some kind of copyright law or something. 

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10), Agatha Christie

four stars 

One of the greatest mystery novels ever written, following iconic inspector Hercule Poirot as he tries to get to the bottom of a mysterious murder on a snowbound train. 

One of only a few rereads I got to indulge in this past year - a problem I have plans to remedy in 2026 - I thoroughly enjoyed adventuring back into the snowy mystery of the Orient Express. It's been a few years since I read it last (QUITE a few, plus an excellently-done Kenneth Branagh movie in between), and I was decently surprised to find that I really relished the experience. 

Christie is SUCH a master of the genre: watching the interrogations unfold over, widely, dialogue alone, meeting a motley cast of characters and slowly teasing apart their connections to each other, witnessing the coalescing of Poirot's final conjectures... it is really majestic to behold. And something only Christie could handle, in such an impressive way. 

Watching the Branagh film did have an unintended color on the experience though... it makes me want to go back and watch the OLD Poirot and Marple stuff, even though they might not be as modern and flashy. I will also say, Dan Matthews reads the audiobook of this one, and not only did I recognize his voice IMMEDIATELY, I was also incredibly impressed by how great of a job he did in covering the many distinct accents and speaking characterizations of such a large cast. 

I not only want to prioritize more rereads in 2026, but I'm wholeheartedly open to more Christie AND Matthews, as well. 

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, PhD

two stars

A gentle introduction to the "wild woman" model, through the perspectives of various global folklore. 

There's something I find incredibly comforting about '90s-era feminist writing... these are the artists, authors, and general taboo-indulgers and status-quo rejecters I grew up idolizing. Back in the early 2000s, I thought that living in a sun-dappled cottage next to a stream, my giant loom strung over in rainbow colors, daily yoga practice done on my front deck to an Enya soundtrack, murky artisan-purchased mug of hand-foraging leaves steaming beside me, sounded like the pinnacle of reaching a closer connection to some kind of "divine goddess" ideal. 

Before I learned that coffee rules and I'm allergic to patchouli, these were the women whose ranks I thought I might join someday. 

Now, there's a very cozy sense of nostalgia for me, in reading about Estes' "wild women": the wolfishness of rejecting social constraints, venturing outwards into nature and inwards towards the soul, expression as natural and primal as a howl - by way of connection to global fairy tales. 

However, it is very brief, fairly surface level, and doesn't cover as much ground as I would have liked. Maybe it feels so throwback-y because it reminds me of what kinds of theory served as an academic introduction, way back the day... popular feminist theory has grown a little bigger and wilder in the meantime. 

Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain

five stars! 

One of the great best-selling restauranteur memoirs in the world, read on audiobook by one of the most compelling food storytellers that ever lived. (In my personal opinion, of course.) 

On one hand, I can't believe it took me this long to actually pick up this master work in one of my favorite genres. Even when I had it queued up, ready to go on my iPhone, I almost balked because I felt like this was something that needed to be approached at a more momentous occasion, or given more care on a first listen. It was only because the audiobook was read by Bourdain himself that I pressed on. 

I can't help but feel we are all blessed by the fact that his voice - both audible and authorial - lives on, not only in this work, but all of his various media contributions. His candor, tremendous and occasionally shockingly-non-PC humor, and his force of personality were so tangible when spoken in his own voice, I'm incredibly glad that I approached the audiobook first. I do actually own a physical copy as well, and even enjoyed reading along with his words.

Shockingly honest, unrepentant and brash, but still imbued with tremendous self-awareness and conscience, it was Bourdain's personality I fell in love with first, but his perspective on the restaurant industry really was the focus. I found that my favorite parts included his sunup-to-sundown documentation of a day in the life as head chef in a restaurant, and his loving, hysterical profiles on the piratical, counterculture figures he has known throughout his career and their various screwball antics. 

The only reasons I think I'd tell anyone NOT to read this book is it they're the type who orders fish specials on Sundays. 

One of the moments that stuck with me most, was this: "When I die, I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of a sad list of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted, and advantages squandered." What an incredible talent, and a unmitigated loss. 

The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill

four stars 

In a riff on the classic folk tale of the Crane Wife, a young woman struggles to keep her household and her brother in line, after her artist mother takes in a mysterious crane, wounded by farm equipment. 

In need of a short read, I turned to Instagram recommendations - a wild country indeed - to see what other people were doing with their last week of 2025 to beef up their Goodreads goal. A Reel describing this book as the kind of magical realism that "takes up less than an afternoon to read, but takes up much longer in your brain," was enough to send me searching out a library hold, and I was ecstatic to see it was immediately available. True to word, I was done with this novella around two-hours-and-some-change. 

It definitely was magical realism, a genre I haven't had too much experience in since college, and one I was excited to explore again. I love twisting my brain over an extended metaphor, and the main characters in this fraught and tightly-edited family drama were compelling and relatable. 

There is a trope I'm getting more frustrated with lately, that of the Artist Mother, whose "free spirit" doesn't allow for her to do any kind of due diligence by her children. It made sense for the context of the story that was being told, but it made the continued emphasis of her talent and how good of an artist she was incredibly grating. Characters can have flaws, there can be multiple dimensions to matriarch characters, but it's just that this is a trope that is beginning to piss me off. 

A quick, enjoyable afternoon's worth of reading, that leads to at least a week's worth of thought, exactly as promised. 

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, Amanda Montell 

four stars

An engaging and unexpected exploration on the linguistics of cult behavior, and the ways that cult leaders use language to shape the worlds they sell to believers. 

I really wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. I had purchased the title - somewhat impulsively - on sale at Barnes and Noble earlier in the year, but wasn't itching to read it until my sibling emphasized how much THEY had enjoyed it. Once I saw that the audiobook was only eight hours long, I knew I had to pick it up in the last week of 2025. 

It was surprising. I think the author did a good job building the thesis outwards, in a natural progression that contained a lot more connective tissue than I would have anticipated. Statements that sounded inflammatory at face value were carefully and straightforwardly explained with focus and care, and each additional phase or chapter expanded upon previous content. 

One of my only critiques was of Montell's somewhat uneven application of her own. She was stubbornly dismissive of certain experiences or individuals at times; excessively accommodating and permissive at others. She made careful pains not to assign moral values or judgements on some organizations and people, which I felt leant an authoritative, objective edge to her reasoning - while others were clearly communicated with bias. It was like the meeting of Buzzfeed-headline-style provocation, dancing at odds with desperate unwillingness to get sued, that came off as occasionally inconsistent and overly personal. 

I wish more of the topic had been covered in-depth; Montell does such a good job communicating her arguments that I wanted even more linguistic exploration. I think this is a topic she did a fantastic job establishing as a worthy field of study, and in the end, I just wanted to keep hearing about it. 

The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron

five stars! 

The definitive recommendation for artists suffering from various blocks, this multi-week playbook for getting your creative groove back has been sold for over 30 years. 

I may have finished this title in December 2025, but I had been actively reading this book for over a year. I originally checked it out from the library in 2024, committed to taking notes the entire way, then only managed to get about halfway through before it was due back to fill someone else's library hold. In January of 2025, I found a completely unmarked 25th Anniversary edition at Value Village on sale for about $4, and I took it as a sign from the Universe that I needed to finish reading. 

It took me all year to do so, but after highlighting sections, transcribing them into a separate Word doc, collecting journal prompts, and reading the rest of the book, I feel confident that 2026 is going to be a year of even more creative fulfillment than 2025 was. 

The book itself is a little woo-woo-y, and I don't know how relatable or connective it might feel to people who don't have a healthy relationship with religion, or who might not be patient enough for journaling and regularly scheduled self-reflection, but for someone like me, it was perfect, and exactly what I needed to hear. 

And it was a really great ending point for 2025... setting me up with hope and vision for the creative process in the new year! 

And THAT'S IT FOR REVIEWS IN 2025. 

I'm spent, I'm gone, I'm done. I spent the last month of the year - primarily the last two weeks - blasting through as many books as I could possibly get my hands on before the onset of the new year, and writing journal pages until my hands cramped. I'm exhausted. And yet. 

I've read four books so far in 2026, and am trying to get at least one more wrapped up in the next few days. 

I'm raring to go. I've already maxed out my limit for holds I'm allowed to place on digital content through my local library (again), and have to wait until a couple come through for me in the next few weeks before I get to place any more. I have my 2026 intro Reading Journal spreads all fleshed out and have started writing reviews for the new year, I have three other blog drafts sitting in my In Progress folder waiting to be updated, and I'm ready to party. 

But I want to just take a moment to luxuriate in this feeling, too: I am so damn PROUD of myself. No resting on laurels, per se, but this was a hard-fought victory.

And you're going to hear more about it from me for a little while, until I get those other final blogposts of 2025 fired off, too. Hopefully in the next few days? As great as the end of last year was, I'm really ready to focus on 2026. 

What reading marked the end of your 2025? Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read in September, October, and November - The Fall Slump

Yes, I am aware that it's almost the new year. 2026 arrives in less than 48 hours, people! Are you ready for that hollow thud and slow-developing headache as the ten-year anniversary of 2016 hits us all in the shoulders?

And yet, my book reviews are still languishing somewhere around the beginning of Fall. Let's speed-run these last few months, shall we? After all, it's not like I was really reading anything... which is something that's been ever-so-slightly complicating my December. But that's for my next blogpost! 

september

A triumphant race across the finish lines of Summer Reading Challenges immediately manifests into a feet-achingly-busy work schedule, and a pretty significant lack of inspiration. No wonder both of these were audiobooks... and neither very good.

The Art of Small Talk, Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair

two-and-a-half stars

Besties and co-podcast-hosts Casey Wilson and Jessica St. Clair consult famous friends and podcast guests on the importance of small talk, and how to up your conversational game. 

Something that can occasionally be really interesting about audiobooks, is how much format plays into your feelings about the read as a whole. For instance, this audiobook was, for me, a first: solely published as an audio recording, without any affiliated print material at all, it includes audio clips from conversations with celebrities and friends, and organic dialogue - sans script - held in contrast to pre-written, narrated sections. These two friends have a podcast together, and you can tell, because their rapport feels genuine... but on the other side, large chunks are, in fact, scripted and straightforward, like a normal audiobook would typically be. 

It kind of threw off my enjoyment of the book as a whole - knowing that it was NOT, in fact, a book - but also, the brevity of the format didn't really give you enough information to go off of to make a real impact. Not the most troubling thing in the world, as small talk itself isn't supposed to take up too much time, but at the same time, it almost set the tone that the authors themselves weren't taking the subject very seriously. This problem would only be exacerbated when the authors would go on to reject their own lessons in later chapters - "Don't be afraid to lie" becomes "Aways stay true to yourself and be honest" AND "Set firm boundaries around topics you can't engage with civilly" AND "Always remain pleasant and positive," somehow- and don't even get me started on the super-weird spiritualism side of the final section. 

An interesting, audiobook-specific read, that was more of a fascination for its format choices than its actual content. 

Battle of the Bookstores, Ali Brady

three stars 

Two rival bookshop owners find themselves in a war of the words, as their landlord tells them he's planning on combining their shops... and only needs one manager to take up the space. Will they find a way to work together... even in the face of an unhappy ending? 

A pretty pedestrian Romance for Romance-lovers, that wasn't anything spectacular to me, but might really resonate with a younger person who loves bookish Internet culture more than I do. 

It adheres pretty directly to a lot of stereotypes and narrative formulas that already exist, and didn't do much to offend me too badly, but just were elements I've seen more successfully handled elsewhere. I think it wanted to be something like a You've Got Mail rivals-to-friends-to-lovers story, but unfortunately, it didn't really have the charm or charisma between its leads to carry that off. It ended up just striking too middle of the road, and almost came out just feeling like a wide-spanning amalgamation of pop culture cliches and catchphrases rather than something - if you'd excuse the pun - novel. 

The parts that stand out in my memory aren't super flattering: I thought the attitudes and actions of our heroine were, honestly, pretty childish and obnoxious, then forgiven too easily. I thought the hero was too blissfully perfect to even come close to striking realistic, and felt more like an experimental prototype for the Internet's Dream Bookish Boyfriend Wish Fulfillment Project than an actual person. I thought the building owner they were at odds with was cartoonish and silly. The stereotypes about bookish people were similarly hyperbolic and didn't really provide for common ground where the two could evenly meet. (If you remember my complaints about the dichotomy of librarian depictions in Romance from my last blogpost, this was the book I was referencing, btws.) 

And to be honest, now that we've reached so many years of MTV's Catfish and so many Internet how-tos on how to amateur-FBI your social media heart away in 2025, I think I'm just really hitting my limit with characters who meet anonymously online. 

There were certain parts of it that were unique and cute, and I am certainly not going to begrudge anyone who might want to read it themselves: again, especially those who are not jaded 30-somethings raised on and by the Internet, and not those who find certain aspects of TikTok-ified bookish culture irritating. It just wasn't for me. 

october

After emerging on the other side of a break-neck-paced September, I really thought that relishing my birth month and the oncoming cozy, spooky season would yield a little more snug-under-a-blanket vibes. Unfortunately, I only managed to get through two reads...

How to Build a Fashion Icon, Law Roach

two stars

Pop culture critic and retired stylist to the stars Law Roach shares words of wisdom on self-confidence and image-construction in a brief and occasionally insightful memoir. 

For starters, I just want to say that it wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. If anything, it was barely a book at all... it honestly could have been a very easily edited, tightly-run magazine editorial, in certain ways. Maybe a recurring guest column. 

I think this might be by design. For instance, I definitely think this was ghost-written, and primarily oriented to capitalize on Law Roach's already-ascending success. We just watched him as a new judge on the most recent season of Project Runway, after all, and that's on the heels of his other judging gig on Legendary, which ran for three seasons, AND - as he covered in the book - "quitting" his stylist career, which already came after clearing his roster of celeb clients to just a select few. A book would be a natural marketing progression, and would not only serve as a background moneymaker as he calculates his next step, but also help continue to establish his expert status to industry outsiders.

But I don't think it's a good sign if your primary takeaway from reading a memoir is, "This was a good brand marketing decision."

And again, it was also just incredibly short! Almost every story told left me wishing that they had been expanded upon, with more detail included, or context given. I wish there was more of a behind-the-scenes look at an extraordinary life and impressive career... instead, it all just felt a little surface level. Shallow, even. 

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards, Sara Raasch 

four stars 

Two rival graduate students at a prestigious magical university - competing for highly-prized grant funding - are forced to work together to complete their final research project before graduation. Will time spent sharing a lab lead to chemistry... or something a little more explosive?  

After generally losing my sanity over the one-two punch of The Nightmare Before Kissmas and Go Luck Yourself during the Ripped Bodice Bookstore Bingo Reading Challenge this past summer, adding Raasch's new release to the Library Holds roster was a total no-brainer. The fact that it was set in a Fantasy world, and billed for fans of popular D&D shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20, meant that I was willing to wait a while before it actually became available. 

And when I consider all three in a lineup like this, I can tell you right now, this one was my favorite. It eliminates a lot of the world-building issues I've had with the previous two by way of a completely original setting Raasch has built to stand on its own; the emotional backgrounds and personalities of our main characters feel relatable and realistic, even when their settings and backgrounds do not. I would even go as far to make the argument that this didn't necessarily HAVE  to be a Fantasy: with a little tweaking, it could just as easily been a contemporary-set New Adult collegiate Romance set in a high-powered DC or Ivy League school, but the Fantasy elements make it a lot of fun. 

(And just in case you assumed - like me - that the gentlemen on the cover of the novel were stand-ins for a certain boy wizard and his school-day-archnemesis, we are both incorrect: Raasch clarifies in the end material that they're actually heavily inspired by characters from one of the Critical Role campaigns.) 

I will say, I feel like Raasch's books are getting hornier as she progresses in her writing career, and I don't know if that's as a response to current publishing trends and reader feedback, or if she just feels more comfortable leaning into the smut now that there's been a clear positive reception. It almost got a little distracting for me... beyond all the sex and magic, though, there was still a LOT of heart, and that's what I think is its biggest draw. 

november

I don't know what it was, but by the time we got past Halloween, I was just about ready to take a nap. I had a major volunteering event, and a family member's birthday, but beyond some family coming in for Thanksgiving, November should have been a walk in the park... 

Nothing. Literally nothing. I finished zero books in November, and before you say anything else to me about it, you should note that it definitely wasn't for lack of trying. 

For instance, I tried to get further into Charlie Adhara's Thrown to the Wolves - which, you might recall, I ended August 51% of the way into - but when the plot set off my secondhand embarrassment a little too much, I had to bail, and became too nervous and overwhelmed to pick up again until literal months had passed. 

Meanwhile, Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid, was our work book club pick for the quarter, and being that I had come in HOT to our Summer meeting with oodles of big feelings about How to Stop Time by Matt Haig, I wanted to similarly show up, guns blazing again. Unfortunately, I couldn't make the meeting due to some scheduling issues, and even though I 1. love TJR, 2. really do plan on reading this book, and 3. was even able to get into the first fifteen pages or so, the fact that I'd be missing the meeting didn't exactly inspire me to pick it up. 

Bed and Break-Up, by Susie Dumond, was an interesting and unique lesbian Romance I had gotten about 15% of the way into, but those meager percentages were hard-won as I tried to contort myself back into the habit of reading again. I had to return it to the library, and got stuck once more. 

A House with Good Bones - by one of my personal faves, T. Kingfisher - was one of my October attempts, and I had manage to wriggle myself about 30% of the way in, but couldn't really handle when things started to get spooky. I think I'm solidly both a Horror AND a Kingfisher fan... it's just that it might be easier when the dark ISN'T creeping in by 4:30pm every night, so maybe I'll just commit to finishing this one next summer. 

Grief is for People, by Sloane Crosley, was a DNF at 24% - I couldn't get past the confusing and sometimes flat way that Crosley told stories about significant personal loss; it kind of felt like she was still in the process of moving through her own feelings, herself, and could only do so by writing about it. That might be something really compelling to revisit later, but not at this moment for me. 

That's a Great Question, by Elyse Myers, was actually something I was really excited to listen to, as the Internet personality narrates the audiobook herself. I was a fan of her online content because of her frank and open conversations around anxiety disorders, presented in a charming and funny way, but unfortunately, as it turns out, reading about someone having multiple panic attacks is not great for yours, either. 

Find Your Why, by David Mead, Peter Docker, and Simon Sniek, was a last-ditch effort, by me, to get into something, anything, by the end of the month, and usually, Self-Help is really good for a brief, compelling, fling of a read. However, it wasn't actually that - it's a corporate-schmorporate buzzword jargon-fest about connecting to your company's mission. To be perfectly honest, to me, it read like it's for business majors who don't know how to seem human or relatable when interviewing, and I ditched around 16% of the way in. 

Naming and shaming the Slump seemed to be the only way to make peace with what I was going through, and I spent the last week or so of November trying desperately to keep my chin up, enjoy time spent with family, and promise myself that I'd do better in December. 

Whether or not that's happened, though, is for you to find out in the next blogpost. 

When's the last time you battled a hardcore Reading Slump? How did you fight your way out? Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read in August: the Results of Summer Book Bingo 2025!

Let's cut to the chase: August was a whirlwind (as has also been, essentially, the other four final months of 2026, which is why this blogpost is only coming to you in the last week of December). 

The month kicked off with my best friend's Bachelorette weekend, followed by her wedding a few weeks later, a major work event we've been planning for since January, my brother starting his first full-time teaching job,  and then, of course, the impending onslaught of a three-days-off-in-twenty-one-days work schedule. 

To be honest, the fact that I managed to read six-and-a-half books in August is nothing short of a miracle. The fact that so many of them ended up being GOOD defies all logic, too! 

Seattle Public Library & Seattle Arts and Lectures' Summer Reading Challenge Book Bingo

Bingo Square: "Gender Bender"

If I Were You, Cesca Major

"As I look across, I see... myself. 

I've left my body. 

I'm staring at myself. I'm staring at Ghost Me. 

Oh my god, I have died." 

A relationship on the rocks gets tested further, when an unexpected lightning strike in a field on the drive to a wedding leads to Amy and Flynn swapping bodies... and Amy's the Maid of Honor. Could this sudden change in perspective help them see eye to eye, or will this glamorous, high-stakes weekend mark the end of more than just their relationship?

It's one thing to say that "Books are Better than Movies." But the reality is, there are quite a few things one format can do, that are limited in the other... for instance, adding a soundtrack cue to add nuance in a pivotal scene, or including straightforward visuals that translate immediately, rather than having to rely on paragraphs of description. Or a Body Swap Plot. 

The convoluted nature of trying to parse out who was who - and what body they were inhabiting, while talking to which fellow member of the huge cast of characters, and what those relationships looked like, and how they might be perceived by an outsider - made for a plot device that completely took out at the knees any kind of momentum once the narrative had gotten rolling. It made picking up and putting down the book nearly impossible, because to abandon the characters at any given moment would result in becoming completely unmoored from any kind of anchoring framework or context. 

Put on top of that some uniquely unhinged plot points - [MODERATE SPOILERS] take, for instance, the gradual reveal of a woman who believes she killed her dad but *gasp* didn't, or a man how might have fathered an infant by way of one of the other wedding guests, but *gasp* didn't do that either - and on the whole, you're left on the either side just kind of confused. Why introduce such befuddling, emotionally-weighty elements in such an already convoluted narrative framework? 

And WHY does the marketing material for this book keep trying to tell me it's a Rom-Com? I have a significantly difficult time finding anything remotely humorous about any part of this, and instead, spent a lot of time wondering about why every character felt called to make terrible choices around each other. 

At this point, Body Swap comedies should remain solely under the jurisdiction of respected professionals like Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. I don't think I want to ever read a book with a plot like this again. 

two stars 

Bingo Square: "BIPOC Historical Fiction / Nonfiction"

Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, Bob the Drag Queen

"They call you lazy even though you work more than you sleep, they call you stupid even though you engineered food from garbage, and they call you dangerous without acknowledging their hand in the matter." 

An unexpected global supernatural event leads to hundreds of notable historic figures coming back to life, in the modern world. When a washed-up hip hop producer gets contacted by the team representing the newly-revived Harriet Tubman, he's offered a chance to help assemble a rap album that could change the world... if he's brave enough to face the music again. 

I heard the words "Major Female Historical Figure with Ties to the Political Power of the Abolition Movement Gets a Modern-Day Rewrite with a Feminist Bent and a Tendency Towards Music and Stage Performance" and thought "Didn't Oh Mary just win a whole bunch of Tony's for something very similar? 

But the reality is, the approaches between the two are entirely different from each other, as both the voices of Cole Escola and Bob the Drag Queen are entirely different from each other (and to be honest, each fairly singular, on the whole). Whereas Escola plays Mary Todd Lincoln with high camp and outlandish comedy, Bob pitches Harriet Tubman as serious, with significant historical understanding to establish context and shape to her unconventional occupation of a contemporary space. "Harriet Tubman produces a rap album" might sound like the beginnings of an SNL bit, but Bob treats her with clear and focused direction, value placed on historical translation and heart, and what is so evidently a care for representation and appreciation. 

(What's even more interesting is that the promotional material for marketing this book primarily relied on comparisons to Hamilton... which I also don't think is as easy a collation as people might think.) 

Listening to the audiobook in particular really helps amplify the experience, because of Bob's uniquely commanding, then conversational, tone. There's a natural sense of humor in the way that he talks and tells his story in a way that really brings such a fantastical circumstance into reality - and as an added bonus, two of the songs "written" by Tubman are included at the end of the audiobook, and performed in a way that only someone like Bob has the gravitas and genre understanding to do. 

five stars!

Bingo Square: "Disability"

Sitting Pretty: The View From My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, Rebekah Taussig

"So here I am, writing this book, because my life isn't over, because the stories of disabled folks are so often distorted to fit someone else's louder story, because I wish I'd had any stories when I was growing up - like any at all - that represented my actual lived experiences, because there's another generation of exquisite people growing up disabled or about to become disabled, and stories are fucking powerful." 

Disability activist Rebekah Taussig shares friendly, funny, and often heart-breaking stories from her life, about growing up as a wheelchair user, and how the world could stand to learn a thing or two from the perspectives of those often forced to the outside of global conversations. 

On one hand, it's a conversational, relatively brief series of essays, penned by a childhood cancer survivor and paralyzed woman who never wanted to be a disability advocate, but found herself naturally turned into one anyways. 

On the other hand, I printed out three-double sided pages of notes that I had highlighted while reading the Kindle version of this book, that now live in the back of my Book Journal, in addition to the two-and-a-half handwritten pages of notes that I have in place of a "real" review for this book. 

Instead of me talking, I think you should hear some of these actual bangers from Taussig herself: 

"Disabled people are expected to cope with their own social ostracism, to handle being misunderstood and misrepresented, and at the same time, to put at ease those who perform the ostracism. In order to be seen as equally human, we have to find a way to be seen on the fringe by those firmly situated on the inside, to make those who would otherwise ignore and erase or misread us feel comfy and cozy and entertained while we attempt to delicately challenge their assumptions." 

Or this one:

"When we arrive at job interviews, go to the grocery store, show up at a fertility clinic or adoption agency, create online dating profiles, get pulled over by the police, entrust our bodies to medical professionals, pick up our kids from school, enter a place of worship, we are moving through a world where our image is shorthand for something incompetent or unreliable, helpless or dangerous, not worth living or inherently wrong, sinful or contagious, impotent or taboo, perverted or sexless. And these manifest into tangible results, from neglect to hate crimes, condescending laughter to sexual assault, unwelcome prayers to exorcisms, pity to assisted suicides, infantilization to police violence, dismissal to invasive medical procedures, familial rejection to domestic violence, idolization to social isolation." 

And let's just end on one of my favorites: 

"Instead of disability as the limitation, what if a lack of imagination was the actual barrier?"

four-and-a-half stars

Bingo Square: "Great Escapes"

Thornhedge, T. Kingfisher 

"It was paralyzing. How does anyone manage? There are too many streams and they all flow and all of them could be good, and there's no way to know. How does anyone even choose to do anything?

Well, no matter what choices she did or did not make, there was still a task remaining. 

Toadling, a fairy changeling stolen from her parents and raised amongst the ponds of Fairyland, is given a quest: return to the world she was taken from, and bestow a blessing upon the life of a royal infant. A simple task, leading to disastrous consequences... 

After centuries have passed, and the walls surrounding the castle have grown lush with thorns, a curse of unending sleep remains that has yet to be broken. Toadling will do anything to keep it that way.

Oh my gosh. Every once in a while, you just need to come across a new installment in a genre you've been a fan of since middle school, to really get your life back on track. 

I'm such a fan of fairy tale retellings, in a way that was deeply shaped by being a huge Disney nerd as a teen, and having Once Upon a Time airing on TV during my collegiate years. However, as an adult, it feels like a lot of that weight falls onto Literary Magical Realism (like Helen Oyeyemi) or Romance Novels (like Teresa Medeiros), which only really serve to highlight bits and pieces of what the story requires, rather than the truly whimsical, dark, sweeping, transformative power of a real fairy tale. 

Thank goodness for the Fantasy genre. 

And thank goodness for T. Kingfisher, who - like Seanan McGuire, similarly - has seemed to really find her lane writing excellence in the novella form. Stripping away superfluous detail or unnecessary world-establishment, taking a scant word count a long ways, and using it to make some real magic happen. There's a great deal of economy happening in what I'm sure is a rigorous editing process, and it translates beautifully. 

I loved the twist of the origins of our main character, the twist on what makes a fairy tale, the twist on the self-actualizing power of a happily-ever-after. I loved our twisted villain, and the twisted environment in which she lived. 

It was just a really damn good story. 

five stars! 

Ripped Bodice Bookstore Romance Book Bingo 

Bingo Square: "Happily Ever After"

Go Luck Yourself (Royals and Romance #2), Sara Raasch

"We're here. We have all day. I showed you a part of my soul, and we're next to a bed. So kiss me, you idiot, and be with me." 

After a collegiate prank goes awry - threatening the standing of the heir of St. Patrick's Day within the rest of the royal community - Kris, the younger prince of Christmas, decides to do the right thing, and apologize. Making amends gets interesting, when a plot to magically siphon some of Christmas' power is revealed, and the clues to the culprit behind the theft lead straight back to Ireland, and the unexpectedly attractive Prince Lochlan. Could there be a pot of gold at the end of this rivalry's rainbow, or is Kris' luck about to run out? 

Not only was I immediately infatuated with the deranged romance antics of TNBK back in July, but I knew I had to have more: I pretty immediately grabbed a library hold on Go Luck Yourself, and knew that as soon as I was home from my bestie's Bach weekend, I was going to treat myself to a real good time with this one. 

It somehow manages to be even more bonkers and horny than the first installment. Being that those were two of the reasons I had such a great time on my first rotation, I knew that I was in for a real treat. 

The world-building discrepancies I had an issue with in the first book are absolutely still here: the magic system still defies all attempts at logic (Why is their sole source of economic collateral so easily liquidized? Why is all of the holiday magic controlled and dispensed by only one person per court? What the hell is luck magic supposed to actually manifest as in a material sense, and is it problematic when it's used for financial gain?), and the treatment of global religion only gets more confusing (St. Patrick's Day is one of the primary holidays in question. It's viewpoint has nearly nothing to do with St. Patrick, or even Ireland, necessarily, but more like Boston's version of St. Patrick's Day). 

If I wanted to go more in detail about either one of those things, though, I'd have to reread the books. It wouldn't be a hard lot: I wanted to start back form the beginning pretty much as soon as I'd finished, and even if I did choose to read, I wouldn't be as focused on the insane authorial choices as much as I was as the tremendous fun I was having, just like I did the first time 'round. 

four stars

Bingo Square: "Grand Gesture"

The Next Best Fling (Librarians in Love #1), Gabriella Gomez

"Just imagining the tagline to this low-budget Lifetime film is enough to make me cringe:

He wants the bride, she wants the groom. But what is all they really want... is each other?" 

After her guy best friend - the man she's been in love with since their collegiate days - tells her he's finally proposing to his longtime sweetheart, Marcela knows she has to keep her mouth shut, no matter how much it hurts. If only she could convince the groom's brother to do the same, after she catches him on the verge of drunkenly confessing his own feelings to the soon-to-be bride. Now, they're fake-dating, hard, as unconventional accountability buddies in leaving the happy couple alone... but when secrets come to light, will the truth set anyone free, or just make everything worse? 

There was definitely a part about 7% of the way into this book where I thought to myself, " I know I hate it, but I have to keep going so that I can check off the Bingo Square." Honestly, though, I kind of wish I had also listened to that answering voice in my brain who rebutted "Not that badly." 

I should have clocked the pun in the title sooner - a play on the phrase "next best thing," as in a reference to the fact that despite our plus-sized heroine being in love with a man for over a decade, she could always JUST FALL IN LOVE WITH HIS BROTHER instead - but I was honestly so put off by the unbelievable choices being made by the majority of the main cast that I got a little bit distracted. The object of our heroine's initial affections was so immediately and obviously repugnant, it was impossible to take her seriously; if anything, it made her own seriously questionable behavior only more obnoxious. I had concerns about what either of their actual supposed love interests saw in them, and questioned their own decision-making skills in return. 

And I get that this is form a series called "Librarians in Love," but it did a thing with librarian characters that I really hate to see: it chooses one of two primary, equally-irritating archetypes (aka, Serious Spinster Who Only Appreciates REAL Literature, or Squee-ing YA-or-Romance TikTok-y Book Club Lover) and leans stereotypically hard into it, making the character  feel completely foreign to someone who actually does like to read books as well, let alone has spent quite a bit of time around librarians. 

(And I know I'm jumping the gun, here, but those two Librarian Types are going to come up in discussion in regards to a Romance novel I read later this Fall, as well. At this point, I just need someone to point me towards a librarian in this genre who doesn't fit either archetype, so I can sleep knowing they really exist.) 

two stars 

Bingo Square: "Historical Ruins"

Digging Dr. Jones, Olivia Jackson

"A stupid grin grew on my face. 'Tell me,' I said, leaning forward in my seat, 'Do you own a whip?'

'What?' Andrew's eyebrows went up. 

'And a brown fedora?'

He stared at me as if I had turned into an ogre, then smiled. 'For a moment I thought you were changing the subject to some fetish you have.'"

When a mysterious package gets delivered to the door of her suite at a fancy vacation resort, Adriana can't believe her luck. In actuality, it's the opposite: the beautiful bracelet inside isn't a souvenir from a secret admirer, but an improperly-delivered clue to an international mystery that ended up in the wrong person's hands. Now that the bracelet is stuck on her wrist for good, Adriana has to tag along with Andrew - the package's rightful recipient - to track down the missing treasure of a long-dead pirate... before the rivals right on their trail get there first. 

Again, I knew pretty early on that I was not going to love this book. 

I found the main character to be incredibly grating; I thought her brother was pitched as too much of a stereotype; I thought the villains were cartoonishly evil; and I thought our main love interest was so exaggeratedly perfect, so unreal, so perplexingly ideal, that I was truly, fully prepared for him NOT to be the "real" love interest by the end of the story. Seriously, I sailed through the first 50% of the book waiting for a shoe-drop / heel turn, where the facade would strip away to reveal the "real" bad guy, and the heroine would have to do a little more of the Indiana Jones-ing herself to right the wrongs and save the day. 

I think that was my brain's attempt at turning this book into something other than a fairly paint-by-numbers action plot. With the sheerest veneer of mystery and character development, it really ended up reminding me more like something of a plot synopsis for a mid-tier action blockbuster... but at least those usually have pretty people to look at, and fun visual effects to enjoy. Like with the Body Swap Plot convo around If I Were You, maybe an Action/Adventure plot is best left in the hands of capable Hollywood directors. 

At the endo of the day, the parts of the book I ended up being most impressed by were the incredibly  comprehensive and lovingly-curated Spotify playlist published at the front of the novel, and the anti-AI theft warning nested into the front pages with the copyright materials. 

two stars

Bingo Square: "Who-Doin-It (fka, who-done-it) Mystery Romance"

Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf #3), Charlie Adhara

I ended the month of August about 51% of the way through, so you'll have to wait for a future blogpost to hear all about it! 

So, how did it all go? 

I can't believe I did it!! 

In total, across three months, I read twenty-and-a-half books, allowing me to get a total of FOUR book bingos, across the two sheets I was playing! 

As always, I don't do this for the actual sport, but for the love of the game. I don't turn in my bingo cards or anything, but because I love the challenging nature of these reading challenges -- getting to read outside of my comfort zone; pick up new titles, authors, genres, I haven't tried before; and take a chance to really push myself at a time of the year where I have typically had a little more free time on my hands (I say "typically" because this year, more than ever before, that has emphatically not been the case). 

Of course, there's a very evil little voice muttering in the back of my head, the one I can never fully get to shut up:

It doesn't really count, because you included a book you haven't finished yet. It doesn't really count, because some of these were only novellas, and not "real" books. It doesn't count because a lot of these were on audiobook. Back in the day, you could read 25 and more books on Summer Vacation, so I don't know what you're so pleased about. Think of how much more you could have read, if you hadn't bothered wasting so much time on your damn phone.

But that voice will always live there. And maybe there's something to be said about never quite being satisfied with what you've accomplished, and how it can continue to propel you on to bigger and better things. 

But right now, I'm trying to get better about acknowledging my wins as they come. And I did a great job! 

What was the best thing you read in Summer 2025? What were some of the titles you didn't quite get to? Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read in July: Celebrating Fifteen Years on the Internet, and Seven Books Read!

This was a big month, one that really highlighted just how chaotic life can get when you've got a major work event coming up the first week of August, your best friend is imminently getting married, and you're trying to listen to as many audiobooks on your half-hour-twice-a-day commute as possible. (Plus, you know, feeding yourself, sleeping at least six hours a night, and all that other good stuff.)

Thankfully, that also meant there was so much to celebrate in July... including a very important date! 

my bloggoversary!

In late July, I hit a milestone that truly feels mind-boggling once you consider the implications: I started this blog on July 24th of 2010, which means that this year, Playing in the Pages turned 15. Had I decided to pursue teenage pregnancy as a goal, rather than translating my love of oversharing to the Internet, I'd have a high schooler on my hands. 

Clearly, this was well worth celebrating. 

My brother is my enthusiastic annual partner in these endeavors, so we kicked off the day at 85 Degree Bakery for delicious pastries and stocking up on later-snacks, then hit up Barnes and Noble, Half Price Books, and Value Village to pick out some fresh new reading selections. We grabbed lunch from one of our favorite hometown delis, went home for some chill time, and then munched on homemade burgers while watching The Secret of NIMH (It had to be something adapted from a book, after all, to fit the theme of the day). 

Bookstore One: Barnes and Noble

I got a free tote bag because I'm a Premium rewards member - something I genuinely feel is a pretty great move if you spend enough time and money in there - which also gave me an additional 10% off all of my purchases, as well as a $5 credit that I was able to redeem.  

• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, Amanda Montell
• The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise, Olivia Laing
• The Spellshop, Sarah Beth Durst
• Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan
• Ancillary Justice, Ann Leckie 

Bookstore Two: Half Price Books

• What's for Dessert?: Simple Recipes for Dessert People, Claire Saffitz (cookbook)
• The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman

Bookstore Three: Value Village

• The River Has Roots, Amal El-Mohtar
• Selected Stories, Alice Munro
• Pasta & Co. Encore, Marcella Rosene (cookbook)

In total, I spent less than $150 for eight books, two cookbooks, and a tote bag combined... which feels pretty good, for a day that I deliberately try to let myself splurge a little bit. I will say, for all that books are getting "more popular" again and the publishing industry is experiencing a resurgence, these titles feel like they're only getting pricier and pricier... which is why I spent the following day enjoying some library books, as well. 

All told, it was one of the best days out of the entire summer. Definitely a great way to ring in 15 years! 

(Special thanks to my brother, for spending the whole day with me celebrating, and for paying for our morning pastries. I'm so glad you loved The Secret of NIMH as much as I did!)

Seattle Public Library & Seattle Arts and Lectures' Summer Reading Challenge Book Bingo

Bingo Square: "Intergenerational Friendship"

The Reading List, Sara Nisha Adams

"It was strange, the idea that this book wasn't just for him. It was for everyone. All these people who had taken it out before him, people who would take it out after him. Every reader, unknowingly connected in some small way."

An older man who has recently lost his wife and a young girl grappling with her mother's mental health struggles inadvertently strike up an unconventional friendship, after she discovers a mysterious list of books left behind in the library. 

It's pretty rare that a piece of straightforward, contemporary-set, non-speculative, literary fiction just comes up and gets me good. I very rarely seek out the category, to be honest - at its best, it feels sedate and relatively boring; at it's worst, it's impossible to shield really significant flaws in writing, narrative voice, plot, and more, without any exciting genre-affiliated aesthetics or tropes to hide behind. If I'm going to read something about the real world, I'm much more likely to grab a nonfiction read, to be honest. 

But just like it's easy to give Oscars to movies about Hollywood, and it's easy to hand Tonys off to shows about musical theater, it is very, very easy to be someone who loves books, and fall in love with a book about reading. 

But it's not actually about the books mentioned at all, but instead, the transformative power they have to relate all kinds of people, the connective tissue that can run through a reading community, and change lives in powerful ways. Books can make you feel less alone, but people can do that, too, and this particular read in as much about forming a relationship with reading, as it is about forming a relationship with - and showing up for - others. 

And because of the severity of the mental health struggles discussed therein, this was a hard - but valuable - read. It's one I can see returning to again in the future, for sure. And being that I had only been familiar with a handful of titles on the mysterious list myself, it's actually given me a bit of a TBR to seek out in the future, as well. 

five stars! 

Bingo Square: "Read in Public" 

How to Stop Time, Matt Haig

"And, just as it only takes a moment to die, it only takes a moment to live. You just close your eyes and let every futile fear slip away. And then, in this new state, free from fear, you ask yourself, Who am I? If I could live without doubt, what would I do? If I could be kind without the fear of being fucked over? If I could love without fear of being hurt? If I could taste the sweetness of today without thinking of how I will miss the taste tomorrow? If I could not fear the passing of time and the people it will steal? Yes. What would I do? Who would I care for? What battle would I fight? Which paths would I step down? What joys would I allow myself? What internal mysteries would I solve? How, in short, would I live?" 

A man with a perplexing medical diagnosis - that his body ages at a fractional rate of a normal human, allowing him to live for centuries - finds himself reflecting on all that he has lost, when faced with the potential for new love. Meanwhile, the shadowy organization that allows him to live covertly has a request he's not sure he can fulfill. 

This was the choice of our Book Club at work, and was, in fact, supplied by one of my work besties. Which made it incredibly awkward when everyone else in Book Club disliked it so much, that all I heard from other people around the office was how getting through it was a dull, hard slog. I actually didn't even fully commit to taking part in actually reading it until about a week and a half before our scheduled meeting. 

And... listen. It was actually pretty easy to get through. Haig has a really straightforward, unadorned style of writing that makes zipping along relatively painless. And on top of that, for about 80% of the book, I would argue that very little of importance happens, and you can kind of just... skim. 

The pacing, I think, was one of the issues that a few of my fellow Book Club members a little bogged down... nothing happens for entire stretches, and the flashback scenes are oddly placed and not all intrinsic to the plot beyond a semi-explanation of our main character's emotional responses. The central plot, also, is only half there, and barely given more shading beyond flat characterizations, which makes character decisions utterly baffling and occasionally - especially for female characters - so lackluster and devoid of life that it felt like they were there more as objects for the male characters to rotate around. 

And then, in the final chapter, quite a lot happens. Not a whole lot of those previous issues are resolved, mind you, but at least it makes it feel like the rest of the book meant something, for all that everything clashes together in the space of mere minutes like planets colliding, without much time at all for de-escalation or falling action. 

While some of the lines were kind of pretty, it didn't help how disjointed and confused the rest of the book felt. 

two-and-a-half stars

Bingo Square: "Hope" 

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, Barack Obama

"We all know the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is ordered by God to offer up his only son, and without argument, he takes Isaac to the mountaintop, binds him to an altar, and raises his knife, prepared to act as God had commanded. 

Of course, in the end, God sends down an angel to intercede at the very last minute, and Abraham passes God's test of devotion. 

But it's fair to say that if any of us saw Abraham on the roof of his apartment building raising his knife, we would, at the very least, call the police, and expect the Department of Children and Family Services to take Isaac away from Abraham. We would do so because we do not hear what Abraham hears, do not see what Abraham sees, true as those experiences may be. So the best we can do is act in accordance with those things that we all see, and that we all hear, be it common laws or basic reason." 

Written in 2006, Barack Obama grounds his political philosophy in bipartisanship, respect, and belief in the innate power of democracy, with the hopes of uniting the country towards positive, meaningful change. 

I was really in a bind when it came to selecting a read to fill this Bingo Square. On one hand, it was such a loosely defined category, that I was struggling to understand what the actual parameters were, and on the other, the world around me seemed to be full of so much chaos and division, that reading anything hopeful felt like a futile effort from jump. So I decided to just get as literal as possible, and picked out a book with the word "Hope" in the title. 

The Audacity of Hope was the book Obama wrote while still a senator, two years after firing up the Democratic National Convention with his tremendous speaking abilities, hoping to build steam towards his first bid at the presidency. He talked about representation, the political machine, opposition leaders he respected, and the various personalities who formed integral aspects of his understanding in Washington DC. He talked about how his faith informed his politics, how his family stood at the core of his greatest motivations, and how he believed that Americans deserved more from their civic leaders. 

It was, in short, one of the least hopeful things I could have read this year. 

The world was a different place when this book was written, in a lot of important ways, and listening to the audiobook - which he also narrated, mind you, and was therefore spoken with his thoughtful cadence and meaningful intonation - felt like watching the world of yesteryear through a funhouse mirror. It made me nostalgic for a simpler time, one that I'm not sure ever actually existed, but might have just been a symptom of the fact that I was in middle school, and didn't yet have access to an machine that lives in my pocket and alerts me, multiple times an hour, to the worst that humanity has to offer itself. Plus, maybe everything just feels a little more hopeful when you're twelve. 

Beautiful book, well written, well spoken. Completely, totally depressing in 2025. 

four stars

Ripped Bodice Bookstore Romance Book Bingo 

Bingo Square: "Fairy Tale Retelling" 

Charming the Prince (Once Upon a Time #1), Teresa Medeiros

" 'Tis fortunate that you've become such an expert on women, is it not? A less able man might have bungled that entire situation.' " 

After being cast aside by her father's new wife in favor of her own demanding brats, Willow takes up the opportunity to be married off to a neighboring lord in search of a bride. Unfortunately, she's also looking to get away from taking care of so many children, which is exactly what he needs her for... and he's trying not to make any more of them, which makes her beauty and charm a very unwelcome distraction. 

I was in a real difficult spot to try and pick a favorite quote out of this one. Here's another one I almost chose:

"Perhaps you should consider a vow of celibacy. I've no doubt God would find it a most impressive sacrifice, much more pleasing in His eyes than if you had wed some stout fishwife with a mustache." 

This whole book is chock full of sarcastic quips, unexpected one-liners, and witty conversations, making it probably one of the more hilarious Historical Romances I've ever read. 

Teresa Medeiros is one of those names that pops up frequently in conversations about what names one might include when constructing a comprehensive Historical Romance canon of work, as she serves as such a formative and relevant voice within the genre, and I can totally see why. And as someone who has had her fair share of frustration with reading Romances from before feminism was apparently discovered in the mid-'2000s - if that - this one was not too bad for its perspectives on women (if you deliberately choose to overlook the somewhat starting age gap implications). 

I will say, for something that professes to be a fairy tale retelling, it's pretty damn difficult to get the shades of it. Beyond the initial starting point of "My Dad's evil wife makes me dress shabbily and do chores and cater to the whims of my bratty stepsiblings" thing, you can't really see this one as being Cinderella beyond page 20. 

three-and-a-half stars

Bingo Square: "Kissing in the Rain"

Beach Read, Emily Henry 

"I did what any reasonable adult woman would do when confronted with her college rival turned next-door neighbor. I dove behind the nearest bookshelf." 

A romance novel author - left reeling from a sudden revelation at her father's funeral - flees to a surprise beachfront inheritance. Unfortunately, her new neighbor is not only a fellow author, but the literary fiction elitist she thought she left behind. As it turns out, there's something they have in common: insurmountable writer's block. But maybe they can fix it together? 

I have stayed off the Emily Henry hype train for quite a while longer than probably anticipated, for someone who has three of her books currently sitting on her TBR shelves ($1 for the trio at my local library, purchased back in January). Of course what made me finally cave was a Bingo prompt... and then the book I ended up reading wasn't even one I owned. 

It was, however, the title that put Henry on the map. And I can see why: the novel is so funny that I laughed out loud, its main characters feel specific and unique and interesting, the ways the two are eventually brought together are compelling and fun to read, and the beachfront location - plus some of the various dates the two went on together - felt like summer. 

I will also say: it's a bit of a weird one. 

Our main hero isn't just a pretentious dweeb, but also a bit of an eccentric (half of their journey together involves following the harrowing story of a cult that ended in tremendous violence, which he's been researching), and our heroine's primary actions are motivated by a concept so bleak and anti-romantic that I spent the entire story waiting for there to be a twisty "gotcha" that would explain it all away, that never came... if anything, it gets bolstered, reinforced, and weirdly validated by the main character by the end of the book (Kind of a spoiler, even though you learn basically all of it in the first chapter: her father cheated on her mother twice, WHILE SHE HAD CANCER, going as far as SECRETLY PURCHASING THE BEACH HOUSE OUR CHARACTER STAYS IN during the course of the novel, all of which our heroine finds out about when the mistress hands her keys and a letter at her father's funeral). 

So you can maybe get why - even though I enjoyed it - this one was a three star read for me. 

three stars

Bingo Square: "Medieval" 

Well Matched (Well Met #3), Jen DeLuca

" 'Needing and wanting are two different things, you know. You can want something and not need it.' " 

Sending a child off to college means prepping your too-big house for sale, right? At least that's what mom April tells herself when she enlists hunky Mitch to help with some final touch-ups before she calls her realtor. When Mitch asks for a favor of his own, the two grow closer than previously anticipated. But can April get over their gap in age and life experience? And is she distracting Mitch too much from his job at their local Ren Faire? 

I wasn't originally planning on reading multiple Jen DeLuca romance novels in 2025, but when the category calls for something "Medieval," sometimes it's just easier to shoot for something "Renaissance" instead... even when it's not actually set during the Renaissance, but in contemporary times, and simply features a Ren Faire as a part of the central plot. Much like a visit to the actual Ren Faire, we're playing fast and loose with time period accuracy here. 

Unfortunately, this read was a little bit of a dud for me - while I greatly enjoyed Well Met, the first in the series, I actually DNF'd Well Played quite a while ago, because I could not get into it. Haunted Ever After was a pretty fun return to DeLuca's writing. I had a little bit more faith going into Well Matched, but just from the central couple alone - both of whom we'd met in the previous installments - I didn't think I'd have a great time. 

And I was pretty much right: I think DeLuca's strengths really lie within her main characters' chemistry and relatability, which means that if you don't click with the main characters or find them a bit unlikeable or unreasonable, you're probably not going to have a great time. I liked the grumpy, no-nonsense vibes of elder sister April in Well Met, but found her a little too obstinate and angry in Well Matched. Similarly, I loved Mitch's happy-go-lucky, golden retriever energy in the earlier novel, but found him to be a little underdeveloped and shallow in this one. I didn't buy into their romance very much - if only in part because I didn't feel like April did, either, as she spends quite a lot of the book playing it down or trying to minimize it. 

The tropes involved - fake dating, friends with benefits, overstepping family members, the surprise return of a deadbeat parent into a child's life - were also not some of my favorites. (Which made it incredibly annoying when they started popping up in other romances I read this year, too.) 

three-and-a-half stars

Bingo Square: "Punny Title" 

The Nightmare Before Kissmas (Royals & Romance #1), Sara Raasch

" 'I don't think our purpose is to prevent all the bad things in the world,' he says. 'I think our purpose is to help people endure those things.' " 

The Crown Prince of Christmas - already on thin ice with his domineering Dad, Santa Claus - gets an unwelcome gift in his stocking on his return to the North Pole for the holiday season: for starters, he's been made central in a marriage plot to consolidate Easter's power by allying it with Christmas. And for another, Halloween heard the news, and immediately sent their own Prince to try and win the Easter Princess' hand, instead. Worst of all, it turns out that the Crown Prince of Halloween is the guy he made out with in an alleyway years before, on the worst day of his life... 

So, just in case you couldn't tell from that description, you need to understand that this is not a serious book. 

Not to spoil anything for you that you couldn't already surmise from the preceding blurb, but the Crown Prince of Christmas ends up making the Yuletide real gay by falling for the Prince of Halloween. The world-building that would allow for this sort of circumstance to arise is similarly bonkers. 

The holidays are affiliated with specific locations, which map over with real-life locations in the world (for instance, Halloween's general location falls in New England). There are full-time residents of the holidays; these ruling royal families involve subjects and everything that monarchies entail, including other lords and ladies, and active factions that also have bearing into the operations of a given holiday. There are tabloids specifically for these holiday-states, that interfere notably with the lives of the holiday representatives and their children. And the economic balance of these holiday-states plays a major part in both the first and second books of the series, as it is measured in magic, but it manifests in their world differently based on the state with which it is affiliated. 

I could go on. I will go on. 

Because honestly, some of the implications of all of these big swings are SO messy: the dominant holiday regime supersedes affiliated seasonal holidays - meaning Christmas holds rank over not just something like the Feast of St. Lucia, but also the other Winter Holidays, like Solstice, Diwali, Hanukkah, etc. because it generates the most magic, or is practiced by the most people - which all goes to say that the Christian colonization structure is firmly in effect here, only, wait! The holidays are still held as secular: even though there super for sure is a Santa Claus, Virginia, there is definitely no affiliation with the real story of Saint Nicholas - nor Mary, Joseph, or Jesus Christ - to speak of. (There's only the sheerest reference, in an attempt to semi-explain the absence, but it's barely a sentence long and doesn't do much by way of contextualization.)

Plus this still raises questions about how the rest of things are going here on Earth. Does China just not exist? Because according to a quick Google search, the numbers of people on a global scale who celebrate Christmas and Lunar New Year are remarkably similar. Shouldn't we have gotten a reference to Lunar New Year being a major player in the holiday realm at some point? (Furthermore, in 2026, Lunar New Year will be celebrated on Tuesday, February 17th... does that mean that they grapple with the likes of Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day for power??)

And on top of all of this, there was a LOT of talk about corset vests. 

Here's the thing, though: I absolutely loved it. I did. It was SO bonkers, wholly relied on you taking every single thing that happened at face value, and was unrepentant about how bananas the entire formation of the world was, that it really did require you to turn off great big chunks of your brain in the most cozily lobotomizing of ways. Every once in a while, you'd get a paragraph that was beautifully written or demonstrated such a care of characterization that it genuinely felt like came from a different story, like a line of gold running through quartz, and it would flash beautifully in the sun until you'd go sailing right over the end of another paragraph into something dazzlingly unhinged again.

I loved the sequel, too - though you'll have to wait to hear about that - and on top of that, I have a hold on the author's next work at the library. Haha. 

four stars

Did you read anything good this summer? Would you have picked up something different to fulfill these prompts? Let me know, in the comments below!