Tracking my reading here. Focus on getting into my Comics backlog. Previous years – [2024]. Current year [2026]
2025
Favorites so far:
Comics
Tsutomu Nihei. Tower Dungeon 1. Vertical, 2025. The king is dead and the princess is captured. Good story but I loved the drawing in this so much.
Tyler Landry. Old Caves. Uncivilized Books, 2023. Loved this. Couple tries their hands at living off grid in the wild. stuck with me. gorgeous art.
Patrick Horvath. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. IDW. 2024. Serial killer in Richard Scarry’s busy city. Really good.
Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim. Dungeon: Zenith Vol. 5, Fog & Tears. NBM, 2023. This is one of my favorite comic series. It seems like it’s been a bit since we’ve any new volumes of this story so I was psyched to get two new volumes in my box at Big Planet. If you’re interested -start at the beginning. It’s fantastic.
Fiction
Andy Weir. Project Hail Mary. Ballantine, 2021. Sci fi last ditch effort to save the world from sun killing microbes. Really good.
Maggie O’Farrell. Hamnet. Knopf, 2020. This was really good. Hit me almost perfectly in a couple places. The sad bits are foreshadowed enough that they aren’t horrifically sad and the second half is really wonderful.
Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword. Viking. 2024. The round table after the death of Arthur. I’ve always been a fan of King Arthur stories. Feels like the Once and Future King is required reading for this. but I’ve read that and loved this.
Richard Powers. The Overstory. W.W. Norton and Co. 2019 [19]. This was beautiful really – a story about trees, our species’ obsession with destroying them and a few people trying to get the rest of us to wake the fuck up. Lots of beautiful writing and ideas in this. maybe my favorite book of the year. That said, I don’t recommend it for everyone. If you already love trees – this is for you.
Non-Fiction
Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism. Portfolio. 2019 [6]. Sort of a must read for me. I’m spending waaay too much time one my phone. Some good tips and advice in here. mostly common sense: put the damn phone down for fuckssakes.
Poetry
Damn….read more poetry!
- Tsutomu Nihei. Tower Dungeon 1. Vertical, 2025 [31]. The king is dead and the princess is captured. Good story but I loved the drawing in this so much.
- Andy Weir. Project Hail Mary. Ballantine, 2021 [30]. Sci fi last ditch effort to save the world from sun killing microbes. Really good.
- Barbara Mazzi. Hourglass. Silver Sprocket, 2025 [29]. Fantasy world where time is a currency and the rich get to live forever. Cool concept. decent story but a bit too short. I could’ve spent a bit more time here.
- Maggie O’Farrell. Hamnet. Knopf, 2020 [28]. This was really good. Hit me almost perfectly in a couple places. The sad bits are foreshadowed enough that they aren’t horrifically sad and the second half is really wonderful. . Hamnet. Knopf, 2020 [28]. This was really good. Hit me almost perfectly in a couple places. The sad bits are foreshadowed enough that they aren’t horrifically sad and the second half is really wonderful.
- M.T. Anderson. Nicked. Vantage, 2024, [27]. Historical fiction about the heist of St. Nicholas’ saintly bones. Buddy-romance…is that a genre? It is now! lol. Very decent read.
- Tyler Landry. Old Caves. Uncivilized Books, 2023 [26]. Loved this. Couple tries their hands at living off grid in the wild. stuck with me. gorgeous art.
- Kay Chronister. The Bog Wife. Counterpoint, 2024 [25]. Gothic, swampy, weird. I was hoping this would be scary. Had some creepiness and was enjoyable. Kind of dragged in the second act.
- Joe Sacco. War on Gaza. Fantagraphics, 2024 [24]. short. kind of an addendum to his masterpiece, Palenstine. I’ll read any thing he puts out.
- James S.A Corey. The Mercy of Gods. Orbit, 2024 [23]. Sci-Fi humanity is conquered and needs to prove itself as useful or be destroyed. A bit different but grew decent legs as the story came together. Good characters. Feels wonderfully hopeless and looking forward to the next chapter.
- Balak, Michael Sanlaville, Bastien Vives. Last Man: The Rescue (volume 6). First Second, 2014 [22]. I read the first 6 First Second editions when they first came out back in the early twenty-teens but they never finished the story. Last year, Image picked the series up and started releasing it again in color. So I re-read this to help me remember what the hell happened. Anyway, I love the series but if you want to check it out, start with book 1.
- John Wagner & Brian Bolland. Essential Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death. 2000 AD, 2022 [21]. Had a hankering to read some old Judge Dredd stuff and picked this up. The Brian Bolland art is incredible but this was just ok.
- Joann Sfar, Lewis Trondheim. Dungeon: Zenith Vol. 5, Fog & Tears. NBM, 2023 [20]. This is one of my favorite comic series. It seems like it’s been a bit since we’ve any new volumes of this story so I was psyched to get two new volumes in my box at Big Planet. If you’re interested -start at the beginning. It’s fantastic.
- Richard Powers. The Overstory. W.W. Norton and Co. 2019 [19]. This was beautiful really – a story about trees, our species’ obsession with destroying them and a few people trying to get the rest of us to wake the fuck up. Lots of beautiful writing and ideas in this. maybe my favorite book of the year. That said, I don’t recommend it for everyone. If you already love trees – this is for you.
- James Islington. The Shadow of What Was Lost – The Licanus Trilogy (#1). Orbit. 2014. [18]. Lots of apt comparisons to the Wheel of Time series. I think I like WoT better but the first book was good and built nicely enough to a place where I do want to find out what happens next. Kind of made me want to pick up the next WoT instead though.
- Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five. 1969. [17]. Loved Vonnegut in college and hadn’t read this one since high-school. Still heart breaking.
- Pramee Mohammad. The Butcher of the Forest. Tor. 2024. [16]. Fantasy rec from the NPR book carousel. A serf is ordered in to the deadly and mysterious fairy wood to save the warlord’s children. Short and sweet.
- Carl Hiaasen, Squeeze Me. Knopf. 2020 [15]. Murder mystery set in a fictional, “Mar a Lago”. Good, funny fun. Good characters. Will be (should be) an Apple+ series at some point.
- Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2024. [14]. Short book with a daily meditation for 228 days. It’s good. a mixture of “in the long run we are all dead”, “work on what makes you happy”, “stop worrying and go do” in a nice short package. I think we (I) already know these things, but they’re the kind of truths that are worth being reminded of.
- Patrick Horvath. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees. IDW. 2024 [13]. Serial killer in Richard Scarry’s busy city. Really good.
- Wendell Berry, The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry. Counterpoint. 2018 [12] Essays about the world that is lost dating from the 1960’s – the 2000s. Some great writing. A little dated and repetitive but he has a point and makes it.
- Daniel Freedman, CROM, Birdking, Vol.1. Darkhorse. 2022. [11]. One of my favorite illustrators. Fantasy yarn. Good start to the series.
- Douglas W. Tallamy, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard. Timber Press. 2019 [10]. Decent read reminding us that lawns suck and we really need to plant more native plants in our own yards. Also, grass sucks….I mean really.
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden. 1854 [9]checked this out of the library and got into it. some great quotes and lots to think about. got turned off when I realized he built his cabin in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s back yard (rent free) – would’ve been a little manlier if he bought his own land for his “simple-living” experiment. That just took some of the magic out if it for me.
- Florent Rupert, Jerome Mulot & Bastien Vives, Olympia. Fantagraphics. 2022 [8]. Gorgeous art (as always with Vives). Heist story with decent characters and fun action. Silliness.
- Hampton Sides, The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. Doubleday. 2024 [7]. I’ve read one other Sides book and really enjoyed it. This one is really good too. The tale of Captain Cook’s last voyage. Poked one too many tribe I guess. FAFO.
- Cal Newport, Digital Minimalism. Portfolio. 2019 [6]. Sort of a must read for me. I’m spending waaay too much time one my phone. some good tips and advice in here. mostly common sense: put the damn phone down for fuckssakes.
- Lev Grossman, The Bright Sword. Viking. 2024. [5] The round table after the death of Arthur. I’ve always been a fan of King Arthur stories. Feels like the Once and Future King is required reading for this. but I’ve read that and loved this.
- Becky Cloonan & Tula Lotay, Somna. DSTLRY, 2024.[4]. Very good entry into the “Witch Persecution” genre. Lovely lovely drawing. ok story.
- Tara Booth, How to be Alive. Retrofit Comics/Big Planet Comics, 2017.[3]. Short little comic with some wonderful pianted sequential art. mostly one page vibes.
- Alec Robbins, THE COLLECTED CRIMEHOT: VOLUME 1. Silver Sprocket, 2024. [2]. Cool indy comic – mostly silly capers and lots of even sillier sex. Really fun, actually.
- Kawashima Norizaku. Her Frakenstein. Living the Line, 2024. [1]. Odd horror manga. Everyone loses in this.