I’ve done this 4 times before. You know what it’s about.

The Books I Read in 2025

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek, 2004). Two apologists use several approaches–theology, psychology, sociology, science–to show extrabiblical evidence for the truth of Christianity. Pretty decent, except when they veered toward culture war crap.

Die, volume 4: Bleed (Kieron Gillen, 2021). Everyone’s on board: they all want out of Die. But they’ve got a big ol’ obstruction with one little question: “What am I for?” The TV Tropes page was extremely helpful in figuring out what the heck happened in this series.

Seraphina (Rachel Hartman, 2012; Seraphina #1). I’ve reviewed this one before, so check out the first installment. The sequel is a crime against humanity.

This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female and Feminist in (White) America (Morgan Jerkins, 2018). A series of essays about the trials and tribulations of being a black woman today. Quite uncomfortable, but then again, so is being black and female oftentimes.

Billy Summers (Stephen King, 2021). Ex-Marine Billy Summers has found a new job: making sure bad people can’t be bad anymore…by putting them on the business end of a gun barrel. He goes deep undercover for his final job before he puts down the weapons forever…which gives him enough time to remember what usually happens to hitmen who try to retire. JJ Abrams is in talks to produce a miniseries adaptation.

Near Death Experiences: The Science, Psychology and Anthropology Behind the Phenomenon (Anthony Peake, 2024). Pseudoscientific quack garbage given to me as a Christmas gift by one of my students. I treasure the gift, but at the same time I’m angry Anthony Peake wrote this trash for my student to waste money on.

Wrath of the Triple Goddess (Rick Riordan, 2024; Percy Jackson and the Olympians #7). Percy Jackson’s quest for three godly recommendation letters for admission to New Rome University continues. This time, it involves housesitting for goddess of magic Hecate, a flatulent ferret, exploding food, and spirits. Lots and lots of spirits.

White Sand, volume 1 (Brandon Sanderson, 2016). Kenton is at the bottom of the totem pole in the Sand Master tribe, which is extra embarrassing since his father runs the darn thing. But when a surprise attack leaves Kenton the only living Sand Master, Kenton must both master his sand powers and find who’s responsible for the slaughter.

Almost Time (Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney, 2020). A short, sweet story of a boy eager to tap maple trees with his father.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (Cheryl Strayed, 2012). Cheryl Strayed has written some books, but she’s most famous as the Sugar in the “Dear Sugar” advice column. In the best of both worlds, she collects some of her most advice pieces in a book.

The Intruder (John Townsend, 1969). A stranger shows up on young Arnold Haithwaite’s door, claiming to be a long-lost relative. Whether he’s telling the truth or not, he tries to take over Arnold’s life, but our boy doesn’t play that.

Izzy, Willy-Nilly (Cynthia Voigt, 1986). After losing her leg in a car accident, Izzy Lingard must learn to live life again. She’ll get help from the most unexpected people.

Dragon Hoops (Gene Luen Yang, 2020). Gene Luen Yang is an author, an artist and a teacher, not an athlete…until the Bishop O’Dowd Dragons, the basketball team at the Catholic school he taught at, formed a dream team that could potentially win the championship trophy previous teams had fumbled eight times before. Part play-by-play, part history of basketball, part biography of Yang’s own personal conflicts, all GOATed.

White Picket Fences (Amy Julia Becker, 2018). A white woman reflecting on privilege. That’s a good thing by the way.

A Room Made of Windows (Eleanor Cameron, 1971; Julia Redfern #1). The worst book I read this year. A nothing narrative about a whining brat of a main character.

Sinner (Ted Dekker, 2008; The Paradise Trilogy #3). In the 2030s, the United States is on the verge of…something not good, due to the population taking identity politics to its violent extremes. In the chaos are three people with extraordinary power: Billy Rediger, Darcy Lange, and Johnny Drake. Only their power can stop the being of pure evil Billy accidentally conjured up as a child.

The 49th Mystic (Ted Dekker, 2018; Beyond the Circle #1). Thanks to experiments by her father, blind Rachelle Matthews can see, but she also begins to flip between two worlds. Her interdimensional travels draws the attention of Vlad Smith, a sinister drifter who wants to shatter the utopic illusion of the remote town Rachelle calls home.

Michael Vey: The Colony (Richard Paul Evans, 2024; Michael Vey #10). The Electroclan have one more obstacle standing in their way: the Colony, a group of electrically-powered children led by the unhinged, ridiculously powerful Chispa who call the most dangerous part of Peru home. The Colony have Abigail, so to their hideout the clan goes. Only Michael knows that this will be their last adventure.

Teenage Guys: Exploring Issues Adolescent Guys Face and Strategies to Help Them (Steve Gerali, 2006). A Christian sociology book shockingly ahead of its time, talking about things like homosexuality and homophobia, the myth (and yes, it is a myth) that men and women can’t be friends, the flaws in books about Christian masculinity like Wild at Heart and Every Young Man’s Battle, and the flaws in purity culture. In 2006.

Skin of the Sea (Natasha Bowen, 2021; Of Mermaids and Orisa #1). Simi is a Mami Wata, a mermaid who captures the souls of those who die at sea and directs them to the afterlife. When Simi without thinking saves the life of a young man thrown overboard a slave ship, she violates an ancient decree, and she must go to the Creator for forgiveness. The Creator…isn’t easy to get to.

Far Sector (N.K. Jemisin, 2021). Newly ringed Green Lantern Jo Mullein has been assigned to the City Enduring, a city-planet on the edge of the universe that hasn’t had a crime in centuries. Then a murder shatters the utopia, and Jo needs to find the killer before the City descends into anarchy.

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work (Tiffany Jewell, 2020). Baby’s first antiracist book.

Gwendy’s Final Task (Stephen King, 2022; The Button Box #3). The Button Box comes back to Gwendy Peterson one more time, and according to its handler Richard Farris, it’s becoming too dangerous. There’s only one solution: Gwendy must get on a rocket and dispose of the box in space, where no one can ever retrieve it. But there are powerful people who want the Box, people who can pay their way onto a space expedition…

The House in the Cerulean Sea (TJ Klune, 2020; Cerulean Chronicles #1). Linus Baker’s a social worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, the government entity that [supposedly] sees to the well-being of magical creatures. He’s dispatched to a remote island to check on magic children in the care of the mysterious Arthur Parnassus. Linus finds something unexpected on Arthur’s island: a possible end to his lonely life.

The Call (Peadar Ó Guilín, 2016; Grey Land #1). In a dystopian version of Ireland cut off from the rest of the world, teens at random receive the Call: being yanked into the Grey Land, home of the Sidhe fairies who take out their anger at humans banishing them to their hellscape home by mutilating beyond recognition any human they get their hands on, and have to survive 24 hours without…being mutilated beyond recognition. At her survival school, Nessa, crippled by childhood polio, is written off by her classmates as a lost cause whenever her Call comes. She might not have to wait until her Call to find out…

White Sand, volume 2 (Brandon Sanderson, 2018). To save what’s left of the Sand Masters, Kenton must learn some diplomatic skills and learn them yesterday. He also has to survive the wave of assassins an unknown enemy keeps sending his way. His best chance of survival is the most unexpected of allies.

A Long Road on a Short Day (Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney, 2020). A cute little story about a dad and a son trying to trade with their neighbors for a cow. …that’s it.

The Runner (Cynthia Voigt, 1985; Tillerman Cycle #4). Bullet Tillerman runs, partly because he likes it, mostly because the trails are his escape from his domineering father and fracturing family. When his running coach asks him to coach another teammate, Tamer Shipp, Bullet feels a cramp in his style. But running alongside Tamer will teach Bullet some unexpected and much-needed lessons.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It (Chris Voss, 2016). A former FBI hostage negotiator applies what he learned from saving lives and capturing the bad guys to non-saving lives and non-capturing the bad guys life situations.

The Serpent’s Children (Laurence Yep, 1984; Golden Mountain Chronicles #1). Their neighbors call Cassia and Foxfire “the serpent’s children,” which is supposed to be an insult, but Cassia wears it as a badge of honor. Serpents are clever, and with a father wounded in the fight to free China from the grip of invaders and a brother who wants to leave China entirely, Cassia will need to be crafty as a serpent to keep her family together.

Not Like Other Girls (Meredith Adamo, 2024). Jo-Lynn Kirby fell from grace when one of her so-called friends leaked nude photos of her, and she lost her place in the popular circle at school as a result. Then her former best friend Maddie disappears after telling Jo-Lynn she’s in trouble, and Jo-Lynn is seemingly the only one who cares. As she teams up with an old friend and starts to realize Maddie had a loooooooooooooooooooooooot of secrets, she’s also forced to confront her own dark past.

A Good and Perfect Gift (Amy Julia Becker, 2011). Amy Julia Becker’s first daughter Penny was born with Down syndrome. A Good and Perfect Gift is her story of reckoning emotionally and spiritually with having a special needs child, and realizing she was…read the title.

Soul of the Deep (Natasha Bowen, 22; Of Mermaids and Orisa #2). To save those she loved, Simi made a bargain with the god of the dead and now resides in the darkest part of the ocean. Then she learns that her new master lied to her, and his lie threatens the whole world. Simi has to partner up with an old enemy if she wants to stop what’s coming.

Rise of the Mystics (Ted Dekker, 2018; Beyond the Circle #2). The fate of the world is in Rachelle Matthews’ hands. She must find five seals, or else both worlds she inhabits will plunge into eternal darkness.

Black Ice (Becca Fitzpatrick, 2014). Britt and her best friend Korbie inadvertently find themselves hostages of two criminals on the run when the four of them are stranded together in a blizzard. The writing was terrible, the dialogue felt AI-generated, the romance (because of course there’s romance) was predictable and terrible, and the villain had one of the dumbest motivations I’ve ever heard. Best audiobook experience of 2025!

I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir (Malaka Gharib, 2019). The autobiography of Malaka Gharib growing up with a foot in two radically different worlds: the world of her Egyptian Muslim father and the world of her Filipino Catholic mother.

The End of White Christian America (Robert P. Jones, 2016). A well-written but Nostradamian book about why White Christian America’s influence is waning. It’s Nostradamus-esque because it was published mere months before Donald Trump’s first election to the Presidency.

Stamped from the Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America (Ibram X. Kendi and Joel Christian Gill, 2023). The graphic novel version of Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning. Pretty good.

Fairy Tale (Stephen King, 2021). Charlie Reade’s helping out his elderly neighbor changes his life in a way he never expects. His neighbor is his own grandfather, made young by journeying into a world belowground that he’s built a storage shed over the entrance to. After his neighbor dies, Charlie journeys with his elderly dog to the land below to use the magic to make his dog young…and finds himself in a classic fight between good and evil.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (TJ Klune, 2024; Cerulean Chronicles #2). Arthur Parnassus, once a magical misfit drifting through life, now has six beautiful adopted children and the man of his dreams at his side. But then a seventh kid, one who defies everything Arthur’s taught the children, comes to him, and an anti-magic politician makes Arthur and his family Public Enemy #1. Arthur’s family is under a lot of pressure, pressure that will either bring them closer together than ever…or crush them all to smithereens.

The Invasion (Peadar Ó Guilín, 2018; Grey Land #2). Nessa has survived her Call, but now she has a new problem: with the Sidhe coming closer and closer to being able to return to Earth, there’s a witch-hunt looking for supposed traitors, and Nessa’s sure looking suspicious. Nessa is exiled back to the Grey Land, but to no avail: the barrier falls, and the Sidhe flood back into Ireland, ready to take back the land and mutate the remaining Irish into their labor animals. Only Nessa, trapped in the Grey Land, can end all of this.

White Sand, volume 3 (Brandon Sanderson, 2019). Kenton rallies his allies and prepares to speak before the council in the name of keeping the Sand Masters together. But the unknown money man behind the Sand Masters’ massacre isn’t done with him yet…

Just Like That (Gary D. Schmidt, 2021). After her best friend’s death in a car accident, Meryl Lee Kowalski is sent off to a snooty all-girls boarding school in Maine. At the same time, Matt Coffin, who’s on the run from dangerous people who killed his best friend, arrives in Maine, ready to pull up his stakes as soon as his pursuers pick up his trail. Two lonely, grieving kids meet by chance and find solace in one another in a novel that’s way funnier and more lighthearted than my description makes it sound.

Jackaroo (Cynthia Voigt, 1985; Tales of the Kingdom #1). In a kingdom full of corruption, the masked Jackaroo is the boogeyman of the rich and greedy. Gwyn thinks he’s a myth until she finds shelter in the first house she sees during a blizzard and finds Jackaroo’s outfit hidden inside. So she figures: if Jackaroo is…incapacitated? dead? …is something, she’ll bring him–her now–back to life.

Mountain Light (Laurence Yep, 1985; Golden Mountain Chronicles #2). Squeaky, outcast among his family and a village, meets the love of his life: Cassia, the protagonist of The Serpent’s Children. There’s one problem, though: their families have warred with one another for generations. To prove himself to himself, to Cassia, to both of their families, Squeaky does the unthinkable: packs up and heads for America, where Foxfire has been for years, sending home letters telling of a “Golden Mountain.”

On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine (Sonya Bilocerkowycz, 2019). Ukrainian-American intellectual Sonya Bilocerkowycz was in Ukraine when Russia annexed Crimea. Reflecting on her experience on the ground, her older relatives’ experiences, and Ukraine’s history as a whole, she spins out some pretty interesting, if slightly surreal, essays.

Magic Has No Borders (Tahir Abrar, Naila Azad, Tanaz Bhathena, Tracey Baptiste, Olivia Chadha, Preeti Chhiber, Sayantani DasGupta, Nikita Gill, Shreya Ila Anasuya, Naz Kutub, Sangu Mandanna, Sabaa Tahir, Swati Teerdhala, edited by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra, 2023). A collective of South Asian-American authors put their heads together and spin out an anthology of South Asian mythology-inspired stories with a modern twist.

Forever… (Judy Blume, 1975). Katherine and Michael are each other’s firsts: their first relationship, and eventually, each other’s first lover. Their parents, seeing the intensity of their relationship, encourage them to spend a summer apart and see how they feel once they’re back together. Their feelings can survive a few months of separation…right?

Over Sea, Under Stone (Susan Cooper, 1965; The Dark Is Rising Sequence #1). A trio of siblings find an old map in their vacation home. The map leads to none other than the Holy Grail, and drops them into an age-old war between good and evil. In a strange coincidence, one of six books I read this year having to do with Arthurian legend.

Legendborn (Tracy Deonn, 2020; The Legendborn Cycle #1). Going to a summer program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was supposed to be how Bree Matthews coped with her mother’s death in a hit-and-run. Instead, after being the only one who could see people build weapons from nothing to fight monsters only she can see, Bree inadvertently joins a secret society descended from King Arthur’s Round Table. The second of six books I read this year having to do with Arthurian legend.

Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World (Bob Goff, 2012). An expert in finding the extraordinary in the ordinary tells stories about doing so to encourage you to do the same.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI (David Grann, 2017). Striking oil on their land made the Osage Native Americans the richest people in the world, but a series of murders made it clear someone wanted their status for their own. The search for the Osage killer was the first major investigation by what would eventually become the FBI. Martin Scorsese adapted the book into film in 2023, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert de Niro and Lily Gladstone.

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity (Robert P. Jones, 2020). The long, sad history of white supremacy twisting God’s word for its own ends.

Holly (Stephen King, 2023; Holly Gibney #4). After encountering two eldritch abominations in a row, the next case Holly Gibney takes is a simple missing person case…but this is a Stephen King novel, so Holly’s gumshoeing puts her on a crash course with a couple that practice a horrifying form of alternative medicine.

Kafka: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (Nishioka Kyoudai, 2010). A surreal comic-book adaptation of Kafka’s already-surreal stories.

One Smart Sheep (Gary D. Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney, 2021). A comedy of errors about a sheep getting lost after wandering into a moving truck.

Tristan and Iseult (Rosemary Sutcliff, 1971). A surprisingly solid retelling of the Arthurian legend of the forbidden love affair between Tristan, wandering Knight of the Round Table, and Iseult, destined beloved of King Mark of Cornwall. The third of six books I read this year somehow related to Arthurian legend.

Dragon’s Gate (Laurence Yep, 1993; Golden Mountain Chronicles #3). Otter travels across the ocean to America, the land of the Golden Mountain, where his father Squeaky and uncle Foxfire have been making a fortune. He discovers that all that glitters is not gold.

A Place to Hang the Moon (Kate Albus, 2021). After their grandmother dies, William, Edmund and Anna search for a new home amidst the London Blitz.

Girl, Serpent, Thorn (Melissa Bashardoust, 2020). From her birth, Princess Soraya’s been poisonous: any living thing that touches her skin dies. She learns that beneath the castle is an imprisoned demon who knows how to lift her curse. Soraya’s attempts to be free opens a can of worms demons.

Naamah (Sarah Blake, 2019). The story of the Biblical flood, told from the POV of Noah’s wife Naamah. Features a lot of lesbian sex, a horny angel, and a David Lynch-esque feel, which is not something I ever thought I could say about a story based on a Bible story.

Bloodmarked (Tracy Deonn, 2022; The Legendborn Cycle #2). The Legendborn are supposed to protect the world from the forces of evil. As Bree emerges as the unexpected host of King Arthur’s spirit and new leader of the Legendborn, she starts asking a new question: who protects the Legendborn from each other? The fourth of six books I read this year somehow related to Arthurian legend.

Selfies (Craig Detweiler, 2018). Inspired by the backlash a teenage girl faced for taking a smiling selfie in Auschwitz, Craig Detweiler discusses humanity’s history of seeking the imago Dei through art, including selfies.

Uncovering Happiness: Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion (Elisha Goldstein, 2015). A book I added to my reading list when I was in a much worse state of mind. Decent read, but I was glad to say I didn’t really feel like I needed it.

The Color of a Lie (Kim Johnson, 2024). After his sister is killed in a firebombing of their old Chicago home, light-skinned Calvin and his family relocate to an all-white Pennsylvania suburb and pass as white. Calvin soon tires of hiding his true self, not helped by Lily, a girl who’s openly desegregating Calvin’s new all-white school. Together, the two of them will uncover the ugly secrets hiding in Calvin’s seemingly idyllic neighborhood.

The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person (Frederick Joseph, 2021). Antiracist books don’t always have to be serious.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Eiko Kadono, 1985). Kiki’s flying on a broom with a black cat hanging off the back, and yet it took the narrator saying so to make me realize this was a book with a witch as the main character. Famously adapted to film by Studio Ghibli, which I obviously haven’t seen.

The Village Beyond the Mist (Sachiko Kashiwaba, 1975). Lina travels to a rural village, finds out that it doesn’t exist, and then finds out that it does exist but she has to use a magical umbrella to get to it. If this premise sounds familiar, it’s because Studio Ghibli adapted this into Spirited Away. (August was Studio Ghibli month in my book club.)

You Like It Darker (Stephen King, 2024). King’s most recent foray into short stories and novellas. Features my new favorite King novella, “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream.”

Friday Foster: The Sunday Strips (Jim Lawrence and Jordi Longarón, 2021). Friday Foster was the first ever comic strip to feature a black woman as the main character and got a movie adaptation with Pam Grier in the lead role, but after its ending in 1974, the strip faded into obscurity. The Sunday Strips is the first ever collection of Friday Foster strips.

Dancing Carl (Gary Paulsen, 1983). Local eccentric Carl dances on the ice rink with no skates. Two local boys, Willie and Marsh, stumble on the tragic reason why.

Celia Planted a Garden: The Story of Celia Thaxter and Her Island Garden (Gary D. Schmidt, 2022). The story of poet and gardener Celia Thaxter, whose island home was a vacation spot for authors of her time like Longfellow, Whittier and Hawthorne.

The Traitor (Laurence Yep, 2003; Golden Mountain Chronicles #4). Michael Purdy is an outcast in his Wyoming mining hometown for being a bastard; Joseph Young is hated in the Chinese part of the same town for being too Chinese for the white people and too American for the Chinese. The two outcasts befriend each other. Only time will tell if their newfound friendship can survive racial tensions erupting.

Nothing Else But Miracles (Kate Albus, 2023). If I had a nickel for every audiobook of a Kate Albus novel I listened to in 2025 about a trio of siblings trying to find a place to live after something happens to their legal guardian during WWII, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. This one is set in ‘MURICA, and therefore the MCs aren’t a couple of tea-guzzling, monarchy-simping, seasoning-fearing, BBC-watching, country-colonizing, metric system-using, Piers Morgan and Katie Hopkins-originating Brits. *eagle screech*

Clean Air (Sarah Blake, 2022). A dystopian novel set a decade after the Turning, when humanity was forced to live in filtered domes when the trees, prompted by climate change, suffocated the bulk of humanity by overproducing pollen. Now, in Izabel’s dome, someone has been slashing people’s protective dome homes and leaving the inhabitants to the mercilessness of the deadly pollen, and worse yet, her daughter seems to be having conversations in her sleep with the killer.

Storm Front (Jim Butcher, 2000; The Dresden Files #1). Harry Dresden, wizard, private eye, and consultant for the Chicago Police Department on all things weird, is called to the scene of a double homicide of a decidedly magical nature. There are Laws of Magic, someone seems determined to break all of them, and worse yet, governing power the White Council believes Harry’s the culprit. To prevent his death, either by a rogue wizard or the business end of a White Council Warden’s sword, Harry needs to solve the mystery.

The Dark Is Rising (Susan Cooper. 1973; The Dark Is Rising Sequence #2). Seventh son of a seventh son Will Stanton has an…interesting Christmas holiday as he finds himself on the frontline in a centuries-long war between good and evil. The fifth of six books I read last year somehow related to Arthurian legend. Has a godawful movie adaptation that you shouldn’t give the time of day.

The Library of the Unwritten (A.J. Hackwith, 2019; Hell’s Library #1). Claire is the librarian for the Library of the Unwritten, a library in an obscure corner of Hell where every book that is or will be written is shelved. An excursion back to Earth to retrieve a runaway character turns into a struggle for an artifact that could end the war between Heaven and Hell.

Oathbound (Tracy Deonn, 2025; The Legendborn Cycle #3). After one too many betrayals, Bree abandons the Legendborn and seeks tutelage from their archenemy. The Legendborn try to find her, while also trying to solve the mystery of a string of dead Merlins. The sixth and last book I read in 2025 somehow related to Arthurian legend.

What Is The Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission (Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, 2011). A book about how Christians are called to social justice. Dense, but interesting.

Empire of Wild (Cherie Dimaline, 2020). Joan has been searching for her husband Victor since he disappeared from their Métis community a year earlier. By chance, Joan visits a traveling Christian ministry and sees Victor preaching, but he claims to not know her when she introduces herself. There’s a rougarou; didn’t know how to mention that organically.

The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner, 1929). Faulkner’s famously oblique magnum opus. If I hadn’t read the SparkNotes and TV Tropes pages, I wouldn’t have had a clue what was happening. …actually, having read the SparkNotes and TV Tropes pages, I barely know what the f*ck happened in this book.

The Unfinished (Cheryl Isaacs, 2024; The Unfinished #1). High school runner Avery comes across a mysterious pond of black water and then makes like a tree when her reflection smiles back at her. People start disappearing, including her best friend, and then strange, humanoid figures begin populating her small town. It’s the black water, she knows it, and if she wants the vanished back, she’ll have to solve the mystery of what the pond is.

They Wish They Were Us (Jessica Goodman, 2020). Jill Newman is a Player, the elite at the elite Gold Coast Prep, but her position came at a cost: her best friend Shaila was murdered by her boyfriend Graham back in freshman year…or was she? She begins receiving text messages proclaiming Graham’s innocence, and she feels she has no choice but to investigate. But there are a lot of people who want the chapter of Shaila’s murder to stay closed; can Jill find the truth without throwing away she’s worked for?

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot (Mikki Kendall, 2020). *in the voice of the “Tendernism” dude* WOMANISM. *throws glasses away, walks off*

Never Flinch (Stephen King, 2025; Holly Gibney #4). There’s a serial killer loose in Holly Gibney’s town, avenging an innocent man wrongfully convicted and subsequently murdered in prison. Holly would be on the case, but she’s already on the job as security for a controversial feminist speaker with a stalker who’s getting bolder. But fate (or the author; take your pick) has a funny way of making paths cross.

The Spring Rider (John Lawson, 1968). An incomprehensible pile of Confederate apologist trash. It may not be the worst book I’ve ever read, but it’s in the top 5.

A Long Walk to Water (Linda Sue Park, 2010). In 1985, Salva flees his village when the Sudanese Civil War comes to his front door and becomes a leader of the Lost Boys, thousands of boys and young men who wander through Sudan and into neighboring countries looking for a permanent landing spot. In 2008, Nya walks hours every day to get water for her family. Their stories eventually intersect.

Hatchet (Gary Paulsen, 1986; Brian’s Saga #1). Brian Robeson is on a small plane to see his estranged father deep in the Canadian wilderness, but the pilot dies of a heart attack and Brian barely manages to crash-land deep in the sticks. No one knows where he is, and no one is coming to save him. But Brian has everything he needs to survive: a gifted hatchet.

The Labors of Hercules Beal (Gary D. Schmidt, 2023). Hercules Beal is given a challenge by a teacher at his new school: accomplish his own version of the mythological Hercules’ 12 labors.

Light Brigade (Peter J. Tomasi, 2004). An American squadron in WWII get recruited into a new battle: between angels and demons, for the fate of the universe.

The Complete Fairy Tales (Oscar Wilde, 1888). Fairy tales that Oscar Wilde wrote. Most of them ticked me off.

Dragonwings (Laurence Yep, 1975; Golden Mountain Chronicles #6). Moon Shadow emigrates from China to San Francisco to live with the father he’s never met. His father claims to have once flown with the dragons of their lands and wants to do it again…with a plane. This is a book about building planes.

Rebellion 1776 (Laurie Halse Anderson, 2025). As America finally wins its independence from those tea-guzzling, monarchy-simping, seasoning-fearing, wrong side of the road-driving, school shooting joke-making BRITS, Elsbeth Culpepper has a full plate. Her father has disappears, her best friend joins the Army, a man she nursed back to health won’t stop bothering her, and smallpox–the same smallpox that killed her mother and brothers–prowls like a predator. America didn’t come easy, and neither will a resolution for all of Elsbeth’s problems.

Let’s Not Live on Earth (Sarah Blake, 2017). A very well-done collection of feminist poetry, plus a feminist novella.

Fool Moon (Jim Butcher, 2001; The Dresden Files #2). Six months after stopping a heart-exploding wizard, Harry Dresden has a new challenge: werewolves. …that’s it: this is the werewolves Dresden Files book.

Grave Peril (Jim Butcher, 2001; The Dresden Files #3). Something is casting spells that torture mortals and spirits alike, a young woman shows up in Harry Dresden’s office asking for protection from…something, one of Harry’s worst enemies invites him to a party, and…something, maybe the same something chasing the young woman, attacks Harry in his dreams, steals some of his magic, and starts wreaking havoc wearing his face. …have I mentioned Harry Dresden’s life is crazy? Harry Dresden’s life is crazy.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Annie Dillard, 1974). Annie Dillard spent a year exploring Tinker Creek, in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and then wrote a book about exploring Tinker Creek, in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Marrow Thieves (Cherie Dimaline, 2017; The Marrow Thieves #1). In a dystopian Canada, one of the consequences of global warming: non-indigenous people can’t dream. Indigenous people are kidnapped en masse and killed for their marrow, which [allegedly] lets people dream again. Frenchie and his found family flee from the “recruiters” and seek somewhere where they’ll be safe.

The Only Good Indians (Stephen Graham Jones, 2020; The Only Good Indians #1). Ten years ago, four desperate young Blackfoot men–Ricky, Gabe, Lewis and Cassidy–went illegally elk hunting and killed a pregnant deer when they did. Years later, the elk’s vengeful spirit emerges, wearing all kinds of faces to make the four suffer. I expected a completely different story, but enjoyed what I did get.

The Archive of the Forgotten (A.J. Hackwith, 2020; Hell’s Library #2). After Hell’s assault on the Library of the Unwritten, librarians Claire and Brevity try to rebuild. A pool of ink, seemingly leaking from books destroyed in the attack, leave Claire and Brevity divided on how to proceed. Misadventures proceed.

…that’s it. Sorry this was 5 months late.