Gav Reads

A Web Log of Reading

Tag: book-blog

  • Sunday Summary: 28 Dec 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:

    • Winter’s Gifts [Rivers of London #9.5] by Ben Aaronovitch [2023]

    Aaronovitch broke my reader’s block in April this year, and I’m quite pleased that I’m leaving 2025 on a high. It’s a great side quest for a side character, and for Ben to spend time on the other side of the pond.

    Currently Reading: 

    • ???

    I do need to find something to read before midnight to reach 100 days of pages read on The StoryGraph app. I have no idea what it will be.

    DNF’d:

    • ?

    Nothing this week, and I’ve probably witched myself by typing that.

    Book-ish Thoughts

    Rosanna posed a question on Bluesky that I still don’t have an answer to:

    Reviewer friend question – when is the best time to review a book? I don't mean for the book/author/publisher, but for you as a reviewer, or other reasons if they exist?

    — Roseanna Pendlebury (@chloroformtea.bsky.social) 2025-12-24T17:38:06.052Z

    I want to say that, based on my current experience of buying books, it’s whenever the reviewer has read it. But does that help the book? Should a reviewer be showing off the wares of publishers (whatever form they take) and act like a book merchant?

    This circles back to what is a review for?

    Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

    I got tempted by the guardian’s best poetry books of 2025 selection and then enabled by my Christmas book vouchers.

    Rishi Dastidar’s The best poetry books of 2025 recommendations is:a) brilliantly written b) persuasive I try to buy some poetry with Christmas vouchers and this year, thanks to Rishi I’m picking up:That Broke into Shining Crystals by Richard ScottThe Book of Jonah by Luke KennardYou?

    — @gavreads (@gavreads.co.uk) 2025-12-21T08:06:00.812Z

    I did manage to get copies of The Broke into Shining Crystals and The Book of Jonah, but then went back to get Southern Sonnets by Leo Boix and The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor.

    Two books rest side by side on a train table with a wooden-effect finish. On the left, Southernmost Sonnets by Leo Boix shows a vivid collage of birds, butterflies, flowers, a snake, and a leopard layered over a map, with a quote from Chloe Aridjis. On the right, The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor features a black-and-white photo of a smiling woman, softened by a pink title band. A black bag peeks out beneath them.

    Have you spent your Christmas vouchers yet?

    I also got another voucher that I turned into ebooks – as I got mostly poetry with my one voucher, I thought I’d pick up some ‘random’ SF (random as I’d not heard much, if anything, about them:

    • If the Stars Are Lit by Sara K Ellis
    • Galaxy Grifter (Blackjack Interstellar Book 1) by A. Zaykova
    • The Shattered Skies (The Cruel Stars Trilogy) by John Birmingham
    • The Cruel Stars (The Cruel Stars Trilogy) by John Birmingham
    • Lake of Souls: The Collected Short Fiction by Ann Leckie (I have heard of Anne)

    Cover(s) of the Week

    The Girl with a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean
    To Be Published in May 2026

    Outro

    My aim is to post my look back at 2025 (and a glance into 2026) before midnight on New Year’s Eve, but I haven’t started yet. I am going to try, as it would be a nice way to round off the year.

  • Sunday Summary: 21 Dec 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 Incandescent by Emily Tesh [2025]

    If you’ve read Authority by Jeff VanderMeer, you’ll know that the mundane isn’t quite as mundane as the story portrays. I’m not sure where my thoughts and feelings sit after finishing it. At the moment, it feels like an experiment that didn’t quite have the results I expected. But I don’t know what I expected – so is it me or the work?

    Currently Reading: 

    • ???

    As of this post, I’m still deciding. Do I call it quits on my 2025 reading and start afresh in 2026? I have a reading streak on The StoryGraph to keep up, so I will be reading something.

    DNF’d:

    • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir [2021] (in Audiobook format)

    I went in with an open mind. I knew I might not like it after trying The Martian, but so many people love the audiobook that I thought we might have got on. We don’t. Partly, it’s a humour mismatch. I don’t find it funny (that’s on me). But also, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough.

    Book-ish Thoughts

    The only thing that springs to mind right now is that there are still 10 days left, and making a best of the year book lists feels disrespectful to what you might pick up before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

    Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

    And a special shout-out to Womble for their Santa Womble series, highlighting gifts that someone could get you, you could get someone else, or for yourself across the genres.

    Cover(s) of the Week

    Hello, Limerence Paperback by Momo Yamaguchi

    Outro

    I hope Santa brings you gift vouchers or books from your wish list, and more importantly, time to read your backlogs.

  • Sunday Summary: 14 Dec 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:

    • Physical: When the Museum Is Closed by Emi Yagi [Trans. Yuki Tejima] [2023/2025] 

    This is about a woman who falls in love with a statue and has a full-blown conversations with it. If you’re into slightly surreal and weird fiction, this is 100% for you. I loved it.

    • Audiobook/e-book: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie [2025]

    For those who have been following along, finishing The Devils has taken me a while. It’s not the book, it’s the fact that it was an audiobook (I just haven’t found the right situations to listen to anything). Well, it was slightly the book; it’s episodic, so once you finish one block, there isn’t a hook into the next section. However, switching to the ebook, I picked up the pace and found the ending perfect for the story. I am really glad I made it to the end. I wonder what book 2 will bring?

    Currently Reading: 

    • The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

    I have picked this back up after Womble’s instance that it’s not what I think it is – I’m back into it and curious again – I wonder what’s going to happen?

    Book-ish Thoughts

    I do love the lists that prizes present, especially when they include books I might not otherwise encounter. The TFR Awards is one on them:

    The 2025 Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction (TFR Awards)

    I own, but have yet to read, Lessons in Magic and Disaster and Black Flame, and until checking the availability of Woodworking, I didn’t own that either, but I do know thanks to a silly ebook sale.

    Anyway, I’m intrigued by Stag Dance and A/S/L but I’m not sure that they are books I’ll end up reading.

    Here’s the 2025 Longlist for Best Transfeminine Fiction for you to check out:

    • Lessons in Magic and Disaster – Charlie Jane Anders
    • A Mask for the Sun – Kay F. Atkinson
    • Magica Riot: Full Bloom – Kara Buchanan
    • Disappoint Me – Nicola Dinan
    • Black Flame – Gretchen Felker-Martin
    • Keeping the Peace – Tris Husband
    • A Hungry Light – Zin Nabelle
    • Glitch Girl! – Rainie Oet
    • Stag Dance – Torrey Peters
    • Woodworking – Emily St. James
    • A/S/L – Jeanne Thornton
    • A Rotten Girl – Jemma Topaz
    • Machines of Consent – Sophia Turner
    • One of the Boys – Victoria Zeller

    Any that you’d recommend?

    If you want more information about any of the books, the post on The Transfeminine Review includes descriptions and other details for each.

    Books That Others Have Tempted Me With:

    Cover(s) of the Week

    Outro

    We’ve almost at the end of the year, which is making me reflective.

    I’ve kept track of my 2025 reading thanks to thestorygraph.com and updated my Read in ’25 page list. Of the 32 books, only 6 were published in 2025. 14 books were from 2024, so if this pattern continues, I’ll be catching up with 2025 next year!

    I’m still figuring out what I want to post in 2026, but for now, I think I want to keep doing these weekly posts, though they do take more time than you’d think. Not sure what I’m doing with reviews, though.

    Anyway, I hope you find time to do some reading despite the pre-Christmas week chaos.

  • Thoughts: Embracing the DNF

    This week, I have DNF’d (Did Not Finish), aka started but not finished the following books:

    • The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley [2024]
    • Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis [2024]
    • Extremophile by Ian Green [2024]

    And in May, I DNF’d:

    • The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century by Olga Ravn [2018]
    • Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami [2016/2025]

    And before that, I was struggling with the following:

    • Red Sonja: Consumed by Gail Simone [2024]

    That one actually put me in a reading slump. 

    Are they ‘bad’ books? Definitely not. They’ve got mainly positive reviews. A Womble, for example, enjoyed The Ministry of Time and Extremophile. Most of them are award-shortlisted, so someone has definitely advocated for them. 

    Do they work for my brain? No. At least, they didn’t work for me when I picked them up. And part of my brain won’t let go of them. Why didn’t I like them? Why did other people enjoy what I did not?

    It’s those kinds of spirals that cause a short circuit.

    I joked on Bluesky that the theme for the rest of 2025 is: 

    DNF With Gay Abandon.

    I am considering getting it printed on a t-shirt.

    A T-Shirt with a logo of a book in the middle. Above that is 'DNF' and below is, 'With Gay Abandon'
    T-Shirt Idea

    What I don’t want to do is put myself in the position of another reading slump. They are brutal. I am giving myself permission to DNF for the silliest of reasons without guilt.

    It might be the book, or it might be me, but I’m going to try not to read too much into it if you don’t? 

    Though I don’t understand how anyone made sense of Under the Eye of the Big Bird… 

    I’m leaving this post here before I get myself in trouble.

    But before I do, I’ve avoided a slump. I’m reading Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner [2024], and the narration is doing the right things for my brain.