A Year in (Reading) Review

In Which the Author, With Considerable Puffery and No Small Measure of Self-Regard, Doth Recount at Immoderate Length the Vast and Formidable Multitude of Volumes He Has Consumed, Thereby Asserting—With a Wagging Finger and an Educative Sigh—Why the Reader Ought to Attend Most Closely, For by Virtue of This Tireless Reading He Is (So He Insists) Possessed of Wisdom Far Exceeding That of Ordinary Men

The year 2018 was a pivotal year for me. I was in the process of reconstructing my life after it broke into a million pieces. Humpty Dumpty be damned, sometimes things can be put back together again. During that time, I tried to focus on habits that formed me in a positive way which I had neglected or abandoned and one was reading so I resolved to begin reading more regularly. 

In 2019, I began to share at the end of each year what I had read. Though the old blog has been sunseted (you can see last year's list here), that is one habit I shall carry forward as I quite enjoy it. 

This year has been...interesting. To say the least. I guess that is my way of making an excuse as this is probably the smallest number of books I have read since I started keeping track in 2019. That said, the six books of the Sun-Eater (which will be more than one separate post later and I'm eagerly awaiting the final installment from the library) totals 3,888 pages. However, in typing that I realize that is a poor excuse. The Expanse was must longer and I still read more that year. Oh well, I tried to make an excuse for the low number that follows.

In 2025 I read 39 books, if you do not count graphic novels. If you include graphic novels, then the number increases to 45. With that, here is the full list: 

• Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri 
• Descender Vol 6
• The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke 
• How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People by Pete Greig 
• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld 
• Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
• Goliath by Scott Westerfeld 
• The Manual of Aeronautics by Scott Westerfeld 
• Usborne Books Illustrated Horses & Ponies Stories (I never include kids books, but this one was like 300 pages and I read it with Abby and it felt like it should qualify).
• McMafia by Misha Glenny
• The Mythmakers by John Hendrix
• I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 
• In Plain Sight by Dan Willis 
• Elder Race by Adrian Tchaichovsky
• Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by Giles Milton
• The Son and the Heir Alexander Munninghoff 
• The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
• The Sixth Family: the Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto by Lee Lamothe 
• Batman Urban Legend vol I by Chip Zdarsky
• Mistland by Felipe Castilho
• Wool by Hugh Howey 
• Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
• The Gunslinger by Stephen King

The Sun-Eater Series

1. Empire of Silence by Chris Ruocchio 
2. Howling Dark by Chris Ruocchio 
3. Demon in White by Chris Ruiccchio
4. Queen Amid Ashes by Chris Ruoccchio 
5. Kingdoms of Death by Chris Ruoccchio 
6. Ashes of Men by Chris Ruocchio
7. Disquiet Gods by Chris Ruoccchio 

• The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard 
• My Little Town: Stories from Lake Wobegon by Garrison Keillor
• Lake Wobegon: Summer 1956 by Garrison Keillor 
• Lake Wobegon: U.S.A. by Garrison Keillor 
• News from Lake Wobegon by Garrison Keillor
• The Journey to the Inner Chamber by Rocky Flemming 
• Prayer Cottage and the Sacred Garden by Rocky Flemming 
• Enjoying Jesus by Tim Chester
• Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku by Alex Segura
• The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson 
• The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever: Transcendence, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ by Ashley Lande 
• Copperhead Vol I and Vol II by Jay Faerber 
• A Memory Called Empire by Arkdady Martine
• The Disappearing Seat by Heather Holleman
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow**

So here is where things get weird: I don't have a favorite book of the year. Which, I think, is the first that I can remember since I started this crazy little thing called bibliophile. But, that is for a very good reason. I read so many darn good books! that isn't to say that some books weren't better than others but the ones I really liked, I just really liked. Nothing was like, whoa! in a sense that it left the others so far behind.

So I'm just going to take a little meander through what I read.

First off, I read four categories of every year:

• History
• Bible/Theology
• Organized Crime
• Science Fiction
• Fiction (emphasis on mystery)

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and The Son and the Heir were the only two historical works I read this year, which is definitely less than normal. I have been reading William Shirer's monumental work The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich but I'm only about half way through. Hopefully it'll show up next year. Both books were good--I wouldn't recommend one over the other. Depends on what you're looking for.

However, as a nice segue, I will say that Ungentlemanly Warfare reinforced one of the fascinating points of Glenny's McMafia that government intelligence services and organized crime often work together. That is probably because, as the name implies, black ops run by the government aren't necessarily legal (Side note: Trump's recent CIA drone strike or the significantly [putting it nicely] gray area of what's happening with Venezuela is absolutely nothing new. What's new is this Administration seemingly does not understand subtlety and remaining silent about CIA operations).

Anyway, I continued my obsession with organized crime, specifically, The Life or La Cosa Nostra and finally moving north of the border to the fascinating world of the Rizzuto Crime Family. You probably haven't heard of them but they are the one of the largest organized crime groups in the world. Canada, as crazy as it sounds, is the epicenter for global organized crime. News stories there read like the 1960's American gangland violence. For example, not long after Leonard Rizzuto was arrested earlier this year and you think, well maybe things will settle down, there's a hit in broad daylight in a busy Starbucks.

<Breathe. Stop. Focus. Breathe>

As Mrs. Wine likes to point out: I have a problem with OC. I can go off and talk for...hours on the topic (notice I included the government on that topic. Not exclusively the current Administration, just simply, our government). So....Okay, this is a post(s) for another day. Anyways, Humphrey and Lemothe's work was a great introduction into the Rizzuto family.

Shantaram was beautiful (and long!). Leif Enger is still one of my absolute favorite authors as I Cheerfully Refuse didn't disappoint. Everything Sad is Untrue is a highly quotable and emotional, deeply spiritually, and like every book by Enger I have read: a very satisfying book.

I revisited a fictional town that has become a fixture in my life as real to me as the non-existent Stars Hollow. Like Stars Hollow, it is a small town, filled with small businesses with fun names and unforgettable characters. The town? Lake Wobegon. I've read (or listened) to all of these before. And yet, again, I find myself laughing and crying as I revisit this wonderful place.

I did not read a commentary this year: a first for me in I don't know how many years. That said, Enjoying Jesus by Tim Chester was a delightful book which I recommend to everyone. However, The Thing That Would Make Everything Okay Forever: Transcendence, Psychedelics, and Jesus Christ did not disappoint. The book is as wild and engaging as the title would suggest. Please read it. While it didn't hit my heart the way This Seat's Saved did, The Disappearing Seat was very good and I'm quite excited for the next book in the series (which I picked up today from the library). A fun bonus: my daughters read these too so we are able to discuss the important themes present in them. Finally, on this odd journey, I'll just add that A Memory Called Empire deserved to win the Hugo Award. Oh! And the Lost Bookshop was a seriously delightful and engaging work of fiction with a awesome element that was very reminiscent of a character in Susanna's Clarke erudite Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

I will be posting separately on this series, but The Sun-Eater is phenomenal. I really liked The Expanse. But this series is on another level. It is like Warhammer 40k, Dune and Star Wars somehow had a baby. So if you don't like at least two of those worlds, this may not be right for you. But, still, give it a chance.

**However, a special word must be said to a book that keeps trying to disappear from my life. The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This was a great book! Maybe my favorite of the year. Maybe! But like the doors of the story, it keeps vanishing from my memory--and my life! It wasn't on my list, I had to go back and verify I hadn't read it in a previous year. I tried to find quotes from it recently for a sermon and even though I read a Kindle version and highlighted copious amounts of it--I could not find a single saved highlight of it in my Kindle App nor any record of ever downloading it. It is a wild book and it is just the right premise: it appeals to the your lived experience. Like, yeah, I could see this actually being true. Maybe, there is more to reality than meets the eye.

And isn't that the goal of every good book? To challenge our way of thinking. To make us see things as they really are, even if we have to see it, as Emily Dickinson says, "slant."