Thanks to Richard O for this very kind review! ❤️

#shaunanthonymcmichael
#whistlepunkfalls
#washingtonnovels
#alternativebookpress
#punkrocknovel
#mentalhealthnovel
#novelist
#seattlenovelist
#2025books
#mothersandsons
#friendship
#goodreads
#review
#author

Page-turning fiction!
www.rowanprosepublishing.com/books
💜📚💜

#fictionaddiction #2025books #horror #thriller #urbanfantasy #romance #cozymystery #fantasy #suspense #YAbooks #booksky #readersky #rowanprosepub

Thanks to Wendy McLaughlin for this awesome review on GoodReads. 😍🔥🤟

#shaunanthonymcmichael
#whistlepunkfalls
#washingtonnovels
#alternativebookpress
#punkrocknovel
#mentalhealthnovel
#novelist
#seattlenovelist
#2025books
#mothersandsons
#friendship
#review
#author

My 2025 reading list from StoryGraph. Which you can follow me on there (thestorygraph.com/profile/patrick_j_murphy_iii).
#readerofinstagram #readdaily #readerlife #reader #reading #booklover #booklist #bookshelves #storygraph #storygraphbooks #storygraphwrapup #bookwrapup #2025books #2026

#books #booksky #readinglist25 #2025books #februaryreading #reading #february

2025 in Review: The Books Good Morning Folks. As I often do, the start of a new year is a time for reflection back upon the previous one. While I never can seem to keep exactly the same rhythms anymore, I figured I might branch out and start what are hopefully a new series of yearly “in review” posts. 2025 was one of those years where I had to lean on distractions heavily, and those distractions came in many forms. Some of them were comfort gaming, others experiencing new anime, and an awful lot were the books that I read. This morning I am going to talk about some of the more significant books that I enjoyed. I set my goal for 30 books and ended up reading 38. For those curious, I use both Bookwyrm and Storygraph to track my reading journey. Bookwyrm is a federated client so it is very easy to share on Mastodon if the mood strikes me and I want to write a proper review of a book. Storygraph I mostly use because it has a really good recommendation algorithm, that has fed me a few books that I otherwise would not have paid attention to. ## My Best Friend’s Exorcism Probably my favorite single book of the year was My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. This was my entry into this author’s work and at some point I want to check out more books. I read Witchcraft for Wayward Girls and it did not quite land the same for me. I think that might be in part because so much of this is my adolescent years bottled and packaged up into a novel form. It takes place in the 80s that I remember so vividly, and the pair remind me a bit of two of my friends who were always together but similarly somewhat mismatched. There is a made for amazon movie for this book… but I could not get through it. It just did not capture any of the magic of this book for me about demon possession and undying friendship. ## Dungeon Crawler Carl If we are not talking about single books, then my highlight of the year is reading the entirety of what has been published so far in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. This was my first foray into RPGLit and while I loved it… I am not sure if the larger genre is really my thing. In truth it takes a few books for this series to really reach its stride, and I think part of that is Matt Dinniman shuffling off the normal constraints of the genre and leaning into the best aspects of this cast of amazing characters. Specifically I LOVE the voice acting of Jeff Hayes, and if you have read these in text form, you owe it to yourself to listen to the audio books as well. Right now A Parade of Horribles is supposedly slotted for release in May and I am literally almost thrumming with excitement for it. ## Murderbot Series Another series that I fell in love with this year is Murderbot. In the months ahead of the release of the television series, I burned through these books and they are really comfortable reads. Each of them is very short and very focused, with a fast moving narrative that is just a delight. This will be another one of those series that I consume happily whenever a new book comes out, and at some point I should really dive out into the other things Martha Wells has written. Reading these books has made me realize that I might be slightly on the spectrum, just because the running internal monologue of Murderbot feels so god damned familiar to me. ## News Flesh Series In the column of… I should have read this decades ago… we have the Newsflesh series. Legitimately I remember seeing Feed at borders so many times and almost picking it up. I love Seanan McGuire, and I had no clue that Mira Grant was a pen name until earlier this year when I dove down this rabbit hole. This series is so damned good that it is almost painful that I did not read it before now. So many great characters delivered with only the level of sass that Seanan can. At some point I am going to start the October Daye series, because I am fully on board with anything crafted by this author I think. If you like zombies and honestly a kind of fresh spin on them, or at least fresh for the time in which these books came out. I highly suggest giving these a read. They go pretty quickly. In the biggest disappointment or the year… we have Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente. I loved the adventures of Decibel Jones in Space Opera last year so freaking much, that I was rather excited to read this sequel. The problem is… this book is a bit of a meandering mess. It eventually does find its heart and lands the plane safely… but holy shit are you going to have to wade through a lot of nonsense to get there. More than anything it feels like this author was pressured to write a sequel and had zero fucking clue how they wanted to do this thing. The entire first half of the book could essentially be removed and you would still have a reasonable plot. It just sort of feels like stalling until inspiration hit and then rushing to the finish line. ## Camp Damascus Camp Damascus from Chuck Tingle is the book that almost broke me. I had never read a Chuck Tingle book before, but this is very much not the usual “pounded in the butt by” book. This book is bleak… really fucking bleak. It is extremely well crafted and does a phenomenal job of exploring the themes of “gay conversion” camps through the lens of horror. Sure this is horror and sure there are fantastical elements, but the core of this narrative is all too real. It is well worth a read but it was a bit of a suckerpunch that left me reeling for awhile. I finished the book on March 27th, and it was not until July 23rd that I even attempted to read another book. Sure I had a really fucking bad July… for reasons I have gone into at length in so many posts… but this book drained me of the will to keep reading for awhile. ## Sworn Soldier Series Another series that I really enjoyed last year was the Sworn Soldier series by T. Kingfisher. Essentially this is the Gothic horror of Poe, Shelly and Stoker for a modern audience. Each of these books is pretty short, similar to the Murderbot books and are extremely easy reads. What Moves the Dead is effectively a re-imagining of the Fall of the House of Usher, and from there we get more interesting snippets of nature gone wrong, and eldritch horror in the other two novels. Alex Easton is an immediately likeable protagonist, and the books are just enjoyable. Well worth your time if you enjoy unknowable horrors. ## Cerulean Chronicles At least for me, as I have found out what a regressive shitbag that J.K. Rowling has turned out to be… I struggle with the Harry Potter series. I will always love the characters because those books meant so much to me as I was reading them, but I want zero of my dollars to ever go toward supporting her quite frankly evil causes. I’ve read that TJ Klune set out to write the Cerulean Sea series as an unabashedly clear wizarding tale, and one of love and warmth and acceptance. They succeeded in this and the two books are a joy to read. I happened to be turned onto this series just as the sequel was coming out, so I was able to read them back to back. The first novel is really tight and clearly focused, but the second one takes a little bit to get started but has a rousing finish. If you crave some intentionally queer friendly wizarding worlds… I suggest you also dive into this series. You can always see the full list of everything that I read in 2025 over on my Bookwyrm goals page, as that is probably the easiest and most concise way to see it. You can also follow me on Storygraph to see what I am actively reading there. I occasionally write reviews there, but fairly rarely as most of my content ends up here on the blog. What were some of your favorite books that you read in 2025? Would love to hear of anything that you think I should read so I can add it to my 2026 list. ### Share this: * Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print * More * * Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest * Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * ### Like this: Like Loading... ### _Related_

Good Morning Folks! Starting a bit of a 2025 in Review series on my blog, as this morning I talked about some of the important books that I read from last year.

aggronaut.com/2026/01/02/2025-in-revie...

#Books #AmReading #Bookstadon #books2025 #2025books

Text: 2025 New Releases at Decadent Publishing ~ decadentpublishing.com Image is a red-covered open book with with red hearts coming out of it on a black background.

We had 77 new romance books release at Decadent Publishing in 2025. Check out our blog post for a complete list of those titles.

decadentpublishing.com/blog/2025-ne...

#BookSky #RomanceBooks #Romancelandia #books #reading #2025Books #2025Reads

@story_goblin’s Reading wrap up summary generated by The StoryGraph. They read 93 books— 32,050 pages and 48.55 hours. The first book they read was Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan, the last book they read was The Guard in the Garden by Z.S. Diamanti, the longest book they read was A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, and the shortest book they read was Rapport by Martha Wells. Their average rating for the year was 4.42 stars.

📚 Overall I had a really good #reading year, but I’m most proud that I finally finished reading The Wheel of Time! #WoT #StoryGraph #ReadingWrapped #2025books
View entire Wrapped stats here: app.thestorygraph.com/wrap-up/2025...

The book cover “The Wedding People”

The book cover “Automatic Noodle”

The book cover “The Lantern of Lost Memories”

My 5 ⭐️ books I read in 2025 Pt II:
#2025books #booksky #books #bookstoread

A collage of data generated in my StoryGraph profile shows some of the books I’ve read this year. It’s gives some stats including: 76 Books Read 26,245 Pages And top rated authors of mine were R.F. Kuang, Isabel Allende, and Wendell Berry.

It was a good reading year!

💙📚🖋️📚💬
#BookSky #2025Books #NewYear #WrapUp #Books #BookReview #StoryGraph

📚 Some more reading stats for 2025:

Longest Book: 'The Count of Monte Cristo' - Alexandre Dumas (1312 pgs)
Shortest: 'A Christmas Carol' - Charles Dickens (80 pgs)
Most Read Author: Stephen King
Most Read Genre: Mystery
Average Rating: 3.42

📚💙 #BookSky #Books #Readers #2025Books

2025 #BookRoundup

Read: 152
5⭐ reads: 16
Kindle books: 31
Chunky Classics: 3/4
To be donated: 38
Books Bought: 61

Book of the Year: 'The Count of Monte Cristo' - Alexandre Dumas

📚💙 #BookSky #Books #Readers #2025Books

December reading roundup graphic created via Storygraph. Books shown are: The Killer in the Cold - Alex Pine Murder Under The Mistletoe - Richard Coles The Christmas Jigsaw Murders - Alexandra Benedict The Dead of Winter - Edited by Cecily Gayford Mystery in White - J. Jefferson Farjeon Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife - Martin Edwards Murder at Maybridge Castle - Ada Moncrieff Who Killed Father Christmas? - Edited by Martin Edwards The White Priory Murders - Carter Dickson A Christmas Murder - Mary Grand Murder By Candlelight - Edited by Cecily Gayford A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Skipping Christmas - John Grisham The Thirteen Days of Christmas - Jenny Overton

December #BookRoundup

Read: 14 (Year total = 152)
5⭐ reads: 1
Kindle books: 1 (= 31/30)
Chunky Classics: 0 (= 3/4)
To be donated: 5 (= 38/30)
Books Bought: 0 (Year total = 61 😬)
Books gifted to me: 17

Book of the Month: 'A Christmas Carol' - Charles Dickens

📚💙 #BookSky #Books #Readers #2025Books

In 2025 I read what fit my mood. No goal. No pressure. I tried new authors, switched genres, and revisited favorites. My pace. My rules. #2025books #fablereadingwrapup #moodreading #newauthors #booksky 🌶📚💙🪐

What I read this year... (my pace increased a lot when my sabbatical started :))

#2025Reads #2025Books

- Villager; one of the first books I read this year and one that has stuck with me the most. Multiple stories told over time about a single location, weaving together folktales and modern issues

#booksiread #2025books #ayearofbooks #100booksinayear

Book 28 of 2025
𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 1942 by Linda Mahkovec
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just like the first two, this third installment in the 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 series was like an old-fashioned warm hug, with an atmosphere and gentle narrative style that immediately transported me back in time.
#booksky #2025books

Intense Fantasy, Queer Literature, and a Retro Detective: A Selection of Notable Books of 2025 At the end of the year, it is common to summarize personal or professional achievements. Some share their accomplishments on blogs, others highlight their work, and some receive prestigious awards. In this case, I decided to review my reading experiences over the past year. This selection includes books I read in 2025 that stood out […] Post Intense Fantasy, Queer Literature, and a Retro Detective: A Selection of Notable Books of 2025 at Root-Nation.com.

Intense Fantasy, Queer Literature, and a Retro Detective: A Selection of Notable Books of 2025 #FantasyBooks #QueerLiterature #BookRecommendations #ReadingList #2025Books

Read wayyyyy more than I expected to this year. Here are my faves🥰 #BlackLibrarian #2025books #Romantasybooks #lgbtbooks #QWOCbooks

Chihayafuru volume 28

Chihayafuru vol 28 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#2025books 💙📚

WJK Bestsellers - WJK Books WJK Bestsellers

And just like that, 2025 is coming to a close. ICYMI, check out our bestsellers for the year at www.wjkbooks.com/bestsellers!

#BestSeller #2025books #2025bestsellers

Gatusina

Gatusina ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#2025books 💙📚

El conde de Montecristo

El Conde de Montecristo (II) ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

#2025books

There's still time left to take 25% off more than 150 titles published this year! Use code D25-YR at check out to receive your discount.

💻️: https://tinyurl.com/39w29f2m

#militaryhistory #2025books #booksale

A Holly Holly Christmas

A Holly jolly Christmas ⭐️⭐️

#2025books 💙📚

Wow, you can really tell when i got that library card, 🤣

#library #2025books #ayearinbooks #nerd

2025 Favorite Books

My 5/5 ⭐️ book reads of the year. I read 51 books in total, more than I’ve read in one year in all my life. #booksky #books #2025books

La Princesa de Clèves

La Princesa de Clèves ⭐️⭐️ 1/2

#2025books 💙📚

Solo leveling volume 3

Solo Leveling vol 3 ⭐️⭐️ 1/2

#2025books 💙📚

Book 27 of 2025
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘴 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘱 by Jenny Colgan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Another delightful comfort read from Coglan with a wonderful balance of Christmasy atmosphere and details and heartwarming moments of family and community.
#booksky #2025books