CurrerBell | 'Nother Year, 'Nother 75

I have a number of Big Fat Books planned for this year (including a Dumas binge), but since I hit a record high (for myself) of 13 BFBs in 2024 and still passed the 75 mark pretty easily, I'm optimistic that I'll succeed again this year.

Rereads are included but are not always specifically noted. (At my age, some number of rereads are to be expected!)


BFB = Big Fat Books 2025
GC = Great Courses video
K = Kindle (not included if used in tandem with a treeware edition)
LoA = Library of America
myst = mystery
NCE = Norton Critical Edition
ROOT = Read Our Own Tomes 2025
RTT-M & RTT-Q = Reading Through Time monthly and quarterly reads
SFF = scifi & fantasy / horror
VF = Vive la France
Z = Emile Zola Group Read

Jan (8), Feb (7), Mar (7), Apr (7), May (4), Jun (1),
Jul (2), Aug (4), Sep (5), Oct (6), Nov (7), Dec (10) ... Total (68)

Vive la France:

(French reading project, primarily in translation and with a focus, but non-exclusive, on the 19th century novel. These titles are included in the monthly listings so that their listings here do not add to total reading but only assemble the VF books into one convenient thread.)

2023:

Aug 18 ... Balzac, Wild Ass' Skin; Chouans ... other stories

2024

Mar 21 ... Balzac, Country Doctor; Quest of the Absolute ... other stories
Apr 14 ... Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris
May 13 ... Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea
May 21 ... Balzac, Eugénie Grandet; Country Parson ... other stories
Jul 5 ... Corneille, Le Cid and The Liar (trans Richard Wilbur)

Jul 8 ... John Greene, The Great Tours: France Through the Ages
Aug 8 ... Hugo, Les Misérables (Modern Library) (trans Julie Rose)
Sep 2 ... Zola The Fortune of the Rougons (Oxford World's Classics)
Sep 14 ...Alan Schom, The Shadow Emperor: A Biography of Napoleon III
Oct 10 ... Jean-Pierre Isbouts, In the Footsteps of Vincent van Gogh (Great Courses video)

2025

Jan 1 ... Zola, Thérèse Raquin (Oxford World's Classics)
Jan 29 ... Dumas père, La Reine Margot (Oxford World's Classics)
Feb 19 ... Zola, His Excellency Eugene Rougon (Oxford World's Classics)
Feb 28 ... Stendhal, Red and Black (Norton Critical Edition)
Mar 26 ... Zola, The Kill (Oxford World's Classics)

Apr 6 ... Dumas père, Chicot the Jester
May 11 ... Dumas père, The Black Tulip
May 22 ... Dumas père, The Forty-Five Guardsmen
Jun 2 ,,, Dumas père, The Three Musketeers (trans Richard Pevear)
Aug 11 ... Ian Davidson, Voltaire: A Life

Oct 8 ... Zola, Money
Dec 31 ... Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma (Oxford World's Classics)
Dec 31 ... Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

January:

4 ... BFB ROOT SFF Chuck Wendig, The Book of Accidents 4****
6 ... K reread T.S. Eliot, The Complete Poems and Plays, 1909-1950 4½**** (mostly a reread, in conjunction with a half-century reread of Russell Kirk's Eliot and His Age)
7 ... ROOT Mikhail Bulgakov, Diaboliad (Ardis Russian Literature) 3½*** {review}
14 ... ROOT SFF Patricia Briggs, Winter Lost 4****
17 ... K SFF Clifford Simak, Time Quarry 3***

19 ... K RTT-M SFF Clifford Simak, Way Station 3***
21 ... ROOT Best of the Grapevine, volume 1 5*****
29 ... BFB ROOT RTT-Q VF Alexandre Dumas père, La Reine Margot (Oxford World's Classics) 4****

I also love my French literature and will be reading Zola, Balzac and Maupassant in January.

Welcome back for another year, Mike.

Welcome back!

Happy new year!

Hope you have a great year in books!

February:

6 ... K myst Elizabeth George, A Great Deliverance 3***
7 ... ROOT RTT-M James Cone, My Soul Looks Back 3½***
15 ... K SFF Kell Woods, After the Forest 4**** (with prequel story K Before the Forest 2**)
19 ... ROOT reread Russell Kirk, Eliot and His Age 4½****
19 ... GC RTT-M (Jan) Alex Filippenko, Understanding the Universe: Introduction to Astronomy 5*****

19 ... VF Z Emile Zola, His Excellency Eugene Rougon 4****
28 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M VF Stendhal, Red and Black (Norton Critical Edition) 2**

March:

4 ... GC Bart Ehrman, The History of the Bible: The Making of the New Testament Canon 3½***
4 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M reread SFF Cornelia Funke, Inkheart 5*****
10 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M reread SFF Cornelia Funke, Inkspell 4½****
15 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M reread SFF Cornelia Funke, Inkdeath 4½****
18 ... RTT-M Cornelia Funke, Inkworld: The Colour of Revenge 3½***

26 ... ROOT VF Z Emile Zola, The Kill (Oxford World's Classics) 4****
31 ... GC RTT-Q Jennifer McNabb, Renaissance: The Transformation of the West 3½***

Hi, Mike! I'm greatly impressed by your ambitious reading so far. I'd love to say that you inspire me, but I'm afraid that I get lazier and lazier in my choices. Anyway, Happy Reading to you!

>10 LizzieD: I've just started a reread of Cornelia Funke's Inkworld trilogy, a couple decades or so old now. One of my favorite MR/YA fantasies, and I like it a lot better than her Dragon Rider books (not being that personally fond of dragon stories). She just came out with a fourth Inkworld book, The Color of Revenge, and I need a refresher on the original trilogy after all these years.

Unfortunately, I'm falling about behind on the Zola group read, and I still have to get to the Jan/Feb book The Kill.

April:

6 ... ROOT VF Alexandre Dumas père, Chicot the Jester 3½***
11 ... ROOT RTT-M Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind 4****
13 ... GC RTT-Q James Reid, Early Modern Philosophy: Descartes and the Rationalists 3½***
16 ... BFB K RTT-M Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel's Game 3½***
18 ... K RTT-M Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Prisoner of Heaven 3½***

23 ... ROOT Tulsi Gabbard, For Love of Country 4****
30 ... ROOT RTT-M (May) Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit 5*****

May:

7 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M (April) Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Labyrinth of the Spirits 5*****
11 ... ROOT RTT-Q VF Alexandre Dumas père, The Black Tulip (Penguin) 3***
17 ... ROOT RTT-M SFF Mary McMyne, The Book of Gothel 4½****
22 ... ROOT VF Alexandre Dumas père, The Forty-Five Guardsmen 3***

June:

2 ... BFB RTT-Q ROOT VF Alexandre Dumas pere, The Three Musketeers (trans Richard Pevear) 5*****

July:

21 ... BFB ROOT-M (June) ROOT Harriette Arnow, The Dollmaker 5*****
27 ... ROOT Best of the Grapevine: Volume II 5*****

August:

11 ... ROOT RTT-Q VF Ian Davidson, Voltaire: A Life 3***
13 ... ROOT Best of the Grapevine: Volume III 5*****
22 ... ROOT RTT-M SFF Martin Gardner, Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition 4½**** (5 to the original, 4 to the annotations)
31 ... BFB ROOT RTT-M SFF Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars: The First Five Novels 3½***

September:

14 ... K RTT-M Kevin Frederick, With Their Backs Against the Mountains: 850 Years of Waldensian Witness 5*****
16 ... ROOT SFF Kamilla Benko, Unicorn Quest 5*****
19 ... SFF Kamilla Benko, Secret in the Stone 4****
22 ... SFF Kamilla Benko, Fire in the Star 4½****
29 ... RTT-M ROOT William Jasper Nicolls, Brunhilda of Orr's Island 1*

October:

8 ... VF Emile Zola, Money 5*****
10 ... ROOT RTT-M SFF John Connolly, The Gates 4****
24 ... ROOT RTT-M SFF John Connolly, Hell's Bells 3***
26 ... K myst John Connolly, Every Dead Thing: A Charlie Parker Thriller (1) 2**
27 ... K SFF John Connolly, The Creeps 3***

30 ...ROOT Katherine Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia 5*****

November:

3 ... ROOT SFF John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things 4½****
17 ... ROOT SFF Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass 5***** (reread in prep for The Rose Field)
19 ... ROOT SFF Philip Pullman, The Subtle Knife 5***** (reread in prep for The Rose Field)
21 ... ROOT SFF Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass 5***** (reread in prep for The Rose Field)
22 ... ROOT Elizabeth Strout, Amy and Isabelle 4****

27 ... ROOT SFF Philip Pullman, La Belle Sauvage 4**** (reread in prep for The Rose Field)
29 ... ROOT SFF Philip Pullman, The Secret Commonwealth 5***** (reread in prep for The Rose Field)

December:

1 ... ROOT Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous 2½**
6 ... ROOT Andrew Bacevich (ed), Paths of Dissent 4****
12 ... ROOT Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy 4****
15 ... BFB ROOT SFF Philip Pullman, The Rose Field 4****
24 ... ROOT SFF J.A. White, The Thickety: A Path Begins 4****

25 ... ROOT SFF A.F. Steadman, Skandar and the Unicorn Thief 3½***
28 ... ROOT SFF Kathi Appelt, The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp 4****
29 ... ROOT Wesley McNair (ed), Maine in Four Seasons 4****
31 ... BFB ROOT RTT-Q VF Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma (Oxford World's Classics) 3***
31 ... ROOTROOT RTT-M VF Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut 3½***