rcmnd

Russ Allbery

Long-time Debian developer and free-software maintainer (remctl, INN, pam-krb5) who has published book reviews on his personal site since the 1990s.

10 things

Delilah Green Doesn't CareBook Ashley Herring Blake

loved

My favorite books I read this year were Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls sapphic romance trilogy: Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. These are not perfect books, but they made me laugh, made me cry, and were impossible to put down.

His year-in-review page summing up the 46 books he finished and reviewed in 2024. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year and links forward to the 2025 review. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

Astrid Parker Doesn't FailBook Ashley Herring Blake

loved

My favorite books I read this year were Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls sapphic romance trilogy: Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. These are not perfect books, but they made me laugh, made me cry, and were impossible to put down.

His year-in-review page summing up the 46 books he finished and reviewed in 2024. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year and links forward to the 2025 review. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

Iris Kelly Doesn't DateBook Ashley Herring Blake

loved

My favorite books I read this year were Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls sapphic romance trilogy: Delilah Green Doesn't Care, Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail, and Iris Kelly Doesn't Date. These are not perfect books, but they made me laugh, made me cry, and were impossible to put down.

His year-in-review page summing up the 46 books he finished and reviewed in 2024. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year and links forward to the 2025 review. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

I Shall Wear MidnightBook Terry Pratchett

loved

I Shall Wear Midnight was the best of the remaining Pratchett novels. It's the penultimate Tiffany Aching book and, in my opinion, the best. All of the elements of the previous books come together in snarky competence porn that was a delight to read.

His year-in-review page summing up the 46 books he finished and reviewed in 2024. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year and links forward to the 2025 review. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

The Book That Wouldn't BurnBook Mark Lawrence

loved

The best book I read last year was Mark Lawrence's The Book That Wouldn't Burn, which much to my surprise did not make a single award list for its publication year of 2023. It was a tour de force of world-building that surprised me multiple times.

His year-in-review page summing up the 46 books he finished and reviewed in 2024. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year and links forward to the 2025 review. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

This Brutal MoonBook Bethany Jacobs

loved

The best book I read this year was also the last book I reviewed (and yes, I snuck the review under the wire for that reason): Bethany Jacobs's This Brutal Moon, the conclusion of the Kindom Trilogy that started with These Burning Stars. I thought the first two books of the series were interesting but flawed, but the conclusion blew me away and improved the entire trilogy in retrospect. Like all books I rate 10 out of 10, I'm sure a large part of my reaction is idiosyncratic, but two friends of mine also loved the conclusion so it's not just me.

His year-in-review page summing up the 32 books he finished and reviewed in 2025. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

Politics on the EdgeBook Rory Stewart

loved

The stand-out non-fiction book of the year was Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge. I have a lot of disagreements with Stewart's political positions (the more I listen to him, the more disagreements I find), but he is an excellent memoirist who skewers the banality, superficiality, and contempt for competence that has become so prevailing in centrist and right-wing politics. It's hard not to read this book and despair of electoralism and the current structures of governments, but it's bracing to know that even some people I disagree with believe in the value of expertise.

His year-in-review page summing up the 32 books he finished and reviewed in 2025. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

The Scavenger DoorBook Suzanne Palmer

loved

I also finished Suzanne Palmer's excellent Finder Chronicles series, reading The Scavenger Door and Ghostdrift. This series is some of the best science fiction I've read in a long time and I'm sad it is over (at least for now).

His year-in-review page summing up the 32 books he finished and reviewed in 2025. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

GhostdriftBook Suzanne Palmer

loved

I also finished Suzanne Palmer's excellent Finder Chronicles series, reading The Scavenger Door and Ghostdrift. This series is some of the best science fiction I've read in a long time and I'm sad it is over (at least for now).

His year-in-review page summing up the 32 books he finished and reviewed in 2025. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

Number Go UpBook Zeke Faux

liked

I didn't read much non-fiction this year, but the best of what I did read was Zeke Faux's Number Go Up about the cryptocurrency bubble. This book will not change anyone's mind, but it's a readable and entertaining summary of some of the more obvious cryptocurrency scams. I also had enough quibbles with it to write an extended review, which is a compliment of sorts.

His year-in-review page summing up the 46 books he finished and reviewed in 2024. The page is undated; it covers the calendar year and links forward to the 2025 review. (undated page)

2026-01-01·eyrie.org ↗

Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.

The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.

A dashed affiliate link, sponsored or their own label means the post disclosed a relationship. It is shown, never hidden.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.

The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.

What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:

Stripes mean the post carries no date and the date shown is an estimate. No date at all, no shading.