2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

Challenging myself to 70 books again this year. Without my longs public transport commutes this might be a bit trickier than previous years!

1 Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
Non-Fiction. Recollections of life in North Korea from a group of six North Koreans from the same city who separately who defected to South Korea in the late 90s/early 2000s. Quite eye-opening.

2. The Outlaw and the Upstart King by Rod Duncan
Probs the weakest entry in the series (Gaslit Empire/Elizabeth Barnabus) so far, moving a little far for my liking away from the steampunk, crossdressing roots of the earlier books. But still a fun story and I still love Elizabeth. Looking forward to seeing where things go with the next entry. Though did find one of the twists near the end setting up for the next book a littlest cheap and cliche.

3. Noumenon Infinity by Marina J. Lostetter
Sequel to Noumenon, which I loved last year. Very good book, but not sure how I feel about it compared to the first. Tone and events feels a lot bleaker and unsettling where the first was quite hopeful. Hoping a third book is forthcoming but not entirely sure where that would even go. Full points for diversity done right though.

So behind on my reading at the moment...

4. Educated by Tara Westover
Terrifying memoir of being raised by a paranoid religious fundamentalist and abusive family in rural America.

5. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
I think I read too many books last year with a first person child/non-neurotypical narrator that this did nothing for me. Maybe it's good, maybe it's not, but I feel overexposed to this kind of jerky writing at the moment and didn't find much special in this book. Would have enjoyed it more from the perspective of the mother or older sister.

6. The Lost Man Jane Harper
Another grate atmospheric crime novel by Jane Harper that really utilises the unforgiving setting. A stand alone, and arguably a bit more character driven than her Aaron Faulk books. Enjoyed a lot.

7. The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden
Final book in the Winternight Trilogy (historical-fantasy based on Russian folklore and fairy tales) and a fantastic conclusion. Would highly recommend this series.

8. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Borrowed from flatmate. Enjoyable but a bit melodramatic in places, people making extreme decisions towards the end of it. Also my main take away is that, if one subplot is accurate, arranging an abortion in some US states in the 90s was waaaay less hassle than it would be getting one in England in the 2010s. I would have liked more on that plot actually.

9. Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey
I wanted to like this more than I did actually like it. Loved Healey's last book (Elizabeth Is Missing) but this one was a lot slower, with a lot less focus on the mystery. Was much more about the relationship between a mother and her teenage daughter who suffers from depression.

10. Disobedience by Naomi Alderman
Shortish novel set in the orthodox Jewish community of Hendon, just down the road from me. Bit strange to read when I work in the area and am familiar with the places described.

11. Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Look at the evolution of the women's rights movement in America and how contributions by black and working class women (and some men) have been downplayed or even suppressed at the time due to the narrow focus on middle class white women's concerns. Ended a bit abruptly and there was a fair bit of repetition, but a fascinating read.

12. Khirbet Khizeh by S. Yizhar
A short book but due to the writing style a bit of a slog. I kept getting lost and having to reread sentences or even paragraphs as I kept suddenly realising that though I had read everything it had all gone straight through my brain and I had completely lost sense of what was happening. I enjoyed the afterword probably more than I did the book itself, but still a hugely important piece of literature in regards to being a very early work showing an Israeli soldier's growing unease with the expulsions of Palestinians from their homes, written in the 1940s by someone who had been part of the Israeli army and witnessed/taken part in the emptying of Palestinian villages.

13. Men Explain Things to Me: and Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit
Didn't contain anything particularly new (both in terms of ideas and the fact that everything in this volume has been published free online elsewhere) but still a good intro into some basic feminist issues.

14. The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Medieval murder/suicide/accident mystery after a body washes up in the river before being washed away again before it could be pulled in. Told through the point of view of a priest apparently so poorly trained as to be utterly ignorant of the fact that suicide would be considered a major sin by the church in the time period the book is set in. Think that's probably the author's ignorance rather than deliberate character work though. Such an insanely large blind spot in the novel it was impossible to ignore. Also other historical innacuracies. Who proofread this?

15. Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin
Surreal short stories. All quite dark and creepy. Really loved some, very confused by others. Made for interesting book group discussions too.

16. Please Look After Mother by Kyung-Sook Shin

17. Wyntertide by Andrew Caldecott
Very 'middle book' in terms of plot movement but I don't think I can cound that against it. I really love this series. It's weird and strange and quite unlike any other fantasy I'm reading at the moment. Vaguelly Gormenghastian in its character work which can only ever be a compliment.

18. Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt
I would have been a lot more uncomfortable with this satire of a failed salesman finding a 'solution' to workplace sexual harassment if it had been written by a man. It was an entertaining read in spots, but also deeply unpleasant for most of it. Strange.

19. Circe by Madeline Miller
A very strong retelling of Greek myth.Rather hampered in places by the necessity of the character being exiled on an island and having to hear all the exciting stories second hand rather than take a very big part.

20. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
Moving and quite inspirational memoir of a couple who lose their house, then suffer a diagnosis of terminal illness and how they experienced and observed homelessness as they walked the South West Coast Path (600+miles) wild camping.

Awesome job so far keep it up!

21. Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal
Short, strange novella purchased on recommendation from local bookseller. Enjoyed it but given how long it took me to read I was probably not in the mood to best appreciate it.

22. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Been on my wishlist since before it made last years pulitzer shortlist. I liked it a lot. Ending felt a bit rushed though.

23. Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Story of an intergenerational family curse in Uganda. Really liked the first section with the origin of the curse and the modern sections, but would have liked to know more about some of the generations in-between.

24. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
Collection of Davis' speeches and interviews on the subject of activism. Interesting stuff backs the depths of an essay collection and prone to repition between chapters as the were never concieved as chapters of a larger work.

25. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Overlong substandard fantasy. First in a trilogy. Unlikely to read the next two.

26. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Finally got round to reading this after years of being told I should. A very good book, I rated it 4 stars, but not entirely sure it lived up to all of the hype.

27. Vox by Christina Dalcher
Eh. Ideas better than the execution of them.

28. So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ

29. The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch
New Rivers of London book! True, it's a novella, set in another country and featuring an entirely new cast with only mentions of the regular characters, but it still has all the ingredients of a Rivers of London book. Enjoyed it and do not regret making the expensive choice to get hardback on day of release to match the rest of my RoL books on the shelf. Looking forward to next full length novel now.

30. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Slim little novella about contemporary Japanese society's expectations of being a woman in your thirties, narrated by an asexual and autistic-coded lady working in a convenience store. Slightly Elenor Oiliphant vibes but nowhere near as nuanced or good, and much bleaker. Too much time taken up by an utterly loathsome side character.

31. Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera
Liked this a lot more than I thought I was going to. I don't know much about Sri Lanka or the Sri Lankan Civil War, but this seemed a nuanced portrayal of both sides, as told through the oldest daughters of two families. I would have liked perhaps for the Tamil family to have been given a bit more page time, to allow them to develop to the same extent as the buddhist protagonist, but the would probably have made it a grimmer book, I suppose.

32. Milkman by Anna Burns
I knew I had no interest in this book when it first came out to much hype and nothing since has ever convinced me that I will enjoy it, but my book group picked it as our June read. Not sure whether to feel pleased or disappointed about being completely right, it is not a good book and nobody liked it.

33. The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
A fascinating collection of oral testimony from Russian women who fought in WWII and then got shunned and mostly expunged from the historical record after victory.

34. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
A retelling of the Iliad from the perspective (mostly) of Breises. I liked it a lot, though after the first section, told entirely from Breises perspective, it incorporates more and more third person/standard Achilles retelling.

35. Early Riserby Jasper Fforde
Do love a bit of Jasper Fforde. If only he would hurry up and finish the Dragonslayer series, it's been five years since the last one.
But this standalone novel was good too.

36. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Winner of this year's women's prize for fiction. An important topic, but I found the characters too unlikable to get on with it as much as I wanted to - I don't quite know why as normally I'm fine with deliberately flawed characters. I'd give it a high three stars.

You have read some very interesting books this year. Keep up the great reading!

Thank you. It's definitely a quite eclectic assortment, I think!

37. In the Night Garden by Catherynne M. Valente
I love Valente's writing. This take on a 1001 nights style novel has been sitting my bookshelf since 2012, waiting for me to finish the actual 1001 nights, but I finally decided 'screw that' and picked it up. Really really liked it and, as expected, the prose is beautiful and the stories clever. Looking forward to reading the second book (also on my shelf since 2012) as this one was rather lacking in conclusions.


38. Lost Acre by Andrew Caldecott
Another fantasy series that I love. Final book in the Rotherweid trilogy. Strange, strange fantasy but utterly brilliant.

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” I hope the last month has found you some best books.

Thank you! fallen a bit behind in updating this with all the real life stuff going on so I guess I better play catchup now.

39. Citizen: An American Lyricby Claudia Rankine
Prose-Poetry on the African-American experience. Not really a poetry person and probably wouldn't have picked it up if it wasn't a group read, but turned out to really love it!

40. In the Cities of Coin and Spice by Catherynne M. Valente
Second/final instalment of The Orphan's Tales. Love Valente's writing. Offered much more closure on the plot of the framing device, but didn't find the embedded story within a stories quite as absorbing as those in the first book.

41. A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif
Book group read. I liked it a lot. Most of my book group didn't. Perhaps requires a bit of background on the impact of the Cold War in the 'third world'/'developing countries' (bullshit terminology, apologies) to get the most out of. Found it intelligent and funny - in a very dark way.

42. The Last by Hanna Jameson
Not quite the post-apocalyptic 'locked room murder mystery' the blurb led me to believe. Much more of a focus on 'post apocalyptic' than on the 'murder mystery'. I liked it a lot though, despite a slightly weak ending.

43. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
Novella from one of my favourite sci-fi writers.

44. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness by Michelle Alexander
A difficult read, but a very educational one. Has me convinced anyway. I'm not American (or black), but I do hope that this book continues to bring more attention (and hopefully reform!) to the racialised discrimination in the justice system there. And here in the UK too for that matter, not naive enough to believe that it's not a thing over here as well.

45. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mayan inspired fantasy set in 1920s Mexico. Sounds amazing. Was not. Author says it's adult fiction but reads like Young Adult - all tell no show with the characterisation, overexplained and repetitive narration, tiresome love story element to it and railroad quest narrative that left no time for you to get attached to any of the side characters that appear. Read like a Mayan version of an early Percy Jackson novel (where they were still basically road trips through America encountering Greek mythological figures on the way) but without any of Rick Riordan's charm, humour or skill at making bit characters memorable and fun.

Every time I stop by here I add more books to my reading list you are doing awesome!

Aw, thank you! Got another bulk update to do now. Keep falling behind.

46. The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford
Book group read after doing a few heavy books with them. Was exactly as ridiculous as you imagine it will be from the title. Utterly stupid in many places, but fun if you turn your brian off and kind of the easy read I was needing at the time. Will very happily read the sequel.

47. The Tyrant's Tomb by Rick Riordan
Bloody love me a Rick Riordan novel.

48. Rivers of London Volume 6: Water Weed by Ben Aaronovitch
Uuuugh, you can tell Aaronovitch does not write the RoL comics himself. It's frustrating that I love the books so so much but these comics (that do ocassionally get referenced in the main books) are so damn mediocre. At least they're quick to read.

49. Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee
Anything to blame my sex life on outside factors! Just yet another reason to dismantle the capitalist patriarchal system of opression (as the reckless endangerment of the planet for personal profit and the rampant inequality and lack of opportunities designed into the system were not enough). A slim but interesting non-fic book. Garners some great expressions when reading it on the tube too.

50. The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews
A goodreads group pick. Took me a while to get into. Don't normally get on that well with stream of concious novels but this one wasn't too bad actually. Stuff actually happened (mostly) and most of the musings were at least interesting.

51. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
It's Northern Lights, and is very disappointing in some of the narrative choices (fuller review on the book page) but I still love Lyra's world. I liked it.

Another batch update. Very behind on reading atm.

52. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
A book group read. Beautiful description and the story/setting were really interesting but felt too disconnected from the characters to get emotionally invested.

53. Misjustice: How British law is Failing Women by Helena Kennedy
My feminist lit/Non-Fic kick continued. I found the absence of analysis on the unreasonable legal restrictions on abortion a little surprising as it is one of the most glaring ways the law controls women's bodies (it's famously near totally illegal in Northern Ireland but is also technically illegal throughout the whole UK [two doctors have to sign off on the fact that it would be 'detrimental to the mothers health' before an abortion is allowed to be performed, thankfully not wanting a baby means your mental health would be harmed by having one]). Apart from that though, a very thorough analysis of how the law disadvantages and victimises women, and lets people get away with awful crimes against them.

54. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
Insightful analysis of the intersection of race and class in Britain, peppered with illustrations from Akala's own life experiences.

55. The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
Another book group read. Enjoyed it more than I was expecting to and prompted some really interesting discussions. The narrator's husband is, objectively, the worst. The 'twist' however was obvious from the start.

56. The Overstory by Richard Powers
I'm not sure I had time to join this second IRL book group, but I did anyway. This was long. So long. And a big reason why I've slipped so far behind in my reading challenge! But the writting was often beautiful and it was certainly ambitious. Didn't feel as quite interconnected as it should by the end though, and something about the writing for most of the female characters rubbed me the wrong way.