February 2025 Meeting

 In attendance: 

• Shawna – Pinson 

• Nicole – Tarrant 

• Holley – O’Neal 

• Tiffany – Irondale 

• Katie J – Woodlawn 

• Reba – Titusville 

• Joanne – Gardendale 

• Erika – BPL 

• Deni – Hoover 

• Melanie – Hoover 

  

Topic: 2024 Favorites and Trends, 2025 Releases to watch out for 

Trends noted:  

• Romantasy boom – Sara J Maas and Rebecca Yarros still huge 

• Psychological thrillers still popular – Freida McFadden read-a-likes good to have on hand 

• Tell-alls from child-stars, youtube vloggers, evangelical “cults,” etc. Misery memoirs, true crime. 

• RPG-style and satirical fantasy, cozy fantasy  

• “Cozy” everything! Scifi, Fantasy, etc. People looking for comfort during uncertain times? 

• Craft books – rug tufting, minis (fairy gardens, etc.) 

• Immigrant stories on the rise, trans stories as well.  

• Curious to note sociology/political science book trends with new administration after a slow- 

down in publishing 

  

Favorites of 2024 

Adult Fiction 

• The God of the Woods – Liz Moore (Mystery where complex family/community relationships are explored through alternating character perspectives and timelines during search for missing teen) 

• The Resurrectionist – A Rae Dunlap (Historical fiction, gothic horror, mystery/thriller – medical students dig up cadavers to practice on) 

• Victorian Psycho – Virginia Feito (Historical horror / thriller. A new governess arrives at Ensor House in Grim Wolds, England, and she’s an actual psychopath).  

• Café with No Name – Robert Seethaler (Historical/German Slice of life – kindness and community in a Vienna market area).  

• Annie Bot – Sierra Greer (Feminist AI Bot Science Fiction, scathing social commentary – a sexbot is granted AI learning and becomes more and more human and dissatisfied with her owner/boyfriend) 

• Mal Goes to War – Edward Ashton (SciFi – AI, War, Humanity, Satire) 

• Somewhere Beyond the Sea – TJ Klune (Fantasy, LGBTQ, found family, social justice/civil rights) 

• Dreadful – Caitlin Rozakis (Fantasy, satire of toxic masculinity, comedy) 

• Voyage of the Damned – Frances White (Fantasy, LGBTQ, Mystery – cozy, booktok read) 

• You Should Be So Lucky – Cat Sebastian (LGBTQ Historical Romance set in 1960s, grumpy/sunshine romance between a baseball player and a reporter).  

• Out of the Woods – Hannah Bonam-Young (Contemporary clean romance focusing on a long-term relationship that is experiencing a rough patch brought on by growing apart / longing for independence). 

• What Does It Feel Like – Sophie Kinsella (Contemporary romance novella – a successful novelist wakes up in a hospital bed after a brain tumor surgery and wrestles with her life, diagnosis, and family in the aftermath – based on Kinsella’s recent personal experiences).  

 

Nonfiction 

• Frostbite – Nicola Twilley (Nonfiction – tech history focusing on refrigeration and how it shaped our relationship with food) 

• Soldiers and Kings: Survival and hope in the world of human smuggling – Jason De Leon (Nonfiction, True Crime, Politics/Anthropology exploring human smuggling of migrants across Mexico with a narrative nonfiction perspective) 

• The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel – Douglas Brunt (Nonfiction biography/tech history about the hidden history Rudolf Diesel, one of the world’s greatest inventors, and his mysterious disappearance on the eve of World War I). 

 

Youth & YA 

• Unstoppable John – Pat Zietlow Miller & Jerry Jordan (Picture book biography of civil rights activist John Lewis) 

 

Coming in 2025 

• Taylor Jenkins Reid – Atmosphere (Female scientist invited to join 1980s space program) 

• Fredrik Backman – My Friends (heartwarming tale of friendship and art) 

• Freida McFadden – The Crash (Pregnant woman stranded with strangers in a blizzard after her car breaks down).  

• Freida McFadden – The Tenant (Previously successful man finds himself struggling after losing his job and decides to rent a room in his house to a charming woman to help make ends meet, but she’s not what she seems). 

• The Paris Express – Emma Donoghue (Historical Fiction based on 1895 train disaster at Paris Montparnasse train station) 

• Martha Wells – Queen Demon (sequel to Witch King) 

• TJ Klune – Bones Beneath My Skin (re-release? Originally 2018) 

  

Next Meeting: Romance & Friendship, with emphasis on hard-to-find subgenres: 

• Clean 

• Erotic 

• YA

• LGBTQ – particularly Aro/Ace and Trans stories 

• Diverse voices 

June: RA Workshop – How to give good RA, especially with reluctant or uncertain readers