Never Whistle at Night

 Book 69 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from September 5 - 18

Never Whistle at Night by multiple authors

published 2023

Summary (via the book jacket)

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night: it can cause evil spirits to appear - and even follow you home. These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge.

Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples' survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.

My Opinion

4 stars

Usually when I read a book with multiple authors I write a sentence or two about each story.  I didn't do that this time because I felt unimaginative and was continually repeating myself.  I really enjoyed each story and there wasn't a dud in the bunch.

Why 4 stars and not 5?  It was close but while there weren't any stories I didn't connect with at all, there were a few that I only found "okay" and that was enough to lower the rating for me.  It's still a high 4 for me.

6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did)

 Book 68 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on September 7

6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe

published 2023

Summary (via the book jacket)

After years of bickering, Penny and Tate have called a truce: They'll play nice. They have to. Their mothers (lifelong best friends) need them to be perfect, drama-free daughters when Penny's mother becomes a living liver donor to Tate's mom. With the girls forced to live together as the moms recover, their truce is essential in keeping everything - their jobs, the house, the finances, the moms' healing - running smoothly. They've got to let this thing between them go.

There's one little hitch: Penny and Tate keep almost kissing.

It's just this confusing thing that keeps happening. You know, from time to time. For basically their entire teenage existence.

They've never talked about it. They've always ignored it in the aftermath. But now they're living across the hall from each other. 

And some things - like kisses - can't be almost forever.

Told through two girls' present and six moments from their past, this dynamic love story shows that sometimes the person you need the most has been there for you all along. 

My Opinion

4 stars

The non-(almost)kissing parts were so well fleshed out and the characters had real troubles that weren't glossed over but also weren't overwhelming.  I really liked the book as a whole and read it in a day.

The way the sections were broken up kept things moving and didn't dwell on any one miss or event too much.  By the end I thought maybe 6 "almosts" was one or two too many but I was enjoying the rest of the story so much I didn't mind.

My Ex, the Antichrist

 Book 67 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from August 29 - September 7

My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie

published 2025

Summary (via the book jacket)

1998: Lily Lawlor and Drake Morgan form a punk band. Drake inspires faith in some. Fear in others. Lily is a believer.

2010: At the height of her stardom, Lily walks into a police station and confesses to a murder.

Now: The band has refused to talk to the press about their riotous past, Lily's confession, or anything else. It's been over a decade, but Lily has finally agreed to an interview. And the band is following her lead.

What follows is a story of prophecy, death, and apocalypse. A story about love found and love lost. A story about the Antichrist. Maybe it's all true. Maybe none of it is.

Either way, this is their story. And they're sticking to it.

My Opinion

4 stars

I picked this up from a bookstore on vacation.  It read quickly and was entertaining.  I'm sure there were religious imagery/metaphors/philosophical commentary I missed because of my lack of knowledge but even at the surface level it was a good story.

I will definitely read this author again but I hope this book was a standalone.  It arced nicely and explained everything but there was a little of "the end?" (which you have to say as "the end question mark" when talking about it); I hope this was not a teaser for adding more to the story in another book.

The Art of the SNL Portrait

 Book 66 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from September 5 - 6

The Art of the SNL Portrait by Mary Ellen Matthews

published 2025

My Opinion

4 stars

Sometimes you just need to zone out, drink some Climbing Kites, and flip through an oversized book of large pictures with a really cool holographic cover.  That's what I did.

Small question 1: when the author talked about how difficult it was to cull 24 years of photos down and pick what makes it into the book, why use 2 pages inside reprinting a photo already on the back cover?

Small question 2: why were there 20 pages of John Mulaney?  I questioned it more before getting to that actual section but even with the explanation, it still seemed odd.

A Song for My Mother

 Book 65 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on September 2

A Song for My Mother by Kat Martin

published 2011

Summary (via the book jacket)

Years after running away with her boyfriend in high school, Marly Hanson returns to Dreyerville at the request of her daughter, Katie, who has recently been treated for brain cancer. Katie has never met her grandmother Winnie. The homecoming is bittersweet, but reuniting is crucial if Marly and her mother are ever to rediscover the bond they once shared.

To complicate matters, living next door to Winnie is handsome sheriff and widower Reed Bennett, and his son, Ham. Ham and Katie become fast friends, while their parents find themselves attracted to one another. But Marly's time in Dreyerville is limited and risking her heart isn't something she's willing to do.

Can she risk loving the handsome sheriff and give up the future she worked so hard to forge for herself and her daughter? Can she make a life in Dreyerville after what happened all those years ago?

Will Marly finally realize that her true destiny and ultimate happiness lie in coming to terms with her past?

My Opinion

3 stars

You already know before reading the book what the answers to the questions in the summary are and that's ok.  I enjoy a palate cleansing "safe" book now and then and this small paperback novella fit the bill.  I appreciate that it's 150ish pages because the shorter timeline leads to less of the miscommunication tropes that have to happen to move the story along.

I picked it out from the library because of its small size and innocuous vibe as something to take on vacation...you know the jokes about packing extra underwear "just in case" you shit yourself every day?  That's me with books...I always pack way too many "just in case" and picking smaller, lighter books as extras is a way to compromise with myself.  Then when I didn't read it on vacation I took it with me to the doctor's office this morning; again, it's small and benign enough to not draw attention like I might have with the other book I'm currently reading that says "My Ex, The AntiChrist" in large red letters.  Between the time at the appointment and the time eating breakfast after, I was finished.

Even though it's pretty much as advertised and expected, I went with 3 stars because I think some pretty heavy topics were glossed over.  It's tricky to find a reason strong enough that the main character would stay away for twelve years but also something that could be resolved fairly quickly once she returns, and I don't think the final straw in this case that made her leave was that reason - either take it seriously and continue to stay away or at least address it before moving on, or brush it off twelve years ago like she did when she returned.

Girlhood

 Book 64 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on September 1

Girlhood by Melissa Febos

published 2021

Summary (via Goodreads)

In her powerful new book, critically acclaimed author Melissa Febos examines the narratives women are told about what it means to be female and what it takes to free oneself from them.

When her body began to change at eleven years old, Febos understood immediately that her meaning to other people had changed with it. By her teens, she defined herself based on these perceptions and by the romantic relationships she threw herself into headlong. Over time, Febos increasingly questioned the stories she’d been told about herself and the habits and defenses she’d developed over years of trying to meet others’ expectations. The values she and so many other women had learned in girlhood did not prioritize their personal safety, happiness, or freedom, and she set out to reframe those values and beliefs.

Blending investigative reporting, memoir, and scholarship, Febos charts how she and others like her have reimagined relationships and made room for the anger, grief, power, and pleasure women have long been taught to deny.

Written with Febos’ characteristic precision, lyricism, and insight, Girlhood is a philosophical treatise, an anthem for women, and a searing study of the transitions into and away from girlhood, toward a chosen self.

My Opinion

4 stars

I checked this book out from the library after seeing it in Bookpage.  I read it in chunks over the span of an entire day but it's Labor Day so I had the whole day to sit and read.

It's a very high 4 stars for me.  Her writing was weighty and meaningful but still accessible.  I understand and can relate to the matter-of-fact ways some situations are described that could use more reflection and therapy in hindsight but it sounds like the author is working through things and I hope she has found happiness and comfort.

60 Songs That Explain the '90s

 Book 63 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read from August 24 - 31

60 Songs That Explain the '90s by Rob Harvilla

published 2023

My Opinion

2 stars

I'm also a '90s high schooler/college kid which makes me the prime demographic for this book.  As the author rightly points out, the music of your teenage years is probably going to be what you consider the "best" decade of music.

There are way more than 60 songs mentioned in this book, as the author notes immediately.  This book spawned from the author's podcast of the same name (which has also covered more than 60 songs so far) which I haven't heard.  Maybe that format works better than the book but I'm also not intrigued enough to check it out.

Credit where credit is due: it was a great start with the laugh-out-loud descriptions of Celine Dion (my personal favorite: "[Dion] came here to kick ass and sing songs, and she's about out of ass") and the letter from his mother.  But it all went downhill from there, unfortunately.

I found the book difficult to read with all the footnotes cramming extra information in instead of finding a way to work it into the text.  And with so many songs it became a line or two (and maybe a footnote) about each one, making it difficult to stay grounded.  Either I'd heard the song and would've wanted more reflection or I'd never heard the song and would've wanted to learn about it.  Or more likely, I'd heard the song but didn't know I'd heard the song because I didn't know that was the title of the song and there was nothing else shared that would've jogged my memory.

Overall, this was a miss for me.  I'd hoped for shared experiences but I'll just go back to my own '90s playlist and feel my own nostalgia instead.