How many books read in 2025:
I read 133 books!
How many fiction and non fiction?:
Mostly fiction, but I read a lot more non-fiction this year!
Male/Female author ratio?:
Somewhat more women
Favorite book of 2025?:
The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin
Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
Spector of the Past by Timothy Zahn
The Relentless Legion by J.S. Dewes
Corellian trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Gemina and Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Hana Kimi manga series by Hisaya Nakajo
Star Wars Legends: The Rebellion comics by various
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Age of Legend by Michael J. Sullivan
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
Least favorite?:
James by Percival Everett. It completely missed the point of the original novel it was retelling (making Huck Finn his son completely takes away from Huck's decision to free Jem/James) and it made James a real asshole (I can't forgive him for letting that fellow black man- who was white passing- who had been risking his life to help him, drown. Ungrateful bastard). Also, the hate for abolitionists is just stupid and needs to stop.
I was also super meh about Dark Matter. I didn't hate it, but I cannot fathom how it is so popular. I was SOO BORED.
Oldest and Newest?:
Oldest was The Epic of Gilgamesh, which was written around 2,100 BC D:
Newest was Knight Owl's Little Christmas, which came out in October 2025
Longest and shortest book titles?:
Longest title was- Welsh Monsters & Mythical Beasts: A Guide to the Legendary Creatures from Celtic Welsh Mythology by C.C.J. Ellis
Shortest title was- James by Percival Everett
Longest and shortest books?:
The shortest was Christmas Gnomes by Kelly Green at 14 pages
The longest was Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson at 1,344 pages
How many books from the library?:
A good chunk were from the library
Any translated books?:
Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (from Korean)
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (from Japanese)
The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Lee Mi-ye (from Korean)
Our Dreams at Dusk: Shimanami Tasogare by Yuhki Kamatani (from Japanese)
The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (from Spanish)
Hana Kimi mangas by Hisaya Nakajo (from Japanese)
Asadora! by Naoki Urasawa (from Japanese)
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles (from Greek)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (from French)
The Epic of Gilgamesh by unknown (from Sumerian)
Alcestis by Euripides (from Greek)
Christmas at Glitter Peak Lodge by Kjersti Herland Kohnsen (from Norwegian)
Most read author?:
Considering I all of the main books of the main A Song of Ice and Fire this year, I'm going with George R.R. Martin XD And I also read the entirety of the Hana Kimi mangas, so Hisaya Nakajo is going on here too!
Any re-reads?:
I haven't re-read any books this year, but next year I'm thinking of re-reading Harry Potter (especially with the new audiobooks coming out).
Favorite character of the year?
Daenerys Targaryen
Arya Stark
Sansa Stark
Brienne of Tarth
Dafyd Alkhor
The Swarm
Breaca (Dreaming the Eagle)
Emily Wilde
Wendell Bambleby
Hadrian Marlowe
Leia Organa Solo
Luke Skywalker
Han Solo
Mara Jade
Jaina Solo
Jacen Solo
Anakin Solo
Bran Stark
Jaime Lannisteror
Jorah Mormont
Sandor Clegane
Ned Stark
Catelyn Stark
Jon Snow
Dalinar Kholin
Kaladin Stormblessed
Shallan Davar
Adequin Rake
Cavalon Mercer
Jackin North
Kady Grant
AIDAN
Margaret Kearns
Peter Koubek
Ivan Koubek
Persephone (Legends of the First Empire)
Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?:
England, Ireland, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Scotland, Senegal, Iceland, Mongolia, Greece, Australia, France, Mesopotamia, Italy, Norway, and various scifi/fantasy worlds.
Which book wouldn't you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
The Book of Doors, The Library of the Unwritten, Guilty Pleasures, Dark Matter, We Used to Live Here, etc
Which author was new to you in 2025 that you now want to read the entire works of?
George R.R. Martin. He is such a good author!
Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?:
Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn
Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio (I have started it though)
Velocity Weapon by Megan O'Keefe
Camelot by Giles Kristian
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
The Blighted Stars by Megan O'Keefe
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne
Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?
YES! :)
The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
A Song of Ice and Fire books 1-5 by George R.R. Martin
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes
Shield of Lies by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
Tyrant's Test by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
Ambush at Corellia by Roger MacBride Allen
Assault at Selonia by Roger MacBride Allen
Showdown at Centerpoint by Roger MacBride Allen
The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Specter of the Past by Timothy Zahn
Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
Star Wars: The Rebellion comics by various
The Relentless Legion by J.S. Dewes
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Daisy Jones and the Sixth by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher
All the Horses of Iceland by Sarah Tolmie
Ursa Major by Casey E. Berger
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Morning Star by Pierce Brown
Amari and the Despicable Wonders by B.B. Alston
If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
The Epic of Gilgamesh by unknown
But Everyone Feels This Way by Paige Layle
The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez
The Coward by Stephen Aryan
Carrie by Stephen King
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Crossed by Emily McIntire
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Alcestis by Euripides
Age of Legend by Michael J. Sullivan
The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black
Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross (Owl Crate)
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
What books are you planning to read in 2026?
Star Wars EU Legends books ( Vision of the Future, Scourge, Survivor's Quest, re-read Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Knights, and start the New Jedi Order. For comics, I want to finish the Rebellion comics and start the X-wing comics, Knight Errant comics, Jedi vs Sith comics, Early Victories comics, Droids omnibus, etc)
The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
Livesuit by James S.A. Corey
Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio
Kingdoms of Death by Christopher Ruocchio
Velocity Weapon by Megan O'Keefe
Chaos Vector by Megan O'Keefe
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
Camelot by Giles Kristian
Arthur by Giles Kristian
Malice by John Gwynne
The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne
Dreaming the Bull by Manda Scott
Fault Tolerance by Valerie Valdes
The Saga of the Icelanders by unknown
The Blue Beautiful World by Karen Lord
Age of Death by Michael J. Sullivan
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson
Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men by Shauna Lawless
The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton
Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
Antimatter Blues by Edward Ashton
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Human Kind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
The Spear by Nicola Griffith
Hild by Nicola Griffith
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
Dreamships by Melissa Scott
Unseelie by Ivelisse Housman
Artifact Space by Miles Cameron
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
The Martian by Andy Weir
Guns of the Dawn by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Expert System's Brother by Adrian Tchaikovky
The Odyssey by Homer
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith
Queen of Oak by Melanie Karsak
The Druid by Jeff Wheeler
The Dawn of Yangchen by F.C. Yee
The Reckoning of Roku by Randy Ribay
The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu
Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert
Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert
The Lord of Demons by Evan Winter
Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds
Dark Stars by Casey E. Berger
The Weaver and the Witch Queen by Genevieve Gornichec
Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart
Sisters of the Snake by Sasha and Sarena Nanua
This Wicked Fate by Kalynn Bayron
Lakesedges by Lyndall Clipstone
Jade Fire Gold by June C.L. Tan
Soul of the Deep by Natasha Bowen
The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman
Only a Monster by Vanessa Len
A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S. Olson
Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
Ballad & Dagger by Daniel Jose Older
Together We Burn by Isabel Ibanez
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen
The Drowned Wood by Emily Lloyd-Jones
The Depths by Nicole Lesperance
The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew
The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford
The Lumanaries by Susan Dennard
The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan
Escaping First Contact by T.S. Beier
The Outside by Ada Hoffman
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Neil Armstrong: A Life in Flight by Jay Barbree
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett
Nova War by Gary Gibson
Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao
The Skystone by Jack Whyte
Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter
The Death of Arthur by Thomas Mallory
On Combat by Dave Grossman
Æthelflæd: The Lady of the Mercians by Tim Clarkson
King Alfred's Daughter by David Stokes
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
Ascender by Jeff Lemire
Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland
Warrior Queens of History by Maria Small
A Pho Love Story by Loan Le
XOXO by Axie Oh
The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James
The Shattered Skies by John Birmingham
Peace and Turmoil by Elliot Brooks
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima
The Exiled Queen by Cinda Williams Chima
The Gray Wolf Throne by Cinda Williams Chima
How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Walker
The Library of Legends by Janie Chang
The Wind from Hastings by Morgan Llywelyn
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan
Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne Brown
The IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah
Daughter of Sparta by Claire Andrews
The Vela: Salvation by various
The Collapsing Universe by Isaac Asimov
Enchantress by James Maxwell
Jade War by Fonda Lee
The Merciless Ones by Namina Forna
Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo
Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price
History of the Vikings and Norse Culture by Njord Kane
Battlecry by Emerald Dodge
Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
Meru by S.B. Divya
Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans by Frances Pryor
The Bright Ages by Matthew Gabriele
The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak
Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
Alecto the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Red Palace by June Hurr
Crown of Feathers by Nicki Preto
The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White
The Silence of Bones by June Hurr
The Glittering Hour by Iona Gray
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Lovely War by Julie Barry
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Black Coast by Mike Brooks
Beren and Luthien by JRR Tolkien
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Winter Counts Weiden
Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden
The Torchkeeper: The Raising by Steven dos Santos
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
Freedom by Jay Kirkpatrick
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Hall of Smoke by H.M. Long
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington
The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi
The Hand of the Sun King by J.T. Greathouse
The Will of the Many by James Islington
World Without End by Ken Follett
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft
Traitor's Blade by Sebastian de Castell
Afrika by Colleen Craig
World After by Susan Ee
Imperium by Robert Harris
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall
The Citadel of Weeping Pearls by Alliette de Bodard
Don Juan by Byron
Aru Shah and the City of Gold by Roshani Chokshi
This Time It's Real by Ann Liang
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Odin's Child by Siri Peterson
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizel
Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs
The Blighted Stars by Megan O'Keefe
Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce
A Turn of Light by Julie Czerneda
Shield Maiden by Sharion Emmerichs
Atlas Alone by Emma Newman
Elvish by S.G. Prince
The Falconer by Elizabeth May
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein
The Sun and the Void by Gabriella Romero-Lacruz
Son of the Storm by Suyi Okungbowa
A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima
Witch Hat Atilier by Kamome Shirahama
Yona of of the Dawn by Mizuho Kusanagi
Ultra Maniac by Wataru Yoshizumi
Skip Beat by Yoshiki Nakamura
Shugo Chara by Peach Pitt
Skip and Loafer by Misaki Takamatsu
Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
The Stolen Heir by Holly Black
Goddess of the River by Vaishnavi Patel
Eifelheim by Michael Flinn
I Am the Chosen King by Helen Hollick
Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale
The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell
Powwow Summer by Nahanni Shingoose
Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
Beasts of a Little Land by Juhea Kim
Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Archive of the Forgotten by A.J. Hackwith
Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Blackwing by Ed McDonald
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
The Valkyrie by Kate Heartfield
The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Amari and the Metalwork Menace by B.B. Alston
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior by Catherine Hanley
The Sword Defiant by Gareth Ryder-Hanaran
The Warrior by Stephen Aryan
The Autism Spectrum Guide to Sexuality and Relationships: How To Understand Yourself and Make Choices That Are Right For You by Emma Goodall
I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir by Sarah Kurchak
Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum by Jennifer O'Toole
Letters to my Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism by Joanne Limburg
The Silver Serpent by David Debord
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe by Philip Plait
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers On the Special Ops Battlefield by Gayle Lemmon
Shoot Like a Girl: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front by MJ Hegar
Jet Girl: My Life in War, Peace, and the Cockpit of the Navy's Most Lethal Aircraft by Caroline Johnson
Love My Rifle More Than You: Young and Female in the Army by Kayla Williams
Undaunted: The Real Story of America's Servicewomen in Today's Military by Tanya Biank
The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Female Astronauts by Loren Grush
Dawn of the Overlords by Kevin Potter
City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
The Farm by Emily McKay
Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
House of Dragons by Jessica Cluess
Moonshadow: The Nightmare Ninja by Simon Higgins
At the Hot Gates by Donald Samson
Be Water, My Friend by Shannon Lee
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher
2001: Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
To Explore Strange New Worlds by Elizabeth Barnes
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Circle of Ceridwen by Octavia Randolph
Devil in the Device by Lora Beth Johnson
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Aoife of Leinster: The Price of a Throne by Sean J. Fitzgerald
The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare
Federations by John Joseph Adams, etc
Veiled Alliances by Kevin J. Anderson
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han
For the Throne by Hannah Whitten
The Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
A Flame in the North by Lilith Saintcrow
Neferura by Malayna Evans
The Archive Undying by Emma Candon
The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Stars and Bones by Gareth L. Powell
Embers of War by Gareth L. Powell
Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
Real Knockouts by Martha McCaughey
The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August
The Great Mortality by John Kelly
In the Wake of the Plague by Norman Cantor
The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang
After by Amy Efaw
Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss
The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Brown
Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells
Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn by Brian Merchant
Elvish by S.G. Prince
Medusa in the Graveyard by Emily Devenport
Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
The Planets by Dava Sobel
Moonbound by Robin Sloan
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
A Banh Mi for Two by Trinity Nyugen
Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
Heart of a Valkyrie by Melanie Karsak
Highland Raven by Melanie Karsak
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
Silksinger by Laini Taylor
The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
Poison Study by Maria Snyder
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler
Who Cooked the Last Super: The Women's History of the World by Rosalind Miles
Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin
Rouge by Mona Awad
We Love You Bunny by Mona Awad
The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey
Gone Gone Gone by Hannah Moscowitz
Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang
Axiom's End by Lindsey Ellis
The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake
One For My Enemy by Olivie Blake
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
Girl Dinner by Olivie Blake
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Skyborn by David Dalglish
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Unremembered by Jessica Brody
Dark Space by Lisa Henry
A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Fox Meadows
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Wreath by Sigrid Undset
Sistersong by Lucy Holland
The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow
Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth
Celestial Monsters by Aiden Thomas
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku
The Wild Robot Escapes by Peter Brown
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Silver Hammer by Vera Henriksen
6 Seconds of Life by Tonya Fitzharris
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear
Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
Augustus by John Williams
Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by unknown
Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
Raiders from the Sea by Lois Walfrid Johnson
Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
Rome: The Emperor's Spy by M.C. Scott
The Last Roman in Britain by M.C. Scott
Butterfly Swords by Jeannie Lin
Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith
Foundation: The History of England from its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors by Peter Ackroyd
Upon a Burning Throne by Ashok Banker
Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England by Henrietta Leyser
A History of England in 100 Places: From Stonehenge to the Gherkin by John Norwich
She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth by Helen Castor
The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England by Marc Morris
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
A Killing Art: The Untold Story of Taekwondo by Alex Gillis
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Deathess by Catherynne M. Valente
Clytemnestra by Constanza Casati
Sadie by Courtney Summers
The Quiet Invasion by Sarah Zettel
And the Stars Will Sing by Michelle Browne
Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos
Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Tam Lin by Pamela Dean
The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich
Valkyrie: Women of the Viking World by Johanna Katrin Fridriksdottir
Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier
Todoke ni Kimi by Karuho Shiina
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski
Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm
The Chosen Queen by Joanna Courtney
The Horse Goddess by Morgan Llywelyn
The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt
The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren
Circle of Days by Ken Follett
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Daughter of the Empire by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts
We Are Legion by Dennis Taylor
The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World by Daisy Dunn
A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler
Heroes Die by Matthew Stover
The Thousand Names by Django Wexler
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
Priestess of the White by Trudi Canavan
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
Saturn Run by John Sanford
The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray
Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
Spice and Wolf by Isuna Hasekura
The Wolf by Leo Carew
The Dark that Dwells by Matt Digman
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Only the Stones Survive by Morgan Llewelyn
I Hear the Sunspot by Yuki Fumino
Cold From the North by D.W. Ross
Forsaken Skies by Nolan Clark
Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey
The Age of Arthur: A History of the British Isles by John Morris
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin
Echolands: A Journey in Search of Boudica by Duncan Mackay
Ymir by Rich Larson
The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker
Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik
Elektra by Jennifer Saint
The Sword and the Circle by Rosemary Sutcliff
When Making Others Happy Is Making You Miserable by Karen Ehman
Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis
The Last Gifts of the Universe by Riley August
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier
The Last Days of Good People by A.T. Sayre
A Sea of Unspoken Things by Adrienne Young
The Girl the Sea Gave Back by Adrienne Young
One Day All of This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Galaphile by Terry Brooks
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Fourth Consort by Edward Ashton
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Where the Ax is Buried by Ray Nayler
Babylonia by Constanza Casati
An Exile of Water and Gold by Joshua Walker
Tomorrow's Kin by Nancy Kress
Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
Night's Master by Tanith Lee
Transcendence by Shay Savage
Britain Begins by Barry Cunliffe
Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson
The Lady of the Rivers by Phillipa Gregory
The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality by Angela Saini
Forgotten Warriors: The Long History of Women in Combat by Sarah Percy
The Northwomen: Untold Stories from the Other Half of the Viking World by Heather Pringle
The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harold Hardrada and the End of the Norsemen by Don Hollway
Tears of the Wolf by Elisabeth Wheatley
Quest for a Maid by Frances Mary Hendry
Are You Mad at Me?: How to Stop Focusing on What Others Think and Start Living for You by Meg Josephson
The Wolf Age: The Vikings, The Anglo-Saxons, and the Battle for the North Seas Empire by Tore Skeie
The Half-Drowned King by Linnea Hartsuyker
European Travel for Monstrous Gentlewomen by Theodora Goss
The Ancient Celts by Barry Cunliffe
The Last Light Over Oslo by Alix Rickloff
Boudica Britannia by Miranda Aldhouse-Green
The Everlasting by Alix C. Harrow
107 Days by Kamala Harris
In the Land of Giants by Max Adams
The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur by Max Adams
Aelfred's Britain: War and eace in the Viking Age by Max Adams
Genre You Read The Most From
According to Goodsreads, it was Fantasy and Science Fiction and manga.
1. Best Book You Read In 2025?
(If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2024 release vs. backlist)
Science fiction- The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey, The Relentless Legion by J.S. Dewes, Corellian trilogy by Roger MacBride Allen, Specter of the Past by Timothy Zahn, Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio, Star Wars Rebellion comics by various, The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Prime Deceptions by Valerie Valdes, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller, The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft, Ursa Major by Casey E. Berger, Morning Star by Pierce Brown
Fantasy - A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawett, The Frugal Wizard's Guide for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson, Age of Legend by Michael J. Sullivan, The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black, Amari and the Desicable Wonders by B.B. Alston, and Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord
Historical fiction - Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott, The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende, The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Contemporary/literary - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
Non fiction - Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari , 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline, The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones
Romance - Deep End by Ali Hazelwood, Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez, and the Hana Kimi mangas by Hisaya Nakajo
Horror - The Haunting of Hill House by Holly Jackson, We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer, Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews, and Carrie by Stephen King
Classics - Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and The Epic of Gilgamesh by unknown
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan. I don't know what happened but this book felt very off. The characters didn't feel like themselves (like caricatures of themselves almost) and it was like I was reading a book by a completely different author. The Chalice of Gods felt accurate to the characters, but this one did not hit for me at all. I also am annoyed that Annabeth being blond wasn't mentioned at all in the book.
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?:
The A Song of Ice and Fire series and How High We Go in the Dark. I was wary about reading them both, but both exceeded my expectations and were awesome! A Song of Ice and Fire had excellent characters and a fascinating world and the misogyny was a lot less than I was expecting which was a relief (thanks bookborn!) I had also been worried about How High We Go in the Dark since it was about a pandemic. But the way it was handled and explored was actually really moving and felt sad but hopeful at the same time.
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?:
I did get my sister to read more Brandon Sanderson this year, so I'll count that as a win!
5. Best series you started in 2025? Best Sequel of 2025? Best Series Ender of 2025?:
Best series started- The Mercy of Gods, A Game of Thrones, Dreaming the Eagle, Specter of the Past, and Ambush at Corellia
Best series sequel- A Storm of Swords, A Clash of Kings, and Wind and Truth
Best series ender- Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, The Relentless Legion, and Obsidio. I also liked The Queen of Nothing more than I was expecting.
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2025?
George R.R. Martin- he is such a good author! I also really liked Abby Jimenez as a romance author. I also want to read more by Sequoia Nagamatsu and Kazuo Ishiguro, as they both were excellent writers.
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
I did read some horror and dark romance, which were out of my comfort zone. I did quite like the horror books (We Used to Live Here, The Haunting of Hill House, and Don't Let the Forest In). The dark romance book "Crossed" was interesting but only because it was a Frollo x Esmeralda reimagined story, which works for me but isn't something I'd recommend to most readers.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Obsidio was really exciting to read! Was on the edge of my seat for most of it.
9. Book You Read In 2025. That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?:
The Mercy of Gods, maybe ;)
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2025?
11. Most memorable character of 2025
Daenerys Targaryen
Arya Stark
Sansa Stark
Brienne of Tarth
Jaime Lannister
Dafyd Alkhor
Breaca (Dreaming the Eagle)
Mara Jade Skywalker
Leia Organa Solo
Luke Skywalker
Han Solo
Emily Wilde
AIDAN
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2025?
Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Color Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles
Don't Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2025?
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2025 to finally read?:
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott, The Epic of Gilgamesh by unknown, Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo, An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle, Carrie by Stephen King, The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo, etc
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2025?
"The longing that pulls at it, the despair and the hope. It was not designed for them. It feels them all the same. Dafyd, my love, it is not just your war. You and I. We will burn this world down together"
---James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
"This is for you, Else thinks. You blame me, but this sex is for you. You wanted it. I control nothing now. I am a fading observer in my own body. Why do you want this?
The swarm has no answer for this query. It is a very human thing, to want without knowing why. The swarm considers. Then it shifts, pressing its skin against its lover, reveling in the small, sensual pleasure. Taking comfort while comfort can still be had"
----James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“You wish to know of our first encounter with the enemy, but it seems more likely to me that there were many first encounters spread across the face of distance and time in ways that simultaneity cannot map. The ending, though. I saw the beginning of that catastrophe. It was the abasement of an insignificant world that called itself Anjiin.”
--James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
"We were the Phylarchs of Asterdeim once. Once, we were, though that was long ago. We hold the memory of those times close, and we share it so that it never fades. A hundred worlds we called our own, though they were shared with the Elmrath and Colei who were found wanting in the eyes of the great ones and thus culled. They are gone now, but we carry their bones in our songs and memories. We built palace worlds and temples to our own ingenuity with roots that sank to the planetary mantle and rose to the edge of space. They lived, those buildings. They held worlds within them, and we were proud, or that is the history. We were proud, and the proud are brought down, our philosophers warned, though now we call them prophets. The Carryx came and yoked our young. They found the architects and stripped the stations of the gods to use for storage sheds. The Emrath, they drove from their paper hives and drowned in the sea. The Colei, they took as they took all things then, to a white plain above a lavender sea. Under that cold sun the beautiful Colei lost their will to live, withered, and passed to dust. But we, we carried our souls within us. Cut from all we had known, we built."
--James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“Life went on. That was the terrible thing. They were ripped out of their world, their lives, their sense of who and what they were. Their history. They were killed, or made to watch the people they loved die. And then, at some point, they were hungry. Thirsty. They had to piss. Someone told a joke, and they laughed, however darkly. They washed dishes. Changed clothes. Held funerals. It felt like it should have stopped, all of it, and it didn’t. The slow, low pulse of being alive kept making its demands, no matter what. However bad it was, however mind-breaking and strange and painful, the mundane insisted on its cut.”
― James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“Its design is like water, flowing through whatever channels the universe provides it. It understands now that water also carries what it passes through. It has already traded purity for experience, and there is no path back. Nor should there be.”
― James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“Dafyd thought there should have been a limit. The universe could only change so many times, could only reveal so many unexpected, inconceivable aspects of itself before he got used to it. It could only ask so much of him before he became strong enough to do what was required”
― James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“The swarm was designed as a tool of war. It was built to slip behind the defenses of the Carryx and expose the great enemy's weaknesses. It is still that,
It is also becoming something stranger”
― James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“I think some important scientific questions have finally been answered. Alien life exists, and they are assholes.”
― James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
"I'm going to learn everything about them. I'm going to figure out how to get in their heads. And I'm going to kill them all and burn their fucking towers to the ground. It's my war now.”
― James S.A. Corey, The Mercy of Gods
“Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear?
Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet
deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long
night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children
are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and
hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon”
― George R.R. Martin , A Game of Thrones
“When you play a game of thrones you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“What do we say to the Lord of Death?'
'Not today.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
"But I was going to take you home," - Daenerys Targareyn
--George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?'
'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace." He gave a shrug. "They never are.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
"Maybe he'll give me yours" - Sansa Stark
---George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“Old Nan nodded. ‘In that darkness, the Others came for the first time,’ she said as her needles went click, click, click. ‘They were cold things, dead things, that hated iron and fire and the touch of the sun, and every creature with hot blood in its veins. They swept over holdfasts and cities and kingdoms, felled heroes and armies by the score, riding their pale dead horses and leading hosts of the slain. All the swords of men could not stay their advance, and even maidens and suckling babes found no pity in them. They hunted the maids through frozen forests, and fed their dead servants on the flesh of human children.’ ”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
"The rasping voice trailed off. He squatted silently before her, a hulking black shape shrouded in the night, hidden from her eyes. Sansa could hear his ragged breathing. She was sad for him, she realized. Somehow, the fear had gone away.
The silence went on and on, so long that she began to grow afraid once more, but she was afraid for him now, not for herself. She found his massive shoulder with her hand. “He was no true knight,” she whispered to him.
The Hound threw back his head and roared. Sansa stumbled back, away from him, but he caught her arm. “No,” he growled at her, “no, little bird, he was no true knight.”
The rest of the way into the city, Sandor Clegane said not a word. He led her to where the carts were waiting, told a driver to take them back to the Red Keep, and climbed in after her. They rode in silence through the King’s Gate and up torchlit city streets. He opened the postern door and led her into the castle, his burned face twitching and his eyes brooding, and he was one step behind her as they climbed the tower stairs. He took her safe all the way to the corridor outside her bedchamber.
“Thank you, my lord,” Sansa said meekly.
The Hound caught her by the arm and leaned close. “The things I told you tonight,” he said, his voice sounding even rougher than usual. “If you ever tell Joffrey…. your sister, your father. . . any of them . . .”
“I won’t,” Sansa whispered. “I promise.”"
--George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
"Some instinct made her lift her hand and cup his cheek with her fingers. The room was too dark for her to see him, but she could feel the stickiness of the blood, and a wetness that was not blood. “Little bird,” he said once more, his voice raw and harsh as steel on stone. Then he rose from the bed. Sansa heard cloth ripping, followed by the softer sound of retreating footsteps.
When she crawled out of bed, long moments later, she was alone. She found his cloak on the floor, twisted up tight, the white wool stained by blood and fire. The sky outside was darker by then, with only a few pale green ghosts dancing against the stars. A chill wind was blowing, banging the shutters. Sansa was cold. She shook out the torn cloak and huddled beneath it on the floor, shivering.”
--George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
"Varys smiled. “Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.”
“So power is a mummer’s trick?”
“A shadow on the wall,” Varys murmured, “yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”
Tyrion smiled. “Lord Varys, I am growing strangely fond of you. I may kill you yet, but I think I’d feel sad about it.”
“I will take that as high praise.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“Perhaps magic was once a mighty force in the world, but no longer. What little remains is no more than the wisp of smoke that lingers in the air after a great fire has burned out, and even that is fading. Valyria was the last ember, and Valyria is gone. The dragons are no more, the giants are dead, the children of the forest forgotten with all their lore.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“Woman?” She chuckled. “Is that meant to insult me? I would return the slap, if I took you for a man.” Dany met his stare. “I am Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the Unburnt, Mother of Dragons, khaleesi to Drogo’s riders, and queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“Ser Jaime?" Even in soiled pink satin and torn lace, Brienne looked more like a man in a gown than a proper woman. "I am grateful, but...you were well away. Why come back?"
A dozen quips came to mind, each crueler than the one before, but Jaime only shrugged. "I dreamed of you," he said.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“In this light she could almost be a beauty, he thought. In this light she could almost be a knight." - Jaime”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“You are in difficulty,” she observed. “He will not come,” Kraznys said. “There is a reason. A dragon is no slave.” And Dany swept the lash down as hard as she could across the slaver’s face. Kraznys screamed and staggered back, the blood running red down his cheeks into his perfumed beard. The harpy’s fingers had torn his features half to pieces with one slash, but she did not pause to contemplate the ruin. “Drogon,” she sang out loudly, sweetly, all her fear forgotten. “Dracarys.” The black dragon spread his wings and roared.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
"Pain shuddered through him...and suddenly the bathhouse was spinning. Brienne caught him before he could fall. Her arms were all gooseflesh, clammy and chilled, but she was strong, and gentler than he would have thought. Gentler than Cersei, he thought as she helped him from the tub. 'Guards!' he heard the wench shout. 'The Kingslayer'. Jaime, he thought, my name is Jaime."
--George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
"'I'll pay her bloody ransom. Gold, sapphires, what you want. Pull her out.' 'You want her? Go get her.' So he did"
--George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“It's just a stupid sword," she said, aloud this time...
... but it wasn't.
Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows
“The bathhouse had been thick with the steam rising off the water and Jaime had come walking through that mist naked as his name day, looking half a corpse and half a god. He climbed into the tub with me, she remembered, blushing.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows
“She remembered a tale she had heard from Old Nan, about how sometimes during a long winter men who'd lived beyond their years would announce that they were going hunting. And their daughters would weep and their sons would turn their faces to the fire, she could hear Old Nan saying, but no one would stop them, or ask what game they meant to hunt, with the snows so deep and the cold wind howling. She wondered what the old Braavosi told their sons and daughters, before they set off.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows
“Opportunities are like little seeds floating in the wind. Your life is there. Some people have a big net to collect them all. Other people need to pray that the right seeds, the best ones, make their way to them with just enough bad ones to appreciate the good.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
“You see, this is partly why Earth hasn’t received any messages from other worlds. Most have perished by the time their light reaches our sky. Sometimes hundreds of light-years exist between even the simplest forms of life.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
“And what happens to us when we leave our world? Children were trained to answer, 'we become everything that we pass until we become the thing we created.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
“It’s easy to be lost in fear. It brings people together, often for the wrong reasons.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
“It’s hard to ignore the Earth when it slowly destabilizes beneath you as you sleep, when it unlocks secrets you never asked for or wanted. On my first night, I stood outside and listened. And maybe it was my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard the soil churning, the dance of a million dead insects, early humans, and wolves.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
“Hope, love, ingenuity. Possibility is more than what runs through our veins, little one.”
― Sequoia Nagamatsu, How High We Go in the Dark
“I have learned there is one thing a person never tires of, no matter how long they live. And that is being in love. All else is ash and ember.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales
“You already know more about faerie kingdoms than any mortal."
"Stories," I said faintly, drawing my hand back. "I know stories."
He gave me an odd look. "And have you ever needed anything else? Have you not shaken a kingdom to its foundations, found a door to a distant otherland, overthrown a queen? Hand you the right storybook, and you are capable of anything.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales
“Forgive me,” I said to Wendell. “I have gone against your wishes. I do not believe I had the right to do so in this case, as she is your stepmother and it was your family she took from you—not to mention your kingdom. Yet I cannot abide the thought of losing you, either now or in the future. I know you will wish to send her back to the Veil. But I can only ask that you listen first to—”
He closed the distance between us and wrapped me in his arms, and I could not speak.
“I was terrified you would not return,” he mumbled into my hair. “Will you go away again? Please say no.”
I touched his face, which I realized was wet. I drew back to look at him.
“I will not,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
He only pulled me to him again, gripping me so tightly I suspected he did not believe me. Someone started strumming a harp, some romantic ballad, but was almost immediately shushed by at least a dozen voices. I wanted to suggest we continue the conversation in private, but naturally, none of the other protagonists in our impromptu stage drama paid any heed to the innumerable eyes upon them.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales
“And so, in the face of the most awful darkness he’d ever felt, Kaladin Stormblessed took a deep breath.
Then stood up.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth
“Ideals are dead things,” Kaladin said, “unless they have people behind them. Laws exist not for themselves, but for those they serve.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth
“Perhaps the question isn’t ‘What use is art?’ ” Wit mused. “Perhaps even that simple question misses the point. It’s like asking the use of having hands, or walking upright, or growing hair. Art is part of us, Kaladin. That’s the use; that’s the reason. It exists because on some fundamental level we need it. Art exists to be made.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth
“The power surrounded him, and he slammed his hands together, opening a perpendicularity. Then he spoke to Honor the most important Words he might ever say. Words that only worked if he could say them truly. “I understand you.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth
“Like all sapient things, it wanted to be understood. And thus, with that Connection, the power that had been ostracized at long last returned. Honor was born again in Dalinar Kholin.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Wind and Truth
“That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
“And I add my own love to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally from hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
“And just as music is the space between notes, just as the stars are beautiful because of the space between them, just as the sun strikes raindrops at a certain angle and throws a prism of color across the sky - so the space where I exist, and I want to keep existing, and to be quite frank I hope I die in, is exactly this middle distance: where despair struck pure otherness and created something sublime.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
“If the execution of a million or more sentient beings, the destruction of a dozen planetary communities, isn’t enough—if the members of the Council need a living victim paraded in front of them to move them to act—then shame on them. And shame on us.”
― Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Shield of Lies
“Do not expect to be applauded when you do the right thing, and do not expect to be forgiven when you err. But even your enemies will respect commitment - and a conscience at peace is worth more than a thousand tainted victories”
― Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Star Wars: Tyrant's Test
“Sense of all the windows and doors of her life flung open. Everything exposed to the light and air. Nothing protected, nothing left to be protected anymore. A wild woman, her mother called her. A shocking piece of work. And so she is. Lord have mercy.”
― Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
“Sometimes you need people to be perfect and they can’t be and you hate them forever for not being even though it isn’t their fault and it’s not yours either. You just needed something they didn’t have in them to give you.”
― Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
“How often in life he has found himself a frustrated observer of apparently impenetrable systems, watching other people participate effortlessly in structures he can find no way to enter or even understand. So often that it’s practically baseline, just normal existence for him. And this is not only due to the irrational nature of other people, and the consequent irrationality of the rules and processes they devise; it’s due to Ivan himself, his fundamental unsuitedness to life. He knows this. He feels himself to have been formed, somehow, with something other than life in mind.”
― Sally Rooney, Intermezzo
“Often I have found that God puts truth in the mouths of our enemies, for their words are the only ones we ever truly heed.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Queen Amid Ashes
“With every threshold we cross we become someone new, for every place is new, and every hour, and with every moment we are changed. We may not step in the same river twice, nor with the same feet.”
― Christopher Ruocchio, Queen Amid Ashes
"I Promise"
"Forgive me"
"I do"
"It is very strange, Kady."
"What is?"
"Alexandria and Hypatia. Heimdall and Churchill and Mao.
Of all the things I have seen and the places I have been, you were the one
who felt most like home."
"Oh God..."
"..I will miss you"
"I'll miss you, too."
"I love you."
"Aidan, I-"
--Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Obsidio
“I know I love her.
< ERROR >
I know I miss her.
I know very little else
Save
Perhaps
This:
That every story needs its monster
and that everybody deserves a second chance.
And that I am
AIDAN.”
― Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff, Obsidio
“Have you noticed
All the moments we live
And all the miles we walk
never seem to get us anywhere but dead?
but still...
the flare of my thrusters burns like tiny suns
In the sea of starlight all around her.
when the light that kisses the back of her eyes was birthed, her ancestors were not yet born.
How many human lives have ended in the time it took that light to reach her?
how many people have loved only to have lost?
how countless, the hopes that have died?
[But still...]
Not this one.”
― Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff, Obsidio
"But in her right hand, pressed against her father's ribs as she hugs him, she still holds me. And though the room is filled to bursting with those who do not care if I live (error) or die (error) and though she let even the boy she loves go, she still holds me. And for a brief and shining moment I do not feel so alone anymore"
-Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Obsidio
“AIDAN: I HAVE NEWS THAT MAY BE CONSIDERED
DISTRESSING.
Grant, Kady: ok
Grant, Kady: keeping in mind that i am also currently running at 9% capacity, due
to lack of sleep, fear of impending death and having to deal with the boneheads here
on the bridge, please be gentle with me as you break this news
AIDAN: YOU ARE ALL GOING TO DIE.”
― Amie Kaufman, Obsidio
“Men who start by burning books end by burning other men,”
― Yōko Ogawa, The Memory Police
“My memories don’t feel as though they’ve been pulled up by the root. Even if they fade, something remains. Like tiny seeds that might germinate again if the rain falls. And even if a memory disappears completely, the heart retains something. A slight tremor or pain, some bit of joy, a tear.”
― Yōko Ogawa, The Memory Police
“It was nothing of this earth, but a piece of the great outside; and as such dowered with outside properties and obedient to outside laws.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space
“It was a scene from a vision of Fuseli, and over all the rest reigned that riot of luminous amorphousness, that alien and undimensioned rainbow of cryptic poison from the well—seething, feeling, lapping, reaching, scintillating, straining, and malignly bubbling in its cosmic and unrecognizable chromaticism.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space
“All human wisdom is contained in these two words--"Wait and Hope.”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo
“Dissonance before moments of harmony makes the harmony sound beautiful. Just as harmony and dissonance exist side by side in music, life is the same. Because harmony is preceded by dissonance, that's why we think life's beautiful.”
― Hwang Bo-reum, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
“And I wonder, in my last moments, if the planet does not mind that we wound her surface or pillage her bounty, because she knows we silly warm things are not even a breath in her cosmic life. We have grown and spread, and will rage and die. And when all that remains of us is our steel monuments and plastic idols, her winds will whisper, her sands will shift, and she will spin on and on, forgetting about the bold, hairless apes who thought they deserved immortality.”
― Pierce Brown, Morning Star
“I told you from the very beginning that it was a story about choices – wise choices, foolish choices, small yet momentous choices – for with choices come change, and with change comes opportunity , and both change and opportunity are the very cutting edge of the power of chaos. And yet as the undying ones know and the humans too often forget, even chaos cannot overcome the power of choice.”
― Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo
“We are the centuries... We have your eoliths and your mesoliths and your neoliths. We have your Babylons and your Pompeiis, your Caesars and your chromium-plated (vital-ingredient impregnated) artifacts. We have your bloody hatchets and your Hiroshimas. We march in spite of Hell, we do – Atrophy, Entropy, and Proteus vulgaris, telling bawdy jokes about a farm girl name of Eve and a traveling salesman called Lucifer. We bury your dead and their reputations. We bury you. We are the centuries. Be born then, gasp wind, screech at the surgeon’s slap, seek manhood, taste a little godhood, feel pain, give birth, struggle a little while, succumb: (Dying, leave quietly by the rear exit, please.) Generation, regeneration, again, again, as in a ritual, with blood-stained vestments and nail-torn hands, children of Merlin, chasing a gleam. Children, too, of Eve, forever building Edens – and kicking them apart in berserk fury because somehow it isn’t the same. (AGH! AGH! AGH! – an idiot screams his mindless anguish amid the rubble. But quickly! let it be inundated by the choir, chanting Alleluias at ninety decibels.)”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
“Listen, are we helpless? Are we doomed to do it again and again and again? Have we no choice but to play the Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall? Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Empires of Charlemagne and the Turk: Ground to dust and plowed with salt. Spain, France, Britain, America—burned into the oblivion of the centuries. And again and again and again. Are we doomed to it, Lord, chained to the pendulum of our own mad clockwork, helpless to halt its swing? This time, it will swing us clean to oblivion.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
“[...]How can a great civilization have destroyed itself so completely?"
"Perhaps," said Apollo, "by being materially great and materially wise and nothing else.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
The last monk, upon entering, paused in the lock. He stood in the open hatchway and took of his sandals. "Sic transit mundus," he murmured, looking back at the glow. He slapped the soles of his sandals together, beating the dirt out of them.
--Walter M. Miller Jr, A Canticle for Leibowitz
“The giant, once well buried, now stirs. When soon he rises, as surely he will, the friendly bonds between us will prove as knots young girls make with the stems of small flowers.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant
“The mistake is to assume that rulers who came to power through institutions cannot change or destroy those very institutions--even when that is exactly what they have announced that they will do. Revolutionaries sometimes do intend to destroy institutions all at once. This was the approach of the Russian Bolsheviks. Sometimes institutions are deprived of vitality and function, turned into a simulacrum of what they once were, so that they gird the new order rather than resisting it.”
― Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
“My point is, there’s always something. I think, as a species, we have a desire to believe that we’re living at the climax of the story. It’s a kind of narcissism. We want to believe that we’re uniquely important, that we’re living at the end of history, that now, after all these millennia of false alarms, now is finally the worst that it’s ever been, that finally we have reached the end of the world.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility
“There once was a girl,” he murmured, “clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King—a shepherd by his crook, who reigned over magic and wrote the old book. The two were together, so the two were the same: “The girl, the King… and the monster they became.”
― Rachel Gillig, One Dark Window
“You have these lines you won’t cross. But then you cross them. And suddenly you possess the very dangerous information that you can break the rule and the world won’t instantly come to an end. You’ve taken a big, black, bold line and you’ve made it a little bit gray. And now every time you cross it again, it just gets grayer and grayer until one day you look around and you think, There was a line here once, I think.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six
“No Human eye can isolate the unhappy coincidence of line and place which suggests evil in the face of a house, and yet somehow a maniac juxtaposition, a badly turned angle, some chance meeting of roof and sky, turned Hill House into a place of despair, more frightening because the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice. Almost any house, caught unexpectedly or at an odd angle, can turn a deeply humorous look on a watching person; even a mischievous little chimney, or a dormer like a dimple, can catch up a beholder with a sense of fellowship; but a house arrogant and hating, never off guard, can only be evil.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet ... AM has won, simply ... he has taken his revenge ...
I have no mouth. And I must scream.”
― Harlan Ellison, I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Samwell Tarly stood shaking, his face the same color as the snow that swirled down all around them. "Three," he squeaked to Chett, "that was three, I heard three. They never blow three. Not for hundreds and thousands of years. Three means—"
"—Others."
George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords
“He looked at the walls,
Awed at the heights
His people had achieved
And for a moment -- just a moment --
All that lay behind him
Passed from view.”
― Unknown, The Epic of Gilgamesh
“October 22, 2002 Yesterday, Alma, when at last we could meet to celebrate our birthdays, I could see you were in a bad mood. You said that all of a sudden, without us realizing it, we have turned seventy. You are afraid our bodies will fail us, and of what you call the ugliness of age, even though you are more beautiful now than you were at twenty-three. We’re not old because we are seventy. We start to grow old as soon as we are born, we change every day, life is a continuous state of flux. We evolve. The only difference is that now we are a little closer to death. What’s so bad about that? Love and friendship do not age. Ichi”
― Isabel Allende, The Japanese Lover
“There are a lot of good people, Irina, but they keep quiet about it. It’s the bad ones who make a lot of noise, and that’s why they get noticed.”
― Isabel Allende, The Japanese Lover
16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2025?
Christmas Gnomes by Kelly Green at 14 pages
Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson at pages 1,344 pages
17. Book That Shocked You The Most
The Mercy of Gods due to REASONS :O
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)
Dafyd x The Swarm, Brienne x Jaime, Emily x Wendell, Luke x Mara, Leia x Han, AIDAN x Kady, Sansa x Sandor (only in fanfiction where she is an adult), Daenerys x Jorah (only in the show), Margaret x Ivan, Persephone x Raithe, Scarlett x Lukas, Mizuki x Izumi, Dalinar x Navani, John x Sefawynn, Breaca x Caradoc, Ban x Corvus, Adequin x Jackin, Jude x Cardan
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
Kaladin and Adolin, Adequin Rake and Cavalon Mercer, Leia and Luke, Jude and Madoc, Mizui and Shuichi, Shuichi and Izumi, the Stark family in general, etc
20: Best Book You Read in 2025 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
The Mercy of Gods, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, The Relentless Legion, The Goldfinch, Intermezzo, Obsidio, etc
21. Best Book You Read In 2025 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:
The Library of the Unwritten (my dad recommended it to me and it was good!)
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2025?
Hadrian Marlowe, Dalinar Kholin, Dafyd Alkhor, and Ned Stark
23. Best 2025 debut you read?
I didn't read any 2025 debuts, unless you count The House of my Mother, which was a good memoir.
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
A Song of Ice and Fire, The Mercy of Gods, Wind and Truth, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales, and Dreaming the Eagle.
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Star Wars Rebellion comics, they were AWESOME!
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2025?
I didn't cry, but How High We Go in the Dark did make me sad
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
Dreaming the Eagle, I'm surprised it isn't more popular!
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
How High We Go in the Dark was really sad. I also found "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" to be very disturbing (but a good short story).
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2025?
I think All the Horses Of Iceland, what with how the story was told. Don't Let the Forest In, Redemption in Indigo, and We Used to Live here were also very interesting in how they wove their stories.
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
James did piss me off, as it completely missed the point of the original book it was attempting to retell. And I'm getting tired of books written nowadays that have characters bitching and hating on the abolitionists and the soldiers who fought for the north in the civil war. And the author, instead of developing James more as a character, just made him a crappy person (he let that one black man who had been helping him drown....)
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2024 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2026?
Demon in White by Christopher Ruocchio. I have started it, so I'd like to finish it in January!
2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2026 (non-debut)?
The Faith of Beasts by James S.A. Corey
Platform Decay by Martha Wells
Red Star Rebels by Amie Kaufman
The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva
Hell's Heart by Alexis Hall
The Last Contract of Isako by Fonda Lee
Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel
Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
Molka by Monika Kim
Land by Maggie O'Farrell
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Llona Andrews
The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden
Horneater by Brandon Sanderson
Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst
The Swan's Daughter by Roashani Chokshi
Green and Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons
Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer
Graceless Heart by Isabel Ibanez
The Sun and the Starmaker by Rachel Griffin
The Rainshadow Orphans by Naomi Ishiguro
The Heart of the Nhaga by Yeong-do Lee
A Forest Darkly by A.G. Slatter
Nobody's Baby by Olivia Waite
After the Fall by Edward Ashton
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
The Reimagining of Thornwood House by Jaleigh Johnson
The Fires of December by Brandon Sanderson
The Wolf and the Crown of Blood by Elizabeth May
The Star-Blessed by Angie Dickinson
Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorne
We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark
The Hanging Bones by Elle Tesch
Halcyon Years by Alastair Reynolds
The Rainseekers by Matthew Kressel
Jitterbug by Gareth Powell
What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed
First Mage on the Moon by Cameron Johnston
The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen
The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang
The Infinite State by Richard Swan
3. 2026 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
Voidverse by Damien Ober
The Forest on the Edge of Time by Jasmin Kirkbride
Love Galaxy by Sierra Branham
The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham
The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon
Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart
From the Stars, They Came by Anastasia Ehm
The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu
The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed
4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2026?
The Faith of Beasts is definitely the 2026 release I'm the most excited for! :) The Mercy of Gods was my favorite book from this year and I'm looking forward to seeing how the trilogy unfolds!
5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2026?
Get to the New Jedi Order series!
6. A 2026 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):
