Books I read in 2025

My reading from 2025. Towards the start of the year I thought it was possible I would not get much reading done, but despite moving and everything, I read a fair amount. As usual, I've separated the list into fiction and non-fiction.

FICTION

The Carbon-Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable Enviroteens and Revenge of the Toxic Space Potato (First Dog on the Moon) – Books spun off of some First Dog on the Moon cartoons; humorous and also on-the-nose.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, Into the Riverlands, Mammoths at the Gates, and The Brides of High Hill (Nghi Vo) – A series of short fantasies following the cleric Chih as they gather stories for their monastery. Fantasy.

The Black God's Drums (P. Djeli Clark) – Steampunk set in an alternate New Orleans, including magic and pirates. Urban fantasy.

The Red Scholar's Wake (Aliette de Bodard) – A recently-widowed sentient pirate ship and a scavenger newly captured by the pirate fleet team up to reform the fleet. Science fiction.

Navigational Entanglements (Aliette de Bodard) – Political intrigue intermixed with xianxia-style martial arts, featuring poisoning and also horrible extraplanar monsters. Science fiction.

To Shape A Dragon's Breath (Moniquill Blackgoose) – A girl finds a dragon egg and bonds with the dragon, which means she has to go to the mainland school of her people's conquerors in order to save her dragon and learn to take care of it. Fantasy.

The Wicked Bargain (Gabe Cole Novoa) – The protagonist's pirate father made a bargain to keep them alive, and now they have to deal with the consequences. Fantasy.

The Young Wizards books (Diane Duane) – Re-read, this time the updated ebook versions, including some extra short story collections; mostly the differences are in keeping the timeline together, but I appreciated the updated A Wizard Alone which no longer paints Darryl's being autistic as something he needs to get rid of or can just shuck off (I was uncomfortable with this entry in the series when I first read it for reasons I couldn't then put my finger on, so it was very nice to realize the updated version doesn't have those problems any more). Urban fantasy.

The Lotus Empire (Tasha Suri) – The conclusion to the Burning Kingdoms trilogy. A satisfying conclusion, but not one that wraps everything up happily, which is fitting. Fantasy.

Vivi Conway and the Lost Hero (Lizzie Huxley-Jones) – The satisfying conclusion to the series. Urban fantasy.

The Feline Wizards books (Diane Duane) – Re-read, this time the ebook versions with the addition of The Big Meow, which involves time travel and handles it well. Urban fantasy.

Cat + Gamer Volume 8 and Cat x Crazy Volume 1 (Wataru Nadatani) – The final Cat + Gamer volume, which is much in the same vein as the others, and the start of a new series that's a little weirder but fun. Manga.

Queen Demon (Martha Wells) – The second book of the Rising World series, sequel to Witch King. Again I enjoyed the interweaving of the historical tale of how the world got to this point with the present of the characters trying again to set things right. Fantasy.

The Tale of the Five series (Diane Duane) – Re-read, this time the ebook versions with the interstitial works thrown in; it had been a long time since I read these books, so I wanted to see how I feel about them now. I'm more positively inclined than I was last time, like twenty-five years ago. Fantasy.

NON-FICTION

Laziness Does Not Exist (Devon Price, Ph.D) – Interesting and helpful in my quest to stop kicking myself so much for being 'lazy' when I simply can't manage to do as much in a day as many people.

The Serviceberry (Robin Wall Kimmerer) – Musings on abundance and reciprocity in the natural world, as per the subtitle. Hopeful and enjoyable.

The Anxiety Survival Guide For Teens (Jennifer Shannon) – A quick read I checked out from the library on my ebook reader, which would probably have been more helpful for me before I had years of therapy, but still contained a couple good tips.

Outlaw Marriages (Roger Streitmatter) – Another from the library, this was a series of portraits of historical queer couples, mostly but not exclusively in the literary world.

A Queer History of the United States (Michael Bronski) – History of queer rights in the United States and key figures involved in that struggle, also checked out from the library.

Brawn BGP 001/02 (David Tremayne) – A photo-rich retrospective on the Brawn BGP 001/02 and the unusual circumstances of the 2009 F1 World Champions

Ancient Sea Reptiles (Darren Naish) – Covering mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, icthyosaurs, and some ancient sea turtles, snakes, and other creatures, this was a fascinating look at the creatures of the mesozoic seas.

A City On Mars (Kelly & Zach Weinersmith) – A discussion of the issues likely to arise if we were to colonize Mars, or indeed live in space at all; raising solutions where they seem to exist, but largely serving to debunk the notion that this would be in any way easy.

Being Peace and How To Relax (Thich Nhat Hanh) – Checked out from the library for reading on the train, and because I definitely needed to figure out how to relax last year.

Paleontology: The Illustrated History (David Bainbridge) – The history of paleontology, from the earliest discoveries in the first half of the 1800s to the present day. I checked this out from the library and read it on by ebook reader, which wasn't the best way to view the illustrations, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.

The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy (Steph Jones) – Despite the name, this book talks mostly about learning about yourself and what you need, although being able to communicate that to therapists and figure out when a therapist isn't working out for you is part of it.

Stuff That Sucks (Ben Sedley) – A quick read from the library aimed more at teens for how to deal with bad things happening, which would probably have been much more useful to me when I was that age, but was still a helpeful quick check for me.

A Brief History of Time Keeping (Chad Orzel) – An intriguing historical look at time keeping throughout human history, starting with ancient monuments like Stonehenge going through to modern atomic clocks.

Our Moon (Rebecca Boyle) – Humanity's history with regards to the moon, including using it to track the seasons, its role in myths through the ages, and early astronomy.

Radioactive! (Winnifred Conkling) – Checked out from the library, a look at Irene Curie and Lise Meitner and their contributions to the field of physics.

Still Singing 'Yma O Hyd' (Dafydd Iwan) – An autobiographical look at the recent history of the Welsh independence movement and the Welsh national spirit.

The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson) – Half a history of the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition and the architects who build it, half the sordid and also historical tale of the serial killer who haunted it from the shadows.

Here Be Dragons (Ralph Whitlock, illustrated by Rowynn Ellis) – A recently illustrated new edition of a collection on the mythical dragons of the British Isles.