What I Read in November & December 2025
Happy New Year, friends! I hibernated hardcore the last couple of weeks and am finally getting around to sharing what I read in not only December but also November (2025 was a lot and I had no energy left it in me by November!). Since I am playing a bit of catch-up in this post, here are some rapid-fire thought on everything I read or listened to in the last couple of months:
MAGIC LESSONS & THE RULES OF MAGIC by Alice Hoffman
This was my second time reading The Rules of Magic, and it confirmed she is not my type of writing! I will say I did enjoy Magic Lessons, a prequel to Practical Magic, a little bit more. My intention was to read the whole series in October (and made unsuccessful attempts) and I’m not going to lie, I think these books put me in a bit of a reading rut for the rest of Q4.
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women was one of my favorite books growing up. I read it again as an adult in my early 20s and remember not loving it the same though that was my first time reading Part Two of Little Women. Welp, I read it again, this time for AP Lit Book Club, and my feelings are still the same. I have hard time looking past the limitations reflective of the time period – the preachy, sermon-y language, everyone becoming a wife at the end of the book, and more.
THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEE by Patti Callhan Henry
Clearing out my physical TBR, I got around to this book which I’m pretty sure I received from a publisher during my Bookstagram phase. It is a historical fiction with a bit of mystery, set in England during and after the WWII. There is mystery surrounding a long-lost sister and a sweet children’s book about magical land that culminated from childhood imaginations.
THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander
I kid you not when I say this book has been on my list for about a decade (since I heard about it on Call Your Girlfriend podcast). One good thing about waiting this long is that I got to listen to the tenth-anniversary edition with a new preface which adds more recent events to the conversations about criminal justice system and mass incarceration.
THE AGE OF DEER by Erika Howsare
This is not something I would have picked out myself but thanks to Letters Sidecar Subscription, I spent some time reading about deer: history of deer, how they have been depicted throughout time, their relationship with humans, past and present. It was an interesting read though it did take me a while to get through it.
THE YEAR OF LESS by Cait Flanders
After seeing one person talk about this book on TikTok, I decided to give this audiobook a listen. Based on the title and synopsis of the book, I expected a chronicle of some no-buy or low-buy experiment. This turned out to be more of a memoir of a once-popular finance blogger. The writing could’ve been more cohesive and orderly I think. I didn’t take too much away from this book.
A HEART THAT WORKS by Rob Delaney
Another short audiobook listen (I’ve been going on a lot of walks)! This heartfelt memoir is written by a dad who loses his youngest son to brain tumor, diagnosed when he was just one year old after the family moves abroad to London. Navigating this challenge in a new environment, grappling with the reality of losing their baby and continuing on afterwards, there are a lot of emotions in this one.
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion
I went back to this audiobook after hearing it mentioned in A Heart That Works (which also references Frankenstein actually). In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion writes about losing her husband while her only child was in a coma and her grief during the months following. Rex was on an extended trip in a different time zone when I listened to this, and I could relate to Joan Didion’s sense of loss to a greater degree than I would’ve in typical circumstances.
PERMANENT RECORD by Mary H. K. Choi
Mary H. K. Choi created a story with a fascinating protagonist and an intriguing premise. Pablo, the older son of a Korean mother and Indian father, has dropped out of college and is working at a twenty-four-hour deli in Brooklyn to pay off his credit card debt when one day walks in pop star Leanna Smart. I went in expecting a YA romance but I found a refreshing coming-of-age story instead. Pablo and his friends are flawed but that’s what makes them likable, you know?!
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L. M. Montgomery
While Little Women did not live up to all the fondness I had in my childhood days, I am happy to report Anne of Green Gables does! This was my first time ever reading Anne of Green Gables in English, and I found it so refreshingly candid and childlike. I am currently rewatching Anne with an E because I am fully in my Anne era (and because I can’t find the 1985 version for free online anywhere!). I hope to read at least the two subsequent Anne books (again, for the first time in English).
예의 없는 새끼들 때문에 열받아서 쓴 생활 예절 by 김불꽃
I squeezed this book in during the last few days of 2025 both to move it from my physical TBR to books-I’ve-read shelves and to read one more book in Korean! My brother picked up this book about “social manners” for me three? four? Korea trips ago (he’s actually on another trip to Korea at the moment which also motivated me to read it sooner than later). It’s not a traditional book as it (or at least a good chunk of it) was originally published online. The author presents a short, digestible bullet list of how to act in all kinds of social circumstances, most of which I found to be common sense. I guess common sense is not so common though thus the need for a book like this!
P.S. I’m currently listening to The Mysterious Benedict Society!
