Play Book Tag discussion
December 2025: Recommended
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Announcing the Tag for December
What a wonderful idea to have a recommende thread from us for this month! I do think reading a book one of us recommends is a great way to handle this tag.
Ugh... :-( (Sorry! Not thrilled with the tag where anything can fit.)
That being said, with Care's (Saorse?) suggestion the other day, I will come back with some recommendations of Canadian books for anyone interested.
I am thinking this group can have a lot of fun with this tag. We can recommend books to each other or read off the PBT "best of year" lists or ask for specific recommendations or peruse each other's libraries. It seems like a holiday gift, since many of us are completing our goals for the year.
Joy D wrote: "I am thinking this group can have a lot of fun with this tag. We can recommend books to each other or read off the PBT "best of year" lists or ask for specific recommendations or peruse each other'..."The best of year shelf sounds like a great idea to pick books from PBT members. I'm glad we have this choice in December. I always save a few of my comfort reads for the end of the year and the Holiday season, as a sort of gifts to myself and to my friends.
Just one example for now: I always look forward to a new novella from Lois McMaster Bujold, featuring the duo of magician Penric and demon Desdemona. In 2025 we have two choices:
The Adventure of the Demonic Ox,
Testimony of Mute Things
For those unfamiliar with the setting, you can start the adventure anywhere, they don't need to be read in chronological or published order since each story is self-contained.
Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I am thinking this group can have a lot of fun with this tag. We can recommend books to each other or read off the PBT "best of year" lists or ask for specific recommendations or peru..."I've never read Bujold, so I'll take that as a good reommendation!
Jgrace wrote: "Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I am thinking this group can have a lot of fun with this tag. We can recommend books to each other or read off the PBT "best of year" lists or ask for s..."She won a bundle of prizes for her science-fiction novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan, well deserved in my opinion. I have a second recommendation for one of the strongest women in fantasy, found in her book Paladin of Souls - it's the second Chalion novel, set in the same world as the Penric novellas
Recommendations from books I read this year and rated 4 or 5 stars:Automatic Noodle
Circle of Days
Straw Dogs of the Universe
Amity
The Sunflower Boys
Strong Roots: A Memoir of Food, Family, and Ukraine (another memoir for Anita)
The Girl in Green
A Dog in Georgia
The Humbug Murders(perfect for christmas)
Under a Pole Star
Peril at the Exposition(second of the series, but could be read without reading the first)
The Wedding People
Two Steps Forward
Murder in Chianti(first of a promising series, which I like so much I have now read 4)
Bug Hollow
Back to Istanbul: On Foot across Europe to the Great Silk Road
Bleaker House: Chasing My Novel to the End of the World(another memoir)
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
You, Me & the Sea
A Drop in the Ocean
That takes me back to the beginning of June and I think that is quite enough.
Jgrace wrote: "Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I am thinking this group can have a lot of fun with this tag. We can recommend books to each other or read off the PBT "best of year" lists or ask for s..."I second the recommendation Jgrace, they are fun books
Booknblues wrote: "Recommendations from books I read this year and rated 4 or 5 stars..."I am going to read Amity from your list.
Here are some recommendations of books I've read and very much enjoyed this year:
- Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell - My Review
- Devil Is Fine by John Vercher - My Review
- The English Problem by Beena Kamlani - My Review
- All the Glimmering Stars by Mark T. Sullivan - My Review
- Galatea 2.2 - My Review
- Endling by Maria Reva - My Review
- The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson - My Review
- Dictator by Robert Harris - My Review
- The Book of Fire by Christy Lefteri - My Review
- The Great Mann by Kyra Davis Lurie - My Review
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen - My Review
- The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason - My Review
- Twist by Colum McCann - My Review
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - My Review
- Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien - My Review
- Audition by Katie Kitamura - My Review
- Seascraper by Benjamin Wood - My Review
- The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien - My Review
- The Impostor by Damon Galgut - My Review
- Fireflies in Winter by Eleanor Shearer - My Review
- The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr - My Review
- Flashlight by Susan Choi - My Review
- The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey - My Review
- All the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner - My Review
- The Artist and the Feast by Lucy Steeds - My Review
- The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting - My Review
- Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon - My Review
- What We Can Know by Ian McEwan - My Review
- Dream Count - My Review
- Followers by Megan Angelo - My Review
- Precipice by Robert Harris - My Review
- Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea - My Review
Recommendations from my 2025 reading:The Will of the Many
Precipice
Eleanore of Avignon
Redcoat
The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph
Real Americans
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Oleander City
You Don't Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War
And for non-fiction:- Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham - My Review
- The Zanzibar Chest: A Story of Life, Love, and Death in Foreign Lands by Aidan Hartley - My Review
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - My Review
- The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides - My Review
- Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue by Buddy Levy - My Review
- Watergate: A New History by Garrett M. Graff - My Review
- Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya by William Carlsen - My Review
- Summertime: George Gershwin's Life in Music by Richard Crawford - My Review
- The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson - My Review
- Horizon by Barry Lopez - My Review
- The Place of Tides by James Rebanks - My Review
- Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping by Dan White - My Review
- The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It by Lawrence S. Ritter - My Review
Recommendations read in 2025 from me. I am a tough rater and only give maybe 1 book 5 stars in a month, but lots of 4s.In the Woods and other books by Tana French
A Forty Year Kiss - Nickolas Butler
Sandwich - Catherine Newman
The Berry Pickers - Amanda Peters
Gods of Jade and Shadow - Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Wild Dark Shore = Charlotte McConaghy
The End of Drum-Time - Hanna Pylväinen
Salvage the Bones - Jesmyn Ward
When the Moon Hits Your Eye - John Scalzi
There are others that are very good "for a romance" or "for a mystery" but not if you aren't a fan, or following a series - if you want recommendations for a genre like that, you could post it under the Footnotes thread mentioned in the first message.
So Far, I would take Robin's recommendation for A Forty Year Kiss...Here are my recommendations to others...
The Fox Wife for BnB or anyone
Theo of Golden
The Frozen River
Great Big Beautiful Life
My Friends
There are Rivers in the Sky
The Book of Longings
The Lost Story
A Girl Called Samson
The Echo of Old Books
Don't Forget to Write
Song of Achillies
Also, if we think of something specifically... Like I come up with. book I really think Holly or Shelley would like, or someone just happens to say to me - Amy, this is a book I know you would just LOVE!Cue Tessa trying to get me to read Verse. Like there is ANY chance of that. It makes me laugh. Like its the running joke.
I would recommend any of these books that rated five stars for this year:1. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
2. West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
3, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni
4. A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham
5. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
6. An Ordinary Life by Amanda Prowse
7. Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
8. The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
9. A Burning by Megha Majumdar
10. The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden
11. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
12. Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz
13. Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
14. Theo of Golden: A Novel by Allen Levi
Joanne, I’m upping that already - and getting it out of the library list. It’s not actually on my TBR yet, so I might go for some of the older ones first, but at least that gets it in the house!John, we agree on two of those already of yours. Both that will end up in my top 10 of the year. I believe frozen river and Theo of Golden
Joanne wrote: "Amy I know you would love thisEleanore of Avignon-"
That one intrigued me, I've added it to my TBR!
Robin P wrote: "Joanne wrote: "Amy I know you would love thisEleanore of Avignon-"
That one intrigued me, I've added it to my TBR!"
Me too! I'm such a fan of a medieval setting
Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Jgrace wrote: "Algernon (Darth Anyan) wrote: "Joy D wrote: "I am thinking this group can have a lot of fun with this tag. We can recommend books to each other or read off the PBT "best of year" lis..."I have been trying to get Feminerdy to read her. I have her on the TBR of course. I have read Ethan of Athos, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Many of these books will appear in my best of 2025 list, so I guess I'm starting to compile the restrospective early:Bone: The Complete Edition by Jeff Smith, for lovers of adventure of all ages
The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermott, for those who love memoirs and distant, exotic places
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher, for those seeking fairy tale revamps
Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov for lovers of classics
The Postman by Antonio Skarmeta, for lovers of Pablo Neruda
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by Cesar Aira, for a glimpse at Argentina and history
Blindsight by Peter Watts, for fans of hard science-fiction
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, for RPG gamers
The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger, for Fall Flurries and Native American Heritage tags
Maynard's House by Herman Raucher, for the horror fan
Zazen by Vanessa Veselka for something weird and dystopian
Heaven and Hell by Jon Kalman Steffansson, for Iceland and poetry
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, for Prohibition Era and hard-boiled enthusiasts
What a wonderful tag. I have so many books on my TBR which are there because someone recommended them to me or bought them because they thought I'd like them. Now the crazy marking period is almost over for the year (just one more judging meeting for the Biochemical Engineering....new subject this year, and reports to write and I am done) it is time to try to get back into reading. I also have a lull in treatment as I am not doing systemic therapy, I've had enough, and can't do more surgery until at least 6 months after radiotherapy.
If anyone hasn't readEverything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection, Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer, Shackled or How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution, they were my best reads this year. It has definitely been a year where nonfiction has been easier to digest than fiction.
Perhaps you all have experienced this feeling. Perhaps even today…. I spent the morning, absolutely weeping. It’s rare for me to get a day where I can just stay in bed, and finish a book. I was only 30% through the day before…., And today like many Sundays is a day where there’s too much to do…. But I couldn’t help it. I was in bed until 10:40, starting to get hungry, and possibly a little stressed about the day ahead, but completely and fully immersed in We Are Made of Stars by Rochelle Weinstein….Let me make this very clear. I am recommending this five star with no reservations. To everyone, but particularly to Jason. When I’m able to get something in me and organize my day and finally write this review you shall all know why. But count this as a recommendation for anyone who feels compelled.
Fran and Robin, I pretty much think that the both of you will like it. For a debut, I thought it was excellent.
If anyone wants to investigate Canadian books, here are some I've rated 5 or 4.5 stars:Canadian Nonfiction:
Where I Belong / Alan Doyle (lead singer of Great Big Sea) - especially the audio: he reads it himself and he is hilarious + the accent!
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands / Kate Beaton (graphic novel)
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World / John Vaillant (climate change, fire, politics...)
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City / Tanya Talaga
The Castleton Massacre: Survivors’ Stories of the Killins Femicide / Sharon Ann Cook (true crime)
Woman in the Mists: The Story of Dian Fossey and the Mountain Gorillas of Africa / Farley Mowat
Canadian FictionStill Missing / Chevy Stevens (thriller)
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow / Zoulfa Katouh (the war in Syria)
Tell It to the Trees / Anita Rau Badami (Indian family in Canada)
An Unwanted Guest / Shari Lapena (thriller)
A Death at the Party / Amy Stewart (thriller)
The Testaments / Margaret Atwood (if you haven't yet read the follow-up to "The Handmaid's Tale")
The Collected Essex County / Jeff Lemire (graphic novel, and very Canadian!)
No Time for Goodbye / Linwood Barclay (I consider him a Canadian Harlan Coben) (thriller)
Some books (4s and 5s) that I would recommendA Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store - James McBride
James - Percival Everett
The Collected Regrets of Clover - Mikki Brammer
The Old Man Who Read Love Stories: A Novel - Luis Sepúlveda
The Island of Sea Women - Lisa See
The Frozen River - Ariel Lawhon
The Outlander - Gil Adamson
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
I see now that there are two different threads to recommend Books! Fine.I also see that Frozen River is going to be like number one for our PBT 2025 list.... Were all on that one.
Amy, this thread is the usual place where we share what we plan to read and general recommendations for others. The additional thread was set up by Anita for specific requests (the one where she asked for memoir recommendations).
Anita wrote: "There was absolutely no reason to wait until noon to announce the tag because the winning tag absolutely crushed the competition. It's kind of a "freebie" and what could be more perfect for the b..."
Theresa wrote: "What a wonderful idea to have a recommende thread from us for this month!
I do think reading a book one of us recommends is a great way to handle this tag."
I agree!
I just added a book to my tbr that was recommended to me by my sister (whose name is Anita BTW) and I see that you, Anita, also shelved it. So it will work for me. Mischling
Although I can’t exactly recommend it since I haven’t read it yet.
Asa far as books I’d recommend, that’s mind-boggling! There’d be thousands! Maybe I could narrow it down to some recent reads or recently published ones.
I have to say that I think this is a great tag to end the year with. I filled my plans for December with reads which members have listed here and the other recommendation thread, I have several from Unlimited and more once I read those and I've ordered a few from the library.
In addition to the books I put on the other thread, I forgot to put another plug in forEarth Girl by Janet Edwards plus the other two books in the trilogy.
I have several books I recommend. Science fiction ( Star Trek)
A Stitch in Time by Andrew Jordt Robinson
Destiny: The Complete Saga by David Mack
Fantasy
Dragonlance Chronicles: Dragons of Autumn Twilight / Dragons of Winter Night / Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis
Memoir
My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner
You’re definitely in the right group, Margaret! We have many dragon fans here.
LibraryCin wrote: "That being said, with Care's (Saorse?) suggestion the other day, I will come back with some recommendations of Canadian books for anyone interested."Yes, please, on Canadian books!
Care is a family name that goes way back. Saorsa is my legal given name. I have always used my full maiden name professionally; with all the kids now graduated out of our homeschool (after 23 years!!), I am back to working and using it more. But, you and I go way back, so you can call me Care or Saorsa (even my dad switches them up).
I saw someone mention they like the Middle Ages. I am an historian, in particular a Medievalist. My areas of specialty are the rise of political Islam, particularly in Persia, and the Norse-Gaels and Norse-Celts of Scotland (yeah, I had a mid-life crisis 😂), but I have researched and taught other Medieval topics. Let me know your favorite regions, fiction/nonfiction, and if you have a preference for early or late Middle Ages, and I can set you up. I haven’t always read the entirety of the books, but I’ll have read enough to know if they are recommendable.
Saorsa wrote: "I saw someone mention they like the Middle Ages. I am an historian, in particular a Medievalist. My areas of specialty are the rise of political Islam, particularly in Persia, and the Norse-Gaels a..."That's good to know. This is within my area of interest, although I prefer fiction to non-fiction. I did like Amin Maalouf - The Crusades Through Arab Eyes and Maria Rosa Menocal The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain - but I prefer Gary Jennings Raptor, Richard Blake - Conspiracies of Rome and the rest of the Aelric books, Jack Whyte - The Skystone and others, although the murder investigation angle in a medieval setting is not the main selling point.
I've been contemplating Christian Cameron's Chilvalry series and Bernard Cornwell's Grails series for next year's list. I already read a lot of Cornwell, so I know he does history and battle well.
I would like to discover more, in particular about the early period, post Roman empire Collapse and before centralised monarchies.
Thanks!
Robin P wrote: "You’re definitely in the right group, Margaret! We have many dragon fans here."Yes we do have readers who enjoy dragon fiction. Even I like some dragon books and I'm not normally a fan of fantasy.
Saorsa wrote: "I saw someone mention they like the Middle Ages. I am an historian, in particular a Medievalist. My areas of specialty are the rise of political Islam, particularly in Persia, and the Norse-Gaels a..."Wow, we have a surprisingly high compare books score considering I'm not into political books, etc. (81 percent for books we've both read--this is almost unheard of for me)
I'm actually answering because of Canadian book and will be back with that.
Canadian titles (not going to include any Cindy already listed!) a wide variety of genres! Note that one of my pet peeves is when I hear people claim that Margaret Atwood was Canada's first liteary writer (or of note) because some of the ones I list farther down are writers she looked(s) up to! (link to my Canadian authors shelf at the end as there are more.)For those of you who know me, some of these are darker than i like now; I rated those based on how much I liked them when I read them.
Five stars from me:
I've already mentioned the Vinyl Cafe books by Stuart McLean somewhere. I've read the only three I can find in this American library system and everyone got five stars.
Republic of Dirt: A Return to Woefield Farm (the first one--this is a sequel--garnered 4 stars, and this one is funnier, IMO, than the first) won the Stephen Leacock humour award, but has a real story as well.
Who Has Seen the Wind Canadian literary fiction befor Atwood (she's Canadian, but her books sell so wildly because for some of us they're not as Canadian but in the interest of full disclosure, I rarely like her books.
Love Comes Softly Christian historical romance
Four stars which is very high from me as many of you know, and I recommend these wholeheartedly
Scifi with humour: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and the rest of the Bobiverse books
Literary fiction:
The Republic of Love
Fiction (might be literary) Midnight at the Dragon Café
French Canadian literary fiction before Atwood :
Where Nests the Water Hen (I read this at 12 and then decided I wanted to get married, live way up an inlet and have a dozen kids because of this book--it's not for kids, though, but as you can see it made an impact! It's not set in BC, but I went with what I knew in my daydreaming.)
The Tin Flute
Other literary fiction before Atwood:
Literary satire (before Atwood) - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
NONFICTION
Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves by Farley Mowat
Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada's Chinese Restaurants
MEMOIR Halfbreed by Maria Campbell
Dystopian
Station Eleven
Children's beyond Anne of Green Gables
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet and all of the sequels
Okay, okay this is getting so long! You can sort my ratings on my Canadian authors shelf if you like https://www.goodreads.com/review/list... because all of the 5 and 4 star books are ones I recommend!
Saorsa wrote: "Care is a family name that goes way back. Saorsa is my legal given name. ..."I do remember your explanation initially, and I was close! An a on the end not an e! :-)
Hope you saw my Canadian posts above.
ETA: I'm happy to see Karin has also suggested some Canadian stuff. There's a lot more of the literary stuff in her suggestions. :-)
I read a fair amount of Canadian books and can recommend the following:Fiction
Moon of the Turning Leaves - Waubgeshig Rice
A Town Called Solace & Crow Lake - Mary Lawson
The Sleeping Car Porter - Suzette Mayr
Indian Horse or anything by Richard Wagamase
Women Talking - Miriam Toews
Nonfiction:
Where the Falcon Flies: A 3,400 Kilometre Odyssey From My Doorstep to the Arctic - Adam Shoalts
Pursuing Giraffe: A 1950s Adventure - Anne Innis Digg
Ghost of a Rose wrote: I see that you, Anita, also shelved it. So it will work for me. MischlingI am excited that you are going to read this! It has been on my Kindle for ages, and it looks very good to me. It just never percolates to the top of my list, but maybe now it will!
Robin P wrote: "Also Canadian Fall on Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald
Luna"
FYI, MacDonald/Macdonald is the 10th most popular surname in Canada (only 26th in Vancouver, naturally) but only 744th in the States (I only looked up the latter to compare).
Play Book Tag
Books mentioned in this topic
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (other topics)Cathedral (other topics)
Delights and Shadows (other topics)
The Shootist (other topics)
Fall on Your Knees (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Ann-Marie MacDonald (other topics)Shandi Mitchell (other topics)
Ann-Marie MacDonald (other topics)
Stuart McLean (other topics)
Maria Campbell (other topics)
More...
It's kind of a "freebie" and what could be more perfect for the busy holiday season? I think we all look forward to reading something that was:
recommended
This month, I'm going to start a thread under Footnotes where you may solicit personalized recommendations! Please help me (and perhaps others) select my recommended read.
Please share your reading plans and recommendations below.
Remember, for the regular monthly reads, the book can be shelved as "recommended" on Goodreads, or be a book that is not yet shelved that way but you feel should be.
One way to find books to read for this tag is to please visit:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
We encourage people to link to additional lists below if they find them.
Happy Reading!!!