2025 Book Review

and what's next in 2026!

In 2025 I finished 54 books. I did a mid-year review in July that you can check out where I discuss the first 36 books I read. I didn’t read at quite the same pace the second half of the year, because I spent a lot of time working on the final (for now) draft of Small Birds and starting a couple new projects in late fall/early winter.

During the second half of the year, I read:

2 Nonfiction Titles:

• The Backyard Chronicles by Amy Tan

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

2 Memoir/Essay:

• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

• A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

1 Poem Collection:

• Courtney and the Haunted Bong by Courtney Lee

1 Novella:

• The Most by Jessica Anthony

10 Fiction Novels:

• I Am the Cage by Allison Sweet Grant

• The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

• Love in the time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson

• Alchemised by SenLinYu

• Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood

• The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller

• The Mad Wife by Megan Church

• The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Liane Moriarty

• Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica

• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

I was surprised to discover that my top genre of the year was romance, mostly because it didn’t feel like I read that many romance novels. It’s still a relatively new genre for me, I didn’t really begin exploring romance until 2024, so compared to my usual reads, it may not have registered as excessive, even if the numbers say otherwise.

It’s hard to pick the standouts from the second half of the year, but I was most (hehe) surprised by The Most. I initially bought it because something about the cover pulled me in. I know it’s a bit of a faux pas to judge a book by its cover, but in this case, it worked out for me. It’s a strange little story that unfolds mostly over the course of a single day (with a few brief flashbacks), as a mother decides to spend an uncharacteristically hot afternoon in the pool, regardless of what her neighbors or family might think. That something so small could so perfectly capture the messy complications of the human condition—bravo!

It was a real treat to read the poetry of Courtney Lee in Courtney and the Haunted Bong. As the curator of White Stag Publishing, her discerning taste is unmistakable, and it shows on the page. She publishes extraordinary work because she is, herself, an extraordinary writer.

I was incredibly excited for Alchemised by SenLinYu. A dark gothic horror novel that centers around the immigrant protagonist, Helena. She is exploited by empire for her incredible gifting, as they war with necromancers—a war where even in death, there is no peace. At nearly a thousand pages, this tragic story is painful, surprising, timely and not a read for the faint of heart. There is a lot of controversy surrounding this book, mostly with its ties to the fanfiction world and one of the two original IP’s that initially breathed life into the story. I don’t want to draw attention to that. But as someone who has followed Sen’s writing on AO3 for nearly a decade… this story is a world all its own and while it hurt to read, I loved it.

I also feel deeply that An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is a book everyone should read. It took me many months to move through, but it demands that kind of time and attention. Understanding the true history of this continent—the violence, pain, and genocide that accompanied colonization—is not optional. If anything, the country would be a better place if more eyes, and in turn, more hearts, were opened to the truth.

As for the year as a whole, the standout is unquestionably James by Percival Everett. When we talk about must-reads, this is the one. I genuinely believe it should, and inevitably will, be required reading for high school students.

I’m still working my way through two prompt-driven books: The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft. Le Guin’s book functions as a kind of writing workbook, a “handbook for storytellers”, filled with exercises I’ve been moving through at a pace of one or two a week. The Book of Alchemy came to me as a journaling recommendation from Kolina Cicero of The Underlined, and I find myself reaching for it a few times a week as a way to gently extend my writing time.

As for my goals for 2026, I’ve set my sights on another fifty books. I’m starting strong with another recommendation from Kolina: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.

I’ve also made a short list of books I’d like to reread this year, including The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I know the ending of that series is famously controversial, but at the time, to me, it felt like the only fitting conclusion. I’m curious to see whether I still feel the same way all these years later. I’d also love to do a full reread of The Hunger Games series before Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters. And, finally, I’m determined to make real progress through the unread TBR stacks scattered throughout my house.

one of my unread piles begging me to READ them!

Amy DeBellis has a forthcoming novella, Methuselah (Ouroboros Press), that I can’t wait to get my hands on, along with Trista Marie Edwards’s poetry collection, Death Roll (White Stag Publishing), which I’m equally excited about. I have a strong feeling that 2026 is going to be a very good year for books.

What about you? Did you hit your reading goal in 2025? Was there a book that stood out above the rest, or something you’re especially excited to read in 2026?

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Azia Archer is a writer and artist living in Minnesota, USA. She is the author of Atoms and Evers (dancinggirlpress) and is currently querying her novel, Small Birds, a lyrical work of upmarket women’s fiction touched by magical realism. Her work often explores memory, grief, and the shifting edges of reality. She is the Editor-in-chief of the literary journal Root Smoke. She can be found at aziaarcher.com, on Substack where she writes The Room Is On Fire, or @aziaarcher across social platforms.

What I’m Reading: Besides what I shared above? Submissions for Root Smoke. They are so good you guys. I can’t wait to show you!

What I’m Writing: Draft 1 of Dream Date

What I’m Listening To: This playlist I made on Spotify: here, a heart

What I’m Watching: Finished the Stranger Things series finale. As my eldest daughter said, it was a wholesome ending. Truthfully, I’m not mad about it. It was ambiguous, yes. But I love an ambiguous ending. I have no profound thoughts on it all. And I do know I wasn’t angry like I was when GoT’s or The Handmaid’s Tale ended. So.

Until next time, may your chaos carry light.

*please note: this space might be undergoing a transformation in 2026. I’m not totally sure what to do with it and I think my days of blogging about personal antidotes may be coming to an end. Thanks for sticking around while I figure it out.