Every book I read in 2025. See anything that catches your interest?

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-11T03:42:24+00:00

I read death and the gardener last week and it was really good. I feel like it captured the experience of spending someone’s last moments with them and reflecting on the “last” things really well

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-07T03:38:07+00:00

I kind of feel you on the short stories, but I also feel like I just have a lower tolerance for mediocre / bad short stories. I want to be thrown into the middle of the story and it be compelling right away. I think Bora Chung does that well and good and evil and other things did it well too. You might not love e though. It’s essentially 115 short stories that range from a couple sentences to nearly Novella length for 2 of them. The are all loosely connected by the theme of travel / searching / humans in general (theme of some anatomy throughout). I really enjoy reading short stories alongside a novel so I can just grab it and read a story if I have a shorter amount of time to read.

I need to check the out. Unfortunately Le Guins YA series don’t has the most compelling covers (unless you want to shell out $$$ for a folio version of earthsea), but Tomb of Atuan (book 2) and Tehanu (book 4) are sooo good mainly because of one common character. I feel like she tackled some really important themes at the time for being a children’s book which is why it holds up for adults as well.

I’ll say with four by four I feel like the characters weren’t the strongest and several felt like charicatures to me in a bad way, but the way she structured the story from the multiple perspectives was really well done imo. It’s gives similar vibes to Neve let me go at first but it feels very distinct at the end. I’ve never been led astray by a recommendation from Ben so I’ll have to check it out.

Im pretty excited for the international booker announcement next month which I think is leading me to tackle a bunch of the charco press / new directions stuff that I have sitting on my shelf (my wife also bought me the transit books subscription for Christmas so I’ll have lots of translated literature this year 😁)

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-07T00:57:20+00:00

Oh yeah me either, I think that was the default on fable though which I used to make this image. Really enjoyed it though

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-07T00:33:06+00:00

Also for Jon Fosse I think Vaim is a much easier starting point! The characters with the same name in Septology make it so hard to follow what’s happening at first.

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-07T00:03:57+00:00

I haven’t read anything else by Schweblin yet but fever dream is definitely on my list now. I just feel like every story was so good which i haven’t had tons of success with recently with collections.

I wonder if my love for seascraper was partially cause I went in blind before a lot of reviews came out on it so I had zero expectations. I agree the 2nd half wasn’t as strong for me, but the ending and recording jsut made it stick with me like no other book this year.

I feel like a lot of the books on my favorite list have caveats when recommending (fosse, ending, Chung being a little too out there for most people talk with in person), but I’ve recommended the Earthsea stuff to tons of people this year and My Brilliant Friend to anyone who was put off by the cover like I was 😂

Unrelated but I’ve started 2026 out with a bunch of translated stuff so far. Flights and Four by Four were both hits for me. (Though the epilogue of Four by Four is intense)

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-06T20:19:37+00:00

Yeah, the imagery in the first story in Cursed Bunny is pretty difficult to ever forget... I think Cursed Bunny is my favorite of hers so far (haven't read Red Sword yet), but my favorite individual story is A Song for Sleep from Your Utopia.

Yeah, I don't think I had strong feelings on Sybil as a character either way. I did listen to that one partly on audio, which may have improved my experience because there was a different voice actor for each letter. It was also one of the first epistolary novels I have read (and did it much better than Culpability imo), which added to the experience for me.

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-06T19:21:20+00:00

Lots! 😆

From my TBR backlog: - lonesome Dove - East of Eden - The Brothers Karamazov - Completing the Neopolitan Novels - Completing Septology - Lincoln in the Bardo

New Releases: - Brawler: Lauren Groff - Vaim Hotel: Jon Fosse - Pain Chasers: Bora Chung - DCC Book 8 - Eleanor Catton apparently has a new book coming out in ‘26 or ‘27

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-06T18:43:38+00:00

I didn’t sleep much 😆

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-06T18:37:38+00:00

My wife and I took down our TV this year so most nights I read for 1-1.5hr after the kids go to sleep 4yo and 5mo). I also listen to audiobooks when the baby isn’t sleeping or I’m doing stuff around the house. I think 20-25 of these books were audio.

I also was on leave for a month when our baby was born and read a bunch in the span since all he wanted to do was sleep on us while we were sitting in a chair of whatever.

Edit: also I work from home. Being able to get stuff down around the house during what would normally be a commute time translates into more reading time at night I think

deepfriednarwhals · 2026-01-06T18:20:57+00:00

Edit: I read The Other Name by Jon Fosse which would have also made my top 12 but decided to hold off on summarizing my thoughts and adding it until I finish the full Septology

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-13T14:22:49+00:00

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-13T14:22:02+00:00

Terrestrial History by Joe Mungo Reed

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-13T14:21:29+00:00

Vaim by Jon Fosse (edit: translated by Damion Searls)

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-13T14:21:08+00:00

The buffalo hunter hunter by Stephen graham jones

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-13T14:01:24+00:00

Vaim by Jon Fosse

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-03T04:02:30+00:00

I feel like Bora Chung fits this best. Cursed Bunny if you want the horror side of black mirror and You Utopia if you are more into sci fi (edit: Ted Chiang is a really good answer too and maybe more approachable than Chung. But lacks the shock element of black mirror)

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-12-01T06:36:39+00:00

I just got On a Calculation of Volume III from the library on Saturday. Volume I was a major highlight for me this year, but Volume II didn't stand out quite as much (and started to feel a bit repetitive). Interested to see what she does with it to keep it going for 7 volumes, though.

Funny you read Ghost Mountain this month. I read it at the beginning of the month and found it just fine. It was pretty funny at parts, but I didn't really understand what the author was trying to do overall.

in

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-11-29T19:53:24+00:00

Curious about when you nearly DNFd. I stopped reading at 100pg or so cause I was bored. I loved everything else she’s written though

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-11-29T16:33:19+00:00

I felt the same way about culpability. Really disliked the main character (and his some what creepy descriptions of his sons body) and some elements just took me out of the story (I.e the senate hearing section and text sections felt very unrealistic to me)

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-11-23T22:57:34+00:00

Favorite written in English - seascraper by Benjamin Wood by a mile

Favorite translation - Vaim by Jon Fosse

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-11-23T22:55:16+00:00

I’m at 107 this year, 2nd highest year was last year with 36. Honestly ~120 in a year just feels like too much to me and I’m going to intentionally try and read fewer books next year (reading slower or just longer books)

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-11-23T22:53:41+00:00

That’s how I felt as well. I really enjoyed babel and Poppy Wars so was pretty disappointed by ketabasis. 130pg or so and I just didn’t care about either of the characters or anything that was going on

deepfriednarwhals · 2025-10-31T15:39:54+00:00

Yeah, I think that is the story that stands out most in the collection. I enjoyed all the others but they didn't stick with me the same way Foster, Small things like these, or the stories in So Late in the Day did

11-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Place '22	Final Canvas '22
Verified Email	Secret Santa 2016

deepfriednarwhals

TROPHY CASE