2025 Reading Challenge

K and I are again embarking on an annual reading challenge.  This year's selections are:

January: a book you first picked up because of the cover
My World, by Jonny Wilkinson

February: a book about mental health
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

March: a short story collection
In the Gloaming, by Alice Elliott Dark

April: a book published in the year you were born
The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy

May: a sequel
March, by Geraldine Brooks

June: something funny
Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, by Adam Kay

July: a beach read
Murder on the Oceanic, by Edward Marston

August: a re-read
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande

September: a book with "secret" in the title
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., by Sandra Gulland

October: a book involving magic, witches, vampires, sorcery, or the like
Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth, by J.R.R. Tolkien

November: something containing recipes
On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town, by Susan Herman Loomis

December: something told from the point of view of the villain or bad guy
The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox

Some of these may require some additional explanation, and I will try to provide that as I write about each individual book.

Usual rules apply (to the extent possible):
1. It has to be a book I already own;
2. It has to be a book I have not read yet (or at least haven't finished yet);
3. Though I can go out of order, some of the months are clearly themed (e.g., July, October), so I will try to read those books at least close to the month they are selected for; and
4. If I want to include a book I've already listed but didn't read, that's okay.

How will I do this year?