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These are the 10 very best books of 2025 so far, according to voracious readers

"It's the perfect balance between lovely prose and addictive plot."

book, novel, 2025, author, best

The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman.

Look, I get it. Your reading list is longer than a CVS receipt at the moment. And the idea of adding 10 fresh, new titles? That makes you want to hide under a weighted blanket until you can figure out how to make your Kindle do the reading for you. But trust the Internet on this one—these aren't just any books.

We're talking about 10 literary earthquakes that are shaking up the online world, sourced from Reddit's r/suggestmeabook forum. This list has everything, from poetic climate fiction to historical romance. These are the kind of stories that make you text your friends at 2 a.m. saying, "You have to read this right now."

best, books, 2025, charlotte mcconaghy Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.Credit: Amazon

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Picture this: you're stranded on a remote island near Antarctica, tasked with protecting the world's last seed bank while sea levels rise around you. That's the captivating premise of Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore, a novel that reads like climate fiction meets psychological thriller.

McConaghy, an Australian author who has already proven her mastery of environmental storytelling with Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, brings readers to Shearwater Island, where Dominic Salt and his three children remain—the final inhabitants of what was once a thriving research station. When a mysterious woman named Rowan washes ashore during a fierce storm, the family's fragile existence becomes even more precarious.

Wild Dark Horse has been heralded as "Amazon's Best Book of the Year So Far for 2025," and represents McConaghy at her most ambitious. This novel asks: What impossible choices would you make to protect those you love while the world itself is disappearing?

On Reddit, one user wrote about Wild Dark Horse, "LOVED this one! The way she made the landscape come to life!"

Another hailed McConaghy, writing, "Her books all hit a perfect balance between lovely prose and addictive plot."

best, book, 2025, alison goodman The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman.Credit: Amazon

The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman

If you think the Regency era was all tea parties and beautiful gowns, Australian author Alison Goodman has a wakeup call for you. The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin is the second installment in her Ill-Mannered Ladies series. It transforms two supposedly "useless old maids" into the most formidable amateur detectives you've ever encountered.

Lady Augusta "Gus" Colebrook and her twin sister Julia are 42 years old and invisible to Regency society—the perfect, undetectable cover for two women fighting injustice. When Lord Evan, an escaped convict who has captured Gus' heart, needs help clearing his name of murder, the twin sisters dive headfirst into a world of Georgian gentlemen's clubs, spies, and ruthless bounty hunters.

With a PhD focused on Regency-era research and multiple award-winning fantasies under her belt, Goodman brings impressive credentials to this work of feminist historical fiction. The Wall Street Journal praised her Ill-Mannered Ladies series as "delightful company," and it's easy to see why. By subverting the typical "spinster" narrative, rather than pitying them, Goodman celebrates their freedom and intelligence.

best, book, 2025, john green Everything is Tuberculosis by John GreenCredit: Amazon

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Leave it to John Green to take the world's deadliest infectious disease and craft a profoundly human story that will fundamentally change how you view global health inequities. Everything is Tuberculosis marks Green's return to nonfiction—and it's one of his most essential works yet.

The book centers on Henry Reider, a spirited 17-year-old Green met in Sierra Leone. Reider suffers from drug-resistant tuberculosis. Through his story, Green explores how tuberculosis has become "a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it".

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Green's unique position as both a bestselling YA author (The Fault in Our Stars) and global health advocate gives him an extraordinary point of view. His YouTube channel, Vlogbrothers , and his work with Partners in Health have raised over $30 million for maternal mortality efforts in Sierra Leone. When he spoke at the United Nations in 2023 about tuberculosis eradication, it wasn't just celebrity advocacy—it was informed passion backed by years of research. As Green puts it, the real tragedy isn't the bacteria themselves, but that "the cure exists where the disease does not, and the disease exists where the cure does not".

best, book, 2025, stephen graham jones The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham JonesCredit: Amazon

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones crafted what many are calling his masterpiece—a chilling historical novel confronting one of America's most brutal chapters—all while reimagining the classic vampire myth through Indigenous eyes.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter tells the story of Good Stab, a Blackfeet man who turns into a vampire seeking justice following the 1870 Marias Massacre, where the U.S. cavalry slaughtered 217 women, children, and elderly Blackfeet people. The novel unfolds through diary entries and transcribed confessions, creating an epistolary structure that feels both intimate and haunting.

Jones, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, brings profound, authentic gravitas to this narrative. NPR called it "gorgeous prose" with a "complex, engaging, and multilayered" plot. The novel doesn't just use vampirism as horror. It transforms vampirism into a metaphor for survival, resistance, and the ways violence echoes through generations.

best, book, 2025, omar el akkad One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against It by Omar El AkkadCredit: Amazon

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against It by Omar El Akkad

Occasionally, a single tweet can capture the moral crisis of a generation. Omar El Akkad's viral tweet about the bombing of Gaza has been viewed over 10 million times.

"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this." – El Akkard on Twitter/X

Now, that tweet has turned into a memoir about Western complicity and moral awakening. Born in Egypt and raised in Qatar, El Akkard brings unparalleled credentials to this literary reckoning. As a journalist for The Globe and Mail, he's covered some of the most significant events of the war on terror.

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This represents what El Akkard calls his "heartsick breakup letter with the West". The book explores "what it means to live in the heart of an empire that doesn't consider you fully human" and chronicles "the deep fracture that has occurred for Black, brown, Indigenous Americans" who had "clung to a thread of faith in Western ideals".

best, book, 2025, taylor jenkins reid Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins ReidCredit: Amazon

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Reid Jenkin's Atmosphere takes readers to 1980s NASA, where Joan Goodwin discovers that space travel might be possible for women scientists. But this is about more than just rockets—it's a tale about love, ambition, and finding your place in the universe, literally and figuratively.

Reid, whose previous novels include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & the Six, spent months in Houston researching this specific space program. Reviewers are calling it "both vast and intimate—like looking up at the sky and somehow finding yourself in it," which is precisely the kind of beautiful, devastating description that makes you add a book to your cart immediately.

"LOVED this on audiobook," wrote a Reddit user. "I think the narration made the science and technical stuff more accessible and interesting."

best, book, 2025, V.E. Schwab Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. SchwabCredit: Amazon

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil uses vampirism to explore the stories of three women across different centuries—Maria in 1530s Spain, Charlotte in Georgian England, and Alice in contemporary times—who turn to the undead to escape patriarchal oppression.

Schwab, who has 25+ books under her belt, is "at her most raw, her most autobiographical and maybe her most damning". It's vampire fiction for people who thought they were over their vampire fiction phase.

best, book, 2025, nikki erlich The Poppy Fields by Nikki ErlichCredit: Amazon

The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlich

What if you could sleep away your grief? That's the haunting question at the heart of Nikki Erlick's sophomore novel, The Poppy Fields, which follows four strangers on a journey to a controversial treatment center in the California desert.

What makes Erlick's work so powerful is her ability to tackle profound questions about healing and human resilience. As one reviewer noted, the book "explores the path of grief and healing, a journey at once profoundly universal and unique to every person". The central question at the heart of this novel—how far are we willing to go to be healed?—resonates deeply in a world where mental health struggles are more visible than ever before.

best, book, 2025, chuck wendig The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck WendigCredit: Amazon

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

Chuck Wendig, the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents, returns with The Staircase in the Woods, a horror novel that transforms childhood friendship into something far more sinister.

The premise is deceptively simple: five high school friends are bound by a mysterious oath. During a camping trip, they discover a strange staircase leading to nowhere—when one friend climbs up and never returns, their lives are shattered. Twenty years later, the stairs reappear, and the remaining friends must confront what really happened all those years ago.

Vulture named it one of their Best Books of the Year (So Far), and it's easy to see why—Wendig has created a horror story that's more interested in the monsters we carry within us than the ones lurking in dark corners.

best, book, 2025, colum mccann Twist by Colum McCannCredit: Amazon

Twist by Colum McCann

Irish literary master Colum McCann returns with Twist, a stunning novel that plunges us deep beneath the ocean's surface to explore the fragile cables that connect our digital world—and the equally fragile bonds that connect us to each other.

The story follows Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist who joins a cable-laying ship to write about submarine communications cables. What begins as a straightforward assignment becomes something much more complex as Fennell encounters Conway, an enigmatic operations manager whose mysterious past drives the narrative into unexpected territory.

Why these books matter

These aren't just ten great books—they represent literature's response to our current moment with urgency, empathy, and unflinching honesty. In a time when the world can feel overwhelming, these authors offer something precious: proof that stories can still surprise, challenge, and ultimately change us.

So yes, add these ten essential books to your accumulating reading list! And really prioritize them—the conversations they spark today will be the ones that matter most tomorrow.

From Your Site Articles

Another school district just shifted to a 4-day week and parents are making themselves heard

America already has fewer school days than most other countries.

kids, school, school days, school week, schedule, 4 day week

Unsplash

Many school districts are moving to a 4-day week, but there are pros and cons to the approach.

American kids have fewer school days than most other major countries as it is, which poses a big challenge for families with two working parents. In a system designed for the "classic" stay-at-home mom model, it's difficult for many modern families to cover childcare and fulfill their work obligations during the many, many holidays and extra days off American children receive in school.

Some school districts, in fact, are ready to take things one step further with even fewer instructional days: for better or for worse.

Whitney Independent School District in Texas recently made news when it decided to enact a four-day week heading into the 2025 school year. That makes it one of dozens of school districts in Texas to make the change and over 900 nationally.

The thought of having the kids home from school EVERY Friday or Monday makes many parents break out in stress hives, but this four-day school week movement isn't designed to give parents a headache. It's meant to lure teachers back to work.

Yes, teachers are leaving the profession in droves and young graduates don't seem eager to replace them. Why? For starters, the pay is bad—but that's just the beginning. Teachers are burnt out, undermined and criticized relentlessly, held hostage by standardized testing, and more. It can be a grueling, demoralizing, and thankless job. The love and passion they have for shaping the youth of tomorrow can only take you so far when you feel like you're constantly getting the short end of the stick.

School districts want to pay their teachers more, in theory, but their hands are often tied. So, they're getting creative to recruit the next generation of teachers into their schools—starting with an extra day off for planning, catch-up, or family time every week.

Teachers in four-day districts often love the new schedule. Kids love it (obviously). It's the parents who, as a whole, aren't super thrilled.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

So far, the data shows that the truncated schedule perk is working. In these districts, job applications for teachers are up, retirements are down, and teachers are reporting better mental well-being. That's great news!

But these positive developments may be coming at the price of the working parents in the communities. Most early adopters of the four-day week have been rural communities with a high prevalence of stay-at-home parents. As the idea starts to take hold in other parts of the country, it's getting more pushback. Discussions on Reddit, Facebook, and other social media platforms are overrun with debate on how this is all going to shake up. Some parents, to be fair, like the idea! If they stay-at-home or have a lot of flexibility, they see it as an opportunity for more family time. But many are feeling anxious. Here's what's got those parents worried:

The effect on students' achievement is still unclear.

The execution of the four-day week varies from district to district. Some schools extend the length of each of the four days, making the total instructional time the same. That makes for a really long day, and some teachers say the students are tired and more unruly by the late afternoon. Some districts are just going with less instruction time overall, which has parents concerned that their kids might fall behind.

A study of schools in Iowa that had reduced instructional days found that five-days-a-week students performed better, on average.

Four-day school weeks put parents in a childcare bind.

Having two working parents is becoming more common and necessary with the high cost of living. Of course—"school isn't daycare!" But it is the safe, reliable, and educational place we send our kids while we we work.

Families with money and resources may be able to enroll their kids in more academics, extracurriculars, sports, or childcare, but a lot of normal families won't be able to afford that cost. Some schools running a four-day week offer a paid childcare option for the day off, but that's an added expense and for families with multiple kids in the school system, it's just not possible.

kids, school, school days, school week, schedule, 4 day week In a 4-day model, kids often (but not always) receive less instructional time. Photo by Ivan Aleksic on Unsplash

This will inevitably end with some kids getting way more screentime.

With most parents still working five-day weeks, and the cost of extra activities or childcare too high, a lot of kids are going to end up sitting around on the couch with their iPad on those days off. Adding another several hours of it to a child's week seems less than ideal according to expert recommendations.

Of course there are other options other than paid childcare and iPads. There are play dates, there's getting help from family and friends. All of these options are an enormous amount of work to arrange for parents who are already at capacity.

Working four days is definitely a win for teachers that makes the job more appealing. But it doesn't address the systemic issues that are driving them to quit, retire early, or give up their dreams of teaching all together.

@5th_with_ms.y
Replying to @emory here are my thoughts on my 4day work week as a teacher✨ #foryou #fyp #fypシ #foryoupage #foryoupageofficiall #teachersoftiktokfyp #teachersoftiktok #teachertok #teachersbelike #teachertiktok #tik #tiktok #viralllllll #teachertoks #teaching #teacher #tok #viralvideo #teacherlife #viral #trendy #teacher #teaching #worklifebalance #worklife #publicschool #publiceducation #school #student

A Commissioner of Education from Missouri calls truncated schedules a "band-aid solution with diminishing returns." Having an extra planning day won't stop teachers from getting scapegoated by politicians or held to impossible curriculum standards, it won't keep them from having to buy their own supplies or deal with ever-worsening student behavior.

Some teachers and other experts have suggested having a modified five-day school week, where one of the days gets set aside as a teacher planning day while students are still on-site participating in clubs, music, art—you know, all the stuff that's been getting cut in recent years. Something like that could work in some places.

In any case, the debate over a shortened school week is not going away any time soon. More districts across the country are doing their research in preparation for potentially making the switch.

Many parents don't theoretically mind the idea of their busy kids having an extra day off to unwind, pursue hobbies, see friends, catch up on projects, or spend time as a family. They're also usually in favor of anything that takes pressure off of overworked teachers. But until we adopt a four-day work week as the standard, the four-day school week is always going to feel a little out of place.

This article originally appeared in February. It has been updated.

From Your Site Articles

Fascinating video reveals 7 reasons why people in the past looked so much older

Why did teenagers in the 50s look 45?

1950s year book, old photos, college annual, students, 1950s america

via The Wittenberger/Wikimedia Commons

The Wittenberger College 1956 yearbook.

Ever look through your parents’ high school yearbook and all the teenagers look like they are 35 years old? When you think about how teenagers look today, the difference is striking. But why? Did people grow up much faster back in the day, or is there something else at play?

If you look back to the 1980s, there’s a clear difference between actors Paul Rudd and Wilford Brimley at 50.

— (@)

Sure, that's a cherry-picked, extreme version of the difference in how people age, but it does support the idea that just a few decades ago, people aged much faster.

In a recent video, the folks at Recollection Road did a deep dive into why your average high school junior in 1958 looked like a 55-year-old bank manager, and they found seven reasons. They were a mix of environmental and cultural factors that boiled down to one central point: people are much healthier these days.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

1. Smoking

“Cigarettes were everywhere: in diners, in offices, even on airplanes. In the 1950s, it wasn't unusual to see a mother with a baby in one arm and a cigarette in the other. High school kids would light up behind the gym, and by adulthood, many were chain smokers.”

A Gallup poll found that in 1954, 45% of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes at least once a week. Compare this with 2024, when only 11% of Americans smoked a cigarette in the previous week.

2. Sun exposure

“Back in the 1960s and 1970s, a summer tan wasn't just fashionable, it was almost required. People slathered on baby oil, laid out under the blazing sun, and cooked. There was no SPF 50. In fact, lotion was designed to help you burn faster for a deeper tan. Families on vacation didn't think twice about spending hours on the beach with no shade. By the time they were in their 30s or 40s, the sun had also carved wrinkles and dark spots into their skin.”

3. Fashion

“Think about old photos of your parents or grandparents. A 25-year-old man in 1948 was often dressed in a suit and tie, maybe even a fedora. A young woman might be wearing a conservative dress and practical shoes. By modern standards, those styles look more grown-up, more like something we'd expect from someone middle-aged.”

4. Life was harder

“Someone who grew up during the Great Depression often started working as a teenager to help put food on the table. A lot of young men were drafted into World War II or Vietnam before they were even old enough to legally drink. That kind of responsibility leaves its mark. … Even women carried heavy burdens. In the 1950s, a young mother might have had three or four kids by the time she was 25, while also running a household without modern conveniences like microwaves or dishwashers.”

5. Drinking

“Having a three martini lunch was common in the business world of the 1960s. Beer was practically considered a food group in some households. Combine that with less knowledge about exercise and health, and you can see why bodies wore down faster, giving people an older appearance earlier in life.”

There has been a sharp decline in the number of Americans who consume alcohol. In 1971, 71% of Americans had the occasional drink, but that number dropped to 54% in 2025. The decline in drinking is attributed to concerns over alcohol’s effect on health and a decrease in consumption amongst younger people.

6. Cultural expectations

"By their mid-20s, most people in the 1950s and ‘60s were married, raising children, and working full-time jobs. Life was about responsibility, not self-expression. They dressed older, behaved older, and carried themselves as adults.”

7. Testosterone

“Studies show that the average testosterone has been steadily declining for decades. Men in the 1950s and ‘60s often had higher natural testosterone than men today, which gave them more muscle mass, broader builds, and in some cases, more facial hair. While that might sound like it would make them look younger, it often had the opposite effect. The heavy brows, thick body hair, and rugged features made young men look tougher, older, and more weathered than their actual age.”

From Your Site Articles

In 1969, the Monkees appeared on The Johnny Cash Show and played a stunning, original country song

"Nine Times Blue" is a jaw dropping intersection of craftsmanship and pure talent.

the monkees, nume times blue, monkees live, monkees country, johnny cash show

via Colleen Gruver/YouTube

The Monkees perform on "The Johnny Cash Show."

The great debate about The Monkees is whether they were a real band or just a group of actors thrown together for a TV show. The answer is yes. They were actors cast to play an American version of The Beatles, and many of their early songs were written by big-time professional songwriters such as Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, Carole King, and Gerry Goffin.

However, The Monkees would pick up their own instruments, play on the 1967 Headquarters album, and perform as a live band on sold-out tours. After a resurgence in the '80s, the band enjoyed a lucrative career as a legacy act, with various members continuing to perform as The Monkees until Michael Nesmith died in 2021. Nesmith, originally a country singer from Dallas, Texas, wrote several of The Monkees' hits, including "Mary, Mary," "Papa Gene's Blues," "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," and "Listen to the Band," and was a driving force in the group being taken seriously as musicians.

By the summer of 1969, The Monkees' TV series was off the air, and the affable Peter Tork had exited the group, citing exhaustion. The remaining three soldiered on, performing on The Johnny Cash Show to promote their latest album, Instant Replay. The band chose to perform "Nine Times Blue," a country song written by Nesmith that he had demoed at the time but wouldn't be released until he recorded it as a solo artist in 1970.

The performance is a wonderful reminder that The Monkees were great comedic actors and accomplished musicians. Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz do a fantastic job singing harmonies on the chorus, while Nesmith plays some nice fills on his Gibson acoustic.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Later in the show, The Monkees joined Cash for a performance of his 1966 novelty song, "Everybody Loves a Nut," which perfectly suited the band's comedic sensibilities. Two weeks after the release, Cash scored one of his biggest hits with "A Boy Named Sue," recorded live at San Quentin prison.

A few months later, Nesmith left The Monkees to pursue a country-rock career, first with the seminal group The First National Band, which scored a Top 40 hit with "Joanne" from the album Magnetic South.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Although Nesmith's country-rock albums of the '70s were moderately successful, he was still overshadowed, as a musician, by The Monkees' towering success and subsequent downfall. In the '70s, it wasn't easy for Nesmith to get the respect he was due as a country artist. But in the years leading up to his death in 2021, Nesmith's work was reappraised, and he was seen as a brilliant songwriter who anticipated the rise of alt-country.

The Monkees hold a complicated place in rock 'n' roll history. While some see them as a prefabricated band assembled to cash in on The Beatles' success, others recognize them as talented musicians brought together under bizarre circumstances who forged their own path and created something fresh and innovative, only earning proper respect years later.

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Education & Information

Employment lawyer reveals the four text messages you should never send to a coworker

When it comes down to it, they're there to make money.

employee; employment law; work friends; work bestie; coworker boundaries; work boundaries; work life balance

Photo credit: Canva

Employment lawyer reveals 4 texts to never send a coworker

It's not uncommon for people to have a "work bestie" or "work spouse." Often, people spend a lot of their waking hours at work, so they're bound to feel like they've made true friendships with their coworkers. Before too long, numbers get exchanged, and they find themselves venting after hours about work, but this may not be a good thing.

Ed Hones is an employment attorney in Seattle, Washington, and he is not only discouraging coworkers from thinking of each other as friends, but also sharing what texts people should never send their colleagues. As an employment lawyer, Hones sees the legal fallout of the lines between friends and coworkers being blurred. Though he isn't saying people can't text their coworkers, he lists four specific types of texts to never send in case of a lawsuit.

"I see great cases destroyed every single day from one thing: old text messages," Hones reveals. "You might think that your text thread with your coworker is a safe space to vent, joke, or even scheme, but let me be clear about this one thing: it is not. In the eyes of the law, those text messages are evidence, and if you ever have to sue your employer for something, defense attorneys will find a way to get those text messages and destroy your credibility and tank your case."

employee; employment law; work friends; work bestie; coworker boundaries; work boundaries; work life balance Smiling at work, checking messages during a break.Photo credit: Canva

Of course, no one plans to sue their employer or to have their employer sue them, but sometimes things happen that result in lawsuits. Once a lawsuit is filed, discovery often follows, which means phone records and other device communications can be requested. If you've been trash-talking your boss or making egregious claims, you may be stuck having to explain it in court. But avoid sending these four texts, and you won't have to worry about your employer finding something to use against you in a lawsuit.

1. Asking a coworker to bend the rules

Hones explains that this often happens in the form of asking someone to clock you in or initial a form they forgot to complete. It may be something you think everyone does every once in a while at their place of employment, but sending a text message is documenting the request. Explicitly asking a coworker to break this employment policy can result in termination being justified. The employment attorney implores people to avoid doing it completely.

employee; employment law; work friends; work bestie; coworker boundaries; work boundaries; work life balance Man focused on his phone screen, deep in thought.Photo credit: Canva

2. Awkwardly acknowledging something inappropriate

"Here is the scenario," Hones says. "A coworker or supervisor texts you something inappropriate. Maybe it's a dirty joke or a comment about your private life, or medical condition. It makes you uncomfortable, but you have to see this person at the office tomorrow, and you don't want to make it awkward, so you reply with an LOL, laughing emoji, or a thumbs up. But if you send that text, you're walking into a legal trap called "The Unwelcome Standard.'" This means that if this behavior turns into harassment or creates a hostile environment, legally, it can be seen as being acceptable due to responses to inappropriate texts in the past.

3. Texting about job hunting

It's not uncommon for frustration to boil over and result in someone declaring they're going to start looking for a new job. Not every text or annoyed utterance about needing to find different employment is serious. Sometimes it is about blowing off steam, but other times it's truthful. Hones says not to let your employer be the one to decipher the difference in a court of law, because it may not work out in your favor. It could reduce an employee's lost wages claims, eliminate the ability to claim work conditions that resulted in an abrupt resignation, and even result in the company pushing an employee out if the text is revealed before they resign.

4. Talking trash about your boss or company

"We all need to vent, but doing it via text message hands the employer the perfect cover story," says Hones. This comes into play when an employee sues for discrimination or wrongful termination. According to the employment lawyer, if an employee sues for one of those reasons, the burden shifts to the employer to prove they didn't fire the employee for an illegal reason. If the employer discovers the negative texts about them, then it could give legitimacy to their claims if they have lied about the reasons someone was terminated. Hones says it's common for employers to lie in these cases by saying the employee was disrespectful or a bad employee, and texts trash-talking the boss would strengthen their argument.

employee; employment law; work friends; work bestie; coworker boundaries; work boundaries; work life balance Focused multitasking at the office.Photo credit: Canva

Hones explains in another video that it's not wise to assume your coworker-turned-friend will have your back in an employment investigation. Often, people need their jobs and are unwilling to risk them to help someone else keep theirs. Becoming overly familiar with a coworker may feel genuine and comfortable, but maintaining certain boundaries will help protect you legally should you ever have to sue your employer.

"Work relationships do not necessarily have to be friendly to be healthy," Dr. Maya Reynolds, MD, MPH, Psychiatrist and Behavioral Health Spokesperson at Choice Point Health, explains to Upworthy. "Keeping personal relationships and work relationships separated keeps a person free from additional emotional entanglement, rivalry, and disappointment. Because when work relationships step into personal life, promotions or disagreements can feel personal rather than professional, which brings a great emotional toll on oneself. Also, maintaining boundaries at work promotes your psychological safety."

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Millennials discuss their obsession with the teal-and-purple color combo in the '90s

"Those colors were so soothing!"

teal and purple, purple and teal, teal and purple 90s, 1990s colors, 90s trends

Images via Reddit/NoahTheAttacker, Face88888888

Millennials get nostalgic about the teal and purple color combination in the '90s.

Millennials who grew up in the 1990s remember plenty of trends from that decade. From hair ties with plastic beads to scented markers to Lite-Brites, these trends captured the essence of the '90s.

There was one color combination that marked the era's aesthetic: teal and purple. The mix became a Millennial craze, showing up on everything from clothing to cups, including the iconic Solo Jazz cup.

YouTubers Michelle Hickey and Steve King of Play Me a Memory explain how the colors exploded in popularity during the '90s, noting that the craze kicked off with a new NBA franchise: the Charlotte Hornets.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

In 1988, the Hornets joined the NBA, and their teal and purple uniforms made an immediate splash. "This was a completely different, outside-the-box concept for a design choice," King says.

The jerseys were created by North Carolina menswear fashion designer Alexander Julian. "Alex's favorite and signature color combination has always been purple and teal and it was a perfect match for his new basketball project," his website states.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Compared to other sports teams with more traditional colors, teal and purple had never been done before and became instantly memorable. Soon, the combination was replicated by other sports teams.

King adds that of the 22 new teams across the four major pro leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL), 11 that launched in the '90s used teal and/or purple as their colors. These included the Colorado Rockies, the Baltimore Ravens, the Toronto Raptors, and the San Jose Sharks. Sports fans repped the colors on Starter jackets and other sports gear.

Beyond the sports world, teal and purple seeped into design more broadly—from food courts and franchises like Taco Bell to iMacs and even movies and TV, such as Disney's The Little Mermaid.

"When I think of that movie, I think of that teal tail and purple being the secondary color to that," Hickey says.

The trend of combining teal and purple caught on, and King points to Jonah Berger's book Contagious: Why Things Catch On for insight into why it took off. He explains that social currency played a major role—meaning kids wearing Starter jackets or other cool sports apparel had the potential to "get me somewhere as a kid in the 90s in elementary school or middle school who might be struggling to kind of catch on with a friend group or trying to make a name for themselves...if I look like everyone else does, this is going to help me fit in a little bit more."

@tikittytalk
And the award for best color duo in a decade goes to: the 90s !! #90saesthetic #90snostalgia #90s #90sthrowback #1990s

Millennials on Reddit got nostalgic about the teal and purple items they owned in the '90s and their love for the colors to this day:

"Teal and purple 90's Adidas jackets rise up." - k1dsmoke

"You forgot the greatest teal of all time, the Charlotte Hornets Starter jacket." - elcamino4629

"So I learned just recently that this is my 24-year-old daughter's new favorite color combo! I had a whole teal and purple bedroom makeover when I was like 10 years old, and honestly I kinda miss it. Those colors were so soothing!" - Morriganx3

"All my outdoor hiking gear and mountain gear are different shades of teal. Literally. People can spot me on the mtn and recognize me just because of all the teal I'm sporting 🤣." - Curious_Run_1538

"Cuz it's tight. That jazz cup aesthetic is the goat. I have that exact pattern in a hoodie." - Siriusly_Jonie

"I had a teal Gameboy color!" - inthecards13

"I still am......and just putting it together that this is probably why." - Interesting_Zombie28

"Because the best Pop-Tart was teal and purple. Wild Berry Pop-Tarts." Bob4Not, rmay14444

"My old bedroom was painted a bright teal color. With inflatable furniture, large boom box, clear phone, got milk ads on the walls….Looking at old pictures gives me headaches." - aLonerDottieArebel

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teal and purple