Hello dear readers, it is already the end of the year. It went by way too fast. It feels like just the other day I made my year check in June. 

2025 was my year of book signings. I attended 7 signings this year. At the start of the year I had 4 signed books total. At the end of 2025 I own 56 signed books. I already have a really big signing scheduled for February 2026. So it will continue. 

This year I read 78 books total, beating my goal of 75 books for the year. I read 31 books released in 2025. I read 23 books from new to me authors. My new favorites are Clay McLeod Chapman, Brian McAuley, Philip Fracassi, Ronald Malfi, and Richard Osman.

Top Ten Books Published in 2025:

1. King Sorrow by Joe Hill is an epic dark academia meets urban fantasy with horror elements. This was my most anticipated read of 2025. The book had everything I wanted and needed. It is a book that will fit into multiple genres: horror, fantasy, dark academia, and thriller. I feel like this novel is a cross between Stephen King and Michael Crichton. I have been waiting 9 years for another full-length novel by Joe Hill. And, man, did he deliver this epic 880-page tome.  The basic plot is that six friends conjure a dragon to incinerate some people. But the dragon sticks around and demands a sacrifice every year, or a member of the group gets it. The plot reminded me of the anime Death Note, where the guy has a list that a demon takes out. King Sorrow has action, adventure, humor and fantasy.  

2. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a love story about space, both figuratively and emotionally. Atmosphere is a wonderful emotional ride. The story is also educational. While the story is fiction, there are a lot of facts about space and how NASA works that I found fascinating. Space is the driving force and the setting for part of the novel, about NASA’s first female astronauts. The love story in the novel is between two of the astronauts who cannot be together in the same space due to their program and the times. The novel takes place from 1977 to 1984. Love is forbidden and beautiful. The book is half a love story and half a story about the life and commitment of an astronaut.

3. Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley is the horror slasher that I needed in my life. This book is smart with biting social commentary on the wellness craze. The novel is a slasher, but at its heart, it is a pretty gripping whodunit mystery. This is a book I was giddy to read about what happened next. The kills were inventive, with each one ramping up the intensity. The story is about a woman dealing with the trauma after the death of her fiancé on vacation, only to be haunted by a masked killer on a yoga retreat.

4. My Friends by Fredrik Backman is a coming-of-age story about friendships that feel more like family. The bonds that are formed feel timeless and formative. Backman treats friendship as a form of art: layered, complex, and essential to the masterpiece of who we become as people. The story itself unfolds like a painting. It’s told in layers of life past, present, and future. Much like art, you don’t fully understand what you’re seeing until the entire picture is complete. Because the novel avoids most pop-culture references, it feels almost timeless. At its core, My Friends is about self-discovery. The characters embark on journeys they never expected to take and form friendships they never anticipated.

5. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi is a slasher horror that takes place at a retirement home. The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre is The Thursday Murder Club meets Scream. The final girl, Rose, is in her late 70s and still feisty. She is a force to be reckoned with. The body count is super high in this slasher, but no one seems to notice or care since they are old. A good story that is also thought provoking about how we treat the elderly.

6. The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, is an epic anthology. The anthology has 34 short stories written by 36 authors. This book is divided into four parts: The Plague (the largest part), The Survivors – a month to a year after Captain Trips, The Survivors – After the events of The Stand, 5 to 20 years in the future, and The Legacy of The Stand. The stories in the last part are about the impact of The Stand. The book features short stories from a diverse group of authors with different backgrounds.The stories in this book don’t just stick to America; we get stories in England, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Pakistan. The horror changes with each story, giving multiple sub-genres of horror. Some stories are surreal, erotic, spatterpunk, quiet, and introspective. The stories are all connected to The Stand, but vary in how much they are connected.

7. Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix is historical fiction/horror in 1970 Florida at a wayward house. A wayward house is a place where unwed pregnant teenagers would stay. The mothers would remain until the baby was delivered and adopted. The mothers would never see the baby again and return to their “normal lives”. The system is set up so the mother will abandon all rights to the child while the wayward house will get paid for the adoption. The young mother feels helpless until witchcraft is introduced. The wayward house is a character in the novel and an interesting one. Every time the novel moved away from the house setting I was sad. The novel works best when at the house, I didn’t even need the supernatural element when I was there. The wayward house is filled with a lot of dread about the future, but the bonds girls form are unbreakable.

8. Play Nice by Rachel Harrison is a haunted… I mean possessed house horror. This is a horror of demons, both literally and figuratively. The novel is a bit of an homage to The Amityville Horror, which was heavily debated as to whether it was real or not. This story follows Clio as she has just found out her estranged mother has died. Clio’s mother wrote a book describing how the house she got after her divorce was possessed by a demon. Clio was only 7 then and doesn’t remember the house. She is shocked to find out her mother never sold it. Play Nice is a solid horror story that delivers the creeps. The story and the characters are well written.

9. The Sirens by Emilia Hart is a story of three generations of women who may or may not be sirens. Sirens are sea creatures featured in Homer’s The Odyssey, who are beautiful and lure men to their deaths with their enchanting song. The scenario that keeps getting repeated is evil men taking things from women like dignity, adolescence, and their bodies. The theme is the sirens’ song which happens when the bad men get punished. The Sirens tells the story of Lucy in the present day, Jess in the 1990s through journal entries, and Mary in the 1800s through dreams. This unique storytelling leads up to all the storylines intersecting. 

10. Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison is a biography about Lorne Michaels. I have been a fan of Saturday Night Live for over 35 years. This biography covers when Lorne’s teen years in Canada, how he got into comedy, his successes and failures before creating Saturday Night (which eventually became Saturday Night Live and as most call it SNL), The five years of Saturday Night in the 1970, the five years he walked away from Saturday Night Live in early 1980, and to his eventual return. The book covers all the years that SNL has existed.

Honorable Mentions: 

Fiend by Alma Katsu and Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson.

Top Ten Books not published in 2025:

1. James by Percival Everett blew me away. It was my third book of the year and knew it would be on this list. James is a powerhouse literary fiction novel. It takes an in-depth look at the character of Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. James surprised me in many ways. This is both Jim from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and James who will do anything for his family.

2. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie is such a great book and instant classic that drew me in so well. The writing and character work blew me away. It is the ultimate book about people trapped on an island and being murdered. The story puts ten strangers on an island where a recording plays, calling them all out for murders they believe have been committed. The strangers all start dying the exact way a nursery rhyme counts down to none. The story is tension-filled as they learn they are the targets of a murderer, and it has to be one of them. 

3. The Stand by Stephen King is an epic masterpiece of an apocalypse novel. The Stand is a journey or a quest against evil where only one side can prevail. The character work is incredible. I can’t name a book where as many main and side characters stick with me. King will reward you for remembering a side character, who you thought might not show up again, but they do. The themes of good and evil are throughout. The book is an allegory for so many Bible tales. The book is also a sociological study of what humans will do after a major, earth-shattering event.

4. Candy Cain Kills by Brian McAuley is a Christmas horror novella. The novella is concise and well-paced. Candy Cain, the villain, is sinister and mentally deranged. The story has surprising moments of heart. The twists are throughout this tale. Every twist is great and changes the narrative you thought you knew. 

5. Fletch by Gregory McDonald is a swinging 70s mystery. When most people think of Fletch they think of the Chevy Chase movie based on the book. The film sticks pretty close to the book in terms of plot, with the exception of the ending. However, the character of Fletch is different. In the book the character of Fletch is extremely smart, a former war hero, charming, and kind of an asshole.

6. The Wolf’s Hour by Robert McCammon is a powerhouse novel full of action, adventure, and horror. The story is about what would happen if a super spy was also a werewolf. The book is all about stopping a Nazi plot to release chemical weapons. McCammon’s take on the werewolf genre is fresh and new and this novel was written in the 80’s.

7. Table for Two by Amor Towles comprises 6 short stories and one novella. This collection is fantastic. There are way more hits than misses in the collection. Amor Towles is my favorite writer of literature today. His writing has this timeless quality that draws you in. The short stories reminded me of Charles Dickens and O. Henry. Where each story has a moral at the end.

8. Ghost by Jason Reynolds is an incredible middle grade book about running. The book compares running away and running to win. “The trouble is, you can’t run away from yourself.” – Coach. This quote encapsulates the book’s theme. Ghost can run fast, but he can’t outrun his problems. He will have to face them. This middle grade fiction blew me away.

9. Ghoul by Brian Keene is a horror novel set in 1984 featuring a group of three friends who meet a ghoul who lives under the graves, eating the corpses. The book is part reminiscing about the time in your life that is filled with wonder and the bond of friendship. The other part is about monsters, one beneath the surface, the Ghoul, and the others are on the surface, masked by society.

10. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is an enrapturing historical fiction that takes place on a traveling circus train in 1930s America. The book reveals the glamorous life of circus performers and also the underbelly of the work crew that makes the show happen. I like the way the class system was analyzed on the circus train. The story is very emotional. The balance of majesty over depression.

Honorable Mentions: Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane, God of the Woods by Liz Moore, and Death Comes for The Toymaker by Dakota Brown