What I Read and Watched in 2025

Wow, 2025 marks my sixth year of posting about what I have read. What fun!

I hope you have had a joyful and wide-ranging year of reading, whatever that means in your particular circumstances. What were your favouite books this year? Sharing recommendations or delight in a good read is such fun--if you have read any of the books below, or have recommendations for books I need to read in 2026, do leave a comment or send me a message to let me know!

In 2025 I read 120 books...

Before we get to the full list, here are the highlights. These are the books I texted my friends and family about; the ones might surprised, delighted, or challenged me.

1. From my reading challenges...too many books to list, but A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.; all three books of the Themis Files; Fresh Water for Flowers; Your Utopia; and the the Plotters are books I had great fun reading.
2. For the historical fiction fan...Sparrow by James Hynes is not easy to read--its main character is a young boy enslaved in a late Roman brothel--and I found myself frustrated by a few of its loose ends (how and why does the main character end up marooned in post-Roman Britain, tell me), but it is a welcome and delightful addition to the very small cast of English-language historical novels about Late Antiquity. Honourable mention, also to Deep as the sky, red as the sea by Rita Chang-Eppig, a fast-paced and compulsively readable novel about a famous Chinese pirate queen, Shek Yeung.
3. For the romance fan...hockey romance is an absolute phenomenon in the romance genre, and I was completely unaware of it until the trailer for Heated Rivalry dropped in November. While waiting for the show and in between the first few episodes, I mainlined Rachel Reid's entire Game Changers series. It's hard to pick a favourite, but since the TV adaption was so much fun, we'll go with Heated Rivalry. Or, wait, Tough Guy. Or we need to talk about Role Model and also the Long Game. The entire series is very enjoyable.
4. For readers of short stories...Walking the Clouds: an anthology of indigenous science fiction was genuinely great and "When this world is all on fire" has haunted me since I first read it. At the end of the year, I read Anton Hur's translation of Your Utopia by Bora Chung; which is full of stories that delighted me.
5. As a new reader of horror...Black River Orchard was good; Stephen Graham Jones' original and terrifying conception of vampirism will keep make me turn on the light in the dark for some time to come. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was a great read.
6. For fans of classic literature...Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (London, 2020); originally published as Lolly Willowes, or the Loving Huntsman (London, 1926) is a short and utterly delightful book about a middle-aged spinster who sells her soul to the devil and gets the better end of the bargain.
7. From previous years...Now that I've done six years of these posts, it's fun to look back on previous lists and full out a recommendation for a book that I am still thinking about: Elizabeth Moon's Speed of Dark, from my 2021 reading list. It's a near-future novel which follows a young autistic man as he wrestles with the choice of whether to accept a surgery that might "cure" his autism, and its unique voice and characters have lingered in my memory for years. Worth checking out!

Reading

After struggling to assign some of the books I read in 2024 to one category, I decided to organize 2025's list by what I finished each month. Also, it's fun to see how my reading changed at different points in the year...

 

All titles in BOLD were read as part of my 2025 reading challenges. 

 

Spells and Spaceships Virtual Badge Collection

Books in Translation Reading Challenge

January

1. A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen: Easy Seasonal Dishes for Family and Friends by Jack Bishop (Boston, 2004)
   
2. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (Mineola, New York, 2002)
3. Classic German Cooking by Luisa Weiss (New York, 2024)
4. A Slanting of the Sun: Stories by Donal Ryan (Dublin, 2016)
5.  The Pariah by Anthony Ryan (London, 2021)
   
6. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (New York, 1959)
7. Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (London, 2024)
   

February

1. The Martyr by Anthony Ryan (London, 2022)
2. The Girl in Red by Christina Henry (New York, 2019)
3. Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat, translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth (London, 2021)
4. Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner (London, 2020); originally published as Lolly Willowes, or the Loving Huntsman (London, 1926) 
5. The People's Album of London Statues, described by Osbert Sitwell, drawn by Nina Hamnett (London, 1928)
6. The Traitor by Anthony Ryan (London, 2023)
7. Nero by Conn Iggulden (London, 2024)
8. Good Will Come From the Sea by Christos Ikonomou, translated from Greek by Karen Emmerich (Brooklyn, 2019)
9. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (New York, 2018)
   

March

1. The Water Outlaws by S.L. Huang (Oxford, 2023)
2. Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown (New York, 2014)
3. A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare, translated from Albanian by John Hodgson (London, 2023)
4. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett (London, 1986)
5. My mother she killed me, my father he ate me: forty new fairy tales, edited by Kate Bernheimer and Carmen Giménez Smith (New York, 2010)
6.  The Chinese Gold Murders by Robert van Gulik (London, 1959; reprinted 2024)
7. Funny Story by Emily Henry (New York, 2024)
8. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (New York, 2018)
9. Sparrow by James Hynes (London, 2024)
10.  Walking the Clouds: an anthology of indigenous science fiction (Tucson, 2012), edited by Grace L. Dillon
    

April

1. Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (London, 1989; reissued 2012)
   
2. How to kill an asteroid: the real science of planetary defense by Robin George Andrews (London, 2024)
3.  Day by night by Tanith Lee (New York, 1980)
4.  Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (London, 2025)
5.  Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (London, 2004; reissued 2014)
6.  The Mile-Long Spaceship by Kate Wilhelm (New York, 1963)
7. The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction by Henry T. Greeley
   
8.  Sleeping Giants by Slyvain Neuvel (London, 2016)

May

1. Soul Music by Terry Pratchett (London, 1994, reissued 2013)
2. How to Survive a Summer by Nike White (New York, 2017)
3. The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste (Edinburgh, 2019)
4. Ethiopia: recipes and traditions from the horn of Africa by Yohanis Gebreysesus (London, 2018)
5. Paladin's Hope by T. Kingfisher (Dallas, 2021)
6. Snuff by Terry Pratchett (London, 2011)
7. Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel (London, 2017)
8. Daylight Come by Diana McCaulay (Leeds, 2020)
9.  The Alphabet of Birds by SJ Naudé translated from Afrikaans by the author (London, 2015)
10. Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup (Sword Lady Books, 2024)
11. Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel (London, 2018)
12. Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig (New York, 2023)
13. A Drop of Patience by William Melvin Kelley (New York, 1965; reprinted 2019)

June

1.  Night Boat by Alan Spence (Edinburgh, 2013)
2.  Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (London, 1996; reprinted 2013)
3. The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi (London, 2021) 
4.  Making Money by Terry Pratchett (London, 2001; reprinted 2014)
5. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (New York, 2018) 

July

1. Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan (London, 2021)

Also reread...

1. Much Ado About You by Eloisa James (New York, 2004)
2. Kiss Me Annabel by Eloisa James (New York, 2005)
3. The Taming of the Duke by Eloisa James (New York, 2006)

August 

1. Far, far away by Tom McNeal (New York, 2013) 
2. Virginia Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, and Other Offbeat Stuff by Sharon Cavileer 
3. Manners and Southern History edited by Ted Ownby (Jackson, 2007) 
4. Bride by Ali Hazelwood (New York, 2024) 

Also reread

1. 9 Rules to break when romancing a rake by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2010)
2. 10 ways to be adored when landing a lord by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2010)
3. 11 scandals to start to win a duke's heart by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2011)
4. Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James (New York, 2006)
5. A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2012)
6. One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2013)
7. No Good Duke Goes Unpunished by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2013)
8. Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean (New York, 2014)
9. Duchess in Love by Eloisa James (New York, 2002)
10. Fool for Love by Eloisa James (New York, 2003)
11. Your Wicked Ways by Eloisa James (New York, 2004)
12. The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (New York, 2021)
13. The American Roommate Experiment by Elena Armas  (New York, 2022)

September

1. Kindred Spirits: an anthology of gay and lesbian science fiction stories, edited by Jeffrey M. Elliot (Boston, 1984)
2. Deep as the sky, red as the sea by Rita Chang-Eppig (New York, 2023) 
3. Legends: New Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, edited by Robert Silverberg (New York, 1998)
4. The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle (Harmondsworth, 1957, reprinted 1971)
5. Uprooted by Naomi Novik (New York, 2016) 
6. Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (Large Print Edition, Thorndike Press, 2022)
7. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez translated from Spanish by Edith Grossman (New York, 2005)
8.  Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (New York, 2014)
9.  Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (New York, 2021)
10.  A Rare Benedictine by Ellis Peters (New York, 1988)
11. Paladin's Faith by T. Kingfisher (Red Wombat Studio, 2023) 
12. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini (originally published London, 1904). Librivox Audiobook.

Also reread 

1. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (London, 2013)  
2. Niccolo Rising by Dorothy Dunnett (Harmondsworthy, 1986; Penguin edition published 1987) 

October

1. The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig (New York, 2025)
2. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (New York, 2015)
3. Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly (New York, 1988) 
4. Going for Infinity by Poul Anderson (New York, 2002)
5. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer (New York, 2014)
6. Devil House by John Darnielle (New York, 2022)
7. Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette (New York, 2021)
8. The Nebuly Coat by John Meade Falkner (London, 1903; reprinted with an introduction by A.N. Wilson, 2016)

November

1. When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri (New York, 2018)
2. The Three-Body Problem by Cinxin Liu, translated from Chinese by Ken Liu (New York, 2014)
3.  Herbs in the Kitchen: A Celebration of Flavor by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger (Loveland, CO, 1992)
4.  Autumn: An anthology for the changing seasons edited by Melissa Harrison (London, 2016)
5.  Out there screaming: a new anthology of Black horror, edited by Jordan Peale (New York, 2023)
6. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (New York, 2025)
7. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (Toronto, 2019)
8. The Long Game by Rachel Reid (Toronto, 2022)
9. Role Model by Rachel Reid (Toronto, 2021)
10.  Laguardia: a very modern story of immigration by Nnedi Okorafor, illustrated by Tana Ford with James Devlin (Milwaukie, OR, 2019)
11. The Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton (London, 1996; Orbit edition published New York, 2008)
12.  Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin, translated from French by Hildegarde Searle (New York, 2021)
13. Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff (London, 1955)
14. Tough Guy by Rachel Reid (Toronto, 2020)
15. Common Goal by Rachel Reid (Toronto, 2020) 
16. Game Changer by Rachel Reid (Toronto, 2018) 

December 

1. Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (New York, 2021)
2. Chouette by Claire Oshetsky (New York, 2022)
3. Your Utopia by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur (New York, 2024)
4. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James (New York, 2019) 
5.  The Call of the Toad by Günter Grass, translated from German by Ralph Manheim (New York, 1992)
6. Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated from Italian by the author (New York, 2021)
7.  The Plotters by Un-Su Kim, translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell (New York, 2018) 

Also reread 

1. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (New York, 2006, reprinted 2024) 
2.  Red Seas Under Read Skies by Scott Lynch (New York, 2007, reprinted 2025)

Best of Viewing and Listening

I gave myself a break from keeping track of what I read and watched in 2025, with the result that this section contains only the greatest hits. 

Movies

1. Dishonourable mention to One Battle After Another, which has a great soundtrack and is not my cup of tea.
2. Honourable mention to Far from the Madding Crowd, which is everything a period drama should be. 

Podcasts

1. I highly recommend the New Books Network to anyone who enjoys hearing academics talk about their work. The episode with Michelle Brown on her new book, Bede and the Theory of Everything, was a particular delight.
2.  Nobody Asked Us continues to be one of my favourite running podcasts. Listening to Des and Kara feels like overhearing a real fun conversation between two great friends at the table next to yours in a restaurant.
3. Ali on the Run--for someone who has a relentlessly hard few years, Alison Feller is incredibly positive and open and optimistic. She really is a wonderful interviewer, too, and gets great conversations going with a wide variety of runners.
4. Also, for reasons that will become apparent: the hockey podcast What Chaos and its reviews of the queer hockey romance show, Heated Rivalry.

Television

1. Watched Murderbot; loved Murderbot. Many people wanted a different actor to play Murderbot; for me Alexander Skarsgård gave the perfect performance. What a well-made show and a delight to watch. Cannot wait to see the next season.
2. Blood of My Blood had so many phenomenal actors to work with and despite many fine moments, didn't quite become the sensation I was hoping for. But as ever, Bear McCreary's score was amazing.
3. Loved the third season of the Wheel of Time, and sorry to see that it was canceled. For that matter,  
4. Rewatched all of Stranger Things in preparation for season 5; seasons 1 and 3 continue to be my absolute favourites. I didn't actually watch the new season as it dropped because I became absolutely obsessed with...
5. Heated Rivalry. What can I possibly say about this show? It is a (spicy!) adaption of a (spicy!) hockey romance novel and every single thing about it delights me to near-incoherence. Jacob Tierney adapts the source novel with such great affection and respect for the original material and its audience; all of the actors involved in the project are tremendously gifted at what they do and very easy on the eyes; the soundtrack is incredible; it's funny and queer and heartrending and delightful. My joy and excitement that it will have a second season is immense and unrestrained. Also, the fact that a number of hockey podcast got into the show, and loved it, was great fun. I particularly loved the two What Chaos episode interviewing the director Jacob Tierney.

Youtube

2025 was not a great year for Youtube-watching, but I continue to be a big fan of the videos by the multi-talented pro runner Allie Ostrander.

Previous Years of Reading

2024 2023 2022 2021 2020

 

Merrily merrily to welcome in the Year

Spring

Sound the flute!
Now it's mute.
Bird's delight,
Day and night.
Nightingale
In the dale
Lark in sky
Merrily
Merrily merrily to welcome in the Year

Little boy
Full of joy.
Little girl
Sweet and small.
Cock does crow
So do you.
Merry voice
Infant noise
Merrily merrily to welcome in the Year.

Little Lamb
Here I am,
Come and lick
My white neck.
Let me pull
Your soft Wool.
Let me kiss
Your soft face.
Merrily merrily to welcome in the Year 

William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, with an introduction and notes by Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford, 1967)

My 2025 Fantasy/SF Badge Collection

One of the reading challenges I participated in this year was the Spells and Spaceships Virtual Badge collection. Look how adorable the little badges are! How could I resist?

Much to my surprise, I was able to collect twenty-three out of the twenty-five badges available, missing only the self-published fantasy blog off badge, and hence also failing to become a collector by reading books that counted for all of the badges. Overall, this was a super-fun reading challenge, and pushed me to read books I otherwise would not have read.

Spells and Spaceships Virtual Badge Collection

1. My first badge was the post-apocalytic badge: which I collected by reading A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Some books are classics for a reason.

The Post Apocalyptic Badge

2. I earned myself the Big Battle Badge by reading Anthony Ryan's The Pariah, the first book of the dark fantasy trilogy The Covenant of Steel. The novel's rather loutish hero, Alwyn Scribe, fights in a big battle against a pretender to the throne of Albermaine, under the banner of the devout and troubled Lady Evaline Courlain. It's a world inspired by late medieval Europe with women in military command! Very much my jam, and I enjoyed Alwyn's voice as a first-person narrator.

The Big Battle Badge

3. I earned my Debut badge by reading Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory, author's first novel, and the winner of a Hugo Award. In her wonderful, wise acceptance speech, Tesh spoke about how she wrote the book in response to contemporary concerns and fully hopes that the novel will join the many previous Hugo Award winners which were significant and of their time, but have now faded into obscurity. 

The Debut Badge

4. I earned my Epic Fantasy badge by continuing to read Anthony Ryan's Covenant of Steel series. The second book, The Martyr, shows the characters deepening their commitment to preventing a coming apocalypse. But are they actually preventing it or actually bringing it about?

The Epic Fantasy Badge

5. I earned my "mythology and folklore badge" with The Girl in Red, which is based on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. 

Mythology and Folklore Badge

6. I earned my lightweight badge with Lolly Willowes, which is a book I would most enthusiastically recommend. If you read one book on this list, read Lolly Willowes. "A middle-aged spinster becomes a sworn servant of the Devil" doesn't sound like the most promising setup of a book, but just trust me, it's tremendous.

Lightweight Badge

7. Murderbot absolutely counts as not a human, right? At least, I'm 100% confident it doesn't see itself as human. I liked Artificial Condition well enough, but didn't find myself adoring it as much as All Systems Red. But it sets up some intriguing worldbuilding--I do hope the portion of the plot dealing with ComfortUnits is developed in later books--and I am now team ART forever. Sometimes what a depressed, socially anxious person needs is a figure in their lives who (lovingly) takes none of their crap and reminds them to pull their head from their nethers every so often--as ART does in this book. All hail ART.

The Non-Human Badge

8. My Asian Inspiration badge came from reading S.L. Huang's The Water Outlaws. The characters won my heart completely and I stayed up well into a Friday night to inhale it. If you are looking for a engrossing epic tale of good people taking down bad (who isn't these days), seek this out.

Asian Inspiration Badge

9. I earned my Dragon badge for reading the third book of the Empyrean, Onyx Storm. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of the Empyrean books, precisely--I definitely laugh in places the author did not intend me to--but I am fascinated by the phenomenon of the series, and curious what will happen to the characters. 

Dragon Badge

10. My Uncovered Diamond badge was from reading a collection of short stories, the Mile-Long Spaceship, published by Kate Wilhelm early in her career. It has only, at the time I am writing this paragraph (April 2025), seven reviews on Goodreads, so definitely counts for this badge! The collection was published in 1963, and the stories themselves were written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which made them a fascinating time capsule. My favourite stories of the lot were "No Light in the Window," an extremely clever, subtle, and satisfying take on the selection of passengers for a generation ship; and "Jenny with Wings," because it made me laugh.

Uncovered Diamond Badge

11. My first contact badge came from reading Sylvain Neuvel's series The Themis Files. Unusually, the story is told as a series of journal entries, news broadcasts, and recorded interviews, which is a rather fun form to read! While book one, Sleeping Giants does contain "first contact", in the form of humanity discovering extraterrestrial artefacts (and humans with alien DNA); the second book in the series, Waking Gods, is the one I'm counting here. Aliens invading earth is pretty unambiguous first contact. And we get more details on the genetic mixing of humans and extraterrestrials, too!

The First Contact Badge

12. My Standalone Badge came from reading the science fictional climate change novel, Daylight Come by Diana McCauley. I haven't ever read a scifi novel set in Jamaica (renamed Bajacu) and the novel chronicles the efforts of a mother and daughter, Sorrel and Bibi, to seek safety and community. It's a short, fast-paced book with intriguing worldbuilding.

The Standalone Badge

13. Horror is not a genre I would have said I liked but Chuck Wendig's Black River Orchard had changed my mind. I may never look at an apple orchard--or an apple seed (shudder)--the same way again. A wonderfully creepy book.

The Spooky Badge

14. I earned my historical fantasy badge by reading The Sin Eater by Megan Campisi (London, 2021), set in Elizabethan England (sure, the names of the queen, the country, and the newly established church are all technically changed, but the original serial numbers are still plainly visible). I read this book just before my international move--it was the final novel I finished from my local public library. It has that wonderful folkloric quality that all the best historical fantasy does, and compelling worldbuilding.

The Historical Fantasy Badge

 

15. I earned my big'un badge by reading Robert Silverberg's mammoth (715 page) Legends: short novels by the masters of modern fantasy. The stories that linger particularly with me are Stephen King's The Little Sisters of Eluria (wonderfully creepy); The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin (still not tempted to take another run at ASOIAF though); Grinning Man by Orson Scott Card (love the appearance by Daniel Boone and would vote for the story's bear-mayor); but above all, The Sea and the Little Fishes by Terry Pratchett (my introduction to Granny Weatherwax. I need more, I tell you, more!) Silverberg was clearly a hell of an editor to put this thing together.

The Big'un: Legends clocked in at 715 pages!

16. For my monster badge, I'm counting Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo. Vampires and demons count as otherwordly creatures, right? They do for purposes of this badge! As far as dark academia goes, it's heavy on the dark and light on the academia; with actual Ivy League coursework alongside their trips to hell, every single character should be on academic probation at the start of the book and suspended by the end. (College kids, do your reading!) Doesn't stop me from loving the luxuriously detailed description of Yale's magnificent library, though. I could also count Uprooted by Naomi Novik (which I adored) for this badge.

The Monster Badge

 17.  Annihilation the movie would scare the crap out of me--Annihilation the book certainly did. The first book I have read by Jeff Vandermeer. Definitely not the last.

Big screen badge for Annihilation

 18. Although I enjoy a number of blogs--especially SFF Book Reviews--that focus on following new books and new released, I rarely make the effort to keep up the latest new books myself. So, I figured this badge was going to be one of the ones I missed, but then I realised that a book Dina reviewed was a) available from my local library and b) published in 2025! So, I picked up The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig and rather enjoyed it! Even if the plot is uneven, the world is well-structured, the romance at the center of the story is pleasant, and the talking gargoyle is an absolute delight. 

2025 Badge for The Knight and the Moth

19. For some reason, I find the experience of reading graphic novels to be a distinctly uncomfortable. It feels like there's too much to take in at once, and hunting down all the text and details of the page to make sure I've understood everything frustrates me. I've never seen anyone else talk or write about similar feelings--mostly, graphic novels seem to be discussed as an easier alternative to print books, but they're not that way for me. So I knew that this badge was going to be among the hardest for me to grab, simply because I'd have to make a real effort to collect it. Fortunately, my public library has a small section of adult graphic novels, including some in the genre of science fiction and fantasy. So for this badge I read Nnedi Okorafor's Laguardia. The art was extremely fun, and many aspects of the story were very engaging. But I don't think I'll go out of my way to read more graphic novels.

The Graphic Novel Badge

20. While I could another book from the Murderbot Diaries for my space opera, I thought it would be fun to try to add a new author to my list. So I picked up a book that--with 1,108 pages (counting the extras) absolutely could have counted for the Big'un badge, but which the blurbs on the back also described as "super intelligent space opera" and "brash, broad space opera with military hardware galore". The reviewer of the Denver Post wrote that "Space operas are galaxy-spanning tales of battling starships, exploding planets...and questions on the nature of good and evil and the evolution of man. Making coherent stories from this material is a rare talent..." A reddit reviewer described Peter F. Hamilton's work as "pulpy", and for me, that description encapsulates The Reality Dysfunction, book one of the Night's Dawn Trilogy. This entertained and exasperated me and I might read the remaining 2,000+ pages of the series, just to see how it all ends...

Space Opera Badge

21.  For my animal companion badge, I could pick either Chouette, a strange, spiky novel about a woman who gives birth to an owlet (rather stretching the definition of "animal companion") or another book by Nnedi Okorafor, Remote Control, where the main character, Sankofa, is accompanied by an inscrutable fox named Movenpick. I'm counting Remote Control, despite my preference for not repeating authors. My favourite of Okorafor's novels is and remains Lagoon, closely followed by Who Fears Death; despite having some beautiful and atmospheric momemts, Remote Control never quite grabbed me the way I hoped it would. 

Animal Companion Badge

22. Marlon James' Black Leopard, Red Wolf, is the book on all this list that will linger with me the longest. Even in moments where the writing and characters frustrated or baffled me, there was something gripping about its ambition and brutality. Not a book I would have read without the desire to collect the African Inspiration badge, and not a book I can easily recommend, but what a ride.

African Inspiration Badge

23.  The last badge I managed to snag was a reread of Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies, which enabled me to capture my Sea Setting badge. A casino heist turns into a pirate adventure on the high seas, this book features two of the best lady pirates of fiction. 

Sea Setting Badge

2025 Books in Translation Reading Challenge

This is my second year of participating in the Books in Translation Reading Challenge, hosted by Jen of the Introverted Reader.

2025 was a particularly interesting year for reading since my local library situation changed over the course of the year: I moved from the fourth-largest city in the Netherlands, where my public library contained an extensive collection of books translated into English, to a town of less than eight thousand people in the southern United States, with a beautiful and much smaller library. Fortunately--three cheers for amazing librarians--my access to translated books continued uninterrupted, and I actually read more translated fiction after moving.

In 2025, I read twelve books, arriving (to my surprise) at the Linguist level of the challenge... 

Serendipity was my preferred method of finding books for this reading challenge. All of the books on the list below were chosen by browsing the shelves of my local library looking for books with "translated by" on the cover or title page, and a blurb or cover that appealed.

Books in Translation Reading Challenge

1. Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat, translated from Arabic by Marilyn Booth (London, 2021)

A story told in parts, I remember this as being good but not extraordinary.

2. Good Will Come From the Sea by Christos Ikonomou, translated from Greek by Karen Emmerich (Brooklyn, 2019)

A collection of longish and rather bleak short stories, this was an enjoyable opportunity to visit a place and culture totally new to me. 

3. A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare, translated from Albanian by John Hodgson (London, 2023)

A short, dense concept novel--the plot centers around a famous 1934 phone call between the dictator Josef Stalin and the novelist Boris Pasternak. 

4. The Alphabet of Birds by SJ Naudé translated from Afrikaans by the author (London, 2015)

Another short story collection; though none of the stories rewired my brain or lingered in memory, it was overall a pleasant reading experience.

5. Terminal Boredom: Stories by Izumi Suzuki, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan (London, 2021)

This was the last book I read before an international move; I remember liking it a lot, but none of the stories have specifically stuck with me.

6. Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez translated from Spanish by Edith Grossman (New York, 2005)

A short novel about an elderly Lothario of a journalist who falls passionately in love with a very young prostitute. I didn't enjoy this and wouldn't recommend it, but if you're looking for a very short translated novel, it is that.

7. The Three-Body Problem by Cinxin Liu, translated from Chinese by Ken Liu (New York, 2014)

I know almost nothing about China's Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, so the setting alone would have fascinated me regardless, but this is genuinely a gripping and original novel about vengeance and alien contact with humanity. Also, the translation is genuinely terrific. Will very likely read the rest of the trilogy just to find out what happens.

8. Fresh Water for Flowers by Valérie Perrin, translated from French by Hildegarde Searle (New York, 2021)

I loved the first two-thirds of this book (and its plot twist), as well as the fact that it has short chapters. Definitely something to look into if you enjoy gentle, optimistic books about people living good lives after great loss.

9. Your Utopia by Bora Chung, translated from Korean by Anton Hur (New York, 2024)

My personal favourite book on this list, and the one I most want other people to read and love so I have someone else to shout with about how good and weird and devastating some of these stories are. "Your Utopia"; "Maria gratia plena"; "the Centre for Immortality Research"; "the end of the voyage"; perhaps it's just that I read it late in the year and haven't had the chance to forget it yet, but so many of these stories were among the best I read in 2025. Not to be missed if you have any interest at all in speculative fiction.

10. The Call of the Toad by Günter Grass, translated from German by Ralph Manheim (New York, 1992)

Parts of this novel I really loved--it features an elderly German widower (an art history professor) and a Polish widow (a conservator specialising in gilding) meeting, falling in love, and going into the cemetery business together. Overall, it was marred by a pretentious and unpleasant narrator, whose frame story I very much could have done without.

11. Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated from Italian by the author (New York, 2021)

I absolutely loathed this book: for me its anonymous narrator was solipsistic, deeply unpleasant, and utterly tedious to read about. Did not live up to the hype, or my previous experiences of enjoying work by this author.

12. The Plotters by Un-Su Kim, translated from Korean by Sora Kim-Russell (New York, 2018) 

I was very happy to close out my year of reading translated books on such a high note.  Of all the books on this list, this is the one I would recommend most highly to other readers of translated novels--if you like thrillers and don't mind some gore and violence, this is a genuinely fun and propulsive read. This is the first novel of Un-Su Kim's to be translated into English and it makes me want to seek out more Korean crime fiction in 2026.

I hope this post makes plain the great delight reading translated books brought me in 2025. Very much looking forward to taking part in 2026! I'd love to hear from other readers of translated books--do any of these sound like books you might try? What translated fiction would you recommend I read next?

Previous Books in Translation Reading Challenges: 2024

As Autumn Ends

Warming

The seasons' course seems strange to me,
more strange than I remember;
wild flowers bloom unseasonably:
primroses in November.

The young pretend to blame us all.
Well, youth's a great dissembler:
May was forever, I recall,
and there was no November.

These days I'll take what Nature sends
to hoard for dour December:
a glow of warmth as autumn ends;
primroses in November.

~ David Gwilym Anthony, reprinted in Autumn: An anthology for the changing seasons, edited by Melissa Harrison (London, 2016), p. 187. The poet's biography, and the text of several of his other poems, can be found here

Winter's returning song

November

The landscape sleeps in mist from morn till noon;
And, if the sun looks through, 'tis with a face
Beamless and pale and round, as if the moon,
When done the journey of her nightly race,
Had found him sleeping, and supplied his place.
For days the shepherds in the fields may be,
Nor mark a patch of sky – blindfold they trace,
The plains, that seem without a bush or tree,
Whistling aloud by guess, to flocks they cannot see.

The timid hare seems half its fears to lose,
Crouching and sleeping ‘neath its grassy lair,
And scarcely startles, tho’ the shepherd goes
Close by its home, and dogs are barking there;
The wild colt only turns around to stare
At passer by, then knaps his hide again;
And moody crows beside the road forbear
To fly, tho’ pelted by the passing swain;
Thus day seems turn’d to night, and tries to wake in vain.

The owlet leaves her hiding-place at noon,
And flaps her grey wings in the doubling light;
The hoarse jay screams to see her out so soon,
And small birds chirp and startle with affright;
Much doth it scare the superstitious wight,
Who dreams of sorry luck, and sore dismay;
While cow-boys think the day a dream of night,
And oft grow fearful on their lonely way,
Fancying that ghosts may wake, and leave their graves by day. 

"Barn Owl (Tyto alba)" by sussexbirder is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Yet but awhile the slumbering weather flings
Its murky prison round – then winds wake loud;
With sudden stir the startled forest sings
Winter’s returning song – cloud races cloud,
And the horizon throws away its shroud,
Sweeping a stretching circle from the eye;
Storms upon storms in quick succession crowd,
And o’er the sameness of the purple sky
Heaven paints, with hurried hand, wild hues of every dye.

At length it comes among the forest oaks,
With sobbing ebbs, and uproar gathering high;
The scared, hoarse raven on its cradle croaks,
And stockdove-flocks in hurried terrors fly,
While the blue hawk hangs o’er them in the sky.
The hedger hastens from the storm begun,
To seek a shelter that may keep him dry;
And foresters low bent, the wind to shun,
Scarce hear amid the strife the poacher’s muttering gun.

The ploughman hears its humming rage begin,
And hies for shelter from his naked toil;
Buttoning his doublet closer to his chin,
He bends and scampers o’er the elting soil,
While clouds above him in wild fury boil,
And winds drive heavily the beating rain;
He turns his back to catch his breath awhile,
Then ekes his speed and faces it again,
To seek the shepherd’s hut beside the rushy plain.

The boy, that scareth from the spiry wheat
The melancholy crow – in hurry weaves,
Beneath an ivied tree, his sheltering seat,
Of rushy flags and sedges tied in sheaves,
Or from the field a shock of stubble thieves.
There he doth dithering sit, and entertain
His eyes with marking the storm-driven leaves;
Oft spying nests where he spring eggs had ta’en,
And wishing in his heart twas summer-time again.

"Crow..." by Klearchos Kapoutsis is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Thus wears the month along, in checker’d moods,
Sunshine and shadows, tempests loud, and calms;
One hour dies silent o’er the sleepy woods,
The next wakes loud with unexpected storms;
A dreary nakedness the field deforms –
Yet many a rural sound, and rural sight,
Lives in the village still about the farms,
Where toil’s rude uproar hums from morn till night
Noises, in which the ears of Industry delight.

At length the stir of rural labour’s still,
And Industry her care awhile foregoes;
When Winter comes in earnest to fulfil
His yearly task, at bleak November’s close,
And stops the plough, and hides the field in snows;
When frost locks up the stream in chill delay,
And mellows on the hedge the jetty sloes,
For little birds – then Toil hath time for play,
And nought but threshers’ flails awake the dreary day.

~John Clare, reprinted in Autumn: An anthology for the changing seasons, edited by Melissa Harrison (London, 2016), pp. 171-4