September and October 2025 reads
by Alana
See the Books collection for all book review posts
Fall is for cozy reading - genre fiction, short stories, and books to bolster the spirit as we get ready for the long dark of Canadian winter. A giant Brandon Sanderson novel slowed me down these months, but even still, I managed to:
Continue my journey through all of Kazuo Ishiguro’s work
Get angry about capitalism (see What Money Can’t Buy)
Finish new books from favourite authors (Arden and Kuang)
Here are the little reviews 🙂
Bunny - Mona Awad
Format: novel
One sentence summary:
I have no idea what happened in this book - there were girls who called each other bunny, blood sacrifices, peer pressure, and violent themes of female agency and belonging???
When and where:
Upstate New York prestigious college (aka Cthulhu Country)
Read if you:
Don’t need a linear plot or conventional structure
Live for poetic, dramatic turns of phrase
Think academia is full of shit sometimes
Have felt that confusing dichotomy of 1) resentment for an in-group you’re not part of and 2) longing to belong to that in-group
Books this reminded me of:
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker - both escalate to horror real quick and explore social exclusion (through race for Baker, class for Awad)
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio - another dark academia where artists (Shakespearean actors in Rio’s novel) blur the lines between art, sexuality, and violence
Made me feel:
confused and disturbed
Quote:
Their cheeks are plump and pink and shining like they’ve been eating too much sugar, but actually it’s Gossip Glow, the flushed look that comes from throwing another woman under the bus.
Recommended by Milana (and everyone on the internet, wow)
Katabasis - R. F. Kuang
Format: novel
One sentence summary:
Two grad students studying logic and magic go to hell to try to save their PhD supervisor and big feelings ensue.
When and where:
modern temporal setting; the physical nature of hell’s exact geography is a contested plot point
Read if you:
Understand that weird grad school duality where you are so stressed and resentful but are also addicted to the work and people
enjoy game theory or a good logical paradox
Also tried to bury your depression in More Degrees and More School
Books this reminded me of:
BookTok has apparently made extensive ‘Required Reading’ lists to contextualize this book, so look those up. It is certainly an homage to Dante’s Inferno and also reminded me of The Odyssey when the crew takes a wee jaunt to the underworld.
Made me feel:
Validated; knowledge is a pathway to agency in this novel but Kuang doesn’t let you forget that the conventional structures for accessing that knowledge are biased, toxic, and broken
Quotes:
Fortunately graduate school had prepared her for this, the constant managing of despair.
Surely no one else lived like this - burdened by the tiniest details they assumed had enormous consequences. Surely no one else was so anchored by anxiety. Other people could stumble and shake their heads and move on. How she envied their lightness.
Western Taxidermy - Barb Howard
Format: short story collection
One sentence summary: Vignettes of vengeful friends, bougie campers, angry mums, and other very human folks making the most of their short days.
When and where:
Present day in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario (a practical prairie-sensibility veils most of these stories)
Read if you:
Are thinking of leaving a relationship
Miss someone you’ve lost - whether their still around and you’re caregiving, they’ve died, or you never really knew them at all
Books this reminded me of:
Alice Munro and Claire Keegan also craft short fiction that foreground the complexity of the quiet moments that make up our relationships with each other
Made me feel:
Seen in all the little petty thoughts and actions of the characters
Quote:
Good hunters have warned me: stay away from overprotective mothers.
Recommended by Nancy
Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro
Format: novel
One sentence summary:
An artist who ambiguously served the Japanese war effort during WWII tries and fails to connect with his community in a postwar era where his work is resented.
When and where:
Japan, post WWII
Read if you:
Have done things for your employer you’re not proud of
Enjoy subtlety and an inconsistent narrative viewpoint
Books this reminded me of:
Described as the ‘practice run’ for Ishiguro’s more famous Remains of the Day
Made me feel:
Conscious that for many, a job well done has a high moral cost
Quote:
…when people are getting poorer, and children are growing more hungry and sick all around you, it is simply not enough for an artist to hide away somewhere, perfecting pictures of courtesans.
The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain - Kazuo Ishiguro
Format: mixed media - song lyrics by Ishiguro and art by Bianca Bagnarelli
One sentence summary:
Fleeting faces out train windows, reflections in sidewalk puddles, lights in distant skyscrapers - this weird little book of visuals and song lyrics Ishiguro wrote for famous jazz musician Stacy Kent offers vignettes on travel and love.
When and where:
Here, there, and everywhere on earth
Read if you:
Need a cozy evening - put Stacy Kent’s songs on, listen to Ishiguro’s words, and enjoy the minimalist visual feast of Bagnarelli’s illustration
Books this reminded me of:
Never read anything quite like this
Made me feel:
Wistful
Quote:
Let's be young again, if only for the weekend
Let's be fools again, let's fall in at the deep end
Let's do once more all those things we did before
The summer we crossed Europe in the rain
Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Format: novel
One sentence summary:
A woods-loving village girl is chosen by the resident dragon/wizard to live in his tower and much magic and conflict ensues.
When and where:
Eastern Europe-ish setting of swords and sorcery
Read if you:
like political intrigue, plucky heroines, and fae magic
Books this reminded me of:
The Winternight Trilogy by Katharine Arden also shows deep respect for its Slavic folklore roots
Made me feel:
on my toes - I couldn’t predict where this story was going
Quote:
There was a song in this forest, too, but it was a savage song, whispering of madness and tearing and rage.
Wind and Truth - Brandon Sanderson
Format: gigantic novel
One sentence summary:
The conclusion to the first part of Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive!
When and where:
Roshar, a land of storms, heralds, and wind
Read if you:
start The Stormlight Archive if you’re a fan of Robert Jordan, George R R Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, or Tad Williams. The series spans multiple PoV characters fighting for the future of their world while navigating the trials of depression, disassociation, and honour in leadership.
Books this reminded me of:
The Stormlight Archive is the fantasy response to the space opera series The Expanse by James S.A. Corey
Made me feel:
Sad but satisfied
Quote:
People break, and sometimes the strong ones break harder than the weak ones—because they’re the ones you pile everything on
Warm Hands of Ghosts - Katherine Arden
Format: novel
One sentence summary:
A nurse from Halifax returns to WWI-ravaged France to search for her missing brother in this exploration of grief, the price of war, and the power of female friendship.
When and where:
the trenches, field hospitals, and mysterious bars of muddy 1914-18 France
Read if you:
Don’t mind magic in your historical fiction
Love a medical historical drama
Have dreamed of ghosts as you navigated your grief
Books this reminded me of:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr also blends mysticism with war-writing
The Women by Kristin Nightingale also centres female friendship forged in hardship (Nightingale is writing about Vietnam)
Made me feel:
Lost
Quote:
What's progress? Give people God's power - to build ships like islands, or fly like birds, or set fire to the bowels of the earth like the devil in his damned pit - it just writes their stupidity larger and larger until they drown the whole world. Our hands get bigger and our spirits shrink.
Recommended by Eric
Nonfiction
What Money Can’t Buy - Michael Sandel
Format: essay collection
One sentence summary:
Split into lengthy chapters, philosopher Michael Sandel offers plentiful examples of the places where free market economics falls out of touch with morality
When and where:
Published in 2012 with case studies that feel even more relevant today
Read if you:
Hate economists talking on CBC
Need evidence about why capitalism has no heart
Want to appreciate the history behind dumb systems like insurance, ticket scalping, and lobbying
Books this reminded me of:
Narrative Economics by Robert Shiller explains how stories drive markets - a nuanced study that complements Sandel’s moral examination of laissez faire capitalism
Made me feel:
Angry at economists and their stupid schemes
Guilty for annoying my friends who listened to me rant or read sections out loud to them as I read this book
Quote:
Market reasoning is incomplete without moral reasoning
Tiny Experiments - Anne Laure Le Cunff
Format: memoir meets how-to book
One sentence summary:
Former Google Engineer Le Cunff shares a productivity system that puts you at the centre of a lab experiment, curiously collecting data to inform decisions.
When and where:
Published 2025, Westerncentric
Read if you:
Feel stuck in your job or creative project and want to reignite curiosity in your approach
Books this reminded me of:
Atomic Habits by James Clear - all productivity books echo each other in their tacit assumption that doing more is necessarily better. Boo to that!
Made me feel:
Unconvinced - Le Cunff speaks about mindful, informed decision-making and rejecting productivity culture, only to espouse a system of publicly articulating ambitious goals in the name of data-gathering about personal productivity habits and preferences
Quote:
This is how you discover your life’s meaning—by focusing on your daily actions rather than the content of your future eulogy. When generativity becomes your focus, the immediate impact of your actions is all the motivation you need.
Recommended by someone? I can’t remember who!
