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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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