5 Books for 2025
A roundup of recent reads to kick off the new year
This past week felt weirdly liminal. After New Year’s Eve, my sister Claire spent six days with us, which I think might be the longest stretch of time we’ve hosted anyone in our apartment.
Claire is one of those people who is happy curling up on the couch and reading all day, which is great because neither Ryan nor I felt like doing much after the holidays. The three of us watched a lot of movies, popped in and out of cafes, and went for short walks (when it was actually bearable to be outside).
But as nice as it was to have a break, I’m ready to get back to my normal routines. I’ve barely been able to keep track of what day it is this past week, and everyone and everything has felt really sleepy. I’m sick of being sleepy, so my brain is starting to get antsy and unsettled. It was getting to the point where I would wake up in the morning and didn’t feel like doing any of the fun things I was supposed to want to do.
I tried starting a new book the other day, but my brain just didn’t want to focus. So I picked up Stardew Valley again on my Switch. That didn’t hold my attention either, probably because I’ve been playing the same game for over a year and only need one more item (fiddlehead fern) to finish the community center, which I can’t find it until it’s summertime (IYKYK).
Anyway, I suspect this boredom will be short-lived. I’m planning to hit the ground running this week at work because I have a loooot of big plans for 2025. (In a few weeks I’ll probably be screaming for a break again.)
But before that all happens, I want to reflect on a few good books I read at the end of 2024. I’m still on a fiction kick, but did pick up one nonfiction book that I’ll share at the end. With out further ado:
1. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
This book called to me for months before I finally picked it up. I kept noticing it at the bookstore because of its striking cover (I know we’re not supposed to judge but I love pretty covers). Once the paperback version came out last year, I bought it because why not? Also, as far as paperbacks go, this book has a perfect weight to it and flops open really nicely. I love a novel with a good handfeel.
I promise I liked Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow for more than just aesthetics. In fact, this story totally caught me by surprise. It follows Sam and Sadie, two childhood friends who can’t seem to escape each other’s orbits. They both become video game designers and partner up on some major projects that catapult them into fame and fortune. As their careers skyrocket, Sam and Sadie navigate disagreements, crappy relationships, family situations, past traumas, and current tragedies.
There’s really nothing remarkable about these characters’ lives, but I think that’s kind of the point. What the author, Gabrielle Zevin, does well is imbue the story with so many intricate details that you feel like you know the characters personally. Reading this book felt like watching a movie, which makes sense given that the author is also a screenwriter. It was an easy read and also an beautiful exploration of friendship, disability, work culture, and growing older.
The other thing I like about this book is that it takes video games seriously as an art form. I think there’s still a misconception among some folks that video games are a waste of time and a lazy form of entertainment. (I’ve personally played many games that easily counter this narrative.) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow shows how much work goes into making a game, and how it can be both a beautiful and extremely stressful process. I don’t think you have to be a gamer to appreciate this story, though, as the themes of creativity are pretty universal.
2. Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
I’m not a big romance girly, but I picked up this book after seeing it recommended on LinkedIn of all places. This story is about portrait artist named Sadie (different Sadie than the one above, lol). She’s super broke but is just on the cusp of getting her big break at a painting competition that she worked for years to get into.
Warning: Mild spoilers ahead for this one.
Right before Sadie starts painting her portrait for the competition, she gets surgery to fix a cavernoma in her brain. It’s a quick procedure, but leaves her with face blindness, also known as acquired prosopagnosia.
I’ll be honest, I mostly read this book because I was interested in learning about what it would be like to live with face blindness (with the caveat, of course, that this is a fictional account). The author definitely did her homework on this condition, as you can see in the notes at the end of the book. And the story itself contains a lot of interesting details about how life can get complicated when you suddenly can’t see faces.
While Sadie tries to figure out how to craft her competition portrait with a brain that now functions differently, she also meets two charming dudes. One lives in her building, and the other is her veterinarian. As she gets to know them, there are mishaps and misunderstandings that shape her relationship with each of them — and you don’t get to see exactly how everything ties together until the twist at the very end.
I liked this book but found it to be a bit slow at times. There was also a somewhat cheesy subplot involving Sadie’s “evil” stepsister that I could’ve done without. The narration felt a bit choppy, almost like a LinkedIn post (super short sentences and clear, simple storytelling), but it was nice to read something that wasn’t too complicated.
Overall I think the author did a great job weaving complex details about a very real condition into a story that’s easy to digest. As a science writer myself, I know that’s no easy feat.
3. Diary by Chuck Palahniuk
This book took me a while to get into because of the odd perspective that the author uses. Palahniuk writes in second-person, directly addressing the reader (“you” saw this, “your” heart pounded, etc). When the story starts, it’s hard to tell what’s even going on. All these people are calling *you* and telling *you* that their bathrooms and kitchens are missing. WTF??
Anyway, I’m glad I stuck with this book because it was worth it. I don’t want to spoil too much of the plot because it’s better to just go in blind. You’ll meet Misty, a depressed waitress and former artist living on Waytansea Island (literally wait-and-see island), which is full of mega-rich people. You’ll meet her husband, Peter, who was born into wealth but now lies in the hospital hooked on life support. And you’ll meet Misty’s manipulative mother-in-law and her young daughter who gets roped into the family curse.
The story fixates on the question: How much do we have to suffer to make great art? It’s creepy, culty, and disturbing, and reads like a fable that’s also a thriller. Palahniuk also weaves in some pretty overt class commentary, making it a satire as well.
If you didn’t know, Palahniuk is the guy who also wrote Fight Club. He’s great at upping the ante when you think a story can’t get any crazier. While Diary doesn’t have as many twists at Fight Club, it’s still a story that spins faster into insanity the longer you read it.
4. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
I don’t normally like to include two titles by the same author in a book roundup. But after I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Ryan got me a copy of Elsewhere for Christmas. I immediately tore into it and finished in within a week.
Warning: mild plot spoilers ahead.
This is a YA novel, a genre I don’t normally read but was open to because I liked the author’s other work. In a nutshell, Elsewhere is about the afterlife. The main character, Liz, dies at 15 years old after getting hit by a car. Pretty dark start to a book, but it gets interesting (and a lot more hopeful) from there.
Liz wakes up on a cruise ship destined for Elsewhere, the place people go when they die. In this alternate realm, time moves backwards. People enter Elsewhere at the age they died on Earth, and then lose a year with every birthday. So Liz, who is 15 when she arrives, will turn 14, then 13, then 12 … all the way until she becomes a baby.
Once someone becomes a baby on Elsewhere, they are sent back to Earth to grow into adults once more. Then, when they die again, they go back to Elsewhere to turn back into babies. I loved this concept of life being a cyclical process. It never really ends, and the story told in Elsewhere could be never-ending itself.
There were some things in this book that I could’ve done without, like a romance plot that felt unnecessary. And there were some elements of Zevin’s world-building that I wish were more in-depth. But overall, I found this book comforting and magical. I like imagining that the people I’ve lost in my life are on the other side, growing younger and discovering themselves in new ways before coming back to Earth for another chance.
5. Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
I promised you all one non-fiction book, and here it is! Slow Productivity has been recommended to me by countless friends and fellow creative people over the past year or so. I bought myself a copy back in summer 2024 but didn’t crack it open until December.
This book is about the “lost art of accomplishment without burnout,” as per its tagline. It presents a philosophy that’s almost directly at odds with the way many of us work today; one that rejects busywork and mindless hustle culture and instead calls us to focus on doing higher quality work at a natural pace. This book is aimed at people in creative professions, but Newport’s ideas can be broadly applied to most lines of work that take place in an office setting.
I haven’t finished this book yet but I’m about halfway through. One idea that I really like so far is Newport’s proposal to focus on one big work task per day. As a freelancer, that feels impossible sometimes, since I always have so much going on.
But when I thought about it some more, I realized it might be possible to just focus on one big thing per day, and then leave some time for smaller things outside of that big thing. I’m not always great at prioritizing tasks, but choosing just one project to prioritize per day makes me feel a little less bad about not getting to everything in one day. I’m going to give that a shot this month and see what happens.
Hopefully, I’ll finish the book too — but right now I’m taking my sweet time digesting each section. I feel like that’s what the author would want, right?
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Great list! Added Elsewhere to my TBR— love a good backlist find. Thanks for sharing!