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!

Playstation Wrap-Up 2023

It's time for the most anticipated, glorious blog of this and every year. It's time for the Playstation Wrap-Up. Join us, friends, as we recap the most wonderful (or regrettable) moments in Playstation gaming from the past twelve months.

Let's jump right in, shall we?

Total Hours:

This is the section where I usually complain about how I think the numbers are a little off because of how much Playstation says I played last year, but what's shocking to me is that, this year, they actually say I played about 100 hours less than 2022. It said I played 1,308 hours in 2022, but to not even meet that bar this year, with three months of paternity leave in my back pocket? That's pretty crazy. I mean, it's not like I was playing video games non-stop at all times during my time away from work - believe it or not, paternity leave is not a vacation. But I did play a decent amount of Playstation and Nintendo when I wasn't otherwise occupied with my two boys, so not surpassing my total from 2022 comes as a bit of a shock.

Games Played:

Not to be a doubter, but I wonder how this number is calculated. After reviewing my account on PSNProfiles.com, I only counted that I earned trophies on about 40 games last year. Of course, there could be a bunch of games that I played but for which I didn't earn trophies, which wouldn't show up on my profile, but 65 games? Dang. That's a lot of games.

Good old "NHL '23." Sadly, I heard that "NHL '24" was basically the exact same game as last year, so I definitely didn't feel obligated to drop $70 on it. Look at me - so wise in my old age.

Top Five Games:

Dreamlight Valley is definitely a favorite in the A-Town residence. This year, it moved up to the top spot, after finishing as last year's silver medalist. It hasn't been completely smooth sailing for DLV. In fact, they really ticked me off recently, when they launched their "Rift of Time" expansion.. and made players pay for it PER PROFILE, which is absolutely insane. In other words, I bought the expansion the day it was released because I knew my wife and I would both want to play it immediately, then found out that my wife wasn't able to play it on her profile unless she also dropped $30 on it. Thank goodness, I don't live in a house full of teenagers who also wanted to play. I can't even fathom justifying having to pay for the exact same video game expansion three or four separate times, let alone twice. Anyway, that was infuriating. But the good news is that DLV has continued to provide an extremely replayable experience, and it still feels like I still have quite a way to go to complete all of the missions and quests that I'm currently in the middle of. And then there's my brother, who is absolutely putting my valley to shame, as far as layout and decoration goes, so there are still plenty of reasons for me to keep playing this game, and it will likely end up in my top five again next year.

Hogwarts Legacy was definitely my favorite game of the year, and I only stopped at 96 hours of playtime because that's how long it took me to get the platinum trophy. I loved being able to explore the pre-Harry Potter grounds of Hogwarts and got pretty invested in the story. I'd certainly love to have more games set in the Wizarding World. And, you know what? All those people upon which I cast an unforgivable curse? They deserved it. No regrets. One thing I would love to see in a sequel would be a type of morality system, such as the ones found in "Fallout" or "Red Dead Redemption." Like, if I'm out there Avada Kedavra-ing people, put a bounty on my head. I realized that in HL, there were no true consequences for my actions. I wouldn't be able to "un-alive" anyone at the school (I think? I don't think I ever tried to harm a student like that.), and I never got sent to the headmaster's office for anything I did. Plus, I think the only difference that my actions really made was that a cinematic scene toward the end of the game was like two seconds shorter than someone who was completely morally straight the entire way through. I must also mention that HL presented one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make in a video game, when I had to decide whether to learn one of the unforgivable curses, and, if so, who to cast the spell on. I legit sat and stared at the screen for like 15 minutes before I hesitantly decided what to do, so major props to this game for making me use my noggin.

I got into Marvel's Midnight Suns late last year, too late for it to be included as one of my top games of 2022. This was another one of my favorite games of the year. A supernatural combat/tactics game built around a card-playing mechanic, "Midnight Suns" probably isn't for everybody, but I thought the gameplay was a blast and I had a great time learning the lore of these spooky superheroes. The customization options were fun to mess around with, and finding fun trios of characters to use as I fought off the hordes of Hades. The game released some DLC that I was reluctant to get until the price dropped to a more reasonable cost, but I ended up getting it, with its new characters: Venom, Deadpool, Storm and Morbius. The new characters came along with their own missions and side quests, which brought me back to the game several months after beating it, which was fun. I still need to hop back in there and finish up some of those trophies, so I haven't yet taken my last ride with those cooky Midnight Suns. Not quite yet. (Check out some of my favorite photos from "Midnight Suns" here!)

Ah, the return of the Top Five sports game. This year, it's NBA 2K23. I played a ton of it during my second half of paternity leave. A ton of it. It's not something I am particularly proud of (going back to the whole "full price every year just for an updated roster" complaint), but at least this was free through Playstation Plus, so it didn't cost me anything, other than my dignity. If there was a way to bump this game out of my top five, believe me, I would have done it.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was a major improvement over its predecessor, "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order," which I enjoyed but openly admit was one of the most needlessly difficult games I have ever played. The best thing about "Survivor" was that it gave us something that "Fallen Order" didn't - fast travel. THANK THE MAKER! That was such a "quality of life" improvement. The game was still pretty tough (I shamelessly lowered the difficulty a couple times just to kill a Rancor beast), but not to the point of utter frustration, like the first game. There were some fun cameos in this game and Easter eggs, and the story is ramping up for what should be an epic conclusion (most likely) to a very good trilogy of games.

Top Games Each Month:

Playstation broke down how much I played each month, which was kind of fun. (What the heck counts as a "gaming session"??) For posterity's sake, here are the 12 lucky games that blessed or otherwise altered my life in 2023:

*I was on paternity leave in July

Trophies Earned:

Ah, that's a lot of trophies, dear readers. And what journeys I had along the way! From completing incredible new games to cleaning up stuff I hadn't touched in more than eight years, from adventures I loved to things that I simply played because they were free (or heavily discounted), I played a wide variety of video games in 2023. Here is a list of all of the games for which I either earned the platinum trophy or reached 100% completion:

1. Two Point Campus - January 13
2. WWE 2K22 - January 27
3. Marvel's Midnight Suns - February 3
4. Hogwarts Legacy - March 8
5. Horizon Forbidden West - April 18
6. Catan: Console Edition - May 1
7. Mass Effect 2 - May 25
8. MLB The Show 23 - May 28
9. I Am Alive (PS3), 100% - May 30
10. Race the Sun, 100% - June 7
11. Wreckfest (Platinum trophy #75) - June 12
12. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS2) - June 28
13. Paw Patrol: Mighty Pups - July 5
14. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - July 12
15. Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Rise of SH1FT3R - July 19
16. Dreaming Sarah - August 2
17. It Takes Two - August 15
18. Riders Republic - August 24
19. Unpacking - September 25
20. Paw Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls - October 2
21. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 - November 21
22. Islanders - December 11

Here are some thoughts about that list:

• I forgot that I beat not one but two different "PAW Patrol" games. Amazing.
• A couple of the games on this list were such cheap platinums. I'm not proud, but at least they made my stats look good. I beat like three or four of these things in less than 6 hours - and they only took me that long because I am in charge of the lives of two little boys.
• I played "It Takes Two" with my wife; it was mostly a lot of fun. We also basically played "Catan" together. That's a great video game if, like me, all of your friends hate the board game or don't want to take time to teach you how to play. Why not just have the computer teach you?
• Beating "Riders Republic" consisted of me doing mass races every half-hour for like 20 hours, I kid you not. I loved that game but, geez, was that torture?
• I do have some really great games on this list. Beyond the great games I already mentioned, "Horizon Forbidden West" and "Spider-Man 2" were particularly excellent.

There were numerous games that I really enjoyed last year that didn't crack my Top Five. Here are some of them:

• Two Point Campus (I cranked this sucker out in January and had a decent number of laughs along the way.)
• The Last of Us Remastered (I went back to clean up some trophies from my first playthrough several years ago, around the time that the new HBO show was streaming. That Salt Lake City moment is great, but this isn't a game I would recommend to many of you.)
• Cities: Skylines (I love this game and wanted to see if I could possibly get the platinum trophy. I was following a series of YouTube videos that I thought could help me out, but I apparently accepted a bail-out that saved me from bankruptcy, which disabled any future trophies, and I didn't realize what I had done until it was too late for me to go back to a prior save file, so that was incredibly frustrating and I rage-quit and will likely never attempt to try that ever again. Cool.)
• Jurassic World Evolution 2 (If I could have swapped "NBA 2K23" out of my Top Five for any game, this probably would have been it. I spent a lot of time making amazing dinosaur parks, just not enough for the ultimate glory. What a shame.)
• LEGO 2K Drive (This was a pretty fun game that I still have a lot to do in, but the "Reach Level 30" trophy glitched on me, which may have ruined my desire to 100-percent this game.)
• WWE 2K23 (A really solid entry in the "WWE 2K" series, which has had its rough spots in the past decade. This one was really good, though, other than the fact that I have to play career mode - my least favorite part of these games - at least three and a half more times. Not looking forward to that.)
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War (These "Lord of the Rings" games are decently fun, but I lost the drive to nab the platinum when I realized how difficult and/or time-consuming some of the online trophies would be to earn. No, thanks.)
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (When I finally get the platinum trophy for this game, it will be truly legendary. There is SO MUCH stuff to do in this game, basically to the point of being overwhelming, and it is going to take a lot longer to finish up - but I've been trying! "Star Wars" fans should love this game. There's a lot of great stuff for the nerds.)
• PowerWash Simulator (Ok, ok, yes. I played this game. First of all, it was free in December, and second of all, they sucked me in with "Back to the Future" DLC, which was awesome. I put so many dang hours into this game and was only two trophies away from 100%, but the trophy earned by beating career mode is glitched, which I didn't know when I started, and the only way for me to get it is to start completely over, and there is no way in H-E-C-K that I'm spending another 50+ hours on this mind-numbing use of my time. The good news is, though, that I freaking demolished some audiobooks while mindlessly powerwashing the crap out of everything in sight, so at least that was productive.)

Final Thoughts:

Overall, a pretty good year of gaming, I'd say! I just realized that my top game of the year, "Dreamlight Valley," was only my top game of the month one time, and I only played it for 13 hours that month. Also, the mere thought of powerwashing gives me some pretty severe PTSD. I can't believe that trophy glitched on me. Ugh. So disgusting, so disturbing. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go help my oldest play some "LEGO Star Wars." He wants me to help him beat "Darth Vader/Shooter Man" (Jango Fett) and is thrilled that "Grogu Yoda" (regular Yoda) just showed up. He is, indeed, his father's son.

*****

What games did you love in 2023? We'd love to hear it in the comments, on Twitter (here and here) or on Facebook. Until next time, go out there and get some beautiful, beautiful trophies.