Book I Read and Liked in 2025
Translation means doing violence upon the original, it means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. - Professor Playfair (Babel by R.F. Kuang) A few years ago, I was gifted a Kindle. That, plus a Libby account tied to my local library, re-opened a world for me. I do my best to keep up with my local book club, but when I can’t, I look at the Hugo/Nebula winners and work through my queue. I read some great books this past year, and here are a few that stood out. Babel by R.F. Kuang (Nebula 2022) - By a landslide, this was my favorite book of the year. It’s a magical historical fiction centered on linguistic-based magic. The premise? You engrave words from two different languages into silver, and whatever meaning is "lost in translation" manifests as a magical force. I'm sold. While the magic is fascinating, it’s only one layer of the story. The primary theme is imperial exploitation, how children from poorer parts of the world who are fluent in foreign l...