We have reached the end of another year, and hopefully your year was as full of new books and new discoveries as mine was. Below are the books that I managed to fit into my schedule, but not the blog. As I have mentioned in previous years, there are various reasons why a book I read does not manage to get its own moment in the spotlight, but at least here they receive a brief mention.
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami: I do so love Murakami's work. I have more books by him in my personal collection than any other author, and I look forward to eventually reading and having them all. Men Without Women is a collection of short stories that essentially take a look at men who, for various reasons, find themselves alone. The writing is that same mysterious, engaging, though also often confusing storytelling that always managed to draw me into Murakami's work. I may not connect with every story or every book, but I am always glad I read it, and that proved true for this collection as well.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Frederik Backman: Backman is another author whose work I have begun to make my way through. But I do have to say, out of the five books that I have read by the Swedish author, this one may be my least favorite. It is told with the same honest humor as the others, and with a myriad of eccentric but still relatable characters, but something about it simply did not connect for me. It may have been the fact that it is told from a child's point of view. However, it is connected to Britt-Marie Was Here, and I do still recommend it to lovers of Backman's Work.
The Bookshop by Evan Friss: The audiobook of Friss' The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore was my choice for the road trips I took in the first half of the year. Friss carefully, lovingly, and thoroughly explores the history of several famous bookstores across the U.S. I am sure there are many readers who took offense when they discovered that Friss did not include their own favorite local bookstore, but I still thoroughly enjoyed hearing the history of the bookstores that were covered, along with their often fascinating owners and clientele.
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams: Once I added Williams' Audre & Bash Are Just Friends to the DSN schedule, I decided to go ahead and pick up Seven Days in June, since the latter book focuses on the mother of the protagonist in the former. Single mom and bestselling erotica author Eva Mercy is doing her best to manage it all, including a hidden disability. The last thing she needs is for Shane Hall to come back into her life. But here he is, and while they both pretend everything is fine, neither is talking about the time 20 years ago that they spent inseparable, until Shane broke Eva's heart. Eva is not sure if she wants him to stick around, or to go ahead and leave her again so her 'normal' life can resume.
The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks: I had always wanted to do one of those "Blind Date With A Book" things, and finally decided to while visiting a Barnes & Noble with my mom in Austin, Texas. The book I picked up was said to be a fantasy novel involving magic and trains. I am pretty ambivalent towards magic, but I love trains, so I picked up the nondescript brown package and now have Brooks' novel in my possession. I enjoyed the mysterious and dangerous train ride across the wastelands in the Trans-Siberian Express, and the descriptions of the strange danger that lurks outside of the train, but something about the narrative did not quite pull me in. It felt as it the story had a lot of potential but did not quite follow through.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I found my copy of this book while volunteering to sort books for a local school district. One of the perks of volunteering is that we could keep any books we wanted, and since I had previously read Adichie's Americanah, and was planning to read Dream Count, I picked it up and it became my airplane book on a trip to San Diego. Set in Nigeria, Kambili and her older brother Jaja may live a privileged life, but it comes at a price. If they do not come first in their class at school, or dare to break away from any of the many rules their father has for them, the punishment is severe. This is the only life they know, until they are allowed to stay with their aunt outside of the city, and see what freedom feels like.
And with that, I close the book on my 2025 reading adventures and continue to prepare for 2026. Every year ends up having its own surprises, and I am sure 2026 will be no different.
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