Hi friends —
As a reader, I love chatting with other readers about books, which is why I am so excited to share my conversation with Stephanie from That Bookish Life, one of my favorite book-focused newsletters on Substack. Stephanie reads over 250 books a year (yes, really), and writes weekly digests full of thoughtful recommendations.
In our conversation, we discussed many things, including:
Her favorite books of 2025 and what books she’s looking forward to in 2026
Reading goals and the over-engineering that sometimes comes with tracking your reading on apps
Why protecting your joy around reading matters
How your mood impacts your reading
As always, you can watch the interview here on Substack or here. You can also listen to the interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or Pocketcasts.
Below are a few of my takeaways from our conversation:
On the tracking trap and over-engineering your reading life
One thing Stephanie and I really connected on was how easy it is to turn reading into something stressful. Setting goals can sometimes over-engineer your reading, because people become more focused on the number they are reading rather than what they are reading.
“I think it’s a huge pitfall in the reading community because I think people normalize book tracking so much,” says Stephanie. “Then you’re comparing yourself, and you’re feeling like you’re not reading enough or you’re not reading diversely enough…[reading] this should not be a stressful thing.”
Stephanie’s approach? Keep goals loose. “My goals are just kind of always to read a lot, read widely, and have it be an enjoyable experience. I always arbitrarily set my number goal as however many books I read last year, and that just helps me track my pace.”
Her under-the-radar 2025 recommendations
Doll Parts by Penny Zang
Gothic, a little dark academia, about a friendship. In the present day, one of the friends is investigating the supposed suicide of her best friend, whom she’s been estranged from for 20 years. It toggles between them in college and then as adults, uncovering what happened on their creepy college campus.
Atomic Hearts by Megan Cummins
Coming-of-age meets family drama set in the Midwest. A now-grown woman looking back on a formative summer in her childhood, when she moved to live with her father, who was struggling with drug addiction. It jumps back and forth in time.
The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
Set primarily in California in the 80s. A middle-aged man on a quest to find out what happened to his estranged father. Dual timeline, mystery elements, pool parties, and Fleetwood Mac on the record player.
Woodworking by Emily St. James
About a trans teen and her newly out trans teacher in a very small conservative South Dakota town. They form this friendship that’s obviously awkward because it’s a student-teacher relationship, but it’s very well done, unexpected, and heartwarming while dealing with tough things. “I think it would make a good book club book, because I would be interested to sit in on a discussion of everyone who reads it and see their thoughts about how the story unfolds,” Stephanie said.
Devil Three Times by Ricky Fayne
An eight-generation Black family saga starting with a woman being brought over from Africa on a slave ship. It has elements of magical realism because this family is visited by the devil, and the origin of this woman’s situation comes back to a deal she made with the devil. The devil narrates parts of it. “I wasn’t sure about the devil thing, and it works. It really works,” Stephanie said.
Reading as mirrors and windows
When asked if there is one book that changed how she thought about something, Stephanie said something I loved so much:
“I’m not sure, I feel like fiction does that. Fiction does that through empathy, through windows, through mirrors, seeing yourself, seeing other people, seeing people different than you. I don’t know if there’s any one book. I also read quite a bit of nonfiction, and those are probably more along the lines of things that might change my perspective, provide more information, or shift it… I think all the reading I do definitely shapes my world. You know, increase my awareness of what people different than me are going through, or you know, how things in the world work.”
Here are a few other things I thought were worth sharing this week:
Things to read:
I’m halfway through The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams, and you’re definitely going to want to put this on your reading list for 2026. It’s an intergenerational read, and so, so, good, so far. (so many “so” in a sentence)
If you haven’t read my newsletter about 30 Years of Waiting to Exhale, you should check it out.
Great read/listen from Hanif Abdurraqib for The New Yorker on a year of listening beyond the algorithm.
Did you look at your ChatGPT Wrapped? I did and basically it told me that I over-engineer my life and am “Most Likely to Turn a To-Do List Into a Lifestyle.” With that, I asked it to plot out some thing I should be incorporating into my goals for 2026 based on their results and one was simplification when possible, which makes this read from Kelsey-Marie Pitse on 25 life hacks that made her life easier in 2025 so timely for me.
Things to listen to:
I’ve been on a real Samin Nosrat kick lately, and really enjoyed both of her recent interviews. One on “Death, Sex & Money” and the other on “The Stacks” Podcast.
Kind of a listen/watch hybrid, but I enjoyed this episode of Les Alfred’s “She’s So Lucky” podcast on manifesting. Perfect timing as well as we start looking into our goals for the upcoming year.
