lately with lila november 2025 | november notes & nonsense

Hello again, dear friends! I hope all is well for you, and if it’s not then I hope brighter days head your way soon! Well, friends. Here we are. We’ve reached the end of 2025 at long last.

I’m sorry this post is a little late—I had a Choir concert (which serves as the class’s final exam) this past weekend and had my Race & Ethnicity final exam yesterday (Wednesday), so I was running around like a chicken with her head cut off! I’m so frazzled and exhausted from this past week that I can barely speak in full sentences without it turning into complete gibberish 😭😂

Anyhoo, moving on!

My November was mostly pretty chill, but then it got ridiculously busy at the end of the month, due to Thanksgiving, my birthday celebration, rehearsing for upcoming choir concerts, and studying/doing coursework for Race & Ethnicity! So you can probably understand why I’m surprised to say that I actually managed to read two entire books this past November!

happenings in the haven

newsletter notes

• Over on my Substack, Life in Technicolor, I discussed what it means to be an actual creative vs. simply adopting the aesthetic of a creative.

I’m technically reading from a compendium, but I estimate that in November I finished Monstress Vol. 1 and Monstress Vol. 2 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. This dark fantasy graphic novel series is truly outstanding! Usually, I find that graphic novels and comics tend to have weaker plots and character development than traditional novels—but that is not the case with Monstress!! This series is soooooo well written on top of being gorgeously illustrated! I will note that this is an extremely dark series, with lots of graphic depictions of violence and brutality. So far from what I’ve read, I can give a trigger warning for graphic depictions of murder, violence, blood, gore, human trafficking (including child trafficking), and the spoken implication of past suicide attempts. That said, if you can make it through those depictions, Monstress stands as an incredible work of literature and of art.

I’m currently reading and absolutely LOVING Fallen City by Adrienne Young! I’m only about 25% in, but so far I am so hooked!! Fallen City is Young’s first proper take at Adult fantasy and is a mixture of political fantasy and romantasy. The story is about two heirs of opposing political leaders—one of whom is studying under a high priestess and the other of whom is a philosopher’s apprentice—who are about to ascend to power and who fall in love just as their city descends into violent political turmoil. The world is based on ancient Rome and ancient Greece, and that’s very reflected not only in the physical aesthetics of the world, but also in the sociopolitical and religious forces at play within the plotlines. I will say that I can understand why some readers aren’t a fan of this book, as the structure of it may be confusing if you’re not super locked in, considering we’re dealing with dual POVs in dual timelines. For some strange reason, this type of structure has kinda clicked with my overactive ADHD brain, so it isn’t bothering me (so far). Anyhoozle, I’m really excited to see how the story develops and where it takes the characters.

Honestly, at this point I’m not sure I’ll get much reading done, as the holiday season is in full swing now, so I need to prepare for Christmas and New Year’s, and on top of that I have my Race& Ethnicity exam in the second week of December and have to rehearse for an upcoming performance, then actually do the performance. I’ll honestly be happy if I just manage to finish Fallen City at this point, so, no, I am not going to add anything more to my possibility pile

for readers

• Jananie announced the “Anti Brain Rot Reading Challenge” for 2026
• Isabella Orr wrote for Berkeley Fiction Review about fixing the performative male reading list
• The reader at The Booked Shelf asked “where are the diverse book adaptations in the age of streaming?“
• Emma wrote a letter to Stephenie Meyer
• Shannen shared why she loves gothic fiction
• Anna asked “can she trust bookstagram recommendations now?“, talked reading books from around the world, and …
• Betty gabbed about oddly specific things she likes about books
• Ellyn highlighted books she’s thankful for and also documented her attempt to schedule her reading for a month
• Lou showed off books that have inspired Taylor Swift songs, gave her thoughts on autumn and winter being the best reading seasons, and turned over the topic of the best bookish villains
• Briana wondered “does rating a lot of books low mean you’re ‘bad at choosing books’?“, ranked her romantasy reads of 2025, …
• Becky spotlighted fifty new fantasy books releasing from January 2026 through June 2026
• Sophie flipped through her 2025 book journal and recounted her top five reads from her “wedding library”
• Tasya participated in “Let’s Talk Bookish” by giving her thoughts on reading challenges, on special editions of books, and on reading non-fiction
• Shaina reflected on the different book genres she’s loved across her life
• Sakina Leduc-Akbar wrote for Berkeley Fiction Review on why she stopped setting reading goals
• Kristin announced The Reindeer Readathon and shared her TBR for it
• Sumedha shined a light on five nonfiction books to boost your creativity
• Witty and Sarcastic Book Club talked about her oddly specific bookish traits
• Julie talked over whether or not “special editions” are still special for Let’s Talk Bookish and also recommended books to read after watching Pretty Woman
• For a belated celebration of National Authors Day, Abby shared her current favorite authors
• Ellie announced their yearlong reading challenge for 2026: This Challenge Killed The Bookworm 2026
• Minnie mulled over the discourse about prologues and what it means about us as readers and gabbed about the joy of buddy reading
• Krysta also pondered over special editions of books for Let’s Talk Bookish
• Rosina read, rated, and reviews books picked out for her by her bookish bestie
• Elaine showed off her free 2026 reading tracker (including a bookopoly challenge)
• The reader at Bookishcore explained why Funko should utilize booktok’s popularity
• Gem talked over their actual ratings and reviews for their five-star reads predictions
• Ellie gabbed about Taylor Swift songs she associates with books
• The reader at Literary Gluttony explained why autumn feels like the season of stories
• Emma revealed five books she read in school and how she feels about them now

for fun

• Elsie gave tips on how to be there for your chronically ill bestie or loved one
• Jocelyn at Write Through The Night recommended eight new movies to watch this winter
• Michael wrote a thoughtful review of the recently released film Eternity
• Sumedha recapped her experience of The Artist’s Way weeks nine through twelve and logged her recent trip to Japan
• Hannah returned from her hiatus and showed off her blog rebrand

November started out as a relatively quiet month, then ended with a bang as I celebrated both Thanksgiving and my birthday. There were a few sad moments, but I tried to stay positive. My friend from choir (who was an elderly singer) passed away and I lost my job because my boss decided to stop selling at my local farmers market and doesn’t currently need help at any of the other markets. I tried to let myself feel grief and sadness over these events, but I didn’t let myself drown in those feelings, and I’m proud of that!

I did a lot of crafting this past month, which was really fun and also really calming! I started working on crocheting a hat using a superwash, worsted weight yarn I purchased from an online shop called Reiko Fibers (run by the YouTuber behind the channel it’s erin b.) in the colorway “Between Realms,” and I’m very proud of my progress! In addition, I’m using another superwash, worsted weight yarn from Reiko Fibers in the colorway “Wisteria” to crochet a purse using three giant granny squares. That project has been a bit more difficult in that I think I accidentally added a stitch in one round, and instead of going back and fixing the mistake, I kept going for about seven more rounds, and now I’m faced with “frogging” (undoing) the entire granny square (which, mind you, is pretty large at this point) 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ *deep sigh* I’m the epitome of “It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.” 😂

I also worked a a good bit on my journal insert for my friends’ and my “Sisterhood of the Traveling Journal” project. and had sooooo much fun with it! I decorated the front and back covers of my insert, as well as creating a “sign in” page at the beginning of my insert and creating a kind of “introduction” page on the first page. I really love how all of these spreads turned out! I feel like the style and aesthetic of all of them really reflect me, which is something I feel like I’ve been working on for a long time when it comes to my journaling style and aesthetic. It’s been so exciting to see my insert and “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Journal” project begin to come together, and I’m so excited to see how me and my friends complete this opening round of the project!

Thanksgiving was really good this year! My mom and I spent most of the day cooking, but it definitely paid off. We finally have our new stove and were able to make our Mediterranean/Lebanese version of “stuffing,” plus traditional Black American greens, and lamb. It was all so incredibly delicious!!

My birthday was another really bright spot in the past month! This year, it fell the day after Thanksgiving, and my friends and I celebrated by going to a local cafe and working on arts and crafts. It was soooo much fun! My mom even made us mini cheesecakes, and at the end of the night my friends lit candles for me and sang “happy birthday” to me in English and Arabic, which was so sweet! It was a wonderful time, and it also reminded me how grateful I am to have such incredible and kind friends!

December is shaping up to be a pretty busy month. Between final exams, rehearsals, performances, and Christmas, I feel like I’ll be running around a lot! That said, I am (as always) hoping to get to spend some time with friends and to get to do some fun activities.

I’m performing in the Messiah Singal0ng at The Kennedy Center again this December, which is such an honor and I know it will be a great time yet again! That also means I have double the number of rehearsals this December, though, seeing as in early December I also have rehearsals for my Choir class concert, as well as the final concert performance for this semester of Choir on top of Messiah rehearsals and The Kennedy Center performance. Needless to say, I anticipate I’ll be running around a lot.

In addition, my old boss introduced me to a local vocal coach who specializes in teaching classical, jazz, blues, and pop, and she agreed to take me on as her student starting in December! I’m so excited, especially as I’ve been looking to find a good local vocal coach with reasonable rates for a while now! I can’t wait to jump back into getting personalized vocal lessons!

Of course, there’s also my other class’s (Race & Ethnicity) final in early December as well. I’m not too worried about it, as I got a 96% on the Midterm and now have a good idea about the types of exams that my professor gives. That said, wish me luck, as any extra good luck is definitely useful too!

To round out the month, there’s Christmas and New Year’s Eve. I don’t have any big plans for either…yet! I’m just preparing for the holidays to be relatively quiet, and I’m actually not too upset about it this year. It feels like it’s been a whirlwind of a year, and so having a calm wind-down from it all actually sounds quite nice.

How was your November 2025? Did you read anything memorable? Is there anything you’re looking forward to in December 2025? What’s on your TBR for the month?

Learn more the author of this post:

Lila @ Hardcover Haven

Lila is a 30 year old anthropology student and lover of literature who's been book blogging for an eternity. Her hobbies include reading, singing, writing, arts and crafts, and snuggling her two cats, Snoopy and Clementine.