Here are the books I read in 2025. My goals for the year were to get some more variety, and I think I managed that.

  1. Turning Darkness Into Light (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #6) by Marie Brennan
  2. Jade City (The Green Bone Saga #1) by Fonda Lee
  3. Jade War (The Green Bone Saga #2) by Fonda Lee
  4. Jade Legacy (The Green Bone Saga #3) by Fonda Lee
  5. A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOTAR, #2) by Sarah J. Maas
  6. Everyone You Hate is Going to Die by Daniel Sloss
  7. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
  8. A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOTAR, #3) by Sarah J. Maas
  9. The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie
  10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
  11. The Fall by Albert Camus
  12. The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) by Scott Lynch
  13. The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1) by James Islington
  14. The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
  15. Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2) by Scott Lynch
  16. Reckless by Cornelia Funke
  17. The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3) by Scott Lynch
  18. Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson
  19. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
  20. The River Has Roots by El-Mohtar Amal
  21. Marytr! by Kaveh Akbar
  22. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  23. Open Throat by Henry Hoke
  24. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
  25. The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan, #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett
  26. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  27. The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2) by James Islington
  28. A Drop Of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
  29. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
  30. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

All comments below are spoiler-free, except a minor note about the ending of Martyr!.

Highlights:

  1. The Night Circus was my favorite. It evoked a really special magical feeling
  2. The Green Bone Saga was an excellent trilogy, with perfect pacing, progression, and knew the perfect spot to end.
  3. Title drops are very important. The ending of Open Throat was very cathartic.
  4. There was only one Brandon sandwich this year, but… SHARD GUNS

Comments:

  • I was in a reading slump in the summer, so I also re-read Stormlight Archive. Now knowing the end of Wind and Truth, it’s crazy to see the foreshadowing to the end.
  • I liked The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption because Din and Ana are very interesting characters and the world building is great. But, I’m not sure if I’m sold on mystery, at least in books. I enjoy film and television adaptations, though.
  • A new bookstore opened in Fall in Beuel that is hosting silent reading nights once per month. I had a great time going there with friends, and we even instituted our own silent reading nights (with snacks).

Disappointments:

  1. The Will of the Many perfected the genres and archetypes that it pulls from, but The Strength of the Few mostly missed the mark. Because of the twist from the end of the first book, it had to do a lot of world-building and create new plot and character arcs for the protagonist(s). I think it didn’t match the tone promise of the first novel and ultimately felt like the whole book was three side quests with new side characters in whom I wasn’t as invested in as in the first book. The Strength of the Few had severe middle child syndrome and felt bloated, but I think that it can be salvaged in the next (and last?) installment.
  2. (minor spoilers) Martyr! told the story of a deeply troubled man who wanted to write a book on what makes death meaningful and decide himself if he wanted to continue living. While it had a positive ending, I think it ultimately failed to deliver any (well-organized) revelations about what makes a meaningful life, a meaningful death, or on martyrdom, either in-story to the protagonist or on a meta level to me as the reader. I would instead look to novels by Kurt Vonnegut for this kind of cleverness.
  3. I’m still motivated to read classics, but was pretty disappointed with Catcher in the Rye and The Sun Also Rises. I didn’t feel like they had much going in terms of character, plot, or theme that secures their longevity. Obviously, it was an achievement to write a character as hatable as Holden Caulfield, but neither book had clear tone/plot/theme promises nor delivered on them.

Won’t Finish:

  1. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. The world building, characters, and writing annoyed me, and I was completely checked out by the time the plot started. We read this as part of book club in preparation for a trip to Kloster Eberbach, where the adaptation of the book was filmed. However, 4/6 of our bookclub DNF’d this one, and we instituted a 200-page maximum for future books. At least the Kloster was beautiful and had good wine!
  2. Neuromancer by William Gibson. This book single-handedly created the cyberpunk aesthetic. However, the story was weak and the characters were uncomfortably outdated, so I put this one down. I imagine many writers had a similar experience and thought they could do better. This is probably why there are so many good stories with cyberpunk aesthetic!

Reading goals for 2026: more variety and more reading in German!