Everything Else I Read in Q1 2025
nine books I forgot to tell you about
Ahhh, the end of the first quarter of 2025. It feels kind of forever since the innocent days of early January, doesn’t it? Kind of like how I feel about my very early 2020 self ~ oh, sweet CHILD.
I went through ALL of the books I read in January, February and March and found NINE that I didn’t include in any of my other newsletters thus far. Some because I didn’t have much great to say about them, but a few I never shared about because I just had so many other great books to write about that week or I was planning to include them in a roundup that never happened.
Regardless of reason, here are the “overlooked books” from Q1 2025, in no particular order. I challenged myself to a very strict format for sharing my thoughts about them to keep this newsletter from becoming book-length!
Mutual Interest by Olivia Wolfgang-Smith ~ queer historical fiction | so original | loved it on audio
The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler ~ queer historical amateur detective story | really liked it
Ambition (Eventing Book 1) by Natalie Keller Reinert ~ dramatic Florida-horse-world series starter | really enjoyed it on audio
Foreverland by Heather Havrilesky ~ memoir about marriage and motherhood | liked it
If you Lived Here You’d Be Home by Now by Christopher Ingraham ~ read this right before Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones and it was a perfect pairing | memoir of Minnesota-living | loved it
This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Naomi Wood ~ short story collection about motherhood | loved it
Practice Makes Perfect (Larkford #2) by Penny Parkes ~ dated small-British-village series that still makes me feel very cozy and happy | out of print, I believe
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith ~ brutal young adult book about sexual assault that my 7th grader told me to read | made me super anxious
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden ~ perfect example of the terse popular psychological thrillers that I hate - only read it because a colleague pressed it on me and I always indulge those.
How’d I do??? I’m pretty impressed with myself that I only missed NINE books in my Quarter 1 newsletters!
Remember, to go back to editions that you missed, just head to my archives page! The majority of my Substack writing transferred over as well, so there are 2+ years of books to explore …
Thanks for stopping by!
