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Hi friends! Whatever you did on Thursday I hope it was positive and if not, I hope that you’ve gotten through it mostly unscathed. It is almost 11pm my time on Thursday so this is all the intro you’re getting this week.

New episode of EEDA Pod this week! Cookbooks, Conjure, & Queers: The Best Books We Read in 2025

In this episode of Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice, Patricia and Nicole share their favorite books they read this year, discussing a wide range of genres from cookbooks and historical nonfiction to romance and science fiction. They offer personal anecdotes, thoughtful commentary on the books’ themes, and recommendations for listeners, while also touching on topics like gift-giving and supporting independent bookstores and creators. There is also a very important DuckTales universe correction from the previous episode.

You can find our show, Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. You can also support the show on Patreon, where we have some perks for paid subscribers with even more coming this year. You can also just make a recurring donation through subscribing to our Patreon, as our show is independently run and without ads. It helps keep us going!

As mentioned above, this week’s episode of the Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice Podcast is about the best books that Nicole and/or I have read in 2025. Many came out this year, but some are backlist titles. We continue to read diversely and we read a lot of great books this year. All the links to listen to the show are above and you can always take a look at our Bookshop Affiliate site to shop any books we mention on the podcast and many that I’ve mentioned here in this newsletter.

If you want to hear us talk about the books, listen to the podcast; however, today’s issue of the EEDA Newsletter is a close-to-no-context list of the books we mentioned, all with their affiliate links. If you shop using our links, then we get a little kick-back AND you help support independent bookstores. 

The Best Books We Read in 2025 (and a few other mentioned on the show)

• Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love: A Cookbook by Samin Nosrat (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Triple Sec by TJ Alexander (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Craftland: In Search of Lost Arts and Disappearing Trades by James Fox (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• The Conjuring of America: Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic by Lindsey Stewart (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• When the Earth was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance by Riley Black (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• In Defense of Dabbling: The Brilliance of Being a Total Amateur by Karen Walrond (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch by Emily C. Hughes (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Destroy This House: A Memoir by Amanda Uhle (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Before Gender: Lost Stories from Trans history 1850 - 1950 by Eli Erlick (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• I, Medusa by Ayana Gray (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• If I Told You, I’d Have to Kiss You by Mae Marvel (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Butter by Asako Yuzuki, translated by Polly Barton (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Syme's Letter Writer: A Guide to Modern Correspondence About (Almost) Every Imaginable Subject of Daily Life, with Odes to Desktop Ephemera and Selected Letters of Famous Writers by Rachel Syme (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao (Bookshop)

• Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams (Bookshop | Libro.fm)

• The Best American Food Writing 2019 guest edited by Samin Nosrat (Bookshop)

Recent & Current Reads

Inclusion of a book in this section is not necessarily a recommendation and these books won’t always be added to my Bookshop. Links are affiliate links.

Recently Read:

• Slowed down my reading a bit and haven’t finished anything

Currently Reading:

• The Best American Food Writing 2019 edited by Samin Nosrat

• Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore by Char Adams

• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by adrienne maree brown