Dopamine and DNFs

What I read (and didn't read) in November

November Reads

I read more slowly this month; let’s chalk it up to nearly two weeks’ worth of visitors descending upon my new home, Thanksgiving business, and similar Life-ing. I managed to squeeze in five books, though, no doubt in part due to my reinvigorated self-permission to stop reading a book when it doesn’t grasp me from the start.

In other words, the DNFs are a bit thick this month, y’all.

Let’s dive in!

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The Tell: A Memoir by Amy Griffin

4 ⭐ | Audiobook 🎧 | Finished November 10, 2025 🗓️

This one had been on my TBR list for a long time; given that its theme of sexual assault hits close to home for me, I had to wait until I was in the right space to read it. I’m glad I did.

This is an important book; not just because it normalizes speaking your truth about sexual assault and abuse, but because it demonstrates the power of our mind’s self-protecting coping mechanisms. The author didn’t remember her abuse experiences until she was well into adulthood and utilized guided therapy with psychedelics to uncover her memories. But, as the book’s title tells us, the signs were there the whole time.

This is a book for anyone who’s felt ashamed, critical, or in disbelief of their own traumatic experiences.

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The Women of Wild Hill by Kirsten Miller

5 ⭐ | Hardcover 📖 | Finished November 15, 2025 🗓️

Are you a somewhat witchy feminist? Do you get a thrill from seeing the Bad Guy get his—most definitely his—delicious comeuppance? Then this one’s for you!

We have another winner from Kirsten Miller in this book. Bonus: it revisits some of the locales and characters from The Change, which is nice for those of us who have read it but is in no way required reading to be able to fully sink your teeth into this one.

It tells of a family of witches through five generations—the Duncan family—all tied to a magical, haunted place called Wild Hill on Long Island. Each woman carries her own gift—some dark, some healing—and they’re called upon to unite their powers to fight a corrupt world that’s long taken women and nature for granted. It’s a fierce reclamation of power crafted into a modern‑day witches’ tale. I loved it.

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Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez

5 ⭐ | Audiobook 🎧 | Finished November 16, 2025 🗓️

How—how—does Abby Jimenez find the time to run an award-winning bakery, appear on Cupcake Wars, and write rom-coms with so many layers of humanity? She did it again with this one.

Vanessa Price is a successful travel vlogger living like every day might be her last—because, with a family history of a fatal genetic condition, it might be. But her on-the-go coping mechanism is put on pause when she unexpectedly becomes the guardian of her baby niece. Enter Adrian Copeland, her buttoned-up lawyer neighbor who offers to help—and soon finds himself tangled in Vanessa’s chaotic new reality. As they grow closer, both must face their fears about love, loss, and the uncertainty of the future.

This is what I mean when I say I need less fluff in my rom-coms. This right here. It’s charming, heartfelt, romantic, and real.

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Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Anna Lembke

3 ⭐ | Hardcover 📖 | Finished November 23, 2025 🗓️

This one started off strong, then seemed to lose its way—at least the way I wanted it to go. I added it to my TBR list years ago when I heard about it on the Armchair Expert podcast, so I was thrilled when it popped up on the available audiobooks feed for my Libby app.

This book explores how our brains—wired for scarcity and survival—struggle in a world of constant, easy pleasure and stimulation. Lembke argues that when we flood ourselves with high‑dopamine rewards (social media, junk food, endless scrolling, etc.), our brain’s reward system becomes unbalanced. Over time, what once felt pleasurable becomes numbing, and the constant chase for “more” can lead to addictive behaviors, emptiness, and pain. She blends neuroscience, clinical stories, and cultural critique to show why modern over‑indulgence often backfires—and offers pathways to rebalance our pleasure‑pain scales and rediscover deeper, more sustainable contentment.

Unfortunately, I wanted her to offer more pathways to rebalance our pleasure-pain scales. Chalk it up to my over-dopamined brain, I guess. I left this one wanting more.

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Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser

5 ⭐ | Audiobook 🎧 | Finished November 30, 2025 🗓️

MURDER!

This one is a whopper of a hardcover—480 pages—so when I had the opportunity to listen to it in audiobook form (thanks again, Libby!), I jumped at it.

The author draws a very convincing correlation between the proliferation of serial killers (and other violent offenders) and their proximity/exposure to smelting facilities—you know, those mega-factories that dumped literal tons of toxins, heavy metals, and poisons into the atmosphere, water, and soil, uninhibited for decades before the government stepped in and started regulating them.

The narrative approach alone was enough to keep me hooked—she weaves historical data, personal memoir, and gritty true-crime writing together in a way that had me devouring this one right in time for it to make it to my November list.

P.S. There’s a lot of Ted Bundy in this one, as alluded to in the cover image.

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DNFs

• Butcher and Blackbird by Brynne Weaver. I made it through one-and-a-half pages. Nope. Hard pass. Not for me. Moving on.

• Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey. I’m getting pickier with my rom-com choices, and this one didn’t make the cut. I want a bit less fluff, and the college coed protagonist was too young for me to stay interested. Oh God, am I … old?

• Heart the Lover by Lily King. This one was on tons of recommendation lists, so I gave it longer to impress me before I finally put it down. The love triangle read as whiny and privileged, not romantically tense. It’s entirely possible that I missed a more profound theme, but I think I’m okay with that.

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That’s it for November. What did you read this month? What should I read next?

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