After a whirlwind of reading in September and October, November felt like a return to my usual pace. I also got the itch to start needlepointing again (I had a few shows I really wanted to watch…), so that dipped a bit into my usual reading time!
Here’s what I read in November 2025:
GLIFF by Ali Smith
3/5 Stars
This is a modern retelling of Brave New World set in a dystopian, dysfunctional future– think post–artificial intelligence takeover. It’s definitely a weird book. I picked it up because I loved Culpability and how it made me think about AI from new angles, and The Circle is one of my long-time favorites. I think I was hoping for a more updated version of those… but this just wasn’t my cup of tea.
BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID by Nia Sioux
4/5 Stars
If you were a Dance Moms fan, this is a must-read. Nia’s memoir is quick– you could truly read it in one or two afternoons if you’re pushing for end-of-year reading goals . She’s incredibly thoughtful and gives a fair, honest look at the underbelly of Dance Moms while also sharing an inspiring story of what it looks like to rise as the underdog. I loved it. (And Chloe’s foreword is beautiful!)
CONFORM by Ariel Sullivan
4/5 Stars
I picked this up because I was having major FOMO. It was everywhere on social media, and I didn’t want to miss out. It’s definitely not a genre I usually read, and I struggled to get into the first half… but the second half totally hooked me. It’s a fantasy dystopian novel (think Hunger Games meets Divergent) with Handmaid’s Tale-type themes.
The themes– arranged marriages, eugenics, etc.– are pretty disturbing, but it’s written in a YA style, and that disconnect was hard for me. Still, it didn’t stop me from wanting to know exactly what happened next.
FRESH WATER FOR FLOWERS by Valérie Perrin
3/5 Stars
I struggled with this one, even though the storytelling itself is lovely. It follows a woman who works as the caretaker of a cemetery in a French town, and it’s very much a meditation on life and death: the good, the bad, and everything in between. Stories of people who have passed are woven throughout Violette’s own life, and while it’s beautifully written, it just didn’t totally click for me.
HEART THE LOVER by Lily King
4.5/5 Stars
Okay… I assumed this was going to be a romcom. WRONG. It is gut-wrenchingly beautiful. A friend tried to warn me, but I didn’t fully grasp what she meant. At its core, it’s a story about first loves. The romance begins in college (one of my favorite tropes!) when a girl becomes friends with two male best friends. The book follows the fallout of that love story over time. Whew. It’s good.
PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee
4.5/5 Stars
Pachinko has been on my TBR list for years. I finally got off the library waitlist and dove in. I had no idea what I was getting into, but it’s an epic multigenerational story about a Korean family who immigrates to Japan. The book spans from the early 1900s to the late 1980s, and I was completely drawn in… immersed in the characters, the landscape, and the history. It’s beautiful– and at times tragic. The perfect novel to read when you want to really sink your teeth into a story.
