The Best Books I Read in 2025
Well, what do you know? So many of these books are about Aunties!
Today I’m trying something different at The Auntie Bulletin: sharing the best novels I read in 2025. Three reasons:
This is fun for me.
So many of my favorite books of 2025 turn out to be Auntie books, or at least chosen family books and friendship books — which I didn’t at all do on purpose but really, comes as no surprise.
I want to encourage you to buy books from our Bookshop.org affiliate bookstore to help raise money for Treehouse Foundation.
I sent you an email about our Treehouse Foundation fundraiser earlier this week and it had this video in it. Did you watch the video? Did it make you a little teary-eyed like it did me? You should seriously watch this video right now. Go ahead. I’ll wait. It’s seven very worthy minutes long.
Now, it’s stupid and unnecessary that our whole society isn’t arranged like this. The whole purpose of this newsletter is really to help build the world we want to live in — and we can help Treehouse’s model thrive and spread by sending them some cash.
Our fundraiser has already raised nearly $900 (USD), Aunties. I’ve never used this platform for a fundraiser before and I didn’t know what to expect and I’m really proud of us! I’m hoping we can get to $2000. To contribute, you can Venmo me at @Lisa-Sibbett or PayPal at auntiebulletin@gmail.com. You can also donate directly to Treehouse and forward me your receipt. I’ll calculate those funds into our overall donation total. At the end of the year, I’ll share all cash-out and purchase receipts.
Or, to circle back to the point of today’s post, you can contribute by buying some books on today’s list from Bookshop.org!
And Now I Must Toot My Own Horn, for the Common Good
I am such a good reader, Aunties, and I have excellent taste. I’m telling you this – and I’ll offer evidence in a minute – because I’m hoping that even if you’re not usually a genre fiction fan, when you see that fifteen of the nineteen novels I’m writing about today are genre fiction, you’ll set aside your disinterest and extend the benefit of the doubt that I am making some solid-ass recommendations. I want you to check out these books because they are amazing. Genre fiction is some of the best fiction being written today and it is time for an end, once and for all, to anti-genre snobbery.
Now as I mentioned above, I didn’t do this on purpose, but most of these novels turn out to be about Aunties or found family or friendship or all of the above – because that’s what I value and that’s what I gravitate toward, and by gravitating toward these themes in my recreational reading, I cultivate these values in my body and my heart, and then I turn around and enact them in my life – and you can, too. That’s the power of fiction. 🌈📚❤️
You should trust my opinions about books because:
I’ve been a prolific fiction reader for as long as I could read; I read something like eighty or more novels a year
I’m also a prolific quitter; if a book doesn’t live up to my standards, and fast, I put it down and move on to something better, and that means I’m mostly ever reading books that are pretty good (by, yes, my own standards, but my standards don’t suck, as we shall see)...
Although I read a ton of genre fiction, I am well-versed in the highbrow. I read mostly the English literary canon and literary fiction until my mid-late 20s, when I started getting bored of books without plots. Once upon a time, though, I scored in the 99th percentile on the GRE Subject Test in English Literature. Not that standardized test scores mean much, but also, I can’t help being proud of my 25-year-old self.1
I have an MA in English literature and a year of PhD coursework in English. (I dropped out after my brother died, not because I didn’t love literary scholarship, but because I needed to be closer to my family).
All this is to say, if you’re the type who only wants to get their reading recommendations from highfaluters, good news: you found one. Or at least, you found a reformed one. These days, I’m an everythingfaluter (my MA in English literature came with a poetic license, and yes, I have been waiting twenty years to make that stupid joke in a public forum).
The books I’m recommending today include several works of literary fiction, including one set in a distant dystopian future which I decided to put in the “literary fiction” pile because there’s nothing science-fictiony about the book other than its future setting. It reads more like a book set in the past. The rest of my fiction recs today are drawn from my favorite, most-read genres: fantasy, science fiction, and mystery. Every book I recommend is extremely well written, features lots of characters you can get behind, and – with the exception of a few of the literary fiction ones – all are ripping yarns with action-packed plots.
After telling you about my favorite fiction that I read this year, I’ll also remind you of all the books that have been featured at The Auntie Bulletin, preview a few (not a lot) that I’m looking forward to reading in 2026, and finally wrap up by recommending the currently-most-beloved kids’ books in my household.
Literary Fiction
The Pretender (2025), Jo Harkin. I’m not quite done with this one yet but I already know it’s among my favorites of the year. This is a historical novel about the peasant boy Lambert Simnel who, at age 10, was plucked from everything he ever knew and informed he was actually Edward, Earl of Warwick, last of the Plantagenets and claimant to the English throne. It’s funny, sad, infuriating, and beautifully well-written in a way that reminds me of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall novels – only this book is about an adolescent. Is this an Auntie book? This poor child sure does need Aunties. Protectors and antagonists come and go, with varying but generally low levels of commitment to the child’s actual wellbeing. Let’s call it a cautionary tale about what happens in the absence of care.
The Ancients (2024), John Larison. Gosh, I loved this book. In a distant, dystopian future, some kids find themselves suddenly alone in an abandoned fishing village, their food supplies dwindling. They set off to find the last of their people. Meanwhile, their mother has been kidnapped by slavers and is desperate to get back to her children, not knowing whether they have survived. Years pass and new children come into her care; when she has a chance to escape, will she leave them behind? When you finish this one, go back and read Larison’s equally-wonderful first novel, Whiskey When We’re Dry. Is this an Auntie book? Yes.
The Blue Castle (1926), L. M. Montgomery. I must’ve found out about The Blue Castle somewhere within the orbit of Ragon Duffy and Kelly Gerner’s Kindred Spirits Book Club podcast. I’m a lifelong Montgomery fan (by way of the Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon books) but had never heard of this one. The kindred spirits rave about it, though, so I gave it a whirl and what a book! Poor Valancy Stirling is living an awful, stifled life with her awful, stifled mother and aunt (not an Auntie) when she gets some news that changes her life and starts doing whatever the heck she wants. This book is incredibly liberating and loving. Is this an Auntie book? There aren’t any kids in this book, but it’s absolutely about found family, so let’s go with yes.
Kick the Latch (2022), Kathryn Scanlan. I read this novella about a female racehorse trainer in one evening. It’s a fictionalization of interviews the author conducted with an actual lifelong horse trainer who clearly had a singular voice and a flair for storytelling. If you love a good story about a highly competent person doing their job well, or stories about women doing traditionally male jobs, or spare, voicey books where the idioms and rhythms of a precise regional dialect stick in your head for days, this one’s for you. Is this an Auntie book? Late in the story the main character starts basing career decisions around her care responsibilities, so it’s a little bit of an Auntie book but not much.
The Time of the Child (2024), Niall Williams. This novel is just gorgeous, as is the audiobook narration by Dermot Crowley. In the early 1960s in a small Irish town, a doctor lives with his spinster daughter and together they run the town health clinic. Not very much happens for a while, and then a baby is left in their care, and then not very much happens some more. Hearts do what hearts do, and people do their best, and it’s sometimes very sad and sometimes very funny and all just lovely. I usually don’t care for books in which so little happens, but I make exceptions for writing and characters this good. Is this an Auntie book? 100%. It’s also a Christmas book.
Fantasy
A Betrayal in Winter (2007), Daniel Abraham. Daniel Abraham is one half of the writing duo that makes up James S. A. Corey, author of the rightly-beloved Expanse series of space opera novels. If you’ve read those books (and you should), you know that these guys know how to tell a ripping yarn, and reading a Daniel Abraham book feels like reading an Expanse novel, except it’s fantasy instead of science fiction.2 A Betrayal in Winter is the second in a quartet that began with A Shadow in Summer, and it’s worth reading them in order. In this one, the main character is a younger son of the royal family who walked away from it all, changed his name, and is now happily living the anonymous and mundane life of a courier – but the problem is that when the king dies all the heirs have to kill each other until there’s only one left standing, and now his siblings are trying to find him. Is this an Auntie book? It’s a friendship book.
The Fox Wife (2024), Yangsze Choo. I actually read this one last Christmas (i.e., in 2024), but this is my best books list and I do what I want. What a story! Set in China (and a little bit in Japan) in the early 20th century, the premise is that supernatural foxes can shapeshift into hyperalluring humans with mesmeric, vampire-like powers. Snow is a fox woman seeking vengeance for her murdered child. Meanwhile, there’s been a series of mysterious murders that everyone’s blaming on the supernatural foxes, and aging detective Bao is assigned to figure out what’s going on. Lord, this book is so good. Read it as soon as possible! Is this an Auntie book? No.
Outside the Gates (1986), Molly Gloss. Aunties, Molly Gloss is one of the most criminally underrecognized writers alive. Each of her six novels is perfect and gorgeous and heartful and loving and so, so good.3 She was good friends with Ursula K. LeGuin, and I will read anything LeGuin ever recommended because I have found that she was always right, so that’s how I came across Gloss in the first place. In this book, children with powers are ejected by their families from the walled human settlement and left to fend for themselves in the wilderness. Outside the gates, these outcasts scrape by, interacting with each other occasionally but mostly living and dying alone. When Vren (who can talk to animals) is ejected, he’s taken in by a fellow exile (who can influence the weather) – but then this benefactor is kidnapped by a terrible bad guy (who can control people’s minds). Is this an Auntie book? Yep!
The Spear Cuts Through Water (2022), Simon Jimenez. Okay, this book is really disturbing. I’m actually alright with violence in fiction and I love the occasional rip-roaring horror novel, but this one pushed my limits. I also found the novel’s framing device a little annoying. Yet at the center of this demented book is a romantic friendship between two characters with large, courageous hearts. And I loved how the author plays with and disrupts the conventions of the hero’s journey. Audiobook narrator Joel de la Fuente takes the story to the next level with what my sister, the onetime college performing arts major, called “a master class in voice acting.” Is this an Auntie book? This is another friendship book.
Science Fiction
Usurpation (2024), Sue Burke. This is the third book in an (excellent) series but it also works great as a standalone. What you need to know is that humans have settled on other planets, including one where plants are sentient (!), and the sentientest of them all, the rainbow bamboo, have made it back to Earth late in this millennium and are living among us pretending to be regular plants even though they are somewhat all-powerful. Levanter is a brilliant, kindhearted rainbow bamboo who lives at (and secretly runs) a center for extraterrestrial botany, and as war looms among the humans, Levanter needs to figure out how to wrangle their fellow plants, cooperate with the few humans who are in on the secret, and possibly manipulate the rest of humanity so everyone doesn’t wind up dead. Is this an Auntie book? It’s a found family book.
Remnant Population (1996), Elizabeth Moon. Wow, am I glad I found this book – one of my absolute favorites this year among such a strong field. Ofelia is the oldest colonist on Planet 3245.12. She helped build the colony and raised her children and buried her husband there, but now the company is ordering all of the colonists away to work on a new planet. She sneaks and stays behind by herself and is so damn happy finally doing whatever she wants. Then a ship lands on the far side of the planet – conducting recon for a possible new colony – and everyone on that ship is slaughtered. It turns out Ofelia isn’t alone on the planet after all. What unfolds upon first contact is amazing. Imagine if our ambassadors for tricky diplomatic encounters were always wise elder women. Is this an Auntie book? Hell yes.
Alien Clay (2024), Adrian Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky should be included in any conversation about the best living speculative fiction writers – and really, the best living writers, period – as well as the most prolific. Since 2008, I shit you not, he’s written nearly 60 novels and novellas, and although I literally can’t keep up with his rate of production, I’ve read probably 20 of them and most are superlatively good. Wikipedia’s list of the prestigious sci-fi and fantasy awards that Tchaikovsky has been nominated for or won is too long to fit on my monitor for a screenshot. Alien Clay is about a biologist who rebels against Earth’s fascist government and is exiled to a labor camp on a faraway planet. It starts as a labor camp dystopia and becomes a hive mind novel and then (if you’re familiar with the conventions of the hive mind subgenre) veers off in a very unexpected direction that blew my mind. It’s beautiful and loving and magnificent. Is this an Auntie book? It’s a found family book.
Service Model (2025), Adrian Tchaikovsky. Here’s Tchaikovsky again! I told you this dude churns out multiple bangers a year (okay, the other I just recommended was from 2024 but seriously, go look up how many other novels Tchaikovsky published in 2024 and 2025). And he’s got range. Service Model is a very different book from Alien Clay. It’s the story of a robot valet, Charles, whose employer has died (evidently murdered by Charles himself, not that he can remember) and now he’s off through a post-human apocalyptic landscape to find a new employer. It’s neurotic and hyperfocused on the minutiae of administrative labor and it’s laugh-out-loud funny. I have described it to loved ones as “Murder Bot meets The Remains of the Day.” Is this an Auntie book? It’s – you guessed it – a found family book.
Mystery
A Coffin for Dimitrios (1939), Eric Ambler. There are so many wonderful novels to discover, I almost never re-read – but recently I did re-read one of my favorite books by one of the most beloved authors of my 20s, the great Eric Ambler. To my great relief, A Coffin for Dimitrios stands the test of time and my changing tastes.4 Successful detective novelist Charles Latimer is bumming around Eastern Europe when he meets the head of the Turkish secret police, who allows him into the Istanbul morgue to view the body of the notorious Dimitrios (a supercriminal with major Keyser Söze vibes). Latimer, telling himself he’s doing research, sets out to reconstruct Dimitrios’s career – and, duh, gets in over his head. Is this an Auntie book? Good lord, no.
4:50 from Paddington (1957), Agatha Christie. Elspeth is on the 4:50 train from Paddington, on her way to visit a friend. For a moment her train pulls alongside another, and through the window she sees a man in the opposite car strangling a woman to death. Good thing the friend she’s going to visit is Miss Marple! Miss Marple figures out that the mysterious and wealthy Cracklethorpe family may be involved in some way, so enlists her hypercompetent young friend Lucy to infiltrate Cracklethorpe Manor as a housekeeper, at which point this becomes Lucy’s story. All the men and boys are crazy about Lucy because she’s so effective and kind and no-nonsense and they all want a wife or a mother. This is by far the most feminist Christie novel I’ve ever read, up there among the funniest, and a cracking good mystery as well. I was gripped. Is this an Auntie story? It is, actually!
Death at Morning House (2024), Maureen Johnson. You should know young adult mystery novelist Maureen Johnson, she’s terrific. My partner and I fell in love with her Stevie Bell Truly Devious series (twisty books about a teen detective solving murders at an elite boarding school), so then we listened to the audiobook of this standalone together while on vacation in Mexico early this year. Main character Marlowe accidentally burns down a house while on a hot date. Fleeting from the shame (and her new girlfriend), she takes a summer job as a tour guide at Morning House, an island mansion built in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. Then people start dying. Is this an Auntie story? No. But three guesses whether it’s about friendship and found family.
The Impossible Fortune (2025), Richard Osman. If you’re not reading The Thursday Murder Club books, I’m sorry to say this but you are wasting your life. Huge mistake. These books are an absolute blessing and they just keep getting better. I find the cover design and series title of misleading, suggesting that they are everyday cozy mysteries when in fact they’re some of the best literature being published today (and yes, I do like cozy mysteries, and yes, I know I gave a whole lecture up top condemning snobbery, and no, I have nothing to say for myself). Every character is such a goshdarn delight – the four elder detectives, yes, but also their many younger friends, including a young grandson who’s been playing an increasingly important role in each successive book. Audiobook narrator Fiona Shaw is the literal best voice actor I have ever heard.5 Is this an Auntie story? Totally. The whole series is nothing but Aunties and found family and friendship all the way up and all the way down.
Betty Boo (2010), Claudia Piñeiro. What a banger! Argentinian author Claudia Piñeiro is beloved in Latin America, apparently, and, having read Betty Boo, I understand why. Nurit Iscar is a formerly-successful detective novelist whose career has tanked. When a wealthy Buenos Aires industrialist is murdered in his home inside an exclusive gated community, local newspaper editor and Nurit’s former boyfriend – who called her “Betty Boo” for her resemblance to the cartoon character Betty Boop – recruits Nurit to stay in the community and write about the investigation for his paper. I’m a sucker for mystery stories starring reporters, especially if they’re set outside the U.S., and this one was terrific. I can’t wait to dig into the rest of Piñeiro’s catalog. Is this an Auntie book? No.
10 Marchfield Square (2025), Nicola Whyte. A small-time criminal is murdered in a residential square where everyone rents from the benevolent old rich lady who owns all the units. She recruits two of the residents – sociable housecleaner Audrey and anti-social failed writer Lewis – to investigate. I love the setting on a residential square, where everybody knows everybody and most of the residents are actual friends with each other (not just frenemies). This one smells like the start to a series, and I’m here for it. Is this an Auntie book? It’s about friendship and co-housing!
Some Novels About Motherhood
This summer, I did a roundup of novels about motherhood for Aunties to read in order to better understand and empathize with what it’s like to be a mom (or really, a parent of any gender). I loved, loved, loved all six of these books (but I read them all before 2025, which is why they’re not on the list above). Buy them from Bookshop.org.
While We’re at it, Some Excellent Nonfiction about Motherhood
I also did a roundup of nonfiction books that have shaped my understanding of what it’s like to be a mom. I can’t recommend these highly enough: total game-changers for me, all five. Buy them from Bookshop.org.
Which Brings Us to the Nonfiction Featured at The Auntie Bulletin
The first interview I ever did for this newsletter, all the way back in October 2024, was with Dana Miranda, author of You Don’t Need a Budget. It’s not an Auntie book but it is a terrific, counterintuitive book that really challenges a lot of what we’ve learned about budget culture. Also, Dana is an Auntie so we love her!
In January, I interviewed Ann Friedman about Auntiehood, parenthood, and how the one might prepare us for the other. I read and recommended her wonderful book, co-authored with Aminatou Sow, Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close.
In March, I interviewed Jody Day about aging without children and our fears and hopes. I read and recommended her indispensable book, Living the Life Unexpected: How to Find Hope, Meaning, and a Fulfilling Future Without Children.
In April, I wrote about the loss of my beloved friend Chris, who had recently been killed in a car accident. I drew solace in that post from Katherine May’s Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times and Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
I wrote twice about Robin Wall Kimmerer’s small, exquisite book on the gifting economy, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. The first time was in a June post announcing what I call my “interdependence retirement plan,” and the second was in August, when my long term disability benefits were discontinued and I asked for the Auntie Collective’s help making ends meet. (By the way, the status of my claim is… pending. I have an attorney now and we’re slowly working through the appeals process. I’m told it could take up to two years).
In July, I interviewed Jessica Slice about disability, interdependence, and deciding whether to have kids. I read and cannot recommend highly enough Jessica’s book Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World.
Also in July, we had a guest post from the wonderful Elissa Strauss – an excerpt from her book When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others, which I also cannot recommend highly enough.
In September, Allison Lichter and I did a Substack Live on the provocative topic of bullshit jobs and their relationship to the (very non-bullshit) carework sector. Our starting point was David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs: A Theory.
At the beginning of October, I wrote about Vivian Gussin Paley’s landmark book on children’s play, exclusion, and inclusion: You Can’t Say You Can’t Play. This book is an absolute gem – and it’s short, too.
And at the end of October, I wrote a post arguing, “the nuclear family is a failed experiment.” That one drew on Michaeleen Doucleff’s Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans.
On My Shelf for 2026
The Last Parenting Book You’ll Ever Read: How We Let Our Kids Go and Embrace What’s Next (2025), Meagan Francis
Take it From Me: An Agent’s Guide to Building a Nonfiction Writing Career From Scratch (2026), Alia Hanna Habib
Kin: The Future of Family (2025), Sophie Lucido Johnson
First Time Fostering: A Practical Guide for Supporting Kids in Foster Care (2026), Laura the Foster Parent Partner
Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives (2026), Darby Saxbe
Wolf Bells (2025), Leni Zumas – read about it here and find out why this is the most Auntie Bulletin novel ever
No One Loves an Angry Woman, Gemma Hartley. This one’s not available for pre-order yet and we haven’t seen the cover reveal, but I’m still stoked. In the meantime, check out Gemma’s newsletter of the same name.
And Finally, Here are Some Kids’ Books
I loved talking with Sri Juneja earlier this year about kids’ books she recommends at each age level. Sri also had great insights about how to navigate when a beloved book from our own childhood contains problematic content. The books she recommended are pictured above and every one of them is wonderful.
Overall, I don’t do much recommending of children’s books at this newsletter. This is by design:
The ocean of great kids’ books is so deep I worry I might never manage to swim out.
I’m honestly not that up to speed with what’s happening in children’s books. In my household we read the books I have, some of which are new and many of which are old and, we’re very happy with them.
There are already so many lovely people who write about kids’ books, including friend-of-the-newsletter Sri Juneja, teacher-librarian Chrissie Wright, the super-knowledgeable Sarah Miller, and the always-hilarious Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen, You should subscribe to their newsletters!
Below, I’ve listed the kids’ books that are recently or always on heaviest rotation in my household (as you’ll see, we’re out of the board book stage). Offered without commentary, other than to say that each of these is wonderful and would make a great gift.
The Last Slice of Rainbow, by Joan Aiken, illustrated by Alix Berenzy
The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery, by Graeme Base
Esma Farouk, Lost in the Souk, by Lisa Boersen and Hasna Elbaamrani, illustrated by Annelies Vandenbosch
Shortcut, by Donald Crews
We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, by Ryan T. Higgins
The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh, by Supriya Kelkar, illustrated by Alea Marley
The Frog and Toad Storybook, by Arnold Lobel
What If You Had Animal Teeth? by Sandra Markle, illustrated by Howard McWilliam
The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
How Much is a Million? by David Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Kellogg
Abiyoyo, by Pete Seeger, illustrated by Michael Hays
The Lost Thing, by Shaun Tan
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, by Chris Van Allsburg
Little Witch Hazel, by Phoebe Wahl
King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, by Audrey Wood & Don Wood
Enough!
That was 70 book recommendations, and it was time-consuming but also fun and satisfying to put the list together. If you made it this far, you are officially a nerd like me and no wonder we are here together at this newsletter, thinking about Aunties and parents and friendship and chosen family and books books books at this dark time of year.6
Now, do you have any reading recs for us?? Drop ‘em in the comments! My absolute favorite kinds of reading recs go, “If you like ______, you’ll love ______.” Any book that gets mentioned multiple times or +1’ed or anything in the comments, I’ll make an affiliate link and drop it in that same comment thread, and then if someone buys it from our Auntie Bulletin shop at Bookshop.org, the affiliate revenue for that one will go to our Treehouse fundraiser, too.
Now, me personally, I actually get almost all of my books from the public library. (I know, I’m out here encouraging you to buy books and now I say this! I’m the worst!) If I were you, I’d have been putting a bunch of books in my library queue and my TBR (to be read) list, and then I’d just make a direct donation for as much as I can afford to our Treehouse Foundation fundraiser. As a reminder, you can Venmo me at @Lisa-Sibbett or PayPal at auntiebulletin@gmail.com. You can also donate directly to Treehouse and forward me your receipt. I’ll calculate those funds into our overall donation total. At the end of the year, I’ll share all cash-out and purchase receipts.
And I’m still looking for a few Aunties to match funds, which helps incentivize others to donate. I’m matching the first $200 in donations, and a generous Auntie Bulletin reader is offering another $100 match. I’d love to be able to offer fundraising matching up to $1000, so it would be amazing if a few more Aunties put their hands up to offer a $200 (or more!) match as well. If you’re interested or want to know more, reply to this email or DM me on Substack and we’ll talk!
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The Auntie Bulletin is an ad-free, feminist, anti-capitalist publication that will never try to sell you anything (okay, except a paid subscription). We donate 100% of affiliate revenue from Bookshop.org to organizations supporting vulnerable kids. Our current recipient organization is Treehouse Foundation.
If today’s post made you think or helped you out, please take a moment right now to become a paid subscriber. This newsletter is a form of carework and carework advocacy, and it’s how I make a living.
Thanks for reading all the way to the end! You get the secret scoop that if you can’t afford a paid subscription due to financial hardship, you can reply to this email or DM me on Substack and I’ll comp you a 12-month paid tier subscription, no questions asked.
To be clear, there’s no way I could replicate the 99th percentile feat now. There’s not actually a good way to measure a person’s understanding of literature using a standardized test, Aunties, so what the GRE Subject Test does – or did, in 2005 – is measure testers’ recall of facts about authors and who wrote what and the names of the main characters and famous lines and stuff. It’s a stupid way to measure, but standardized tests are pretty stupid. These days, I’m lucky if I can remember what I ate for lunch. What my dazzling performance on the GRE Subject Test in 2005 does indicate, though, is that once upon a time, I read a hell of a lot of the English literary canon.
The first time I read a Daniel Abraham novel (the first in the wonderful The Dagger & The Coin series), I didn’t realize Abraham was one of the authors of The Expanse, and I said to my partner, “This book is like if James S. A. Corey wrote fantasy,” and then I was super proud when it turned out I was right.
I’m saving Molly Gloss’s short story collection, The Unforeseen, for a rainy day. Ever since I found her work, I’ve been rationing.
Now I may start re-reading other books by writers whose whole catalogues I once inhaled. Look out, Willa Cather!
I frequently read books as audiobooks (including many of the books recommended in today’s post) — and I am so picky about audiobook narrators. Fiona Shaw has voiced the last three Thursday Murder Club books, and she also did a beautiful job with Colm Tóibín’s Nora Webster. Shaw is a hugely prolific actor who played Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter movies, Maarva in Andor, and apparently had a starring role in the latest season of True Detective (although I haven’t seen it because the final episode of season one was too scary so I’ve never watched it again). Her theatrical bona fides are incredible: she’s played Madea, Hedda Gabler, Miss Jean Brodie, and half the female characters in Shakespeare. I just admire this woman so much, and boy does she do a wonderful job voicing Richard Osman’s two greatest characters ever — Bogdan and Joyce — and all the rest of the gang, too.
Okay, it’s dark in Seattle. We are in the midst of a five-day atmospheric river, and if you don’t know what that is, just conjure up what it sounds like with your imagination and you will be right. A major interstate highway washed out yesterday. That said, I recognize it is not currently dark everywhere. I spoke to some lovely writers in Virginia earlier today, where it is nice and sunny all week. As for the tropics and the Southern hemisphere, I love you but I’m afraid I’m also consumed by envy. When I think of the Southern hemisphere, I will console myself by thinking of my partner’s cousin who’s currently on a six-week research trip to the literal South Pole, where it is often sunny but has also been averaging temperatures in the -20s F (which is also more or less the -20s C!)
Listen, my TBR list was already unhinged, and now it's even worse! Looking forward to reading a whole bunch of your recommendations! :)
You reminded me that "The Pretender" was on my TBR list, and lo and behold it's currently available at my library! I have a few other books to pick up and read first, but I am excited to report back!
Books that your list made me think of, that I read in the past few years ...
"The Dream Hotel" - Laila Lalami (woman is detained for being deemed at risk of committing a violent crime ... near-future dystopia stuff)
"The Ministry of Time" by Kaliane Bradley - the most empathetic imagining of what time travel would do to a person pulled into the future I've ever read!
"The Huntress" by Kate Quinn - I love everything by Kate Quinn but the audio version of this completely changed my attitude on audiobooks. The narrator is INCREDIBLE.
"The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
Book" by Helen Rappaport - another amazing narrator! And what a completely upending view of this poor rich family.
"Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver - absolutely worth all the hype about it, and probably the only thing I just listed that I'd say is a found-family book :)
"In The Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado - distinctive in how it's told in second person, something that I never would've imagined not finding annoying/overbearing, but I promise it works.
Everything by Curtis Sittenfeld - I re-read most of her works this year, except the ones I'd read in the past couple of years, because she came to speak in my city. I just love her so much. Re-reading things in my late 30s when I previously read them in my early to mid-20s was such a peek into how I've changed.