Books finished in 2025, early December edition

[vivdunstan]

Squeezing in another of these before my end of year final post.

Got through another 8 books since the last update.

1. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
2. Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
3. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
4. Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Jean Menzies
5. Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb by Zahi Hawass
6. ABBA: The Treasures by Ingmarie Halling and Carl Magnus Palm
7. Captive Queen: The Decrypted History of Mary, Queen of Scots by Jade Scott
8. A Middle-earth Album: Paintings by Joan Wyatt Inspired by Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by Joan Wyatt
9. Could You Survive Midsomer? – A Winter's Murder: An Official Midsomer Murders Interactive Novel by Simon Brew
10. Eerie East Anglia: Fearful Tales of Field and Fen by Edward Parnell
11. Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide by Nick Groom
12. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
13. The Principle of Moments by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson
14. Colostle Complete Edition by Nich Angell
15. Wild Card: Let the Tarot Tell Your Story by Jen Cownie and Fiona Lensvelt
16. Insomniacs After School volume 5 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
17. Doctor Who: The Ruby's Curse by Alex Kingston and Jacqueline Rayner
18. Notebook by Tom Cox
19. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono
20. Winter's Heart (Wheel of Time book 9) by Robert Jordan
21. Insomniacs After School volume 6 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
22. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
23. Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
24. The Wee Free Men (Discworld book 30) by Terry Pratchett
25. Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan
26. You Are Here: A Brief Guide to the World by Nicholas Crane
27. The Water Road: A Narrowboat Odyssey through England by Paul Gogarty
28. The Silvery Tay: paintings and sketches from a Scottish river by Keith Brockie
29. Portrait of the East Neuk by Lorn Macintyre and Peter Adamson
30. Mountain Reflections by Keith Brockie
31. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
32. City of Vengeance (Cesare Aldo book 1) by D.V. Bishop
33. Beside the Ocean of Time by George Mackay Brown
34. Delirium's Party: A Little Endless Storybook by Jill Thompson
35. The Haunted Trail: Classic Tales of the Rambling Weird by Weird Walk
36. Manga Classics Sherlock Holmes volume 1 A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle, Crystal S. Chan and Julien Choy
37. Glenshee: Glen of the Fairies by Antony Mackenzie Smith
38. Insomniacs After School volume 7 (manga) by Makoto Ojiro
39. Forgotten Churches: Exploring England's Hidden Treasures by Luke Sherlock
40. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
41. The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
42. The Fiddle in Scottish Culture: Aspects of the Tradition by Katherine Campbell
43. Voices of Scottish Librarians: The Evolution of a Profession and its Response to Changing Times edited by Ian MacDougall
44. Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor: Volume 1: Terrorformer (graphic novel)
45. Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better by Polly Atkin
46. The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost and Found by Jordan Lees
47. Katabasis by RF Kuang
48. Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
49. Mr Villain's Day Off volume 1 (manga) by Yuu Morikawa
50. Born With Teeth (play script) by Liz Duffy Adams
51. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
52. A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
53. Doctor Who Tales of Terror (short story anthology)
54. Crossroads of Twilight (Wheel of Time book 10) by Robert Jordan

Of the newly finished books, Katabasis was a lot of fun, with a dark journey into the Underworld, but not as good as RF Kuang's superb Babel or even Yellowface for me. Carmilla was a book club read, and frankly disappointing, and a struggle to read. Though Hammer made a good stab at filming a better version in the early 1970s. Mr Villain's Day Off was a chance find in Angus libraries catalogue, so borrowed that way. Fun manga, but I wasn't inspired to read other volumes. Born With Teeth, the Marlowe/Shakespeare play performed recently on stage by Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel, was a brilliant read, though it would be better to see it performed in person. Yes, I did my usual Roger Zelazny pre-Halloween reread of A Night in the Lonesome October. Still love it. T. Kingfisher's A Wizard's Guide to Contemporary Baking was fun, but a bit unevenly paced, and younger than I'd usually read. It also took too long to get to dangerous fighting gingerbread men. Doctor Who Tales of Terror is a fun spooky anthology collection, with short stories by multiple authors for each of Doctors 1-12. A bit uneven, but overall fun. Wheel of Time book 10 was the slog that I expected, though still fun in many parts. But I needed a very specific approach to reading to get through it successfully. But things should be better again in the remaining books. Book 10 is generally regarded by readers of the whole series as the worst by a long way.

Comments

[a_cubed]

I suspect Jordan was beginning to be sick when writing book 10 but didn't realise it. (11 is the prequel.) 12 was the last one he wrote entirely, with 13-15 being written by Sanderson from Jordan's notes.

[vivdunstan]

Perhaps, but people seem generally to have been much happier with the next novel, which he wrote fully too. I'm possibly going to read the prequel (which I count as book 0), but only after finishing the core books 1-14. Just 4 more of those to go, though I will definitely be spreading it out slowly.

[a_cubed]

Ah, sorry I wasn't clear about my point. By the next book he knew he was sick and was compensating. For this one, I suspect he was sick but didn't know it.

Pure speculation of course.

[vivdunstan]

Thanks. Yup, difficult to say.