Right, #Booksky, used to get 100's of replies to these on Twitter so....
My day job is buying books for 34 libraries, help me and my customers out by telling me the best fiction book(s) you've read in 2025.
Rules: can be any genre and doesn't have to be new, but NOTHING self-published gogogo!
📚
My day job is buying books for 34 libraries, help me and my customers out by telling me the best fiction book(s) you've read in 2025.
Rules: can be any genre and doesn't have to be new, but NOTHING self-published gogogo!
📚
Comments
Quinn, The Huntress
Hart, The Sirens
Wilson, The Seed Keeper
And because it's hard to find in print these days: The Oxford Time Travel series by Connie Willis.
you should just get the whole series :)
Club Contango: Eliane Boey
Intersteller Megachef: Lavanya Lakshminarayan
When the Reckoning Comes: LaTanya McQueen
Dark Woods, Deep Water: Jelena Dunato
But Not Too Bold: Hache Pueyo
Dear Haiti, Love Alaine: Maika Moulite Maritza Moulite
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter: Stephen Graham Jones
The Haunting of Room 904: Erika T. Wurth
'Til Death by Busayo Matuluko
Yelen and Yelena: C.M. Rosens
Sara Alexi
The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater
The Library Of Broken Worlds by Alaya Dawn Johnson
The Siege of Burning Grass by Premier Mohammed
Saint Death's Daughter by CSE Cooney
Anything by Meghan Quinn, Rebecca Yarros, or Laura Pavlov.
When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal.
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (based on a true story, but is fiction)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Also Demon Copperhead.
The Seventh Veil of Salome- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Chef's Kiss - TJ Alexander
The Broposal - Sonora Reyes
See Me Rolling- Lottie Jackson
The Secret Romantic's Book of Magic edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane
Wolf Siren by Beth O'Brien
The Lost Sunday by Ileana Surducan
The Hotel by Daisy Johnson
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
NOTES FROM THE GREEN MAN
Chuck Dalldorf
River Rock Books
a sweet memoir and love letter to beautiful Suffolk; a thank you letter to the wonderful, gracious Suffolk people
One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve - M. Shaw
Deadly Vision - T.D. Severin
Make Something Up - Chuck Palahniuk
The Vaudeville Murders - Miriam and Joseph Zellnik
Pump Six and Other Stories - Paolo Bacigalupi
The Vampire Tapestry - Suzy McKee Charnas
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata
Angel, Elizabeth Taylor
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
Held, Anne Michaels
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
The Malevolent Eight (sequel to The Malevolent Seven) by Sebastien de Castell
Island of Longing - Anne Griffin
James - Percival Everett
A Tainted Cup & A Drop of Corruption
The History of Sound
Pagans
Your neighbour‘s table
The will of the many
Mathias Énard - The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild
Amazing book. Everyone I've recommended it to has loved it. It's going to jump the line in our book club because we want to talk about it without giving spoilers & can't wait.
While "technically" SciFi (discussion topic), it will appeal to many more readers
Because, unlike Harkaway's few other books, I totally didn't, which left me with a feeling that I'm missing something.
Plus I'm a sucker for a murder mystery.
The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club by Richard Foster, Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, Lost in the Garden by Adam S. Leslie, On The Greenwich Line by Shady Lewis, Saltburn by Drew Gummerson. 😊
On The Clock - Claire Baglin
Base Notes - Adelle Stripe
Sufferah - Alex Wheatle
Fulfilment - Lee Cole
Change - Edouard Louis
Ootlin - jenni fagan
The strangers - Ekow Eshun
Take Away - Angela Hui
I will never forget the kindness and warm humanity of Alex Wheatle.
(He was brilliant, fascinating, wildly entertaining and a pleasure to talk to, in case anyone thinks I'm being a dick, as was Simon Price in the other chair. Only having a larf innit)
I think Heidi J might have interviewed Adelle Stripe through the First Graft series. Where do I find your interviews?
A Killing in November by Simon Mason
Burner and also Midnight Black both by Mark Greaney
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent @liznugent.bsky.social
The Kill List by Nadine Matheson @nadinematheson.com
The Queen of Dirt Island by Ryan Donal
How To Solve Your Own Murder (Kristen Perrin)
The Cautious Traveller's Guide To The Wastelands (Sarah Brooks)
Legends and Lattes (Travis Baldree)
The Quiet At The End Of The World (Lauren James)
Leeward by (Katie Daysh)
The Gilded Ones (Namina Forna)
Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires
Megan Giddings’s Meet Me at the Crossroads
@megiddings.bsky.social
@buehlmeister.bsky.social
When the Moon Hits Your Eye - @scalzi.com
Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett
The Bones Beneath My Skin - TL Klune
Remarkably Bright Creatures - Shelby Van Pelt
The Will of the Many - James Islington
- Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann
- continued the Gilead-Series by Marilynne Robinson
- the graphic novels Blankets and American Born Chinese
Patricia Briggs, MOON CALLED (still so good).
Diana Wynne Jones, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (infinitely better than the cartoon).
John Ronald Ruel Tolkien, FARMER GILES OF HAM (I still say it's his best book, ever).
Stan Sakai, USAGI YOJIMBO
Women's Hotel by Daniel Lavery
Three Summers - Margarita Liberaki
The Wager -David Gran
Elly Griffiths Ruth Galloway novels
Ducks -Kate Beaton
The Longcut - Emily Hall
The Day Aunt Gina Came to Town by John Schoneboom
Present Tense Machine by Gunnhild Øyehaug
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
This Fragile Earth by Susannah Wise
The Tainted Cup/A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
The Book that Broke the World by Mark Lawrence
The Last Shield by Cameron Johnston
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett
Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
The Kamagowa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
The House at the Edge of Magic by Amy Sparkes
Meet me at the Surface by Jodie Matthews.
Folklore and gay representation
Jaroslav Rudiš - Winterberg's Last Journey (do not miss this one!)
Gonçalo M. Tavares - Jerusalem
Mathias Énard - The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers' Guild
Dag Solstad - Shyness and Dignity
Scott Alexander Howard: The Other Valley
Anuk Arudpragasam: A Passage North
Robert Harris: Act of Oblivion
As great as any 19th century Russian novel, they had the misfortune to come out in Hungarian in the late 1930s. English translation in 2000, foreword by Patrick Leigh Fermor.
Norah Webster and The Master, both by Colm Toibin. Exquisite writing and riveting stories.
* Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
* Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena
* Heaven and Hell by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
* Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez
* Where the Wild Ladies Are by Matsuda Aoko
Jodi Picoult Mad Honey
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (or anything else she’s written)
The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
The House in the Cerculean Sea by TJ Klune
The Wayward Bus - John Steinbeck
The Watchmaker’s Hand - Jeffery Deaver
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
N.K. Jemisin - The Broken Earth Trilogy
Micaiah Johnson - The Space Between Worlds
I Died at Fallow Hall by Bonnie Burke-Patel
Aerth by Deborah Tomkins
Tragic Magic by Wesley Brown
new: all three Cemeteries of Amalo books by Katharine Addison, starting with The Witness for the Dead
1. Night and Day in Misery by Catriona Ward
2. The Blanks by Grady Hendrix
3. The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2 by Martha Wells
4. The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 by Martha Wells
5. Catch and Keep by Erin Hahn
6. Full Exposure by Thien-Kim Lam 1/2
8. The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
9. Are You Happy by Lori Ostlund
10. The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
11. Woodworking by Emily St. James
2/2
A Dream of White Horses by Paul Scraton
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
A Burning by Megha Majumdar
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee
I look forward to seeing what others read. Good luck Stu!
The Fox Woman - Kij Johnson (re-read at Christmas)
The Book of the Sultan’s Seal,
The Dissenters, both by Youssef Rakha
What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad
The Wrong End of the Telescope,
Rabih Elamaddine
Publisher : The Legion Publishers
Genres: LIT-RPG/Progression fantasy
Loved it so much I'm now subscribed to the author's Patreon
I loved it, darkly comic.
10 Minutes 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Elif Shafak
The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The Golem of Brooklyn - Adam Mansbach
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
Lark Ascending by Silas House
Based on a True Story - Norm Macdonald
The Lesser Bohemians - Eimear McBride
The Blind Owl - Sadegh Hedayat
Panthers and the Museum of Fire - Jen Craig
Chess - Stefan Zweig
Cold Water - Gwendoline Riley
Boulder - Eva Baltasar
So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away - Richard Brautigan
https://corylusbooks.com/nightingale-and-co/
Good on you, mate!
- Lake of Urine by Guillermo Stitch
- I Blame Myself But Also You by Spencer Fleury
- Beartooth by Callan Wink
- Metallic Realms by Lincoln Michel
The Devils by @joeabercrombie.com
Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by @djangowexler.bsky.social (sequel/conclusion, get How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying as well)
Overgrowth, by Mira Grant (aka @seananmcguire.bsky.social)
Direct Descendent by @tanyahuff.bsky.social
A Drop of Corruption by @robertjbennett.bsky.social (sequel to The Tainted Cup)
Burn Up In Victory by @authorizedmusings.bsky.social (not out yet)
Coyote Run by @lilithsaintcrow.com
Bury Your Gays by @chucktingle.bsky.social
When Women Were Dragons by @kellybarnhill.bsky.social
Those are the new(ish, anyway) books I read in 2025 and tagged for individual award nomination.
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
The Jacques McKeown adventures by Yahtzee Croshaw
The Dark Profits saga by J. Zachary Pike
Alan Murrin: The Coast Road
Jonathan Coe: The Proof of my Innocence
John Boyne: Water, Earth, Fire, Air
Cauvery Madhavan: The Inheritance
'The Murmurs' & 'The Torments' by Michael J. Malone @orendabooks.bsky.social (3rd book out in Sept).
The first 2 Lee Miller books by Nicola Williams (3rd book out in July).
The Future by Naomi Alderman
The Briar Book of the Dead by AG Slatter
The Murderbot Diaries (series) by Martha Wells
O'Hagan's Caledonian Road
Murray's Bee sting
Kaufman's Antkind
Jemisin's City we became
McAfee's Hame
Gabriel's Ninth Street Women
Kuang's Babel
The Future by Naomi Alderman.
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder.
Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune.
For toddlers
Any books by Morag Hood.
On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks
Gideon the Ninth/Harrow the Ninth/Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
City of Bones by Martha Wells
For Emma (Ewan Morrison)
Waif (Samantha Kolesnik)
Titanium Noir / Sleeper Beach (Nick Harkaway)
The Great When (Alan Moore)
Skin Thief (Suzan Palumbo)*
and, if poetry's allowed:
Deifying a Total Darkness (upfromsumdirt)*
Dark Matter (Aase Berg)
* Not finished yet.
Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way by Elaine Feeney
Our Song by Anna Carey
Nesting by Róisín O'Donnell
The Secret Room by Jane Casey
The Cafe With No Name by Robert Seethaler tr. By Katy Derbyshire
Time of the Child by Niall Williams
🇦🇹 Darkenbloom by Eva Menasse
🇳🇱 The Safe Keep by Yael Van Der Wouden 👇🏽
The Future - Naomi Alderman
Both excellent reads with visions of getting us out of some of our current difficulties as a society
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
True Grit by Charles Portis
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Rodham - Curtis Sittenfield
Meet me at the Museum - Anne Youngson
Stoner - John Williams
Flesh - David Szalay
Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil - Oliver Darkshire
Also anxiously awaiting Kills Well with Others - Deanna Raybourn, given how good the first in the series was.
The Searcher - Tana French
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevins
Ostend - Volker Weidmann
The Wizard of the Kremlin - Giuliano da Empoli
Precipice - Robert Harris
(slightly surprised at how much of my 2025 reading is non-fiction but there it is)
Children of Time series by @aptshadow.bsky.social
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Robert E. Howard's works. Del Rey has great collections of Conan, Kull, El Borak, Solomon Kane, etc
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
The Apology by Jimin Han
Mortal Follies + Confounding Oaths by Alexis Hall
Swordcrossed by Freye Marske
Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Olga Tokarczuk
Simon Mason’s Finder books: I’ve read all three recently.
A Family Romance by Anita Brookner;
The Fate of Mary Rose by Caroline Blackwood;
Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper by Donald Henderson;
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood;
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (tr. Sophie Hughes)
#BookSky 💙📚
A Family Matter by Clare Lynch
The Names by Florence Knapp
The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre.
Probably LOADS of others too that aren't in my immediate eyeliner.