Three Books I'm Reading Now, 10/6/25 Edition
- The Bossy Bookworm
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
The Books I'm Reading Now
Welcome to my fall-color-themed current reads!
I'm reading Lily King's newest novel, set during university years and decades afterward, Heart the Lover; I'm listening to Ann Leckie's science fiction novel about AI, starships, and revenge, Ancillary Justice; and I'm listening to Maureen Johnson's young adult mystery novel Nine Liars.
What are you reading, bookworms?
01 Heart the Lover by Lily King
In the fall of our as-yet-unnamed female narrator's senior year in college, she becomes friends with Sam and Yash, two vibrant young men in her literature class. They are housemates with each other and another student named Ivan, and together they form a charming, complementary, intellectual trio. They nickname our main protagonist Jordan.
Although it seems clear to the reader that ultrareligious, mainly abstinent, guilt-ridden, and generally rigid Sam is not a healthy match for Jordan, they fall into a volatile relationship. But Jordan is entranced by Yash, who acts oddly around other women but seems to be himself around her.
A significant amount of page time is dedicated to mentions of literature, literary figures, and philosophers. There is a jump forward in time that is so far making me feel less connected to the characters.
Lily King is also the author of books I've loved including Five Tuesdays in Winter, Writers & Lovers, and Euphoria.
I received a prepublication version of this title, published September 30, courtesy of Grove Atlantic and NetGalley.
02 Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie
In the first in Leckie's science fiction trilogy, Breq is AI trapped in a human soldier's body. Breq used to be the Justice of Toren, the AI running an enormous starship with the ability to connect thousands of soldiers serving the Radch, the empire controlling the galaxy. But when the starship blew up, Breq was the only survivor.
Leckie's story weaves together disparate timelines and storylines, and so far much of the tracking back and forth and exploration of minutiae is feeling disjointed and tedious. I hope this doesn't continue to be the case.
One interesting aspect of the story is that Breq doesn't see gender and identifies everyone as "she"; while Breq inhabits a female body as its ancillary, its AI is without gender. When Breq must speak in a language that uses gender-specific language, they often misjudge the gender of the creature at hand.
03 Nine Liars (Truly Devious #5) by Maureen Johnson
In the fifth in Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series, skilled amateur high school sleuth Stevie Bell is in denial about her senior-year to-do list. She is overwhelmed about applying to college, and she doesn't have the funds to imagine that next step as a realistic prospect.
When she and her friends get an opportunity to visit their former classmate (and Stevie's long-distance boyfriend) David in London, they cook up detailed research plans and immersion in the history and culture so their headmaster will approve the plan.
But everything is upended when a decades-old mystery seems to be the cause of a new friend's aunt's disappearance--and Stevie may be the only one who can find her.
Maureen Johnson is the author of the six-book Truly Devious young adult mystery series: Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, The Hand on the Wall, The Box in the Woods, this book, and The Velvet Knife.