November Reading Recap
In this issue: reviews for my 11 November 2025 reads!
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THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton | 4.5 stars | audio (Hoopla)
A classic for a reason, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE was my first Wharton read since being forced to read ETHAN FROME in high school (which I absolutely HATED), but TAOI holds up. Newland Archer prides himself on his engagement to his beautiful bride-to-be; May Welland is tender, pure, and perfectly suited to the life New York society expects of him. Then Countess Ellen Olenska arrives, sharp-witted, scandal-marked, and unwilling to live by societal rules. Drawn to Ellen despite his engagement, Newland begins to feel the limits of duty and the pull of a different kind of life. With May, there is comfort and stability. With Ellen, the possibility of something more—and the cost of wanting it.
I’m not normally a romance girly, especially when it’s a broken engagement or marriage plot. I’m also not normally one to read a book about a whiny lil white boi in high society. HOWEVER, the yearning in this was so beautifully written and absolutely heartbreaking that despite these hangups I ate it up with fork and spoooooon, baybee! Wharton played my emotions like a first chair violinist; her prose and dialogue are so enviably precise at cutting to the core of each scene that I underlined nearly everything. TAOI also includes maybe the most romantic thing you could say to anyone: “Each time you happen to me all over again.” WHO in the world doesn’t want to be told that? Insane. I’m misting up just thinking about that scene.
The plot (especially that ENDING!) has all of the best turns of my favorite classics— JANE EYRE, PERSUASION, THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY— and is worth the read even if you aren’t typically drawn to classics. I haven’t seen the movie, so if you have, lmk if it holds up. If you’ve read this recently, please swoon with me.
SIMILAR READS: THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY by Henry James, PERSUASION by Jane Austen
NEVADA by Imogen Binnie | 4.5 stars | audio (Hoopla)
Maria Griffiths, a nearly thirty-year-old trans woman works in a NYC used bookstore while trying to stay true to her punk values. After a breakup, she spirals and steals her ex’s car for a cross-country escape where she encounters another person working a dead end job that she thinks can show her the purpose in her life. The less I say about the book’s plot past this, the better.
What a wild book. It’s been on my TBR for years but I’ve never gotten to it (perhaps because I got it mixed up with IDAHO by Emily Rustovich due to it being named after a state), and I’m so glad it popped up on my Hoopla recommendations. Blisteringly funny and razor-sharp in its social commentary— get the edition with the afterword!—, this is a cult classic for a reason. Binnie narrates the book on audio and it is maybe the best author narration I’ve ever encountered. Maria is on the hot mess express and Binnie’s voice really captures the near-mania of Maria’s everyday life and the illogical reasoning of her spiral. It’s refreshing to read 90s queer lit and see messy, frustrating queer characters’ slices-of-life in all their glory. The ending is the best ending I’ve read all year; I’m still thinking about it.
SIMILAR READS: WOODWORKING by Emily St. James, DETRANSITION, BABY by Torrey Peters
MISINTERPRETATION by Ledia Xhoga | 4.25 stars | ebook (Libby)
In present-day New York, an Albanian interpreter reluctantly begins working with Alfred, a Kosovar torture survivor, during his therapy sessions. Despite her husband’s warnings that the job may be too close for comfort, she’s drawn into her clients’ lives as well as and into her own buried memories. An impulsive attempt to help a former client sets off a chain of risky decisions that threaten her marriage and her grip on reality. Truthfully I am not sure why I liked this book so much— it keeps you at an arm’s distance and you never fully understand, like, or approve of the main character’s actions— but I loved it. Nominated for the Booker and, in my opinion, a bit mismarketed as a thriller, MISINTERPRETATION is unsettling literary fiction that ruminates on the theme of translation, interpretation, and figuring out relationships to self and others in contexts that can only ever really be half-known. I found this book absolutely mesmerizing and think others should pick it up if they’re up for the challenge!
SIMILAR READS: AUDITION by Katie Kitamura (see full review here), THE DREAM HOTEL by Laila Lalami
SEVERAL PEOPLE ARE TALKING by Calvin Kasulke | 4 stars | ebook (Libby)
Gerald, a mid-level employee of a New York–based public relations firm has been uploaded into the company’s internal Slack channels. Yes, literally. His colleagues assume it’s an elaborate gag to exploit the new work-from home policy, but he’s stuck in Slack and can’t get out without the help of his coworker Pradeep, who he enlists to figure out what the heck is going on. Told entirely in Slack messages, this is hilarious, breakneck-paced, and feels like a surreal version of THE OFFICE. It’s a quick read with the obvious draw of an inventive format, but packed inside are some surprisingly deep observations about technology, awe, and attention as well as unexpectedly great queer representation. I think most people would enjoy this one!
SIMILAR READS: COVER STORY by Susan Rigetti, I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL by Natalie Sue
JUST A LITTLE DINNER by Cécile Tlili (translated by Katherine Gregor) | 4 stars| ebook
In tired, overheated Paris at the end of August, a group of friends gather for dinner in a couple’s Sixth Arrondissement apartment. Behind the closed shutters, fractured relationships, manipulation, bad behavior, and quiet desperation spiral into something far more consequential for everyone involved. A French translation and a debut novel, this is mostly a “life happening to people” bottleneck episode of a novella, which I absolutely love. Tlili wastes no time in introducing these characters, showing you how they operate without being too “tell not show”-y, and teasing out each of their secrets to a fever pitch. While it’s not groundbreakingly original or anything, it’s a tight and compulsively readable book that has unexpectedly great moments of representation (Johar as a Tunisian woman in a high-power exec role) and unlikely alliances. This is the perfect book for a Euro holiday break, a beach chair, or a happy hour Aperol solo date.
SIMILAR READS: ASSEMBLY by Natasha Brown, THE DINNER by Herman Koch
THE OTHER MOTHERS by Katherine Faulkner | 3.75 stars | audio (Libby)
Former journalist Tash is looking for a story to jump-start her freelance career and for friends to help her survive early motherhood. She finds both at her son’s new playgroup, where the other mothers are sleek, successful, and everything she wants to be. But as she becomes closer with them, she realizes their fancy London townhouses are built on secrets… ones that she begins to uncover to disastrous consequences.
This was my first book by Katherine Faulkner, and I quickly learned that she’ll be added to the list of those Lisa Jewell/Gillian McAllister-type of British domestic thriller writers that can put anything out and I’ll gobble it up. I’m a sucker for a yummy mummies-gone-wild type of read, which Faulkner delivers here in spades without sacrificing character development of any of the cast. So many secrets pile up that I couldn’t guess the ending until riiiight up on the reveal, which is always the mark of a successful thriller to me. Again, it’s not earth shatteringly novel, but I don’t see many people talking about this one and think more should pick it up!
SIMILAR READS: NONE OF THIS IS TRUE by Lisa Jewell, PERFECTLY NICE NEIGHBORS by Kia Abdullah
MODERATION by Elaine Castillo | 3.75 stars | ebook (Libby)
Girlie Delmundo is the best content moderator in the world, and in an era of financial collapse, climate crisis, and pandemic, she’s still moving up: a promotion at her tech company and a coveted role moderating virtual reality environments. The job comes with extraordinary perks, enough to ease her family’s financial burdens and let her stop thinking about the past altogether. But as Girlie grows closer to William Cheung, Playground’s wry, secretive cofounder, she begins to uncover truths that can’t be filtered or controlled.
A book I read because Surabhi wouldn’t stop posting about it (her obsession with Castillo is legendary), I was initially intrigued from the cover and the concept of a main character working in content moderation, something I hadn’t seen before. Castillo’s writing is sprawling and dips in and out of commentary on everything: ethics, capitalism, displacement, second-generation identity, family dynamics, trauma, reality, AI, and romance. I surprisingly loved it, though when I tried to describe it to Shaunish later I was like, “So she learns how to swim and gets a new watch and then they kiss in AI but not in real life?” and realized some plot points didn’t totally hold up for me out of the thrall of the narrative. In the moment, however, I was absolutely captivated by Castillo’s nuanced prose and loved Girlie as a character, though the ending went off the rails for me and the blend of genres sometimes felt like it needed a better editor. I still think it’s an interesting one if you like a maximalist, hyper-observant narrator or character study.
SIMILAR READS: GOING ZERO by Anthony McCarten, THE CENTRE by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqui
THE GIRLS IN THE GARDEN by Lisa Jewell | 3.25 stars | audio (Hoopla)
On a beautiful communal garden square in London, an urban oasis where children roam freely and neighbors trust one another, everything appears safe. But during a midsummer neighborhood party, preteen Pip finds her thirteen-year-old sister, Grace, unconscious and bleeding in a hidden corner of the rose garden. What happened to Grace, who did it, and why?
Another London yummy mummy mystery, I liked the setting of a communal garden hiding secrets, with kids running wild and adults trying to keep it together, but it wasn’t my fave of Jewell’s. Of course the characters were interesting— the grandfather that comes to stay with Adele and family was particularly memorable—, but too many things were introduced and only some of them were picked back up, leaving little room for character development or motivation to seem super clear. I’d pick up one of her other books instead.
SIMILAR READS: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Ruth Ware (see full review here), anything else by Lisa Jewell
THE ACADEMY by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham | 3 stars | ebook (Libby)
It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy when surprisingly great news breaks: the school ranking has jumped a baffling seventeen spots to be the second best in the nation. After a campus tragedy the prior year, the news is a welcome change of pace… until the congratulatory mood curdles. A new app, ZipZap, floods campus with scandalous blind items, and no one is safe—students, teachers, or administrators alike.
I read this for book club and don’t think I’d have picked this one up otherwise. It’s one of those beachy Taylor Jenkins Reid/Lessons in Chemistry-feeling books that veered into caricaturish description, easy and stereotypical characters, predictable twists, and just straight improbable happenings at a tony boarding school in the Northeast. The main character is ~not like other girls, the French teacher might as well be walking around with a baguette and saying “Zut allors!” every three seconds. All of the people working at this school need to be fired ASAP. Where the HELL is their HR?
Entertaining, sure. But would I recommend it? Not particularly. It was my first Elin Hilderbrand and allegedly co-authored with her teenage daughter, which was my biggest eyebrow raise: how much of this was a teenager trying her best… and how much was just bad writing? Apparently this is the first installment in a trilogy, which I don’t think I’ll pick up any further. I wonder how much Hilderbrand gets away with the Taylor Swift no-editor effect…. this was definitely a LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL situation.
SIMILAR READS: The GOSSIP GIRL series, ONE OF US IS LYING series by Karen McManus
KILL SHOW by Daniel Sweren-Becker | 2.75 stars | audio (Hoopla)
Sara Parcell vanished on a crisp April morning in Frederick, Maryland, and her disappearance became a national obsession—fuel for a controversial docuseries that tracked the case in real time. Ten years later, those closest to her are finally ready to speak. Told as an oral history, Kill Show revisits a seemingly familiar missing-girl case only to upend it. This was a recommendation from Renee of It’s Book Talk when she was on Book Talk, Etc, and while it was interesting in its concept of a true crime show being filmed in real time, I truly don’t remember hardly anything that happened. I remember it had a full cast narration and that I didn’t like anyone, but other than that, forgettable. It felt a bit like the poor man’s GOD OF THE WOODS without any of the lyrical prose. The audiobook did have great production value with a full-cast audio! But that’s the only thing I remember, tbh.
SIMILAR READS: LISTEN FOR THE LIE by Amy Tintera, ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS by Stacy Willingham
THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS by R. J. Jacobs | 2 stars | audio (Hoopla)
In Forest, North Carolina, five graduate students study the science of lying under the watchful eye of the enigmatic Professor Joe Lyons. The work is dull, but the consequences are not: learning how deception works makes it easier to hide their own secrets—and each of them has one. When an experiment goes wrong and a student is found dead, a snowstorm traps the group on an abandoned campus with a local detective.
I’m not sure how I found this… but it was quite ass. Annoying and flat characters, rudimentary understanding of graduate school culture, and honestly terrible editing— the author switches perspectives and tenses at a pace that makes it very confusing to keep track of when everything is taking place. Under the radar for a reason, methinks!
SIMILAR READS: idk y’all, it was not good!!!