Please be good, 2025!

Because 2024 . . . it was not. I was excited that it was a Dragon Year, because I was born in the year of the Dragon, and so was Baby Roo. Of course, that year, 2012, was terrible. Roo and I nearly died after he was born, and then in October, my little Pippin dog died. This year our dog had already died (RIP, my dear Elder Dog Sunny), and under the advisement of a friend that your zodiac year can cause “uneven luck” I took to wearing two red string bracelets: one with the blue evil eye charm on it and another with jade beads and a dragon.

My dad died in November. And the election was a couple of days later.

I hate you, 2024.

But I did read some good books, so there’s that. I guess. I’ve also run through these on my BookTube, but here is the list if you need to study it with your peepers.

Picture Books

Stickler Loves the World – Lane Smith

A Stickler Christmas – Lane Smith

Santa’s First Christmas – Mac Barnett, Sydney Smith

Just Like Beverly- Vicki Conrad, David Hohn

Pretty Ugly- David Sedaris, Ian Falconer

The Longest Letsgoboy- Derick Wilder, Cátia

My Big Dumb Invisible Dragon- Angie Lucas, Birgitta Sif

Drawn Together- Dan Santat, Minh Lé

Knight Owl and the Early Bird- Christopher Denise

Christmas Comes to Moominvalley – Tove Janssen

Middle Grade

Everything Sad is Untrue – Daniel Nayeri

Impossible Creatures – Katherine Rundell

The Reel Wish – Yamile Saied Mendez

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows – Alan Bradley

Not Quite a Ghost- Anne Ursu

Let It Glow – Marissa Meyer, Joanne Levy

Tree. Table. Book. – Lois Lowry

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels – Beth Lincoln

Majestica – Sarah Tolcser

Wrecker- Carl Hiaasen

The Eyes & the Impossible – Dave Eggers

Graphic Novels

The Mighty Bite/The Mighty Bite: Walrus Brawl at the Mall – Nathan Hale

Squire & Knight: Wayward Travelers – Scott Chantler

Lunar New Year Love Story – Gene Luen Yang, LeUyen Pham

Taxi Ghost- Sophie Escobasse

Illegal – Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin

Lore Olympus Vols. 5-7 – Rachel Smythe

Klaus, the Origin of Santa Claus – Grant Morrison

Young Adult

Accountable- Dashka Slater

Children of Ragnarok- Cinda Williams Chima

The Chalice of the Gods- Rick Riordan

The Merciful Crow- Margaret Owens

The Prisoner’s Throne- Holly Black

Royal Scandal- Aimee Carter

The Thirteenth Child – Erin A. Craig

I Was a Teenage Slasher – Stephen Graham Jones

The Forest Grimm – Katherine Purdie

Fate Be Changed – Farrah Rochon

Nonfiction

The Small and the Mighty – Sharon McMahon

If You Can’t Take the Heat – Geraldine de Ruiter

What in the World? – Leanne Morgan

The Danish Secret to Happy Kids – Helen Russell

Write Fearless. Edit Smart. Get Published – Lisa Mangum

A Fever in the Heartland – Timothy Egan

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs – Steve Brusatte

Made in America – Bill Bryson

The Pioneers – David McCullough

The Wager – David Grann

Cookbooks

Does This Taste Funny? – Stephen Colbert, Evie Colbert

A Few of My Favorite Things – Veeda Bybee

Kneaders Bakery & Café – Colleen Worthington

Baking Yesteryear – Dylan Hollis

Adult Literature - Serious

I Cheerfully Refuse – Leif Enger

The Berry Pickers- Amanda Peters

The End of Drum Time- Anna Pylvainen

The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles

The Marriage Portrait- Maggie O’Farrell

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books – Kirsten Miller

Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan

The Paper Daughters of Chinatown – Heather B. Moore

The Book of Lost Friends – Lisa Wingate

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek – Kim Michele Richardson

Adult Literature – Light

Laughing Gas – P. G. Wodehouse

Yours Cheerfully – A. J. Pearce

The Luck of the Bodkins – P. G. Wodehouse

Bath Tangle – Georgette Heyer

The Christmas Wish – Lindsey Kelk

April Lady – Georgette Heyer

Funny Story – Emily Henry

Lies and Weddings – Kevin Kwan

The 12 Days of Christmas – Poppy Alexander

A Redbird Christmas – Fannie Flagg

Mysteries

We Solve Murders – Richard Osman

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year- Ally Carter

Murder Your Employer – Rupert Holmes

The Heiress – Rachel Hawkins

The Unwedding – Ally Condie

Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries

Magpie Murders – Anthony Horowitz

Killing Moon – Jo Nesbø

The Blonde Identity – Ally Carter

Razor Girl – Carl Hiaasen

Science Fiction

Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel

Polostan – Neal Stephenson

The Murderbot Diaries – Martha Wells

The Ministry of Time- Kaliane Bradley

Crimston Climb – E. K. Johnston

Fantasy

The Navigator’s Children – Tad Williams

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries/Map of the Otherlands – Heather Fawcett

The Spellshop- Sarah Beth Durst

A Sorceress Comes to Call – T. Kingfisher

I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons – Peter S. Beagle

The Warm Hands of Ghosts – Katherine Arden

The Angel of Indian Lake – Stephen Graham Jones

In the Labyrinth of Drakes/Within the Sanctuary of Wings – Marie Brennan

The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch – Melinda Taub

Empire of the Damned – Jay Kristoff

Special Mentions –

The Wood at Midwinter, a novella – Susanna Clarke

The Frame Up – Gwenda Bond (romcom with magic)

A Novel Love Story – Ashley Poston (romcom with magic)

A Sudden Wild Magic – Diana Wynne Jones (science fiction AND fantasy AND romcom)