2025 in books

[white_hart]

Probably due to being deep in burnout for most of the year*, I only managed to read 68 books in 2025, which is a long way down on the last couple of years - there was a period over the summer where I was really struggling to focus and reading much more slowly than normal. (I've also read fewer than half as many novellas and novelettes this year as I did last year, much less non-fiction, but only 14 fewer novels.) As always, the vast majority of the books I read were by women, and my most-read genre was fantasy.

The full list is:

A Flat Place -Noreen Masud
Look to the Lady -Margery Allingham
The Flowers of Vashnoi-Lois McMaster Bujold
Liberty's Daughter -Naomi Kritzer
East of Midnight -Tanith Lee
The Sugared Game-K.J. Charles
A Letter to the Luminous Deep -Sylvie Cathrall
The Seven Brides-to-be of Generalissimo Vlad-Victoria Goddard
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun-Sébastien Japrisot
Spring Cannot Be Cancelled - David Hockney and Martin Gayford
Chimes at Midnight -Seanan McGuire
Outcrossing -Celia Lake
Thomas the Rhymer -Ellen Kushner
Police at the Funeral -Margery Allingham
The Lotus Empire -Tasha Suri
I overcame my autism and all I got was this lousy anxiety disorder -Sarah Kurchak
A Phoenix First Must Burn-Patrice Caldwell (ed)
Menewood -Nicola Griffith
Paladin's Hope-T Kingfisher
Zami: A New Spelling Of My Name -Audre Lorde
Someone You Can Build A Nest In-John Wiswell
A Long Way From Verona -Jane Gardam
The Friend Zone Experiment -Zen Cho
The Martian Contingency -Mary Robinette Kowal
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue-V.E. Schwab
I Crossed the Minch-Louis McNeice
Interstellar Megachef -Lavanya Lakshminarayan
Subtle Blood-K.J. Charles
Archer's Goon-Diana Wynne Jones
Embroidering Her Truth -Clare Hunter
How Goes the World -K.J. Charles
The Winter Long-Seanan McGuire
You Are Here -David Nicholls
The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses -Malka Older
Song of the Huntress-Lucy Holland
Spent-Alison Bechdel
This Enchanted Island -Tansy Rayner Roberts
Stone and Sky-Ben Aaronovitch
The Lost Plot -Genevieve Cogman
The Ministry of Time-Kaliane Bradley
An Expert in Murder -Nicola Upson
A Book of Migrations -Rebecca Solnit
Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear?-Lev Parikian
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands -Sarah Brooks
Olive and the Dragon -Victoria Goddard
Cryoburn-Lois McMaster Bujold
Murder By Memory -Olivia Waite
Ancient Trust -Celia Lake
Tom Lake-Ann Patchett
Less-Patrick Grant
Night Swimmers-Roisin Maguire
The Incandescent -Emily Tesh
The Time of the Ghost -Diana Wynne Jones
The Deep Sky-Yume Kitasei
Self-care for Autistic People -Megan Anna Neff
A Letter from the Lonesome Shore-Sylvie Cathrall
Persephone in Bloom -Kate Healey
Guilty By Definition -Susie Dent
Curse of Bronze-Tansy Rayner Roberts
We Will Rise Again-ed Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz, Malka Older
Black Maria-Diana Wynne Jones
The River Has Roots -Amal El-Mohtar
A Stocking Full of Spies-Robin Stevens
All Is Bright -Llinos Cathryn Thomas
Super Spy Science Secret Santa -Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Last Hour Between Worlds-Melissa Caruso
Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain-Amy Jeffs
A Honeymoon of Grave Consequence -Stephanie Burgis

I'm not sure I can come up with any kind of ranking, but some of the books that particularly stick in my memory are A Letter to the Luminous Deep (though I don't think the sequel quite lived up to the first book), Menewood, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, Song of the Huntress, Murder by Memory, Tom Lake, The Incandescent, Persephone in Bloom and The Last Hour Between Worlds. If you want to know more about what I thought of any of the books I read, ask in comments, or give me a random number between 1 and 68 if you want me to talk about a random book!

*possibly not only due to burnout, but it's interesting that I read 15 of the 68 in the last six weeks of the year, after I was signed off work

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I know this probably won't signify to you but 53 books (the pre-15) is still more than one a week and a lot by most people's standards, especially if they also do other reading.

Thank you for mentioning the new Bechdel. It had completely passed me by but it's on my list now.

Merry Christmas (if you're on an Orthodox schedule) or happy Gregorian rollover or enjoyable midwinter sparkle-fest of your choice. :-)

[white_hart]

That is true (though much slower than the rate at which I acquire books, I fear!).

The Bechdel is excellent!

[perennialanna]

I had also missed the existence of a new Bechdel!

[sfred]

Tom Lake was one of my standouts too.

[white_hart]

I bought it on your recommendation and was not disappointed.

[sfred]

Oh, hurray!

[lokifan]

Wanna talk about one of the Diana Wynne Joneses? She's such an intense fave of mine.

[white_hart]

She's a huge favourite of mine, too! Archer's Goon was a reread of one of my favourites, because I wanted something entertaining and comforting; the other two I read because I've been listening to the Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones podcast, which is discussing each book in publication order. I can't remember if I read Time of the Ghost as a child, but if I did it went over my head so much I remembered almost nothing about it (which is a huge shame as it's so good!); Black Maria I hadn't read before (my childhood reading stopped in the late 80s, so everything from the 1990s onward I read as an adult, and I haven't quite got through all of it yet) but I was fascinated by the way it mixed material from mythical and literary sources with an absolute rejection of fixed gender roles.

[jinty]

I really loved Hild and I did know that Menewood is out but haven’t yet got to it. It lived up to expectations set by the first book, then, I guess?

I liked Night Swimmers more than I would have thought, as I don’t normally go a bundle on that sort of slice of life novel. I only read it because my other half had a copy though.

I absolutely devoured The Incandescent! Will be re-reading it in due course, I am sure.

[white_hart]

I thought Menewood was really good - she writes such immersive stories. It didn't hurt that I read it while we were on holiday in Yorkshire, including a day in Whitby, and I felt like I had the modern and early medieval worlds overlaid on top of each other.

I bought Night Swimmers on a whim in the bookshop in Woodstock, mostly because of the title, and wasn't completely taken with it - Tom Lake was a much better example of that kind of book.

[jinty]

The cover of Night Swimmers was rather handsome but I was able to put it down while reading it in a way that clearly indicated I wasn’t all that taken with it. (Though as I say I was more taken with it than I would have expected.)