Tildes Book Club 2025 retrospective

@Wes, thank you so much for setting up this retrospective.

Re favorites, Born a Crime has been a favorite of mine for years. Out of books that were new to me, Ministry of the Future and Hyperion impressed me the most as literature. Like @Wes, I immediately read the Fall of Hyperion after Hyperion. Elder Race was charming fantasy. The character studies in Heaven and Earth Grocery store were moving emotionally and the story was an interesting reflection on American culture. The Poisoners Handbook was interesting and informative.

I am grateful to this club for introducing me to books I wouldn't have found otherwise and for the thoughtful discussions. It's fun. I'm wishing everyone the best possible holidays.

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@Rudism @crespyl @rsl12 @thermopesos @archevel, @elight, @pekt, @tonestones @Dr_Amazing
@Shevanel , @crialpaca @Weldawadyathink,@blivet ,@syllo, @lhamil64, @tanglisha, @requirement

• Jan: The Ministry for the Future: Read this, didn't love it for many of the same reasons as other Tildeans
• Feb: Born a Crime: Incredible!!!
• March: Hyperion: Excellent, but the series does not hold up. My ratings were 5, 4, 3, 2 for the four books
• April: Elder Race: Read this years ago, remains my favorite novella of all time
• May: A People's Future of the United States: Skipped
• June: A House with Good Bones: Skipped
• July: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store: Read this and loved it!
• Aug: Cat's Cradle: Skipped
• Sep: Stories of Your Life and Others: Not my favorite
• Oct: The Poisoner's Handbook: Read this a bit late and enjoyed it a lot! Wasn't quite what I expected but learned some wild things about Prohibition in particular
• Nov: We are Legion (We are Bob): Read this last year, it was okay, not my favorite series

Overall, I read a bunch of books that weren't really on my radar or if they were they were endlessly pushed off my TBR, and I think for all of them either I enjoyed it or I thought there was interesting discussion, for a lot of them both! This has been a great book club!

Great roundup, @Wes!

And as always, thanks to @boxer_dogs_dance for organizing our lovely little club.

I only missed three months this year. Hyperion and We Are Bob were because I didn’t want to start a new series, and The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store was because I was busy with other things.

Overall, there wasn’t a single book I disliked. The weakest one for me was A People’s Future, in that I did like some of the stories in it, but there were more misses than hits for me. On the other hand, Born a Crime, Cat’s Cradle, Stories of Your Life and Others, and The Poisoner’s Handbook were all standouts, I thought. I’d say our choices are pretty solid when 4 of the 9 books I read are competing with each other for the status of favorite!

For this coming year, I’m going to try to be better about jotting down my thoughts as I’m reading so that I have more to say in the discussion topics. Despite reading most of the books, I don’t feel I contributed to the comments as much as I wanted to (I think some months I didn’t even write anything?).

I read The Metamorphosis back in high school and don’t really remember it, so I’m excited to return to it. I’ve also already read (and liked) Light from Uncommon Stars, so I’m excited to hear what other people have to say about that one.

Everything else on the docket is something that does sound interesting to me, but that I probably wouldn’t pick up on my own. This is, I feel, the ideal way to Book Club, because it’s nice to read outside of my comfort zone but not stray too far from its parameters.

I love that we had 50(!!!) different contributors over the course of the year. I thought there were maybe a dozen of us at most. Big thanks to everyone who participates. The Book Club is one of the things we have here that gives Tildes that “small internet feel” I love so much. Think: indie coffee shop vibes rather than corporate megamall energy.