I’m not exaggerating when I say that this was a phenomenal month of reading. One of the best months of books in a while. I read three A+ books right in a row: The Secret History, Heart the Lover, Workhorse – when does that ever happen? Meanwhile, on audio, I had strong women (Bobbi Brown and Diane Keaton) keeping me company. It doesn’t get better than that. I liked but did not love the two thrillers I read, but everything else was so great that I didn’t even mind.
What I read in October 2025
Tell me what you read and loved in the comments section: I always shop your recs. And for even more books, check out The Library: a catalog of every single book I’ve read over the past ten+ years; you can even filter by genre and sort by best/worst.
PS – Last month’s list! Also, check out my list of good books for fall! The turtleneck I’m wearing in the photo above is from Jenni Kayne.
Contemporary Fiction
This might be one of the best books I’ve read in 2025. It’s beautiful. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s wonderful. It’s also a pretty quick read. It is the fall of our narrator’s senior year of college when she meets two brilliant boys: Sam and Yash. They are stellar students, living off-campus in a beautiful house of a professor on sabbatical. They give her the nickname of Jordan, and she finds herself swept up into their world of witty banter and secret language. By the end of senior year, she finds herself in a bit of a love triangle. When she graduates from college, each of them makes difficult decisions that will shape the course of the rest of their lives. I am being vague so that you get all of the lovely surprises I got. Then we meet Jordan decades later, now a successful author. The glory days of her youth seem far behind her, except they aren’t. I will say no more but just read this book. It’s beautifully written, and while it is very sad, it moved me—a wholehearted A+ book. Overall Score A+ // Order on Bookshop or Amazon
I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It’s quite long (around 550 pages, I think?) but I read it in a single weekend, as I couldn’t put it down. Our protagonist, Clo, starts out very relatable. At the (thinly-veiled Vogue) magazine she works at, she is a “workhorse.” One of the girls who isn’t a wealthy, beautiful, well-connected society girl. Those girls are the showhorses. Clo will never be a showhorse but she can work her way to the top. The book transpires over several years as Clo works her way up at the magazine. We meet her office bestie Davis Lawrence (the privileged daughter of the famous actress Barbara Lawrence). We meet Davis’s bestie Harry, who Clo recognizes qualities within herself (a ruthless ambition to make it in this glitteringly cutthroat media world). The book is very dark at times. Clo makes terrible decisions. I found myself wanting to yell, “NO! Don’t do it!!!!” But I also liked her, and related to her in a lot of ways. The book is unputdownable. If you worked in media/beauty/fashion during the time it is set (the early 2000’s), you’ll gobble this up. But even if you didn’t, I think you’ll really enjoy it. Definitely one of my favorites of the year so far. Overall Score A+ // Order on Bookshop or Amazon
Literary Fiction
This came out in 1992, but had been on my TBR list for ages, as I loved The Goldfinch so much. Donna Tartt is an incredible writer; I still can’t believe that this was her debut! I love that it seems to take her ten years between books–can you imagine!? I decided to finally tackle it this month as it felt like the perfect fall read: dark and academic, cozy in all the right ways. Richard Papen transfers to an elite liberal arts college in Vermont. It is the eighties, and Richard comes from a poor background. He is there on scholarship, just scrapping by. He is drawn into a small group of five students and their enigmatic professor when he decides to major in Greek. The other students are worldly and come from privileged backgrounds. At first, he just wants to be included, to be a friend. But as he gets closer to the other students, dark secrets arise. He learns that the others have committed a violent crime and feel they need to murder their fifth classmate and friend, and he becomes an accomplice. (This isn’t a spoiler; the book opens with the murder.) The book deals with the lead-up to the murder and then the aftermath. It is dark and propulsive, I couldn’t put it down (but also wanted to savor the writing, it’s incredibly well done!). Overall Score A+ // Order on Bookshop or Amazon.
Thriller
The three Bishop sisters grew up privileged, in a wealthy suburb outside of Detroit. But as the auto industry declined, so did their means. These days, the sisters are middle-aged, struggling to provide for their families, barely making ends meet. Harper, the youngest daughter, is struggling when her charismatic and popular (middle) sister Pam invites her to join an excluswive club: The Wheel. Pam is in the middle of a contentious divorce with her ex and swears that The Wheel has changed everything for her. All it requires is a $5,000 buy-in. Harper will join, pay off her debts, and get out. Right? Does anyone ever leave? Things are going well for all three sisters, when a horrible crime happens, threatening to take the whole thing down. I will say no more! This one was only medium for me. An enjoyable read that I devoured in a couple sittings, but left me kind of just like, “that’s all!” with the end? Don’t get me wrong, it was enjoyable (and I love reading anything with MLM-y vibes, but I guess parts just fell a little bit flat for me. That being said, I loved the sister dynamic. This one had great characters.Overall Score B // Order on Bookshop or Amazon
This book was fun. That being said, within the world of thrillers, I am coming to learn that my favorites are of the domestic variety, usually a marriage gone wrong or someone going missing from a neighborhood. These types of thrillers feel more realistic to me and are maybe scarier? This one was action-packed . . . like reading a James Bond movie! Maggie McCabe is a disgraced doctor. After a series of devastating events, she commits malpractice and loses her license. When an old colleague (an elite plastic surgeon with an anonymous clientele) reaches out to her with an enticing offer, she finds herself in Russia, operating on a billionaire oligarch. But when said oligarch goes missing, Maggie’s life is on the line, and she finds herself becoming a fugitive as she races to figure out what happened. This is a total pageturner and completely unputdownable, but I’ll say that several parts felt very implausible to me, which is why it only gets a B+. Very much worth reading, just be warned about that! Overall Score B+ // Order on Bookshop or Amazon
Non-Fiction
I absolutely loved this. It’s part personal memoir, part business book, and such a joy to read. It’s also pretty quick, clocking in at under six hours. I learned so much from it, both. What I loved most about it is how normal she seems. She shares he story of her life and career with the same grounded authenticity that defines her beauty philosophy. From her childhood and early years in New York to launching her namesake brand with just ten lipsticks, selling it to Estée Lauder,and later founding Jones Road, Brown offers an insider’s look at how intuition, perseverance, and staying true to herself shaped her success. It’s a fascinating business journey that at times feels like a fairy tale at times, but it’s also about the personal values that guided her: family first, learning by doing, and embracing simplicity over flash. Brown’s refusal to chase trends or abandon her instincts made her an icon, yet she remains refreshingly down-to-earth. Through anecdotes of creativity, business lessons, and homebody wisdom, Still Bobbi emerges as both an inspiring entrepreneurial tale and a reminder that success doesn’t require compromise—it comes from trusting your “you-ness.” Overall Score A // Order on Bookshop or Amazon
When I learned about Diane Keaton’s passing, one of the first things I did was download Diane Keaton’s memoir from 2011. It’s a bit older, but an absolute delight to listen to. This is a memoir about both Diane Keaton’s mother and herself. To be totally honest, some of the parts about her mother were a little bit dull to me (I just didn’t really care, I wanted more about Diane!) but I loved the book all the same. She talks candidly about the beginnings of her career, about her struggles with bulimia in her younger years, her many romances (Woody! Warren! Al!), and of course loads of stories from her different film projects. She’s open and honest, but also very funny and charming (true Diane Keaton fashion). I particularly loved the part about filming Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson (and how he gave her a backend percentage point) as it is one of my favorite movies of all time . . . but the whole thing was super interesting. It’s a quick listen, I absolutely recommend it! Overall Score A // Order on Bookshop or Amazon
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