Episode 35: We're Back With Our 2025 Reading Goals!

Hello, hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads. This is episode 35, “We’re Back with Our 2025 Reading Goals.”

Welcome back to Medium Lady Reads! Erin and Jillian are excited to be back on mic to talk books and the library. They’re returning “rested and refreshed” after their January hiatus and can’t wait to share some of their latest reads. 

In This Episode:

• The ladies welcome you back and share a check-in on how their life and reading has been going.
• Mentioned in this Episode: Episode 32 for The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
• Erin jumps into her reviews first, followed by Jillian with hers.
• Jillian and Erin share their 2025 reading goals, tune in to find out what they’ll be working towards.
• It’s time to share the holds list and what’s up next, listen in to find out what the ladies have on hold from the library.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

• Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
• Onxy Storm by Rebecca Yarros
• Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
• The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
• The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
• You are a Badass by Jen Sincero
• Drive Your Own Darn Bus by Julia Kristina
• The 5-Second Rule by Mel Robbins
• The High 5 Habit by Mel Robbins
• Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano 
• I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
• How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
• James by Percival Everett
• Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
• Red String Theory by Lauren Kung Jessen
• The Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay
• Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
• Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
• Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu
• Unapologetically Ambitious by Shellye Archambeau 
• Women Who Work Too Much by Tamu Thomas
• The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
• This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki 
• A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

Transcript

[Music] Hello, hi, and welcome to Medium Lady Reads.

This is Episode 35.

We've made it to February 2025, and yet it's hard to believe we're not already one year older.

One thing that remains so far are the books.

Hi everyone, I'm Jillian and Instagram content strategist for Bookest People, a mom of two based in Buffalo, New York.

And I'm Erin, a mom of three, a hospital administrator in Ontario, Canada, and the host and founder of the Medium Lady Community and Medium Lady Talks podcast.

Together, we're thrilled to bring you another episode of Medium Lady Reads, a podcast about reading as self-care, passionate love for the public library, and all of our thoughts and opinions on book culture having its moment.

Hi everyone, welcome back to Medium Lady Reads.

This is Episode 35, airing the week of February 5th.

We're excited to come back on Mike to talk books and return rested and refreshed after our January hiatus.

But before we share our reviews for this episode, let's do our check-in.

Erin, how is your reading and life going?

Well, I mean life, like if I look back on January and we take a hiatus with Medium Lady Talks, we took a hiatus with Medium Lady Reads as well.

And I just think that that was just like such a good decision.

I'm so grateful that passed us made that call because my life in January was kind of rough.

Like we had a death in the family, my mom injured herself pretty seriously, which had a host of other kind of cascading consequences for my family or not consequences, but like things to tackle and things to deal with.

Certainly, like my work life is very, very busy in January because of healthcare and viral season and all of those things.

And so, you know, my life has felt like I've had enough of January and I don't even get me started on the political climate and, you know, the TikTok pan and everything else that's gone on or is going on.

So yeah, it's been kind of good to take a mindful break and to let your life fill up the space in other ways.

Current reads.

So my reading life has been pretty much on track for the month of January, even though it's been a very jam-packed month.

Currently, what I'm reading is our buddy read "Taste" by Stanley Tucci.

I'm about 30% into Onix Storm by Rebecca Yaros.

That's the newest book in the fourth wing series.

I have a bunch of different books.

I'm kind of juggling right now on top of those two, but those are the main two that I'm kind of really picking up regularly and I have a couple others on the go.

Jillian, how's your reading going?

First, I want to say that I am so excited to be back on Mike with you.

It's been about what do we have?

About four weeks where we weren't, maybe three weeks where we weren't recording and I'm so excited to be back on Mike and talking books with you.

I've missed it.

As from how my life is going and reading, the holidays were great, quiet on the actual holidays, but then busy when my sister and her family were in town, they come in usually a couple of days after the holiday.

The kids look forward to seeing each other and we get together and do our Christmas at my mom's house and we do sometimes if the weather cooperates, which it did not this year.

It was too warm, but we'll go sledding and all sorts of different stuff and it was just it's good, but it's really busy.

So that was around the holidays.

We've had a lot of quite a bit of snow and super cold temps, so while we keep trying to keep into a routine of getting the kids to their activities, we've been missing them a bunch because the weather is just not good enough to risk the driving here.

I did spend a lot of January reading.

I actually was picking up my book more than I was scrolling, which is a huge plus for me and I was very proud of.

And currently reading for me is The Life Impossible by Matt Hague.

Aaron, you brought this to the show in Episode 32, but for those of you who haven't listened, go back and listen, but here's a brief synopsis in case you forgot what it's about.

When retired math teacher Grace Winters inherits a crumbling house on Ibiza, she embarks on an unplanned journey to uncover her late friend's mysterious past.

Among sun-soaked beaches and rugged hills, Grace discovers secrets stranger than she imagined, forcing her to confront her own buried truths.

A tale of hope, wonder, and second chances, this story celebrates the magic of new beginnings.

And I'm about halfway through and I absolutely love it.

It was dragging for me in the beginning.

I just, I kind of was like, okay, what's the point?

But then I got to the mid lesson mid, probably about between a quarter and a halfway point.

And I was like, wow, this is really good and I can't wait to figure out what's going on.

And yeah, it's really good.

I hope more people read it.

That's a good one that might be friends with under the whispering door.

We'll see.

Do you know I've been reading it and the magic of it?

Mm-hmm.

Kind of has made me feel like, I keep thinking, could this be a contender for under the whispering door?

Maybe we'll see.

It's awfully early in the year for that, but maybe.

We'll see.

All right, let's jump into our reviews for today.

Jillian, what do you have on deck for this week's episode?

Let's see.

I have a contemporary family drama, a contemporary romance with a nice enemy to lovers plotline, and a devastatingly sad adult drama.

Oh my gosh, devastatingly sad.

How about you, Erin?

Oh my gosh.

Well, I feel like the nice thing is I have a bit of a cushion of books to share after the month break.

So it was kind of hard to pick.

I've had some good, some highly rated books lately, so that was nice.

I've landed on sharing a timely speculative fiction, the busiest nonfiction book of the new year, and a best of the year book that I really think is worth the hype.

And I'm refreshed and ready to get started, which is good because I get to go first with the reviews for this episode.

So the first review of today's episode is something I bet anyone anywhere has heard about, and it's the Let them Theory by Mel Robbins.

Jillian, normally I wouldn't be first in line for a book by Mel Robbins.

I've never read any of her other books, and I've never even listened to her podcast.

But the book came out on December 24th, and then as I mentioned in our check-in on December 27th, my mom broke her leg, and I felt my stress really skyrocket.

So I decided to listen to this new audiobook while spending many hours driving back and forth to my hometown to support my mom, my dad, and my siblings.

Here's the setup.

The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins is a book that delivers on simple yet powerful idea.

Let them.

Robbins explains how those two words can free you from the opinions, drama, and expectations of others, allowing you to focus on what truly matters, your happiness, your goals, and your life.

Using her trademark mix of science, back, device, and relatable stories, Mel Robbins shows you how to stop wasting energy on the things you can't control and to start building the life you deserve.

For me, this book really offers practical tools to move past, self-doubt, especially if you're the kind of person that is often used to kind of managing other people's feelings or thinking about how other people are doing or how they're going to react to things.

It helped me acknowledge how much of my stress was related to the reactions, the opinions, or the actions of others, and how the only thing I can really have control over is my own perspective.

I hope that over time I'll get better and better at applying this in my life.

However, I do think that this book is missing a few crucial steps, especially to acknowledge how vulnerable it can feel to let them when you've been wrapped up in the actions of others for so long, whether you're a people-pleaser or a perfectionist, that's really hard to back off and to let them let it go because your sense of self-in-identity and what feels safe sometimes is to feel like you can control others or to feel like you can anticipate and proactively respond to the needs of other people.

Even for me, in my own self-awareness journey, I know a lot of this is learned behavior from when I was a kid.

There just isn't enough of that in this book, which is why I only gave it four stars.

Mel Robbins' confidence is infectious while I was reading the book.

I definitely did, after putting the book down, feel my own confidence wane after finishing the book, and I wonder how sustainable this practice of let them really is without doing some deep inner work to change your patterns of codependence or your need for external validation.

If you're a person who's already actively engaged in therapy, I think this is a good partner to something like talk therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy.

It's a very insightful and motivating book.

I did the audio, Mel Robbins has her unique signature style.

She's snappy and energetic and confident.

She's funny.

It's a new take on some really good advice, which is basically focus on what you can control and let go of the rest.

I can definitely see this book being useful and supportive for most readers who enjoy personal development and nonfiction.

That's my review of The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins.

Believe it or not, I had not heard of this book until you were talking about it.

I had not heard of it.

Well, there you go.

I felt like it was everywhere, but that's just my algorithm, I guess.

Yeah, I don't often see Mel Robbins content, so that's probably why.

But it sounds really good, and it does sound like a great complement to talk therapy if you're doing that sort of thing, which I am.

So maybe I'll give it a listen.

I think you'll enjoy it.

I think it will fall into the category of books like You Are a Badass.

I didn't read Drive Your Own Darn Buss.

I know you gave that mixed reviews, but it is sort of the like, do you and let them do them and don't be so wrapped up in whatever they're going to do next, because they're going to do that anyway.

It's very well written.

She gives a lot of personal anecdotes, which I always prefer in my personal development, because I don't want to read a personal development book from someone who's not going to share about their own life being messy and challenging.

It's just not as relatable to me.

Absolutely.

But yeah, I think it's worth picking up if you stumble upon it.

And Mel Robbins is probably not for everyone.

I'm sure that that's true.

I'm sure there are people that she rubs the wrong way and what she would say is that's fine.

I don't care.

I've read a lot of her books.

I read I read the five-second rule.

I read her, I was at the high five habit.

I read that one.

And I listened.

There was one that was only unottable that I listened to as well that I really liked.

So I like her very much.

I just had no clue of this book.

I will say the one thing I was happy about was it was like a new release.

It felt like a perfect fit for the situation I was in.

And I just used the audible credit to listen to it right away.

We don't do that very often with personal development.

I don't at least to be like, what do I need right now?

And where's the book?

What's the book?

What's the personal development book that's going to meet me where I'm at right now?

And I did that with this and that's a practice that I'll probably take away in the future.

That's a great idea.

Okay, Jillian, what's the first book you're sharing for the pod in 2025?

My first book that I'm bringing to the show is Blue Sisters by Cocoa Mallors.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and gave it 4.5 stars.

Here's the premise.

The three blue sisters are exceptional and exceptionally different.

Avery the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned straight lace lawyer lives with her wife in London.

Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat and lucky the youngest models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard partying ways.

They also had a fourth sister, Nikki, who's unexpected death left Avery Bonnie and Lucky Reeling.

A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of an apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems.

As the sisters reckon with their disappointments of the childhood and loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not be from each other, but from themselves.

So having two sisters of my own, I was able to relate to some of the basics of the relationships in the book.

It comes down to being about the unconditional love between siblings and acknowledges that they love each other through it all, even when they fight, even when they disagree, they're always coming back to the love that they feel for one another.

The story did leave me heartbroken for the sisters, but also completely joyful for the ending of the book.

The epilogue did a great job of perfectly wrapping everything up, and I loved it so much.

Because you know, I love the books that I wrapped up with a pretty little bow at the end.

Nice.

That's great.

This book got a lot of buzz last year.

I did.

I thought it was kind of like, is it like a, the only comparison, although hearing you give the premise, I'm not getting that, was the sort of like contemporary little women seems to be sort of on trend.

Like, hello, beautiful, is sort of this contemporary little women novel, four sisters, stories about four sisters.

Is it kind of giving that?

You know, you have one sister who's passed away.

Yeah, absolutely.

It definitely gives that off.

I had not thought of that, but now that you asked the question, and I'm thinking about it, absolutely.

It gives a story of, there, the difference is, is that in little women, they're all mostly together, and, and they live together.

And this, they don't.

They live separate from each other everywhere across the country, not just across the country, but across the world.

But they do come together.

So that absolutely is a little modern little women.

Amazing.

I have this on my TBR.

I'm not sure when I'll get to it, but I love your review.

And I'm definitely probably going to keep an eye out for maybe the right timing, maybe spring.

I'll put it on my spring TBR.

Yeah, I could definitely see it being a spring book, a summer book, too.

I mean, obviously I read it in the winter, but it could be any, it could fit anywhere I'd say.

I like books like that.

That's great.

All right, Aaron, back to you.

Tell us what your next book is all about.

Okay.

My next book is speculative fiction.

And given the current state of the world, this isn't a book for everyone.

However, I loved it.

And I think it will be a standout for 2025.

This book is I'm starting to worry about this black box of doom by Jason Pargin.

Here's the publisher's blurb, which is too good.

I just had to use it.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box.

She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country to Washington, DC, but there are rules.

He cannot look inside the box.

He cannot ask questions.

He cannot tell anyone.

They must leave immediately and he must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

But the truth promises to be even stranger and may change how you see the world.

It's really hard to say more about this book without ruining certain plot points.

So I'm going to focus on character and writing for my review.

The plot is great.

Don't get me wrong.

But with an excellent supporting cast, which Jillian, you know I love, and a very, very clever writing style, this book becomes so much more than just like a road trip to the end of the world type of story.

Our two main characters Abbott, the driver and ether, the writer, start out their journey somewhat of stereotypes.

But as Jason Pargin reveals more of their backstories and their current history, we start to realize that we might actually feel differently about these two than we originally thought.

Midway through the book, I realized I had totally changed my mind about one character.

And this, I credit to the writing.

It's such a great book to read in these times.

It's too contemporary to be dystopian and it's not weird enough to be science fiction.

It's more of a what if kind of novel that will definitely get you thinking about how you might have gotten pulled in if this story ever happened to you.

And that's my review of I'm starting to worry about this black box of doom by Jason Pargin.

This book I've heard of it, but I didn't know much about it.

So now hearing it, I'm like, is this a book I read?

Because I don't know.

I don't know if I, is it going to make me worry about the world, the state of our world?

I don't know.

Um, did it make me worry about the state of the world?

I mean, it didn't help me escape the state of the world.

How would I say that?

It didn't make me worry about anything that isn't already happening.

And it definitely made me think about how I get caught up in stories on the media and how I, and who gets to tell what story about what's really going on and what becomes the truth.

And I'm kind of like, has the tent to sort of like say anymore without, without giving things away.

It starts out as one thing and it ends up another thing.

And I appreciate when that can be done with nuance.

It's not preachy.

It's just kind of like makes you think.

And I would not say it was a stressful read, although that's just for me personally, somebody else might read this and find it a little bit stressful.

Okay, that's good to know.

Maybe, maybe I'll put it on my TBR, but maybe it'll, it'll stay just there and wait for the right moment.

It's also pretty funny.

I didn't share that in my review.

Like it is, it is pretty funny.

It doesn't take itself too seriously, despite the subject matter, which I think kind of helps.

And yeah.

Good.

All right.

I have to think about it.

I really, it's one of those books where I'm worried.

I can't remember what the book was that my mom read that was supposedly fiction, but it was like based on something that could really happen.

And it made her start like collecting canned goods.

And, and oh, no, no, this isn't that.

This is not, this is not, this is not going to make you feel like you need to be a doomsday prepper for sure.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Okay, good.

No, no.

Okay, Jillian, I'm looking forward to hearing your next review.

All right.

The next book I'm bringing to the show is How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kwang.

Another book that I really enjoyed and gave 4.5 stars to.

Here's the setup.

Helen Zhang hasn't seen Grant Shepherd once in 13 years since the tragic accident that bound their lives together forever.

Now a bestselling author, Helen pours everything into her career.

She's even scored a coveted spot in the writer's room of the TV adaptation of her popular young adult novels.

And if she can hide her imposter syndrome and overcome her writer's block, surely the rest of her life will fall into place too.

LA is the fresh start she needs after all, no one knows her there except that Grant has done everything in his power to move on from the past, including building a life across the country.

And while the panic attacks have never quite gone away, he's well liked around town as a screenwriter.

He knows he shouldn't have taken the job on Helen's show that it will open doors to developing his own projects that he just can't pass up.

Grant's exactly as Helen remembers him, charming, funny, popular, and lovable in ways that she's never been.

And Helen's exactly as Grant remembers too, brilliant, beautiful, closed off, but working together as messy and electrifying, and Helen's parents who have never forgiven Grant have no idea he's in the picture at all.

When secrets come to life, light, they mistracken with the fact that there's was never meant to be any kind of love story.

And yet, the key to making peace with their past in themselves might just lie in holding on to each other in the present.

As I said, I really enjoyed this book.

You could feel the connection between Grant and Helen, the moment that these two are introduced to the story.

The author did a fantastic job of writing them as if I'm interests, I thought.

It was also really fun to go behind the scenes of how a TV show is produced.

The author is a screenwriter in real life and a director, and she uses her experience with that to write this story.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a lover of romance novels that are open door and enemies to lovers.

However, there are some trigger warnings for suicide and a car accident.

If that is something that bothers you, then stay away from the story.

Aaron, I know you read this.

What did you think?

Yeah, I think we kind of read it at the same time.

We were sort of, we were both sharing our TBRs, not our TBRs, our current reads, and we were both reading this.

I really, really liked it.

I had some complaints while I was reading it, but then when I finished it, I was kind of sad.

I wished I could keep picking it up.

It was pretty immersive, I think, from a story perspective, and there was a lot of spice mixed in with the plot line, but it definitely didn't.

It wasn't more spice than plot.

I think there was a really good balance of those chemistry, those scenes that get your heart racing, and then a lot of character development and challenge and self-reflection and friendships.

I thought it was really good.

It was really well written.

The author is the screenwriter for two Emily Henry projects, I think.

Yep.

Yep.

That made me excited because I feel like certainly her writing style was very akin to Emily Henry, and I'm sure she'll really positively influence the adaptations of, I think it's people we mean on vacation and book lovers, but don't quote me on that.

Yeah, I don't remember.

I just remember I'd be into them, but yeah, I was very excited to see that as well because I loved, I really loved this book, and I know it was well received, and one, I think it won a good read end of year award.

I think you're right.

I think you're right.

I think it was best romance, and now you know we love to look those up, so we're gonna have to check.

It was either best romance or best new...

Oh, debut.

Oh, debut author.

It was one or the other.

I can't remember which.

Of course, I'm like, good read is not going to give me the list quickly, so.

That's fine.

Never mind.

Do the research on your own.

Yeah.

Texas one on socials if we're right.

Okay, we're headed into our final round of reviews for the episode.

Aaron, tell us what your last book is about.

Okay, my last book today is one I will guess that if you haven't read, it's on your TBR, and this is James by Percival Everett.

Here's the premise.

James by Percival Everett is an unforgettable reimagining of a classic story, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

You might think you know Jim, Huck's companion on a raft journey down the Mississippi River, but Everett gives us James, a story that centers on Jim's perspective, showing his intelligence, compassion, and resilience in the face of unimaginable loss, danger, and the horrific nature of being an enslaved person.

It also turns the most common narratives of enslaved people on its head in a way that I found absolutely riveting, and will forever change any other historical fiction or nonfiction reading that I ever do regarding Civil War era America.

This book has just over 170,000 reviews on good reads with an average rating of 4.53.

It was the winner of the National Booker Award for fiction in 2024, and it's been shortlisted for pretty much all of the other highbrow awards.

Yet this book, Jillian, it's instantly accessible to all readers.

I did use my chat GPT, I did use my chat GPT trick, which I shared in previous episodes of Medium Lady reads, just to make sure I could get the you know, spark notes on Huck Finn, as I started James.

You don't really need to have a faithful knowledge of Huckleberry Finn to read this book, but I did enjoy the chance to deepen my reading, learning more about Twain, Twain's perspective on slavery, and the choices that Mark Twain was making in writing a character like Jim into Huck Finn, and how we can pull that into more of a contemporary understanding of Civil War America.

With Sharp Humor and powerful storytelling, this book challenges what we think we know about American literature, while celebrating the humanity of a character too often overshadowed.

I gave this one five stars, I definitely cried at the end.

It's a brilliant thought provoking read, and I think most readers, most of our listeners will definitely enjoy it.

And that's my review of James by Percival Everett.

Everyone I know has read this book and keeps recommending it to me, so I think I need to bump it up the TBR.

My mom and sister both loved it.

Yeah, I think whenever it finds you, you'll really enjoy it.

There's no rush.

I don't think it's going anywhere.

It definitely will sustain interest.

I'm sure this will be one of those books that stays on the most borrowed from the library for a couple of years to come.

It's really excellent.

It's really worth the hype.

People love it for a reason, and it's a great, great book.

I would definitely recommend.

I really do think I'm going to bump it up though, because it just sounds really good.

Okay, Jillian, I'm looking forward to your last review.

All right.

The third book I'm bringing to the show is We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman.

I was not prepared for this book.

I had a few friends, Aaron, being one of them, say to have tissues handy, but the other, but other than that, I went in blind.

And I am heartbroken and torn to shreds after reading the book, but in the best possible way.

Here's the premise.

Edie and Ash have been best friends for over 40 years.

Since childhood, they have each have had each other through life's milestones, stealing vodka from their parents, the Madonna phase, REM concerts, unexpected wakes, marriages, infertility, children, as Ash notes, Edie's memory is like the backup hard drive for mine.

So when Edie is diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ash's world reshapes around the rhythms of Edie's care, from chip dice and watermelon cubes to music therapy, from snacks muggling to impromptu excursions into the frozen winter night.

Because life is about squeezing the joy out of every moment about building a powerhouse of memories and learning when to hold on and when to let go.

Yeah, it's heavy.

I do absolutely adore the way the author, Catherine Newman writes.

Her prose is flawless.

So well, it flows so well and allows you to feel like you're just one with the book.

This is my second novel by Newman.

I read Sandwich this summer and loved it and now I'm excited to search out some of our other books and read those.

She actually has a middle grade book that I requested from the library that I am looking forward to reading to see what it's all about.

That'll be so interesting because her books are very mature.

Yeah, that they are.

And apparently Sandwich, or I'm sorry, not Sandwich, we all want impossible things was her first adult novel.

The rest, oh my gosh, she had the middle grade book and then she has a couple of nonfiction books.

But she this is that was her first fictional novel.

Amazing.

If you need a good hard hardy cry, read the book.

But before worn, there are trigger warnings for death and cancer.

It's a heavy book, but also very, very beautiful.

Erin, I know you read this book and yeah, I thought she'd like to add.

This is one that I like to recommend when I know somebody really, really well.

It's a hard like blind recommendation to give.

I went on a trip to my cottage with two girlfriends and I gave them both Catherine Newman books.

I gave one friend Sandwich and I gave the other friend we all want impossible things.

And my friend who read we all want impossible things was like so devastated and furious with me for giving her this book.

She was like, what is wrong with you?

Like, don't you care about me and my well-being that he would give me this book?

Yeah, it's hard.

It's a hard book.

I when I shared it because we ever whenever we finish a book, we being my sisters and my mom, whenever we finish a book, we go into our family chat and we share it with each other.

And this one I shared and I said that it's really heavy and it has to do with cancer and dying and my mom my mom goes, maybe this one's not for me.

Yeah, yeah, you have to know yourself.

You have to know yourself for sure.

Oh, good one though.

Great, great book to bring to the show.

Okay, instead of doing hot takes today and in honor of the start of 2025, we also wanted to bring our new goals to the show.

We just finished episode 34 with a wrap-up of the year and we thought it was a really nice way to close off the year.

So to kind of set ourselves up right for 2025, we're going to share our goals again on Mike.

So, Jillian, why don't you start share with us your reading goals for 2025.

All right, I'm carrying over most of my goals from 24 into 25.

I liked what I set last year and it helped me keep focused.

So I figured I may as well stick with what's working.

Here are the goals.

I set a goal and good reads to read 63 books in 2025.

I will likely surpass that, but I like to keep my goal number low so that I'm not stressed out while reading.

And this way I can read for enjoyment and not stress out.

My next goal is to continue to read at least one chunk or a month.

When I am more intentional with this goal, I managed to read the books I put aside because they're too long.

My first chunk of the year was an Ember and the Ashes by Sabah Tahir, which I'll likely bring to a future episode because it was so good.

I also want to ensure I'm DNFing Books that don't serve me.

If they're not bringing me joy to read, I want to stop reading them.

So I'd like to DNF at least four books in 2025.

I already DNFed 1, the Foxwife, which I just couldn't get into.

Who knows, I may come back to it at some point, but for now it's DNFed.

Next up, I want to continue to be reflective of my reading.

The podcast does a great job of getting me to reflect on what I'm reading and why I'm reading it, so I'd like to continue that in 2025.

A new goal I have for the years that I want to use the currently reading reading log, which will link in the show notes.

Well, I'll link to currently readings, Patreon page in the show notes.

It's a spreadsheet.

Aaron, I know you're familiar with it and love it, but it is very detailed and they will give you more stats regarding my reading for the year.

I'm going to give it a go.

I'll keep you updated on whether I stick with it because it is one more step for me to after I finish reading an I tend to like, I'm really good with good reads, but then that extra step, I don't always stick with it.

So we'll see how long it lasts.

Finally, I'm still on the hunt for another book that makes me feel as deeply as under the whispering door does.

Last year I read Project Hail Mary and it was spectacular.

I want another book that knocks my socks off.

So we're still on the hunt for that.

How about you Aaron?

What are your new or repeat goals for 2025?

I have very similar goals to last year.

So the first goal I have is to read 45% from diverse or queer authors.

I called this like the own voices category.

Last year I just achieved my goal at 41.8%.

My goal was 40%.

So this year I'm upping that to 45%.

I really want to keep making sure that when I'm like you said, being reflective about what I'm reading, that that includes reading diversely because I know that if I don't pay attention to that, that number could be 20% or lower and that's just not what I want for my reading life.

I'm also going to complete the full 2025 challenge.

This is sort of a sub goal to reading more own voices or more diverse and queer voices.

The full 2025 challenge, I've talked about lots of different times.

It's the festival of literary diversity and they give a prompt every month to encourage you to read from diverse authors, diverse voices and even diverse genres.

So poetry, graphic novels, historical fiction, fiction, sci-fi, etc.

The prompt for January was a romance novel by an Asian author.

They actually said Asian Canadian author but I've decided to just go with Asian author and so I read How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kwong and I'm also reading Red String Theory as well.

Next up for my goals is to read more poetry and graphic novels.

I read one book of poetry last year and I think I read four or five graphic novels and they continue to just be really enjoyable parts of my reading life.

It kind of doesn't feel the same picking up poetry or picking up a graphic novel as it does picking up just regular fiction prose and so this kind of just feels like the same but different and so I want to add more of that to my reading life.

In terms of poetry right now I am reading a book of poetry called The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Roske and already some of those poems have moved me to tears and I'm already really really happy that I've set this goal.

And then finally I wanted to do more audiobooks by my favorite narrators.

One of the best things that I did last year was to flip from reading personal development by audiobook to reading more fiction on audio and the thing that really makes or breaks fiction on audio is the narrator and when you find a book that you really love by a narrator that you love you can just like do a deep dive on a narrator the same way you would do a deep dive on an author and that actually got me exposed to some books that I normally wouldn't have picked up last year by audio and so I'm going to continue that but be more purposeful about it.

I kind of stumbled into that one and by setting it as a goal this year it will allow me to just like keep it in front of mind.

And then last but not least I've decided to make this the year of Elizabeth Strout.

I've never done this before Jillian where I like pick an author to focus my reading on and there's not a lot of authors out there who have enough of a catalog that you could do this with but Elizabeth Strout is an author who just keeps coming up time and time again.

I keep hearing people rave about her writing the Lucy Barton series the Olive Kid Ridge books and I actually have on my personal shelves an Elizabeth Strout novel O'William which is from a free little library that I picked up so I'm going to start with that one and then read a little bit more through the year and I think this could be kind of fun to like really get to know one author for a year.

I don't know how this goal will go I think it will definitely it might be one of those things that just kind of falls by the wayside until October when I'm like oh yeah Elizabeth Strout I was going to read more of her books but that's kind of one kind of fun thing that I've done this year is to really go and do a deep dive on an author that I've heard been hearing a lot about for a really long time but I've actually never read any of her books.

So those are my goals for 2025.

That's exciting that I like that Elizabeth Strout one.

I didn't realize I wasn't familiar with anything when you were talking about it but then I realized I haven't seen the book tell me everything so I am familiar I just haven't read anything by her you'll have to let us know how it goes.

I will I will I've heard that tell me everything you should read some of the other books before it's not a standalone but they'd never say like number one in the series or number four in the series but they all kind of inform one another and I was inspired I didn't say this but I was inspired to set this goal by my good friend Amanda from Australia who I talk about all the time on the show and I had this chance to spend time with Amanda in person over the Christmas holidays and one of the things she was saying is she hadn't read any Elizabeth Strout either and so hopefully this will be a way to kind of stay in touch with Amanda.

We love to share our reading and what we're currently reading and I think it'll be fun to both dive into Elizabeth Strout in 2025.

It's very cool I love it.

All right we're going to wrap up with the holds list Aaron and I are very passionate about the library and because we're both avid users we both have very active holds lists and we feel like that's something we don't hear a lot about on book podcasts or book talk or IG so we know it's something we can offer the bookish community plus we'll be sharing what's up next to let the listener know what we'll be reaching for on our TBR all right Aaron what's in your holds list okay so right now I have two books on my holds list they're both personal development one is called drop the ball achieve more by doing less this is by Tiffany Dufu and then my next one ready to pick up is called unapologetically ambitious take risks break barriers and create success on your own terms this is by Shelley Arshambo both of these books are written by black women and the reason being is that I finished an amazing book which I'll bring to the show later called women who work too much by Tamu Thomas this book I think is the perfect partner to a book like the Let them Theory by Mel Robbins because it really does a deep dive into unpacking some of the social conditioning that we've done in terms of our productivity in terms of the value that we offer our relationships or the world in terms of why we're constantly like stressed out to the max and how to regulate your nervous system in a way that helps you unpack or decondition some of that programming so because I love that personal development book by this black author I thought I would love to read more personal development by black women because I really felt like those books actually don't cross my path very often so I went on a deep dive to find them and I was kind of surprised I did not find like a lot there so I'm starting with these two books I'm sure those books will leave me to other books and I'm looking forward to bringing those to the show so those are the two books that I have on hold right now and then in terms of up next I've just got the bones beneath my skin by TJ Clune um Jillian we can maybe talk about this on another episode but Jillian and I found out a few things about this book that made us raise our eyebrows I'm not sure if I'm going to dive into that quite right away because I also have all the colors of the dark by Chris Whitaker which was another mystery very busy book of last year made a lot of best of lists and was another book book with Jenna or reads with Jenna book from last year so that's due before the bones beneath my skin and I will probably start that one first I'm shocked you have bones beneath my skin because it technically doesn't release until um the six yeah so you're lucky I was surprised kind of surprised to see it I thought about delaying delivery but I just decided to go for it awesome all right how about you Jillian what's on your holds list so on my holds list I only have one waiting for me this one it's called this one summer by Mariko Tamaki it's a young adult fiction I believe it's a graphic novel if I'm remembering correctly when I put it on my holds list but I can't remember exactly because I added a ton of books to my holds list some of them graphic novels because I really want to also read some more of those and then up next for me is uh torch against the night sky by sabata here that's the second book in the amber and the ashes series here's a brief synopsis for you fugitives leia and alias embark on dangerous journey to break into the cough present and rescue leia's brother the key to the scholar survival pursued by human and other worldly enemies including halene alias's former friend turn relentless hunter they face impossible odds at every turn a gripping tail of loyalty sacrifice and the fight for freedom in the heart of the empire erin you recommended the series to me and I am so glad you did it is so excellent I mean I'm only one book in but I'm just assuming that they're all gonna be as good because yeah I've now read two sabata here books and have loved them so I'm excited to jump into this I've read all four books I think the lowest rating I gave was 4.5 that's that's good I know you did print you love the print I did audio I did audio I love the audio the audio narrator for alias his name is Steve West like so good such a good voice match for alias charming and smoldering anyway yeah great great books like if anyone out there is devouring iron flame and you're like what should I read next tick tock is gonna tell you a lot of things you should read next and nobody is gonna say what you should read next is an ember in the ashes I might do a real on this I feel very passionately about the series I think it's very underrated good it's so good and I wish I had learned about it sooner because then I could be way ahead and I mean reading air I know but Jillian honestly I'm jealous that you're reading them for the first time yeah like even hearing you read the synopsis I was like oh it's so good it's so good it is that first one was excellent it took me a bit to get into it at first I was like I don't know if this is for me it's the world building yeah it is and I remember struggling with the same thing when I read fourth wing it's it's just I it gets boring but then once you're in it you're in it and it is excellent yeah yeah and then you got to buckle up because it goes real fast yeah speaking of going real fast this episode is already over how do you like that for segway this wraps up episode 35 of medium lady reads medium lady reads is a spinoff of the medium lady talks podcast and Instagram community on instagram you can find me erin@medium.lady and you can find Jillian at Jillian finding happy for more of our current reads and other shenanigans and of course you can follow the podcast itself on instagram at medium lady reads if you like this episode please share it with another bookish friend it really helped us continue to grow the show to reach more readers thank you for listening I'm your host Jillian and I'm your other host Erin until next time we hope that your holes arrive quickly and your next book find you right when you need it most we'll talk to you soon bye bye [Music]