Book Reviews: November 2025

I cannot overstate how grateful I am to have discovered audio books as an adult. The monetization of podcasts meant the embedded ad time became unbearable, just in time for me to get over my luddite hangups and accept other forms of print media beyond actual ink on paper. Glorious.

I also cannot overstate how nice it was to get out of town and country this past October. It seems to have granted me a pair of rose-colored hearing devices through which I ingested last month's tomes.

November had an inordinate amount of 5-star reviews from me, is what I'm saying.

The Dabbler's Guide to Witchcraft: Seeking an Intentional Magical Path by Fire Lyte

I started this one on the plane to Cabo. It was a great companion through some scary turbulence and, on my return, while wedged away from a couple on a horrid Southwest Airlines flight who mistakenly believed they could enjoy an entire row to themselves with space between on a packed flight. (Also, Southwest is an absolute garbage airline and their actual assigned seating can't come soon enough, not that I'll ever take another of their flights on purpose.)

Every chapter is thoughtful and impactful, addressing my long-held sneaking suspicions that everything is indeed made up and what you make of it. The author calls out the harm done by some "traditions" and "traditional practices" (they are new contrivances and don't have to be taken seriously) to people practicing actual cultural, ancestral folkways. The heaviness is balanced out by just enough sass, which comes across wonderfully in the author's self-narration. And the spells offered are just as much science experiments akin to those done in my middle school talented-and-gifted program.

I loved every minute, Southwest experience notwithstanding.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

This short horror novel was recommended to me by Leah of Clever Copperhead, who loves language and $10 words as much or more than I do. It's got vocabulary, a nonbinary protagonist, correcting old wounds by exacting revenge on their perpetrators, a mermaid, a plague doctor, and a whole lot of excellently executed world building done in just under three hours.

A non-mushy love story wrapped in body horror. A Valloween treasure.

5 out of 5 stars.

Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka

I mourn the loss of the internet with which I came of age. I'll never again be able to look at hand-coded Agent Smith fanpages at midnight while longing for the creaking door of AIM or a corner flash from MSN Messenger to alert me that a friend just came online.

Fellow ageing millennial Kyle seems to, too. He also points out how the drive to make everything Instragrammable made every brick and mortar locale look the same. The feed and its algorithmic recommendations stole the joy of discovering new things. We like what we're told to like, on-screen and off. How sinister.

Then he started waxing poetic about his favorite Japanese jazz albums at excessive length and I, an ageing millennial, began to suspect that I might have a weebo on my hands.

Could the advent of otaku, et al (my usage might be incorrect here; I didn't fall very far down that cultural rabbit hole in my formative years and I remained willfully ignorant as my peers constantly enthused out loud) have happened at all if our generation grew up with such aggressive algorithmic oversight? Hard to say.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson

It's great that an octogenarian-or-later wrote a memoir. It's less great that her publishers marketed it as a solution to clutter like a Nordic alternative to Marie Kondo.

There are anecdotes about a life well lived. There are tips for cleaning out both physical and digital detritus from your life. There's a lot of urging to dump stuff on other people, charities, or dumpsters. There's a part where the author chides you for having too many dildos.

I have this sneaking suspicion that some Swedes have a deeply mean streak, which is founded on the in-person observations of one local family, a few patterns perceived through screens, and this book. It's probably not the best prejudice to have, so I'm Swedish death cleaning it by airing it here. I've done you a favor by sharing it with you and you should be grateful.

3 out of 5 stars.

Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Mean by Lundy Bancroft

I had my reservations about this book, what with a man writing about abusive male behavior. I didn't research the author before or during my listening time. In doing an internet search about him as I write this, I see headlines insisting he is a predator and an anti-vaxxer. Could certainly be, what with his depth of knowledge of how abuse works; will explore later. (Trust no psychology major.)

HOWEVER, while I was listening, as the author unpacked abusive male behavior seemingly in full, I could not help wishing with all of my heart that this book could have been required reading when I was in middle school, before I ever found myself entangled with problematic-at-best and rapist-drunk-exploiters-at-worst men.

5 out of 5 stars.

Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir by Werner Herzog

This is by far the best audio book I'll listen to this year, if not this decade. The fact that it was narrated by Werner himself is only part of what makes it amazing.

As the memoir progresses, you get peeks into what formed the filmmaker, the epic and transcendent drive that forces him to continue creating, and the madness that went into his cinematographic feats. You pick up on his preferences and mundane complaints. He's a rain cloud haunted by echoes of thunder and lightning he attempts to replicate in film and opera direction. The title is explanation enough.

I prepared this review in my head in a Bavarian accent. None of it does the book justice.

5 out of 5 stars.

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

Another diverting and short horror piece. Parts of it were gratuitously gross. The Sweeney Todd-esque (itself Count of Monte Cristo-esque, I suppose) twist at the climax was immaculate.

Some of the tellings of the protagonist(??!)'s inner world reminded me of some of the things that my childhood best friend (who was perhaps the only person to ever match my weirdness while surpassing my quietness) relayed to me when she was living. I think she'd either appreciate the parallels or reject them wholesale. Bet she'd like the book, though. Either way, it makes me wonder how Virginia gathered her insights on divergent minds.

5 out of 5 stars.

A productive month, as far as reading with ears goes!