What Am I Reading?
November 2025 Book Reviews
When I can no longer read, I write, and when I can no longer write, I read. The two work together in a dance of mutuality, guiding me through where my thinking needs to go next. I’ve been writing a lot, which I’ve been thoroughly enjoying, but what have I been reading? An eclectic mix of memoir, research and philosophy…
Here are my top 5:
Psychological Growth After Trauma: Insights from Phenomenological Research. It’s a heavyweight, it’s true, but I’m putting it first on my list because it’s brilliant! If you’re into phenomenology (I am), existentialism (not so much) and recovery from trauma (loads), then it’ll be right up your street. The book is part of the Routledge Series in Posttraumatic Growth and offers an important contribution to thinking about trauma. It explores various contexts of trauma, which is also really helpful. However, what I particularly love is that the book highlights how trauma can deepen awareness of existence, relationships, and in meaning-making of our experiences. This is crucial because the message that recovery is possible, that it is likely and that the growth that can come afterwards is powerful, isn’t a message I hear enough. In fact, the messages that cut through tend to focus on the horror of trauma.
Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools: Understand More Deeply and Better Address Inequalities in Your School. Having been asked to keynote for Poverty Proofing© Services, Children North East, I wanted to dive in a bit deeper to some of the research around poverty related barriers in schools. This book, aimed at teachers, is packed with reflective tasks, research takeaways and case studies making it an ideal read for all those working in schools. Whole-school approaches, classroom strategies alongside community engagement all feature and converge to provide a powerful practical response to poverty.
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation. What can I say? I love how Elizabeth Gilbert writes. Her memoir is raw and she offers the reader a complete excavation of self in the context of what she describes as her ‘addictions’ and those of her beloved. Not only are we taken on a journey about the process of recovery (largely the 12 step model), but we also get drawn knee deep into love addiction, drug addiction and the stories that we tell ourselves to manage the madness. Alongside residing in this deep well, we also explore her experience of the stark realities of watching someone who is dying of cancer; her love. It is poetic, radically honest and deeply relevant.
A Mind of My Own. I would imagine that most people’s favourite thing about Kathy Burke is how unapologetic she is about just about everything. I LOVE that about her and the book, of course, is no different. She brings her voice into all that she does, and the book provides some answers as to how that has become the shape of her. Her working-class identity is clearly very important to her and she writes candidly about growing up in Islington after the death of her mother when she was just 18 months old. She had spells in care and was also raised by her brothers and a community of neighbours. Her father’s alcoholism and violence are recounted, always with compassion but also with clarity as to how she was impacted.
The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. Having accompanied more than 1000 people at the end of their life, Ostaseski asks of us to use death as a teacher to illuminate what matters most in life. Rooted in hospice care, it could be argued that the principles apply to anyone navigating transitions, crises, or everyday life. I would go further and say that if we can tap into that place within us that really understands that we will die, then we can make changes to how we live that will benefit not just ourselves but those around us and the communities in which we live. It is written with clarity and compassion, blending Buddhist philosophy with practical guidance,
encouraging the reader to see death not as an end but as a mirror to live life that has meaning and can be lived with integrity.
References
Burke, K., (2025). A Mind of My Own. London: Viking.
Gilbert, E., (2025). All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation. New York: Riverhead Books.
Morley, K. and Harris, S., (2025). Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools: Understand More Deeply and Better Address Inequalities in Your School. London: Bloomsbury Education.
Ostaseski, F., 2017. The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully. London: Bluebird.
Wharne, S., Tedeschi, R.G. and Moore, B.A. (eds.), (2025). Psychological Growth After Trauma: Insights from Phenomenological Research. New York: Routledge.
Thank you for your book reviews! I love reading too, but I find I need a mix of fiction with my learning-focused reading. These look like great suggestions!