My reading roundup
- bom20178
- Dec 31, 2025
- 9 min read
Hello Smitey peeps and Happy New Year! Well almost.
As I write this there are about 12 hours and 14 minutes left of 2025, and don't let the door hit it on the way out. This year has been a bit of a dumpster fire in lots of ways for lots of people in lots of places.... lets hope that 2026 can get it's feet under itself a bit and at least steady the boat. Everybody touch the wood and say fingers crossed!
I managed to hit my Goodreads challenge target this year, which I am feeling very smug about. As a kid and younger adult I was an absolutely ferocious reader, devouring at least a book a week and sometimes more. You would never have found me without a book at least in my bag if not my hand. Even after I had the boys I would be up late after they went to sleep to get my reading in. I don't know what made me slow down, but apparently it's a worldwide trend - the non reading of books in this age of digital everything is growing. So I committed to READING again a few years, ago, and I've brought my tally back up again nicely, if not to the levels they were previously then certainly on the way to them. And yes, I know that some of you will scream blue murder when I say this, but I mean READING A BOOK. Listening to a book to me does NOT count as reading it.
There's a big difference between listening and reading. Both obviously have their advantages, and I do listen to audiobooks as well as podcasts, and I enjoy them. But I do not count the books I listened to as books that I read. Listening does not allow for the engagement that reading does. Listening is something that can be done passively. You can do it while you're doing something else, like being at the gym or vacuuming. And while that is an advantage in some ways, you lose the act of DOING that reading physically provides to your brain. I had a little google around to find what others had to say about this and found these interesting passages -
The critical difference, for me, between reading and listening is that reading is something you do, where listening is something that happens to you. Reading is an act of engagement. The words on the page aren’t going to read themselves, which is something they literally do in an audiobook. If you’re not actively taking in written information, then you’re not going to make progress on the book. Audiobooks, on the other hand, make progress with or without your participation. You can tune out, your mind wandering around the subject at hand, and there will still be forward motion in the story.
and this
Your brain uses some of the same language and cognitive systems for both reading and listening, but it also performs different functions depending on how you’re taking in the information.
When you read, your brain is working hard behind the scenes. It recognizes the shapes of letters, matches them to speech sounds, connects those sounds to meaning, then links those meanings across words, sentences and even whole books. The text uses visual structure such as punctuation marks, paragraph breaks or bolded words to guide understanding. You can go at your own speed.
Now PLEASE do not think that I am in any way dissing those who exclusively listen to their books - personally I think that engaging with story or narrative in any way is an essential part of the human function. I'm simply telling you what I like and how I like to process my books - which brings me to an eReader. 'Coz I don't like those either. Yep, I have one, and when Im travelling I take it and I use it and it's all very convenient and light weight etc etc etc. But I am a lover of books, and by books I mean not just the words but the physical object. The cover art, the smell, the paper it's been printed on. Holding a book you loved in your hands when you finish it. Throwing a battered paperback into your beach bag. Using old birthday cards from your kids as a bookmark. Piles of things stacked up and waiting to be read. I realise that some of these things are the things people hate about physical books, but they're the things that make me collect books as well as just read them.
Anyhoo, all that aside, here's what I read this year. If I start something, I finish it, so all these books I have read from page one to the end - none of this "oh I read 2/3 of it so let's call that finished" malarkey. I know lots of you like my reading recommendations so I hope you find some treasure here! Some are new releases and some are very much not. I set a Goodreads goal of 30, and read 33 books in 2025. I've ranked them by books 📕 - one being no thanks, two all right but wouldn't recommend, three being enjoyable beach read, four being this was great I loved it and five absolutely, drop whatever you are doing and read this immediately.
📕
Only one here, All Fours by Miranda July. Lots of very graphic and kinky sex (which doesn't in itself bother me but not this), a flimsy story line and a self indulgent and annoying main character. Not for me peeps. Ick. I did finish it though, good girl.
📕📕
Yeah look, a bit of fun. Not well written, a pretty good story. Maybe two stars is unfair but I read far better crime books this year.
I wanted to really love this book but I was bored by the time I was halfway through. Elias is a wonderful photographer and I love his Instagram account so so much (@thedogist - if you don't follow him and you love dogs then you should), but he's not a writer.
Ho hum. And this kind of thing is usually right up my alley but I didn't engage with the characters at all, and I didn't enjoy the writing style. I struggled to finish it.
📕📕📕
This is the latest Mick Herron offering and I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I usually do... there wasn't quite enough Slough House for me. If you don't know about Mick Herron may I recommend him to you as an absolutely joyous addition to your reading - start with the first Slough House book and work your way through. Or watch the two TV series of his books that are out at the moment - Slow Horses and Down Cemetery Road. Both excellent.
Spooky old Sanitorium has been made into a hotel, and spooky things are happening in there, and people are dead and it's all v creepy. Lots of fun.
I have loved Ben's previous books but this one was a little flat to me - still a great read but lacking a little of the quirkiness that has made the previous ones so much fun. It's an unusual writing style that might take you a moment to get comfortable with. I would still recommend reading it, but start with his first book Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone as it's important to know the characters. They are all very funny and a little bit odd. The first book is being made into a Netflix series too which should be a good watch!
Teetering on the edge between three and four books for me. It's another crime story but quite funny, and the ship that it takes place on is a character in the story too which is an interesting take.
I enjoyed this, I love a good historical fiction. Its a bit slow in places but a nice sequel to her first book, The Swift and the Harrier, which I loved.
📕📕📕📕
Beautiful story of dogs and family and love and tears and also Sydney, which was fun for me as many of the locations in which these things took place are very familiar to me. Lovely read.
Excellent solid crime story, hard recommend.
Let's do all three of them all together - love Mick Herron, love Slough House, love Jackson Lamb and yes write more please kind sir as I will buy them all.
This is a great book, and it's recently been made into a stage play which I was interested to see - I'd like to find some tickets for that! The story of a young female criminal defence barrister whose many court wins include protecting men accused of rape and sexual assault. And then she herself is raped. It's a lot of very twisty moral puzzles, and very well written.
Yep, I'm back for my maybe 8th or 9th reading of this classic... just felt like it. If you haven't ever read any Jane Austen, I recommend starting with Pride and Prejudice as the writing isn't quite so dense as some of the others. I love her though, in all her forms.
Another great crime story from Chris Hammer! Probably my favourite Aussie crime author.
I read this book many years ago and unearthed it while looking for something else recently. I couldn't resist starting it again, it's a haunting story and beautifully written.
Ooooh this was good. An Australian woman travels to The Hague to work for an Australian judge during the trial of a military man charged with war crimes. She finds herself conflicted between the man she sees in front of her in the dock, and the evidence she is hearing.
The only reason this doesn't get 5 books is because it was a tiny bit lacking in Joyce for my taste. If you've read Thursday Murder Clubs before you will understand what I mean - if you haven't WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR LIFE READ THEM NOW!! :D
📕📕📕📕📕
This will break your heart. Grief and anger and hope and love together. I don't think I'm too biased by knowing the author and her sons, and knowing, respecting and loving her dead husband too. Read it and see what you think.
Beth's father and brother have gone missing in a freak winter storm. Tense and terrifying and spare. Wonderful.
For lovers of the Hunger Games series which I most absolutely am, this is an excellent continuation of the story. I hope she never stops writing them!
A British spy is told that the government has managed to crack the secret of time travel, and that in order to experiment with its power is bringing people back from the past to study the effects on humans. She is tasked with looking after one of the "bridges" - a man plucked from Sir John Franklin's doomed 1847 expedition to the Arctic. It's a thriller and a love story and a cracking good read.
Such fun. I love Betty and I bet you will too.
This is in a three way tie for the best book I read this year. The writing is absolutely heavenly. You know when you find and author and then you have to read every single book they ever wrote? That's how I now feel about Robbie Arnott.
A tiny little jewell. I ate it up in an afternoon.
I know loads of reviews have not enjoyed this book because it's a different telling of the Huckleberry Finn story. I personally loved it and I also loved the original Huck Finn.
I want to be in a place where I haven't read this book yet and I'm just starting it so I can read it again.
Also tied for my favourite book. This was originally published in 2007 so it's an older book. Molly Gloss is new to me although I understand she's a bit of a staple in American schools? I absolutely loved this book and I will read more Molly Gloss. What a wonderful character.
I didn't enjoy her first book much, although it was well reviewed everywhere, so I opened this with a bit of a side eye. It's a beautiful love story with a very unusual setting, and it's absolutely fantastic.
And #3 in the three way tie. I can't believe I never read any Frederik Backman before and now I have to read all of them.
So what am I reading next? I've got three lined up and ready to go, I might have to close my eyes and pick one... although I have the feeling that Limberlost will win out as I need a Robbie Arnott fix.
Happy New Year everyone. I really hope its a goodie and that everyone you love will be safe and well and happy in 2026, I really really do. We all need a little sunshine I think! See you on the other side :)
Sarah x
Lots of great reads there, thank you for the roundup. If you ever get a chance to see Prima Facie then do, we saw Jodie Whitaker in it and she was magnificent.