What Else Are You Reading in 2025?

[Mai]

On pg 38 of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz. A group of food service robots decide to open a restaurant. I find the premise interesting but am not impressed. Yet. Anybody read it?

[DivaDiane]

I was planning to read Automatic Noodle as soon as it comes in from the library hold.

[Mikhaelah]

Michelle wrote: "I have embraced the art of Not Finishing as I've aged. We read fiction for entertainment, and if it's not doing the trick, there's no harm in setting it aside and calling it a day :)"

I like how you think. As I get older I am embracing the phrase, "It's not that serious!" Haha.

[Mikhaelah]

Reading (well, listening to) "Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: An Introvert's Year of Living Dangerously" by Jessica Pan

One introvert trying to find more "life experience" in the pages of a book, lol.

[Colin]

Anna wrote: "Hi everyone! I’m looking for some fantasy novels that are engaging and immersive, but not centered around romance. I’m especially interested in rich world-building, intriguing magic systems, comple..."

For a still developing series that meets these criteria, try Adrian Tchaikovsky's books about the Palleseen Sway starting with City of Last Chances. There are now 3 novels and a novella and for reasons I do not understand the series is called "Tyrant Philosophers."

For a older work, the classic The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien is hard to beat.

Finally, a single volume with a very different style is The Water Outlaws by SL Huang, a re-gendered, fantasy version of the Chinese classic The Water Margin.

[Peony]

@Anna Stormlight Archives

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Anna, We have a reccomendations folder: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group....

You should post your question there. This is a place for people to discuss books they are reading.

[Economondos]

Finished the next of the Midkemia novels with Honoured Enemy by Raymond E. Feist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like tales of honor. Honor is my favorite theme in fantasy and sci-fi.

My review here

Now reading the third in the Tales of the Riftwar with Murder in LaMut.

[Jabotikaba]

Anna wrote: "Hi everyone! I’m looking for some fantasy novels that are engaging and immersive, but not centered around romance. I’m especially interested in rich world-building, intriguing magic systems, comple..."
You sound like my soul sister because I appreciate the same things in fantasy books that you do.
But, of course, it would be better if this question were asked in the appropriate thread. There, I would love to give you a long list of books like that, and you could pick one out. Unfortunately, it's inconvenient to do so in this thread.

[Liz~In~Colorado]

I was just approved for Lost by Sarah Beth Durst - it's the
updated and expanded edition. Not yet published. Expected 11 Nov 25. With a new ending!

I didn’t read the original, but I've read her Spellshop & Enchanted Greenhouse and loved them❣️

I also just read Ministry of Witches by a fairly new author Dael Astra & loved it!! 👍🥰 cozy witchy..

[Liz~In~Colorado]

Mikhaelah wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I have embraced the art of Not Finishing as I've aged. We read fiction for entertainment, and if it's not doing the trick, there's no harm in setting it aside and calling it a day ..."

I love this!! Me too!👍❣️

[Michelle]

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Mikhaelah wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I have embraced the art of Not Finishing as I've aged. We read fiction for entertainment, and if it's not doing the trick, there's no harm in setting it aside and..."

It's a Meemaw thing, Liz 😉

[Michelle]

Mikhaelah wrote: "I like how you think. As I get older I am embracing the phrase, "It's not that serious!" Haha."

I also say something similar: "It's small potatoes!" :)

[Michelle]

I'm reading a fantasy by an author who writes consistently good stories, but she's relatively unknown: The Poet's Eye.

[Liz~In~Colorado]

Michelle wrote: "Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "Mikhaelah wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I have embraced the art of Not Finishing as I've aged. We read fiction for entertainment, and if it's not doing the trick, there's no harm..."

OH MY GOSH!!! IT ISSSSS!!!🤭🤷🏼‍♀️🥰

[Ellen]

Almost finished with Blood Rites #6 of The Dresden Files. It has been a struggle. This is my least favorite in this series so far. I haven't enjoyed the main story line.

[Richard]

Literary horror monadnock Caitlin Starling published The Graceview Patient this spooky season. Really eerie:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[JAuthor]

After Dark by Haruki Murakami.

[Faith]

My review of Extremity by Nicholas Binge

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Chris]

The Terror by Dan Simmons

[Cynda]

Some years ago I watched the miniseries Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Now my classics group is reading this book the last quarter of 2025. Soo I happy to have push enough to read. I know I will enjoy. (Big Smiles)

[Mai]

DivaDiane wrote: "I was planning to read Automatic Noodle as soon as it comes in from the library hold."

I just finished. It was a lot of fun.

[Brett]

All Blood Runs Red, Phil Keith w/ Tom Clavin - about Eugene Bullard, the first Black fighter pilot (he did a bunch of other stuff, too.)

[DivaDiane]

Mai wrote: "DivaDiane wrote: "I was planning to read Automatic Noodle as soon as it comes in from the library hold."

I just finished. It was a lot of fun."

Oh, that’s good to hear!

[Araych]

Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji

A young engineer on a space ship close to the end of it's 132 year voyage to (hopefully) a new home for mankind starts having odd dreams and hallucinations. But maybe they're not dreams after all. Mostly a very fine sci-fi adventure. I thought the ending was confusing and suffered from a few cliches but overall I liked it a lot. 4 stars.

[Colin]

Happened to see Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky in a bookstore and had to grab it and read it right away. This novella is a prequel to Days of Shattered Faith, the third book in his Palleseen Sway series. It provides the origin story for Angilly (the closest to a main character of that third book) and shows her growth in a series of vignettes from childhood to the position she has at the beginning of that third book. Along the way, it broadens and adds more detail to the storyworld the author is developing in the series. It is an enjoyable, quick read. Angilly is a sympathetic character. I would recommend reading the third book (or at least one of the other books in the series) first because it is a complex storyworld and a short novella, but that may be just because I had already read the other three. Overall, an excellent fantasy series quite different from others.

[Bobby]

Since Disney pulled all their sports channels off YouTube TV I have no college football to watch today. I might have to read a book! Currently working on Chicago Poems. We visited the author's house years ago and were talking about his card system recently and it got me in the mood to read some of his poetry.

[Mai]

Araych wrote: "Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji

A young engineer on a space ship close to the end of it's 132 year voyage to (hopefully) a new home for mankind starts having odd dream..."

Aha! I've been wondering about this author since Esperance was one if the books for Oct. Even though I didn't like Esperance I'm inclined to read just one more of his. This may be the one.

[Mai]

Colin wrote: "Happened to see Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky in a bookstore and had to grab it and read it right away. This novella is a prequel to [book:Days of Shattered Faith|2103..."

Adding to my list. Thanks, Colin.

[Colin]

Mai wrote: "Colin wrote: "Happened to see Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky in a bookstore and had to grab it and read it right away. This novella is a prequel to [book:Days of Shatte..."

You are welcome! Hope you enjoy it.

[Jan]

Liz~In~Colorado wrote: "I also just read Ministry of Witches by a fairly new author Dael Astra & loved it!! 👍🥰 cozy witchy.."

I just read that one too. Cute and kind of charming, if perhaps a little more YA in feel than my usual reads. I enjoyed it anyway.

@Araych, I have Braking Day on my list to read. It looks intriguing.

I also plan to try Alastair Reynolds' new one, Halcyon Years.

[Brett]

Began Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hämäläinen, yesterday, to mark the start of Indigenous Heritage Month - I missed it last year - and finally go down this rabbit hole in earnest.

[Mai]

Halfway through Together We Burn by Isabel Ibañez. It grabbed me at the first sentence and hasn't let go. (My mother died screaming my name.) This is a YA romantasy involving a flamenco dancer trying to save her home from disaster and a dragon hunter hired to teach her dragon fighting. Enemies to lovers variety, I think, haven't finished the book yet.

[Economondos]

Finished up Murder in LaMut by Raymond E. Feist very early this morning.

My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars


It is great to see Pirojil, Kethol, and Durine in Midkemia. I really liked them in Not Exactly the Three Musketeers and sequels.

My review here

Since I still couldn't sleep, started reading The Thousand Coffins Affair (Man from U.N.C.L.E #1) on my tablet. Still have trouble reading from the tablet, but at least I didn't have to go downstairs and pick up Krondor: The Betrayal.

[Colin]

Finished Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher. I would call this cozy, fantasy, mystery. It features one of Kingfisher's unheroic heroes, an expert on poisoning, who works her way past numerous mistakes to the solution of the mystery around who is poisoning the King's daughter and why. She is joined in this by a talking cat, and she also wends her way to an unlikely love. The fantasy world and its magic are very imaginative, if occasionally confusing. The details on poisons will make you think about what you use without thinking. The multiple twists and turns do mostly resolve. A few seem to stay open. Overall, it is an enjoyable read and I recommend it. This is a book that makes you pause for, shall we say . . . self-reflection. (I probably should duck.)

[Mai]

Colin wrote: "Finished Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher. I would call this cozy, fantasy, mystery. It features one of Kingfisher's unheroic heroes, an expert on poisoning, who works her way pas..."

Start ducking, what an awful pun (gasp, snort, chuckle). Yep I found the mirror world confusing in parts especially with all the figuring out of what you could take in or out of it. An interesting reimagining of Snow White. While not my favorite book, I don't regret the time spent reading it.

[Mai]

On the last pages of Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Revolt on a prison world leads to some interesting surprises that I don't want to give away.

I will say that at the beginning it looks so much like some of his earlier work I wonder if I’ve already read this one and just forgot. In the middle I see where he’s going but I don’t like the route. And in the end...mmm, I can't tell you just in case you want to read it.

[James]

Some of the sci-fi and fantasy I’ve read this year:

The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Matthew Stover’s novelization — incredible depth and emotion)

Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons

A pretty varied lineup, but all of them remind me why I love the genre — sweeping worlds, big ideas, and writing that sticks with you.

[Jan]

James wrote: "... all of them remind me why I love the genre — sweeping worlds, big ideas, and writing that sticks with you."

Yes 😀

[Richard]

I've really liked Cadwell Turnbull's Convergence Saga, all monsters fighting for basic rights against human-firsters since it came out. The last book, A Ruin, Great and Free: A Novel: The Convergence Saga, Book 3 , is out now. Don't start here, but do start, for a densely imagined multiverse of mages, gods, and a fight between a werebear and a dragon.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Dean]

Just finished two excellent books:

Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and The Consuming Flame by John Scalzi (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)

[Ozsaur]

Snake-Eater - Sort of cozy fantasy, but with T. Kingfisher's usual style.

[Brett]

Started Michael Bennett's, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable. Linda Hogan's, Mean Spirit is next for fiction.

[Araych]

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Murderbot Diaries #4. For those who don't know, Murderbot is a sentient android with a bad attitude. And here he is following up his adventures/relationships with his human friends/owners. Lots of fast-paced fun. Rated 4 stars, stupid human.

[Mai]

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon. Halfway thru 846 pages of an evil vs. good saga narrated by 3 women. It's ok but not my favorite. Although the world building is pretty amazing I like more action, a lot less religion, less lore, less origin mythology. It's the prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree. Which I have not read.

[Charlton]

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski.

[Bobby]

Charlton wrote: "The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski."

Excellent. I had fun reading all the Witcher books after watching the Netflix series.

I am working my way through the short stories in
Hainish Novels & Stories, Vol. 2: The Word for World Is Forest / Five Ways to Forgiveness / The Telling / Stories

I finally got into "The Shobies' Story" and then read the next two. They are connected so far and remind me of some of Le Guin's novels. Fun.

[Richard]

Publishing Tuesday is Shadowplay by L.R. Lam, newly revised and reissued by DAW Books, that I enjoyed:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I also read the first one to get caught up. Pantomime:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Austin]

Been really loving Haunting of Hill House. Absolute classic and cannot get enough of it. Have you guys ever read it?

[Randy]

Austin wrote: "Been really loving Haunting of Hill House. Absolute classic and cannot get enough of it. Have you guys ever read it?"

One of my favorite novels, I've read it multiple times.