2025 Year in Review

This is a summary of the books that I read in 2025. Most have been recorded as blog entries. Some entries are not published yet.

There were more than last year, thanks to my Pandemic Book Club, Library Thing, and my Graphic Novel class.

There were 49 blog entries last year. One of those was the 2024 review, and two of them were for the same book because I listened to it on audio and then months later I read it with my book club. I read another book that I listened to, but in that case, I updated the previous post because it wasn't as long before. (I don't have a hard and fast rule about this.)

I don't remember any books that I DNF'ed last year. I didn't make any blog entries. It could be because I just didn't have time for too many books that I didn't have to read.

On the other hand, there were at least two books, one hardcover and one ebook, that had to go back to the library, and I had to wait for them to be available. One is Dungeon Crawler Carl, which I currently have until Friday and will likely not finish before then, and the other I won't mention until I decide to Unsuspend or Delete my hold. I'm "next" to read it whenever I unsuspend, but I have other obligations, and it was a little outside my usual fare.

I downloaded a couple of Christmas books, but the only one I listened to (didn't read any) was Krampus. I just didn't have time. Also, I think I'll stick to the paranormal Christmas books because the cozy ones are all murder mysteries and that's not how I want to "get into the spirit".

This year I broke the list up by categories instead of going by the calendar. They aren't likely to be in the order they were read. I'm not linking to individual blog entries. If anyone finds this page and is interested, check the calendar for 2025 until you find the entry you're looking for!

Audo Books

• Krampus: The Yule Lord (Brom) - paperback wasn't available
• A Natural History of Dragons (Brennan) - a book for walking; no plans to read it
• Cast the First Stone (Warren) - reread with the Book Club
• New Beginnings (Masters) - another book for walking; no plans to read more in the series

Graphic Novels

• Understanding Comics (McCloud) - nonfiction
• Skim (Tamaki / Tamaki)
• Waverider: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #9) (Kibuishi)
• The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam: An Illustrated Memoir (Fleming) - nonfiction
• Kiss Number 8 (Venable)
• Yes, I'm Hot in This (Fahmy)

Manga

• Spy Classroom 2nd Period: Daughter Dearest, Vol. 1 (Tomari / Takemachi)
• Eden: It's an Endless World! Volume 1 (Endo)
• My Hero Academia Volume 40
• My Hero Academia Volume 41 -- I didn't make a blog entry, apparently, but I only have the final book to go!

Books

• Cast the First Stone (Warren)
• Selene: The Time Traveling A.I. G.F. (Gottfred)
• An Artsy Girl's Guide to Football (Taylor-Hart)
• Slewfoot (Brom)
• Dream Sweet in a Minor Sea (De Beer)
• Children of the Fire Moon (Bigfoot)
• The Sorrow Road (Dunstan)
• Cold Sassy Tree (Burns)
• The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina (Córdova)
• The Bee Sting (Murray)
• The Bartender Between Worlds (Steuernagel)
• Write Something (Levenberg)
• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (Hughes)
• In the Margins: They found their place by not fitting in (Shea)
• Trial by Moonlight (Hanford)
• Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-so-popular Party Girl (Russell)
• Renegades (Burton)
• Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch (Galchen)
• Beyond the Ocean Door (Sathi)
• The Silent Patient (Michaelides)
• Flume (Bigfoot)
• Fall Into Temptation (Score)
• Suburban Hell (Kilmer)
• I Know What UFO Did Last Summer (Garone)
• Starter Villain (Scalzi)
• The Fairy Godmother's Tale (Marks)
• A Peppermint Mocha to Die For (Valentine)
• Christmas, Pursued by a Bear (2020)
• Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life (Russell)
• The Full Moon Coffee Shop: A Novel (Mochizuki)
• Auto-Phobia (Spiegelman)
• Leo the Elf Saves Christmas (Doxon)

Finally, I noted one "random short story or novella", which was "Mud and Brass" by Andrew Knighton (2014), probably read around June.

There were no eSpec Books short stories because I've read all the smaller stuff I have from them. Barring obtaining more freebies as stretch goals in Kickstarter campaigns, I mostly have books of lengths that merit their own entries.

No Sue Grafton this year. I need to finish that series.

If I had to pick a favorite book of the year (leaving out the other categories), I'd probably pick Cast the First Stone (which ends on a cliffhanger/intro to book 2) or The Full Moon Coffee Shop, which was just a little different and ties itself up with a neat little bow.

Many of the others I could find fault with -- or are young adult books, which I won't label my best book of the year. Your mileage may vary.