2025 - media review

Books read and other things

There goes 2025 out the door. We all have opinions on how 2025 went and I am sure they are a bit different for everyone. But like most years there was good and bad. However, I am not going to pontificate on the year that was. Instead this in an annual review of the books I read and enjoyed. Lets face it, I do not finish books I am not enjoying in some way, so I liked all of these. 18 in all. Technically 17, as I did not read all the short stories in Blood Test. I also reread all of Andrea Gibson’s poetry collections so really that is about 22 or 23 books. Anyway here we go:

In the fiction category I read:

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter

• Children of Time

• The Wedding People

• The House in the Cerulean Sea

• Somewhere Beyond the Sea

• The Emperor of Gladness

• The Ministry of Time

• The Vegetarian

Of these I enjoyed the Buffalo Hunter Hunter and the Emperor of Gladness the most. I highly recommend them. The BHH is considered a horror novel I believe but don’t be dissuaded if horror is not your thing, just skim through the gruesome parts. This book revolves around a true event that happened in January of 1870 and the history lesson is worth it.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy The Wedding People but found it to be funny and quite enjoyable as a quick read.

In the Non-Fiction category I read:

• Other Minds - The Octopus, the Sea and Deep Origins of Consciousness

• Deviant - The Story of Ed Gein

• Octopus - The Most Mysterious Creature in the Sea

• The Book of (More) Delights

• Meditations for Mortals

Hard to pick a favorite here as they all were interesting, but I probably will reread Mediations for Mortals again as it really gave me some worthwhile advice on how to be less stressed out by life and getting things done. Other Minds was fascinating as octopuses are.

In the Memoir category I read:

• Being Heumann

• Frighten the Horses

• Ten Steps to Nanette

• Burn Book: A Tech Love Story

I loved Ten Steps to Nanette by Hannah Gadsby. I didn’t particularly like Nanette when I watched it on Netflix years ago, but after reading this book I watched it again and saw what genius it was. I also really related to Gadsby struggle with autism and gender issues.

That’s the year that was in reading. I just read that the year 2025 will be the last year mass market paperbacks will be made, so as of this writing they are no longer being published. I guess they are too expensive to publish and trade market paperbacks are more popular. People don’t read as many books as they used to I guess so you will no longer find those wire racks filled with books in places. I guess when I think about it, it has been a super long time since I’ve seen one of those. I still have some mass market books on my shelves from when I couldn’t afford hardcover books and wanted something quick to read. They do tend to fall apart over time, but they were so portable and cheap.

In other media here were some of my favorites:

Television series - Severance, Pluribus, and Platonic. These are all on Apple TV. Also Last week with John Oliver on HBO/Max is a continual favorite of mine.

Movies - I was not blown away by any movies I saw this year, but if I had to pick one, I would say Sinners is a solid movie

In the world of podcasts, there are millions. My most listened to were Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway and Handsome with Fortune Fiemster, Mae Martin and Tig Notaro. The hosts of these podcasts have excellent chemistry. Pivot keeps me informed about stuff going on in politics and Handsome usually has me doubled over with laughter, which is I really needed this year.

Pictures of my read books are below in case you want to know who wrote them or what the covers looked like. I actually do sometimes judge a book by their cover. Do you?

In the comments let me know some of your favorites of the year. Did you read anything I read and what were your thoughts on it?

Below the books I’ll leave you with a Megan Falley quote on the new year.

All the best to all of you. Thanks for reading and being here.

J