2025/201: Skyward Inn — Alisa Whiteley

2025/201: Skyward Inn — Alisa Whiteley

‘I put my hands in the mud and it said to come here. Mud, speaking to me in my head. They had a word for that when I was young: touched, they would have said. But here I am, and I’ll be touched if that is what’s next, because I felt certain it was Tom’s voice. Can you tell me—was it Tom’s voice? I suppose it couldn’t have been.’ [loc. 2155]

By the author of Three Eight One, this novel is set in the aftermath of interplanetary war. Two veterans of the war, Isley and Jem, have returned to the Western Protectorate (Devon and Cornwall: 'a small area of a small country that decided to secede from modern life, from space flight, from the Coalition and the conquering spirit of the new age') to run the Skyward Inn, née the Lamb and Flag. Jem is human, and comes from the nearby town, where her brother Dom (the Mayor) looks after her estranged son Fosse. Isley is a Qitan, from the side that lost: he's in charge of preparing the Qitan drink, 'brew', that the pub serves. It may be addictive, and it is certainly popular.

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2025/202: The Riddle of the Labyrinth — Margalit Fox

2025/202: The Riddle of the Labyrinth — Margalit Fox

The pull of an undeciphered ancient script comes not only from the fact that its discoverer cannot read it, but also from the knowledge that once, long ago, someone could. [p. 38]

Margalit Fox offers the 'first complete account' of the decipherment of Linear B, the earliest Greek script, which was first identified on tablets excavated by Arthur Evans at Knossos. Fox worked with the newly-opened archive of classicist Alice Kober's papers to uncover her role in decoding an unknown language, written in an unknown script, with unknown meaning. 

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2025: Year in Review (Staying In -- books read)

See them all on LibraryThing

What I read in 2025...

* 211 books, including a couple of scanned books on Internet Archive; including, this year, most rereads, but not re-skims, DNFs or audiobook 'rereads' which I have taken to as an accompaniment to gaming / housewerk / getting to sleep.
* 141 by female writers, 54 by male writers (some collaborations, not all books tagged)
* 36 rereads

My categorisations (some books will have more than one of these tags):
* 85 fantasy, 29 SF, 54 historical (predominantly Classical Greek)
* 28 romance (majority non-het romance)
* 25 YA/children's
* 31 non-fiction


My reading challenges:
* The 'Something Bookish' Reading Challenge
* The Speculative Fiction Challenge
* The 52 in 52 Challenge
* The Non-Fiction Menu
* My own rereading challenge

Authors I read most by:
* Victoria Goddard (mostly rereads)
* Megan Whalen Turner
* Mary Renault
* Elizabeth Wein (mostly rereads)

Best five (based on my enjoyment, not their perfection):
*The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley
*Pagans by James Alastair Henry
*Slow Gods by Claire North
*The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
*A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H G Parry

Last year's 'books read' post

2025: Year in Review (Going Out or Watching Stuff)

Everything is reviewed on this blog! (Sometimes rather cursorily.) Check out my monthlyculture tag.

Bracketed figures show range over the last 22 years [see the year-in-summary tag for my Cultural History since 2004].

Note: 'Best' is shorthand for 'not necessarily objectively good but I really enjoyed'.

Film (in cinema): 20 (4-21). Best three = Pillion, The Return, Thunderbolts*

Film (streamed): 32 (36-39 in the last 2 years). Best three that I hadn't already seen = KPop Demon Hunters, Official Secrets, Maria

Theatre (live): 20 (1-26). Best three = Elektra, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Born With Teeth

Theatre (streamed): 0 (38 in 2020, 16 in 2021, 8 in 2022, 0 in 2023). Must watch more NT@Home, even alone.

Concerts (classical): 9 (2-22). Best three = Dudamel, Volodos, Argerich.

Opera: 3 (0-10). Best three :) = Iphigenia in Tauris, Patience, The Magic Flute

Gigs: 5 (0-9). Best three = Patti Smith, Mitch Benn, Arcade Fire

Art: 6 (0-6) Best was probably Luxmuralis

Books: 211. Summarised here: reviews here.
Also in 2025: visited Belfast (Worldcon), Mallorca, Cambridge, Ludlow.