27. Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. Famine and barbarism in a fictional middle ages fiefdom. A vile book filled with detestable characters doing awful things. Good beach read.
bookshop.org/p/books/lapv...
26. The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger.
Plant science at the cutting edge. Really interesting stuff and well written.
Been in a bit of a rut lately, picking up and setting aside several choices, letting small things get in the way of my enjoying a book. Perhaps a spring restlessness.
25. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. "He has landed. It is finished." I have had my vision. bookshop.org/p/books/to-t...
24. Tom's Crossing by Mark Danielewski. Not nearly finished. Love it and hate it. Been listening to audiobook and just found out it uses cutesy spelling like 'enuf' and want to wash my hands of it. Filled with dialogue between people who act like the story's out of the fucking Bible. It's just ok.
23. Piracy, Turtles and Flying Foxes by William Dampier. The author is mentioned in Eradication. A chronicle of early European explorers making the world horrible for native people. Some wonderment at the beauty of the landscape they will eventually ruin. Obviously left me feeling a bit glum.
22. Eradication by Jonathan Miles. Short, well-written, if a little predictable. Worth the time it will take to read.
bookshop.org/p/books/erad...
21. The Ten Year Affair by Erin Somers
A smart and funny novel about marriage and affairs that both do and don't happen. A bit borrowed from Sliding Doors, but no less effective. I reread the last chapter as it brought me a lot of enjoyment in its sincerity and humor.
20. Falling Upwards by Richard Holmes. A lovely history, full of wonderful showmen, explorers, adventurers, inventors, and no small number of balloonists who didn't quite make it back alive. Very well written. This author is mentioned in Ian McEwan's What Can We Know
bookshop.org/p/books/fall...
19. Sheepdogs by Elliot Ackerman. International intrigue and comic caper timing creates a fun, breezy read. Sets up for a sequel.
bookshop.org/p/books/shee...
18. Sky Daddy by Kate Folk. A woman's sexual obsession with airplanes begins to ruin her life. Hilariously awkward but with a very warm and earnest core to it. I look forward to more from this author.
bookshop.org/p/books/sky-...
Buzz Kill by J Robert Lennon. Sequel to Hard Girls. A decent follow up with likeable characters and tight pacing. The conspiracy behind the plot was forgivably unbelievable. It's a fun read!
bookshop.org/p/books/buzz...
16. What Can We Know by Ian McEwan. Future historians concern themselves with the 20th century affairs of academics and writers. Some stunning plot and literary deftness, but could've been a third shorter.
bookshop.org/p/books/what...
15. So Far Gone by Jess Walter. I have always enjoyed this author from Spokane. This one's a bit of a family drama, bit of a thriller. Good sense of humor, solid set of characters, and nice pacing, too.
bookshop.org/p/books/so-f...
14. Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou. A gothic, brooding blend of fairy tale, Greek tragedy (complete with chorus), and the oral storytelling tradition. Does the plot cohere nicely with clearly motivated characters? Of course not. But it's a hell of a vibe.
bookshop.org/p/books/sour...
13. What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang. Was hoping for a great Gen Z novel about confronting death in an increasingly online life, but it felt so deliberately toothless and meandering. Just not for me, gave up halfway.
bookshop.org/p/books/what...
12. Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. More climate fiction from the author of Migrations, this a family drama and kind of a mystery, set on an antarctic island with a failing seed vault. I enjoyed it, dark and haunting like her other works.
bookshop.org/p/books/wild...
11. Tilt by Emma Pattee. A pregnant woman navigates through Portland Oregon after the Big One hits. A very well-paced book, weaving between drama and thriller. While overall optimistic, there's a lot of sadness and anxiety throughout.
bookshop.org/p/books/tilt...
10. Underspin by E.Y. Zhao. The story of a table tennis prodigy who dies young, each chapter from the perspective of a different character in his orbit. Some really shining moments of prose and pacing, but I cannot fucking stand the main character and don't know why I should. DNF after two-thirds.
9. Bunny by Mona Awad. Academic horror, summoning and transformation magic, exploding heads, cliques. I get why this is a cult hit, and I read it in preparation for the followup, but I might take a break from the Bunnyverse for a bit.
8. God's Middle Finger by Richard Grant. A British journalist takes a thoughtful, frank, and at times harrowing trip through the Sierra Madres, dodging narcos, feuding neighbors, and bandits.
7. Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah. Three young Tanzanian adults navigating the class and gender divides in a globalizing community. I didnt feel much engagement with the characters until the latter half, tbh
bookshop.org/p/books/thef...
6. Women, Seated by Zhang Yueran. A brief but interesting novel of a nanny for an upper class family navigating a corrupt world. Some genuinely funny moments but also well-drawn characters.
bookshop.org/p/books/wome...
5. Too Soon by Betty Shamieh. At first I just tolerated the narcissist main character because I loved the sections about her grandmother and her family's flight from Palestine after the Nakba. But the digressions and flashbacks muddied the plot and made this too frustrating to finish.
4. The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy. A novel about five Black women and their friendships. Very well drawn characters which yield exceptional 1:1 relationships. A jarring closing scene in a near-future police state will sit with me for awhile.
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
3. Silver Book by Olivia Laing. I really enjoyed this story of queer love in 1970s Rome on the set of a Fellini film. It's a good length, but it could've gone on longer and I wouldn't have complained.
bookshop.org/p/books/the-...
2. Swallows by Natsuo Kirino. A novel about a surrogate pregnancy in Japan. I really enjoyed the energy of this book, an interesting drama, frank sexuality, and an ending that truly surprised me.
bookshop.org/p/books/swal...
1. Proto by Laura Spinney. I loved the author's Pale Rider, and while this is impeccably researched and written, it got a little vague for me when it spent much of the book tracking all the migrating peoples.
bookshop.org/p/books/prot...
I won't list books here unless I get at least halfway through. I will probably use the Tournament of Books long list again this year as a general reading guide, despite some ones that really didn't work for me last year.
Starting my 2026 year in books thread here!
In 2025 I read 111 books, mostly in ebook and audiobook format, and mostly from Seattle and King County Public Libraries. Support your public library!