The Bookish Drop 📚 Thursday 3 July 2025
How is your reading goal looking?👀How many books are on your TBR?📚Project Hail Mary to star Ryan Gosling😍The Booker Prize Foundation ditches X😲
📚 Hey, book lovers. We’re officially halfway through the year - where does the time go? Talya has shared her favourite reads of 2025 if you need some inspiration for the second half of the year. It’s a new month, so we have all of the July Kindle deals ready for you to snap up and, ironically, have a funny take on the victimless crime of buying yet more books while your TBR pile just gets higher and higher. Danielle has a review of We Don’t Make Ourselves Smaller Here by Megan Jayne Crabbe, and Zoe is back from Glastonbury with some snaps of a very secret bookish find on Worthy Farm.
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❤️ What we’re reading this week…
Catherine: The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya - I’m really enjoying this book, which is set during one day in London in 2020, where a father is watching his daughter’s first play in a London theatre, a play which re-enacts a holiday the pair of them took to Sicily ten years ago. I personally love books that flick between perspectives as Hamya does in this novel, and it’s so interesting seeing these two characters' memories clash.
Danielle: Mile High by Liz Tomforde - A firm TikTok favourite for many, but also a book that’s proven quite divisive since its release - I knew I had to make my mind up for myself on whether it was worth the hype. And truthfully? I’m pretty impressed. I tried to read this a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t into sports romance, but now I’m converted (thanks, Elle Kennedy), and I’m loving it. Plus, there are four other books to devour once I finish this one!
Talya: This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune - It’s been a romance-heavy few weeks for me; I read Every Summer After and One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune in a matter of days last week, so obviously immediately wanted more of the same vibes. So far, so good on this one, though I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself when I finish all of Carley’s books...!
Zoe: Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza - One part cautionary tale, one part thrill ride, this is the exact read I need after Glastonbury. This piece of twisted tradwife fiction is only out at the end of the month, so I shall report back next week if it is worth your time.
⏰ What’s trending…
📅 TikTok is full of people sharing their mid-year reading check-ins, including their favourite reads of 2025 so far and how far they are with their reading goals. We want to know - do you track your reading, and if so, are you on track to meet your goal?
🙈 Who else is guilty of buying more books despite a never-ending TBR stack at home? 🙋 It’s just far too tempting, but don’t worry, you’re in good company with us!
✍ Cara Alwill shared on Substack that she met a writer who writes his novel on cocktail napkins whilst he works as a bouncer. The post has gone viral with thousands sharing their love and support for the writer.
🚀 The trailer for Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling as science teacher turned astronaut Ryland Grace, is here! However, it’s dividing fans of the book, who had a different idea of what things would look like. What do you think?
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📢 The weekly review: We Don’t Make Ourselves Smaller Here by Megan Jayne Crabbe ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Danielle: I had the pleasure of meeting Megan Jayne Crabbe (known at the time as @bodyposipanda) in 2019 after the release of her first book, Body Positive Power. It was a life-changing, at the very least life-affirming, book for many, and her unwavering commitment to spreading a message of people seeing their bodies as more than just a vessel to be thin was so refreshing.
Fast forward six years, and she’s done it again, only this time, her book isn’t all body-focused. In her latest book, We Don’t Make Ourselves Smaller Here, she explores our relationship with productivity, shares deeply troubling anecdotes about past sexual experiences, which sadly many will relate to, and shares her coming out journey, too, alongside so many more inspirational pearls of wisdom. It’s uplifting, empowering, and reads like a best friend giving you gentle advice based on their lived experiences, and I’d highly recommend everyone get themselves a copy ASAP.
📖Bookish news and events
💛 We’re halfway through the year already, and to celebrate, Talya has shared her top 10 reads of 2025 so far, including one that’s giving Love Island meets Black Mirror vibes and another that’s been nominated for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.
🏆 Prize-winning debut author Margaret McDonald told the BBC she was rejected by 60 agents when pitching her book, Glasgow Boys. She is now the youngest ever winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing. It just goes to show that you should never give up!
🚫 The Booker Prize Foundation will no longer post on X (formerly Twitter), The Bookseller reports. The decision was revealed at The Bookseller’s Marketing & Publicity (M&P) Conference. The Booker Prize Foundation’s head of digital marketing, Indira Birnie, said the team had considered leaving X for a year.
💔 The cast for the forthcoming film adaptation of Sarah Hogle’s 2020 romance novel You Deserve Each Other has been announced, with Penn Badgley (You, Gossip Girl) and Meghann Fahy (Sirens, White Lotus) playing a couple who have fallen out of love just before getting married.
✨ Book Nook of the Week
Zoe: It’s not very rock’n’roll of me to say, but discovering this Book Nook at Glastonbury was one of the highlights of the festival for me! Not only was my first ever Glastonbury possibly the most politically charged one yet, it was also one of the hottest!
Thanks to being lucky enough to have a press pass, I was able to take solace in the VIP section and stumbled across this little gem. In between bumping into Harry Styles and Paul Mescal, who were donning very short shorts (lucky me), I was able to take shade in this stunning little nook.
The space, a joint effort from Oxfam, Greenpeace, and Wateraid, aimed to offer festival-goers the chance to take a quiet moment and learn about the power of collective action.
Perhaps I’m still in full hippy mode, but the world is quite miserable at the moment, and it’s easy to feel quite hopeless and despondent. However, calling into this space reminded me of the power of books and how things can change for the better.
If you’ve got a Book Nook you want us to feature, email thebookishdrop@reachplc.com
💸 Deals of the week
💰 It’s a new month, meaning new Kindle deals! This month, you can pick up hundreds of titles including The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and 2024 Booker Prize Winner Orbital by Samantha Harvey for just 99p.
♻️ If you’re in the UK, PostScript is an independent bookseller that sells books for up to 75% off! A quick look through and you’ll find bestsellers for as little as £3.99. What’s even better, PostScript makes regular book donations to charities and actively tries to help the environment, with all books sent in eco-friendly packaging.
🕵️♀️ If you still haven’t picked up a copy of Stephen King’s latest book, Never Flinch, you’re in luck, as it’s currently on sale for 30% off at Barnes & Noble!
😏This is your last chance to take advantage of 30% off three books at Amazon. It’s valid for selected titles; however, there are plenty to choose from. The offer ends Friday (July 4).
❓ Is there anything in particular you want to see from us? We’d love to hear from you - whether you want us to review the book you’ve got coming out, you’re organising a book swap IRL, or you have some juicy bookish gossip to share! We’re always all ears! Fill out this form to get in touch!
I went to Birmingham last weekend and made sure to checkout the amazing public library there . An incredible 9 storeys of stories with a beautiful herb garden terrace with benches