Last Book of 2025
"I've enjoyed reading about the Greek myths, watching movies about them. They have always interested me. One of my university courses was about mythology. So when I saw Greek Myths: A New Retelling by Charlotte Higgins, I decided to check it out. Now, I have to say that it has sat on my book shelf for a couple of years but I figured it might be a good book to finish off 2025.
It was most enjoyable. Higgins takes on her portrayal of the myths in an interesting manner. She chooses 8 goddesses or woman of that era; Athena, Alcethe, Philomela, Arachne, Andromache, Helen, Circe & Penelope to tell the stories. and they do so by weaving the stories on their looms. Excellent idea.
The myths include pretty well everyone you've ever heard of; the Trojan War, the wars between the Olympians and the Titans, stories of Prometheus, Pandora, etc.; Demeter / Persephone / Hades; Dionysus, Odysseus etc. etc. She's modernized them somewhat, but just in language, but you get an easy to read, excellent summary of them all. And she provides in her Notes the sources for her stories.
It was a fun, easy to read retelling and a pleasure to read. If you ever have an interest in the Greek myths, this book is an excellent starting point. (3.5 stars)"
Year End Stats
So let's provide a few stats for the year.
Books completed - 143
Pages read - 35,000 (243 pages per book) This is a rough estimate for both because my totals depend on the page totals of the edition I chose in Goodreads, which might differ from the actual one I read)
Ratings -
5 star - 6
4.5 star - 20
4.0 star - 52
3.5 star - 33
3.0 star - 20
less than 3 star - 9
Did not finish / No rating - 3
Gender
(I'm going by name & apologize if I'm missing LGBTQ+ people. Other might also include books written by more than one person)
Male - 74
Female - 65
Other - 4
Genre
(This will be a mish mash based on the 1st genre listed with the book)
Fiction - 2
Poetry - 2
Fantasy - 11
Dystopia - 8
Horror - 12
Graphic (note this covers pretty well every genre) - 40
Non - Fiction - 14
Mystery (I decided not to break this down by region) - 40
Adventure - 2
Sci - Fi - 9
Alternate History - 2
Spy / Thriller - 2
Before I get into my first 2026 selections, one book arrived December 31st from a small book dealer (I assume it's small) in Ladysmith, called Arbour Books.
"Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.
More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth's only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth and tends the tanks where the aliens appear, the charts he made indicate his world is doomed to destruction. His alien friends can only offer help that seems worse than the dreaded disaster. Then he discovers the horror that lies across the galaxy..."
George Takei has shown the world many faces: actor, author, outspoken activist, helmsman of the starship Enterprise, living witness to the internment of Japanese Americans, and king of social media. But until October 27, 2005, there was always one piece missing—one face he did not show the world. There was one very intimate fact about George that he never shared… and it rhymes with Takei.
Now, for the first time ever, George shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything. Following the phenomenal success of his first graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei reunites with the team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger for a jaw-dropping new testament. From his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the rigidly conformist 1950s, to global fame as an actor and the paralyzing fear of exposure, to the watershed moment of speaking his truth and becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet, It Rhymes With Takei presents a sweeping portrait of one iconic American navigating the tides of LGBTQ+ history.
Combining historical context with intimate subjectivity, It Rhymes With Takei shows how the personal and the political have always been intertwined. Its richly emotional words and images depict the terror of entrapment even in gay community spaces, the anguish of speaking up for so many issues while remaining silent on his most personal issue, the grief of losing friends to AIDS, the joy of finding true love with Brad Altman, and the determination to declare that love openly—and legally—before the whole world.
Looking back on his own astonishing life on both sides of the closet, George Takei presents a charismatic and candid witness to how far America has come… and how precious that progress is."
For Tempe Brennan, the discovery of a young girl's skeleton in Acadia, Canada, is more than just another case. Evangeline, Tempe's childhood best friend, was also from Acadia. Named for the character in the Longfellow poem, Evangeline was the most exotic person in Tempe's eight-year-old world. When Evangeline disappeared, Tempe was warned not to search for her, that the girl was "dangerous."
Thirty years later, flooded with memories, Tempe cannot help wondering if this skeleton could be the friend she had lost so many years ago. And what is the meaning of the strange skeletal lesions found on the bones of the young girl?
Meanwhile, Tempe's beau, Ryan, investigates a series of cold cases. Two girls dead. Three missing. Could the New Brunswick skeleton be part of the pattern? As Tempe draws on the latest advances in forensic anthropology to penetrate the past, Ryan hunts down a serial predator."
A man staggers out of his cottage into the streets of Oxfordshire, shattering an otherwise peaceful evening with the terrible sight of his body shaking and heaving, eyes wild with horror. Many of the villagers believe the Devil himself has entered Joseph Makepeace, the latest victim of a "great fog" that darkens the skies over England like a Biblical plague. When Joseph's son and daughter are found murdered--heads bashed in by a shovel--the town's worst suspicions are confirmed: Evil is abroad, and needs to be banished.
A brilliant man of science, Dr. Thomas Silkstone is not one to heed superstition. But when he arrives at the estate of the lovely widow Lady Lydia Farrell, he finds that it's not just her grain and livestock at risk. A shroud of mystery surrounds Lydia's lost child, who may still be alive in a workhouse. A natural disaster fills the skies with smoke and ash, clogging the lungs of all who breathe it in. And the grisly details of a father's crime compels Dr. Silkstone to look for answers beyond his medical books--between the Devil and the deep blue sea. . ."
It all began with the phone call asking former porn star Angel Dare to do one more movie. Before she knew it, she'd been shot and left for dead in the trunk of a car. But Angel is a survivor. And that means she'll get to the bottom of what's been done to her even if she has to leave a trail of bodies along the way..."
