Ep. 204: Summer 2025 Circle Back with Catherine (@GilmoreGuide)
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 204, Sarah and Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books catch up on the 12 new releases they shared in the Summer 2025 Book Preview, now that they've read them — or at least tried to! They share their reading stats, chat about what worked — and discuss which books didn't work and why.
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CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.
Announcement
- One of the many benefits to supporting the podcast through either our Patreon Community or our Substack Community (both for just $7/mo) is that you get access to several bonus podcast episode series, including Book Preview Extras! In these episodes, Catherine and I share at least 4 bonus books we are excited about that we did not share in the big show preview episode. Get more details about all the goodies available and sign up here for Patreon and here for Substack!
Highlights
- After Catherine's 100% success rate this spring, she encountered a near-full reversal of fortune this summer.
- Sarah's summer reading improved dramatically over her spring selections.
- Between Sarah and Catherine, there are several DNFs, one 5-star book, one 3-star book, and a scattering of books in the 4-star range.
- Sarah's summer circle back theme seems to be "Why aren't more people reading these books?!"
- Meanwhile, someone please hand Catherine MORE in her books and with a heavy side of PLOT.
- They name the best and worst books picks for summer!
Books Read Before the Preview [5:09]
June
Sarah's Pick
- The Compound
by Aisling Rawle (June 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [5:14]
Other Books Mentioned
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954) [7:03]
- FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven (2016) [7:06]
July
Sarah's Pick
- Bitter Sweet
| Bookshop.org [8:24]
Other Books Mentioned
- The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue (2023) [9:31]
- Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler (2023) [9:34]
Summer 2025 Circle Back [10:59]
June
Catherine's Picks
- The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward (June 3) | Amazon
- King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (June 10) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [18:43]
- I'll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom (June 24) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [22:15]
Other Books Mentioned
- Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby (2021) [20:06]
- All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby (2023) [20:08]
July
Sarah's Picks
- Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje (July 8) | Amazon
- The Rabbit Club by Christopher J. Yates (July 8) | Amazon
- Her Many Faces by Nicci Cloke (July 15) | Amazon
- August Lane by Regina Black (July 29) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:14]
Catherine's Picks
- The Satisfaction Café by Kathy Wang (July 1) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [30:27]
- Our Last Resort by Clémence Michallon (July 8) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[39:50]
Other Books Mentioned
- Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates (2013) [25:12]
- Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates (2018) [25:18]
- Craigslist Confessional by Helena Dea Bala (2020) [33:52]
- Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang (2021) [34:39]
- Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (2023) [37:39]
- The Quiet Tenant by Clémence Michallon (2023) [40:02]
- The Art of Scandal by Regina Black (2023) [44:01]
- Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (2021) [46:47]
July
Catherine's Pick
- The Frequency of Living Things by Nick Fuller Googins (August 12) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [47:10]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. Join me every other week as we get real, and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. Let's get rolling. |
| 0:22.7 | Welcome to the summer 2025 circle back episode, where we discuss books we shared in the summer |
| 0:28.9 | preview now that we've had a chance to read them, or at least attempt to read them. |
| 0:33.6 | Catherine always does these episodes with me, and she's back today. Welcome back, Catherine. |
| 0:38.2 | Hi, I am so happy to be here. I feel like I haven't talked to you for months and months and |
| 0:43.0 | months. We have not recorded for quite a while, longer than usual for us. I know. I missed you. |
| 0:50.2 | I missed you too. And I'm really excited to talk about summer books because it's been so much better for me this summer. And by it, I mean reading. Oh, I'm so happy for you. But I'm also dying to hear about your summer books because y'all, Catherine refused to kind of put her little overview statement in the episode plan because she's like, |
| 1:12.7 | I need you to hear this real time. So I can't wait. Do tell us, how has your summer reading been? |
| 1:19.2 | Well, I'm going to use female-centric terms to explain my summer reading. So apologies to any |
| 1:26.7 | male listeners, just ask a female friend, partner, |
| 1:30.0 | sibling, whatever, and they'll explain. I feel as if the last tiny drop of estrogen |
| 1:38.3 | has finally exited my body and my patients and caring are gone. |
| 1:46.1 | And I'm assuming you don't have the estrogen patch putting it back in like I do. |
| 1:50.6 | No, I don't. |
| 1:52.0 | No, I am on the next stage just past where you are. |
| 1:56.0 | And what it means is if I don't like something for any reason, at any point, I'm going to quit reading. |
| 2:03.9 | You're ragey and irritable. |
| 2:05.6 | Which leads me to my stats. |
| 2:08.3 | Okay. |
| 2:09.6 | How many DNFs do you have? |
| 2:11.7 | Well, I flew too close to the sun with my 100% success rating for spring. |
| 2:22.1 | So summer was a very rude awakening with my choices. Out of six picks, I had only one success. Oh, no. That's 17% and never in the history of the podcast. I was going to say that's the lowest it's ever been. |
... |
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