Books Read in 2025

    Here is my list for the year, with a surprising number of plays in there. It's nowhere near the number of books that a friend of mine read this year (almost 100), but still happy with it, as there were some quarterly magazines in there as well. I still have several books that I bought in this and previous years that I have yet to read. And still working on that translation from last year, though it got put to the side early on in the year.

One of the funny things that I came across this year was the number of times that playwrights have been making to changes to plays as they're in production and after publication.

As always, italics indicate plays and asterisks re-reads. 

1. A Stroke of the Pen - Terry Pratchett 

30/1/24 -  1/1/25

 

2. Mistress of Rome - Kate Quinn

7-11/1

 

3. Desperate Undertaking - Lindsey Davis

12-25/1

 

4. Troy - Stephen Fry

25/2 - 3/4

This was a very good book. I wasn't sure what to expect from Stephen Fry as a writer, but was happy to read this, having been loaned it by someone at worked that I loaned one of the books I read last year to (and had liked it). Definitely worth the read.

 

5. The Revlon Girl - Neil Anthony Docking

18/3 & multiple times throughout production 

Based on the after effects of a real event back in the 1960s. Apparently covered quite well in the TV series The Crown, but there are also some good documentary pieces online talking to people who had been in the town.

 

6. Death in Daylesford - Kerry Greenwood

16-17/4

 I read this in memoriam for the author, who died in March, as I very much enjoy both her writing and the TV series that was based on the Phryne Fisher novel series. Australia definitely lost a good writer.

 

7. Death on the Tiber - Lindsey Davis

22-25/4

 

8. Hogfather - Terry Pratchett*

7-13/7

 

9. Petition - Delilah Waan

23/7 - 1/8

A self publishing author hidden amongst a lot of small brewing stands at a council festival for something. Definitely a good buy, though the next book in the series is double the size of a standard novel, which is slightly daunting. It will be interesting to see how big the next one is.

 

10. Jonathan Unleashed - Meg Rosoff*

30/7 - 21/8

I read this one last time before giving it away to make space for other books. It was a better read this time, mostly I think because I wasn't expecting if not talking dogs, then the narration from the dog's point which the summary on the back implied, but I still really didn't like the story. The cover art is the best part of this one to be honest.

 

11. One for All - Lillie Lainoff

25/8 -19/9

I probably wouldn't have bought this one, but the library was giving it away with a lot of other YA books and what else are library books for if not off chance reading? However it was much like when watching people sing snd you can tell they're good singers but the song isn't so great. For something set in the 17thC it was far too modern.

 

12. The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race - Melanie Tait

28/8 & multiple times throughout production

 

13. Drinking Habits - Tom Smith

25/8 & multiple times throughout production

Apparently he's written a sequel with just as much farce as this one, though the cast member who found it has yet to send the link to the rest of us. 

 

14. Away - Michael Gow*

10-12/12 

I read this after lending it to a friend who surprisingly had never read (or seen) it. Funnily right at the end there are a couple of notes in the margins from when I was studying it in school, though I was dubious as to what they said. Apparently the author changed the ending for a more somber option. The book when notifying of the change says that the changed ending is not to be taken into account for school study (which is slightly fitting given what happened in Queensland with Ancient History this year), but I think that could actually have made a very good thing to write about for the exam.

 

15. Ramses; The Song of the Light - Christian Jacq

26-28/12 

At some times this was like "One for All" in that there were some very modern (and jarring) writing for something set in Ancient Egypt and based on real people. That being said, the author definitely has a lot of research under his belt and we don't know as much about the culture or are as close to it. He is a better writer, although there was a jarring jump in time at the end of the book in comparision to how it passed throughout the book, not to mention the dodgy, dodgy fictional/mythological character set he put in toward the end (I do want to check to see if they are possibly time adjacent, though I feel Ramses II is far more recent than them). They are aimed at different ages, this is an adult book unlike OFA and are written with different objectives and time frames in mind, but still the better of the pair.