Books of 2025 and Worlds to Explore in 2026

I don’t really believe in book reviews. Everyone is on their own journey and one year I can hate a book and the next year, I can’t stop talking about it. Below are the books I’ve read, stopped mid-way through and why, and books I’m looking forward to reading. I’ve also included a summary of books that stood out to me, disappointed me, and authors I admire.

Below are the books I read during 2025:

• The Color of Magic: A Discworld Series (Terry Pratchett)

• Letters from Earth (Mark Twain)

• Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)

• The Book of Lost Things (John Connolly)

• The Land of Lost Things (John Connolly)

• The Light Fantastic: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Mort: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Stroke of the Pen (Terry Pratchett)

• Norse Mythology (Neil Gaiman)

• Sorcery: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Wyrd Sisters: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Anansi Boys: A Novel (Neil Gaiman)

• American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

• Pyramids: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Immortal (Sue Lynn Tan)

• Pandora’s Jar: Women in Greek Myths (Natalie Haynes)

• Lilith (Nikki Marmery)

• The Dharma Bums (Jack Kerouac)

• Guards! Guards!: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Moving Pictures: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• The House in the Cerulean Sea (TJ Klune)

• Somewhere beyond the Sea (TJ Klune)

• Eric: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Reaper Man: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

• Witches Abroad: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett) 

Currently Reading: 

• Small Gods: A Discworld Novel (Terry Pratchett)

Continuing Slowly:

• Complete Collection of H.P. Lovecraft

• African Myths of Origin (Stephen Belcher)

• H.G. Wells: The Science Fiction Collection

• Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories (Agatha Christie)

Stopped Mid-Way:

• Book of Delights (Ross Gay)

• Reason for Not Finishing: I may give this another go. I liked the idea of it. What Ross finds delightful and interesting isn’t necessarily what I find delightful in day-to-day. I sort of just lost interest. 

• The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands (Sarah Brooks)

• Reason for Not Finishing: This book has a lot of characters in it and it switches back and forth frequently. I started reading this when I first got to Spain and just didn’t have the attention-span to remember what person made a side-ways glance. I may give this another try. 

Books I want to Read in 2026 already in my Library:

• The Book of Tea (Kakuzo Ukakura)

• The rest of the Discworld Series (Terry Pratchett)

• Hiking Zen (Zen Monks Phap Xa & Pham Luu)

• Monsters of Verity Series (V.E. Schwab)

• Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy)

• Illuminations (Alan Moore)

• The Practice of the Wild (Gary Snyder)

• Politics and the English Language (George Orwell)

• The Left Hand of Darkness (Ursula K Le Guin)

• On the Road (Jack Kerouac)

• The Witche’s Heart (Genevieve Gornichec)

• The True History of the United States (Daniel A. Sjursen)

• The Humanity Archive (Jermaine Fowler)

• Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

• Nightbitch (Michel Yoder)

There were a lot of books I wanted to read this year. I picked some up, read a page, and then put it down. I read some books to help inspire me while writing but again and again, I came back to Terry Pratchett. He’s funny and witty and always left me feeling I was escaping to a world, exactly like our own. Recognizing how absurd ours truly is—an escape without escaping. 

Sometimes we just have to back away a bit—imagine software engineers as out-of-touch wizards with scrolls and recognize witches like Granny Weatherwax and headology exists too.   

Taking lessons like find yourself between two mirrors and applying that to vanity and social media. I absolutely adored Witches Abroad and found myself wishing I knew more about old Hollywood in order to understand the hidden gems in Moving Pictures (unfortunately, I dragged through it). 

Natalie Haynes once again knocked it out of the park with her Pandora’s Jar. I find our goals very similar. Jack Kerouac, I feel like I can read and reread him every season and find something new about myself or the world—just a matter of standing upside down or waiting to be on the other side of the world.  I was disappointed by Immortal. I nearly didn’t finish. I think it was for a younger audience but I felt like it lacked cultural richness. At some point, I recognized I was finishing it just for the Good Read’s badge haaa. Neil Gaiman… I already owned his books on my kindle and didn’t purchase any new books in 2025. His book, Ocean at the End of the Lane, helped me understand my own childhood and I adore his work. But at a period of time where it’s so important to stand with women—understanding power imbalances and dynamics— I’ll be prioritizing their voices when it comes to new 2026 book purchases.  I know what I’m hoping for from him but, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s likely.

If you have any book recommendations, leave them in the comments below!