A 2025 Summer Reading List (Generated by a Human)
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A 2025 Summer Reading List (Generated by a Human)


So, I thought. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so terrible to make a summer reading list written and recommended by an avid reader and book-loving human with some literary qualifications up her sleeve.

Below, you’ll find six books that I highly recommend for reading over the summer. Some are new releases, and some are recent. There is a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. They are weird, serious, and hilarious. Hopefully, there is something for everyone. You get extra points if you read all six over the summer and let me know what you thought of them in the comments below. Continue reading

Five Books to Help You Understand and Grapple with the Climate Crisis
American / Australian / Book Reviews / British / Germany / nonfiction / Opinion Pieces / The Latest

Five Books to Help You Understand and Grapple with the Climate Crisis


I’m often thinking about human relationships with the environment – how we’ve used and abused the world around us collectively for such a long time. I’ve been grappling with how I have tried to push back on some of these things and how to make a practical and effective impact on what I do and … Continue reading

A Review of the Tender and Unique Novel “Salt and Skin” by Eliza Henry-Jones
Australian / Book Reviews / The Latest

A Review of the Tender and Unique Novel “Salt and Skin” by Eliza Henry-Jones


Luda is a journalist and she seems to have an almost cut-throat nature when it comes to her reporting. She sees the story and the opportunity to tell it – and not really who is involved in the storytelling and how their lives become swept up in the drama of the story. When Luda publishes the picture of the girl falling to her death off the coastline of the remote community she moves to, she is quickly ostracized by the community. In a moment of profound grief – Luda can only seem to see the opportunity to tell a story of climate disaster with little regard for how the disaster of losing a child might affect the family involved. Continue reading

“True Friends” by Patti Miller: what does it mean to write a memoir about friendships lost and found?
Australian / Book Reviews / nonfiction / The Latest

“True Friends” by Patti Miller: what does it mean to write a memoir about friendships lost and found?


I think everyone experiences the loss of a friendship at some stage in their life, sometimes multiple friendships and the reasons for these losses are vast, complex, and sometimes confusing. It can be as simple as a friend moving to a different state and losing touch. It can be from a fight. And it can also be a slow unwinding that can be anything from ghosting to drifting apart. We have a lot of words to describe romantic love and breakups – we have song after poem, after novel after film about romantic love. Although very little about friendships. Continue reading

A Review of Craig Silvey’s “Honeybee”: an Australian novel about queer and trans life and learning to love who we are
Australian / Book Reviews / queer / The Latest

A Review of Craig Silvey’s “Honeybee”: an Australian novel about queer and trans life and learning to love who we are


The kind of home environment that Victoria grew up in is not really conducive to stability, safety, or love. Of course, there are close relationships, and I don’t doubt that Victoria doesn’t love her mother – but the relationship is also extremely toxic. Victoria is the child, yet she is always expected to be the parent and caregiver for her mother. Treating children like they are adults (in this particular way) is a form of trauma that doesn’t go away easily. Continue reading

15 Black Feminist Books to Read After “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
African / American / Australian / Book Reviews / feminism / The Latest

15 Black Feminist Books to Read After “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers


It is no secret around here that I absolutely loved Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’s novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. It was just such a beautiful story. There is so much to take in, and there is so much to think about. While I was reading the novel, I kept thinking of different Black … Continue reading

Lizzie the grateful servant in “The Dictionary of Lost Words”: why do authors keep getting class horribly wrong?
Australian / Book Reviews / British / historical / The Latest

Lizzie the grateful servant in “The Dictionary of Lost Words”: why do authors keep getting class horribly wrong?


On the surface, this all seems good and well. Although, I want to take a closer look at the relationship Esme has with her servant, Lizzie. Esme is motherless, and Lizzie acts in many ways like an older sister and motherly figure all in one. This plot device of women who have lost their mothers and their fathers aren’t great at raising them is a bit tiring and overused for me. Although, I might just read too many books… Continue reading

A Review of Tabitha Carvan’s “This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch”: unapologetically loving things
Australian / Book Reviews / nonfiction / The Latest

A Review of Tabitha Carvan’s “This Is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch”: unapologetically loving things


Carvan’s book is about motherhood and the changes it brings with it. It is (despite what the title suggests) also a little about her love of Benedict Cumberbatch. And it is about losing yourself and then finding a way back to yourself by exploring and embracing the things that bring you joy. Continue reading