good reads
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Rather than an exhaustive list, I’m sharing my favorite books I read in 2025. These are books that stuck with me over time (the first few were read over the first couple months of the year), books that answered questions I’ve been pondering or provided some form of comfort or insight. Everything is connected, and
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Last year, biographies held my attention. I’m always eager to learn, but biographies are especially helpful when I find myself navigating the difficulties of life. Reading about other people’s lives and how they handled challenges and setbacks helps me feel less alone. This year was a tough one. The following books kept me company. Astrid
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This is the beginning of a semi-regular series sharing recent projects and bylines. I’ll be publishing these posts whenever I have a small crop of new published works to share. Alpine House Made with Beetle Kill Pine (Dwell) My first byline for dwell.com, this assignment was dropped in my lap (love when that happens). I
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I’m already deep in the stacks for 2024, but here’s a look at my favorite reads from 2023. They’re presented in the order I read them, not order of importance. The Road to Character by David Brooks The driving question of this book is: How do you foster virtue? Over the the course of 10
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The best books I read in 2022.
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Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence by Alex Berenson My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Should psychiatrists speak out about what they were seeing to discourage cannabis use, I asked? Simpson said that in Colorado, psychiatrists had tried and failed. ‘We’ve put it out there, and the community is not
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The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay My rating: 4 of 5 stars Quietly devastating. That’s how I would sum up The Far Field. Vijay’s prose isn’t flowery or ornate. It tells the story simply, going back and forth in time as we follow the main character, as a child always close by her mother who
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If you’re a working Christian woman, you’ve probably felt the tension. I know I have. There’s a sense in many Christian circles that for women, work is just a temporary thing you do until you get married and start having babies.
Meredith Sell 