Continuing, for some reason, an effort to chronicle every book I’ve read since The Lord of the Rings in the spring of 2017. This serves as an extension of my participation in what I labeled the Old Lady Book Club.

Volume 1 (2017) | Volume 2 (2018) | Volume 3 (2019) | Volume 4 (2020) | Volume 5 (2021) | Volume 6 (2022) | Volume 7 (2023) | Volume 8 (2024) | “Selected readings from the Old Lady Book Club”

Critical remarks are avoided and ratings are reserved for five-star achievements (null set), one-star shame spirals (ditto) and varied, infrequent book club selections. Rereads coopt the register mark and establish that “rereads” and “coopt” are not to be hyphenated. Rereads coopt the register mark and establish that “rereads” and “coopt” are not to be hyphenated.

The year’s legacy: not a single five-star fucking read… but no one-stars, either.

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Joshua Ferris
Then We Came to the End (2007)

Liliana Colanzi
You Glow in the Dark (stories, 2022/2024 translation)

Hildur Knútsdóttir
The Night Guest (2021/2024 translation)

Michael C. Bender
Frankly, We Did Win This Election: The Inside Story of How Trump Lost (2021)

Julian Barnes
The Sense of an Ending (2011)

Penelope Fitzgerald
The Bookshop (1978)

Robert Louis Stevenson
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)

Premee Mohamed
No One Will Come Back for Us (stories, 2023)

Kazuo Ishiguro
An Artist of the Floating World (1986)

Nadine Gordimer
“Loot” (1999)

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
Galápagos (1985)

Bora Chung
Your Utopia (stories, 2021/2024 translation)

Giorgio De Maria
The Twenty Days of Turin (1977/2017 translation)
“The Death at Missolonghi” (1963/2017 translation)
“Phenomenology of the Screamer” (1971/2017 translation)

Chris Stuck
Give My Love to the Savages (stories, 2021)

Eliza Clark
She’s Always Hungry (2024)

Premee Mohamed
And What Can We Offer You Tonight (2021)

Agatha Christie
The Secret of Chimneys (1925)
The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)

Stephen King
You Like It Darker (stories, 2024)

Lauren Oyler
No Judgment (essays, 2024)

Chris Hadfield
The Apollo Murders (2021)

F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby (1925)

Stephen King
Mr. Mercedes (2014)
Finders Keepers (2015)
End of Watch (2016)

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999) Ⓡ

Jim Bouton
Ball Four: My Life and Hard Times Throwing the Knuckleball in the Big Leagues (1970/2012 revision)

Annie Ernaux
Shame (1997/1998 translation)

Yukito Ayatsuji
The Decagon House Murders (1987/2015 translation)

Mike Meginnis
Drowning Practice (2022)

Selwyn Raab
Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires (2005/2016 revision)

Daniel Ladinsky/Patrick McDonnell
Darling, I Love You: Poems From the Hearts of Our Glorious Mutts and All Our Animal Friends (poems, 2017)

Henry Dumas
Echo Tree (stories, 2003, posth.)

Agatha Christie
The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)

Pedro Mairal
The Woman From Uruguay (2016/2021 translation)

William F. Nolan/George Clayton Johnson
Logan’s Run (1967)

Marlen Haushofer
Killing Stella (1958/2025 translation)

Stanley Crawford
Log of the SS The Mrs Unguentine (1972)

Mary Norris
Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen (2015)

Sebastian Farr
Death on the Down Beat (1941)

Carlos Fuentes
Aura (1962/1965 translation)

Agustina Bazterrica
The Unworthy (2023/2025 translation)

Kurt Vonnegut (Jr.)
Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)

Marcus Kliewer
We Used to Live Here (2024)
⭐⭐⭐

Tim Winton
Juice (2024)

Jill Ciment
Heroic Measures (2009)

Zoe Dubno
Happiness and Love (2025)

Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House (1959)

Ira Levin
Rosemary’s Baby (1967)

Stephen King
Misery (1987) Ⓡ
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lucy Foley
The Midnight Feast (2024)

Ron Chernow
Grant (2017)

Andre Dubus (III)
Such Kindness (2023)

Colson Whitehead
The Underground Railroad (2016)

Janice Hallett
The Christmas Appeal (2023)

Jacqueline Harpman
I Who Have Never Known Men (1995/2019 translation)

Benjamin Stevenson
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (2024)

Mike Florio
On Our Way Home (2023)

Agatha Christie
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (1938)

Robert Evans
The Kid Stays in the Picture: A Hollywood Life (1994/2013 revision)

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Surface-level statistical afterthought:

52 books
7 collections

50 fiction titles
9 nonfiction

37 male authors
22 females

11 translations

1 originally published before 1925
6 from 1925 to 1949
2 from 1950 to 1959
3 from 1960 to 1969
5 from 1970 to 1979
4 from 1980 to 1989
4 from 1990 to 1999
4 from 2000 to 2009
9 from 2010 to 2019
21 since 2020

Average rating: 3.17 stars out of five