Category: Books Page 12 of 158

Saturday Miscellany—7/12/25

On July 12, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I clearly didn’t spend that much time online this week. This is probably a good thing when it comes to my mental health, but as I’m trying to put this together today, I find myself rather annoyed. Seriously, mental health is overrated, anyway, what was I thinking?

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:
bullet The truth behind the endless “kids can’t read” discourse: Is there a literacy crisis? Or am I just old?—Ugh. Nuance. Who has time for that?
bullet An Interview with Mary Jo Bang on Translating Paradiso by Dante Alighieri—if she only did a prose translation, I might be able to get my way through the trilogy. Nothing like Dante to show me how deficient my education (formal or self-) has been in teaching me to read verse. But this interview makes me want to try again.
bullet Writing Advice and Literary Wisdom from the Great E.B. White—This was posted in honor of his birthday yesterday, and reminds us why people still care about White (and offers some good advice for the writerly-types out there)
bullet 11 Summertime Books to Read When You’re Not Feeling Very Sunny: Once the seasonal malaise hits, these novels will help you unwind.—I really don’t know how a listicle from Marie Claire ended up on one of my feeds. But hey, some good looking reads here.
bullet Michael Robotham On Why We Love Stories About Gangsters
bullet The REAL Lion King!—The Orangutan Librarian takes a break from being insightful and whatnot to sharing some old cartoons. Start here with Part 1.
bullet 5 Books Adults Recommended I Read as a Child that Didn’t Resonate with Me at All—An interesting approach to books from childhood (can’t help but agree with the last one)

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week? (I was weirded-out about how brief these posts were…I’ve gotten talky over the years)
bullet Uprooted by Naomi Novik
bullet Corsair by James L. Cambias
bullet Stay by Victor Gischler
bullet The Snapper by Roddy Doyle
bullet And I talked about the releases of a handful of books: Splintered by Jamie Schultz; The Fraud by Brad Parks; Time Salvager by Wesley Chu; Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine; Letters to Zell by Camille Griep; The Six by Mark Alpert; Bum Rap by Paul Levine; Master of Formalities by Scott Meyer — looks to be as inventive and fun as his Magic 2.0 series.

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch—Sheep get eaten, the Folly heads to Scotland, and…well, that’s all I know, but that’s a strong start.
bullet Yellow Medicine by Anthony Neil Smith—”starts with one of the most memorable and engaging anti-heroes in recent memory. Mix in bent cops, a psychobilly band called Elvis Antichrist, meth cookers in the Minnesota sticks, and a truly nasty pack of wannabe jihadists. Add a liberal helping of guns, knives and explosives.” I’m sold.
bullet The Silver State by Gabriel Urza—”When a public defender receives a letter from a client on death row, he is forced to reexamine his role in the murder case he cannot shake; a gripping and thought-provoking legal thriller that redefines the genre”
bullet The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant by Liza Tully—”A brilliant Boomer detective and her ambitious Gen Z assistant try to get along in this delightful feel-good mystery.” Looks fun.
bullet Heal the Beasts: A Jaunt Through the Curious History of the Veterinary Arts by Philipp Schott—”Sharing the stories of 22 different animal healers and veterinarians from across eras and continents, Dr. Schott examines the always fascinating, often unexpected, and sometimes hilarious veterinary methods employed to treat all manner of creatures. From healing dogs and horses to gorillas and even dragons, at the heart lies the evolution of the human-animal bond, which has been more cyclical than linear.”
Hour of the Pumpkin Queen by Megan Shepherd—One year after their wedding, “Sally must embark on a time-bending adventure to save Halloween Town–and her beloved Jack Skellington.” Okay, I’m probably not going to read this follow-up to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I’m putting it here to remind me to buy it for my daughter (and, who knows, maybe one of you will find it intriguing)

2025 WWW Wednesday—July 9, 2025

By HCNewton

On July 9, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

I took the day off from work for some family stuff, which ended up not taking as long as I’d expected–so I got a novel read yesterday. It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to do something like that. It’s pretty nice, I have to say.

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland	Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove, read by Chris Devon, Emana Rachelle, Charlie Albers, Eve Passeltiner, Zura Johnson, Cary Hite & Gail Shalan

I’ve barely scratched the surface of Five Broken Blades, but everything I’ve heard makes me think I’m going to love it. It’s for Monday’s Book Club, so I’d better make some haste.

I’m 20% into Of Monsters and Mainframes, the story and characters are winning me over–but the narrators are making it difficult. There are some odd choices being made. Truelove didn’t do them any favors with all the strings of binary code, either.

What did you recently finish reading?


Sabriel by Garth Nix	Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

Sabriel was a lot of fun–I can see why my friend thought I’d like it. I should’ve listened to him years ago.

Obviously, I got a little more of Amongst Our Weapons as I revisited it–having listened to the series as a whole so recently helped, too. It’s amazing to see how the series has grown and changed from its beginnings. It’ll make the next title mentioned in this post all the sweeter to start.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Stone & Sky by Ben Aaronovitch	Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, read by Jefferson White

One more Rivers of London book for this summer–this time I’ll only hear Holdbrook-Smith in my head occasionally as I read.

I really thought I was done with Panem, but a couple of things I read about this book–and the urging of a coworker led me to put my name on the Library’s waitlist. Guess I’ll find out if the weeks of waiting were worth it.

What do you have on your bedside table (literally or figuratively)?

Mid-Year Reading Check Tags

By HCNewton

On July 9, 2025

In Book Tag, Books, News/Misc.

Mid-Year Reading Check Tags
I enjoy doing these mid-year check ins, like this one from The Orangutan Librarian or Stephen Writes, and a few other places I forgot to bookmark. And I typically do one of them around this time, too. This year, I saw the way that Emma @ Words And Peace mashed-up and reorganized a couple of these tags into one. I liked it enough that I’m using her format.

Now, I’m indecisive as usual, so for most of these prompts I gave three responses because I just couldn’t decide. Hope you enjoy.

1. How many books reads so far in 2025?

140

2. What genre I read most of:

As of June 30, it was Mystery/Crime/Thriller with 29% of my reading.

3. My favorite so far:


Anxious People by Fredrik Backman	Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp	My Documents by Kevin Nguyen

4. Best sequel:


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart	Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

5. Surprisingly good:

For the record, I expected that all of these were going to be good–which explains me reading/listening. But I didn’t think they’d be as good as they were. (I think that’s the intent of the catgory, I just want to stress it)


The Amazing Twin Chicken Freedom Fighters by Zephaniah Sole	The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong, read by Phyllis Ho	I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney, ready by Sean Patrick Hopkins

6. Most disappointing:


The Greatest Nobodies of History: Minor Characters from Major Moments by Adrian Bliss	That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis	A Little History of Music by Robert Philip, read by Zeb Soanes

I’m NOT suggesting that That Hideous Strength was bad. It just wasn’t as good as the others in the trilogy, so it was a disappointment. The other two, were “meh” at best.

7. New favorite author discovered in 2025:


Kevin Nguyen	Michael Michel	Thomas Trang

8. New favorite character:

Cover of Don't Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp

Cover of The Price of Power by Michael Michel

Cover of Spiderlight by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Garlenna Renwood, body guard/conscience, of Prince Barodane Ironlight. I can’t put my finger on what exactly is appealing about her–everything? She’s just the best character in Michel’s series (so far), and there are plenty to choose from.

Tchaikovsky’s Enth was both a fascinating (and fun!) character in himself. He was also a compelling look at humanity from a very inhuman perspective. I could’ve picked a few more characters from this book, but Enth is one that I’m not going to forget anytime soon.

Maggie Dunn kept you guessing and finding new layers to her on every page. Karp made her a remarkable character. I wrote about her on a couple of occasions, and I know I haven’t said everything I’d like to.

9. Made me cry:


The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman	Don’t Tell Me How to Die by Marshall Karp	Tilt by Emma Pattee, read by Ariel Blake

Nothing has got me there quite yet (I think I said something similar last year, and within a week that streak was over). But…The Bright Sword got close. Tilt made me think about it. Don’t tell Me How to Die almost did get me misty, surprisingly early, too.

10. Made me happy:

Really everything I rated 3 stars or above (the overwhelming majority of what I’ve read this year) has done that. But these three titles stand out along those lines:


I See You’ve Called in Dead by John Kenney, ready by Sean Patrick Hopkins	Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto	One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman

12. Most beautiful book bought:

Five Broken Blades (Deluxe Limited Edition)
by Mai Corland

(although the other two in the trilogy might come close, we’ll have to see if I want to buy those)

13. Need to finish:

Whatever I’m reading/listening to today 🙂

Also:


Wisdom for Life: 52 Old Testament Meditations by Michael P. V. Barrett	Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism by Zacharias Ursinus	Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks

The first two of these I’m not going to finish until Dec. 28th (Lord willing), they’re designed that way. The Brooks book is one I’m working through with someone, and we’re taking our time, and may not finish this year.

14. Most anticipated 2025 read:

Thus far:


A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett	When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

15. Most anticipated upcoming 2025 release:


The Final Vow by M.W. Craven	Silver and Lead by Sanan McGuire

If it was a footrace, The Final Vow, would be so far in the lead that it’d discourage everyone else–with the exception of Silver and Lead, because I’m not used to waiting this long for Toby Daye.

16. Next big priority:

Finishing off this list:
20 Books of Summer '25 Chart July Update In Progress

17. Bookish highlights:

Shared Stories book clubs, it’s just so cool to talk about books with a bunch of similarly-minded people at once. The interactions I’ve had here/on video or on social media with various and sundry writers/readers/bloggers. And everything mentioned above.

As usual, I’m not tagging anyone in this—but I’d like to see what you all have to come up with.

Saturday Miscellany—7/5/25

By HCNewton

On July 5, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

Despite my furry companions’ certain conclusions, we survived the night/morning (who needs to set off celebratory explosions at 1:30 am??). Hope my fellow USA-ers did, too. And I envy the rest of you your sleep.

I hesitate to do this…it seems like a lousy time to bring this up. But we’ve launched a GoFundMe to raise money for travel expenses for my son’s impending kidney transplant (impending=hopefully anytime in the next 3 years).

Now, on with the miscellany.

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:
bullet The Top 10 Bestselling Books of 2025 (So Far)—from Publishers Weekly
bullet The Emoji Tongue: If 😂 was a word, would that make emoji a language?
bullet Sprayed Edges Are Everywhere and I Hate Them—Not sure I can co-sign this (he says looking at the edge of his copy of Five Broken Blades), but I get it
bullet 12 Must-Read WebToon Series
bullet Urban Fantasy Starter Pack: 24 Must-Read Books That Bite Back—Because I need more UF to read? (actually, yeah, I do). Beth Tabler’s list combines stuff well-loved (or at least liked) here, and bunch of things I’d never heard of.
bullet Yes that was six months of your reading year! Holiday Temptations Time!—Runalong the Shelves provides great TBR fodder for those looking to fill theirs out
bullet Celebrating National Crime Reading Month – 30 days of crime recommendations!—a couple of weeks back, I’d pointed to Raven’s twitter thread listing their Crime Fiction Month reading recs. Well, here it is, nicely collected into one easy-to-reference list!
bullet But Is It Marketable? Why I Gave Up on Traditional Publishing—one writer’s story
bullet How do You Read so Many Books?—handier tips than mine. “Start with the first word, move on to the second, then the third, and so on.”

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet Splintered by Jamie Schultz
bullet Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond
bullet Top Secret Twenty-One by Janet Evanovich
bullet And I mentioned the release of three books that I didn’t read, much less remember, but they looked pretty cool: The Dragons of Heaven by Alyc Helms, Ghost Fleet by P.W. Singer and August Cole, and Linesman by S. K. Dunstall

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt—this prequel looks at Andy’s first big case as a defense lawyer is just great. I should be expanding on that soon.
bullet The Grimdwarf, Vol. 1: Cursed by J.C.M. Berne—A “classic fantasy with a wisecracking cursed dwarf, a water witch, and a very good dog.” The short stories collected into one volume. And free for a week or two. Worth it at thrice the price!!!
bullet Infinite Archive by Mur Lafferty—The physical embodiment of the Internet arrives on Station Eternity, bringing chaos and murder. I can’t wait to catch up with Mallory and the rest.
bullet Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji by Keith Houston—there’s an excerpt above. This book “follows emoji from its birth in 1990s Japan, traces its Western explosion in the 2000s, and considers emoji’s ever-expanding lexicon.” I enjoyed Huston’s book on punctuation marks, this promises to be interesting, too,.

2025 Plans and Challenges: Second Quarter Check-In

By HCNewton

On July 4, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Miscellany, News/Misc.

This year is speeding by, the way they do more and more…let’s take a quick look at the challenges and goals I set for the year

I’d hoped to keep charging ahead with Grandpappy’s Corner and Literary Locals, and while those haven’t completely died off, I haven’t done that much with them. I think the next couple of months should bear fruit along those lines, though. We’ll see. HC Chats are plugging around.

How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? I think I’m seeing what we’d report as “slippage” in some status reports at work. The next two months will really help with this if, and that’s a big if, I can keep my wallet in my pocket.

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2024	3	68	78	167	10
End of 1st Quarter	5	72	77	172	11
End of 2nd Quarter	5	76	92	175	9
End of 3rd Quarter	–	–	–	–	–
End of 2025	–	–	–	–	–

2025 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

No worries on that front.

Read Every Day in February for the American Cancer Society

Nailed it. Even better, we raised a couple of hundred dollars.

Reading with Wrigs
I could be doing better, but I’m still feeling bullish.

- Religious theme: The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis
- Set in a confined space: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- A book with a map: The Price of Power by Michael Michel (technically not completed during the first quarter, but…)
- About happiness or gratitude: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (one of the cover blurbs called it a novel about gratitude, I can mostly see it, but I’m not sure yet. Consider this a placeholder in case something else doesn’t come along)

The 2025 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

January–First steps: You have my permission to read the last book you added to the TBR pile: Sword & Thistle by S.L. Rowland
February: Short and Sweet: Read 28 short stories – they can be in magazine, anthology or collection form. You don’t even have to finish the books! Just 28 tales to read: Promise by Christi Nogle and Passageways edited by Rebecca Carey Lyles
March – Ready Steady Go!: Start a series, or the next book in a series that has been lingering on those shelves: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames
April – Easter Eggs: Read a book about stories within stories: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
May – The Random Factor: Pick the fifth book you spot in your pile/shelf/ebook library: Body Breaker by M.R. Craven
June – Use the daylight/long reading night: Read the longest book in the TBR pile: The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman (not technically finished in June, but close enough)

Further Up and Further In

I’m one book behind here, and I think the next two months may mess with it even more. But I’m not worried about the pacing. I am a little worried that I have to deal with A Grief Observed soon. That one just wrecks me…

25 in ’25

Ouch. This is really not good.

Auditing Challenges
I’m not sure that I want to commit to these, but I saw them on Bookforager’s page, and wanted to give them a shot–they look fun. So I’m going to track them, and if I happen to do well with them, great. If not…oh, well.

(yeah, that’s true with all of these, but I’m sort of calling my shot with the above)
Alphabet Reading Challenge

Not bad…
(yes, the fonts don’t all match. I couldn’t remember what I used last quarter–and undoubtedly, next quarter I’ll forget again. Let’s pretend it was intentional to make it clear what quarter I read what in. Yyyyyyeeeahhhh, that’s the ticket.)

Picture Prompt Book Bingo Challenge for 2025

1. A prehistoric flint knapped stone knife	2. A lighthouse	3. An apple on a leafy branch	4. An archery target with three arrows in it
5. A very large mechanical telescope Pushing Ice	6. A human skull Silence of the Dead	7. A stag	8. The ruins of a temple-like structure
9. A crab	10. A sheaf of wheat	11. An old mechanical typewriter Blood Over Bright Haven	12. A cluster of four mushrooms
13. A fringed umbrella/parasol	14. A chemistry set-up of bottles and tubes A Drop of Corruption	15. A stylized sun with a human face That Hideous Strength	16. A Roman helmet The Bright Sword

Not bad…and yes, again, I’m counting The Bright Sword even though I finished it in July.

I’m in decent shape, overall…

June 2025 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On July 4, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

There we go…fairly timely and everything.

In June, I read 22 titles (1 down from last month, 2 down from last June), with an equivalent of 6,416 pages or the equivalent (302 down from last month), and gave them an average of 4.2 stars (.5 up from last month).

One note that means something only to me. I can’t quite see how this month’s selection for the Science Fiction Book Club counts as SF, so that’s why there’s a goose egg in the chart below (I put Station Eleven under “General Fiction.” Feel free to convince me I’m wrong in the comments).

So, here’s what happened here in June.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to

Still Reading

Ratings

		Average =	4.18
	6		0
	2		0
	10		0
	2		0
	2

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2024	3	68	78	167	10
1st of the Month	3	76	87	171	12
Added	2	1	11	4	2
Read/ Listened	0	1	6	0	5
Current Total	5	76	92	175	9

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 18
Self-/Independent Published: 4

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	0 (0%)	6 (4%)
Fantasy	4 (18%)	18 (16%)
General Fiction/ Literature	5 (23%)	18 (16%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	6 (27%)	26 (29%)
Non-Fiction	2 (9%)	23 (21%)
Science Fiction	0 (0%)	12 (13%)
Theology/ Christian Living	2 (9%)	12 (13%)
Urban Fantasy	2 (9%)	11 (10%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	1 (0%)	1 (1%)

Review-ish Things Posted

Dark Neon & Dirt by Thomas Trang: Pressure’s High Just to Stay Alive ‘Cause the Heat is On
The Core of the Christian Faith by Michael W. Goheen: How (and why) to Be Salt and Light Today
Return to Sender by Craig Johnson: The Misadventures of the World’s Worst Undercover Sheriff
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life by C. S. Lewis: A Portrait of a Reader/Thinker as a Young Man
A Graveyard for Heroes by Michael Michel: The Canvas is Bigger, but the Intensity Remains.
The Great Gatsby: Alphabetised Centennial Edition by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Chris McVeigh: A Classic Reorganized
The Amazing Twin Chicken Freedom Fighters by Zephaniah Sole: The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized
I See You’ve Called in Dead (Audiobook) by John Kenny, Sean Patrick Hopkins: Friendship and Funerals
The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis: Do you listen to the angels on the outskirts?

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th), I also wrote:

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

2025 WWW Wednesday—July 2, 2025

By HCNewton

On July 2, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, News/Misc., WWW Wednesday

It’s July already. Can someone help me put the brakes on 2025? I saw this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago, so it must be true.
On July 2, 2025, we will officially reach the halfway mark of the year. At that point, we'll be closer to the year 2050 than to the year 2000.
That’s the kind of thing that makes you want to run into the comforting distraction of a book, isn’t it?

This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.

The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:

What are you currently reading?


The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman	No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy, read by Jessica Almasy

I’ve been kicking myself for waiting so long on this new Arthurian tale, and I still am. But I’m cutting myself some slack because I actually am reading it. I just might finish it today, too. It’s so good folks, if you’ve slept on it like I have–quit it.

No One Leaves the Castle is just silly fun, and Almasy is a perfect narrator for this one. I needed something like this book this week.

What did you recently finish reading?


The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos	How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by (and read by) Ryan North

Hopefully, you’ll see a full post on the Borgos book here tomorrow. But basically, it’ll make fans of Books One and/or Two very satisfied. And will likely convert anyone new to the series.

North’s book is the perfect combination of snark, information, and odd-as-all-get-out trivia. I don’t know how to explain it.

What do you think you’ll read next?


Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt	Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

An Andy Carpenter prequel, eh? Never thought I needed to know anything about the time before Open and Shut (yeah, no dog related puns–how odd!), but now that it’s here–I’m pretty curious.

Just in time for Rivers of London #10’s release next week, I’m tackling #9 on my revisit.

You doing anything to celebrate Friday night (in the U.S., anyway), or will you be cuddled up with a book and some headphones to block out the noise?

20 Books of Summer 2025: June Check-In

By HCNewton

On June 30, 2025

In Books, Currently Reading, Fantasy, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

A quick check-in for this Reading Challenge hosted by Emma of Words and Peace and Annabel from AnnaBookBel (you can read more about it here). I don’t typically like to do this kind of thing until the first of the next month, but since I doubt that I’ll read 500 pages today, I figured I might as well get this up since I won’t be able to finish the post I initially planned for today. So, I’ve read 1 1/6 books for this challenge (hopefully 1 1/2 by the end of the day). It’s not the most auspicious start, but I’ll take it (and I’ve had worse starts).

So here’s the list:

1. The Lords of the West End by Peter Blaisdell
✔ 2. King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
3. Mississippi Blue 42 by Eli Cranor
4. Guard in the Garden by Z. S. Diamanti
5. Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson
6. The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
7. Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper
8. Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan
9. Sabriel by Garth Nix
10. Lirael by Garth Nix

11. Abhorsen by Garth Nix
12. Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation by Jim O’Heir
13. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by Jason Pargin
14. Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett
15. A Tail of Mystery by Paul Regnier
16. Samurai! by Saburo Sakai with Martin Caiden and Fred Saito
17. The Crew by Sadir S. Samir
18. When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi
19. Remarkably Bright Creatures: Shelby Van Pelt
20. Leveled Up Love by Tao Wong & A. G. Marshall

(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

On the other hand, I’m doing pretty well with my Books on My Summer 2025 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge)

1. Stone and Sky by Ben Aaronovitch
2. Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language by Adam Aleksic
3. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
✔ 4. The Blue Horse by Bruce Borgos
5. Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

6. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
✔ 7. The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart
✔ 8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
9. Mrs. Plansky Goes Rogue by Spencer Quinn
10. Dogged Pursuit by David Rosenfelt

Okay, if you think it as a percentage, I’ve read 14% of the books I called my shot on for the summer. Again, inauspicious. July promises to be a good one for reading—I hope/expect that I’ll be looking better in 31 days.

(and no, I don’t see a conflict between this and the Orangutan Librarian’s recent post about competitive reading. This is me comparing myself with my goals, or my past self, or—worst of all—my expectations.

20 Books of Summer '25 Chart June Update

May 2025 in Retrospect: What I Read/Listened to/Wrote About

By HCNewton

On June 28, 2025

In Books, Calendar Items, Currently Reading, News/Misc.

I know, this is incredibly late, but I need to get this out of the way before I can start June’s wrapup in a couple of days. I’m also aware that almost no one cares about this stuff–but I’ve come to find that it really helps me think about how I’m spending my time. And, occasionally, someone sees something interesting in one of these posts. So, I continue to press on.

What did may look like from 50,000 feet? I finished 23 titles (1 down from last month, 3 up from last May), with an equivalent of 6,718 pages or the equivalent (496 up from last month), and gave them an average of 3.7 stars (.1 down from last month).

So, here’s what happened here in May.
Books/Novels/Novellas Read/Listened to












	7
		1

Still Reading


</a

Ratings

		Average =	3.73
	2		1
	2		0
	4		0
	7		0
	4

TBR Stacks/Piles/Heaps

	Audio	E-book	Physical	Goodreads Want-to-Read	NetGalley Shelf/ARCs/Review Copies
End of 2024	3	68	78	167	10
1st of the Month	3	76	88	171	11
Added	3	1	5	0	5
Read/ Listened	1	1	6	0	4
Current Total	3	76	87	171	12

Breakdowns:
“Traditionally” Published: 18
Self-/Independent Published: 5

Genre	This Month	Year to Date
Children’s	0 (0%)	6 (5%)
Fantasy	2 (9%)	14 (13%)
General Fiction/ Literature	4 (17%)	13 (12%)
Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller	6 (26%)	23 (21%)
Non-Fiction	6 (26%)	21 (19%)
Science Fiction	2 (9%)	13 (12%)
Theology/ Christian Living	1 (4%)	11 (10%)
Urban Fantasy	2 (9%)	9 (8%)
“Other” (Horror/ Humor/ Steampunk/ Western)	0 (0%)	1 (1%)

Review-ish Things Posted

The Ten Commandments by Cornelius Van Til: A Brief Look at the Law
Good Trouble by Forest Issac Jones: Marching toward Victory
Hive by D. L. Orton: A Wild Time Travel Ride
Class Clown by Dave Barry: A Chuckle-Filled Peek Behind the Curtain
Rift by Cait West: An Important and Moving Story, That Didn’t Completely Work for Me
Kaua’i Storm by Tori Eldridge: A Thriller + So Much More
Killer Conversations with Rex Stout and John McAleer: Ridiculously Fun (and insightful, too, if you’re into that sort of thing)

Other Things I Wrote
Other than the Saturday Miscellanies (3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th),and 31st), I also wrote (and/or posted):

Enough about me—how Was Your Month?

Saturday Miscellany—6/28/25

By HCNewton

On June 28, 2025

In Books, News/Misc., Saturday Miscellany

I get it…publications need to make money to pay authors, but man…too many things I had set aside for today’s list were behind them. Rats. Still, found a few things for the budget-strapped amongst us.

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:
bullet “Bookworm, Cliché, Deadline…” And Other Unexpected Etymologies
bullet Former Auburn football player turned novelist to receive top state literary award
bullet The 144 Most Read Books of the 2025 Reading Challenge (So Far)
bullet Jim Butcher WRITES WOMEN WELL?—this interview made me crack up (just the rules laid out at the beginning make this worth it)
bullet What a Five-Star Review Means to Me—this is really close to my thoughts, phew, one thing I don’t have to write
bullet Competitive reading needs to calm down—indeed
bullet Captivating Characters of June—Another tantalizing entry in this series. I have my pick for the month (like I have every month I haven’t participated), will I get something put together? Oooh, the suspense.
bullet Monthly Manga Mania Featuring Firsty Duelist: Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba—if I read enough of Firsty Duelist’s stuff, I’m hoping I can convince my kids I’m fluent in Manga.
bullet Who’s moving to Germany with me—never been more tempted to emigrate

To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
bullet The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson
bullet The Rebirths of Tao by Wesley Chu
bullet And I mentioned the release of one book I read and two books I don’t ever remember hearing about (probably my loss) The Cartel by Don Winslow; Tin Men by Christopher Golden; and The Leveller by Julia Durango

This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
bullet Wraith and the Revolution by A.J. Calvin—was in my notes for last week, but I somehow overlooked it. It’s still available, believe it or not, however. This SF novel looks great.
bullet Bookish Words & Their Surprising Stories by David Crystal—this also came out last week, but I didn’t know about it until I read the excerpt linked above.
bullet The Medusa Protocol by Rob Hart—this sequel to last year’s Assassins Anonymous is just dynamite, as I’d have written convincingly if I’d found the energy this week. Just take my word for it (or nag me until it shows up on the blog)
bullet Pride and Pompousness by Katie Cook—the third volume in her Nothing Special series follows up the story from Vol. 2, where the appearance of a long-lost heir (our pal, Declan) threatens the succession of power in fairy royalty.