Three of the best books that our Online Editor has read this year | HerCanberra

Everything you need to know about canberra. ONE DESTINATION.

Three of the best books that our Online Editor has read this year

Posted on

Want to finish the year with a banger of a book? Here, our Online Editor Erin Cross shares her three favourite reads of the year.

All I Ever Wanted Was to Be Hot by Lucinda Price (AKA Froomes)

I stand by what I originally wrote about this book: All I Ever Wanted Was to Be Hot is my Roman Empire. I could talk about it for days. I sleep with it by my bed (well, ish. I still haven’t moved it off my bedside table. I’m not sure if that’s obsession or laziness).
Using an addictive mix of offbeat humour and well-balanced research from a range of interviewees in this book, Froomes shares everything from her honest experience of how the media of the 2000s shaped her worldview to her experience with cosmetic surgery and her experience of overcoming an eating disorder.
Discussing pop culture and power, diet culture, and desirability, not only is it intelligent, but it forces you to look at yourself and how you interact with the world. Validating women everywhere who have felt personally victimised by the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, Froomes gives voice to so many things that are left unsaid. No matter how you identify, everyone should read this book.

Finding Your People: The ultimate guide to friendship by Alexandra Hourigan and Sally McMullen

I read this book in June/July of this year and left a rave review that’s still relevant months later. And looking back, it’s definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. I don’t know if it was the timing, the content, or the mix of both, but it’s stayed with me – and that’s a sign of a good read.
Described as “A relatable guide to finding, keeping and saying goodbye to friendships, from the twin-flame hosts of the hit podcast Two Broke Chicks”, Finding Your People: The ultimate guide to friendship is basically a companion guide for friendship in your 20s and 30s.
Wholesome, funny (there were some literal laugh-out-loud moments) it’s a beautiful reminder of the power of friendship in adulthood. And it felt like a warm hug. I’ll take fuzzy feelings any day.

Still Life by Sarah Winman

Technically, this is cheating because I first read this book in 2023. But just over a year later, I decided to pick it up again because I couldn’t stop thinking about the story. I had to experience it all over again – and it’s just as good the second time around.
Still Life was recommended to me by Emma Macdonald as a holiday read during a short trip to Port Douglas and from the moment that I first opened the pages, I was transported. Beginning with a chance meeting in Florence during the war in 1944 that forges a bond between sixty-four-year-old art historian Evelyn Skinner, and twenty-four-year-old, British soldier Ulysses Temper, Still Life is all about humanity – from the power of art to friendship, love, and heartbreak.
I truly adore it – so much so that I’m considering getting a quote from the book tattooed on my body (true story). Am I obsessed? Slightly. But if you read one final book this year, make it this one.

Related Posts

Comments are closed.

© 2025 HerCanberra. All rights reserved. Legal.
Site by Coordinate.