Reading Roundup: December 2025

I don’t know what was going on in December – probably worn out, winter blues, period brain – but I kept buying on a whim self-help books, forgetting that I usually hate them, so I have some buyer’s remorse. I also kept starting books, thinking I could handle some literary close reading, then switching halfway through because I couldn’t cope with that over Christmas!

Overall, it was a very uninspiring reading month.

In other book-related news, I decided to try out The StoryGraph and Fable to see if I prefer them to Goodreads. So if you use either, please give me a follow! The StoryGraph is OK, I’m not so convinced about Fable since it only has a mobile app and no desktop web version.

Only 4 books – 3 audio and 1 ebook.

This was aprox. 544 pages read and 29 hours listened (of finished books).

Tiamat’s Wrath (The Expanse #8) by James S. A. Corey ⭐⭐⭐

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I wanted to. It felt like not enough happened for the penultimate book in the series, and the whole resistance plot bored me. Somehow, Holden had my favourite chapters!

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents by Lindsay C. Gibson ⭐⭐

I am ashamed that I read this. It was a mistake, I know better. I know that I don’t like this kind of self-help book, because that is what this is. It isn’t a psychology book, and personally, I thought it was full of generalised crap more likely to do harm than good.

The Impossible Fortune (Thursday Murder Club #5) by Richard Osman ⭐⭐⭐

This was also a disappointment. It felt like the whole book was underbaked.

Carpe Jugulum (Discworld #23, Witches #6 ) by Terry Pratchett ⭐⭐⭐

I just don’t think I was in the right headspace for this. It was fun, but I know there is more to it that I’d have loved if I’d been in the right mood to engage properly. I will definitely re-read this one day!

Marvel Unlimited: 18 issues of X-Men

I ploughed on through X-Force (issues 16-17), X-Factor (issue 87), X-Men (issues 16-24) and Uncanny X-Men (issues 297-301, then 310).

I got through the X-Cutioners Song story arc, which I have already forgotten about. The only thing of note with that whole thing is that it is how Scott Summers finds out that Cabel is his son, Nathan (as is Stryfe from a different timeline). So get ready for some more Scott Summers angst.

This was followed (in X-Men) by a confusing story arc (A Skinning of Souls) in Siberia with Colossus and his family. At some point, Iyana went back to being a child, and I have no idea when that was! I kind of tuned a lot of this out and blasted through because it wasn’t interesting. This is when I was really thinking I was done with reading this era. The main outcome of this whole thing was that Colossus’ parents got killed, though, so he brought Ilyana back to America.

I plodded on a bit more because original Betsy returned in X-Men issue 20, and I wanted to see how this Psychlocke mess was going to get resolved. It was a convoluted retcon that annoyed me. Essentially, Kwannon the Japanese Hand ninja assassin found unconscious Betsy in a warehouse after the Siege Perilous put her there; she touched her, and Betsy’s confused and injured mind lashed out, and the two women somehow ended up with a merged consciousness in two different bodies… and it was NOT Betsy’s British caucasian body being transformed into a Japanese one as was originally written.

There was a lot I hated about this. Firstly, this all comes about when Jean Grey confronts Psylocke over whether or not she is having an affair with Scott, and Psylocke attacks her… I still don’t understand why she was so bizarrely aggressive. That fight is interrupted by original Betsy. There is some back and forth for a few issue and they go to Japan to learn the truth. For some reason, Kwannon gets to keep the Psylocke code name even though that is originally Betsy’s, where the Betsy body one gets the name Revanche. Eventually, they come to a kind of stalemate peace, but it is still unclear who is who or if they are both a mix of both personalities now.

Also, in this current stage of X-Men, Scott and Jean have decided to get married, so that’s coming up soon. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I also read X-Factor issue 87, which is the “critically acclaimed” one where they are all interviewed by a psychologist. I thought it was just OK, but it didn’t do much for me. There was also some very uncomfortable stuff where it really sounds like Polaris has an eating disorder with serious self-esteem issues, and it is not acknowledged, so it felt more played for laughs…

So at this point, I am in 1993, and each issue is either boring me or annoying me, so I was thinking about giving up. Then I read X-Men issue 24, where Rogue and Gambit go on a date and talk about their relationship, and it reminded me that that is something I am still interested in. I decided to look at the Marvel Unlimited reading guide for their pairing, and got my tracker all ready to read through their story. I’ve got some more in the current run to get through until they finally kiss, and that forces issues in Gambit’s past to be revealed; then I’ll be jumping forward in time through stages in their relationship until I get to the Mr & Mrs X series from 2018.

Currently Reading

I did read more in December, but I started flip-flopping between books! I am re-reading (for the third time) Rouge by Mona Awad. This time, I am reading a paperback copy and annotating it and making notes so I can finally write up a review (Husband keeps calling this my “homework”). I also read a good third of White Noise by Don DeLillo, but decided to pause it once I got to part 2 because my worn-out Christmas brain wasn’t up to the task!

I am flicking through Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks and trying not to hate on it too much. I need some sort of alert/reminder for December to make me stop and think before buying self-help books!

On audio from the library, I also have Educated by Tara Westover, a memoir which is a surprisingly thought-provoking intersection of my interests.

Adding to TBR

I bought a few 99p ebooks:

1. Ne’er Duke Well by Alexandra Vasti
2. The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
3. Blood Over Bright Haven by M. L. Wang
4. Bat Eater by Kylie Lee Baker

I also bought some second-hand print books:

1. Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks (refunded because it was not ‘very good’ condition when it arrived… which is honestly lucky because I regret this purchase!)
2. The Good Place and Philosophy
3. The Royal School of Needlework Book of Embroidery (nobody was buying me this for Christmas so I finally got a copy for myself!)
4. Jessica Jones Vol 1 Uncaged! – I already through these issues on Marvel Unlimited, but I wanted a copy for my library!
5. Jessica Jones The Pulse – The Complete Collection – again, I read the issues already, but I really enjoyed this limited series!

And one Audible book that I quickly regretted and can’t get refunded: Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.

Book Tag/TTT!

I’m really loving joining in with Top Ten Tuesday! I’ve now added a category to my blog for these posts to make them easier to find. It is a really fun way to find new blogs and potential book friends.

1. My 10 Favourite Victorian Christmas Cards
2. Books on my Winter 2025-2026 To-Read List
3. 10 Books On My Wish List (Christmas 2025)