2025 Reading Pleasures
by Cat Rambo
2025 treated me well, and there was a good bit of travel, including Barbados, Spain, and Alaska. That meant a lot of extra reading time! Here are some of the titles I’ve really enjoyed this year. I’ve sorted them a bit:
My Top Ten Reads, not in order, because I could have spent hours ranking them:
September House - Carissa Orlando (is domestic abuse any different when your abuser is a house?)
Hell Heist - Robert J. Peterson (Ocean’s 8 meets Hellraiser)
The Raven Scholar - Antonia Hodgson (have recommended this to multiple people)
Dungeon Crawler Carl (and the subsequent series) by Matt Dinniman
The Book of Love - Kelly Link (just wonderful, best book of the year for me)
The Rook - Daniel O’Malley (I love people tracking down supernatural menaces, ancient cults, secret societies, and a side of weird and this book delivered it in spades. Looking forward to the rest.)
Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me - Django Wexler (funny, bawdy, and awesome)
Cahokia Jazz - Francis Spufford (just splendid)
I'll Make a Spectacle of You - Beatrice Winifred Iker (Southern gothic)
Six Wild Crowns - Holly Race (not just one strong female protagonist, but six!)
Other notable books are:
In alternative history, a shout out for: Ring Shout Or, Hunting Ku Kluxes in the End Times - P. Djeli Clark: The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead; and Harry Turtledove’s work, since I read a good ten or so of his books.
Grimdark and full of sly humor is one of my favorite jams, and there were two excellent reads in this area: The Devils - Joe Abercrombie and Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead - K.J. Parker
Horror yielded some excellent reads, including: Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zheng - Kylie Lee Baker; The Library at Hellebore - Cassandra Khaw (Carnivorous Hogwarts); and Don’t Sleep with the Dead - Nghi Vo (fabulous continuation of the Great Gatsby story)
Science fiction gave me: Fearsum Endjinn and Excession - Ian M. Banks; The Folded Sky - Elizabeth Bear (I will read anything Bear writes); Your Behavior Will Be Monitored - Justin Feinstein; Rose/house - Arkady Martine; The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling (gorgeous cave terror); Bee Speaker and Days of Shattered Faith - Adrian Tchaikovsky (another writer I would follow into any genre.)
Fantasy was my main reading area, and luckily that house holds many subgenres. Among my favorites were: GIfted & Talented - Olivie Blake (Urban Fantasy meets Succession); The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett; The Enchanted Greenhouse - Sarah Beth Durst (lovely cozy fantasy); A Harvest of Hearts - Andrea Eames; Forged for Prophecy and Forged for Destiny - Andrew Knighton (fun Chosen one riff); Gradchanted - Morgan Matson (fluffy and delightful); The Butcher of the Forest - Premee Mohammed; The Ghosts of Rose Hill - R. M. Romero; The Unkillable Frank Lightning - Josh Roundtree; Apparently, Sir Cameron Needs to Die - Greer Stothers (another fluffy treat); Ink Blood Sister Scribe - Emma Törzs (books about magic libraries are always a treat); The Naturalist Society - Carrie Vaughn
I run a monthly short-story discussion group and this year we read and discussed “Captive Audience” by Anne Warren Griffin, “Poor Little Saturday” by Madeleine L.Engle, “Women’s Work” by Garen Drussai, “From the Days of Perky Pat” by Philip K. Dick, Flatland by Edwin Abott, “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick, “Water Bringer” by Mary Rosenblum, “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link, and “Sand Kings” by George R.R. Martin. I try to pick older works that we look at from a craft perspective as well as how they fit into the flow of science fiction history, and this year’s stories were all rewarding, as were our guest speakers, Karen Lord and Harry Turtledove. In a related craft book discussion group, we started the year with Henry Lien’s excellent Spring Summer Asteroid Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling and currently are finishing up Ursula K. Le Guin’s equally stellar Steering the Craft.
A notable collection I read was The Essential Peter S. Beagle, published by Tachyon Press, and I highly recommend this well-curated and absolutely delightful two volume set.
In nonfiction, these all stood out for one reason or another. Sue Monk Kidd’s Writing and Creativity; Uncanny - The Origins of Fear - Junji Itō; Arrest-proof Yourself: An Ex-cop Reveals How Easy It Is for Anyone to Get Arrested, How Even a Single Arrest Could Ruin Your Life, and What to Do if the Police Get in Your Face - Dale C. Carson (so freaking timely it hurts); Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy - Bill Griffith (graphic novel) and Spent - Alison Bechdel (graphic novel).
Cat Rambo’s 300+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 2020 they won the Nebula Award for fantasy novelette "Carpe Glitter." They are a former two-term President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Their most recent works are space opera Devil’s Gun (Tor Macmillan, 2023) and anthology The Reinvented Detective (Arc Manor, 2023), co-edited with Jennifer Brozek For more about Cat, as well as links to fiction and popular online school, The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, see their website.
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