I read less this year due to a combination of work, prioritising exercise and my health, family commitments and various other distractions. Reading wise, I did a bit more Barnestorming with three more novels from Julian on the list, which takes my overall tally of his to nine works. I’m up to date with Joe Abercrombie, having read everything he’s published. I’ve also read numerous works now from Jeffrey Ford, Poul Anderson, Cormac McCarthy, along with anthologies from Gardner Doizois.
On the parochial, Antipodean side, it was nice to read Kate Forsythe, Gideon Haigh (with Wasim Akram), Eleanor Catton and Laurie Steed.
Books Read 2025
Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout (collection)
A Traveller’s History of Greece 2nd Edition. Timothy Boatswain & Colin Nicolson (history)
The City and the City China Miéville
Love, etc. Julian Barnes
The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois (anthology)
The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology & Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson (anthology)
All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy
Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson (anthology)
Talking it Over Julian Barnes
Witches of Lychford Paul Cornell (novella)
The Devils Joe Abercrombie
Steal Across the Sky Nancy Kress
Out of Body Jeffrey Ford (novella)
Hard Reboot Django Wexler (novella)
Elizabeth Finch Julian Barnes
Sultan: A Memoir Wasim Akram with Gideon Haigh (memoir)
A Midsummer Tempest Poul Anderson
Psykhe Kate Forsyth
Comeuppance Served Cold Marion Deeds (novella)
The Arkansas International 07 (lit journal)
Birnam Wood Eleanor Catton
You Belong Here Laurie Steed
Standout Reads
I’ll just be including a single standout from a collection, a history/expository work, a novel and an anthology. Like always, I could include so many more. I also never include anthologies I have stories in.
Collection and Favourite Read: Olive Kitterige by Elizabeth Strout
The landscape and town play a significant role in Strout’s work in a similar way to how Steinbeck brought the Salinas Valley to life. Although, unlike Steinbeck’s Salinas Valley, Strout’s town of Crosby is fictional. Olive Kitterige is set in New England, in what can only be called a quintessential coastal town in Maine. Strout’s landscape in Crosby, both in a physical and environmental sense, is completely tangible and authentic, even to an Aussie like me. Many of these relationship-focussed stories centre around the more emotional events in life, along with characters who’ve fallen, or are falling, through life’s cracks —weddings, divorces, funerals, infidelity, suicide attempts, dementia, dangerous robberies, alcoholics, eating disorders, the road to arson and crime— which, on the whole makes the stories louder than Munro’s, however, like Munro’s tales, they often occur from observational angles, which always intrigues. Having stated this, the true jewel here, ‘Pharmacy’, is far more subtle; and interestingly too, it is one of the narratives in which Olive plays a minor backdrop role.
To be fair though, Olive is an intriguing character who ends up being quite complex; both haughty and caustic yet also vulnerable and tender, and these complexities are gradually unveiled over the collection.
This one is for lovers of the longer short story form.
History/ Expository: A Traveller’s History of Greece 2nd Edition. Timothy Boatswain & Colin Nicolson
This really is more a history of Greece marketed under ‘A Traveller’s History’. Afterall, much of Greece’s long history occurs in Asia Minor, Constantinople, Venice, Southern Italy and Sicily (Magna Graecia), Northern Egypt and other Levantine areas. The history of the Classical era is extensive, but what I enjoyed more was that it delved into the Byzantine, and the medieval Venetian, Italiote, Frankish and Ottoman kingdoms. Like a few other histories, the style here is more for history buffs rather than lovers of narrative.
Novel: The City and the City by China Miéville
A while ago, I had the pleasure of seeing China Miéville speak at the Perth Writers Festival (PWF) alongside the brilliant Margaret Atwood, and Miéville was easily the most erudite person I’ve ever witnessed, even beating Glen Duncan, who I enjoyed seeing at a previous PWF.
Over the last couple of decades, when reading, I have been magnetised to works that fuse genre, perhaps because I often fuse genres in my own writing. I also admire extended figurative layers. Think of writers like Margaret Atwood, Karen Russell, Toni Morrison and George Saunders.
In The City and the City, Miéville fuses the grim and gritty type of crime genre with sci-fi. A Balkan city is made up of two neighbouring entities with a liminal overlap. The city of Beszel and Ul Qoma both neighbour and often intersect each other – at least that’s how I perceived it…Both cities seem to be emerging from the Iron Curtain, with one city having emerged somewhat quicker with aid from foreign investment. It feels like an Albanian/ Bosnian type of cultural meld. At points of geographical intersection, the locals try to ‘unsee’ the other side. An overriding, somewhat invisible, authority labelled The Breach will act ruthlessly if you ‘breach’, which means if a denizen of one city attempts to interact or really take in the other city’s inhabitants who occupy the same space.
The story follows the standard crime plot in many ways, with a young woman’s body found in suspicious circumstances, but in this case, there is potential ‘cross border’ foul play. The cross-territory crime case is also often part of the genre, but in Mieville’s ‘city and the city’ world, everything becomes heightened. Inspector Borlu is an old school, likeable protagonist in search of the truth. He’s been around for a while and is determined to solve the case, even though it means formally crossing into the other city, and at times risking being in breach too. There is also a mystery of a potential third city, the sinister Orciny, which may exist in secret at the interstices of both cities.
Miéville’s prose is not figurative or poetic in nature, however, it impresses with vivid imagery and apt pacing. The dialogue also reads as authentic and suitable for the genre. I wanted a smidgen more in terms of characterisation, especially in terms of character arcs and relationships. This, however, is a minor criticism; The City and the City is original, keeps the reader involved, and successfully fuses genres. The setting and cultures have a strong metaphorical layering, which I always enjoy too. I’m keen to read more Miéville.
Anthology (I never include ones that I have stories in for objective reasons): The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois (anthology)
This largely consists of ‘big name’ writers. There are highlight stories on this year’s and last year’s lists (https://anthonypanegyres.blogspot.com/2026/01/top-25-short-stories-read-in-2025.html and https://anthonypanegyres.blogspot.com/2025/01/top-25-short-story-reads-of-2024.html). I would have liked a few new writers or specialist short story writers involved, but as a pragmatist, I realise names often sell books. The story quality is consistently high and entertaining, as you’d expect from a Gardner Doizois anthology. What a legacy he left to readers of short stories and novelettes!
Stories published
Three reprint stories all out in JayHenge anthologies. A new story was delayed, but will be forthcoming mid-year.
‘The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople’ in The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology and Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson.
‘Lady Killer’ in Masque & Maelström: the Relucant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson.
‘Crossing’ in Professor Feiff’s Trans-Dimensional Travelogue Ed. Jessica Augustsson.
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