How to be a Saint - Review

Author: Kate Sidley

Genre: Humor / Nonfiction

Format: Kindle

Pages: 224

Huge thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a chance to read this early! How to Be a Saint by Kate Sidley will hit shelves on August 19th, 2025!

This was absolutely hilarious! It was kind of funny to laugh out loud and make faces while I read in public. It was kind of funny to read passages out loud to my roommate while we read together in the living room because I had to share what was just said. How to Be a Saint was everything I wanted it to be when I first saw it on NetGalley and smashed the request button. I cannot wait for its official release day so I can get my hands on a physical copy and get on my shelf with the rest of my favorite silly nonfiction books.

Satire nonfiction is one of my subgenres of nonfiction. For me it's a fun way to learn without feeling like I'm stuck in a lecture hall from hell. Kate Sidley was an absolute riot to read, and this book was so much fun. So if you want to learn something about sainthood while having a little laugh (more like a big one) this book is for you.

How to Be a Saint is filled to the brim with facts, photos, and amazing footnotes. You can tell that Sidley put a lot of time and love into this book to create something not only fun but hilarious as well. Listen, I know I'm fangirling all over this book, but it's only January, and this is on my list of favorite books of 2025. I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish. And, what's really great about this book, was I had to put it down for a bit as life got a little hectic, but I was able to pick this one up again, with no problem. I jumped right back in with no feet like I just set it down before. Not two weeks ago.

It is a short and quick read when life doesn't hand you the chance for quite a bit of overtime. This is easily a fun beach read, vacation read, and right before bed to unwind from the read, I could go on and on. I really did enjoy this book and Sidley's comedy style in the writing. I loved the little fourth wall breaks. As a whole, it's a solid book and lots of fun. The quiz was hands down my favorite part because of the answer key at the end.

My only issue with this book is one I've had with many of the advanced Kindle copies. The format is not the greatest and at times makes the book hard to read. I ran across that a couple of times with this book, where the picture ended up in pieces or split between two pages, or in a weird case the photo format had affected the page as a whole, and broke apart the chapter in a weird way that I had to jigsaw back together. And, I realize that has nothing to do with the author, and probably also the publisher, it is just the downside of getting early before it's been formatted correctly. So I assume those changes will be made to the final copy closer to pub day!

It only means I'm more movitated to see this book in the wild, and get a better look at the photos and caption in the final copy!

Once again, How to Be a Saint by Kate Sidley will be released officially on August 19th, 2025!

HAPPY READING!!