2025 joins an uncomfortably large group of years recently that I am happy to punt into the sun, but it wasn’t all misery and depression. I did read some good books (I also did some good writing, but we’ll get to that in a bit).

One cool thing I did this year was finally start the author interview series I’ve been talking ab out doing forever. You can check out the first two interviews with Michael Koryta and J. Todd Scott if you missed them.

I’m taking a break from the interview this month though to share some books I loved, but the interview will be back next month with Lori Rader-Day followed by Maris Kreizman, Laura Lippman, Sarah Weinman, JT Ellison, and some other cool folks.

If you or someone you know or represent would like to be part of the BQ&A, email me and let me know.

Before I get to my favorite books though, I wanted to drop something here that was originally going to be the whole topic of this post. I’d been noodling on it for quite a while and, frankly, my thoughts were getting away from me. Then I made a comment on a Bluesky post that seemed to encapsulate everything I wanted to say, so I’ve included screenshots below.

This idea of majority achievement rather than perfect achievement will be a major theme throughout 2026 for me.

And speaking of 2026 themes, I pulled some Tarot cards from my pulp Tarot deck last night in a new year spread, and it basically said the same thing every other Tarot spread I’ve done this year has said: I’m in for big success soon, but that’s going to come by way of some epic and uncomfortable shakeups, and I need to stop worrying so much about outside influences and appearances and work more on figuring out and accepting who I really am inside.

The catastrophic shakeups have happened. I’m ready for the success.

Now onto my favorite books of the year. As always, I’ll add the disclaimer that these were my favorite books of the year, not necessarily the best because that’s subjective nonsense that doesn’t help anything. Also, most of these books were published this year or will be published early next year. In no particular order:

Mississippi Blue 42 by Eli Cranor

Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream by Megan Greenwell

Wreck Your Heart by Lori Rader-Day

I Want to Burn This Place Down by Maris Kreizman

Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Ace Atkins

A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper

I hope your 2026 is everything you hope it will be and more. Thanks for riding along with me this year and here’s to some cool new adventures in the new year!