I’m a slow reader these days, but I’m still trying to get at least a few books read this year. My total goal for 2025 is 10, and through August I’ve finished five. So we keep plugging along! Here’s what I’ve been checking out this year—both the completed books as well as everything I’ve started. I’ll give my thoughts on the ones I’ve finished (or officially DNF’d), as well as my final ratings.
You can follow along with me on my Storygraph as well, if you’re so inclined!
in progress
The Restless Dark
by Erica Waters
Started: September 13, 2025
Finished:
Thus begins spooky book time! I bought this for last year, so I’m excited to finally make time for this book.
1984
by George Orwell
Started: June 7, 2025
Finished:
I’ve never read this book, and in today’s political climate, I really think I should. So I will!
complete
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
by Becky Chambers
Started: August 21, 2025
Finished: September 1, 2025
Finally getting to this one! I loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so much and I’m excited to start the Monk & Robot series.
What a lovely hug for the soul this is. My goodness. This novella is the warm mug of tea that it speaks so well about in the text. Short, but always moving, always searching, so we really feel how Dex feels, looking for whatever is supposed to come next. And when they crash out, finally, it makes… so much sense.
I love this immensely, and I look forward to the sequel.
Strange Houses
by Uketsu
Started: August 30, 2025
Finished: August 31, 2025
A dark, mystery thriller based on closely inspecting house floorplans and imagining how the house works based on them? Sign. Me. Up! Since I was little I have genuinely loved looking at floorplans. I would imagine which one would be my room, what it would be like to walk through the plan. Why yes, I did enjoy trying to build those plans in Sims games, why do you ask? Anyway, this book felt like it was made for me.
It’s a very fast read. The book isn’t very long at all, just about 200 pages, and there are many illustrations while the text is mostly in a script format. So a real quick read, but so interesting the whole way through. I’m curious to check out Uketsu’s other books in the future!
Origin
by Dan Brown
Started: August 7, 2025
Finished: August 19, 2025
Pre-Read: It’s been a while since I read a Dan Brown book, and I missed this one, so I’m interested in how he feels in 2025.
Post-Read: Oof. A disappointing read. I felt manipulated to continue reading with so many red herrings and false threads started just to create intrigue. The “twist” ending was really obvious. I honestly can’t be sure if this is that much worse than his earlier novels, but I have no desire to go back to read those and find out.
The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
Started: July 15, 2025
Finished: August 2, 2025
As expected, this was gut-wrenching and terribly, horribly romantic. I mean that in the way that a love can destroy a person, change them, push them to do things they would never do if not for their love.
“That is—your friend?”
“Philatos,” Achilles says, sharply. Most beloved. “Best of men, and slaughtered by your son.”
Cousin. Totally my cousin. In conclusion: Cousin.
Anyway, this was treat, and it makes me w ant to dive into The Odyssey, but I need some thing sweet and happy first, so that will wait a bit. In conclusion: they were roommates, and t heir very sad end is iconic, and this book did well to earn all the punches to my gut and heart.
Circe
by Madeline Miller
Started: April 22, 2025
Finished: May 30, 2025
I finished this book on the plane last week, took roughly a month to read, but honestly it could have been faster if I hadn’t taken a few weeks’ “break” at some point around 60% through.
This was a good read! Having EPIC in mind made some parts fun, even while I knew it wasn’t approaching it the same way. I enjoyed it enough to want to get into Song of Achilles next.
The scars themselves I offered to wipe away. He shook his head. “How would I know myself?”
— A great nod to Homer’s story and the made recognizing Ody by the scar!
The Sun and the Void
by Gabriela Romero Lacruz
Started: January 4, 2025
Finished: March 16, 2025
This came to a satisfying end, though that was helped greatly by the knowledge of an upcoming sequel. The end felt very fast compared to the start, and I get the feeling this was intended as one novel, but it spiraled out of control a bit. Still, it worked out in the end, and I find myself looking forward to the next installment. (It’s called a duology, so that should be the end.)
Overall I quite enjoyed this tale. I appreciated seeing fantasy from an anti-colonizer POV, and getting into some new cultural ideas of magic and adventure.
paused
Elder Race
by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Started: March 22, 2025
Finished:
Update 6/10:
I got distracted from this by Circe, but I absolutely plan to come back to it. Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of my favorite authors, so I just need to reset my brain and get back into it.
dnf
Made For You
by Jenna Satterthwaite
Started: December 3, 2024
Finished: DNF
Update 3/8:
It’s been a while since I picked up this book. I stalled out at 39% on January 11, picked up another book and haven’t been interested in returning. I really want to like this, but I feel like it’s try to be too many things, and the author didn’t really know how to balance them well. I’m not officially calling this a DNF yet, but it’s coming off my current reads.
Update 9/1:
About six months later, and I’m calling it DNF. Just didn’t really hit how I hoped it would.
|| page header photo by perfecto capucine on unsplash ||