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- On Reading In March 2025 (Best of)
On Reading In March 2025 (Best of)
I never know what date it is but here's what I loved reading in March.
I was reading a publisher’s fall 2024 catalog the other day as if we were actually in 2024 so this roundup is only possible thanks to a bujo and data sheet where I keep track of things—in case you’re wondering where I’m at 3 months into 2025.
I have started DNF’ing a lot more, and I absolutely hated one of the super popular book club picks–I thought was a giant nothing burger offering readers a bunch of trauma without ever deeply diving into anything interesting, or in a worthwhile way.
In good reading news: I already have a significant amount of reads that are 100% on my end-of-year Best of 2025 list; I feel like the majority of my reading being 4 stars is a huge win.
More Best of 2025!
I have loved every single romance novel that TJ Alexander has written so even though historical romance isn’t a favorite subgenre for me nothing was stopping me from picking this one up. It is absolutely lovely, and once again Alexander’s characters shine through. I remain highly-anticipating whatever comes next.
“My ex-husband had good politics, but only after I’d convinced him of it.”
What do you do when your previous essay collection was about the man you married when you are now in fact divorced? You write a followup essay collection that is just as smart, funny, and observant and you reveal to the world that the dipshit (my words, and I’m being nice) had a mistress since before the wedding. Scaachi Koul was also on a fantastic episode of First Edition if you need a great podcast episode: 10 Notecards with Scaachi Koul
“That is the dark comedy of the desire we call feminism: we are ethically compelled not only never to get what we want, but never to stop wanting it, either.”
Andrea Long Chu is a hell of a critic of our time—her absolute slaughter of Pamela Paul (Good-bye, Pamela Paul The contrarian columnist showed us the intolerable side of liberalism.) was not only perfect, and so deserved, but it’s a great example of why she earns the title of great critic—and this is a collection of her work along with new pieces, including a history on criticism. I love her voice, and so I did a massive amount of gardening in one day (physically paid the price later) because I didn’t want to stop listening. I also love when writers put together collections of their work like this and leave the original work untouched but add at the end their new thoughts. (Hanif Abdurraqib did this with They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, which I also highly recommend)
This book centers on a piece of technology that doesn’t actually exist but easily makes the case for the technology that we do have (Careless People below!) and how all the gathering of our personal information can so easily be used by an authoritarian government that uses that information against citizens (*gestures so wildly at the current state of things that I can fly). It’s chilling af.
Tell-all
“If anything, Facebook rewards outsider candidates who post inflammatory content that drives engagement. We charge less money for ads that are more incendiary and reach more people.”
I would have named this garbage people or a lot of things that publishing would never print on a book cover. I recently talked about how Meta (Facebook / zuckerberg) Streisand themselves and made this book an immediate hit so I’ll skip that and dive into how there really wasn’t anything that was going to make me view zuckerberg less than I already did—he’s made clear he’s a garbage person over and over again—but seeing so many instances of the people with power at Meta being absolute garbage people, courting dictators, and their role in 2016 and beyond elections is overwhelming. All of these people, including Sheryl Sandberg, should never ever be at the top of anything, let alone wield this much power.
The truly depressing takeaway for me from this book is two things: it is a giant glaring reminder of all the times that it was made clear there were different avenues to take but since “move fast and break things” is their literal motto we were forced into situations that could have been avoided; this book should absolutely start massive consequences for a handful of people and instead nothing will happen.
A liar I liked
This is one of those suspense novels that starts with a character telling you they’re a lifelong liar, they’re life is currently a mess, and they’ve become kind of obsessed with a guy and are lying their way into the family's life. And saying anything after that would just be all the spoilers so instead I’ll say that as a person who reads a shitton of mystery/thriller/suspense/crime novels my bar is high and this one kept me entertained throughout.
Essay memoirs remain an absolute favorite subgenre of mine
“How do you measure a life? And does it matter?”
I am not a k-pop fan the same way I am not a fan of things that I’ve just never gotten into for no actual reason, and thus I am completely neutral on them and don’t really know about it beyond it exists. I am a big k-drama fan though and I love memoirs in essay form when it beautifully blends pop culture which is why I immediately pressed play on this audiobook the second I got it. Not knowing the specific k-pop groups discussed didn’t diminish or interfere with my enjoyment and I loved the way Giaae Kwon talked about her life growing up Korean American, her mental health, and used her love of k-pop groups to talk about the industry that creates them, Korean culture, Korean and Japanese history, and so much more!
My reading life is so much better because of graphic novels
If I'd read this last year it would have been on my Best of 2024 list. I’m not a happy crier—nothing against happy crying, it is just not a thing my body has ever done—but I cried happy tears at the end of this graphic novel, which I am chalking up 100% to how much I loved it and 0% to perimenopause.
And that’s another month of reading!
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