Dear Friend,

Last week, I put up a poll on Instagram asking if folks would prefer to know all the titles for the whole year or receive a slow trickle of titles closer to each month. The response was unanimous: you want to know the full schedule now! Fortunately, I planned well ahead, this time, and can share that list with you all.

I will also be sharing the reading list for February & March’s book selection in a post soon. We’re reading Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way those two months, which is the first time we’ll be spending more than one month on a single title, but this one both needs and deserves it, I think! In addition, September technically has two titles, one strictly for our project, and a bonus (Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey) which I’m hosting as part of The Classic Club’s 250th Jane Austen Birthday Celebration.

Season Six: January, February, and March

• January: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• February: Swann’s Way (first part) by Marcel Proust
• March: Swann’s Way (second part) by Marcel Proust

Season Seven: April, May, and June

• April: Modern Poetry by Dianne Seuss
• May: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
• June: The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong

Season Eight: July, August, and September*

• July: Bluets by Maggie Nelson
• August: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
• September A: Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
• September B: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (not pictured)

Season Nine: October, November, and December

• October: The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
• November: All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran
• December: The Gospel According to James Baldwin by Greg Garrett

So, there you have it! The Contemplative Reading Project’s titles for all of 2025, including seasons six through nine. Season Nine will also be the start of our third year! I hope you’ll join me for some or all of the reads this year. We’ve got a great selection of fiction (novels and short stories), poetry, and non-fiction (essays and memoirs), which I hope encourages many to revisit favorite genres or even try something new.

As always, I encourage you to join these conversations and leave your thoughts in the blog comments or on your socials. On social media, please use #theCRPblog.

Meditation

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

With loving hope for this new year,

~Adam

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