My 2025 reading
Going into 2026, I’m planning to do monthly updates on what I’m reading. But for now, here’s a list of the books I loved best out of the 150 I read this year, listed in the order I read them. (Yes, I really do read that much, though the count includes novellas and even novelettes.)
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams. This is on the surface a paranormal romance, but a unique one, written from a semi-omniscient POV that's unusual in modern genre fiction but gives a certain mythical once-upon-a-time feel that really works for it.
How to Winter by Kari Leibowitz. A rare self-help book, in that I’ve actually been applying its lessons on how to thrive and find joy in wintertime as I go through what we in Seattle refer to as The Great Dark. Currently, 10 days or so after the solstice, the sun is rising around 8 AM and setting before 4:30 PM.
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. This science fiction novel is the only case I know of where my fiction tastes have overlapped with Barack Obama’s—it made his Summer 2024 reading list. (In nonfiction we’re more alike.)
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell. Just your average horror-fantasy monster-slaying romance written from the perspective of the monster.
Who Is Government? ed. by Michael Lewis. A beautiful look at some of the extraordinary yet ordinary employees of the US government. Unfortunately it was also a depressing look, given the current state of things.
The Maid and the Crocodile by Jordan Ifueko. I really enjoyed this YA fantasy novel with an ordinary, humble heroine who (mostly) stays ordinary even as she comes into her voice and confidence.
The Scapegracers and its sequels by H.A. Clarke. What a fun, twisty, chaotic YA horror-fantasy!
The Adventure of the Demonic Ox by Lois McMaster Bujold. A lovely novella in the long-running Penric & Desdemona fantasy series, and an excuse for a comfort re-read of most of the earlier entries in the series.
Hemlock & Silver by T Kingfisher. While I will read Kingfisher's horror novels, I'm always happiest when she writes books like this, fantasy with a nice thread of romance and just a smidge of horror here and there.
The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy. A fantasy novel about a band of feral cats in Delhi--it reminded me of the Warrior Cats series my son loved as a child, only much more elegantly written and grounded in its setting.
The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis. A delightful and rather cozy fantasy about a mundane mother who has to try to make a place for her family in a snooty, competitive magical town after her daughter is bitten by a werewolf and can no longer attend a "normal" school.
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan. A portal fantasy where a young woman on the verge of death from cancer is granted a chance to live in the world of a popular dark fantasy series, only to find herself playing the role of one of the main villains. It's dark, bloody, and often hilarious, and I've already preordered the sequel that's due out next spring.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian. An utterly heartwarming m/m baseball romance set in NYC in 1960.
A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry. What if the French and Haitian Revolutions, but with necromancers, vampires, weather mages, and the like, many of whom will be very familiar from the pages of your history books or your hours spent listening to Mike Duncan’s podcasts?