Finished reading: Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips 📚

Hello, friends! It’s time to talk about my favorite thing to talk about: books! There are some glitchy issues with the way Micro.blog is tracking which books I read which year, so the numbers on my list are probably inflated, but I definitely read over 100 books this year. Fewer than 10 of those were children’s books. 86 were romance or romance-adjacent (like Sarah MacLean’s These Summer Storms). I track my romance reading at Pagebound as well as at Micro.blog.

2025 Reading Goals

My main reading goal for the year was to always be reading one more book than I’ve already read. I love this target because it’s achievable right up until December 31st. At some point I decide that’s it, I’ve met the goal and I’m not increasing it by one. I’m currently reading Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s Match Me If You Can and I’ll probably call the reading year done after that.

I had some stretch goals for the year, too. Let’s see how I did!

Read one nonfiction book a month.

I read six or seven adult nonfiction books this year, so I missed this target. But I have a couple nonfiction books on the go. I did shift my habits so my default while taking my meds and eating breakfast is to read nonfiction. The books I’m in the middle of are Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal by Mark Bittman and The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen. I look forward to continuing reading these in the new year.

Stop requesting books from NetGalley that I don’t know anything about except what is on NetGalley.

I did this one!

Stop requesting books from NetGalley based on marketing emails they send me.

I did this one, too!

And as a bonus, I even have reviewed some of my older NetGalley requests. I’m trying to improve my feedback ratio and the easiest way to do that is to give feedback on books I’ve requested in the past.

Keep up with new releases from authors I love.

I’m going to say I did this. Here are some new releases from authors I love that I read this year:

• All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles
• Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Kristen Arnett
• A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke by Adriana Herrera
• These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean
• A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen
• After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian

Any time I’m in a city with a romance-only bookstore, visit it.

CloseI I visited Peach Basket Books, which opened up in my city, and Friends to Lovers in Alexandria, Virginia. I didn’t make it to Bright Side Books and Wine, which is in a city near mine.

Other Notable Things in My 2025 Reading

Here are some things worth noting about my reading this year.

• I read several books Sarah MacLean recommended for learners in her class, Start Your Romance Novel Today.
• I read all the extant titles in Disney’s Meant to Be romance series. These books are written by popular romance authors and reimagine Disney version of fairytales as contemporary romance. My favorite is Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Cordova but they’re all fun.
• I read big chunks of Lorraine Heath’s, Julie Ann Long’s, and Lisa Kleypas’s backlists.

Looking Ahead to 2026

So, what do I want my reading to look like in 2026? I’m not even calling these goals. They’re just things I’m thinking about.

• More memoirs and diaries
• More children’s books
• More of my old NetGalley requests

How has your reading year been?

Finished reading: Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin 📚

Finished reading: I Will by Lisa Kleypas 📚

Finished reading: The Merriest Misters by Timothy Janovsky 📚

📚 Authors of children’s books, I am begging you: PLEASE have a newsletter. It’s hard for librarians to keep up with all your new releases and this would make it easier.

🔖📚 Read Friendship Is My Writing Process by Ana Hein (Electric Literature).

I love this. I’ve been thinking about writing a lot lately, and this really resonates with me.

🔖📚 Read Public libraries in TX, LA, and MS are no longer protected by the First Amendment.

This is disheartening as can be and I don’t have the eloquence to explain all the ways it’s terrible.

Finished reading: After Hours at Dooryard Books by Cat Sebastian 📚

Cat Sebastian’s work unfailingly delights me and makes me feel like there’s somebody out there as awkward as me, somebody who feels things as deeply as I do. I’m so glad I read this book.

📚💬 “Farming is not for everyone, but society chooses what kind of farmers to support, and what those farmers get to grow; they’re part of a larger system.” Mark Bittman, Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal