My Month in Books | Q3 (July – September) 2025 

Hello, hello! It’s been a hot minute. How is everyone? I can’t believe it’s already October, my (newfound) favorite month of the year. While I never intended this update to be quarterly, here we are, apparently. This past quarter has been surprisingly up and down: I’ve had some of my lowest ratings, but then I also encountered my only two 5-stars of the year so far during this time!

I’ve been encountering a lot of good literature these days, and I am also discovering that books centered around food are comfort reads for me. It’s something new that only came up this last year (after I’ve read In the Kitchen, one of my favorite reads last 2024) and has apparently bled in this one. I’ve added a few food-related titles to my TBR and even finished a couple — I feel like a girl smitten in love. I thought this year would be my honkaku era, but it’s turning out to be a year of reading (and talking about) food.

And even though I haven’t been reading as much as I did in the past years, I still feel feel that my reading cup is full. ✨ Being intentional and immersing myself in literature that genuinely makes me feel good, while still leaving space for random discoveries, has been key. I honestly love the stage I am at in my reading life right now, where books have once again become my comfort “places.”

My July to September

During Q3 of 2025, I’ve read 7 books:

• Guilt and Ginataan (Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery, #5) by Mia P. Manansala – 2.5/5☕
• Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) (Vera Wong, #2) by Jesse Q. Sutanto – 5/5☕
• The Passengers on the Hankyu Line by Hiro Arakawa (tr. Allison Markin Powell) – 2.5/5☕
• Comfort Eating: The Joy of Secret Snacks and Naughty Nibbles by Grace Dent – 4.5/5☕ [full review]
• Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For by Ella Risbridger – 5/5☕
• Mr. Distinctive by Olga Tokarczuk – 4/5☕
• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej balle (tr. Barbara Haveland) – 3.5/5☕

Guilt and Ginataan was my latest foray into catching up with Mia P. Manansala’s Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries series, just in time for the next installment coming out later this year. This series has been a source of light, cozy mystery reading for me over the years, nicely wrapped in Filipino nostalgia (mostly about food) since the main protagonist is a 2nd generation Filipino living in the Bay Area. While this particular installment felt weaker than the others in the series, I think I will still continue reading this series. It’s low-stakes (in that it’s not emotionally taxing) and packed to the brim with food references — something I’ve been loving lately in my reading. Sometimes, that’s really all you need to find a bit of respite from the world.

The next book I read, Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man), the second book in the Vera Wong series is (surprisingly) my first 5-star read of the year. I tried to fight it, because I had this weird notion that my first 5-star of the year had to mean something. But honestly? It was just too damn hard to resist. The story was incredibly engaging and took me on a roller coaster of emotions. If tearing up and/or laughing out loud during hours-long train rides across the Scottish Highlands while listening to the audiobook isn’t proof enough, then I don’t know what is. This book grabbed me and wrapped me in its embrace. Ultimately, I gave in. It was a reminder never to discount a book based on genre, and a kind of ‘coming home’ to the way I read and rate books: always, always by how they made me feel. I just want to be adopted by a Vera. When I finished it, I was tearing up. Eunice Wong’s narration is absolutely top-tier. Afterward, I tried to fill the Vera-shaped hole with another cozy mystery series I’d been enjoying before, but it just paled so much in comparison. Loneliness, isolation (especially for older people), found family, good food, good company, and good ol’ amateur sleuthing. A worthy successor to one of my favorite reads last 2024.

The Passengers on the Hankyu Line is perhaps one of the most physically beautiful books I’ve bought in recent years. The autumn color, the gold, the deep reds, and the mustard inner jacket — it just screams me. I started reading it during our Scottish Highland tour: a train book for train rides. But ultimately, I feel like I was catfished by this book. I didn’t really resonated much with the story and most of the stories I think are too bland for my taste. There was something off for me about the way the stories were told, and maybe it got a lot to do with the translation. With the recent rise in translated cozy Asian fiction, I’ve found I really need to be more selective when picking up books in this category. They tend to be hit-or-miss; and, more often than not, a miss. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of cozy literature so it’s not that the genre doesn’t work for me. But there’s a specific cadence I look for in books like this, something I can’t quite put into words, and unfortunately, Hankyu didn’t have it. That said, it’s fine for some light, mindless reading. But it’s not something I’d actively recommend.

Then comes the wonderful surprises: both random buys from Waterstones (thanks to hanging out a little too much in the food section) and they ended up being two of the loveliest reading experiences I’ve had this year! The first one, Grace Dent’s Comfort Eating, delivers exactly what its title promises: pure comfort. This book just feels like a warm hug. Divided into sections that explores the major food groups of most people’s comfort foods: cheese, butter, pasta, bread, potatoes, and sweet treats — Grace shares historical insights and personal anecdotes about each, seen through the lens of her working class upbringing. She also included related snippets from interviews she’s made through the years in her podcast and some very lovely recipes. The book is full of food-related memories that are sure to tug at your heartstrings, especially if you grew up in the UK during the 80s, or if you’re simply someone who cherishes the role food plays in one’s life. It’s a lovely reminder that food and the experiences around it is a universal language we all understand. Grace Dent, I’m sorry I wasn’t familiar with your game before. This is so effortlessly funny and real and relatable, with hints of heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking moments. Reading this, while casually getting obsessed with listening to the accompanying podcast, was such a lovely experience. The corresponding podcast, with the same name, is now one of my favorite podcasts lately; something I look forward to every week and listen to while walking. (Read my full review of Comfort Eating HERE.)

The next one is an absolute treasure, and one I’ll keep close to my heart: Ella Risbridger’s Midnight Chicken came out of nowhere, right when I needed it, enveloping me with comfort and quiet understanding. “It’s an annotated list of things worth living for: a manifesto of moments worth living for.” It’s about dealing with the day to day heaviness of things, about love, about the happiness, and comfort that cooking AND eating brings, of the memories attached to it. It is also a cook book. I can’t quite classify this book: a cook book, or a memoir, or something else, something new. Perhaps, trying to pin it down as one thing is doing it a disservice. What I do know is this: it’s one of the most affecting books I’ve read this year, and maybe ever. And a lot of that comes down to timing. It arrived in my life exactly when I needed it. And at the end of the day, that is what makes me come home to reading again and again even my world gets overwhelming — especially when my world gets overwhelming. Books like this remind me of the joy in stumbling upon something unexpected in a bookstore. It also makes me want to write. And isn’t that one of the best feelings in the world when you’re reading? This is my second 5-star read of 2025, and a strong contender for my favorite of the year.

Olga Tokarczuk’s Mr. Distinctive is a short story from the Nobel Prize-winning author, transformed into a striking graphic novel through Joana Concejo’s haunting illustrations. I finished it in one sitting and it was unsettling at how close and relevant to reality it is, even thought it is technically speculative fiction. The illustration style and overall presentation in this edition are incredibly effective at establishing that uncanny tone: real, but not quite. The ending was chilling, to say the least. Despite how short it was and the speed at which I read it, it left a strong impression and held my attention the whole way through.

And last but not the least, Solvej Balle’s On The Calculation of Volume I (translated by Barbara Haveland). This critically-acclaimed series follows an antiquarian book seller stuck in a repeating day. It’s quite an interesting concept, allowing Tara to explore themes of memory, existence, and, to some extent, love and connection. The plot shines a spotlight on the repetitive nature of days and living life, and, strangely enough, offers a quiet meditation on it. The story invites both Tara (and, in extension, the reader) to reflect on contentment and finding one’s place in the world. It was definitely an interesting read, and how I experience the book closely mirrors how Tara’s felt towards her experience through the book. There was a part where she let herself get lost in the mindless stability of repetition. But ultimately, she craved action and a way out. And like her, I grew tired of the cycle and wanted escape too. So I rated it a bit lower (3.5/5) because of that restlessness I felt throughout. The book ended with a suggestion of quiet resignation, followed by hope — amazingly stubborn hope, and then a leap to the void: of possibilities. To be crushed over and over, and still hope for a different day the next — that’s something powerful. Calculation was definitely an immersive read, in it’s own way. And I already have the next book waiting for me on my shelves.

What I’m currently reading and looking forward to

Here are the books I am currently reading right now and expecting to finish in the next couple of weeks:

• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico – Like Calculation above, I softly DNFed this back in July. It’s a fairly short book, but it failed to hold my attention when I started reading this. There were several factors at play, but part of it was definitely because I felt called out, and that uncomfortable feeling made it harder to keep going with my headspace at the time. The story follows a millennial couple living a curated, creative life somewhere in Berlin. Despite the aesthetic and idealized existence they present online, there’s an underlying sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. I know there are a lot of think pieces about how this type of living is ruining the human experience. But seeing it laid bare in a book, in close inspection, written as if you’re a spectator of their lives along with the people actually living it just hits too close to home. It’s definitely an exposition of the current digital zeitgeist, and I’m keen to finally finish it before the year ends.
• Everytime I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack – I went to a side-visit to Topping & Company Bookseller’s during our friend trip to Bath last August and I got myself a date with a book. When I opened it at home for a little dopamine boost, this is the book that I got. It’s a cozy thriller that sounds tiktok-y and reads like a breeze. I can’t believe this book is almost 350 pages and that I have read almost half of it. The footnotes also remind me of myself whenever I am writing Substack newsletters (hey, I have a Newsletter! You can subscribe HERE.), which makes it fun to read. It’s not a priority but I think I will be able to finish this as well in the next couple of weeks.

Now, autumn is a very special time for me, and I might sprinkle in some dark academia or cozy fantasy in the mix just because I have a couple of books in mind already (Katabasis and Emily Wilde #2 or Wyrd Sisters are up there). But in the meantime, thank you so much for reading if you’ve made it this far.

2025 Book Read Count as of writing: 17 /24

Now let’s talk…

HOW ABOUT YOU? HOW WAS YOUR READING MONTH THIS past quarter? DID YOU HAVE ANY NOTABLE FAVE? 

(Read my previous updates: Q1 Reading Update | Q2 Reading Update)

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