PennamiteWhat I read in 2025
Past editions of this list: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008. This list is also available in pictorial format at Pinterest, and I often post photos of books on Instagram and Ravelry too.
It was a very good year for reading here! I finished 47 books, to make a good 6×8 rectangular Book Blanket for 2025 (which will be completed and displayed in February 2026 at Fun-a-Day LA, stay tuned). I stop reading books without guilt, and go through spells where I don’t finish any books, for weeks at a time; so you can assume I also didn’t finish a dozen or so titles, and it probably wasn’t any fault of theirs. I have continued to enjoy audio books through Libby and Hoopla. I get most of my paper-and-ink copies of books from PaperbackSwap; I used to get more from thriftshops, but I don’t do that so much now (because #covidisnotover). Reading (by ear and by eye) has improved my neighborhood walks, and given me some mental space to roam beyond my house’s four walls.
Notes: Just because I read a book and listed it here doesn’t mean I liked it or would recommend it (but I guess I liked it enough to finish it, anyway). By my count (corrections welcome), 35/47 books listed are by female or non-binary authors this year. I really don’t read much non-fiction; there’s only one non-fiction book here, John Wood Sweet’s The Sewing Girl’s Tale — which is very accessible and interesting late 18c. US history; Alexander Hamilton even makes a cameo. Some of these titles are probably classified as YA, but that’s not something I always notice. I think the only authors repeated in this list are Haruki Murakami and Toshikazu Kawaguchi.
Books in winter panel (blue), so 1-12:
Melissa Albert, The Hazel Wood
Ezra Claytan Daniels, Upgrade Soul
M. L. Rio, If We Were Villains
Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds
John Wood Sweet, The Sewing Girl’s Tale
Maja Lunde, The End of the Ocean
Fiona Mozley, Elmet
NoViolet Buluwayo, We Need New Names
Paterson Joseph, The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho
H. G. Parry, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
Lily Brooks Dalton, Good Morning Midnight
Lauren Beukes, Afterland
Books in spring panel (yellow), so 13-24:
Chuck Wendig, The Book of Accidents
Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
Sara Novic, True Biz
Percival Everett, James
Maggie Shipstead, Seating Arrangements
Ben H. Winters, Golden State
Sarah Gailey, Upright Women Wanted
Tana French, The Hunter
Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Patricia Lockwood, No One is Talking About This
Akwaeke Emezi, The Death of Vivek Oji
Te-Ping Chen, The Land of Big Numbers
Books in summer panel (purple), so 25-36:
Kelly Link, The Book of Love
Samantha Harvey, Orbital
Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet
Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful
Lincoln Michel, The Body Scout
Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
Jennifer McMahon, Night Sister
Tommy Orange, Wandering Stars
Justina Ireland, Dread Nation
Andrea Bartz, We Were Never Here
Danzy Senna, New People
Books in Fall (no panel yet), 37-47:
Sue Burke, Semiosis
Megha Majumdar, A Burning
Nita Prose, The Maid
Nghi Vo, Siren Queen
Eliza Jane Brazier, If I Disappear
Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead
Haruki Murakami, After the Quake
Bethany C. Morrow, MEM
Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Tales from the Cafe
Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen
Riku Onda, The Aosawa Murders
Augie Ray
Michigander 
Peter Schaar
mem_somerville
Los Angeles Times
Steve Rehrauer