Overview
Hello everyone! This is the last update of the books that I read in 2025. I managed to read a total of 29 books! It's a bit over half of my original goal of 52 books for the year, but I still think that it was a great accomplishment. The last 3 months I read 6 books which I'll review in this entry. Let's dive into those reviews!
Nonfiction reviews
We Were Dreamers
We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, by Simu Liu, is an autobiography that goes over his life up to the point where he got his role as Shang-Chi in Marvel. It explores the difficulties that he had growing up as an immigrant in Canada. I first heard about this book when it was promoted for a talk that he gave at Western University in late 2025. I'm currently an immigrant in Canada so I connected to some of the ideas that Simu's parents had when they were also looking for better opportunities. This book made me reflect my own immigrant path and how that might shape up my future. I really recommend it to any immigrant or anyone who is related in any way to immigrants to have a better understanding of what some of us go through.
Without taking action, your best ideas are just random neurons firing in your brain, like lost ships passing through an endless ocean of consciousness, doomed to be forgotten.
Fiction Reviews
Attack on Titan: Lost Girls Vol 2
Attack On Titan: Lost Girls Vol 2, by Hiroshi Seko, is the second volume of the Lost Girls spin-off manga from Attack on Titan. It goes over the childhood of Mikasa and shows why she cares so much about Eren. It also shows her growth from a timid and somewhat weak girl into the strong character that is featured in the main volumes of the manga. Just like in the first volume of this spin-off, I really like how we get to know better another character from the universe and how it expands it.
Attack on Titan: Colossal Edition 3
Attack on Titan: Colossal Edition 3, by Hajime Isayama, collects volumes 11-15 of the Attack on Titan manga. These volumes go over more of the political elements of the story as more secrets about the titans and people within the walls get revealed. While I don't own the colossal edition, the volumes that make up this collection are part of the Attack On Titan Humble Bundle package I bought a while ago. I really like the story elements of this manga and I usually read each volume in one sitting. The world is getting more complex each time and I can’t wait to read the rest of the volumes in the manga!
Rosalina's Storybook
Rosalina’s Storybook, by Nintendo, is a storybook that is featured in the Super Mario Galaxy game. It goes over the origin story of Rosalina and how she found the Lumas. This book got announced in a Nintendo Direct as part of the 40th anniversary of Super Mario and I preordered it right away. Super Mario Galaxy is one of my favorite videogames so having a real life version of Rosalina's Storybook is a childhood dream come true. The art and story bring back memories of playing this game as a kid. This is a book that any Mario fan will enjoy. It also makes for a great gift for young kids to start learning to read!
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins, goes over the tenth annual Hunger Games. The story goes over how an 18 year old Coriolanus Snow experiences the games as a mentor. Throughout the book, we get to see Snow become into the character that we all know from the original Hunger Games trilogy. I had already seen the movie but I bought the book because I wanted to read Sunrise on the Reaping before the movie comes out. I really liked a lot the book since it gives way more depth to the character of Coriolanus Snow. Once more, this is a love story and it's so interesting to see how different Snow was during his late teens and how he ended up becoming a person full of hate for the districts, especially district 12. The only downside from this book (which is also a very clear downside from the movie) is that the last part feels very rushed. I think that some additional chapters exploring the last part of the character arc for Snow would really help understand the drastic decisions that Snow makes at the end. Any fans of the original Hunger Games trilogy (books, movies, or even better both) will really enjoy this book.
Sunrise on the Reaping
Sunrise on the Reaping, by Suzanne Collins, goes over the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, where twice as many tributes are taken from their homes due to the Quarter Quell. This year, a 16 year old Haymitch Abernathy is called to participate in the Games. In this heartbreaking story we learn how Haymitch managed to win the games when the odds seemed to be everything except in his favor and why he became the alcoholic that Katniss meets in the first Hunger Games book. I had heard about the movie coming out next year so I bought the book when I saw it available in my closest library. Just like the rest of the books in the Hunger Games world, this is a love story. However, I think this might be the most heartbreaking one from all 5 books in the series. It added a lot more depth to Haymitch's character as well as giving an introduction to secondary characters who also became more important in the original Hunger Games trilogy.
I highly recommend reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes first because there are several references in this book that really show how at a similar age (late teens), Snow and Haymitch where really similar in many aspects. It was very interesting to see how different their lives turned out due to their experiences with the games. I also really liked how this dystopian world created by Suzan Collins is still brought down to earth with real life connections such as the hint of AI tools for creating videos. This technology has existed for several years now but it recently gained more attention due to its misuse in more public platforms such as X (aka Twitter) through the use of Grok.
He sighs when he mentions the tools that were abolished and incapacitated in the past, ones deemed fated to destroy humanity because of their ability to replicate any scenario using any person.
Looking Forward
As we start a new year, I look forward to reading more books and also setting a new reading challenge for myself. I’m planning to read at least 30 books during 2026 which should be achievable considering I read 29 last year. Currently I’m reading The Hobbit and I also need to finish reading The Pragmatic Programmer as well as C++20 for Programmers. For the time being I’ll keep releasing a new entry every couple of months so look forward to the next one!
I’d love to hear if you’ve read any of the books I reviewed in this entry or if you have any other recommendations. Let me know in the comments below and see you next time!
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