Oh boy more book reviews! Now we’re going to talk about some books in the first half of 2026. As of writing this, I’ve read 39 books, 15 of which are fiction and 24 are nonfiction, and I abandoned one (fiction) book. I clearly have some fiction catching up to do.
(Chiming in with an update from Future Sushi, I had most of this written early in 2026 and then… put off posting it for six months. I have no idea why, but here it is so I can finish writing about the books I liked during the first half of this year.)
Finally, more book reviews! This post wraps up the best of my 2025 reading.
Some 2025 stats while we’re here:
I read 51 books in 2025. Of those books, 22 are fiction and 29 are nonfiction. This is well under my 50% fiction goal that I’ve been aiming for over the last couple of years, so I’m going to try and move back toward 50% fiction this year.
FICTION
5 stars – 3
4 stars – 14
3 stars – 4
2 stars – 1
DNF – 0
total: 22
mean: 3.8636
median: 4
NONFICTION
5 stars – 9
4 stars – 15
3 stars – 4
2 stars – 1
DNF – 0
total: 29
mean: 4.0689
median: 4
I haven’t crunched the numbers in the past so I’m not sure if this rating distribution happened because I read more compelling nonfiction, if I’m pickier with rating fiction, or simply because I read more nonfiction this year.
Enough numbers, says the numbers person. On to the reviews!
It’s happened. I stayed mostly current on my book reviews for the summer and had to write only three more before posting this. Go me.
As usual, I’m reviewing only the books I like unless I have strong opinions about a book I dislike.
Note: I’ve tried to maintain close relationships between characters in their real life counterparts, but the romantic ones in Hades are obviously not romantic between coworkers. Still, they hint at some level of closeness, past or present. Also, if you haven’t played Hades, you should play it, but more important to this post, there are game spoilers.
In March 2024, I had worked on my technical writing team for almost two and a half years. I had just been promoted within my role. I had just launched a major initiative that people had been asking for… since before I started at that company. I was respected, well-paid, and had great coworkers, including a manager I may follow if they ever leave. Everyone in my personal life thought I was living the dream.
Why would I want to give that up?
Guess what, dear readers: with this post going up, I’ve finally cleared my book reviews. Now let’s see if I can keep this up.
As usual, I’m only talking about the books I like unless I really have something specific to say about a book I dislike.