Just finished The Silent Patient. Good read, solid twist. Would recommend.

Books read in 2025:
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (re-read)
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle (re-read)
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides

On deck:
Project Hail Mary - Andy Wier
Pines - Blake Crouch
Wayward - Blake Crouch
The Last Town - Blake Crouch

Completed:
Memory's Legion by James S A Corey (4/5)
The Mercy of Gods by James S A Corey (4/5 with room to improve as the series continues)

Currently Reading:
A Woman Underground by Andrew Klavan
The Bible (M'Cheyne plan)

On Deck:
We Who Wrestle With by Jordan B Peterson
Dune (1-4) by Frank Herbert

First book finished of 2025:

The dark tower, book 7 of a series by the same name by Stephen King.

BenFiasco14 said:

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First book finished of 2025:

The dark tower, book 7 of a series by the same name by Stephen King.

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Did you stop where he told you to, or did you keep reading?
I kept reading.

lurker76 said:

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BenFiasco14 said:

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First book finished of 2025:

The dark tower, book 7 of a series by the same name by Stephen King.

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Did you stop where he told you to, or did you keep reading?
I kept reading.

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I kept reading. But it gave me way more questions than answers. But I'll just have to be happy with it, and agree with the narrator is was more about the journey than the destination

Current fiction: The Way of Kings, Sanderson. Never read it before.

Non-fiction: SPQR by Mary Beard

Just finished The Butcher's Masquerade - Matt Dinnimam for those that live under a rock. Oh boy, now I see why most rate it as the best in the series. Going to buy a tshirt….

Bleeding Kansas by Nicole Etcheson. Good overview of Kansas from its creation as a territory through statehood and the Civil War.

Stormlight #5: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson in-progress

FINALLY finished reading the chapter summaries of the first 4 books on the Coppermind, so now I can start book 5. I've been avoiding spoilers so far thank goodness.

Finished Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen last night. I was excited to read it based on all of the praise and attention it has received, and to be honest I'm baffled by it (the praise). It was an interesting read (quick read), had lots of information that I was intrigued to learn about, some good detail on history that isn't well known (or understood) sprinkled in, and does may you think and frankly scary as sht. But at the end of the day it read like a textbook, which if you remember reading your textbooks from school can be quite boring and laborious. Lot's of repetitive information and non-sensical detail in irrelevant areas where the book could be half it's length and still have done it's job. Quite frankly it became boring (past some of the sprinkles of new detail) and had to fight through it just to get it done. Now, an important point to highlight though is I read it between books 5 (just started book 6) of DCC books, so talk a huge shift in styles so it definitely felt fish out of water (and not to mention I was champing at the bit to be done to get back into the dungeons). Nuclear War would have been better has a 60 min documentary on the History or Military Channel rather than a book in my opinion.

The Comfort Crisis -Michael Easter. The book discusses how we humans are living too comfortably and its effects on society. It also parallels the author's month-long backcountry hunting trip for Alaskan Caribou as they migrate south. It is a great read that will make you want to put down your phone, eat less, and get in nature more. It is the perfect book to start a new year. I highly recommend it.

I just finished Shogun. It's going to be hard to top that one this year.

StinkyPinky said:

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Finished Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen last night. I was excited to read it based on all of the praise and attention it has received, and to be honest I'm baffled by it (the praise). It was an interesting read (quick read), had lots of information that I was intrigued to learn about, some good detail on history that isn't well known (or understood) sprinkled in, and does may you think and frankly scary as sht. But at the end of the day it read like a textbook, which if you remember reading your textbooks from school can be quite boring and laborious. Lot's of repetitive information and non-sensical detail in irrelevant areas where the book could be half it's length and still have done it's job. Quite frankly it became boring (past some of the sprinkles of new detail) and had to fight through it just to get it done. Now, an important point to highlight though is I read it between books 5 (just started book 6) of DCC books, so talk a huge shift in styles so it definitely felt fish out of water (and not to mention I was champing at the bit to be done to get back into the dungeons). Nuclear War would have been better has a 60 min documentary on the History or Military Channel rather than a book in my opinion.

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I read this one last year and share some of the same thoughts as you - the book felt about 30% longer than it needed to be, and switched back and forth between fiction and non-fiction. I thought the fictional parts were mostly extraneous (like the part about the president's helicopter crashing), but it did do an effective job of describing what could actually happen.

The scariest part for me was how all the war games simulations of nuclear war eventually lead to total destruction. Basically, there is no de-escalation scenario that prevents all nukes from being fired.

Yep, agreed on all accounts.

Big surprise point for me was how advance North Korea's capabilities/infrastructure appears to be. Much different than what I assumed

Interesting take on the book from a Sub-reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/1eoxmls/nuclear_war_a_scenario_by_annie_jacobsen/

Just read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, loved it & have the sequel "The Wise Man's Fear" arriving tomorrow.

Then I find out the third book hasn't been released & it's been like 12-13 years. Is this dude related to George RR Martin? WTF did I start another series that apparently will never wrap up? Oh well.

So what you're saying is, only Captain Kirk could figure out how to win a nuclear war game

The part of Nuclear War I found interesting was the next transition of power/leadership in North Korea tripping off the nuclear apocalypse.

Apache said:

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Just read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, loved it & have the sequel "The Wise Man's Fear" arriving tomorrow.

Then I find out the third book hasn't been released & it's been like 12-13 years. Is this dude related to George RR Martin? WTF did I start another series that apparently will never wrap up? Oh well.

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The guy will never finish it. I think his issue is he promised three books and set up way too much story for the 3rd. He's in his own head now.

Apache said:

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Just read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, loved it & have the sequel "The Wise Man's Fear" arriving tomorrow.

Then I find out the third book hasn't been released & it's been like 12-13 years. Is this dude related to George RR Martin? WTF did I start another series that apparently will never wrap up? Oh well.

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It's been a loooong time.

Apache said:

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Just read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, loved it & have the sequel "The Wise Man's Fear" arriving tomorrow.

Then I find out the third book hasn't been released & it's been like 12-13 years. Is this dude related to George RR Martin? WTF did I start another series that apparently will never wrap up? Oh well.

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Yup, safe to consider it as not happening. Damn shame because one of the greatest fantasy series written outside of of Tolkien. Same scenario as the Gentlemen ******* Series. Awesome books, but we may never see book 4 which is a damn shame.

Reading this now! About 170 pages in…I'm hoping it picks up.

Im about 1/5th the way through and cannot put it down. It's so good

Finally finished "A Desolation Called Peace" by Arkady Martine. Really great world-building and twists in sci-fi.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Im about 1/5th the way through and cannot put it down. It's so good

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Same. I really enjoyed it.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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Reading this now! About 170 pages in…I'm hoping it picks up.

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I think it does. Then, for me personally, the ending is meh. I liked The Martian better but PHM is a good read.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Im about 1/5th the way through and cannot put it down. It's so good

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It's funny, this is a great example of the polarizing feedback that is consistent with this book. I get excited when someone says its one of the best books they've read, but it's always followed up by someone saying its overrated. Will read it eventually, but such interesting contrasts on opinions.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. A re-read of my second favorite novel of all-time by my favorite author of all-time. This book gets better every time I read it.

13B said:

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Wolfpac 08 said:

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Reading this now! About 170 pages in…I'm hoping it picks up.

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I think it does. Then, for me personally, the ending is meh. I liked The Martian better but PHM is a good read.

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I read The Martian and audio-booked Project Hail Mary.

I was a very big fan of both. They are thoughtful and just fun. Weir did a great job, and I would recommend both, in either medium.

BUT, PHM actually has some aspects about it that lend itself to an audio-format. I won't spoil why, but there's places where its really, really key that you are able to hear the parts of the book, but can't really be shared in the same way with text-on-page.

These are great stories worth your time, I believe.

I read/listened to project Hail Mary in audiobook format as well. While 99% of my books are audiobooks, I do agree that this one worked better as it because of some aspects.

Finished Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier. Really good book. Certainly not anywhere near the 'best ever' category…but really good. I'll say I thought it started slow, but really hit its stride a little over halfway through. Author did a good job with how he got his memory back piece by piece and keeping the necessary but boring science lessons bearable for the reader. I did hate the way the main character was written. All the little asides came off as obnoxious and unnecessary. And if I had to hear one more time that he knew some random science fact bc he was a jr high science teacher….it just got old and didn't add anything to the story or character development for me.

Ultimately a solid book that I would recommend to others.

Books read in 2025:
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (re-read)
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle (re-read)
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
Project Hail Mary - Andy Wier

On deck:
Pines - Blake Crouch
Wayward - Blake Crouch
The Last Town - Blake Crouch

I'm at the part of the book where I see where the audio book format could help.

Loving this book so far. He's an incredibly creative writer.