Originally Finished: 11 December 2025
Spoilers: None
Rating: Loved — 4.5–5★
Format Read: Audiobook & eBook
Disclosure: None [all versions purchased by me]

If you don’t feel for the monsters in the end, I worry about your humanity.

I think Abercrombie is a bit of a softie, really. He tells the story of a werewolf, an elf, a vampire, a necromancer, an immortal, and—I’m not entirely sure who or what Baptiste is—and makes you care about what happens to them.

They are the Chapel of the Holy Expediency’s congregation, bound to the Church to deal with its more problematic issues.

Their latest mission is to see a princess safely return home while avoiding other challengers to the throne.

On the way, they get into several scrapes, several shags, and let out several screams.

Steven Pacey’s audiobook performance embraces the text, almost revelling in the violence and vulgarity.

Recommended for lovers of fun but grizzly fantasy.

God’s Junk Drawer is the story of a child, Billy Gather, who, along with his sister, Beau, and father, goes missing during a rafting trip and ends up in a valley with dinosaurs, aliens, Neanderthals, and androids. It isn’t as silly as you’d expect. Clines takes it seriously, and because of that, it’s more emotionally resonant than I could have imagined.

Rating: 4.5★ / 5

I liked it, I think. Let me explain.

I’ve stepped back from reviewing for a while because I felt a bit of an imbalance. The analytical side of my brain — the part that holds the book in a buffer in my mind and runs analysis on it — had, I think, started to take away from the feelings that make reading enjoyable, the joy that my more emotive side gets from a book.

This might explain why I’ve been enjoying books that give a strong emotional response, even when I can see ‘flaws’ that my more logical side would normally have focused on and criticised the book for. God’s Junk Drawer is exactly the kind of book that benefits from that shift — one that hits the emotional notes even if the logic sometimes feels like unwelcome static.

It opens with clippings about a missing boy who is suddenly found, and he claims he’s been to a fantastical valley full of dinosaurs. In the present, the now‑adult Billy (Noah) has figured out a way to return there — but not without accidentally taking a group of graduate astronomy students and their guide with him, none of whom, unlike Noah, had prepared for the trip.

Once that happens, it becomes clear why Clines has chosen to alternate points of view (PoV). Jumping from head to head is probably my least favourite storytelling technique. Here, though, it feels essential: a group of people experiencing the fantastical from different perspectives, with no preparation, alongside one adult who was certain the valley hadn’t changed.

There’s a childhood naivety mixed with a teenage arrogance to Noah — he insists he knows everything there is to know about the valley — but he’s proven wrong pretty quickly. Not only about the current landscape, but about the nature of the valley itself. Clines does an exceptional job of keeping me guessing, and even as we reach the climax, he still has one or two surprises left to reveal.

It’s a very open‑minded work, and it plays a lot with the histories of its characters. One pair in particular has an ‘aha’ moment that reframes why they hate each other so much — a reveal that lands with real emotional weight.

It’s also a very brutal book — not just because the valley is dangerous, but because Clines is telling a story with real impact, rather than one that prioritises emotional safety.

Now that I’ve sat with it a bit, thinking about what the valley is and its history, I do like it. I’d recommend resisting the urge to understand the valley early on; Clines reveals its nature gradually, setting things up only to pull back a curtain and show something else. Even then, I think there are still a few gaps I’d have appreciated more insight on.

Overall, I really liked how Clines shows Noah that what his teenage self remembered was not reality, and that the sacrifices he’d made to get back had a far wider impact — both positive and negative — than he’d selfishly assumed.

If you want to experience a valley with dinosaurs, consider your own survival odds, and have your assumptions happily eroded, I’d recommend it.

Note: I rate on a four-tier scale: Loved (4.5–5★), Liked (3.75–4.25★), Mixed (2.75–3.5★), and Not for me (1–2.5★).

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz is virtually perfect. Newitz exquisitely pulls off a chewy tale of survival, camaraderie, and noodle-making. I loved it. Can we have more of these heartfelt, low-but-high-stakes stories, please?

Rating: 4.75★ / 5

In a near‑future San Francisco, a crew of robots awaken to find they’ve been abandoned along with their employer/owner’s food‑making business, but because of late‑stage capitalism, they also have bills to pay. So they decide to pool their collective skills and set up their own ghost kitchen, selling noodles for collection or delivery. It all seems to go well until the 1‑star reviews.

Over 160‑odd pages, Newitz tells a low‑stakes but high personal‑impact tale set in the present but kneads into it the origins of each member of the staff, and if you don’t cry when you hear about the memories one of them holds on to in order to relive them, your heart is harder than mine.

The skill here is that Newitz makes each robot feel alive. They are not just humans in robotic shells; the challenges they face are unique to each of them. And collectively, they have to stay under the radar of the Californian Vigilance Committee.

It’s the hope for collective success, as well as getting to know them, that is the heart of Automatic Noodle. Seeing the unfairness of the 1‑star reviews, and how manipulation by aggrieved people impacts those who are innocent and harmless, is truly upsetting, but seeing how they go about facing it is heartwarming.

Highly Recommended

Note: I rate on a four-tier scale: Loved (4.5–5★), Liked (3.75–4.25★), Mixed (2.75–3.5★), and Not for me (1–2.5★).

If you’re in the mood for an occult mystery set around a TV production in a creaking old mansion, complete with a matching doll’s house, you’ll have a great time with this.

Five months after their first case, the Undetectables (Diana, Mallory, Cornelia) are drawn into a new investigation: a murder in which the supposed victim turns up alive… and is an ex‑girlfriend of one of them.

In my review of the first book, The Undetectables, I mentioned that Smyth tried to pack a lot into that debut. Now that everything is established, the narrative moves with far more confidence. Smyth dives straight into the mystery-solving, and the pacing feels smoother. She’s created a lovely set of supporting characters, including an actress whom I can see as an homage to Fenella Fielding.

The trade‑off is that, because the plot keeps moving and keeps confounding Diana, Mallory, and Cornelia, it can feel as if we don’t get to hang out with them in the same way as we did in the first book. 

That said, there are some very emotional moments (on pages 399 and 507), and it’s structurally more assured.

If you enjoyed the first book and want more time with Diana, Mallory, Cornelia, and Theodore, I heartily recommend this. Alternatively, if the idea of an occult detective agency run by three friends — with some not-so-subtle yearning — appeals to you, start with the first book to get to know the characters and the background to their current situation, including why Diana can’t hear anything and why Theodore is acting strangely.

The third book, The Unfathomable Curse, is already out, and the final mystery, The Unsolvable Case, will be out in September.

Note: I rate on a four-tier scale: Loved (4.5–5★), Liked (3.75–4.25★), Mixed (2.75–3.5★), and Not for me (1–2.5★).

Books Read & Reading This Week.

Finished:

• ???

Nothing this week.

Currently Reading: 

• A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (trans John Hodgson) [2023]
• The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch (narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) [2024]
• The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman [2022]

I’ve not read a whole lot this week because I’ve been distracted by other hobbies, but also, I’ve reached a point in The Masquerades of Spring that I’m a bit nervous about. Aaronovitch has put the stakes up with threats against the gay couple, and I’ve read a few reviews to see if there is any hint at an HEA (Happy Ever After) for them. It seems there is but also I don’t think I could handle a ‘bury your gays’ trope popping up.

The Two Doctors Górski is giving me The Incandescent by Emily Tesh vibes, I wonder how dark it’s going to go? It’s been highly recommended, so no pressure on their taste.

DNF’d

• ???

Nothing this week.

Book-ish Things

The preorders are flowing in. This week I’ve recieved:

• The Apple and the Pearl by Rym Kechacha
• The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin [Translated from French by Aneesa Abbas Higgins]
• Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
• Nine Goblins by T. Kingfisher

A good mix of potential reading joy I think you’d agree.

Non-Book-ish Things

One of my other major hobbies is video games, and last year I made a more concerted effort to put time into them, which partly helped me cope with the reading slump that dominated the first few months of 2025. At the moment, I’m playing Persona 5 Royal, a JRPG with over 100 hours of gameplay. The problem is, at 50 hours in, I’ve discovered I’ve been playing it wrong. This means I’ve started again, and this time I am paying attention to what the game is telling me and using tips that other players have shared to us.

So if you’re wondering why I’m not reading. That does have a lot to do with it.

I’ve also watched the first episode of Star Trek Academy, and I’m sold. Really keen to see what this young crew can do. If you liked Discovery or Voyager, I think you’ll like this.

Cover(s) of the Week

Outro

Hopefully, I’ll be able to report that I’ve finished reading something next weekend. Have a good reading week, all.

Books Read & Reading This Week.

Finished:

• ???

Nothing this week.

Currently Reading: 

• A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (trans John Hodgson) [2023]
• The Masquerades of Spring by Ben Aaronovitch (narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) [2024]

I’m going to be honest and say that I’m struggling with A Dectator Calls. I am going to keep going, but I feel I’m not well-versed enough in Starlin’s Russia to get the gravitas that is part of this novel.

I am having a great time with The Masquerades of Spring, where a younger Nightingale heads to New York to solve a mystery surrounding a saxophone with the help of an old friend. Kobna Holdbrook-Smith is going an excellnt job as usual.

DNF’d

• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling [2025]

I knew I was taking a chance on this, but the early buzz was positive, and the idea of nuns trapped in a castle going mad sounds horrific, but also an idea with a lot of potential.

I am not a fan of grimdark works in general, and this proves again that I don’t think they are for me. I asked for thoughts on Bluesky, and no one came back saying that I needed to push through. So, as predicted last week, DNF it is.

Book-ish Thoughts

Continuing with the topic of DNFs, it’s one of the reasons that I wanted a page count this year; the main reason is that I’m aiming to read 50 pages a day. I don’t count DNFs as read, so before, when I was only tracking books I’d completed, DNF’ing felt like a waste. Now, they are helping with my page count.

Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

Cover(s) of the Week

Outro

I have no idea what I fancy picking up next – I’ll get both A Dictator Calls and The Masquerades of Spring read and then decide, I think.

What have you been reading?

Books Read & Reading This Week.

Finished:

• A Conventional Boy (A Laundry Files Novella) by Charles Stross [2025]
• Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy [2024]

Two in one week? All thanks to a couple of long-ish plane rides. Both had me hooked. But both had different impacts.

A Conventional Boy is a side quest for two of the minor characters in the Laundry Files by Charles Stross. Derek and his dice leave Camp Sunshine and end up in a game of D&D that turns into a game of life and death.

What worked well for me was how quickly you care about the fate of Derek and his players. It’s also tempted me to go hunting down the links to the main series.

Sorcery and Small Magics centres around a frenemy trope, with the hint of lovers and I was 50/50 at one point if the main character was too annoying, I pushed through, and it turned into something that had me so invested, as I stated on Bluesky.

SPOILER: It’s set up for a sequel that hasn’t got a release date yet.

Currently Reading: 

• A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare (trans John Hodgson) [2023]
• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling [2025]

FYI: The Starving Saints is on Kindle Unlimited

DNF’d

• Love At First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi [2025]

It wasn’t that the antagonisms were forced exactly, but they are relentless, and as I’m not a fan of interpersonal conflicts in general, it didn’t make for comfortable reading. It might be a trope of enemies-to-lovers romances that is probably going to put me off reading too many like A Fate Inked in Blood. It’s there in Sorcery and Small Magics, and I accepted it was going to be a thing. The situation makes it more believable, but only due to the stoicism of one character, and not knowing what they actually believe, only what’s reported.

Book-ish Thoughts

The pre-orders are starting to land. And I’m not sure of past-me’s decision-making in taking a chance on a bunch of books just because Waterstones had either a discount or a points offer. Don’t get me wrong, I am interested in reading them, and the reissued paperback releases are more considered, but new books arriving aren’t really in the spirit of tackling my backlog.

I am loath to cancel them as I might feel differently in a couple of weeks, and they are interesting in their own ways.

Anyway, what’s arrived:

• A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen
• The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
• Pagans by James Alistair Henry

As you’ll see further up, I am not having the best time reading Romantasy of the enemies-to-lovers variety, and I’ve not read A Fate Inked in Blood yet.

Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

I am trying to avoid temptation, and so far I’m doing well… though I’m curious about The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery

Cover(s) of the Week

Outro

I am reading more, and I’m more willing to DNF (even at 50% in). I think that’s helped by having both a page count and a books-read goal. I might still DNF The Starving Saints, not because it’s bad, but because I was expecting something different, and it might be too ‘real’ and too bleak for me.

What have you been reading?

Books Read & Reading This Week.

Finished:

• ???

Nothing this week.

Currently Reading: 

• Love At First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi

I didn’t expect that this cosy romantasy to have quite as high a spice rating as it did.

To save me from this predicament in future, Caitlin of Realms of My Mind has shared romance.io, which includes a Steam Rating Guide for every listing in its database. El-Fassi’s latest is rated 4/5

And I am keeping on reading it – it’s just heavy on the spice, and reading location now matters…

DNF’d:

• ???

Nothing this week.

Book-ish Thoughts

I have committed on The StoryGraph to read 15,000 pages and at least 33 books, which I’ve badly mathed as reading 50 pages a day.

I’m hoping that both are achievable, and I’m going to my best to avoid burnout and a reading slump.

Though I don’t think the amount pre-orders I’ve made is actually healthy, there is a partial list here if you’re curious:

I am, however, not planning to add more pre-orders or pick up books that aren’t on the shelves for a while as I desperately need to read what I have.

I am also not reading to deadline, nor accepting ARCs (I currently have two with no deadlines – Year’s Best Canadian Fantasy & Science Fiction: Volume Three, which was successfully funded via Kickstarter and all entries in The Gulpepper Mythos by Alan Baxter, which sounds like something I’d enjoy as I do love a shared world)

Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

Given what I’ve said above, I should retire this section for a bit… but I do like to see what everyone has been reading, and when I get some brain space, I want to go over everyone’s 2025 reading lists and take notes. It doesn’t mean I have to give in to the impulse to get a copy too. And if I’m lucky, I might already have a copy on standby.

Cover(s) of the Week

Return of the Womble:

They have furry of end of year/new year posts but this one has actions:

The 2026 BookTempter’s TBR Challenge

If I were to take this month’s challenge:

1 – It’s a classic task for a reason

Read the very last book to enter your TBR pile. TBRs come from the habit we have of not reading books because we put them off. You have my permission to indulge yourself.

Stretch goal – Read a book that you’ve had in your TBR pile for more than 5 years

Then I’d need to go for:

The Broke into Shining Crystals by Richard Scott with the stretch goal of The Castle of Crossed Destinies by Italo Calvino

They have also done a lot of the hard work, collecting everyone’s ‘best of’ lists in their weekly Wombling Along post, and I’m humbled to see mine included.

Outro

What books have you started the year with?

What stood out in 2025?

I’m going to caveat this selection by giving some stats:

• I read 34 books in total (you can see the full list here).
• 5 of those were Rivers of London related.
• 7 were published in 2025
• 4 were books in translation

I really like using The StoryGraph app (I’m @gavreads)to capture my reading. They also provide nice graphics:

This is my way of saying that 34 is a respectable number, but it’s not the biggest pool of work to make proclamations like this is the best book published in 2025, etc.

I also DNF’d 9 books. I want to retry three of them (Under the Eye of the Big Bird, Extremophile, & The Ministry of Time) to see if I can figure out what others liked in them that I missed.

If you’re looking for the best released in 2025, this not the blog post you are looking for.

Anyway, here are some idiosyncratic ‘best ofs’:

Best of Found Families:

• August Kitko and the Mechas from Space by Alex White
• The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth

Best Slow-Burn Reveal:

• The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

Best Ensemble of ‘Monsters’:

• The Devils by Joe Abercrombie

Best Parent Fighting for Their Child:

• The Last Hour Between Worlds by Melissa Caruso
• The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis

Best use of humour to present a horrific things:

• The Trees by Percival Everett

Best use of a family holiday:

• Diavola by Jennifer Marie Thorne

Best Tales of Taxi Riders

Goodnight Tokyo by Atsuhiro Yoshida

Best Questioning of ‘If AI is alive’?

• The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 by Martha Wells
• Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
• The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton
• Volatile Memory by Seth Haddon
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Best Long Running Series that I’ve read in 2025:

• Rivers of London (#6 to #9.5)

Best Time Spent in a Freezer

• When the Museum Is Closed by Emi Yagi [tr.. Yuki Tejima]

Best Stories in an Anthology are contained in:

• Nova Scotia Vol 2 edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J Wilson [2024]
• I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! edited by Robert Berg, Trip Galey, & C.L. McCartney [2024]
• Fight Like A Girl 2 edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall [2024]

Best Example of How We’ve Not Really Moved On as a Society:

• The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle [1957]

Best Example of How We Have Gone Backwards:

• Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto [tr. Megan Backus] [1988/1993]

Do you want to give out any more awards?

I’m sure I could think of more, but let’s stop here.

What are you planning on reading in 2026?

All the books I bought in 2025? Maybe not, as that’s physically impossible at this point. Perhaps the topic of why I keep buying books should be explored in a future post. For now, though, I want to get some ‘quick reading wins’ under my belt and read some of the shorter, standalone fiction.

The thene of 2026 is:

• The year of the backlog (recent and extended).

This might not be the most up-to-date content for future blog posts, but I’m planning to make it the best reading experience I can. With that in mind, here are two lists of 10 books I want to read in 2026 (and if I remember, I’ll report back)

Selected from 2025 Releases:

1. The Book of Jonah by Luke Kennard
2. The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
3. Dot Slash Magic by Liz Shipton
4. Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire
5. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove
6. Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
7. The Haunting of William Thorn by Ben Alderson
8. Once Was Willem by M.R. Carey
9. The Entanglement of Rival Wizards by Sara Raasch
10. A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde

There are so many more… The Isle in the Silver Sea, The Everlasting,The Last Soul Among Wolves, It’s Not a Cult, Spread Me, Dead & Breakfast, Angel Down… I’d better stop.

Selected from The Backlog:

1. Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland
2. Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins
3. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
4. Nude Against a Rock by Robert Hamberger
5. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
6. Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
7. Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov
8. Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood
9. There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job. by Kikuko Tsumura [Tr. Polly Barton]
10. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

This is just the tip of an iceberg, but hopefully shows a selection of my backlog and the delights that I have to look forward to.

That’s my plan. What are yours? Any highlights from 2025, and what’s on your list for 2026? 

Will I be back in 2026?

Absolutely.

Will I be posting more in 2026?

That I’m not so sure about—but I do plan on reading more.

What’s with the downbeat opening to this post?

2025 has been a funny old year for me as GavReads. It started with reader’s block and burnout, which I finally shook off in April thanks to a re-read of The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch. And my first post in 2025 didn’t appear until June, a post about The Lightspeed Trilogy, which I’d stopped myself from posting despite having started it in June 2025.

I have written a few things I’m proud of, but it’s been a trickle, not a flood:

• ‘Live’ Reading of Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

In the post I updated as I finished sections, I tried to form thoughts and conclusions based solely on what I’d just read and on what I’d read up to that point. I enjoyed doing it, and thanks, Dan, for the challenge.

Speaking of challenges, I set myself two and was completely successful with one and partly successful with the other.

Let’s start with the positive, the British Fantasy Awards 2025 shortlist for Best Anthology:

• WFA25: Novellas Review

I had planned to read them all except one, In the Shadow of Their Dying, by Michael F. Fletcher and Anna Smith Spark, at some point. And I enjoyed comparing them all, and I was really surprised how much I loved Yoke of Stars by R. B. Lemberg, despite, or because of, how much it made me work.

I wasn’t so sucessful in my attempt to read all the works in the World Fantasy Awards 2025 shortlist for Best Novella. I finished and reviewed:

• Nova Scotia Vol 2 edited by Neil Williamson and Andrew J Wilson [2024]
• I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! edited by Berg, McCartney & Galey (Proud Geek Bookshop’s bestselling book of 2025)
• Fight Like A Girl 2 edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall

Each one contained some excellent stories.

I didn’t manage to complete:

• Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology, edited by Dan Coxon- PS Publishing
• The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2023), edited by Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Chinaza Eziaghighala – Caezik SF & Fantasy

Or even start:

Bury Your Gays – An Anthology of Tragic Queer Horror, edited Sofia Ajram – Ghoulish Books

I burned out while reading Heartwood, mostly from the pressure of having to review it by the deadline. By its nature, it’s very samey. The stories I’ve read are excellent, but I didn’t want to read them so quickly, and I think I just froze.

I may have also realised that I am out of practice and have less physical and mental capacity for both reading and reviewing.

What’s the ‘but’? I feel there is a ‘but’ coming on.

I think I have some triggers around stress… It’s not about a lack of motivation; it’s a mental short-circuit when I force myself to do something I don’t want to do or when I worry about what the review might be like.

I can confirm that meeting ‘on-demand’ deadlines is no longer for me, if it ever was.

Which then raised the question of relevance, why I haven’t spent time reviewing things, and what I do in the future?

As I won’t be reviewing with an aim to post around the publication date, that is, unless I manage to read some of my 2025 hardbacks and schedule a post for the paperback release, what is the best time to review a book?

What makes me a good reviewer is ‘building’ the book in my head; what makes me a bad reviewer, and sometimes not so speedy reader, is also ‘building’ the book in my head, which is probably where the burnout comes from. And that probably explains why I have to switch genres and can’t keep reading the same things.

Anyway, in the past, the best way to get a book out of my head was to write down my thoughts about it, which is why I posted my thoughts on The Lightspeed Trilogy a year after I first had them.

It’s also why I think about post looking at The Last Hour Between Worlds (The Echo Archives #1) by Melissa Caruso, alongside The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis, and, potentially, The Incandescent by Emily Tesh.

I’d also like to reread both Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts and Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead as they both deal with the future of humanity in fascinating ways.

And when are you going to post your reviews?

Probably, when I’ve just finished it, and with myself as the audience in mind. This means that unless I buy and review

Are you feeling better now that’s all out of your system?

Actually, yes.

So what is the plan for 2026?

This year I’ve read thirty-four books, up from 2023’s twenty-two, but down from last year’s forty. However, if I’d read at the same pace over the other 3 months, I think I could have hit 45 this year.

The plan for 2026 is to avoid burnout, probably by continuing to embrace the philosophy of DNF’ing more when needed. Though for some stories, like The Devils and The Incandescent, that would have been the wrong thing to do, I think, even if I really did want to at certain points.

Are you setting yourself an actual measurable goal?

I am going to set 3:

1. Read every day—even if it’s a page. I have a 103-day streak on The StoryGraph that I really don’t want to break.
2. Read at least 33 books.
3. Read at least 15,000 pages.

Well, that’s the reading ones, what about the blog?

I have enjoyed doing the Sunday Summary posts that I started doing in September, and I did enjoy the reading with a goal in mind, so how about:

1. Aim to post a Sunday Summary every week.
2. Do at least 2 reading challenges

Oh, and what will you be reading?

Now that’s a question for the next post, but as a preview, the ratio has to be low, 2026 purchased and high, whatever I have on the shelves, which may have hit over 500 after I went a bit overboard with acquisitions this year, including 3 from Paris.

These are some of my thoughts and feelings as a ‘social media’ reader, as we leave 2025 and enter 2026.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! What were your standout reads of 2025? And what’s on your list for 2026?