Year End: 2025 Reading Round-Up
A summary of the books I read in the second half of 2025.
Collage of book covers
Reading for the Second Half of 2025
Well, well, well. Here we are in the first full week of 2026! A new year means new goals, but first we’re going to take one more look at 2025. In July, I did a halfway-through-the-year reading round-up, so now it is time to look at how I finished the year reading-wise.
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I was somewhat surprised when I saw that I had read five less books in the second half of the year, especially since I’ve had more free time since losing my job (aka, don’t have to worry about staying up late because I’m in the middle of a good book), but some of these books were pretty long. Specifically, A Conspiracy of Fools was both long and a slog to get through. I enjoyed it, but it was a lot, and a lot of business/finance terms. Additionally, I began the Game of Thrones series, and those books are 1,000+ pages.
I ended 2025 in the middle of reading three books: Writing Mysteries which was edited by Sue Grafton with essays from the Mystery Writers of America, Power Moves: How Women Can Pivot, Reboot, and Build a Career of Purpose – An Essential Handbook for Professionals: From Unfulfillment to Action, Control, and Lasting Success by Lauren McGoodwin of Career Contessa, and A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, the fourth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.
Ultimately, I think the first half of the year was better for me reading-wise. The second half of the year brought me multiple disappointing Star Wars reads, which is especially depressing because they were all books I was really looking forward to. And the books I did like throughout the year, it seemed like I enjoyed those in the first half of the year more. I read a lot more fictional novels than I have in years past. Typically, I enjoy nonfiction more but I found a lot of really great novels this year. Also, even if I didn’t like a novel, as a writer, I still learned from it.
But, in no particular order, here are the books I read in the second half of 2025:
Please be aware that there may be spoilers.
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert: This book was inspired by Roe v. Wade being overturned. It is extremely well-researched. Gilbert shows connections between women, feminism, and pop culture and how these relate to the shaming and humiliation of women. There’s lots of WTF moments. But it definitely makes you think. Man, woman, non-binary - you will most likely feel uncomfortable reading this at points. That’s kind of the point. It’s very informative but also makes you reflect.
The Amateur by Robert Littetll: This is the book that the 2025 Hulu movie starring Rami Malek and Laurence Fishburne is based on. Haven’t watched it. The book really pulled me in at first, but the more the story went on, the more it felt like I was watching a balloon lose air. Strong start, but ended weak. There are great spy components to this but overall seemed underdeveloped. I kind of hated the ending too.
All About Copyediting by K.J. Heritage: I love to read about writing and editing. It’s kind of weird. What’s nice about this book is that it is divided into lessons. 55 of them, in fact. Also, it is specific to novel editing and is more of a resource for an author to self-edit rather than an editor’s resource.
The Lazarus Heist by Geoff White: Have you ever wondered how crazy cybercrime is? Check this out. It’s really insane. It’s based on a podcast. Usually, podcasts are based on books. The book is about a group in North Korea accused of multiple, major cybercrimes including the 2014 Sony hack. It’s kind of all batshit crazy. It does start to read as drawn out towards the end, but there are some really interesting cyber and financial crime stories here. Also, it might make you think about your own cyber safety and that’s not a bad thing.
Star Wars: Sanctuary by Lamar Giles: I love the Bad Batch. Was super pumped about this and ended up super disappointed. It seems that I am in the minority on this. But I felt like the characters were over-written and out of character. Reviewer goosepup on Amazon said, “Great story, but Bad Batch characterization missed the mark” and I think that sums it up perfectly. I liked the first job they started with, but everything else seemed disconnected. Also had too many adversaries.
Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service edited by Michael Lewis: I already had this book on my Kindle but then I saw it on former President Barack Obama’s favorite books of summer 2025 so it moved up the list. It is extremely well researched; each chapter is a different essay by a different author. It examines federal government work that most people never think about and demonstrates how important that work is and gives a look into the lives of the people working behind the scenes. It examines work in the Department of Labor, the National Cemetery Administration, the National Archives, and more. It is a fairly easy but very essential read.
Star Wars: The Acolyte: The Crystal Crown by Tessa Gratton: I was actually a fan of the Acolyte and the High Republic, so I enjoyed returning to this era. I’ve also really enjoyed Tessa Gratton’s work in the past, However, this? Not so much. It focuses on Yord and Jecki, which, fine but I would have liked a little bit more from other Jedi? It’s kind of like a Hunger Games type of deal but people aren’t dying. As a huge Jedi fan, it was disappointing to see the Force take a literal backseat in their story. It was just meh to me.
Conspiracy of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald: First, this book took me forever to read! It is 700+ pages. I was in elementary school when the Enron scandal went down, and I’ve listened to a podcast here and there since. But this book - first of all, extremely well written. I’m a fan of Kurt Eichenwald. Second, what the actual hell? Enron was a continual, excuse my language, clusterfuck. There’s no other way to describe it. What a shitshow. There are a lot of financial and accounting details involved in the story, which some may find boring and difficult to get through. (Surprisingly, I didn’t. Other than the fact it took me forever to read.) Apparently, the people who ran Enron also felt that some of the actual details and requirements of their work and the law were too boring for their notice. Dramatization and embellishments aside, ultimately, Enron had a blatant disregard for rules and just kept kicking the can down the road. I don’t understand how people can be so stupid and so apathetic, and frankly it worries me how many companies are still being managed like this today. Ultimately, however, I think the only people who know the truth about what actually went down were the ones in the room. And regardless of what they say or have said, they’re taking the truth to the grave. Also, you could probably write a book (maybe someone has) about the relationships Ken Lay had with the Bush family and politics in general.
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin: I’m late to the Game of Thrones fandom but I did want to start reading the books, even knowing that the story will probably remain unfinished (So my headcanon that Brienne and Jamie live happily ever after can stay!) I’m usually not a fan of multiple POVs, but Martin does an excellent job of it. It is extremely well written, which will probably prove to be very frustrating while knowing that the series isn’t (and probably won’t be) finished. Although it is long, it is not a difficult read. It is weird how much younger everyone is! Poor baby Rickon. Also, I hate Catelyn Stark even more. This book ends at the end of Season 1 in the show. If you’re a fan of the show - even if you are not a reader - I really recommend giving this a go. There’s so much more to the A Song of Ice and Fire world.
Master of Evil by Adam Christopher: Oof. I hate to even say it, but this was the biggest disappointment of anything I read. It was frustrating and would’ve been much more enjoyable if it had been marketed differently. It was decently written, but a major let down from what I expected. With a tagline of “a newly forged Darth Vader hunts for the secrets of life and death under the watchful eye of Emperor Palpatine,” I expected a Vader-centric, emotional, gripping story of the early days of Darth Vader discovering who Darth Vader really is and making sure Anakin Skywalker stays dead. We only got like two or three Vader POV chapters? I expected the Imperial Royal Guard and Halland Goth to be secondary characters, and certainly not for Goth to be the focus. And I could not get myself to care for Goth or his problem.
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin: Well, first of all, this book gives us Davos Seaworth and Brienne of Tarth. But Book 2 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series is jam packed with excitement and war. Nobody is safe, and there is no rule that is stable. Everything is on edge basically all the time, and that’s awesome. It’s a thriller.
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin: Martin hits the mark again. So far in the series, this is the one that had me going one more chapter at 1 AM. Just when one new twist is revealed, another delivers more. I think this is really getting more “into the thick of it” for the series overall. It is Martin’s “Empire Strikes Back.” Our POV chapters are all over the place at different parts of the story, but no action is more critical to the story, in my opinion, than Catelyn Stark’s choice to release captive Jamie Lannister in an attempt to have her daughters Sansa and Arya returned to her. It is a major turning point in the series
My favorite novels for the year were Trials of the Jedi and A Conspiracy of Fools. The A Song of Ice and Fire series is kind of in its own category. My Kindle is already filled with books that should keep me busy in 2026, and as I wrote in No/Less/Intentional Spending for 2026 post, it’s going to be really hard to not buy books but I’m going to try and use Libby more too.
What books did you love in 2025? What are you looking forward to in 2026?
