29. My Friends and the Friendships That Buoy Us

33. The Final Episode

Join us for our last episode ever as we discuss our last book club book - Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer and as we recap 2025. It's been a great run. Ta ta for now!

32. Water Moon: It's Just Water

Water Moon had everything going for it… in theory. A stunning cover, a magical world, and a promise of high-stakes twists. But beneath the surface, things got murky fast. Insta-love that made the emotional beats feel shallow, a world that sparkled without enough depth, and way too many threads that never intersected. It felt like a story that wanted to do everything and ended up doing nothing all that well. We wanted to be swept away by the tide, but ended up stuck in the shallows. Checked Out: Lin: * Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury * A Brief History of 7 Killings - Marlon James Stan: * Poppy War - RF Kuang * All Fours - Miranda July * Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman * My Friends - Hisham Matar Shan: * Sorcery and Small Magics - Maiga Doocy * Katabasis - RF Kuang * Mythos - Stephen Fry

31. Hex Marks the spot: The Bewitching Scared Us Silly

We’ve read some spooky books before, but The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia?? Yeah… this one had us sleeping with the lights on. Three timelines, one seamless (and spine-tingling) story, characters we adored, and villains we loved to hate. Terrifying AND terrific all at once Next book: Water Moon by Samantha Soto Yambao Checked out: Lin: * A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James * Monkey - Wu Cheng En Stan: * Monkey - Wu Cheng En * Run with the Wind - Shion Miura * Monstress - Lysley Tenorio Shan: * Marriage at Sea - Sophie Elmhurst * Wild Reverance - Rebecca Ross * Witches Guide of Magical Innkeeping - Sanguu Mandanna * Can't Help Falling In Love - Sophie Sullivan

30. I Leave It Up To You: Time is Weird & People Are Messy

I Leave It Up to You traded the wild, magical edges of Flux for a quieter meditation on grief, family, and the loves that shapes us. We admired its tender, trope-defying family dynamic, but felt some moments fell just shy of their potential. It left us thinking… and, fittingly, left a lot up to us.Next book club book: The Bewitching - Silvia Moreno Garcia Checked out: Lin * A Brief History of 7 Killings - Marlon James * The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton * Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng - Kylie Lee Baker Stan * Disability Visibility - Alice Wong * The Vegetarian - Han Kang * The Daughter of Dr. Moreau - Silvia Garcia Moreno Shan * Original Sins: The (Mis) Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism - Eve L. Ewing * What Kind of Paradise - Janelle Brown * A Marriage at Sea - Sophie Elmhirst * A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World - C.A. Fletcher * The Great Believers - Rebecca Makkai

29. My Friends and the Friendships That Buoy Us

Fredrik Backman’s My Friends had us in our feelings—and occasionally at odds. A moving meditation on grief, art, and the friendships that shape us, this one sparked big discussions about what makes a story resonate. Some of us saw beauty in the brushstrokes, others wanted more from the present than just one long, melancholy summer. Either way, it got us talking. Next book club book: I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong Checked out: Lin * Circe - Madeline Miller * Pride or Die - CL Montblanc Stan * The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain * Nettle & Bone - T. Kingfisher * Everything is Tuberculosis - John Green Shan * The Disappeared - Rebecca J. Sanford * The Safekeep - Yael van der Wouden * Lush - Rochelle Dowden-Lord * Get a Life Chloe Brown - Talia Hibbert