A-Town's Bookshelf: The Year in Books, 2025

Greetings, greetings! The new year brings another handful of Year in Review posts, and the first of those much-anticipated posts is this one: A-Town's Bookshelf! Join me as I recap all of the books I read and listened to over the past year. Of course, as I've stated in the past, I understand that my total number of books will sound absurd to some of you and like a little drop in the bucket to others, but I've spent a lot of time with literature over the past 12 months and, taking advantage of paternity leave, have been able to put together a decent list of (mostly) good stuff.

I'd also like to take a moment to thank Audible and Libby, which, to date, have saved me (*checks notes*) an approximate amount of just under $2,900 on Audiobooks over the past three years. (That's about $900 higher than the total I mentioned in last year's post, which is crazy. Just insane.) I also couldn't have done this post without the services of Goodreads.com and the Fable mobile app, which I started using this year. Goodreads has been my go-to service for tracking my reading since 2023, and Fable was a fun new tool that encouraged me to read every day for 232 days and counting.

In 2025, I enjoyed lots of sci-fi (tons of Star Wars), ventured into some fantasy and (LitRPGs, as nerdy as that has been), listened to a handful of celebrity memoirs, bounced back to some murder mysteries and thrillers, and finished off the Harry Potter audiobooks with my wife (who had never read or listened beyond Prisoner of Azkaban before, so that was fun).

Thirteen books received a perfect five-star rating from me, and only one received a one-star review. There were maybe three or four books that I started but gave up on; those books will not be mentioned here.

With no further ado, let's jump in and break it all down!

Thanks for reading.

Books Read

Here is a list of all of the books I completed in 2025, along with my star rating:

1. Kill the Beast (Villains #11) by Serena Valentino, 3/5 stars
2. The Guest List by Lucy Foley, 2/5 stars
3. Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross #1) by James Patterson, 4/5 stars
4. The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss, 2/5 stars
5. Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross #2) by James Patterson, 3/5 stars
6. Temptation of the Force (Star Wars: The High Republic #8) by Tessa Gratton, 2/5 stars (physical copy)
7. Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl #1) by Matt Dinniman, 3/5 stars
8. Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts by Jennie Allen, 3/5 stars
9. NPCs (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #1) by Drew Hayes, 3/5 stars
10. Split the Party (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #2) by Drew Hayes, 3/5 stars
11. Going Rogue (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #3) by Drew Hayes, 4/5 stars
12. Siege Tactics (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #4) by Drew Hayes, 2/5 stars
13. Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games #5) by Suzanne Collins, 5/5 stars
14. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, 4/5 stars
15. 61 Hours (Jack Reacher #14) by Lee Child, 5/5 stars (physical copy)
16. Noble Roots (Spells, Swords, & Stealth #5) by Drew Hayes, 3/5 stars
17. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4) by J.K. Rowling, 5/5 stars
18. That's Not Right by Scott Meyer, 3/5 stars
19. Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn #1) by Brandon Sanderson, 3/5 stars
20. The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, 3/5 stars
21. Star Wars: Aftermath by Chuck Wendig, 3/5 stars
22. Titanborn (Children of Titan #1) by Rhett C. Bruno, 4/5 stars
23. QB: My Life Behind the Spiral by Steve Young, 5/5 stars
24. A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost, 4/5 stars
25. An Unexpected Hero by Rhett C. Bruno, 3/5 stars
26. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, 4/5 stars
27. Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'Reilly, 5/5 stars
28. The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne #1) by Robert Ludlum, 1/5 stars
29. Colony One Mars (Colony Mars #1) by Gerald M. Kilby, 4/5 stars
30. Star Wars: The Mask of Fear by Alexander Freed, 4/5 stars
31. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5) by J.K. Rowling, 4/5 stars
32. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes, 5/5 stars
33. Colony Two Mars (Colony Mars #2) by Gerald M. Kilby, 3/5 stars
34. Becky Lynch: The Man - Not Your Average Average Girl by Rebecca Quin, 3/5 stars
35. Colony Three Mars (Colony Mars #3) by Gerald M. Kilby, 2/5 stars
36. American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman, 5/5 stars
37. My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner, 5/5 stars
38. Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind by Nate Bargatze, 4/5 stars
39. The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon #6) by Dan Brown, 4/5 stars
40. BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley, 5/5 stars
41. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6) by J.K. Rowling, 5/5 stars
42. Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum by Michael J. Fox, 4/5 stars
43. The Running Man by Richard Bachman (Stephen King), 3/5 stars
44. Trials of the Jedi (Star Wars: The High Republic #9) by Charles Soule, 5/5 stars (physical copy)
45. Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins, 4/5 stars
46. Star Wars: A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Cordova, 2/5 stars
47. Read Your Mind: Proven Habits for Success from the World's Greatest Mentalist by Oz Pearlman, 3/5 stars
48. Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher, 3/5 stars
49. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) by J.K. Rowling, 5/5 stars
50. The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark, 5/5 stars
51. CivCEO (The Accidental Champion #1) by Andrew Karevik, 4/5 stars
52. CivCEO 2 (The Accidental Champion #2) by Andrew Karevik, 3/5 stars
53. CivCEO 3 (The Accidental Champion #3) by Andrew Karevik, 2/5 stars
54. CivCEO 4 (The Accidental Champion #4) by Andrew Karevik, 3/5 stars
55. CivCEO 5 (The Accidental Champion #5) by Andrew Karevik, 3/5 stars
56. CivCEO 6 (The Accidental Champion #6) by Andrew Karevik, 4/5 stars
57. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, 4/5 stars

Other Stats

The A-Town Awards

Best Book of the Year: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Honorable Mention: My Next Breath by Jeremy Renner; Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'Reilly

Worst Book of the Year: The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

Honorable Mention: The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

Best Audiobook Narration: Jim Dale (Harry Potter series)

Honorable Mention: Colin Jost (A Very Punchable Face); Cary Elwes (As You Wish...)

Yearly Comparison

2025: 57 books read, 3.6 average rating

2024: 68 books read, 3.4 average rating

2023: 48 books read

*****

And there we have it: another year of reading and listening! I'd love to hear what you enjoyed last year; I'm always open to recommendations! Did you read anything on my list? Do you agree with my ratings? Leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter (here and here), or feel free to reach out on Facebook.

Until next time!