Books Read in 2025

This was the year I resumed reading in earnest, mostly ebooks borrowed via the city library. Books that stick with me tend to be psychologically realistic and, if they include fantasy elements, they do not require the reader to disentangle a brand-new society from scratch. Fiction keeps giving me small insights into how other people think and feel.

Here are some of the books I enjoyed.

Long Bright River — Liz Moore

This is one of those where I was shaking my head. It is a police procedural set in a gritty part of Philadelphia, where things are rarely fair. I found the characters appealing (the main character, a beat cop with plenty of experience but low self esteem) or appalling (most others in the book). We get a lot of background on the main character to explain how she became who she is.

The Memory Police — Yoko Ogawa

A whimsical, melancholy book that seems like it should have a political or social message, but the point is unclear. The police of the title are real here, and they do take people away to uncertain fates for thought crimes, but we are never told why. Throughout, things disappear at random and are forgotten. There is a novel inside the novel about a woman who becomes her typing tutor’s lover. The writer of the novel inside the novel seems to be in the same relationship to her character as we are to her: slightly confused and concerned. It is not even clear which of the two novels is an allegory for the other and what in our world might be represented.

Babel — R. F. Kuang

An unfair summary: take Harry Potter, set it in the 19th century, and make the main characters children taken from places that suffered under European colonialism. It is, at heart, a campus novel set in Oxford University, just like the Harry Potter books are boarding school novels. Language and translation have been turned into magical powers activated with silver. The allegory is not subtle, but I was won over by the characters, especially the main character, a Chinese boy forced to masquerade, somewhat, as an Englishman.

The Ministry of Time — Kaliane Bradley

Above average for the genre of time travel novels. In a near-future Britain, a time machine is discovered and used to retrieve some individuals from the past, for purposes that are not fully clear. The main character is a woman with Cambodian parents, assigned to be a minder of sorts of one of the time travellers. Twists and turns, a dash of romance, a bit of sex and violence, and a surprise or two.

Chemistry — Weike Wang

What happens when you fail to complete your PhD and (it seems) lose your boyfriend because he completed his? What if your parents are Chinese and therefore have certain expectations that you hate not living up to? Surprisingly funny, given the sad premise. We also get to see the main character dig her way out of the mess.

Nuclear War: A Scenario — Annie Jacobsen

A book that does not shy away from showing bad things that could happen. Really, the idea that we should have all of these weapons and never use them seems bonkers, but then to use them is even more bonkers, for reasons that are explored in detail.

The Winner — Teddy Wayne

A routine thriller, but it worked for me. It is as much about social class as crime. Our humble-born, social climbing hero is a recent law school graduate hired to a tennis pro in a gated community. His employers are upper class Northeastern WASPs, accustomed to getting their way and not too concerned about what happens to the hired help. He, on the other hand, has to make what he can of the opportunities presented, and not get dragged into anything that could risk his reputation.

Havoc — Christopher Bollen

One of the most unappealing main characters you could imagine, an older woman holed up during the Pandemic in a hotel in Egypt, where Covid restrictions are notably lax. She has a habit of interfering with relationships, “liberating” younger women from their husbands by creating forged evidence of infidelity. This time, circumstances lead her further down the path than she wanted.

Circe — Madeline Miller

A re-imagination of Greek myth through the life of one of the minor goddesses. The deities in general are an arrogant lot, but the male gods are mostly insufferable. Cameos by some of the big names, but mostly we see Circe in her exile. Of course, we are on her side all the way.

The Demon of Unrest — Erik Larson

Another Civil War book, but it is not a genre I have read much of. The Southern rebels are not spared, but the Northerners also make mistakes. There is maybe no way the war could have been avoided, but the North, meaning the federal government, certainly underestimated the problem and failed to prepare.

The Last Samurai — Helen DeWitt

Probably the most challenging read of the year, but also one of the most rewarding. Funny in a biting, sarcastic way. The author is not at all shy about showing off her own learning. That’s risky, but it worked for me. None of it has to do with samurai, or even Japan, except indirectly.

There’s a couple of books I want to mention that I did not enjoy. In fact I didn’t finish either of them.

On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) — Solvej Balle

Think of “Groundhog Day” as a book, but with a female protagonist and a setting in France. In her case, some things are not restored at the start of each day, specifically the things she herself consumes. Otherwise, it is the same, but this character is a lot more earnest and good hearted than the one in “Groundhog”. In my case, I found it too dry, with not enough to sustain my interest over hundreds of pages. (Also, the idea that this was just the first book of a series opened up an awful vista of tedium.)

The Sportswriter — Richard Ford

Very much a book of its time, which was the eighties. The sportswriter of the title is possibly overeducated and underemployed and semi-detached from his girlfriend. Not enough happening for me to keep going.