Sunday Summary: 9 Nov 25

Sunday Summary mainly functions as my personal record of book-related topics that have captured my interest over the past week. It also acts as a public memory prompt and bookmarking system.

Books Read/Reading This Week.

Finished:

• The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed 

Currently Reading: 

• The Incandescent by Emily Tesh [2025] – edit Now Paused
• Volative Memory by Seth Hadon [2025]

Booker-ish Thoughts

Dan Hartland has a blog post on The Booker Prize 2025 and raises the point and explores that,

‘this year’s shortlist, it seems to me, is not making a statement. It is instead asking a question.’

I am not in any rush to read this year’s selection, though I will get Flesh in paperback, and I keep tempting myself with The Land in Winter.

But if you want to get an idea of what this year’s offers are and what question Dan believes it’s asking, I’d highly recommend reading his post.

Out This Week-ish in the UK

1. Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
2. The Haunted Library: Tales of Cursed Books and Forbidden Shelves
3. Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
4. There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
5. The Strength of the Few by James Islington
6. Snake-Eater by T. Kingfisher
7. The Echo of Crows by Philip Rickman
8. The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
9. The Whisper of Stars by Cristin Williams
10. The Wax Child by Olga Ravn [Trans. Martin Aitken]
11. The Moon Glow Bookshop by Dongwon Seo [Trans. Shanna Tan]
12. The Shapeshifter’s Daughter by Sally Magnusson
13. The Tower of the Tyrant by J. T. Greathouse
14. Ice by Jacek Dukaj [Trans. Ursula Phillips]
15. Herculin: A Novel by Grace Byron
16. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood
17. The Burning Queen by Aparna Verma
18. The Dance and the Fire by Daniel Saldaña París [Trans. Christina MacSweeney]

Books That Others have Tempted Me With:

1. City of Others (The DEUS Files) by Jared Poon (Jan 26) via Elias Eells- Bar Cart Bookshelf
2. The Universe Box by Michael Swanwick (Out Feb 26) via Elias Eells- Bar Cart Bookshelf
3. The Iron Garden Sutra by A.D. Sui (Out Feb 26) via Elias Eells- Bar Cart Bookshelf
4. The Fate of Mary Rose (1981) by Caroline Blackwood via bewareofpity
5. Definitions by Matte Green via wordgrubber
6. Mirror Marked by Vida Cruz-Borja via Runalong Womble
7. The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills via joeevanswriter
8. The Cold Visitor by Jonathan Butcher via ghostlyreads
9. Morvern Callar by Alan Warner via clarkeys_bookstuf
10. Lázár by Nelio Biedermann (Mar. 2026) via quercusbooks
11. Hallows Hill by Olivia Isaac-Henry via sineadhannacraic
12. Beings by Ilana Masad via bisexualbookshelf
13. The Salvage by Anbara Salam lidoffadaffodil

Cover Reveal(s) of the Week

Womble’s Temptation Post:

This week’s Wombling Along Post has their own mega list of temptation from others including:

• God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines
• The Blackfire Blade by James Logan
• The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson
• The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw
• Unquiet Guests edited by Dan Coxon
• Madame Sosostris And The Festival For The Brokenhearted by Ben Okri

There is also links to:

• Discussions of dark academia
• Discussions of werewolves
• Iago-like charcters in crime books
• The female gothic

And more

They also point me towards Ancillary Reviews of Books’ Wow! Signal: October 2025

Wow! Signal column collects examples of diverse critical voices from around the web. This isn’t intended to be a comprehensive list, but rather a scattershot snapshot of interesting discussions, hopefully introducing ARB’s readers to new critics, books, topics, and venues.

Outro

If you’ve been following my StoryGraph profile, you might have noticed that I’ve paused reading both The Incandescent by Emily Tesh at 40% and The Devils by Joe Abercrombie at 61%. There’s nothing wrong with either of them, apart from the devils.

I am craving some space, or science fiction, or something murderous. I may have overdone the horror-like fantasy, which surprises me since I have all these haunted houses to see.

But rather than becoming jaded, I’m taking a break in the hope I’ll return to them refreshed and less jaded.

Have a good reading week.