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one sitting reads + a proposition

Jun 10, 2025

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Sometimes you just need something short and snappy. A book to fill an afternoon, a flight or a long line for brunch and today’s shelf aims to take care of that need. I’m all for a nice long book to get lost in as long as it keeps my attention the whole time.1 But most often I don’t want a book to be much longer than 300 pages. If it is, it really needs to prove itself deserving of me. Romances in particular should be about 250 pages and never over 280. These novellas all pack a punch and understand the assignment at 200ish pages or less. Today’s shelf has a romance, an urban fantasy and a literary fiction so one of these could be just what you’re craving.

Oh! On that note! Before jumping in! Are there any rolling ladder readers that have their own shelf they’d like to share here? Don’t worry dear readers, I’m not running out of ideas,2 I just know that readers of this newsletter are into genres I’m not as up to speed on or am just completely uninterested in. Genres like contemporary YA romance, poetry, dark romantasy, thrillers, cozy mystery, philosophy, parenting insights, biography, WW2 dramas with women’s backs on the cover, books titled “The -insert male professional here-’s daughter”. If you’ve got 2-3 books you want to showcase here, let me know and I’ll think about it! I’ll still include my own snarky commentary on the post and may include my own choice or two depending on your shelf theme, but it could be fun no? I mean, I can’t pay you as I don’t make money here, its just for fun and to show off and process your favorite books. Comment here, message or email me if interested.

Now, make it snappy with one of these.

BIG FAN by Alexandra Romanoff

Maya’s career as a political strategist is on thin ice after her ex-husband’s sexcapades have unfairly put her on the blacklist. When she’s approached with the opportunity to work with her teenage celebrity crush Charlie, from the former boyband Mischief, she agrees. As Maya works with Charlie on the launch of his solo career their connection grows, becoming something more than an old teenage crush. But life in the spotlight will always bring the drama3 so when events threaten to permanently derail her political career aspirations, Maya must decide which world she belongs in.

This is the first book from 831 Stories, ‘a romantic fiction company that prioritizes pleasure reading’, and I think they are all on this shorter side with similar covers. A sweet snack of a book, this was fun, cute and breezy though I wouldn’t have been mad if it was 50 pages longer so Charlie could not be so perfect and have an arc of his own. Also with such a short span it means the sexy times were too quick! Written in first person with one POV, this has a glitzy and glamorous setting, juicy tension, enthusiastic consent, playful banter and lots of wish fulfillment. Pack this one for your next beach or pool read— its a one sitting book perfect for that vibe.

I flip our linked hands over and circle my thumb in his palm. I take my lip between my teeth. It’s barely a decision.

"Maya," Charlie says. His eyes bounce between my thumb and my mouth.

My limbs tingle. The silence between us is heavy and full. "I thought we couldn't."

I nod slowly, thoughtfully, but my intention is clear. "It would be better if we didn't." It feels so good to stop lying to him. To stop lying to myself. His bottom lip drops, just slightly, and I watch his breath catch. He leans forward and murmurs, "Better for who?"

WHEN AMONG CROWS by Veronica Roth

Ala is a zmora4 living in modern day Chicago and the curse that gave her mother visions until she went mad and died has now passed down to her. When the mysterious Dymitr arrives offering a way to break it in exchange for her help, she reluctantly agrees. After teaming up with a strzygi5 named Niko, the uneasy alliance embarks on a quest through the shadows of Chicago to find Baba Yaga. But The Holy Order and their own inner demons stand in their way resulting in a night that will change everything.

While the urban fantasy genre isn’t my favorite, I completely enjoyed this. It has taken me many years to allow Veronica Roth back into my life after the way she ended her Divergent series6 but she crafted a well plotted, suspenseful, character driven story in a creative, richly imagined world here. Inspired by Roth’s Polish background, this plays with all sorts of magical, folkloric creatures I’d never heard of inside a dark, gritty Chicago. It took me a beat to accept this combination, but I quickly got into it. Each character has secrets and traumas that get slowly revealed and even with the short length, I cared for each of them. It’s got body horror, hidden agendas, betrayals and twists that are pulpy fun but this still gets deep and emotionally hefty with its themes of duty, destiny, desire, friendship, loyalty, suffering and atonement. I adore this cover and how it combines cityscapes with classic religious iconography and Slavic design and am looking forward to the sequel which comes out this Fall.7

Kiedy wejdziesz miedzy wrony musisz krakac tak jak one. —Polish saying

When among crows, you must caw as one.

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MAGGIE, OR A MAN AND A WOMAN WALK INTO A BAR by Katie Yee

While on a dinner date a woman8 learns from her husband that he’s been having an affair with Maggie and is now planning a life with her, breaking up their family of four. A short while later the woman is diagnosed with breast cancer and names her tumor, this second life disruptor, Maggie. And so begins a story about a woman dealing with these monumental life shifts using her two Maggies as tools for self-introspection and interrogation.

This is one of my favorites of the year so far. Initially it felt a bit “Heartburn"esque, but it was quickly clear that it is much more internal, earnest and heartfelt than that. Our narrator’s voice is bewildered, funny and incisive though not snarky and I found the writing to be beautiful and piercing9. I loved how the protagonist decided to weave the Chinese folktales10 of her own youth into her children’s life and utterly enjoyed their reactions and various interpretations.11 I was also thrilled by all of the places and ways the narrator chooses to extrapolate meaning from: light, children, her own dead mother, folk tales, dreams, waiting room characters, kid’s games and more. A very inspiring and sticky exercise I want to practice myself.

Hide-and-seek: the pleasure in being sought. Also, the fear. The horror in being found. The way the game teaches you to be invisible. To fold yourself into something. My kids contorted to occupy the smallest possible space. (Once, we found my daughter inside the cold hollow of the fireplace, curled up on the metal rack like a sacrifice.)

Hot and cold: like hide-and-seek with pawns and hints. The ability to tell someone to go farther or come closer by degrees. The dangling of communication, a way to control the actions of others.

Duck, duck, goose: sitting in a circle, waiting for someone to tell you who you are.

Tag: you're it. Someone has to carry the curse. (It's the way the diagnosis feels.)

I Spy: the fun of defamiliarization! It's talking around. It's not naming the thing.

Red Rover: a game about celebrating the strength of someone who can break a bond.

Candy Land: Do you remember the first time you got a "go backward" card in Candy Land? Who knew that was even an option? The shock of non-linearity.

This novella was weighty, vibrantly alive and deeply affecting in a lovely, everyday sort of way. It is formatted in fragments that sort of jump around a bit but I wasn’t bothered by that.12 All these vignettes were important, substantially explored and well placed to raise the stakes, heighten the tension and deepen the emotion even in a short amount of words. There were a few times I got frustrated because I craved a more detailed conversation or experience to sink my teeth into but once I accepted it was not that sort of book, I could wholly appreciate and love it for what for chose to share.

But when we hang up, I sink down on the kitchen floor. Her pity does something to me. The final blow to the hinges barricading my sorrow.

The last time I would set foot in that summer house. The last time I would dry my face with a sun-warmed beach towel and steal a spritz of that sweet, earthy perfume that smelled sort of like tomatoes, which Mrs. Moore kept in her upstairs bathroom. The last time I would wake to waves or see the daylight slip away from the guest room. Are you ever nostalgic for the way the light touches a place? The way the sun holds on to a room? Could you mourn the loss of that arresting sight—the way the light fingerpaints the wall with colors of its own, playful and daring and unselfconscious? The sunset throwing colors like a child before lights-out. One final burst of what's inside.

The last time I would see Noah's hair thick with sea salt, a little wavy like his father's. The last time we four as a family would collect cool-looking rocks or hunt for sea glass. Now they'd just hand me pebbles as a token souvenir from their stay, and that day on the beach would be the last time that a rock looked like magic; without the wink of the sun and the sea around it, it would just look like a hunk of earth in my home.