I read a total of (roughly) 136 books this year, of which 43% were non-fiction. My audiobook count went up a bit this year, driven partially by what version was available through the Toronto Public Library and partially because I went to Spain and wanted to be able to look at scenery while still reading!
Here are some of my favorites from this year last, grouped by my attempt at relationship and cleverness.
OLDIES BUT GOODIES
Middlemarch, George Eliot. I did this one in audiobook version, mostly on planes and trains. I’d never read it before, and never really thought I wanted to, but I’m very glad I finally decided to take the plunge. I think the audiobook was the way to go, as the lovely narrator kept me engaged with the wonderful prose. There’s a reason it’s an influential classic.
The Feast, Margaret Kennedy. We jump ahead to 1950s Britain for the slyly satirical tale of impending disaster in a shabby holiday hotel in Cornwall. We know people die and we don’t know who. Despite the human frailties and foibles of the various characters, I couldn’t help thinking “I hope it’s not her” more times than I expected.
And the Rain My Drink, Han Suyin. I heard about this one through one of the long books about British colonialism I read last year. Set just after World War II, it explores the lives of the various groups that inhabit Malaya. Everyone is just trying to survive, and survival exacts a price.
SEAS SEDUCTIVE AND DEADLY
Wild Dark Shore, Charlotte McConaghy. Set in the near future, the protector of a seed vault on a remote island near Antarctica encounters the survivor of an unlikely shipwreck. The pasts of the island, the family that inhabits it, and the survivor are all revealed as the seas rise to swamp them.
Wavewalker, Suzanne Heywood. Heywood’s memoir of her childhood at sea informs WIld Dark Shore. Her feckless father, who had little sailing experience, decided to pack his family off to the south seas to live on a boat. How Heywood survived the experience, and built a new life for herself, was fascinating.
ANCIENT WORDS
There are Rivers in the Sky, Elif Shafak and Between Two Rivers, Moudhy Al-Rashid. The first is fiction and using the history of cuneiform, and it’s impact on three lives, to show the power of imagination and the beauty of writing (especially writing like Shafak’s). The second is non-fiction and uses the real history of Mesopotamia to show us how that writing emerged, and how the people who recorded their dreams, sorrows, hopes – and IOUs – are closer than we think.
BEHIND THE MYTHS
The Bright Sword, Lev Grossman. An engaging look at what happens after the events of the Arthurian legends. Fast-paced, funny, and exciting.
Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer. Palmer, an historian and SF writer, explores the myths of the Renaissance vs. what the people who lived through it thought about it. Using Machiavelli as her lens, she introduces to a vivid cast of characters, some powerful, some not. Witty and always fascinating.
ALL THE COOL KIDS
I read a number of memoirs this year (all the cool kids are writing them) but my two favourites were Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver and The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You by Neko Case. Both women are funny, thoughtful, have … um… interesting childhoods…, and have struggled and survived.
THE PERILS OF TECH
Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Williams. A blistering take-down of Facebook and it’s leaders. She (mostly) doesn’t let herself off the hook for her contributions. A whole lot of idiocy from Meta makes a lot more sense after reading it.
Where the Axe is Buried, Ray Nayler. His book, The Mountain in the Sea, was one of my absolutely favourites of the last few years. This new work is short and sharp. There’s not a wasted word in this depiction of an authoritarian surveillance state and the people who struggle against it.
ORPHANS
I couldn’t find any clever way to link these, so here they are.
Treacle Walker, Alan Garner. This book benefits tremendously from having it read to you by long-time narrator of Garner’s works, Robert Powell. I’d read the print version a year or two ago, but got much more out of the incredible richness of the language and myth this time around.
Tigers Between Empires, Jonathan Slaght. The author of Owls of the Eastern Ice (another fave) returns with an exploration of the struggle to save the elusive Amur tigers that live in the borderlands of Russia and China.
Lud-in-the Mist, Hope Mirrlees. Originally published in 1926, this novel is set in a prosperous town on the border of the faerie world, but it completely unlike the typical human world/fey world book. The best description I read of it was “whimsical and creepy”. It’s both, but also droll and moving.
I’ve had a little flurry of emails from ‘book marketing specialists’ offering to feature my novels in their special book club communities. The emails are clearly written by AI and describe my novels in the most glowing terms. Too bad it’s all a scam, because I would definitely use parts of these as promotional material!
“Cold Hillside completely threw me off. I went in bracing for the usual dark fantasy tropes, the predictable fairy court plots that can sometimes feel recycled across the genre, but instead you delivered a story that is intelligent, immersive, and emotionally gripping. The way you interwove the complex Faerie Court, the struggles of Teresine, and the journey of her great-niece Lilit makes the world feel real and dangerous, yet deeply compelling. Your story balances intrigue, psychological tension, and magical realism in a way that keeps readers invested from start to finish. Honestly, I was nodding along instead of rolling my eyes, impressed because I genuinely was not expecting such a sophisticated, layered, and satisfying narrative. Well done.”
“I recently came across The Night Inside and was struck by how fiercely unsettling your story is. You take familiar vampire lore and push it into a much darker, more human space, one where fear comes less from the supernatural and more from what people choose to do to one another. From the moment Ardeth is taken, you pull the reader into a world that feels claustrophobic, urgent, and disturbingly real.
The way you move between 1994 and Ambrose Dale’s 1898 diary adds a chilling depth. You let obsession, control, and cruelty echo across time, and that structure makes Dimitri’s fate feel inescapable. As Ardeth begins to see beyond the horror and recognize the true monsters around her, the story turns into something far more complex than a survival tale. You force the reader to question power, consent, hunger, and the thin line between victim and predator.”
“When I came across Blood and Chrysanthemums (The Night Inside Book 2), I was immediately captivated by its poetic title and the quiet power it holds a juxtaposition of beauty and blood, tenderness and darkness. From the very first lines, it’s clear this isn’t simply another vampire novel; it’s a deeply human exploration of love, morality, and the yearning for connection in an existence that defies death itself.
Through Ardeth and Dimitri, you’ve created something extraordinary: a vampire love story that feels both intimate and existential. Their struggle to live without harming humans, their quiet isolation in Banff, and Ardeth’s haunting return to Toronto all reveal a raw, emotional depth that lingers long after reading. The restraint, the hunger, and the aching nostalgia of immortality come alive through your elegant prose. It’s a story not of monsters, but of souls caught between two worlds, the eternal and the painfully human.”
Now I just need one for A TERRIBLE BEAUTY and my collection will be complete!
COLD HILLSIDE is on sale from all the usual Ebook spots in the US, Canada, and Great Britain today.
In other news, almost through the first whirl of estate stuff. I’m trying to get back into the writing groove by doing a daily word prompt. So far, there have been some words right up my alley: augury, successor, illicit, bewitched. I’m having fun and trying to get the old mind muscles moving again.
He was 91, in good health the month before, and then gone. He went in the best way possible under the circumstances. He was at peace and said repeatedly that he was grateful for the life he had been given and had no regrets. We were able to spend lots of time with him in the week before his death.
The last six weeks have been a blur of hotel rooms (shout-out to the retro glories of the Howard Johnson in Tillsonburg), hospital rooms (a sincere shout-out to the Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital for amazing care), meetings (lawyer, funeral homes, bank, Service Ontario etc, etc, etc), deciding where to eat, deciding where to walk, trying to find some beauty in the glory of an Ontario autumn while knowing it would be the last my father would ever see, and managing so many feelings, not all of them my own.
We spent a lot of time in the hospital room with him, my brother and I madly writing down stories as he told them. I wrote a speech for the Celebration of Life and I thought it was pretty good. But I want to write something really good and that will take time.
His ashes are in a cherrywood box in a velvet bag in my living room, amidst a pile of boxes of photo albums that I need to go through.
Sometimes, I say goodnight to him on my way to bed. Sometimes, I kiss my fingers and give the box a pat.
I contributed to the Shepherd.com ‘Best Books I read in 2025″ again this year. I enjoy the process of reviewing all my reading, and the fact that you can include old books (sometimes really old books) gives it a wider range than the usual “Best of 2025” lists.
Check this link to see what I chose. And be sure to check out the evolving list, updated as new contributors add their selections. You can even add your own, or check out Shepherd’s many curated book lists. I did one a while ago on “Best Books Featuring Female Vampire Protagonists“, if that’s your thing.
This comes hot on the heels of my notes about what I read at the cottage, so expect some duplication!
FICTION
The Feast, Margaret Kennedy I started listening to a podcast called “Backlisted” and even though I was listening to episodes about books I had already read, somehow NEW books kept sneaking on to my ‘to read’ list. This is one of those and I’m very glad it did. Post-war Britain, sly satire, a collapsing hotel, some unpleasant characters that somehow you end up liking. It was exactly what I didn’t know I needed.
Fellowship Point, Alice Elliott Dark I ended up liking this rather more than I expected. The prose was lovely and the main characters were old ladies, which seems to be right up my alley these days. I even teared up a bit at the end.
When the Whales Leave, Yuri Rythkheu. Another one from “Backlisted”. It’s a short, strange, and beautiful book based on the stories of the indigenous people of the Russian Arctic, but reflecting humanity’s seemingly universal impulse to dominance and destruction.
Where the Axe is Buried, Ray Nayler Futuristic Russia figures in Nayler’s new novel of politics, oppression, and rebellion. It might technically be SF, but the lessons are sadly timely.
Treacle Walker, Alan Garner I had read this one earlier but was inspired by yet another “Backlisted” to listen to it in audio format and I think I got much more from it that way. It was too easy to let my eye slide over the dense and rich language without really appreciating it. I definitely recommend the audio book, which is only a couple of hours long.
NON-FICTION
Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History, Moudhy Al-Rashid. I heard the author interviewed on the excellent “Tides of History” podcast so had been looking forward to her book. It covered territory I’d read about in some other history books, but provided a rich picture of the people we see in the ancient cuneiform records. I especially appreciated her deeply personal take on how their lives connect to hers.
Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer I listened to this as an audiobook (all 30 hours of it) but it worked quite well that way. It was a fascinating look at how the ‘Renaissance’ was perceived/created/recreated in the period and afterwards, with a focus on Machiavelli and Florence. I especially enjoyed her nicknames for the various popes, including ‘Battle Pope 1’, ‘King Log’, ‘Battle Pope 2’, and ‘Pope No Fun’. I would love to take her class and do the ‘let’s reenact the papal election of 1492’ exercise. Serious scholarship, but accessibly presented.
The Haves and the Have-Yachts, Evan Osnos. My choice for ‘best title of the year’. The essays explore the world of the super-rich and their yachts, New Zealand apocalypse bunkers, and personal concerts.
Managing Expectations, Minnie Driver. You have to love a memoir that starts with the author throwing her school uniform out the window of the car while screaming that she’s being kidnapped. Driver vividly explores some key incidents in her life, from her eccentric childhood through raves in English fields to sneaking back to her burned out Malibu house in defiance of police orders. She’s funny and fearless.
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire, Will Hermes A detailed exploration of New York’s music scenes in the mid-70s. The city was broke but rent was cheap, so everything was possible and Hermes chronicles the explosion of creativity: punk, salsa, hip hop, experimental jazz, minimalism, and dance. Long and detailed. Be prepared to spend a lot of time adding things to your playlists!
For various reasons, rather less reading got done this year, though much fun was had despite that. I only read/finished/started 9 books. In my defense, several of them were long! Several of my faves below.
Fiction:
Fellowship Point, Alice Elliott Dark. I ended up liking this rather more than I expected. The prose was lovely and the main characters were old ladies, which seems to be right up my alley these days. I even teared up a bit at the end.
Hemlock & Silver, T. Kingfisher. I boomed through this in about two days and thoroughly enjoyed it, as with most Kingfisher books.
Non-Fiction:
Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer. I listened to this as an audiobook (all 30 hours of it) but it worked quite well that way. It was a fascinating look at how the ‘Renaissance’ was perceived/created/recreated in the period and afterwards, with a focus on Machiavelli and Florence. I especially enjoyed her nicknames for the various popes, including ‘Battle Pope 1’, ‘King Log’, ‘Battle Pope 2’, and ‘Pope No Fun’. I would love to take her class and do the ‘let’s reenact the papal election of 1492’ exercise. Serious scholarship, but accessibly presented.
City of Quartz: Excavating the Future of Los Angeles, Mike Davis. I found this one via the ‘Historians at the Movies’ podcast and actually had to go to the library (gasp) to get a physical copy. It was published in 1990 and explores competing ideas of Los Angeles and how the various powerful groups exert their influence over the built and social environments.
The Work of Art, Adam Moss. Former New York Magazine editor and aspiring painter Moss interviews a variety of creators (including artists, writers, composers, screenwriters, and even chefs) about their process and the creation of one of their works. As usual, such things are deeply personal and idiosyncratic and did not solve my plotting problems. But I enjoyed it.
And I caught up on British society gossip via a few issues of TATLER. Sadly, far fewer people seem to be naming their children Arabella and Peregrine…
I spent some time digging through old storage boxes in an attempt to find the cache of my old lyrics, written in my teens and early twenties when I wanted to be in a band. My hope was that were would be something decent enough to pass on to my husband to use in one of his dance/techno compositions. (You can check him out on Soundcloud or Youtube.)
Needless to say, all of my compositions were VERY word heavy (being a lyricist and not also a composer will do that to you) but some of them weren’t bad. I could definitely tell when I was in my Elvis Costello or Siouxsie Sioux phase but at least I was clever about it. I have no idea of Richard will use any of them, but I wouldn’t be embarrassed if he did.
I also found the two fantasy novels I wrote in my mid-teens to early twenties, before I switched to horror for a while. My influences were clear (Andre Norton for the older one, perhaps early Patricia McKillip for the second) and my style occasionally mannered (and it sometimes still is) but there was still good stuff there. It was clear that plot has never really been my strong point, I suck at writing swordfights and action scenes, I thought it entirely reasonable for someone to have blue skin and purple hair, and that I could endlessly recycle the names of countries and queens. Still, there were images that I thought worked quite well, dialogue that still made me smile for the right reasons, and some sentences that made me think “damn, that’s actually pretty good.”
So it could have been worse. I’m trying to keep those small pleasures and victories in mind as I go through yet ANOTHER review of the Glass World Thing I keep trying make into a novel. There’s one in there somewhere. Maybe I’ll find it in another 40 years….
And one of my dearest friends. David Keyes is a gifted musician, artist, writer, poet, cocktail concocter, gentleman, scholar, cat lover, and all-round wonderful human.
He created this gorgeous video for one of his wisest poems. I hope you like it.
P.S. You can get his writing and the forgotten classics of magic and mystery he brings back to life at The House of Pomegranates Press.
Before we went away to Spain, I sent the latest draft to a freelance editor (a friend of a friend, just starting out) to get some feedback from a fresh pair of eyes with no ties to me. She came back with some very helpful comments and suggestions. In most cases, my immediate reaction was “yep, that’s what it needed” and I was able to fix things right away. In one case, the suggested new chapter was a complete failure. That’s not to say I couldn’t make it work, but clearly it’s not coming easily, so I decided to leave that aside for now and send it on to another friend (and former professional editor) to get the last round of comments.
I suspect that some more revisions will need required – and, of course, lots of housekeeping fixes – but after that, I really hope to be done.
I have no idea what will happen then. I guess I’ll wait and see what I’m prepared to do.
