Reading and Writing Wrap Up 2025

It’s been a busy year for me as far as the literary arts are concerned. According to GoodReads, I’ve read 31 books and over 8900 pages. More importantly, I’ve written over 400 pages. So, yeah, I’ve been busy! So what books are my favorites of the year? And what have I been writing? Well, I’m so glad you asked! Here’s my reading and writing wrap up for 2025!

Firstly, let’s talk about books published in 2025

I don’t always read books right as they’ve been published, but this year I did manage to read five books published in 2025. I’ve listed and ranked them below.

5: I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming. Yes, it’s pretty much how it sounds. A young PhD student gets abducted and thrown onto an alien planet. She falls in love with two competing suitors, and hilarity ensues. There’s steamy scenes, there’s dinosaurs, and there’s a species of intelligent owls orchestrating the whole thing. The protagonist even has a talking lion! This may have been the lowest rated book of the five books published in 2025, but it was still so much fun.

4: Here Beside the Rising Tide by Emily Jane. What if a middle aged romance author, her kids, and a child who had been missing for 30 years have a real life Pokémon battle. A fun and emotional read, perfect for the summer!

3: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara TrueLove. What a weird, wonderful book. Werewolves and AI computers and zombies and Frankenstein’s monster and weird fishy aliens and Dracula – all traveling in an interstellar ship. There also be pirates, arrrrrgh. Not to mention love in very unexpected circles.

2: American Werewolves by Emily Jane. I enjoyed Here Beside the Rising Tide so much (as well as Jane’s other book, On Earth as it was on Television), that I rushed out and got this book the week it came out. And I am so glad I did! I never expected a book about werewolves to touch on homophobia, misogyny, racism, and capitalism. Well done. Well done indeed. I would love to see a few sequels.

1: ¡Pónk! by Marcus Clayton. An anti-memoir told through the eyes of a biracial, Afrolatino, punk rock, professor. I’m still trying to figure out how much of ¡Pónk! is fiction and how much is actually Marcus Clayton’s life! For whatever reason, it’s been less than popular in the circles I frequent, but trust me! It is worth the read.

What other books have I read this year?

Writing a synopsis of all the books I’ve read this year would take too long, so instead, I’ll give some highlights:

Favorite Author I’ve discovered in 2025: Emily Jane. I’ve mentioned her already, but damn! I can’t wait till she publishes the new book next year!

Best Classic book: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry. If you haven’t read this dystopic classic, then you should. That’s really all I can say.

Best Graphic Novel: Maus Volume 1 by Art Spiegelman. This volume tells the backstory of someone before they go to the Nazi concentration camps. Heart wrenching, and I’m kind of nervous about reading the second volume – it’s going to be difficult to say the least.

Five favorite reads not mentioned yet in no particular order:

Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (translated by Sarah Moses). This is the saddest book I’ve ever read. It’s gut wrenching and, quite frankly, disturbing and disgusting. Still, it’s a painful reminder of how humans are just animals ourselves. We’re vile, disturbing creatures who would and could kill our own by the thousands if it suits our needs.

Julia by Sandra Newman. A retelling of 1984 (George Orwell) from the perspective of the character Julia. The twist at the end made me cry.

Big Swiss by Jenn Beagin. Sexy, emotional, and holy shit those bees!

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori). If you feel alien to this world, this is the book for you. There are a few parts that get weird, bizarre, and fully disturbing. Move past these parts. Earthlings is well worth the read.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. If you haven’t heard of this book, you’re probably living under a rock as it’s really freaking so popular. So popular I almost did not read it! But I am so glad I read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. It was without a doubt my favorite book I read this year. Interpersonal relationships a plenty, flawed characters trying to work through, or at least live through their traumas. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow has quite a bit of representation, including physical disability, the LGBTQIA+ community, and minorities. Oh, and video games! What more could you ask for?

So what am I writing?

I am currently working on four, yes four different novellas, all in different stages of development.

There is the novella I’ve been working on for a year and a half entitled Abnormal. After several edits and rewrites, I feel like Abnormal is ready for beta readers, so that’s really exciting. If anyone reading this wants to beta read, drop me a line!

The other piece of “old news” is Anchor to the Real World, which I wrote last November as a writing challenge. I’ve gotten through another draft, and plan on putting it through a third draft sometime in the next couple of months.

I have two new to 2025 projects as well. There is a novella called Frog Feet, which happens in the same universe as Anchor to the Real World. Frog Feet is both an exciting, scary, and personal project. While Frog Feet is a work of fiction, it features many personal anecdotes about my own physical disabilities. I hope to finish the first draft of Frog Feet in the next couple of months.

I also participated in a writing challenge this last November, and got a good 30k words out for a fun, science fiction parody. The working title as of now is “The USS Banana,” as that is the “hero” ship, but I want to find a different title. Oh, and this novella has the possibility of becoming a full on series of novellas (and novels). I’ll probably get a second draft out this spring sometime.

Finally, I wrote a fun story about werewolves on another planet as my October Scary Story. It’s called Werewolves on Planet Koira 4, and you can read it here!

Come find me!

That’s all for now. But if you want to keep in touch, come follow me at:

Threads: Where I talk about writing, reading, coffee, cats, neurodiversity, and any other topic that comes to mind.

Bluesky: Where I attempt to mimic what I do in Threads.

Facebook: Where I participate in a bunch of groups and share weird memes.

Good Reads: Where I share what I’ve read, what I’m reading, and what I want to read.

AudioPerfecta.com: Where I sometimes blog about music and publish fun playlists!

Thanks, everyone! Until next time. Happy New Year, and happy reading!