BOOKMARK December 2025 Book recommendations
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Shaun's recommendation for December 2025.
All books are available from Adventure Into Books in Blairgowrie.
Tom's Crossing by Mark Z Danielewski
(Pantheon,2025)
Fiction
It's big and daunting but this 1,200 page western about two friends, determined to rescue a pair of horses set for slaughter has Stephen King calling it 'an amazing piece of fiction'.
How to do Nothing by Jenny Odell
(Melville House,2021)
Non-Fiction
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic, Jenny Odell, shows us how to win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious-and overdrawn resource-we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it.
Rhyme & Reason by Mark Forsyth
(Allen & Unwin,2025)
Poetry
For six centuries people have been reading poetry for enjoyment - for fun, romance, religion and entertainment - and this is a book about those people. Rhyme & Reason takes you from a medieval accountant (called Chauser) trying to entertain his lord through adoring sonnets and notebooks containing dirty poems and into the heart of byronmania and the Victorian hearth, to help you understand why poetry has had such an enduring hold on the British phyche.
The Killing Stones by Ann Cleaves
(Pan Macmillan,2025)
Crime Fiction
He, Jimmy Perez, has traded the stark beauty of Shetland for the wild isolation of Orkney. When a ferocious storm rages across the islands it leaves behind more than just damage: it uncovers the body of Archie Stout, a popular larger-than-life member of the community. The murder weapon, a Neolithic stone bearing cyrptic ancient inscriptions.