Best of the Bunch (December 2025)

Today I'm sharing the best book I read in December.

Of the 13 books I read this month, I had two 5-star reads:

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

Who Deserves Your Love: How to Create Boundaries to Start, Strengthen, or End Any Relationship by KC Davis

Both of these books will undoubtedly be on my top ten nonfiction list that I post next week, so this is a tough call. I think everyone in the Western world should read El Akkad's book, but the other one has the distinct honor of being a book I recommended to people before I was even halfway through it, so that's going to be my Best of the Bunch this month.

KC Davis is truly a treasure. Her ability to dispense clear, accessible, non-judgmental advice in ways that are both practical and widely applicable is an absolute gift. I recommended Who Deserves Your Love to others before I was more than a few chapters in, and it continued to hold up to that recommendation over the course of reading it. I couldn't begin to capture everything that's valuable about this book, but here are a few standout elements:

• After naming the sensitivity / defense mechanism cycle, she then identifies that the key to getting out of the cycle is not understanding and deconstructing it, but self-regulation. I feel like this is such a missing piece in the vast majority of self-help/relationship literature out there.
• She notes how the same exact action can be taken for the "right"/healthy reasons and for the "wrong"/unhealthy reasons, and you can't know from the outside what's driving someone else's actions.
• Just about everything in this book can be applied to any relationship in one's life, not just a romantic partnership.

Would I quibble with her on certain specific points or the way she phrased them? Sure. But by and large, this is a masterful piece of work that I'd recommend to just about anyone and will definitely be returning to in the future.

What is the best book you read this month? Let me know in comments, or write your own post and link up below!

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Chain-Gang All-Stars
Five years ago I was reading: Strangers from a Different Shore and Feminist, Queer, Crip
Ten years ago I was reading: Jesus Calling, Lonesome Dove, The Quran, and Middlemarch

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Top Ten Fiction Reads of 2025

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

As I've done the past few years, I'm splitting up my favorite fiction and nonfiction of the year, sharing my top ten fiction reads this week and my nonfiction picks next week.

I'm cheating a bit by including several series as single entities, just to give a more accurate picture of my reading year. I don't usually include sequels, but I included two romances (#1 and #2) that can be read as standalone novels, though I still highly recommend reading the first books for the full experience. I also included one (#10) that is fictionalized but based on the true story of co-author Mohamed's life.

To read more about why I liked these fiction books, you can search for them on the blog or check out my Goodreads. (To see my favorite read every month with a detailed description of why I liked it, I encourage you to check out — and link up with — the Best of the Bunch linkup.)

1. Amelia, If Only by Becky Albertalli

2. It Had to Be Him by Adib Khorram

3. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

4. The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

5. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

6. Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

7. The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall

8. Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper

9. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

10. When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

What great fiction did you read this year?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Only Love Today, As You Wish, and Nothing to Fear
Five years ago I was reading: Strangers from a Different Shore and Feminist, Queer, Crip
Ten years ago I was reading: Jesus Calling, Lonesome Dove, The Quran, and Middlemarch

Top Ten Books on My Winter TBR

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

It's time for another seasonal check-in! I finished almost all the books on my Fall TBR; I've just started Mediocre. For 2026, I'm starting a project of picking a different cover color to focus on each month, so you'll see a lot of whites and grays for my winter reading as I start off the rainbow of a year! This also means I don't have a lot to say about why each one got moved to the top of my list outside of the color of the book cover :D Here are ten of the books I'm planning to read this winter.

1. Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter by S. Bear Bergman

2. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Pérez

3. It's Complicated by Danah Boyd

4. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

5. Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

6. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

7. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

8. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

9. Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

10. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

What do you plan to read this winter (or summer if you're in the southern hemisphere)?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Only Love Today and The Uncommon Reader
Five years ago I was reading: Strangers from a Different Shore and The Flatshare
Ten years ago I was reading: Jesus Calling, A Snicker of Magic, Lonesome Dove, The Unthinkable, and Middlemarch

What I've Been Reading Lately (Quick Lit)

Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit to bring you some short and sweet reviews of what I've read in the past month. For longer reviews, you can always find me on Goodreads.

This month had a very different reading pace than last month. Between holiday travel and one very long (but excellent!) audiobook, I only finished half as many books as last month. Here's what I read this past month!

Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan: I went into this wanting life lessons I could take away for myself but quickly got frustrated with how challenging I felt it was to relate to the author. But when I reset and approached it as a memoir of someone different from myself who is still dealing with many of the same Big Life Things that I am — loss and grief, parenthood and partnership — I could enjoy the read.

A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas: I quite enjoyed seeing how Thomas adapted the original Sherlock Holmes universe to a story in which women were the key players. Unfortunately, the plot of the central mystery fell a bit short for me.

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson: This trilogy was phenomenal. I have great appreciation for an author who does their homework, and Sanderson is absolutely one of those — so many aspects of the first book were clearly well crafted to fit into a larger story arc that culminates in this third book.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad: Don't let this book's slim size fool you — it packs a punch on every single page. It's not just about the way that so many American liberals have intentionally downplayed the genocide in Gaza for their own interests (though it is absolutely about that), it's about the entire system — capitalism, politics, self-interest, xenophobia, and so on — that El Akkad lays bare through his words.

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins: This had a solid core, with a lot of trappings I could have done without: the traditional self-help all-or-nothing language, dismissal of structural privileges, and assumptions about the reader. I appreciated Robbins' reminder that you can't control other people's choices, you can only ever choose your response to them; I just wish she was aware how limited her own imagination was about experiences different from her own.

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed: Based on the true life story of co-author Omar Mohamed, Victoria Jamieson has created a graphic novel that is accessible to young readers and threads the needle between sharing the painful challenges of living in a refugee camp and avoiding gratuitous details of violence. Your heart will ache as Omar and his brother Hassan spend years and years in the camp, holding on to what hope they can. The celebration of community care is a beautiful thread throughout the story.

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Only Love Today and The Uncommon Reader
Five years ago I was reading: Strangers from a Different Shore and The Flatshare
Ten years ago I was reading: Jesus Calling, A Snicker of Magic, Lonesome Dove, The Unthinkable, and Middlemarch