Saturday Miscellany—12/13/25

Yeah, this is late. Was busy grandparenting, so I don’t feel too bad. Priorities for the day: Grandcritter #1. Several steps down: You, dear reader. One step lower: Reading something. (well…maybe a half-step, maybe a quarter-step…possibly the same step…somewhere in the general vicinity anyway). A few steps lower: everything else (Hi, wife and kids!)

Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Sophie Kinsella, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Author, Dies at 55
PW’s 2025 Person of the Year: Nihar Malaviya—for his efforts countering book-banning, censorship, etc., PW named Penguin Random House CEO, Nihar Malaviya, their Person of the Year.
New Kindle Feature Uses AI to Answer Questions About Books—And Authors Can’t Opt Out—this is ridiculous (and more than a little maddening)
The Empty Lab, in Science and in Fiction
To New Beginnings: Growing Past Percy Jackson: On aging past our childhood heroes, and leaving room for the next generation of fans—(this can apply to other fandoms, too, not just Percy)
FFA’s Most Anticipated Titles of 2026 (so far)—oh, 2026 is going to be a busy year for my TBR.
746 Books is 12 today!—heckuva landmark.
Over on Bluesky, Adam Holcombe posted his 2025 Wrapped: Author Edition—a fun way to look at his year. By the way, if you haven’t checked out his Bounty, Inc., you really should.
And now, it’s time for some more Best Of ’25s:
The Best Debut Crime Novels of 2025—according to Crime Reads
Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2025—Reactor’s Reviewers have a veritable cornucopia of books to tempt you with
20 Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Authors Pick Their Favorite Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books of 2025—io9 got a bunch of authors to do the same
The Hard Word is going for something a bit more ambitious, but I’ll lump them in with this anyway: Top Twenty-Five Crime Novels of the Last Twenty-Five Years (20-25)
A.J.’s Completely Random Book Awards: 2025—I love these categories (and agree with several of the choices)
Book’d Out brings us Five Books Best Nonfiction Books of 2025
Best Books of 2025 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide—from The Forgotten Fiction
Jo Linsdell compiled Book Bloggers’ Picks: One Must-Read Book We Loved This Year
And with a few shopping days left before Giftmas/Santaween/whatever you call December 25th (or your gift-giving holiday of your choice), here’s a couple of more gift guides
The 2025 CrimeReads Holiday Gift Guide
Gifts for Readers: 50+ Ideas Book Lovers Actually Want —another great compilation from Jo Linsdell

A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
The Four Beardsmen’s Big Fat Bookish Quiz of the year!—this looks like a blast.

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago This Week?
Dry Bones by Craig Johnson
The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall—I’m kicking myself for not continuing with this series (didn’t realize it’d been this long since I’d dabbled)
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes—another series that I should’ve stuck with…
Stepdog by Nicole Galland
And I mentioned the release of The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon (and one from last week that I forgot about):
Lit by Tim Sandlin—a twisted-looking cozy mystery
The Wizard’s Cat by Nathan Lowell—I had a lot of fun with the first in the series, looking forward to dive in.