Best Reads of Jan-April 2025

Click on the titles to read plot summaries. If you'd like to see all of my books, you can follow me on Goodreads.

Picture Book

The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Exactly what I was looking for to go with Kid President's reasons to be thankful.

Early Reader

 
I Am Thankful: A Positive Power Story by Suzy Capozzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was looking for a more generic book for a lesson on gratitude, but this is a great holiday title. All about giving thanks for who and what you have, no mentions of Pilgrims.

Chapter Books

  

Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So many feels. May everyone rise to the occasion of their lives.

p. 13 - "... the boy stood there, feeling that awful heat rising up in him. He was supposed to take breaths when he felt like this. But if breathing could make people happy, shouldn't everyone be happy, because everyone breathed?"

p. 89 - "The good stuff seemed to cancel out the hating part, but he wasn't sure because feelings were not math."

p. 146 - "It's ok to be a know-it-all if you don't think everyone else is a know-it-nothing."

p. 166 - "Sometimes it's easier to believe a pretty lie over a hideous truth."

p. 172 - "But stitch one small thing to another small thing and another, and eventually you have a tapestry as big as the world."

 

Ava Lin, One of a Kind by Vicky Fang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love these books.

 

All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Excellent portrayal of grief and the guilt that can come with it.

Nonfiction

   

This Is My Brain!: A Book on Neurodiversity by Elise Gravel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I want Elise Gravel to write all the nonfiction books on all the subjects.

For Grownups

  

The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Silly and charming.

 

The Examiner by Janice Hallett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved the experience of reading this book, a collection of emails and essays and documents that made you wonder what was going on as bits and pieces were revealed. Also, kudos to Hallett for delineating personalities within just a few contributions to a group chat!

One star off for the confusion I felt at the end as to what had actually happened with the radio and the faux examiner and one of the characters ... I needed a bit more obvious reveals. But I am looking forward to reading everything else Hallett has written!

 

Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes you just need some happy endings.

 

Spook Street by Mick Herron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poor River.

 

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lapena did a fantastic job introducing new characters as others threw them out as possible suspects, and then giving us the next chunk of plot through those characters' eyes. I loved the reveal of where Avery was. And the very last few lines.

 

The Family Experiment by John Marrs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A page-turner!

And hopefully not TOO prescient.

 

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Everyone in a glass-bottomed cable car at the end was a bit much, but I do enjoy Ernest's asides to the readers.