With this post, I’m bringing back my monthly Recommended Reads report. This recurring feature is a roundup of what I’ve been reading over the last month, along with several books I recommend. These essays are always published first in The Swarthmorean in my Recommended Reads column. Thanks to The Swarthmorean for allowing me to repost the column here on Broke by Books!
Here’s my update for February 2025.
Dear reader,
Welcome to a new year of reading! What are your reading goals for 2025?
I love the start of the year! It’s full of opportunity, hope, and optimism for a great year ahead. And I definitely get a boost to launch a new era of reading.
I’m happy to say my reading year has already gotten off to a great start. The books I’m recommending here were engaging and engrossing. I hope this sets the tempo for the rest of the reading year.
Here are my top picks for some of the best books to fast-track to the top of your TBR.
The Examiner by Janice Hallett (F)
I raced through this gripping mystery!
In the first pages of The Examiner, you discover that the story is about the inaugural of a new graduate degree in multimedia art. We learn that the documents that follow will detail the experience of the program’s first cohort during the course of the academic year. By reviewing the documents that are shared with the reader, the external examiner can issue final grades for the students.
It’s revealed early that things quickly went south among the students and faculty during the months of the program. Not only were the students at each other’s throats, but there is reason to believe that one of them went missing… or perhaps even met an otherwise untimely end…
The Examiner is a modern epistolary novel, which means it is told in modern communication, like emails, texts, and chats. I have always loved the epistolary format, and here Hallett has clearly harnessed the opportunities of this style to craft a compelling mystery.
Hallett understands that, in this contemporary era, there is such an extensive digital “paper trail” that it’s not about what we say, but what we don’t.
Hallett subverts the epistolary approach by focusing instead on what happens off the page, stoking suspense that builds text after text and email after email until the story reaches its shocking end.
This was the first book I read this year, and I’m so glad it was. It seemed like it had been a while since I had really felt like I was reading something I couldn’t put down.
How to read it: Buy The Examiner on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (F)
This book was such a delight!
In Margo’s Got Money Problems, our titular heroine, Margo, finds herself in a tricky situation after having a baby with her professor, who wants nothing to do with her after she tells him she’s pregnant. Once her son is born, Margo can’t find affordable childcare and finds herself unemployed and desperate for money. Her estranged father, a retired professional wrestler, moves in and helps, but Margo still needs to come up with cash to pay for rent. She stumbles upon a pornography website, Only Fans (which is real), and signs up as a content creator. Margo’s account becomes incredibly successful, but online fame and fortune aren’t as great as they first seemed…
Among some of my reader friends, this novel got a great reputation last year, and I see why! Thorpe nimbly navigates the line between humor and pathos. This novel is both deeply funny and, at times, deeply sad. You’ll fall in love with Margo and want her to succeed. You’ll root for Margo and her father to reconcile and repair their frayed relationship. Ultimately, this is a feel-good novel that will pull you in with its unforgettable characters and not let go.
How to read it: Buy Margo’s Got Money Troubles on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida (F)
This novel, translated by E. Madison Shimoda, was a hit in its home country, Japan, and is part of an emerging subgenre of literature called “healing fiction.” Basically, these novels, many of them imports from Japan and South Korea, are designed to soothe. I have read a few of them in the last few months as research because they really resonate with the kind of fiction I intend to write: cozy, comforting, and uplifting. These are the kinds of stories that will both melt and warm your heart. Plus, they often include cats and books, so what could be better?
In this charming, whimsical story with a touch of magical realism, people look for psychological counseling at a quirky therapy practice. There, a mystical doctor prescribes them cats to take home as a dose of medication. Told in interconnected stories, these patients discover just how much cats can heal the mind and soul. I loved how everything fit together in the last chapter. The twist at the end makes the story even more satisfying. If you’re snowbound in the winter weeks ahead or just need a quick tale to redeem your faith in soul-to-soul connection, whether human or feline, pick this quick read up.
How to read it: Buy We’ll Prescribe You a Cat on Amazon and add it on Goodreads
And that’s my Recommended Reads update for February 2025! What have you been reading lately?
