January Reading Recap
Hello, fellow book lovers. Last month, I devoured the books I received for Christmas (and the books I gifted myself – thank you, Me!). I started 2025 off hot with two five-star books and a few 4.5-star books that you will not want to miss, and well, some duds that you will want to miss. I hope everyone’s reading goals are off to a successful start. Let me know what your reading goals are in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Quick Synopsis: An imagined scenario of the start of an atomic war backed up with research and newly declassified government documents.
Strong Points: I’m not sure why I love to torture myself and keep myself up at night reading about the end of the world. I swore myself off books about climate change and its devastating effects it has on our innocent, earthly animals and have now pivoted to nuclear war. I love the torture! Okay, but hear me out. While this book is utterly terrifying, it’s also utterly captivating. It breaks down what would happen in a nuclear war, from the first milliseconds to the hours, weeks, and years after. And what do you know, it’s quite terrifying. We’re talking about the end of human existence and probably most cellular life on Earth as we know it. Sorry to the doomsday preppers because, odds are, unless their bunkers are impossibly deep underground and they have food to live out the rest of their days down there, their efforts were done in vain. What makes this book so fascinating is the research Jacobsen has done. I read her other book, Area 51 a few years ago and I really liked her writing because it’s not dry, yet she crams in so much information. It’s told at such a fast pace that you’ll want to keep turning the page to see what horrors await.
Weak Points: Nothing, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
If you’re ready for sleepless nights and adding more fears to your list, go for it.
Writing Style: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Flow/Pacing: 5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: Challenger by Adam Higginbotham, Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum, and The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei
Quick Synopsis: Genevieve grew up as an only child, living with her grandmother and parents. After finding out that her grandfather fathered another family, Genevieve is forced to share her own family with her new sibling Arin.
Strong Points: Yes, yes, yes! What a great novel to start the year. You know when you first open up a book and from the first page it flows perfectly and all of a sudden you are 50 pages in and wanting to simultaneously stop reading it to savor the story but also can’t seem to put it down? That’s what this felt like.
I was gifted this ARC at our book club book exchange and was a little skeptical. The gifter said it was his favorite book he read last year, saying how it captured complex family relationships in such a beautiful and effortless way. While those types of stories can be hit or miss for me, this was a big hit. The way the author wrote about the relationships we have with our loved ones and how her dialogue and characters’ inner thoughts flowed so naturally, I read 50 pages before even realizing it. Nothing felt forced. The book was extraordinary. It’s going to be hard to beat. This is the author’s debut novel and I’m eager to read what she writes next.
Weak Points: Zilch
It’s being published in early May. You should grab a copy!
Writing Style: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Flow/Pacing: 5/5
Overall Rating: /5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami, Homeseeking by Karissa Chen, and Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry
Quick Synopsis: Tom Rourke, a helpless romantic, steals the wife of a successful mine captain in a Montana mining town in 1891.
Strong Points: I’m not sure why, but sometimes I crave books that take place in the West in the late 1800s/early 1900s. There’s something about the cowboy life that intrigues me. The way people talked feels grimy and cool. I think in my past life I must have been a cowboy. There’s this sense of adventure and lawlessness that draws me to books set in that era. This book had all of that. The setting was 1891, in a small mining town in Montana. I could picture the grungy saloons the characters frequented and the boarding houses that travelers stayed in. It scratched my Western story itch.
Weak Points: Is there anything worse than hitting a reading slump after coming off of an exceptional book? It’s almost as if you were watching a vibrant movie in color and then you’re forced to only watch dull movies in black and white. While they still are movies, they just aren’t the same. Coming off of a book filled with strong writing and storytelling ability, The Heart in Winter fell very flat. While I didn’t hate it, it certainly didn’t capture my attention like The Original Daughter did. It took me a while to get used to the author’s writing. It lacked quotation marks and didn’t say who was saying what, so you had to use context clues to fully understand the conversation. Not the worst thing, but it doesn’t make for a smooth read. Maybe authors need to stop being cheeky and just write the book using proper punctuation. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book without proper punctuation and been like “Wow, that was so cool and edgy and added lots to the story.” No, thank you.
However, I’m not going to write off Barry completely. He also wrote the book Night Boat to Tangier, which I’ve heard good things about. Let’s just hope he used proper punctuation for that one.
Luckily, it wasn’t a terribly long story, and the ending was pretty interesting.
Writing Style: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Eh, Recommend
For Fans of: Wild Houses by Colin Barrett, The Horse by Willy Vlautin, and Our Evening by Alan Hollinghurst
The Repeat Room by Jesse Ball
Quick Synopsis: Abel, a garbage man, is summoned along with hundreds of other citizens to be vetted as a juror. After an extensive process, only one juror is selected to see the crime through the defendant’s eyes using cutting-edge technology. That person is in charge of issuing a verdict. If the verdict is guilty, the defendant is executed.
Strong Points: I liked the fast-paced storytelling in the first two acts. Ball did a great job of building this weird world that made the reader want to keep reading to figure out where it was going. I was all in on the story until the third act.
Weak Points: Cool concept, right? Now, think of every way that the author could hijack this story and ruin it in the third act, and that is The Repeat Room. The last part was told through the defendant’s eyes. I liked this because you finally got to “see” what Abel was going to judge. That is until the graphic sibling incest started and went on for many, many pages. It felt to me that the author was going for such a shock value that he turned towards such inappropriateness, that even I, someone who doesn’t get offended by books, was extremely disturbed by. It could have been more nuanced, and I think it would have been more effective. I read a lot of reviews that said the author takes big risks with his writing, but to me, this “risk” felt lazy and not creative.
While I haven’t read anything else by Ball, I do find him interesting. He has written over 45 books and he’s known for writing whole books within a matter of days. He attributes this talent to being diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition where he wasn’t supposed to live past the age of 30. Here he is, years later and publishing books left and right. Maybe he should have spent a little more time with this one.
In the end, the author got in his own way.
Writing Style: 1/5
Characters: 1/5
Plot: 1.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 1.5/5
Overall Rating: 1/5
Not Recommend
For Fans of: Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda, Two-Step Devil by Jamie Quatro, and Blood Test by Charles Baxter
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
Quick Synopsis: Charles is a white man raised on a reservation. He wrestles with his identity and what it means to give up his daughter for her to have a better life.
Strong Points: This has been on my list for a while, and I was excited when it finally became available at the library. I have to say, it was worth the wait. The author’s voice was soothing, even though the story most certainly wasn’t. At times, it was utterly devastating to read, yet I couldn’t put it down. I was pulled back and excited to pick up where I left off.
Unlike The Repeat Room, Talty took his time with this story and rewrote it five times. This resulted in such a well-developed story with beautiful, clean prose. It felt personal, like Talty was writing from the heart. Being a Native American himself and growing up on the reservation, he has lost many people to addiction, including both of his parents. The way he talks about addiction is not one note. It’s through the eyes of someone who wants more but can’t achieve it because the addiction is in the way. He focuses on the person instead of the addiction. By doing this, the reader takes away so much more from the story and sees these characters through clear eyes instead of through some misery porn that a lot of authors create about addiction.
This is a book that I think everyone can connect to. It’s a story about finding your own identity and how we sometimes let others decide our identity for us. The main character is a white man who lives on the reservation. While he isn’t technically Native American by blood, the man who raised him was. This allowed for him to adopt the culture and shape him into the person he grows up to be.
Weak Points: While I love the ending, I would have loved 50 more pages of wrap-up even more. I felt like there was more to tie up.
A beautiful, thought-provoking book
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: The Mighty Red by Louise Erdich, Bear by Julia Phillips, and Colored Television by Danzy Senna
The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef by Marco Pierre White
Quick Synopsis: Marco Pierre White's journey to becoming the youngest chef to get three Micheline Stars
Strong Points: I was on the hunt for another book along the lines of Kitchen Confidential, and turned to this one, another crazed, fast-paced book about the restaurant industry. While it wasn’t quite in the voice of Bourdain (because, let’s get real, there will never be another Bourdain), it was still buzzy and had that rata-tata energy. White managed to make quite a successful career for himself while taking no prisoners along the way. I have never read a book by someone who had such an ego yet was so enduring and insecure. He refers to himself as the Rockstar Chef no less than 20 times, yet is so fragile. According to him, he’s won every fistfight that he’s fought (and believe me, there have been a lot), yet hated hurting people. He was chasing the Micheline Stars and let this chase define him as a chef. He name-dropped throughout the whole book about the famous people who wanted to eat his food, and yet he claimed he hated fame and notoriety more than anything. He’s nuts.
I hate to compare Bourdain with White, but I’m going to anyway. Bourdain seemed to take no shit either, but he also looked out for people and seemed to leave behind a loving reputation. I did not get that same sense with White. He seemed to screw over the ones he loved and didn’t blink twice. He didn’t have a great amount of loyalty. And maybe that is the recipe to becoming the youngest chef to get three Micheline Stars. Regardless, it was an entertaining journey to read about.
Weak Points: This book came out six years after Kitchen Confidential and although it didn’t have the same format as Bourdain's book, it certainly felt like that is what it was trying to go for. I would have loved a more unique and creative chef’s tale. I know this is possible because Eat a Peach by David Chang was wildly entertaining and nothing at all like Kitchen Confidential.
Oh, how cut-throat the kitchen can be.
Writing Style: 3/5
Plot: 3.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Eh, Recommend
For Fans of: Heat by Bill Buford, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, and Sous Chef by Michael Gibney
I’ll Come to You by Rebecca Kauffman
Quick Synopsis: A family story through different family member’s POV
Strong Points: This book took me by surprise. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I was going to. It’s a familial story done correctly. It reminded me a lot of the book Bee Sting by Paul Murray, in that the author was able to connect the reader with each family member. I empathized with each character and their motives were clear and their personalities were very well developed. They each had their worries that I think every reader can relate to, no matter your age or what stage of life you’re in.
Weak Points: I would have loved 50 more pages because I missed the author’s writing and the characters.
There isn’t much to talk about with this one, but what a sweet story.
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: Pictures of You by Emma Grey, What Happened to the McCrays by Tracey Lange, and Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Save Our Souls: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder by Matthew Pearl
Quick Synopsis: The true story of a group of castaways aboard a shark fishing boat sinking off the coast of an island.
Strong Points: I’m always chasing the high of The Wager. That was such an exciting and well-done story from the very first word to the last. So, I thought I would give this one a try. While the stories weren’t exactly the same and the authors told them in very different ways, I still had a good time. The story itself was super exciting. I can’t imagine having to survive, forage for food, get baked by the sun, keep morale up, and encourage each other that you will get rescued soon, even when the small voice in the back of your head tells you otherwise. I don’t even think I could do Survivor. I need a toothbrush, a blanket, sunscreen, and real food. I’d be the first to throw myself into the shark-infested waters. And yet, this family kept it together. The mother organized chores for everyone and ensured they sang and had fun along the way. She never gave up hope.
Weak Points: While I enjoyed the story of the castaways, I got a little bored with the side ramblings. It felt like the story was too short to make into a complete book, so the author had to fill the space with other nautical happenings during this time. Some of these happenings were interesting and other ramblings were too boring and added little to the story. I found my mind wandering at times, and I didn’t follow where the rambling started. All of a sudden they are talking about a ship from Hawaii that I had no idea how it connected and how we got there and would have to go back and reread to find out. These side stories either needed to connect with the story more clearly, or the story should have just been about the castaways.
Interesting enough story if you’re into shipwrecks and survival.
Writing Style: 3/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Eh, Recommend
For Fans of: The Life Impossible by Matt Haig, Cabin by Patrick Hutchinson, and North Woods by Daniel Mason
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Quick Synopsis: The daughter of a wealthy family goes missing while attending the camp one summer.
Strong Points: The writing was very easy to read and the story was entertaining. The author purposely intended for the reader not to solve the mystery. There weren’t a ton of red herrings and as soon as you thought it was one person, the perspective would change and you’d understand why it couldn’t possibly have been who you thought it was. I liked this because it kept me wanting to read to see what we would find out next. Once I let go of trying to solve the mystery and let myself enjoy the relationships, I started to get more into the book. And the author nailed the ending. It all pretty much wrapped up nicely.
Weak Points: 1/4 of the way into the book, new characters are still being introduced. I didn’t care for this. While I liked hearing the different perspectives, there was so much switching back and forth that until you got to know the characters, it could be quite confusing where we ended with each character in their chapter. There were a few characters that I felt were not necessarily useful to the story. Their perspective could have been edited out and that would have trimmed down the book a bit. While I enjoyed learning about the intertwining relationship of the wealthy family, the townspeople, the camp help, and the police department, I don't think that the story necessarily needed all that. Also, there were a few characters that were too villainous and we never heard their perspectives, so the reader didn’t know their motives or how they became the evil person that they had become. It felt silly at times.
While it didn’t knock my socks off, it was a fun book.
Writing Style: 4/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow/Pacing: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Recommend
For Fans of: The Wedding People by Alison Espach, All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker, and Margot’s Got Money Problems by Rufi Thorpe
Consent: A Memoir by Jill Ciment
Quick Synopsis: 28 years after the success of her memoir about the 30-year age gap between her husband and herself, Ciment reflects on what consent means to her today.
Strong Points: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. It received rave reviews, but I hadn’t read her first memoir and was worried that it would be a lot of #MeToo talk (I'm not saying #MeToo is not important it is just that I’ve read so many books with that theme). That’s not at all what it was though. It was a story about love.
What I found particularly beautiful about it was how she stuck with Arnold and took care of him as he got old. In one part, he becomes blind after a cataract surgery mishap. She looks over at him asleep in bed and says that’s the moment she realizes the most difficult part of her life is about to begin. And she was okay with that. She knew she would step up and care for him because she loved him that much. And she did up until his passing.
But make no mistake, she does reflect on the inappropriateness of their 30-year age gap and how Arnold should not have given in to her attempts to seduce him. She wasn’t naïve by the optics but also didn’t let that get in her way.
What I took away from this story is that every relationship looks different. Who are we to judge other people’s love? In the end, aren’t we all just looking for someone to spend our days with? Someone to laugh and adventure with? A shoulder to cry on and someone to hug us and take care of us? Albeit unconventional, that’s what Ciment and Arnold’s relationship was.
Weak Points: Nothing of note
Bring your tissues (or maybe I’m just a baby).
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol, Liars by Sarah Manguso, and Men Have Called Her Crazy by Anna Marie Tendler
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
Quick Synopsis: Haidt examines how the rise of mental illness in Gen Z is caused by their dependency on smartphones.
Strong Points: The writing and format of the book is very accessible. While the writing isn’t dumbed down, the reader doesn’t need a childhood psychology degree to understand the concepts. The concepts are further explained with charts and visuals for easier understanding. As a visual learner, I love a good chart. There’s also a summary at the end of each chapter summarizing the important points Haidt is trying to convey.
Although I enjoyed the whole book in its entirety and I think you will too, the different sections can be read independently. It doesn’t have to be read from start to finish to understand the gist of what Haidt is trying to say. I enjoyed every section except for the section on how to raise your child to be screen-free. Since I’m not raising a child (thankfully because after reading this, I can’t imagine trying to do that in this day and age), I wasn’t interested in that section, but I liked his writing so much that I read through it.
He also interviews Gen Zers, other psychologists, school board members, and parents to get their perspective on what is going on. Every point was supported by extensive research which made for a fun read. I love a well-researched book. But wow, if this doesn’t make you concerned about where we are heading, I don’t know what will.
Weak Points: The third act was a little bit boring. Haidt co-wrote it with someone else so, the writing didn’t have his voice as much. His voice is what drew me in and kept me reading. This part felt bogged down and didn’t flow as seamlessly as the other sections written by Haidt alone.
Crucial reading for anyone raising a child in the 21st century
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Plot: 4.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, The Small and Mighty by Sharon McMahon, and Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier
“As late as the sixteenth century, no word existed in the English language for shark.” -Save Our Souls by Matthew Pearl
