Reading Roundup Wrapup: June 2025

Pick of the month: The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar. This was a solid novella I read for the Hugos, which I ended up ranking second. A neat take on academia and oppression in the context of a generation ship. My other highlights this month were The Deep Dark (great graphic novel, also a Hugo finalist) and Track Changes (great criticism, also a Hugo finalist).

All books read:

1. My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Book Two by Emil Ferris
2. The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
3. The Feast Makers by H. A. Clarke
4. The Penguin History of England: 7. England in the Eighteenth Century by J. H. Plumb
5. The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
6. The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
7. The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
8. The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
9. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Toward the Night by James Swallow
10. Track Changes: Selected Reviews by Abigail Nussbaum
11. The End of the World: Classic Tales of Apocalyptic Science Fiction compiled by Michael Kelahan
12. Sky Pyrates over Oz by Sherwood Smith, illustrated by Kim McFarland

All books acquired:

1. Doctor Who Magazine Bookazine #36: Daleks: The Ultimate Guide edited by Marcus Hearn with Alan Barnes
2. Young Avengers by Heinberg & Cheung by Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, et al.
3. The Fantastic Four Omnibus, Volume 6 by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Keith Pollard, et al.
4. North Woods by Daniel Mason
5. The Fuzzy Papers by H. Beam Piper
6. We Are Robin, Volume 2: Jokers by Lee Bermejo, Jorge Corona, et al.

Half of these I got for free! North Woods was my prize for completing the library's summer reading challenge, The Fuzzy Papers I found in the free boxes at the library store, and We Are Robin was sent to me by mistake when I bought a completely different comic from an Amazon seller.

Currently reading:

• A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
• Shadows of Self: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson
• Legion of Super-Heroes Archives, Volume 2 by Edmond Hamilton, John Forte, et al.
• Young Avengers by Heinberg & Cheung by Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, et al.
• The Pelican History of England: 8. England in the Nineteenth Century (1815-1914) by David Thomson
• Doctor Who: Short Trips #20: Destination Prague edited by Steven Savile

Almost done with Hugo reading—just one more novel to go after A Sorceress Comes to Call—and then hopefully I can catch up on all the other reading that has piled up... and then get back to my list!

Up next in my rotations:

1. Victorians and the Prehistoric: Tracks to a Lost World by Michael Freeman
2. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Available Light by Dayton Ward
3. American Gods by Neil Gaiman 
4. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Books remaining on "To be read" list: 673 (up 3)

That number is creeping up! Gotta get it under control.