Q1 2025 Favorites and Missed Connections

Intentions check-in, the best books I've read since January, and new releases that slipped through the cracks

Hi, friends.

We’re one quarter into the year, which means it’s time for a bit of a check-in. First, some reflection on how my 2025 intentions are going so far.

On the non-reading front, I’ve made good progress on my goal of teaching myself to knit so I can learn to make my late great-grandmother’s Christmas stockings for my family. In April I learned the basic stitches and knit myself a cowl. I also took a class on common knitting mistakes called “Son of a B*itch, I Dropped a Stitch” (lol) at my local yarn store. Now it’s time to dive in and start learning the stocking pattern, probably by making a practice stocking in a solid color first.

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As for my plan to run a spring 5K, summer 10K, and fall half marathon — I actually just ran the 5K yesterday. (Yes, I’m icing my shin splints as I type this.) It was at my local zoo, which was a ton of fun. I’ve been cheered on by plenty of spectators in the past, but never penguins! My build-up was frustrating and inconsistent thanks to some postpartum physical challenges out of my control, and I’m not quite where I wanted to be from a fitness perspective, but I’m proud of my race yesterday and determined to find a better rhythm between now and the 8K trail race I registered for in June.

On the reading front, here’s what I set out to do:

• Start taking notes again in Notion: Off track. I did this for a few books in January, but it felt like it was getting in my way rather than deepening my reading experience like it used to. Going forward, I’m going to try something less structured — more like just jotting down thoughts and themes I notice as I go rather than processing each chapter specifically. Maybe that will be more of the right balance.

• Post more fun, low-key Instagram posts as the ideas strike: On track…ish. I’ve posted a few fun and offhand posts, but I’m still defaulting back into that perfect-grid, preplanned workflow on the regular.

• Read some books on literary theory: On track! I’ve read at least one each month so far: How to Read Literature by Terry Eagleton, How to Read Now by Elaine Castillo, and Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison.

• Reduce how much of my TBR is driven by frontlist literary fiction FOMO by shifting the balance of my reading to include more nonfiction and sci-fi/fantasy, plus be more selective with the lit fic I do pick up: Definitely on track! So far I’ve read 9 nonfiction books, 8 sci-fi/fantasy books, and 8 literary fiction books. And those 8 lit fic books have leaned speculative (Black Woods Blue Sky, Death of the Author, etc.). This balance is feeling AWESOME.

Okay! On to the Q1 favorites and missed connections. Here are the best books I read from January to March, plus the new releases that slipped through the cracks.

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My favorite books I read in Q1 2025

I’ve read 25 books so far this year, so I tried to keep this to a reasonable five favorites. But there were so many good ones!

• Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab* 📖: Schwab is one of our best living storytellers, IMO. This beautiful and bloody sapphic vampire novel sweeps centuries and feels both wholly unique and entirely familiar.

• We Do Not Part by Han Kang, translated by E. Yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris*† 📖🎧: Dark, unexpected, sad, but also beautiful and deeply resonant. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the International Booker list.

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad† 🎧: If you haven’t read this, what are you even doing?? Seriously. Go get it. I’ll wait.

• Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods*† 📖🎧: This is billed as Cinderella meets The Little Mermaid and y’all, that’s EXACTLY what it was. Woods is very clever. I had so much fun with it. (Review coming!)

• Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey*† 🎧: This book is what we wanted Bear by Julia Phillips to be. I hope more people pick it up. (Review coming!)

*print copy gifted to me by the publisher
†audiobook gifted to me by the publisher

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Missed connections

These books came out in Q1, but I didn’t have time to get to them. Some are on my TBR for this month, though.

• Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us by Jennifer Finney Boylan

• Idle Grounds by Krystelle Bamford

• The Echoes by Evie Wyld

• How to Feed the World: The History and Future of Food by Vaclav Smil

• The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

• Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green

• Stop Me If You've Heard This One by Kristen Arnett

• Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis

• Sunrise on the Reaping (a Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins

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Before I sign off, a quick correction from my last newsletter, which included the incorrect links to buy this month’s Conversation Pusher, Democracy in Retrograde. You can get a print or ebook copy here or the audiobook here, and my commissions will be donated.

As always, thanks for sharing your corner of the internet with me! It would mean a lot if you were to take a second to like this post. I’d love to hear how your year is going in the comments, too.

Finally, if you like this newsletter, please send a few friends my way.

Until next time,

— Deedi (she/her)