November Reading Edit
Everything I read in November, nerdy stats, favorite books of the month, plus my Weekly What
November was a prolific reading month for me with 28 books read!
November ties with February for highest number of books read in a month so far this year. Interestingly, February was the month I left Instagram; I guess that gave me a reading boost.
This month was also an audio heavy month; Storygraph tells me 57% of my November reading was audio format up from 40% on average. This has much to do with spending a lot of time in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving along with several of the audiobooks being quite short.
November tends to be a mixed month as far as what I read. I’m drawn to family stories as we approach the holiday season and non-fiction in honor of Non-fiction November. I turn back towards literary fiction after a genre heavy October and awards are announced—the Booker Prize and National Book Award winners are announced this month along with the Aspen Words longlist. I also make a concerted effort to get to any outstanding titles on my 2025 reading list as at some previously unknown to me point in December the chaos magic of the holiday season compels me to retreat into lots of fun, festive, easy listening care of holiday romances to finish out the year.
Read on for everything I read in November, some stats, and this month’s highlights!
I read 28 books in November. Here’s a little breakdown of my reading month:
25 library/Libby borrows
3 gifted from publishers
2 backlist titles (7%)
32% non-fiction (9)
15 audio, 8 print, 3 hybrid reads (print + audio), 2 ebooks
November Favorites
It was really challenging picking favorites this month—I read so many great books which I enjoyed for various reasons. I decided to draw attention to a few titles that are a little more under the radar and also especially exceptional reading experiences.
Tell me:
What types of books are you drawn to reading in November?
How was your November reading?
What were your favorite reads of the month?
Reading
Dominion by Addie E. Citchens. A Black Southern family drama centering the first family of a prominent church in small town Dominion, Mississippi. Behind the family’s polished public persona are closeted secrets and struggles which can no longer remain in the dark due to events involving the youngest of their five boys, a high school football star known as Wonderboy. This is a slim novel, just 240 pages, with outsized impact exploring with great nuance the violence wrought by patriarchal power and oppressive gender structures. Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize.
The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Family read aloud. First in the five book Ascendance series. An orphan becomes part of a political plot to act as a long presumed dead younger prince in order to take the throne in an attempt stabilize a country poised to descend into chaos amidst a power vacuum after the rest of the royal family is killed. This is an engaging and intriguing read aimed at upper middle grade/early YA readers (ages 10-14). We’re definitely planning to pick up book 2, but I appreciate this story feels like a complete arc without a huge cliffhanger (something I often don’t appreciate about series) and can be enjoyed as a stand alone.
The Devil Three Times by Rickey Fayne. A sprawling family saga following 8 generations of a Black family in Tennessee beginning with an enslaved woman who makes a deal with the Devil in the bowels of a slave ship. I found my way to this impressive debut via the Center for Fiction 2025 First Novel Prize Longlist (the book is now shortlisted.) It became a must read after hearing Sara Hildreth rave about it and even more so after listening to her interview with Rickey Fayne. Across centuries Fayne explores familial connections and inheritance, faith, fate, and agency, moral ambiguity, salvation, and more. It’s a tricky one to easily and comprehensively describe, but so richly told I was fully entranced! I listened to parts of this on audio, which is excellent with multiple narrators. The one caveat I have to audio format is the print copy has a family tree at the beginning that I appreciated being able to reference as the book jumps across time and perspective. The family tree is not required, though I found it helpful to keeping the characters and their connections straight, just FYI. Recommended for readers of The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers.
Listening
Wreck by Catherine Newman. My third Newman novel. At this point I can confidently say I enjoy her writing style so much! Her characters are messy, lifelike, and relatable in a way that leaves me wanting an invite to their cozy, comfortably lived-in home (or at least, that’s how I envision it—no blank white walls here!) for a warming bowl of soup or a mug of tea alongside a deep chat which may or may not end in cathartic shared tears likely stemming from much belly laughing. Technically a sequel to Sandwich, Wreck brings us back into the fold of Rocky, a midlife mother and daughter, and her family. We first met them on a multi-generational annual family vacation at a cabin on Cape Cod. We now join them in the lead up to Thanksgiving at their home in rural Massachusetts. While Wreck can absolutely be enjoyed as a stand alone novel, I think it’s best enjoyed as a companion to Sandwich, which I found to be the stronger story, though I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with these characters! If you enjoy family dramas these books are for you!
Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty Year Trail to Overnight Success by Jeff Hiller. Jeff Hiller is having a banner year. He recently won an Emmy Award for his role in Somebody Somewhere (if you haven’t watched, you must correct this error immediately! It’s on HBO Max.) which he accepted wearing a fabulous pink tuxedo, hosted the National Book Awards, and released this book of autobiographical essays about his triumphant climb up the Hollywood ladder, which after a mere 25 years of grinding led to his overnight breakout role in Somebody Somewhere. Hiller’s essays are funny, heartfelt, and authentic. I highly recommend the audiobook read by Hiller; an excellent (and quick) listen!
The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis. Five young sisters in a small, rural village in 18th century England come under community scrutiny for alleged magical abilities. Set during the Age of Enlightenment this story incorporates real historical events and customs as a community begins to unravel amidst a drought affecting the villager’s crops and livelihoods. Billed as The Crucible meets The Virgin Suicides, the vibes are on in this quick read.
The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity by Tim Wu. Exploring the way tech platforms have evolved from democratic promise of access and connection to powerful monopolistic extractors harvesting data, attention, and money from individual users and businesses alike. A good companion read to Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification.
Zero to Well-Read: 2025 Canon Contenders. Hosts Jeff and Rebecca discuss the award-winning books, pop culture phenomena, book club picks, and crossover hits of 2025 and attempt to identify the ones that might someday join the canon. A fun thought exercise and look back on the publishing year!
Watching
The Beast in Me (Netflix). Now this is a thriller I can get behind! A sort of one hit wonder author of much acclaim struggling in both her personal and professional lives begins working with a billionaire shrouded in a cloud of controversy after his first wife goes missing. I gobbled this up.
The Chair Company (HBO Max). This show! Cringe comedy about a middle-aged Ohio (Columbus area specifically) man drawn into an all encompassing quest investigating a conspiracy involving a chair company after he’s embarrassed at work by a broken chair. SO funny and totally absurd in the best way! It reminds me some of Search Party (also HBO Max—please tell me you’ve seen this!)
Eating & Drinking
The Best Leftover Turkey Soup is an excellent vehicle for leftover poultry of any sort; being Thanksgiving time I did use turkey. I recommend sautéing 8 oz. of sliced mushrooms with the rest of the veggies and finishing the soup with a glug-glug of sherry. The recipes calls for 3-4 cups of meat, though I find 2 cups plenty, especially with the addition of the mushrooms. Choose your own adventure depending on what you have on hand!
Soul Warming French Onion Pot Roast was a perfect snowy day meal after bubbling away in the slow cooker all afternoon. We ate it over leftover mashed potatoes.
I’ve been enjoying these Cranberry Orange Muffins alongside my morning coffee.
Cold, snowy weather called for Homemade Hot Chocolate. My go-to recipe comes together in barely more time than it takes to dissolve one of those packets and is rich and creamy with just the right amount of sweetness—hot chocolate perfection!
Sourdough Pumpkin Scones for weekend breakfast.
Links + Loves
I’ve said before fall in Ohio is quite a transition with early weeks masquerading as summer and winter’s chill blowing in by season’s end. Well, this week the temperatures dropped 20+ degrees overnight and 4 inches of snow dumped on us. We went from feeling comfortable in long sleeves to needing to bundle up with full accessories after a snow day. Sadie pup and I still get out for our daily walk as the elements allow. These gloves, ear and neck warmers are a must. When it’s not possible for us to get out, or not for as long as I’d like, I’m grateful for my walking pad. I bought this with gift cards a year ago and though I much prefer walking outdoors it really comes in clutch when that’s not possible.
We put up our Christmas tree last weekend and I can’t get enough fresh pine smell! I’ve also been diffusing these blends on repeat.
Lit Hub’s 43 Favorite Books of 2025 and 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025 are both worth a browse.
Goodreads Readers have spoken; here are readers’ favorite books of 2025.
Libro.fm’s Bookseller Choice Awards highlight the year’s best audiobooks according to people who know both books and readers well.
The Ten Best Fiction and Non-fiction Books of 2025 according to people who know books and literary culture well (editors of The New York Times Book Review).
Everything you need to know about why Olivia Nuzzi’s book is trending for all the wrong reasons. (Slate) Side note: every time I learn about something like this through a news article or reader chatter for which I have no context it’s like a little inoculation that keeps me safe from returning to the inane chaos of algorithmically driven content. Thank goodness for vaccines, eh?
Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? (NYT) Any Gen Xer would surely agree and the way their culture still resonates certainly supports the theory. Just like I believe Millennials have a certain level of resistance to the internet by way of our experiencing both analog and digital worlds at formative ages, I think Gen X is the last generation whose culture was authentically shaped by forces other than shadowy and powerful for-profit algorithms owned by a few tech overlords; I think we all recognize this as something important even if only subconsciously.
What are you reading, listening to, eating, watching, liking, and/or linking this week? Let’s chat!
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Until next time!
Somebody, Somewhere was so good! I binged The Beast In Me last week, I couldn’t stop watching! Just read and enjoyed Dominion. Like Family is on my TBR list. What did you think of Atwood’s memoir? Have been curious but haven’t seen too many reviews yet.
Thanks for the reminder to read Dominion. I too read and enjoyed Wreck last month.