May 2025 Reading Recap

Romances, heists, and mysteries abound.

It’s been a sad and scary few days here in Minnesota. I don’t really know what else there is to say, other than that I continue to believe we need to find joy and community in the places where we can. That’s why I wanted to start writing again, to share books and things I love and connect with people who love those books and things too. So, thanks for being here even when the world is big and hard. We persist.

I read a lot in May, thanks to some great books, more audiobooks, and a holiday weekend where I found a lot of time with books. Here’s the recap:

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📘 The Favorites by Layne Fargo

Oh my gosh, I loved this book – it’ll be a top book of the year, for sure. From the publisher: “An epic love story set in the sparkling, savage sphere of elite figure skating, starring a woman determined to carve her own path on and off the ice.” I love books with mean, tenacious women, and this book is full of them, including the main character, Katarina Shaw. The descriptions of ice dancing were epic, the drama was truly absurd, and the framing of the book – an unauthorized documentary alternating with Kat’s point of view – was really fun. I just adored it.

🎧 Beach Read and The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

After finishing Great Big Beautiful Life last month, I decided I wanted to do a full Emily Henry re-read (or re-listen, as it were). I finished two titles this month, and they both hold up beautifully. I am partial to Beach Read because I love grumpy characters, and exploring grief and learning something unexpected about the people you lose resonates with me. I’m excited to keep working through these on audio this summer!

📘 The Influencers by Anna-Marie McLemore

I can’t remember what newsletter I saw this book in, but it was the perfect read for Memorial Day weekend. The plot moves along, the chapters are short (so it’s easy to dip in and out of), and the topics it explores – the challenges of living parts of your life online and the parasocial relationships that can develop with people we follow – were handled well. I also thought this was a lot of fun!

📘 What the River Knows and Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez

I love a duology! This pair of books follows Inez Olivera, a young woman who travels to Egypt to discover how her parents died. When there, she meets her grumpy guardian and uncle, his gruff-but-handsome associate Whit, and the various criminal and corrupt forces at work in Egypt. The first book was slow to start, but things picked up once Inez was finally traveling through Egypt and part of her uncle’s expedition. Inez and Whit reminded me a lot of Veronica and Stoker (from the Veronica Speedwell series), and the general vibe was reminiscent of the Amelia Peabody mysteries I devoured as a teenager. These were fun.

📘 The Other Side of Disappearing by Kate Clayborn

Kate Clayborn is a new-to-me author, but I’m definitely planning on reading her more. In this book, two sisters reluctantly partner with a documentary podcasting duo to unravel the mystery of their mother’s disappearance. What Jess Green doesn’t expect is to fall for the podcast’s producer, a quiet, watchful guy with his own motivations for pursuing this project. I loved the mystery of the story, and the way the characters navigated a complicated connection. It was lovely!

📘 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Last month, I read Our Infinite Fates by Laura Steven, which has a lot in common with this book – so much so that I decided I just wanted to re-read it before V.E. Schwab’s new “toxic, lesbian vampire” book, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, that came out last week. Addie LaRue remains amazing, a beautiful book that both breaks your heart and leaves you feeling hopeful about what comes next. Truly, a top 10 lifetime read.

📘 The King of Diamonds: The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief by Rena Pederson

I wanted to love this book, but I only liked it. Rena Pederson spent much of her career as a journalist in Dallas, always on the periphery of a series of unsolved, high-profile jewel thefts by a criminal known as “the King of Diamonds.” In the book, Pederson digs back into the case, which takes her through the entire seedy underbelly of Dallas in the 1950s and ‘60s. I would have loved this one if it were about 100 pages shorter – for my interest, the book spent too much time on the society around the King of Diamonds without much payout to that particular story.

📘 Last Chance Academy: A Study in Secrets by Debbi Michiko Florence

A librarian recommended this book in one of our email newsletters, and I thought it sounded fun! After losing her mom and having a rough year in school, 12-year-old Megumi “Meg” Mizuno is sent to Last Chance Academy, a strict boarding school for wayward kids. One night, a mysterious envelope appears under her door, inviting her to compete in a scavenger hunt. Will participating lead to a great prize, or get her expelled? Only time will tell. This was cute and fun, and I think it would be great for young readers who like mysteries and puzzles. I finished it in just a couple of days.

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Final Thoughts

From my first book of the year (How to Be Online and Also Be Happy by Issy Beech), I’ve been thinking about my relationship with my phone and with being online more generally.

It’s a real tension for me right now – I love some aspects of being online, like various communities I’m part of, and I have to be online as part of my job. But I’m struggling with the whiplash of scrolling my feeds, the overwhelming presence of ads, and the push of AI-generated and algorithm-driven content slop. It feels like the things I care about are just being drowned out by noise, and that noise leaves me feeling overwhelmed and sad.

One app that’s been very helpful to me is the minimalist phone app (Android only). Basically, the app sets up an overlay of your phone that removes all of the flashy app icons, and gives you options to hide or limit time on various apps. Each time you open an app you’ve identified, you can choose how long you want to be there. When your time is up, it either kicks you out or makes you wait a beat to keep scrolling.

minimalistphone

A post shared by @minimalistphone

I love it. I definitely still spend time scrolling, but it’s been so helpful to have that little nudge to ask, “Do you really want to be doing this?” and a phone that looks boring, so I don’t get distracted by apps while I’m trying to do actual tasks with my device. It took a while to get used to the look, but now that I’m about a month into it, I can’t imagine going back.

I’m curious – how do you feel about your current phone use? Do you have any apps, tips, or tricks for managing your time and attention on your devices?