Q3 2025 reading recap
So long, summer reading!
Happy October!
If I wasn’t already excited about flipping the calendar page and clearing the slate, this morning’s Instagram scroll—full of seasonal memes and October-themed poetry that made me feel even more hopeful about the weeks ahead—helped me get there. It doesn’t hurt that today is also the first day that it’s actually started to feel like fall. I have the windows open and a sweater on and I’m nowhere near sweating. I made a little fall bucket list in my bullet journal yesterday. We’re ready. Bring it on.
Check out my reading recaps from the first half of the year below!
With a new season, of course, comes the chance to reflect on the recent past, which I especially like doing in terms of books.
My reading life in Q3 of 2025 was… good, not great. Summer reading as a parent is so different than summer reading in my old life, which I can’t help but grieve as part of my identity when I’m on vacation or simply trying to enjoy the sunshine. I wasn’t quite as excited about the books I picked up in July, August, and September as I was in the months that came before—or at least, not as many of them. Matt and I were pretty into Love Island (and Love Island UK), which meant more TV on weeknights when I’d really loved pulling back on that in the spring.
All in all, I think there’s room to set myself up to be a happier reader in the rest of 2025. Still, there were a handful of titles that stood out, and I’m excited to share them with you as you build out your TBR for the final months of the year and beyond.
Here are the books I especially loved in this quarter of the year…
1. Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner: I was not as wild about Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel as everyone else seemed to be, but I’m so glad I set those vibes aside to dive into her latest tome of a book. There are few things I love more in my reading life than a chunky, complicated family story, which is exactly what we get with Long Island Compromise. It has shades of Freedom and The Corrections (two of my all-time favorites), plus so many rich people behaving badly.
2. The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller: I picked this one up largely at Olivia’s effusive recommendation, and while it was a heavy read (please, please check the trigger warnings if that’s something you like to do!), I can’t say enough about how incredibly beautifully it’s written. Something I’m aiming for in my own writing going forward is a stronger sense of place, and in The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller delivers an atmospheric setting that makes me both want to travel there and put pen to paper about a meaningful location of my own. Plus, there’s the drama!
3. Salty by Kate Myers: Kate and I share an agent in Claire Friedman, and I had a feeling when I read her first novel (recently optioned by the one and only Amy Poehler!) that we might also share (if I may be so bold!) a sensibility about our writing. I’m not sure I’ve read many other authors who write with such a distinct voice, smart and funny and observant about the world. Also, if you have spent more than a handful of hours watching Below Deck (guilty), this one’s a must. Lots of money, rotating narrators, family intrigue, a beachy setting… it’s all here.
4. Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff: I’ve been a little late to hop on the 831 Stories train, but Big Fan is the one that sucked me right in to what this super cool company is doing. In it, a recently humiliated (but still badass) political strategist finds herself in close company with her biggest teen crush: a former boy band member now seeking success on his own terms. Like the other books being published by 831 Stories, this one feels to me like it takes its reader seriously while still offering them plenty of fun, light moments. At 176 pages, it’s the perfect reset if you’ve been in a reading rut or just need something new.
5. Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding by Lian Dolan: I grabbed this one on a whim while picking up my holds at the library simply because the cover spoke to me—and I’m happy it did! It’s always fun to consume wedding-related content, but Abigail and Alexa has a bit of a twist. The titular characters are the mothers of the bride and groom in imminent nuptials that seem to grow increasingly complex as the book goes on. Being in their heads felt like a bit of a romp, and there are some shades of Mamma Mia, too.
6. Everyone Is Lying to You by Jo Piazza: Jo Piazza is one of my favorite people in what I would call the ~storytelling space.~ She produces amazing podcasts, cranks out timely (and often funny) social media content, and writes books across genres. It’s extra fun for me that she happens to live in Philadelphia and has generously become a champion of my work! That aside, I was basically counting down the days until the release of Everyone Is Lying to You because Jo has done such extensive reporting on the world of influencers and the book was getting tons of buzz as a first-of-its-kind trad wife murder mystery. I’m not someone who typically goes for murder mysteries, but Everyone Is Lying to You delivered as a social commentary, too (and dovetailed nicely, I must say, with my own upcoming debut). Anyone with even a passing fascination with influencer culture will love it.
7. Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein: If forced to name my favorite book of the year in this very moment, I think my answer just might be Spectacular Things. I dig a sister story, but this book is so much more than that: an in-depth look at women’s professional soccer, a tale of a slightly unconventional family, and a master class in writing from multiple perspectives. I adored it.
8. The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich: Many people who are way smarter and more well-read than I am have showered Louise Erdrich with acclaim and awards, every last bit of which is incredibly well-deserved. I was unsure about The Mighty Red because of the cover but saw how much love it was getting last year and I was so much more into it than I would have expected based on how it looks on the shelf. The book centers around a controversial wedding in a small town and all of the people impacted by the relationship at stake there. Full of interpersonal complexities, backstory, and Erdrich’s unmatched prose.
9. It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan: Like Long Island Compromise, It’s a Love Story was something I grabbed even though I hadn’t entirely agreed with the buzz for some of its author’s previous work. (Here, to be specific, I liked Nora Goes Off Script, but didn’t love it.) Fun fact: I actually cited both of these authors and both of the titles mentioned on this list in a previous post about writers I wanted to try again. Look at that! And look how satisfying it can be! I’m picky about anything that calls itself romance but It’s a Love Story was pretty close to a perfect reading experience for me.
10. These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean: I’m a little more than halfway through These Summer Storms as I write this, and even though I don’t want to be too hasty, I’m enjoying it so much that I think it deserves a spot among my Q3 highlights. Before starting it myself, I heard a lot of other readers describe the way it magically combines so many tropes and themes while also crossing genres—so much so that it almost sounded like a literary unicorn of sorts. It’s hard not to be skeptical of that kind of praise, but I totally see where everyone’s coming from. There’s something in this book for almost everyone… and it’s helping me hold on to the last vibes of summer even as we move *officially* into Q4.
And a couple of recent DNFs…
First thing’s first: I’m feeling really good about my DNF game over the last few months, and not because I didn’t DNF a lot. It’s the opposite! I walked away from a lot more books than usual recently—and I made the decision to do so without reading 85% of those books. So, progress!
I don’t like to make a habit of sharing all the details about the books I don’t finish, but if you are interested, I’ve put them behind a paywall here!
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