Introduction

January is one of my favorite months. It is my birthday month. It is a time to reconnect with friends and family. It is a new year with new goals and new aspirations (check out my past blog post about my 2025 goals!). At the beginning of each year, I always set my reading goal. For 2025, I plan on reading at least 50 books (although I hope to read more than that!). I find that January is the best time to set myself up for success. I do this by reading short books, usually less than 200 pages. By doing this, I can ensure that I am always on track to reach my goal throughout the year, even during busy or stressful times. It also gives me all of the benefits of reading without having to commit to 500 pages. Short books also help me take a break from long books so that I do not burn myself out. Short books are wonderful for people who are just starting to get into reading. However, I have encountered a problem when it comes to short books. I feel there are not enough people recommending them! So, today, I want to share with you all five of my favorite short books in hopes that you get some book recommendations that set you up to accomplish your 2025 reading goals. 

Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson

You might have noticed on my blog that I have never recommended a poetry collection. This is because there are very few poets who I love enough to read for fun. One of the few exceptions is Emily Dickinson. My love is so well known that my mother has bought me several books of her poetry as gifts. Dickinson herself is such an interesting character, especially since she did not become famous until after her death. She only published a handful of poems while alive. On her deathbed, she begged her younger sister – Lavinia – to burn her poetry; however, Lavinia believed that her work was too beautiful to burn. Dickinson was a prolific writer since nearly 1,800 poems were published by her sister. It can be slightly daunting to read all of them (and you would not be able to enjoy them by reading them all at once). I recommend getting a curated selection of her poetry. I love the one done by Barnes & Noble, and it is great for those looking for an introduction to her most famous poems. If you are also a lover of Dickinson and you are looking for something new, I recommend checking out her Envelope Poems. Throughout her life, Dickinson wrote much of her poetry on envelopes, including scrapes of work that are not found in her official collection. They are addressed to no one and everyone. Every time I read her collection, I find a new poem that deeply resonates with me. My all-time favorite has always been “Much Madness is divinest Sense”. So much so that I have a sticker of that poem on the back of my Kindle! There is something for everyone in Dickinson’s poetry so even if you do not love poetry, you will love Dickinson. 

Expiration Dates

I have recommended one of Rebecca Serle’s other novels in a different blog post, although I want to talk about her again because I continuously return to her novels over and over again. My friends always joke that if I rate a book five stars, then it has to be exceptional since I don’t give out very many. (For some context, in five years, I have only rated 14 out of 285 books five stars!). I knew that Expiration Dates would join the ranks before I even finished it. Expiration Dates tells the story of Daphne, who receives a slip of paper with a name and number on it every time she meets a new man. This number is the exact amount of time that they will be together. It is an emotional novel about what it means to be single and what love truly feels like. As someone who has never truly dated, this novel is a hopeful novel that teaches us that love will find us when we are ready. I had the amazing opportunity to get to meet Serle, and she talked about how much of this book is based on her own experience of finding love later in life. Her novel helps us reflect on the love we already have and redefine what love means for us at different times in our lives. For anyone looking for a short novel with a surprising twist in the middle, you should check out Expiration Dates! Serle always writes the best surprises into her novel, and they are so beautifully and artfully done. This one had me gasping out loud! I will warn you that this story is slightly heartbreaking. However, you have to get through the pain to see the beauty underneath, and Serle sure does write a beautiful ending! 

Graveyard Shift

Technically, Graveyard Shift is a novella and not a short book. As an English major, it is important to highlight this difference! Novellas are works of fiction that are shorter than a novel yet longer than a short story. They are fantastic for people looking for a compact plot and fast-paced stories. Graveyard Shift tells the story of five strangers who meet every night in a bygone church to smoke cigarettes. One night, they realize that one of the graves is fresh, so they set out to figure out the mystery. I read Graveyard Shift on the plane ride home to St. Louis from London, and I literally did not move from my seat the entire time. It was addictive, which made the reading process super enjoyable! The story is creepy and intense, with great imagery and fascinating characters. I love novellas that have open endings, where not every single detail must be fleshed out to its maximum potential. This story is short for a reason. As the audience, we are not supposed to know everything about these characters; we only get what they are willing to tell us for the sake of the story. This creates an interesting experience because it feels like we are one of the characters in the novel. We are surrounded by strangers who are only giving us a small fragment of their lives so that we can uncover this mystery together. For anyone who loved If We Were Villains, I recommend that you check this book out but lower your expectations. Graveyard Shift is not supposed to be this perfectly crafted novel. Again, it is a novella for a reason, so enjoy it as a novella! This reading experience is going to be very different, but if you go in with an open mind and open heart, I promise that you will love it!

If you want to read about my experience meeting M.L. Rio, you should check out one of my past blog posts!

The Awakening

As an English major, I must throw in a classic novel here; it is tradition after all! I get asked a lot about how to get into classics, so I have a list of “starter classics” that I like to recommend! The Awakening by Kate Chopin is one that I always highlight for many reasons, mainly because it is a very short book. Most copies sit just under 200 pages, and the audiobook sits at an easy five hours (or if you are like me and listen to everything at double speed, it is only two and a half hours). The Awakening tells the story of Edna, who finds herself trapped in an unfulfilling Victorian marriage. Throughout the story, she attempts to find something or someone who will aid her in escaping the monotony of her domestic life. Because of its frank descriptions of women’s sexual desire, Chopin’s book was condemned by critics when it was first published in 1899. Chopin was actually ostracized from society because of Edna’s desire for independence from her husband and children. Now, we tend to view this book in a much more positive light, although the conversations in my senior year English class did get a bit heated about the ending of the novel! No spoilers but I see the ending as Edna doing whatever it takes to gain her freedom. The Awakening is also perfect for anyone who loves Virginia Woolf since both writers were modernists who explored women’s autonomy and gendered expectations in male-dominated societies in their work. I have loved The Awakening for the past three years now, and I think that it is a great way to get into classics outside of a classroom setting!

If you want to read more about my relationship with classic novels, you should check out my Classics Book Club blog post!

Conclusion

There are people out there who discredit short novels because we have been conditioned to see a full-length, long novel as the end-all-be-all of writing accomplishments. However, there is so much beauty in short novels. As someone who writes blog posts every single week, it takes a lot of physical and mental labor to write around four pages of content. We need to learn how to respect all mediums. One is not better just because of length. 

Bibliography

Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio

The Awakening by Kate Chopin