Posting my 2025 Buddy-reads with my Mom♥️
To have this experience of discovery and discussion with my mother is so special and precious to me. It is another level entirely to get different perspectives on the same material, and it has been such a pleasure to learn things about one another along the way.
These are favorites! Mom and I have both referred back to these in conversation several times. The tagged book is a hidden, heartwarming gem!
bailedThis book has been on my TBR for a long time but I had to bail after just 2 hours. It was so depressing.
I might try to circle back to it but can‘t for now.
pickI wasn‘t a Swamplandia fan and thus initially passed this one up, so I‘m glad the #NBAlonglist for fiction got me to read it. I found this unique Dust Bowl historical fiction with some fantastical components to be fully engrossing. The characters are great and I like that we hear rotating perspectives from them, which helps keep the book moving. I really liked it!
Honourable Mentions to "The Open House" and "Appleby's Answer", both by Michael Innes
pickThe Antidote is so different: it‘s historical fiction but felt fresh. The point of view is constantly changing so the action is slow and even feels a bit repetitive but I think that is actually a good thing for this novel. There‘s also Wizard of Oz vibes, weirdly. I hadn‘t encountered that in other reviews I‘ve read, but the town is Uz, and there‘s a scarecrow. Stolen lands, a collective misremembering & willful ignorance, it‘s America!
pick7th grader Simon O'Keeffe and his family move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, which is part of the National Quiet Zone where radio and hence wifi devices are banned to help the work of radio astronomers.
An enjoyable black comedy about finding friends and incidentally recovering from traumatic episodes in the past. Some truly lol moments.
😡 😡 😡
10% of the way in I thought my partner would like this story so I looked up whether it had been made into a film or TV series and one of the top ghits has a massive spoiler in the snippet it shows.
😡 😡 😡
pickCather‘s stories are beautiful and eloquent with a sharp dash of the unexpected to jostle the reader‘s complacency.
