2025’s inaugural Top Ten Tuesday from the Artsy Book Girl is book releases we’re looking forward to in 2025. I don’t follow book releases unless a particular author I like has announced one (hence my knowing about Anxious Generation and Living in Wonder last year, and having them preordered), so I’m just going to trawl Amazon’s upcoming page for the most part. But first, tease!
Your DNA, the code that instructs the assembly of the right amino acids into the right proteins at the right times in the right order and in the right places tens of trillions of times over, giving you a body, is not like a computer script. The code is not perfect, reliable or definitive. Instead, DNA sequences are more like the dialogue in a play. There may be a script, but the outcome depends on the environment in which those instructions are performed. Versions of Romeo and Juliet can vary in quality and tone, from the most ornate productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company to an elementary school performance. (Primate Change: How the World We Made is Remaking Us)
And now, some 2025 books that I’m either looking forward to, or which sounded interesting:
Ace in the Hole, third in the Black Badge series about an undead gunslinger who roams the Wild West at the order of the White Throne, dispatching werewolves, vampires, and the like. This series introduced me to Rhett C. Bruno & Jaime Castle, whose work I’ve continued to enjoy.
Against the Machine, Paul Kingsnorth. The publisher blurb:
In Against the Machine, Kingsnorth recounts how the Machine, a combination of technological, political, economic, and spiritual forces, is destroying the life support systems of the Earth itself. He examines the Machine’s way of homogenising the mosaic of human cultures and using humans as fodder in a techno-industrial juggernaut. Most importantly, he identifies how this “progress” and its ideologies put humanity in a headlong plunge towards what looks to be a glorified nihilism disguised as “freedom.”
In the age of the Machine, it takes effort to remain truly human. Drawing on deep readings of philosophers, poets, and mystics like Ivan Illich, Wendell Berry, and Simone Weil, Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; a deep attention to matters of the spirit; heterodox tolerance, freedom of expression and an appreciation of beauty. Against the Machine is the spiritual manual for Kingsnorth’s fellow madmen.
When the Moon Hits Your Eye, John Scalzi. Presumably an SF comedy about the Moon turning to cheese.
Those are the ones I personally know about. Now, to the booklists!
The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West
Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age
On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer
The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource
Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand
Bandwidth: The Untold Story of Ambition, Deception, and Innovation That Shaped the Internet Age and Dot-Com Boom
Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis
Reading Freely 
The Scalzi is on yours too! I think it’s going to be hilarious or at least weird 😂
You reminded me of it, actually… XD
Good Soil sounds like an intriguing read. Thanks for stopping by earlier.
Lydia
I don’t read much non fiction (I haven’t actually read any besides for school in the past but I do have a couple of titles on my TBR that I’m genuinely interested in) so the only one of these I’ve heard of is the cheese one. Honestly I’m not sure what to make of it 😂 but I’m certainly curious enough to be planning to check out some people’s reviews. The gunslinger one sounds intriguing too and I could see myself checking the Viking one out eventually as I’ve always loved history. I hope you end up enjoying all of these (and will remember to watch out for your When The Moon Hits Your Eye review)
Good Soil sounds great. I hope you’ll love all these books when you get to read them 🙂
If you’d like to visit, here’s my TTT: https://thebooklorefairy.blogspot.com/2025/01/top-ten-tuesday-most-anticipated-books-releasing-in-the-first-half-of-2025.html
I think When the Moon Hits Your Eye is going to be a bit too silly for me, but I’ll likely read it eventually anyway… Scalzi’s always readable!
The funny thing is, I’m pretty sure Randall Monroe included the “What if the moon was suddenly cheese” question in one of his What If titles!
The funny thing is that I’m pretty sure Randall Monroe addressed the moon question in one of his What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Silly Questions books!
Waste land sounds good!
Top Ten Most Anticipated Books
I haven’t heard of any of these. I hope you enjoy them!
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Not surprised but I haven’t heard of any of these lol. Hope they’re as good as you want them to be!
Ash @ <a href=”https://essentially ash.blogspot.com/“>Essentially Ash</a>
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What?! Rick Steves started out on the Hippy Trail?! I must look for this one.
The Scalzi book is a must for me! I haven’t heard of the rest of these, but On the Hippie Trail sounds particularly good!.
That Scalzi book looks great.
Thank you for stopping by Long and Short Review’s post earlier.
Astilbe