Recap of the Reading Year 2025:
I’ll put all the stats at the end because probably I am the only one interested in that.
I have forced myself to pick one and only one, fiction and non-fiction, for each of these three categories. Did not count re-reads in these selections.
Category 1: The most thought-provoking read of the year.
Nonfiction: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinart. Just finished it yesterday but I predict I’ll be mulling it over for a while.
Fiction: Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray.
Category 2: The most excellent writing
Nonfiction: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, by David Grann.
Fiction: A Month in the Country By J.L. Carr wins by just a shade vs James by Percival Everett.
Category 3: My favorite which includes reference to tea
Nonfiction: Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants by James Vincent.
Fiction: Dropped Like a Bad Habit (Nun the Wiser Mysteries Book 2) by Melissa Westemeier.
Favorite non-fiction books I read in 2025:
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother By James McBride
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (repeat read)
On Freedom By Timothy Snyder
American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics By Kevin Hazzard
Jesus and the Disinherited By Howard Thurman
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir (graphic book) By Thi Bui
The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of an Extraordinary Life David F. Walker Damon Smyth (art), Marissa Louise (colors), James Guy Hill (lettering).
Note: The Wager was captivating, but not a top read for me because, Lordy, the situations described were truly horrible.
Favorite fiction books I read in 2025:
James By Percival Everett. Excellent. My brother didn’t like it because it wasn’t funny, the way Huckleberry Finn was, but my brother and I both acknowledge that we have lost our sense of humor about some things. The second half of H.F. I found to be unfunny.
A Month in the Country By J.L. Carr Excellent.
Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo with K.G. Campbell (Illustrator) (children’s lit). Love this book.
How to Age Disgracefully By Clare Pooley. Fun and unserious.
Angel of Greenwood By Randi Pink (YA lit; rejected by a local School Board). Clever way to introduce to youthful readers the big debate between two philosophers of the time.
Old Habits Die Hard (Nun the Wiser Mysteries Book 1) By Melissa Westemeier.
Dropped Like a Bad Habit (Nun the Wiser Mysteries Book 2) by Melissa Westemeier. It’s difficult to say which of these two books I liked best. This one has a lovely portrayal of local community, but an interesting character is offed.
And some others I found quite enjoyable and/or thought-provoking (aside from those listed above)
Nonfiction:
Vision: a Memoir of Blindness and Justice by David S. Tatel.
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. What could our nation have been, had he lived?
Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America By Robert B. Reich.
Fiction:
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart.
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Thriller that takes place in the late 18th century.
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali.
Wonder by R.J. Palacio (YA lit).
Daughters of Shandong by Eve J Chung.
Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures Kate DiCamillo (repeat read).
Murder at Holly House by Denzil Meyrick. Amusing throughout. Wildly ridiculous ending.
Three Days in June by Anne Tyler.
All 8 of the Alexander McCall Smith books.
Stats
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