December’s Reads

Running total books/audiobooks/short stories read in 2025 by month end: 156.

I finished my challenge! And I want to just say… wow! I really wound up ending on a high, with a total of 24 stories for the month; most of these were novels and novellas, with a couple of theatrical Audibles thrown in for good measure. How do I feel? Well, I have read more than 150 books in a single year that I would not otherwise have read, and I am incredibly proud of that fact, as well as pleased that I made the effort to engage in something for an entire year. You can see my record on the My Bookshelf 2025 page.

I would read obsessively as a child, but then as an adult, my reading energy was soaked up in my efforts for my education and career. Sometimes I was handling both things concurrently. Then I had a family to raise, and I really only read for pleasure in occasional spare minutes. I guess I considered myself lucky if I read a couple of books a year. As part of this year’s dedication to books, I have gone back and collected a library of all the books I ever remember reading, and the number from my youth is phenomenal, probably over two thousand. For one thing, as a teenager, I read the entire works of Tanith Lee and Robert Jordan. I once saw a list of the 100 greatest fantasy classics, and realised I had read all of them. I also constantly wrote short stories and poetry. Then, from adulthood, next to nothing. The best I managed was a couple of hundred books through Audible, because I could listen to those on the way to work. As a librarian in Further Education, my final role before early medical retirement, I began engaging with reading again, but there was still a work element in there. This is just life, and I have no problem with accepting that things were as they were; at these times, I had other aims and my family needed this time dedication.

So what has been the impact of a year of reading? Firstly, I have realised my tastes have changed. Instead of my original, childhood preference for doorstopper fantasy novels, I now much prefer standalone horror novels of up to 300 pages. Tracking my choices on Storygraph for a year shows I now have a shorter attention span, and have developed a taste for a huge horror and non-fiction selection. I also love short stories and novellas. They are quick hitting and give a sensation of achievement. Around a busy lifestyle, I can often read a full offering in a couple of hours, which is easier with disabilities. I also still possess the ability to read anything, up to and including educational texts, if and when I choose to. When I choose well, and my health is good, I still gulp a book down in a day, though Audible is much easier than physically reading, which brings on migraines. My joy in reading is still present and correct; effectively, I still love losing myself in other worlds. I still quite simply love to read.

December was an incredibly good month in the challenge. In another change from previous months emotional buy-in, this month, with the advent of the holiday season, I could not stop reading. Up to Christmas week, and the beginning of family holiday visits, I just wanted to relax with a book, and this shows in my December output. The cold dark weather meant more than the usual time dedication to reading and relaxation. The end result is that I feel like I gave my challenge a really strong attempt, despite some wobbles, and I have discovered many authors and connections through reading, such as online groups, that I would not otherwise have made. Particular thanks to the FB Books of Horror Book Club, that I am a member of. Group reading has become an especial pleasure for me, and will be something I continue with next year. I have already prepared a My Bookshelf 2026 record sheet, albeit with less information collection than for 2025, and have a target for next year of 40 books on my Goodreads challenge. I have new things that I also want to pick up in the New Year, particularly my artwork, and a health and fitness challenge to try and manage a deterioration in my health, but I still aim to read, review, and blog, perhaps at a less intensive level than I have in 2025. If you have read along, feel free to stay with me, and comment. Now on to this month’s books.

Maybe it was the Christmas spirit, but I gave no less than 7 books a five star rating over the course of this month. I allowed myself to access some of the sequels of earlier amazing reads, and this inevitably led to some great reads for me, sometimes in worlds I am very familiar with, and beyond happy to revisit. Falling into this category were the following reads: The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Hurst (sequel to The Spellshop), Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree (sequel to Legends & Lattes), Testimony of Mute Things by Lois McMaster Bujold (this one is from the long-running Penric & Desdemona series, but Bujold is also both my favourite author, and wrote my favourite novel; The Curse of Chalion. I wrote about the Chalion novels in my Masters degree.), and A Visit to the Husband Archive by Kaliane Bradley (slightly different reason but this was my favourite of The Time Traveller’s Passport set, and out of all of these, this one stood out to me, though there were several I loved.). My reviews of these books are available on my Goodreads, I am going to say, give at least something in each of these series a look, and then I am going to leave these ones there. These series are great, give them a look, basically.

The first mention on my list is not going to be a five star read. It’s going to be Spare by Prince Harry. I read this at the start of the month, straight after last month’s dip into Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York by Andrew Lownie, followed up with Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts.Spare does not have the strength of these previous two books in my chosen line of memoirs, but it was one of the oddest books I have ever read. I saw it described as being like a drunken rant in the local pub, and this is exactly how it felt to me too. Having said that, I honestly felt for Harry and his family by the end of the memoir, because sheer interest levels in them have been ridiculous. And really what I took away from this one, is a sensation that we have all been continuously lied to in the British news. While I already veto the BBC right now, for a number of reasons, I went one step further and out of my way to watch Meghan Markle’s Christmas Show; With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration on Netflix, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

First honourable mention on my December list, and the best thing I read this month (after the revisited series mentioned above) is “Diavola” by Jennifer Thorne. The eeriness throughout this novel is beautifully rendered, it has a sharp storyline, and an ending that I enjoyed, though it wasn’t for everyone. It was a fascinating view of family life with some dysfunctional relationships, and how some people would respond differently or unexpectedly in those situations. The characters were all individual, clearly drawn, and fully dimensional. This is one I had spotted, but felt no real hurry to read, and I think I under-rated it at first glance. Great for those who love paranormal horror.

Next up is “The Bewitching” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which was a book club read for me. One of the pleasures of this one admittedly was the commentary and reading it with others online. Aside from this additional pleasure, the characters were fantastic, the language and emotion brilliant, and some of the horror scenes were among the best I have ever read. It has weaknesses as well as strengths, not least some slow sections, occasions where the name dropping becomes irritating, and the triple timeline, never a favoured tactic. Having said that, I will be looking out for more by the author, and already have some reads in mind over the next few months based on this one.

The last story I would like to mention is the Audible Original theatrical production of “Dead Outlaw” by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna. This is an absolutely fascinating production, because it is effectively a musical book and based on a true account simultaneously. Unfortunately I did not love the music, but the concept I found completely original, and for the couple of hours length, it was tremendous fun to listen to. The actual story is also absolutely fascinating.

This concludes my reading challenge for 2025. Thank you to all the authors creating these amazing pieces of work, I am an avid fan,, no matter what my review!