What I Read in March 2025

Hi there – is this thing still on? It’s been almost four years since I last wrote here. In that time the world reopened and I took on a demanding new job that has required almost weekly travel. I recommitted my time to dating, singing in the choir at my church, and spending time with friends and family. And I’ve continued to engage in electoral politics, spending last fall knocking on doors, writing letters, and poll watching. But I’m still making time to read! In fact, I’m reading more than I ever have. I read 175 books in 2024 and in 2025 I’m aiming to read 200 books. And somehow I’m on track.

I gave up my bookstagram a long time ago. While I have time to read, I no longer have time to take pretty pictures of myself reading. But I have continued to post reviews of what I’m reading on my regular Instagram and on Goodreads. I’ve even experimented with sharing book content on TikTok (ultimately not for me). However, the Goodreads interface is getting worse by the day. And I grow increasingly uncomfortable with relying on a Meta platform to serve as sole home to my thoughts.

So on a whim I’m returning to this blog. We’ll see if anyone is interested in 15-20 longform book reviews each month!

Fiction

Contemporary Fiction

Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley

Deep Cuts is being sold as Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (one of my favorite books of all time which I’ve read three times) meets High Fidelity. Spot on – and so, so good. 

Percy and Joe meet in 2000 as students at Berkeley. They connect over a shared love of music. Joe is an aspiring musician and Percy becomes his collaborator, even though she really wants to be a musician herself. The story follows this tension at the heart of their relationship for eight years and back and forth across the country. 

The Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow comparisons make sense – this is sort of about love. But also largely about art, and collaboration, and friendship. About who decides what’s good and what’s bad. There’s also a brief but interesting exploration of some mother/daughter issues. Part of me wishes it was longer, but really it’s probably perfect as is. 

I don’t know how to categorize this one – if you expect a real romance, you’ll probably be disappointed. I’ve heard people say it’s a good fit for fans of Normal People, but I’m not a Sally Rooney fan and I still loved this one. 

Ultimately if you love music and have ever found yourself knee deep in a gnarly and years long romantic entanglement, you’ll probably connect with this book and find yourself writing down quotes that resonate with you just as I did. Hope this book gets some more love soon.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Here One Moment is the latest book from popular Australian author Liane Moriarty. It starts on a flight where a woman tells all her fellow passengers how and when they will die. Then it follows those passengers as they try to process what happened. And it features flashbacks to the woman’s earlier life. Why she was on that flight? Is she a fortune teller? Was it psychosis? Who knows.

I love Liane Moriarty’s books. They’re always long (one of her earlier books What Alice Forgot is one of my favorite longer books) but compulsively readable. And they’re crowdpleasers with all kinds of readers. Here One Moment is no exception.

At first the book was a little hard to get into. There are so many characters to keep track of. But the chapters are short and eventually I got into the groove. The ending was heartwarming and surprising. If you only read ten books a year and are looking to make them count, check this one out.

Climbing in Heels by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas

People describe Climbing in Heels, the debut novel by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, right hand woman to Jennifer Lopez, producer, and former agent as Sex in the City meets Nine to Five (I’d also add in a little bit of Working Girl meets Gossip Girl. Which is a lot to live up to! But man, this book does it. I loved every minute of this rollicking ride. 

Climbing in Heels tells the story of Beanie, Ella, and Mercedes, three young women trying to make it all the way to the top at LA’s premiere talent agency in the 80s and 90s. They’ll do absolutely whatever it takes to get where they’re trying to go. And it’s so fun to read about their exploits. 

There are a lot of characters to keep track of and sometimes the character development of the lead characters suffers because of this. But honestly that didn’t bother me. The plot moved quickly and the twists were surprising and that’s what really kept me interested more than character development. Also, I have this book to thank for reigniting my fascination with the world of Hollywood talent agencies. 

I felt honestly sad when this book ended, which is why I’m thrilled it’s already been optioned for TV. The author and her friend (and SATC creator) Darren Star are writing and producing it. Can’t wait for the show and can’t wait for more people to read this book!

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits is billed as a cousin to Daisy Jones and the Six. It’s about the rise and fall of a rock group fronted by, you guessed it, two sisters, Cassie and Zoe, as well as Zoe’s daughter’s attempt to develop a singing career of her own. 

On paper, this book sounds great. But the execution did not work for me. None of the characters were likable. The band’s magic didn’t shine through enough to explain why so many people remained obsessed with the sisters years after they stopped performing together. 

And there was just way, way, way too much talk about Cassie’s weight. I get it. Cassie is fat. She has the voice of an angel but is too ugly to be a star without her sister. The author covers this topic ad nauseum when I think it would have been much more interesting to delve into the fact that Cassie seemed to be on the autism spectrum. 

The story is pretty fast paced and easily readable. But I’m sorry to say this book was a miss for me. Bummer. 

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

The Road to Tender Hearts is the story of alcoholic lottery winner PJ and the road trip he takes with his new cat named Pancakes, his youngest daughter, and his great niece and great nephew who he has just assumed guardianship of. 

They’re a motley crew who haven’t got much in common except that their lives so far have involved a fair amount of tragedy and heartache. But maybe that’ll all change when they reach the end of their journey? 

Although PJ’s choices stressed me out at times, I ultimately fell for each of the characters and was rooting so hard for them each to find a happy ending, whatever that looked like. 

I’d highly recommend this book for fans of Remarkably Bright Creatures, Lessons in Chemistry, Amy Poeppel, or readers who just like a ‘found family’ vibe in general (even though the characters in this book are related, it still gives off that vibe). It’s one of those books that you’ll finish feeling like you just received a warm hug. 

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.

Mystery/Thriller/Suspense

The Matchmaker by Aisha Saeed

I really enjoyed The Matchmaker, a mystery with romantic elements about Nura, a third-generation matchmaker running her family business who is suddenly inundated with threats to her business and her life. 

The book is set in my home and hometown of Atlanta, GA. Plus, Nura and her best friend Azar are alums of Emory University where I work, so I loved the sense of place that this book had. The mystery seemed solved halfway through the book which made me curious as to what would happen in the second half. It was twisty and turny and I could never have guessed the ending. 

I also liked that even though there were guns and a kidnapping, the book never felt that stressful to me. There was still plenty of attention dedicated to Nura and Azar’s relationship was well as her relationship with her family. I’ve never read “cozy mysteries”, but if that’s what this was I may need to check out more of them. 

I recommend this book to Atlanta based readers and anyone who likes the sound of a cozy romantic mystery!

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam Books for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.

A Girl Like Us by Anna Sophia McLoughlin

A Girl Like Us was described as Succession meets Saltburn which is what sold me on it. Maya Miller is the former star of a show like Summer House. She recently married Colin Sterling, a member of a family that sounds a lot like the infamous Murdochs. Just as their honeymoon wraps up, they learn that Colin’s cousin Arianna has been murdered so they head to their family estate in the English countryside to wait while they figure out who is responsible.

There’s no need to say too much about this book – it’s just sort of needless. The writing is sort of lifeless and circular. Even when secrets were revealed I couldn’t bring myself to care too much. I probably should have quit reading 1/3 of the way in. Only the most mystery obsessed readers need to give this a try.

Short Stories

Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld 

It’s been twenty years since Sittenfeld released her excellent debut novel Prep about Lee Fiora, a scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school. Show Don’t Tell was so clearly written by the same author as Prep, for the same audience, as both author and reader enter a new phase of life. 

The stories explore lots of different things but flow together nicely. All of her characters are always so deeply and wonderfully human and the ones in this book are no different. Sometimes I read a book and get hung up on the choices characters make thinking, “Why would they do that? I’d never do that!” but I rarely feel that way about Sittenfeld’s characters. 

This isn’t to say there lives aren’t messy and complex. They are. That’s why it’s so relatable. I’m already recommending this book to friends and imagine I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come. I’ll forever and ever be a Sittenfeld stan.

Romance

Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner

I really liked Melissa Wiesner’s last book, The Second Chance Year, and I really love Ashley Poston’s books which this one, Wish I Were Here was compared to, but this book didn’t do it for me. 

Catherine is an uptight professor who is about to start a new job. Then suddenly she finds out her identity is missing. There is no trace of her in any systems. With the help of her enigmatic doorman Luca she sets off to figure out what is going on. 

Man, I wanted to like this. I like found family. I like a liiiiiitle hint of magic. But this book felt simultaneously overworked and underdeveloped. Nothing made sense to me. 

On a positive note, I did like the focus on the importance of community. That was very touching at times.

This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer

This Is a Love Story is billed as a romance between aging New Yorkers Abe and Jane. But it really feels more like a romance between New Yorkers and the city as a whole and Central Park. 

This book is described as “lyrical”. I should have realized that meant it is literary fiction with an unusual writing style. Had I known that, I probably wouldn’t have picked this up. I just had a very hard time getting into it. The shifting timelines and the lack of quotation marks made it hard for me to follow the plot of this book. 

Although it’s not even fair to say there’s much of a plot. More a loose serious of reminiscences. 

This book might suit you better if you love sad, character driven literary fiction. Better marketing would probably have made it easier for the right sort of readers to find this book.

Sci-Fi

You’re Safe Here by Leslie Stephens

After reading Careless People earlier this month, I was in the mood to read more about the dark side of technology. I picked up Leslie Stephens’ You’re Safe Here because it gave off vibes similar to Dave Eggers’ The Circle. 

You’re Safe Here is set in 2060. Pregnant Maggie has opted to spend six weeks living in a floating personal retreat in the Pacific Ocean in order to get space from her fiancée Noa. Meanwhile Noa, back on land, works for the tech company behind the pods and has started to develop concerns about Maggie’s safety so she sets off on an investigation. 

I admire that Stephens was trying to write something unusual in her debut novel, but it didn’t work for me. The ‘big brother’ vibe of the technology in the book felt pretty ‘been there done that’. The plot was hard to follow at times. And the ending seemed cut short.

More ardent Sci-Fi lovers might enjoy this more than I did.

Young Adult

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the first prequel to the famous Hunger Games trilogy. Author Suzanne Collins sets the book 64 years before the first book in the trilogy and Coriolanus Snow, the man who is President of Panem in the trilogy, is a teenage orphan living in the Capitol and serving as a mentor in the 10th Hunger Games. His tribute? Lucy Gray Baird, a young woman from District 12. 

I re-read this the same weekend that I read the latest addition to the series, Sunrise on the Reaping.

Snow is probably the last person in Panem whose point of view I would have chosen to read about in a prequel. The first two-thirds of the book are okkkk but don’t really have the same flavor that the original trilogy did, and, to me, the last third of the book was just AWFUL. 

I’m a pretty smart cookie and there were whole swaths of this book that I just didn’t understand at all and Collins didn’t really seem interested in even trying to explain – Who bombed the arena? What’s the full story between Billy and Lucy Gray? Why does Snow hate the mockingjays so much? And how does it all really end between Snow and Lucy Gray?? Also, the pacing is all off and this book is about 200 pages too long. 

My verdict? Skip the book, watch the movie instead … if you must.

Sunrise on the Reaping is a totally different matter. Haymitch Abernathy (Katniss Everdeen’s mentor in the 74th and 75th Hunger Games) has always been one of my favorite characters in the series, so I was excited to read a prequel devoted to his story. 

This book has a lot of the elements I loved about the first Hunger Games books and very little of what I disliked about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The story starts in District 12, where we see glimpses of Haymitch’s friends and family, including Katniss’s parents. Then it moves quickly to the Capitol where he and the other tributes are prepped for the games, and then a decent amount of the book is spent focused on the games themselves. 

What didn’t work for me was the love story between Haymitch and his District 12 girlfriend Lenora Dove. Her character didn’t feel fleshed out enough to make me really root for them or hope that she was being treated ok back home. The other thing that bogged things down a little was the use of verses of song and poetry throughout the book. It slowed down the story for me and felt unnecessary. And the ending felt a little rushed – I couldn’t tell where in time the epilogue took place. 

But any fan of the Hunger Games books or movies will like this book, enjoy being back in this intriguing world that Suzanne Collins has so carefully built, and be glad for the opportunity to learn more about Haymitch’s story.

Non-Fiction

Memoir

Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

I’ve been a fan of Annie B. Jones for years, ever since I started following her on Instagram in 2020. I now subscribe to her private Instagram channel to read her book reviews and I love her taste and her book recommendations. Needless to say, I was thrilled when she announced she was coming out with her own book. 

In Ordinary Time, Annie writes in essays about her life as a small town independent bookstore owner. As a mother, daughter, sister, and friend; a reader; as someone who has stayed and planted roots in the same corner of the world where she grew up. And as a person of faith. So much of that identity resonated with me. So many of those topics interested me. (I will say there is a lot more talk about Annie’s Christian faith, a lot more pages dedicated to that, than the book’s description lets on. So if that would not turn you off, this may not be the book for you.)

And I really enjoyed this book. That said, I did, at times, wish she had gone a tad bit deeper? But also, that may have been my bias as someone who already feels like she knows Annie thanks to social media. Readers coming to this book fresh may feel differently. 

I particularly enjoyed her essays about intergenerational community, about the joy in loving things in big loud ways, about staying in one phase of your life far longer than you and those around you thought you would. And as a millennial with similar cultural taste and touchstones to Annie, I loved so many of the pop culture references she made. I felt seen when she talked about the way that she was so touched by Ringo Starr when she fell down a deep, deep Get Back rabbit hole in 2021. 

This is a book that readers, old souls, Southerners, and sentimentalists will love. It’s a book that was a comfort to read. And I hope it is not the only book we will ever see from Annie.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and HarperOne for providing me with an Advanced Reading Copy.

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

Careless People, a memoir about the six years that author Sarah Wynn-Williams spent working at Facebook (now known as Meta), is equal parts funny and terrifying and always conversational, making it an easy if disturbing read. 

This is one that I want every one of my friends to read so that we can shriek together about some of the insane stories that Wynn-Williams tells. Like the one where Sheryl Sandberg asks her assistant ‘Sadie’ to buy lingerie for both of them. Or the one where Sheryl asks her employees to sleep in bed with her on the corporate jet on the way home from Davos. The most titillating parts of the books are the stories about Sheryl, Mark Zuckerberg, and other top execs behaving badly. 

The scariest parts of the book are hearing details about the ways Facebook has actively been making the world a more dangerous place for decades, from preying on young girls’ low self esteem to catering to the every whim of the Chinese government. 

The one part of the book that felt like a little bit of a slog and could be challenging for readers was the section about what happened with Facebook in Myanmar towards the end of the author’s time at Facebook. I’ve spent time there and am fairly well versed in the politics of the region but the chapters confused even me and I found myself skimming parts of them. 

Anyway, while Meta is doing their best to prevent the author from speaking out and from promoting her book, I’ll say that, for the record, I believe it all. I believe the sexual misconduct allegations the author makes, I believe the illegal dealings she details, all of it. And I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time to come.

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Everything I Know About Love, by British columnist and best selling author of Ghosts and Good Material Dolly Alderton, is a memoir covering Alderton’s adolescence through her 20s.

The book was a slow start for me but I’m so glad I stuck with it. It is incredibly candid, covering her struggles with alcoholism and dating and her career, and equal parts emotional and laugh out loud funny. I loved the funny interstitial stories between narrative chapters and the way she wrote about the true loves of her life to date, her female friends. 

I’d highly recommend this book to women in their teens, 20s, and early 30s – there’s a reason it won a National Book Award, and I believe Alderton is one of the definitive female voices of the millennial generation. I look forward to reading whatever she writes in the future as well as watching the miniseries that was adapted from this book.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

I knew nothing about Ina Garten before I listened to her memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens on audiobook. I’ve never made one of her recipes, bought one of her cookbooks, or watched one of her TV shows. But this book was getting such rave reviews that I decided to read it anyway. 

First of all, Ina’s narration is so soothing and easy and pleasant to listen to. And her journey from her very cold and unloving childhood, to her marriage to her beloved Jeffrey, to her bureaucratic government job that she worked while teaching herself to cook, to her move to the Hamptons to run a specialty food store and then finally her repositioning of herself as a cookbook author and TV host – every bit of it was fascinating and gave me an appreciation for what a shrewd businesswoman she is. 

I appreciated her honest in opening up about the challenges she and Jeffrey faced at times in their marriage and her honesty around the difficult relationship she had with her parents. Nothing felt glossed over and I really ended the book feeling like I *know* Ina. 

Now I look forward to checking out some of her cookbooks and recipes as well as following her on social media so I can continue to get a dose of her fantastic witty sense of humor. I’d recommend this book even to people who don’t know Ina and don’t love foodie books!

Paper Doll by Dylan Mulvaney

Paper Doll, trans content creator Dylan Mulvaney’s story of her very public transition, is funny, exceptionally candid, and informative for readers outside the trans community. 

She recounts her childhood, including the time she told her mother at age four or five that she felt like God had made a mistake with her and put a girl in a boys body, all the way through to present day, when she has transitioned and become one of the most well known trans women in the world with over 9 million TikTok followers. 

A singer and actress, Dylan is also a great narrator and storyteller so this book is great on audio and makes you feel like you’re on the phone with a friend. The only downside to listening to this on audio is that you miss out on the cute illustrations in the book that she references, and it can be challenging to keep track of when she is reading from a diary every from her first 100 days of girlhood and when she is sharing about her earlier and later life. 

I’d recommend this book to fans and followers of Dylan as well as readers who would like to learn more about the joys and struggles of trans women. 

Note: Thank you to NetGalley and Abrams Image for providing me with an Advanced Listening Copy.

Make Trouble by Cecile Richards

I’ve had Cecile Richards’ memoir Make Trouble on my shelves for years and have admired her for as long as I can remember, so when she died on January 20th it finally felt like it was time for me to read this book. 

I listened to it on audio narrated by Cecile herself. I loved hearing about her early and unglamorous years as an organizer, her time working on her mother Ann Richards’ campaigns for Governor of Texas, her many high profile years leading Planned Parenthood, and her thoughts on the future of the Democratic Party. 

It was hard, living through what we’re living through now, to read about the 2016 election. A time when we thought things couldn’t get any worse. And now here we are. And Cecile is gone just when we needed her the most. 

But her story is as inspiring as she was and I’d recommend listening to it even if for no reason other than to hear her voice again. I’m forever grateful that I had the chance to meet her back in 2016, and grateful for all that she did to fight for justice during her life. May her memory be a blessing and may this book serve as inspiration for generations of young women looking to get into organizing. 

My one complaint is that it felt like the book had about four different endings. It was over. And then there was an epilogue. And then there was one other last chapter added in a later edition. It would be great if future editions of the book could reorganize this a little better.

Free by Amanda Knox

Free is the second book from Amanda Knox, the American woman wrongly convicted of her roommate’s murder while studying abroad in Italy in the mid ‘00s.

In her first book, published in 2013, she tells the story of her fight for justice. This book touches a little on that, starting off with stories of her time in jail in Italy. But it’s more about the aftermath, her life after returning home to America. 

I saw a TV interview Amanda gave where she said this book “didn’t need to be written” or something like that. And I would agree. It felt like something she wrote to provide catharsis for her and her family. As a reader, I’m not sure what I got out of it. The promotions put a lot of emphasis on the relationship she works to build with the man who prosecuted and wrongly convicted her. But that only happens in the last 15% of the book. The rest of it feels a little meandering. 

Amanda is an unusual person who still seems to be coming out the other side of a struggle with PTSD. Maybe it’s a struggle she’ll face for the rest of her life. And her experience is so unique and her personality a little unusual, making it hard to fully connect with her in this book. 

I really love a depressing memoir, but I couldn’t connect with Amanda’s story. That said, if you are a Dateline fan who always wonders how people turn out 10+ years after they’re in the spotlight for the worst moment of their lives, you may enjoy this book. Regardless, I’m rooting for Amanda and other wrongly convicted men and women. I hope they find the peace they deserve.

Note: Thank you to Libro.fm, NetGalley, and Grand Central Publishing for providing me with Advanced Listening and Advanced Reading Copies.

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So there we are! I’m back! And do you notice what the books I read in March have in common? They were all written by women, in celebration of Women’s History Month. How did you celebrate Women’s History Month?