My reading list for 2025.
All books link back to the original review.
Key to Abbreviations.
- O = Own copy – I bought / swapped / was given / inherited it
- RC = Print review copy / freebie from publisher / Amazon Vine etc
- B or (S)L = borrowed from someone or the (School)Library resp.
- NG = Review copy via Netgalley
- NF = Non Fiction; P = Poetry; Gr = Graphic novel; Ch – Children’s
- Tr = Translated
- DNF= Did not finish. CGS = Couldn’t get started (first chapters only)
- And finally, an asterisk * = from the TBR (acquired by any of the above routes before 1.1.23)
Finished in 2024, reviewed in 2025
- Human Being: Reclaim 12 Vital Skills We’re Losing to Technology by Graham Lee – RC NF (8/10) Review
- The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez – O F (10/10) Review
- Nightingale & Co by Charlotte Printz – RC FTr (8.5/10) Review
- Shakespeare: The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench – O* NF (10/10) Review
- Abandonment by Erminio Dell’Oro – RC FTr (8/10) Shiny review
- The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe RC F (9/10) Review
JANUARY
1. An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris – RC F (8/10) Review
2. The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey – RC F (9/10) Review
3. The Less Unkind by Rosaria Giorgi – RC F (8/10) Review
4. One Billion Years to the End of the World by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky – O* FTr (8.5/10) Review
5. The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada – O FTr (9/10) Review
6. Into Thin Air by Ørjan Karlsson – RC FTr (8/10) Review
7. The Killings at Kingfisher Hill by Sophie Hannah – O F (6/10) Review
DNF: The Colossus of Maroussi by Henry Miller – O NF (14pp + good skim) Thoughts
FEBRUARY
8. Baumgartner by Paul Auster – O* (9/10) Review
9. The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster – O* (9.5/10) Review
10. Black woods blue sky by Eowyn Ivey – RC (10/10) Review
11. The Knowing by Madeleine Ryan – RC (8.5/10) Review
12. Eurotrash by Christian Kracht – O FTr (8/10) Review
13. Runaway Horses by Carlo Frutteri Franco Lucentini – RC FTr (9/10) Review
14. Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito – O (10/10) Review
15. Pagans by James Alistair Henry – RC F (9/10) Review
DNF: The Leopard by Lampedusa (20pp) – O*
MARCH
16. Mrs Jekyll by Emma Glass – RC F (10/10) Review
17. Madame Matisse by Sophie Haydock – RC F (10/10) Review
18. After the Silence by Louise O’Neill – RC F (9/10) Review
19. Luminous by Silvia Park – RC F (10/10) Review
20. Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen – O* F (8.5/10) Review
21. Paperboy by Callum McSorley – O F (9/10) Review
DNF: Troutstream by Gerald Lynch – O* (50pp) Comments
APRIL
22. The Cure by Eve Smith – RC (8.5/10) Review
23. Murder at Gull’s Nest by Jess Kidd – RC
24. Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan – O P (10/10) Review
25. Bowieland by Peter Carpenter – RC (10/10) Review
26. All Fours by Miranda July – O* (6/10) Review
27. Campbell’s Kingdom by Hammond Innes – O* (9/10) Review
28. Maigret’s Revolver by Georges Simenon – O FTr (8/10) Review
29. The Anechoic Chamber by Will Wiles – RC
30. Alive by Gabriel Weston – O
31. Under the Eye of the Big Bird – O FTr (6.5/10) Review
32. Universality by Natasha Brown – O F
MAY
33. The Future of Gardens by Mark Lane – RC
34. The Wolves of Staro Selo by Zdravka Evtimova – RC
35. Heatwave: The Summer of 1976 by John L Williams – RC
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
PART: Mythos by Stephen Fry (approx 220 pages)
JUNE
48.
JULY
59.
AUGUST
69.
SEPTEMBER
84.
OCTOBER
91.
NOVEMBER
102.
DECEMBER
116.
117.
118.
119.
120.
GOODREADS CHALLENGE (120) FINISHED
121.
Reading the World 2025
- Author origin: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA,
- Language: Bulgarian, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Russian
- Notable settings: Alaska, Athens, Bahamas, Bødo, Central Otago (NZ), Copenhagen, Corfu, Florence, Glasgow, Korea, London, Miami, New Mexico, Nice, Paris, Princeton, Rockies, St Petersburg (Leningrad), Tokyo, Zurich
