November 2025 Reads
Coming in hot (and late) with my whopping three reads of November.
I’ve been trying to update the blog. We are mid-makeover. Long story short, my old theme was discontinued so it was having some issues and when a discontinued theme has issues, it’s harder to troubleshoot all the issues. So, I got a new theme which effed with the format and, so, these are the things I try to fix in the pockets of time when my kids are occupied and do not need me (read: the pockets of time are SMALL).
But, makeover or not, I needed to show up here and do my November post!
So, here they are, copied and pasted from GoodReads.
4 out of 5 stars
The Door to Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn:
This was recommended to me by a friend as a cozy read and it is exactly that!
This was a perfect book for a book-lover. It was short, sweet, and made you fall in love with Carl and his companion. A reminder to ourselves that you can find connection and wisdom and guidance from the most unlikely of places and people.
If you’re looking for an overall sweet, charming read, add this one to your TBR!
4 out of 5 stars
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown:
Set in the mid-1990s, this story follows Jane, a girl raised in an isolated Montana cabin by her father, who has taken her completely off the grid after telling her that her mother died in a car accident.
Jane is “homeschooled,” though not in any traditional sense. She gardens, sketches, reads whatever 19th-century books her father hands her, and mostly lives in a world of his making.
As she enters her teen years, she starts pushing back against his strict boundaries and soon finds herself entangled in a terrible crime. She escapes to San Francisco, only to discover a world that has been moving forward without her in ways she can barely comprehend.
The book explores how dramatically our world shifted with the rise of the early Internet. It’s set in the era of dial-up, chat rooms, and the first hints of the digital future, but it also taps into the same emotions many of us are feeling now with the rise of AI and tools like ChatGPT.
It’s a little spooky, a little wild, and strangely familiar. As if you’re reading a story you’ve somehow lived through yourself. Being here in the 2020s, already knowing how some of this technology evolves, makes it even more unsettling and thought-provoking.
A definite page-turner. Worth the read.
5 out of 5 stars
My Friends by Fredrik Backman:
Oh gosh.
I think this took me weeks to read and not because it was hard to read. But because he packs a punch in every single freaking line that you have to stop, close the book, and absorb the words fully. (Also impressive because whoever translated this to English clearly did an amazing job at keeping the power and the emotion in the words).
I love reading everything that Fredrick Backman has written. Even reading his Acknowledgements section is such a joy. He’s a beautiful storyteller and he writes almost as if he’s just letting his stream of consciousness lead the way, but somehow there’s so much depth and beauty in everything he says.
Like, the most simple description can bring me to tears. There was a section in there about one of the main characters, Ted, walking like his father. And I had to put the book down and just CRY because how did those simple sentences make me FEEL so much?!
“It’s a long life, but fast, one single step in the right direction can be enough. Ted left his brother at the piano that evening after they had drunk the last of their dad’s beer, he went back down to the basement, stumbling over that one step that was just a bit higher than all the others. He didn’t lift his feet up when he walked either, that was something he had inherited. It made him proud.”
“Do you think God exists?” Ali asked her friends. “Yes,” Kimkim replied, running his pencil across the drawing so gently that it was impossible to know if it made a difference on the paper or just inside him. Joar was breathing hard. “Damned if I know… I don’t even think all the people who go to church every Sunday believe in God. I think they just need company. To feel that they belong to a group.” Kimkim nodded gently and replied: “But I don’t think that means that God doesn’t exist, Joar. I think maybe that’s what God is.”
Anyway, my cousin recently gave me a list of books I read and asked which one she should read first. And my answer was this one. And will always be this one. Because it is just so dang worth it.
That’s all we got.
Riyu is currently entertaining himself in the sink and I can see puddles on the floor even though he’s only been doing it for as long as it took me to copy/paste my reviews.
Wow wow wow.
Tell me in the comments (if they’re working. Because, y’know, blog mid-makeover). What are you reading?
