This year my highlight was “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang.

It is a collection of (not so) short stories. I didn’t like every one, but those I liked were absolutely brilliant. The title story, “Exhalation”, was one of those. I wanted to read something by Ted Chiang specifically because I adore the movie “Arrival” (2016), and found out it was based on one of his stories (not in “Exhalation”).

Btw. I liked “Project Hail Mary” too, read it last year.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-game-in-yellow-hailey-piper/567aec11eab5b2e5

‘A Game In Yellow.’ It may not be the finest book I read, but it was the one that instantly sprang to mind.

“The King In Yellow” is an old play that was banned by the Vatican and every European king; every actor and audience member who has been part of a performance has gone mad. Now the play has resurfaced in New York, and an unsuspecting couple are going to be part of the next production.

One of my favorites I read was the trilogy which starts with The Three-body Problem. Mind boggling stuff, and page turners, but not perfect.

I also read a lot of Stephen King, and the award for the best book I read in 2025 has to go to The Green Mile. It’s one of King’s best, and one I have great memories of reading when it came out.

I read a lot of great books this year. But, my shortlist goes to one author: Omar El Akkad.

One Day Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This (2025) and American War (2017) were both revelations.

P.S.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (2020) by Rashid Khalidi. An absolutely vital history in its address of Occupied Palestine, the State of Israel, and the world’s interactions with them. In much the same way Tony Judt deepened my perspective of Europe with Postwar, and Davids Wengrow and Graeber pushed my understandings with The Dawn of Everything, Khalidi weaves family history with world events to lend a sorely lost dimension to a vilified people.

Hail Mary was excellent, looking forward to the film.

TBH though, I read so many books this year it’s hard to keep track.

Electric State was a stand out, and I fell down the rabbit hole of his other three books too!

Tales From the Loop:

https://www.simonstalenhag.se/tftl.html

Things From the Flood:

https://www.simonstalenhag.se/tftf.html

The Electric State:

https://www.simonstalenhag.se/es.html

Sunset at Zero Point:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sunset-at-Zero-Point/Simon-Stalenhag/9781668096413

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. Very enlightening.

The Lies of Locke Lamora and its sequels are wonderful reads. Loved the world and characters and has a fun gripping plot.

Not done yet, but “1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus” by Charles Mann is excelent. So much insight presented in an interessting and accessible way.

same… i read Project Hail Mary and it was awesome…

arl read The Gone World and it was also amazing

I read (listened to) the first 6 books of Dungeon Crawler Carl. The whole series is fantastic. Best enjoyed via audio book because the narrator does a great job with the voices.

I also got around to reading The Shining by Stephen King. Definitely worth the read!

Happy New Year!

I haven’t done a full recap yet, but this is year I read all of the Murderbot books (recommended if that’s your sort of humor, steer clear otherwise) and the Black Sun trilogy. Honestly the latter has stayed with me the longest, even if it’s a light read.

Project Hail Mary is a sound hard scifi book that finally doesn’t mix romance into everything (as or rarely happens since a couple of decades).

Azalea Ellis’ A Practical Guide To Sorcery series starting with A Conjuring Of Ravens. Absolutely loved it and I have listened through 3 times since I got them in early December. The audio books are fantastic and really well read and the story is such a great power progression fantasy. It is not as serious and dark as much of modern fantasy with a lot of love for magic and some really great characters. The magic system is also awesome and not overpowered or silly, yet it has flexibility in terms of power level so you don’t feel like the characters have massive plot armour or answers to problems that just fix plot holes. Very well constructed, a great piece of fiction.

Just finished Strange Houses, a Japanese horror themed, interview and conversation style novel.

A psychological story with lots of twists and unsettling situations. I immersed myself in the world and the story is believable as could be real.

It’s a quick read under 200 pages with some pictures but I loved it.

I’m now going back to his first book Strange Pictures and will probably pick up Strange Buildings when it comes out.

Contemporary Theological Approaches to Sexuality, ed. Lisa Isherwood and Dirk von Der Horst.

For me I think it was Atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. So many emotions lol.

Project Hail Mary was another one of the highlights!