A Medley, Part Two
What I read over Christmas break, and my favorite books of 2025
Hi friends…welcome to part two of last week’s Medley post. If you missed the first one, feel free to jump over here and read it! Both of these Medley letters are free to all subscribers; next week’s letter will be sent to paid subscribers only. If you’d like to upgrade your subscription (you’ll be the first to hear about our Winter Book Club gathering!) you can do that here:
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What I’m Reading 📚
Olive, Again (Olive Kitteridge, #2)1 by Elizabeth Strout ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Like Olive Kitteridge, the first book in this series, Olive, Again is a quiet book, one that is more character-driven than plot-driven.
Olive, Again continues the story of Olive Kitteridge, a woman who presents as crotchety and cantankerous while also yearning for deeper community and connection. We get to know Olive a bit better in this book as we watch her interact with her husband, her son and his family, and her neighbors.
Even though neither of the Olive books were favorites of mine—a few sections of Olive, Again really irritated me—I recognize I’m in the minority with that opinion! So if you’re looking for a quiet, well-written book (don’t miss the gorgeous passage I shared below) with characters who are interesting and a bit quirky, this might be a good series for you to try.
Words I’m Remembering: “Because in February the days were really getting longer and you could see it, if you really looked. You could see how at the end of each day the world seemed cracked open and the extra light made its way across the stark trees, and promised. It promised, that light, and what a thing that was.”
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’ve only known Laurie Colwin as a food writer—I read Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen and More Home Cooking years ago—so when I heard that she’d also written some novels, I was curious.
In Happy All the Time, we meet best friends Guido and Vincent. Neither of them is intentionally seeking a relationship, yet they both fall in love—Guido with Holly, and Vincent with Misty. We follow the two couples as they manage their jobs and their personal lives, their friendships and their families. Primarily, though, we watch them navigate their marriages—the sweet moments, and the complicated, messy ones.
Words I’m Remembering: “I’m beginning to think that space absorbs silence or noise.”
And also,
“…the condition that jealousy covered was simply envy mixed with fear.”
Skin and Bones by Renee Watson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a book that explores the stories we tell ourselves, the ones we tell each other, and those we pass down from one generation to the next.
Forty-year-old Lena Baker is on the verge of getting married when a last-minute confession from her fiancé derails their plans. Thrust into an unexpected season of grief, Lena struggles to recover her sense of self-worth while also raising her young daughter. Lena is also passionate about teaching her community about the history of Oregon, especially the parts that have been forgotten or even pushed aside. Renee Watson blended the nonfiction parts of this book into the story in a masterful way. This is a beautiful story of motherhood and family, friendship and forgiveness.
I’m going to suggest you do your own research before you read several of the books in this letter, and Skin and Bones is one of these. This book can be tough to read in parts, especially if, like me, you have a history of issues with food and body image. In my opinion, the author handles these topics carefully and with sensitivity, but I do want you to be aware in case reading a book about a character who struggles in this way feels too tender to you.
Words I’m Remembering: “I knew I loved him when I realized we could survive Wednesdays. Wednesdays are nothing days. Anyone can love on a weekend, be around for the editing, for the thrill…But love me on a rainy Wednesday afternoon when nothing is on television but reruns, love me when I’m not the life of the party because there is no party, when there is no work promotion to celebrate, no event to dress up for, no lights, no camera. We have a 2:26 p.m. Wednesday kind of love. Simple, steady.”
The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell ⭐️⭐️⭐️
The House We Grew Up In is the story of the Bird family—daughters Meg and Beth, twins Rory and Rhys, and their parents. They appear to be the perfect family until an unthinkable tragedy occurs, revealing deep fissures in their relationships and changing the trajectory of each of their lives forever. Years later, several members of the family reunite at their childhood home, where they learn the truth about the events of that tragic weekend, while reckoning with the fact that their mother has become a hoarder.
* If you decide to read this book, please look into the trigger warnings associated with it—I won’t spoil the plot here, but I do want to note that I found parts of this book very difficult to read.
The River’s Daughter by Bridget Crocker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I finished this memoir in less than a day.
Bridget Crocker has lived with her mother, her stepfather and her little brother ever since her parents’ divorce. They reside alongside the Snake River in Wyoming, where whitewater rafting becomes Bridget’s passion. When her mother abruptly becomes an environmental activist and divorces Bridget’s stepfather, Bridget decides to leave. We follow her back to California where her father lives, and later to Africa, where she learns to guide on the Zambezi River, one of the most dangerous rivers in the world.
This is another book you’ll want to take a look at, in terms of trigger warnings, before you decide to read it. Even though The River’s Daughter isn’t an easy read, it’s a good one. I loved Bridget’s love for rivers, and I loved how ultimately her love for nature helped her heal.
Words I’m Remembering: “…nine-year-olds in search of gold and tadpoles sometimes break the rules.”
Favorites from 2025 📚
Fiction
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff
Nonfiction
Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma by Melanie Shankle
Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put—A Memoir of Humor and Hope in a Small-Town Life by Annie B. Jones
And my favorite category: Favorite Books My Friends Wrote2
The One You Fall For by Emily B. Riddle
Stories Our Scars Tell: Hope, Healing and Honesty About the Wounds We Carry by Brittany Tinsley
I hope you can curl up with a good book this weekend, especially if you’re in the path of this winter storm ❄️ I’ll see you back here next week, friends. Stay warm!
- Deb
All book links are affiliate links.
Emily and Brittany are my real-life writing friends, and I couldn’t be more proud of them for releasing these books this year. I’ve linked their Substacks above as well.