I (heart) Goodreads

If you're NOT a "Book Nerd" just go ahead and skip this post right now; there will be more "art stuff" tomorrow! But as a lifelong reader, I LOVE doing the Goodreads Challenge each year, and I especially love getting the email with all my stats in it. Full Disclosure: 99% of my reading is via audiobooks, hence the fairly high total of 125. Oh yeah, and I read a truly embarrassing number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches this year, even for me. If you're on Goodreads, I'd love for you to tag me as a friend there... I love seeing what other folks are reading and what books they LOVE!

Here are all of my 4 star reads from 2025, in reverse chronological order:

The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict

I love holiday mysteries generally, and this one kept me guessing until the end. I fell in love with Edie, the grumpy protagonist; but the characters, all round, were great!

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

This one popped up as a recommendation on SO MANY Bookstagram posts, I had to succumb... and it is indeed a beautiful and original story. I suggest the audiobook, as it has an outstanding narrator AND original music and singing by the author and her sister.

The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie

Technically I've read this before, but it somehow never made it onto my Goodreads list. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Sean Pratt and it was every bit the classic, cozy, Golden Age mystery I remembered.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

I honestly didn't think he could write a set of quirky characters I'd love more than the gang from Thursday Murder Club, but I was wrong. (Note that this book is less "cozy" by which I mean stronger suspense/danger and some realistic violence; probably NOT a good bedtime book!)

A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages by Anthony Bale

If you're not a hardcore history-lover with an interest in the Middle Ages, this won't be the book for you; but I am and it was!

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett

I have read ALL of Discworld, multiple times, and have no intention of stopping any time soon. Death and The Watch are my favorite characters and this book is a stand-out, imo.

Tourists by Lucy Lethbridge

Again, if you're not into sort of "niche" history, you probably won't love this. I happen to love historical travelogues and this taps a lot of unpublished first person sources (letters, diaries etc)  to give a great overview of the relatively recent time when we humans started traveling for fun.

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen

Again with the niche history. I find these hyper-specific types of "round up" books fascinating; and this one was especially well-written and narrated.

Vermeer's Hat by Timothy Brook

Surprise! More funky history! This time the "filter" is a survey of some of the more status items in Vermeer's paintings, pointing up the fact that the seventeenth century is when global trading originated and the Dutch were leading the way.

Gods, Wasps and Stranglers by Mike Shanahan

Everything you never knew you wanted to know about fig trees! Surprisingly fascinating; tho I confess that I LOVE fresh figs AND am lucky enough to have a neighbor who generously shares her fig tree with me, so I was basically this guy's target audience!

Unruly by David Mitchell

This is the British David Mitchell, half of the British comedy team Mitchell and Webb. But first, he was a history major at Cambridge University and this is a fun, fast, funny (but accurate) history of the monarchy up to Elizabeth the first.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

(NOT the same David Mitchell as above!) It is hard to believe this book is 20+ years old; it feels VERY current and it's hard to imagine a better example of metafiction. I recommend the audiobook because it has six different (excellent!) narrators; one for each of the interconnected stories.