My Favorite Books Read In 2025

Yeah yeah yeah, I need to write up a summary before posting this, I know. I brag about how many books I've read this year (90 books total) and how many pages that equals (19,731 pages total) and whatever else. It's the same spiel I give at the end of every year now.

The important part here is that I overhauled how I sorted and categorized my books, which will hopefully help with conveying the finishing numbers. I've combined and removed categories - we are no longer separating things based on sci-fi or fantasy being Earth-based or secondary world, western and historical and contemporary are all in the same chunk, and somehow the science fantasy category is still alive.

As usual, I will only be listing my 9s and 10s from my 10 point ranking system, giving us 42 books (which is 35 unique entries thanks to the few manga volumes I picked up for various series). Most of my thoughts on books I've been reading can be found on my jasper-book-stash Tumblr blog.

Science Fiction

  • Starter Villain | John Scalzi

Mystery, Horror, Paranormal, Thriller

none this year

Contemporary, Historical, Western

  • Ada Lace, Take Me To Your Leader | Emily Calandrelli, Tamson Weston, Renee Kurilla
  • Ban This Book | Alan Gratz

Religious Text, Mythology, Occult, Magical, Spiritual

  • A Popular Dictionary Of Shinto | Brian Bocking
  • A Witch's Ally: Building A Magical Relationship With Animal Familiars & Companions | Dodie Graham McKay
  • Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic From Appalachia | Jake Richards
  • Bilingual Guide To Japan: Shinto Shrines | KATO Kenji, IAWASAKI Jun, Christopher Cooling, YANAGITA Takamichi
  • Divine Dirt: The Art Of Using Dirt In Magic, Ritual & Spellcraft | Charity L Bedell
  • Granny Thornapple's Book Of Charms: Magic & Folklore From The Ozark Mountains | Brandon Weston
  • Llewellyn’s Complete Book Of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape Of Magic, Mystery, And Tradition | Cory Thomas Hutcheson, Brandon Weston, Melissa A Ivanco-Murray, Starr Casas, Stephanie Rose Bird, H Byron Ballard, Benebell Wen, Jake Richards, Alexander Cummins, Lilith Dorsey, Sandra Santiago, Robert L Schreiwer, Via Hedera, Kenya T Coviak, Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes, Robert Phoenix, Eliseo "Cheo" Torres, Morrigane Feu, E F E Lacharity, J Allen Cross, Morgan Daimler, Dee Norman, Aaron Oberon, Mario Del Angel-Guevara 
  • Pocket Osteomancy: A Simple Bone Divination Set | Lupa Greenwolf
  • Skull Scrying: Animal Skulls In Divinatory Trance Work | Lupa Greenwolf
  • The Book Of Japanese Folklore: An Encyclopedia Of The Spirits, Monsters, And Yokai Of Japanese Myth: The Stories Of The Mischievous Kappa, Trickster Kitsune, Horrendous Oni, And More | Thersa Matsuura, Michelle Wang
  • The Book Of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures Of Japanese Folklore | Michael Dylan Foster, Shinonome Kijin
  • The Green Witch's Guide To Herbal Magick: A Handbook Of Green Hearthcraft And Plant-Based Spellcraft | Annabel Margaret
  • Weather Magic: Witchery, Science, Lore | Debra L Burris
  • Werewolf Magick: Authentic Practical Lycanthropy | Denny Sargent

Romance, Erotica, Adjacent

  • A Sign Of Affection, volumes 1-4 | Suu Morishita 
  • Brokeback Mountain | Annie Proulx
  • My Roommate Is A Vampire | Jenna Levine
  • Snow White With The Red Hair, volumes 24-25 | Surata Akiduki
  • Song Of The Crimson Flower | Julie C Dao

Fantasy

  • Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated, volumes 2-5 | Katsura Ise, Takuma Yokata
  • Goblin Summoner: A Deckbuilding LitRPG | Tracy Gregory
  • Sourdough | Robin Sloan
  • The Teller Of Small Fortunes | Julie Leong

Science Fantasy

  • Piranesi | Susanna Clarke

Poetry

none this year

Nonfiction

  • A Quick & Easy Guide To Queer & Trans Identities | Mady G, Jules Zuckerberg
  • Bridge Of Words: Esperanto And The Dream Of A Universal Language | Esther Schor
  • Cults: A True Crime Collection: The Shocking True Stories Of The Heaven’s Gate, The Manson Family, Jim Jones, The Branch Davidians, And More Deathly Cases | Wendy Biddlecomb Agsar
  • Doctor Esperanto And The Language Of Hope | Mara Rockliff, Zosia Dzierzawska
  • Dr. Chuck Tingle's Complete Guide To Love | Chuck Tingle
  • Killers Of The Flower Moon: The Osage Murders And The Birth Of The FBI | David Grann
  • The House Of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest For Freedom | Shari Franke
  • The Serviceberry: Abundance And Reciprocity In The Natural World | Robin Wall Kimmerer

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