End of Year Reading Round-up 2025
Jan. 9th, 2026 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amado1Total: 105 books
January: 11 books + one play that I read alongside Sagittarius Ponderosa but didn't annotate and don't remember the name of
- Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?: The Lost Toys, Tastes, and Trends of the 70s and 80s by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper - research for Slow Walk;
- Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam by Bob Greene - more research for Slow Walk;
- Brainstorm: An Investigation of the Mysterious Death of Film Star Natalie Wood by Sam Perroni - Christopher Walken obsession going strong;
- M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang;
- Kings of Drag 3 by Bruce Wang;
- Henry Howard/Earl of Surrey: Poems;
- Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems;
- Bent by Martin Sherman, the gay Holocaust play;
- In the Boom Boom Room by David Rabe;
- Sagittarius Ponderosa by M.J. Kaufman;
- SOME OTHER PLAY, it was in the same collection as Sagittarius Ponderosa T__T I can remember the plot and that I really disliked it, but not the title or author.
- Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn (reread).
February: 4 books
- Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath;
- Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling by Robert Kunzman;
- People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn, searing book;
- Dragstripping: Poems by Jan Beatty.
March: 5 books
- Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe (who doesn't love Marlowe?);
- Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy by Lucas Wilson - mediocre, can't remember much of it now;
- The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat by Eric Jager - excellent, made into a movie with Adam Driver that sucked;
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer;
- Unsolved Indiana: Murder Mysteries, Bizarre Deaths, & Unexplained Disappearances by Autumn Bones.
April: 8 books
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones;
- Appetite by Aaron Smith - queer poetry, pop-culture references, excellent;
- Albert Nobbs by George Moore, just as good as the movie;
- The Judas Kiss by David Hare, a depressing play about Oscar Wilde, very good;
- Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones;
- Filming T.E. Lawrence: Korda's Lost Epic by Andrew Kelly;
- The Last Days of T.E. Lawrence: A Leaf in the Wind by Paul Marriott;
- Christopher Walken A to Z: The Man, the Movies, the Legend by Robert Schnakenberg - Walken obsession still in full swing.
May: 16 books
- Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam by Linh Dinh - research for Slow Walk;
- T.E. Lawrence: Unraveling the Enigma by Andrew Norman;
- Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, like Stephen King's IT. Very flawed, very enjoyable;
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser - read for school, still obsessed;
- Say A Little Prayer by Jenna Voris, a decent YA lesbian romance;
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins;
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins;
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins;
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins;
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells;
- Artificial Condition by Martha Wells;
- Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells;
- Exit Strategy by Martha Wells;
- The Pope Is Not Gay! by Angelo Quattrocchi - nonfiction and not as good as it sounds;
- Network Effect by Martha Wells;
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore -- still very much mass-market, but more rewarding than Murderbot and Hunger Games for sure.
June: 11 books
- Never Flinch by Stephen King - I spent a lot of time this month buying brand-new releases and rapidly consuming them. This one sucked;
- Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix;
- The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter, not that new but decent;
- Drawing and Cartooning 1,001 Caricatures by Dick Gautier, sent to me by Claude;
- Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova, amazing;
- Devil House by John Darnielle, complex, flawed;
- Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn (reread);
- Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning (reread);
- Strange Pictures by Uketsu - SO disappointing, absolute dogshit;
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde, ofc a classic;
- Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel, very funny and sweet.
July: 14 books
- The Evil Friendship by Vin Packer - this was the month of dark yuri;
- If the Stars Wish for Happiness by Wang Mo;
- A High School Girl & A Widow Part 1 by irua;
- A High School Girl& A Widow Part 2 by irua;
- A Chance of Yuri by irua;
- Whisper His Sin by Vin Packer, a brief foray into m/m, but it sucked;
- You're My Sunflower by Wang Mo;
- Aoi is too hot for me to handle by Yanqi Momota;
- One Last Run by Bruce Oakley, a lesbian romance;
- The Couple in the White Room by Ryoko Yamagishi;
- Big Name Fan by Ruthie Knox, a very BAD lesbian romance;
- Dead Funny: Humor in Hitler's Germany by Rudolph Herzog, research for Nazine II;
- My Dearest Father by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (I watched Amadeus and wanted incest fic);
- Another by Paul Tremblay - just an excellent middle-grade horror by a great author.
August: 11 books
- The Prom Queen by R.L. Stine, read to compare with the new movie adaptation;
- Witches' Children by Patricia Clapp, read after watching The Crucible;
- The Sensuous Dirty Old Man by Isaac Asimov, found at the flea market;
- Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost, aka the Twin Peaks obsession begins;
- The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper by Scott Frost, a much better writer than his brother, surprisingly;
- Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance by Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, a recurring interest;
- The Salem Witch Trials Reader by Frances Hill, see "Witches' Children";
- Boarding School Homosexuality: From Plato's Academy to the Princeton Rub by Michael Hone, my interests rapidly cycling away from Twin Peaks and Salem;
- A Very Private School: A Memoir by Charles Spencer, read for the zine Madelgard and I were brainstorming;
- Scout's Honor; Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution by Patrick Boyle, which ties into Twin Peaks;
- Scout Camp: Sex, Death, and Secret Societies Inside the Boy Scouts of America by James Renner.
September: 4 books
- The Official Boy Scouts Handbook, 1979 by William Hillcourt - interestingly I just read the 50s edition for a different fic, and the differences were fascinating. Far more autonomy given to the boys, more of a "just have fun" vibe, and far less visible bureaucracy related to badge-earning;
- Super Lovers by Miyuki Abe;
- The Rats by James Herbert;
- Nam by Mark Baker, back to Slow Walk research.
October: 10 books
- Foe by Iain Reid - a quick 3-star read, not very impressive;
- Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt - LOATHE ENTIRELY;
- Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut;
- Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov;
- Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis;
- Fantastic Orgy by Alexander Moritz Frey;
- Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood;
- David Lynch: Someone is in my House by David Lynch, an art book;
- Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet;
- DEATH BOOK by Bruce Labruce, a photo book.
November: 8 books
- Walking Practice by Dolki Min - disliked very much;
- Penance by Eliza Clark - super complex feelings for this one, overall recommend it;
- The Darker Proof: Stories from a Crisis by Adam Mars-Jones and Edmund White;
- All S/he Wanted by Aphrodite Jones;
- The Zombie Pit: Stories by Sam D'Allesandro;
- I Look Divine by Christopher Coe;
- Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery by Casey Parks;
- Disciplining Gender by John M. Sloop.
December: 2 books
- Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg;
- David Bowie by Denis O'Regan - a collection of mostly never-before-seen photos from the 70s-90s.
Absolute favorite of the year: Jean Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers.
Honorable mentions: Dykette, Mapping the Interior, The Darker Proof, Zombie Pit, I Look Divine, Goodbye to Berlin, and Mother Night.
Really enjoyed the poems, essays, and short stories I read for the Bradbury Challenge in December, which I was too lazy to list here. Most of the nonfiction I read was informative and helpful, though "Shame-Sex Attraction" just made me weary in the same way Roxanne Gay's collection of essays on rape culture did.
Books I read significant chunks of but didn't count: A trans man's memoir called "Becoming a Visible Man" -- I was probably 80% through this when the browser I was reading it on crashed, and I never bothered to find my spot again. Can't remember the author's name right now, which is awful, because he's famous in the trans community. Also "Wicked" by Greg Maguire -- really enjoyed it, forgot I owned it, stopped reading.
January: 11 books + one play that I read alongside Sagittarius Ponderosa but didn't annotate and don't remember the name of
- Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?: The Lost Toys, Tastes, and Trends of the 70s and 80s by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper - research for Slow Walk;
- Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam by Bob Greene - more research for Slow Walk;
- Brainstorm: An Investigation of the Mysterious Death of Film Star Natalie Wood by Sam Perroni - Christopher Walken obsession going strong;
- M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang;
- Kings of Drag 3 by Bruce Wang;
- Henry Howard/Earl of Surrey: Poems;
- Sir Thomas Wyatt: The Complete Poems;
- Bent by Martin Sherman, the gay Holocaust play;
- In the Boom Boom Room by David Rabe;
- Sagittarius Ponderosa by M.J. Kaufman;
- SOME OTHER PLAY, it was in the same collection as Sagittarius Ponderosa T__T I can remember the plot and that I really disliked it, but not the title or author.
- Star Wars: Outbound Flight by Timothy Zahn (reread).
February: 4 books
- Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath;
- Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling by Robert Kunzman;
- People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn, searing book;
- Dragstripping: Poems by Jan Beatty.
March: 5 books
- Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe (who doesn't love Marlowe?);
- Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors' Stories of Conversion Therapy by Lucas Wilson - mediocre, can't remember much of it now;
- The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat by Eric Jager - excellent, made into a movie with Adam Driver that sucked;
- Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer;
- Unsolved Indiana: Murder Mysteries, Bizarre Deaths, & Unexplained Disappearances by Autumn Bones.
April: 8 books
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones;
- Appetite by Aaron Smith - queer poetry, pop-culture references, excellent;
- Albert Nobbs by George Moore, just as good as the movie;
- The Judas Kiss by David Hare, a depressing play about Oscar Wilde, very good;
- Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones;
- Filming T.E. Lawrence: Korda's Lost Epic by Andrew Kelly;
- The Last Days of T.E. Lawrence: A Leaf in the Wind by Paul Marriott;
- Christopher Walken A to Z: The Man, the Movies, the Legend by Robert Schnakenberg - Walken obsession still in full swing.
May: 16 books
- Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam by Linh Dinh - research for Slow Walk;
- T.E. Lawrence: Unraveling the Enigma by Andrew Norman;
- Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, like Stephen King's IT. Very flawed, very enjoyable;
- The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser - read for school, still obsessed;
- Say A Little Prayer by Jenna Voris, a decent YA lesbian romance;
- Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins;
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins;
- Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins;
- Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins;
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells;
- Artificial Condition by Martha Wells;
- Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells;
- Exit Strategy by Martha Wells;
- The Pope Is Not Gay! by Angelo Quattrocchi - nonfiction and not as good as it sounds;
- Network Effect by Martha Wells;
- The God of the Woods by Liz Moore -- still very much mass-market, but more rewarding than Murderbot and Hunger Games for sure.
June: 11 books
- Never Flinch by Stephen King - I spent a lot of time this month buying brand-new releases and rapidly consuming them. This one sucked;
- Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix;
- The Handyman Method by Nick Cutter, not that new but decent;
- Drawing and Cartooning 1,001 Caricatures by Dick Gautier, sent to me by Claude;
- Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova, amazing;
- Devil House by John Darnielle, complex, flawed;
- Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn (reread);
- Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning (reread);
- Strange Pictures by Uketsu - SO disappointing, absolute dogshit;
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde, ofc a classic;
- Spent: A Comic Novel by Alison Bechdel, very funny and sweet.
July: 14 books
- The Evil Friendship by Vin Packer - this was the month of dark yuri;
- If the Stars Wish for Happiness by Wang Mo;
- A High School Girl & A Widow Part 1 by irua;
- A High School Girl& A Widow Part 2 by irua;
- A Chance of Yuri by irua;
- Whisper His Sin by Vin Packer, a brief foray into m/m, but it sucked;
- You're My Sunflower by Wang Mo;
- Aoi is too hot for me to handle by Yanqi Momota;
- One Last Run by Bruce Oakley, a lesbian romance;
- The Couple in the White Room by Ryoko Yamagishi;
- Big Name Fan by Ruthie Knox, a very BAD lesbian romance;
- Dead Funny: Humor in Hitler's Germany by Rudolph Herzog, research for Nazine II;
- My Dearest Father by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (I watched Amadeus and wanted incest fic);
- Another by Paul Tremblay - just an excellent middle-grade horror by a great author.
August: 11 books
- The Prom Queen by R.L. Stine, read to compare with the new movie adaptation;
- Witches' Children by Patricia Clapp, read after watching The Crucible;
- The Sensuous Dirty Old Man by Isaac Asimov, found at the flea market;
- Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier by Mark Frost, aka the Twin Peaks obsession begins;
- The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper by Scott Frost, a much better writer than his brother, surprisingly;
- Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance by Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, a recurring interest;
- The Salem Witch Trials Reader by Frances Hill, see "Witches' Children";
- Boarding School Homosexuality: From Plato's Academy to the Princeton Rub by Michael Hone, my interests rapidly cycling away from Twin Peaks and Salem;
- A Very Private School: A Memoir by Charles Spencer, read for the zine Madelgard and I were brainstorming;
- Scout's Honor; Sexual Abuse in America's Most Trusted Institution by Patrick Boyle, which ties into Twin Peaks;
- Scout Camp: Sex, Death, and Secret Societies Inside the Boy Scouts of America by James Renner.
September: 4 books
- The Official Boy Scouts Handbook, 1979 by William Hillcourt - interestingly I just read the 50s edition for a different fic, and the differences were fascinating. Far more autonomy given to the boys, more of a "just have fun" vibe, and far less visible bureaucracy related to badge-earning;
- Super Lovers by Miyuki Abe;
- The Rats by James Herbert;
- Nam by Mark Baker, back to Slow Walk research.
October: 10 books
- Foe by Iain Reid - a quick 3-star read, not very impressive;
- Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt - LOATHE ENTIRELY;
- Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut;
- Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov;
- Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis;
- Fantastic Orgy by Alexander Moritz Frey;
- Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood;
- David Lynch: Someone is in my House by David Lynch, an art book;
- Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet;
- DEATH BOOK by Bruce Labruce, a photo book.
November: 8 books
- Walking Practice by Dolki Min - disliked very much;
- Penance by Eliza Clark - super complex feelings for this one, overall recommend it;
- The Darker Proof: Stories from a Crisis by Adam Mars-Jones and Edmund White;
- All S/he Wanted by Aphrodite Jones;
- The Zombie Pit: Stories by Sam D'Allesandro;
- I Look Divine by Christopher Coe;
- Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery by Casey Parks;
- Disciplining Gender by John M. Sloop.
December: 2 books
- Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg;
- David Bowie by Denis O'Regan - a collection of mostly never-before-seen photos from the 70s-90s.
Absolute favorite of the year: Jean Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers.
Honorable mentions: Dykette, Mapping the Interior, The Darker Proof, Zombie Pit, I Look Divine, Goodbye to Berlin, and Mother Night.
Really enjoyed the poems, essays, and short stories I read for the Bradbury Challenge in December, which I was too lazy to list here. Most of the nonfiction I read was informative and helpful, though "Shame-Sex Attraction" just made me weary in the same way Roxanne Gay's collection of essays on rape culture did.
Books I read significant chunks of but didn't count: A trans man's memoir called "Becoming a Visible Man" -- I was probably 80% through this when the browser I was reading it on crashed, and I never bothered to find my spot again. Can't remember the author's name right now, which is awful, because he's famous in the trans community. Also "Wicked" by Greg Maguire -- really enjoyed it, forgot I owned it, stopped reading.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-09 10:41 pm (UTC)I love Oscar Wilde and Alison Bechdel. I got to meet her at a book signing years ago.
I read Mother Night as well as a LOT of other Kurt Vonnegut books. I went through a HUGE Kurt Vonnegut phase in high school.
I love Wicked, the book, I've heard some of the songs from the musical but I've been informed it's totally different from the book to the point where I'm not really interested in seeing it.
Most of the other books you mentioned that I haven't read sound really interesting to me.