2025 reading list

Giving up on the TBR again, FFS. Setting a token goal of 60 for the year since I got to 63 last year.

Currently Reading

  1. Foul Heart Huntsman – Chloe Gong
  2. Brigands & Breadknives – Travis Baldree

Series Challenge

If I cooperate with myself, this is going to be the year of the series catch-up. I currently have 37 series in my series-tracking database, only 15 of which are completely finished, though not all of them have been reviewed. It’s time to start knocking some of these puppies off the list. The top priorities will be rereading Mirrored Heavens (Rebecca Roanhorse), Foul Lady Fortune (Chloe Gong), and the full Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling) so I can finally review them; I also really need to read the Radiant Emperor duology (Shelley Parker-Chan) this year. Mostly the goal is to stop saying, “Ooh, I’ve been meaning to read that!”

Series are listed alphabetically by title. Hyperlinked series titles lead to the review series pages; hyperlinked book titles lead to the individual reviews. Asterisks are rereads that still need to be reviewed. The Hunger Games is included because of the upcoming release of Sunrise on the Reaping, though I am otherwise up to date on the series. I don’t have a specific TBR goal, other than to finish as many of these as I can.

Updates

  • 2/4/25: I was enrolled in the Pocket Books Shop Five by Five in 2025 challenge for like a second, until I realized I don’t actually have as many hours in the day as I always think I do. I’d still encourage others to try it, though.
  • 3/4/25: I’m neurotic so books are getting crossed off the list as I review them just so it can look like I’m doing something because I actually am making progress but these reviews I’m writing won’t be published for months T_T
  • 4/3/25: I am proud to announce the completion of my first series: the Thursday Murder Club has officially been crossed off the list!
  • 5/30/25: Jurassic Park has just joined the Thursday Murder Club as my second series completed!
  • 7/3/25: Between Earth and Sky has been completed!
  • 10/17/25: World of the Five Gods has been completed!

Challenge Read Count: 4   |   Challenge DNF Count: 0

  1. Adunni – Abi Daré
    1. The Girl with the Louding Voice*
    2. And So I Roar
  2. Between Earth and Sky – Rebecca Roanhorse
    1. Black Sun
    2. Fevered Star
    3. Mirrored Heavens*
  3. The Books of Babel – Josiah Bancroft
    1. Senlin Ascends
    2. Arm of the Sphinx
    3. The Hod King
    4. The Fall of Babel
  4. Earthseed – Octavia E. Butler
    1. Parable of the Sower
    2. Parable of the Talents
  5. Flesh and False Gods – Chloe Gong
    1. Immortal Longings
    2. Vilest Things
  6. Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling
    1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone*
    2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*
    3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*
    4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire*
    5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*
    6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*
    7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*
  7. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
    1. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
    2. Sunrise on the Reaping
    3. The Hunger Games*
    4. Catching Fire*
    5. Mockingjay*
  8. Iron Widow – Xiran Jay Zhao
    1. Iron Widow
    2. Heavenly Tyrant
  9. Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
    1. Jurassic Park
    2. The Lost World
  10. The Lost Queen – Signe Pike
    1. The Lost Queen
    2. The Forgotten Kingdom
    3. The Shadowed Land
  11. The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang
    1. The Poppy War*
    2. The Dragon Republic*
    3. The Burning God*
  12. The Radiant Emperor – Shelley Parker-Chan
    1. She Who Became the Sun
    2. He Who Drowned the World
  13. Secret Shanghai – Chloe Gong
    1. These Violent Delights
    2. Our Violent Ends
    3. Foul Lady Fortune*
    4. Last Violent Call
    5. Foul Heart Huntsman
  14. The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
    1. The Thursday Murder Club
    2. The Man Who Died Twice
    3. The Bullet That Missed
    4. The Last Devil to Die
  15. World of the Five Gods* – Lois McMaster Bujold
    1. The Hallowed Hunt*
    2. The Curse of Chalion
    3. Paladin of Souls

Finished

  1. The Wild Robot – Peter Brown
  2. Mirror Mirror – Gregory Maguire
  3. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
  4. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – Mark Twain
  5. My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me – Caleb Carr
  6. Spy x Family 13 – Tatsuya Endo
  7. Night of the Living Cat 1 – Hawkman
  8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – J.K. Rowling
  9. Foul Lady Fortune – Chloe Gong
  10. 1984 – George Orwell
  11. Twilight Falls – Juneau Black
  12. Cat + Gamer 7 – Wataru Nadatani
  13. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
  14. Last Violent Call – Chloe Gong
  15. The Fox Wife – Yangsze Choo
  16. The Bullet That Missed – Richard Osman
  17. Summers End – Juneau Black
  18. Sunrise on the Reaping – Suzanne Collins
  19. The Last Devil to Die – Richard Osman
  20. Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton
  21. The Treasure in the Royal Tower (Nancy Drew #128) – Carolyn Keene
  22. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
  23. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling
  24. The Lost World – Michael Crichton
  25. Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell
  26. The Midnight Library – Matt Haig
  27. Puccini’s Ghosts – Morag Joss
  28. Mirrored Heavens – Rebecca Roanhorse
  29. Orbital – Samantha Harvey
  30. James – Percival Everett
  31. Stone Mattress – Margaret Atwood
  32. Cat + Gamer 8 – Wataru Nadatani
  33. Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell
  34. The Hallowed Hunt – Lois McMaster Bujold
  35. Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell
  36. Salt Slow – Julia Armfield
  37. The Unworthy – Agustina Bazterrica
  38. The Poisoned King – Katherine Rundell
  39. Junji Ito’s Cat Diary: Yon & Mu – Junji Ito
  40. When You Love a Cat – M.H. Clark
  41. The Spellshop – Sarah Beth Durst
  42. Slashed Beauties – A. Rushby

DNF

  1. The Stardust Thief (Chelsea Abdullah) – Reread DNF’d 5/31/25 on page 222, so wow, I actually got farther than I thought. :’) This DNF was really a surprise when I loved the book the first time I read it, but I ran out of steam for unemployment-related reasons, and I got a little bored. This isn’t a fault of the book, it was just a matter of the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ll pick this up again later because I do still want to finish the trilogy, and I definitely have book 2 on my shelf.
  2. Her Lost Words (Stephanie Marie Thornton) – DNF’d 9/7/25 on page 43. I thought I’d love it, but it never grabbed me, and the chapters are way too damn long. It’s fine otherwise.
  3. Sansei and Sensibility (Karen Tei Yamashita) – DNF’d 9/8/25 on page 57. I really tried. Unfortunately, I am super bored and I just have no idea what she’s talking about. After the first two stories it stopped reading like a short story collection and turned into a memoir interspersed with a Who’s Who of Japanese settlers in the Americas, and I don’t even know if that was the intention.
  4. I Who Have Never Known Men (Jacqueline Harpman) – DNF’d 10/22/25 on page 25. I thought I could hop into this one right after The Unworthy, but it just didn’t do it for me. The narrator is a snotty teenager who gives the same “I am surrounded by morons” vibe as Mary MacLane, and I see no reason to waste my time.
  5. The Curse of Chalion (Lois McMaster Bujold) – Reread DNF’d 11/2/25 on page 33. I love this book SO MUCH, but I just lost steam during this reread and wanted to read something else.
  6. Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France (Christopher C. Gorham) – Temporarily DNF’d 12/2/25 on page 31. It’s not the book, it’s the reading slumps. I will try again next year.