This year I read a lot of plays, a lot of advanced reader’s copies of books I had collected from publishers over the years that built up in my office, and several books I picked up from our staff recommends lists at the library. The first three title discussed here are taken from each of these categories.
#20 – Infinite Country by Patricia Engel (2021)
Anchoring my Top 20 is a book I picked up off the BPL’s display of staff recommendations. Patricia Engel’s novel about a Colombian family town between two countires, struggling with political unrest and violence, deportations, cruelty, and the harsh immigration climate in the United States, is so personal and yet so mythic in scope. Mauro and Elena grew up in Colombia during a time of political uprisings and mass executions. Somehow they meet and fall in love, have their first child, then flee to United States. There they struggle to make a home for themselves, despite the lack of money, the scarcity of work, and the mistrust of their neighbors and the law. Two more children follow before Mauro is torn from the family and sent back to Colombia.
Engle weaves the mythological beliefs of the Colombian culture with a love story about a family. There is danger, there is injustice; but through it all family is the central theme that keeps the characters bonded together despite years of physical separation and isolation. Both devastatin and uplifting, Engle creates a memorable tale.
#19 – Regrets by Matt Charman (2012)
I’m not sure what drew me to read this play by Matt Charman, other than it was set in the 1950’s, as is the play I’m about to direct. What I didn’t know until I was well into the reading was that they shared similar themes. Regrets is a nicely constructed play about a post-divorce camp for men in the 1950’s. When a young man arrives and joins the other men, all in their 40’s, curiosity turns to suspicion as secrets are revealed as to the true reason for his arrival. Powerful and unexpected finale.
I generally read plays in search of intersting ones to produce. Regrets certainly falls into this category, but with my next play, After the Revolution by Amy Herzog, exploring similar themes, I will probably hold off on Regrets.
#18 – Mislaid by Nell Zink (2015)
This sharp satire that explores race, gender, sexuality, and class in the latter half of the 20th century tears apart the American family in new and startling ways. Mismatched pair, college student Freshman, Peggy and poetry professor, Lee find themselves in passionate but awkward affair that yields an unhappy marriage and two children. Doomed from the start (she’s a lesbian, he’s gay), Peggy eventually flees with one child leaving her older son behind with her husband. From their, all four spiral into unconventional lives that won’t cross paths again for years.
Author Nell Zink has a pointed style poking fun at the establishment and counter-culture society alike, with some special barbs for the South. After a sizzling opening, things bog down a bit in the middle, before amping up again for a rousing conclusion.
A year ago as I pulled together my list of my favorite books read in 2024, I decided I had to up my game. After dipping to a low of reading fewer than 20 books in a year, I’d been slowly bringing that number back up, but slipped in 2024 to reading just 17 books. I decided to give myself ambitious goal to read 50 books in 2025. It was definitely a stretch, but I wanted to commit to reading more. While I didn’t make my goal, I did complete 45 books in 2025, and felt very good about that. This year, I will maintain that same goal and see how i do. With my impending retirement approaching, I hope I spend some of that tie reading more.
Before I start to write about my favorite books of the year, I would like to mention some disappointments, also rans, and other titles that fell outside of this list. I am going to start with the best book I read this year — that also happened to be a re-read.
Favorite Book Read in 2025 – The Forgotten Beasts of Eldby Patricia A. McKillip
First edition cover
Patricia A. McKillip, absolutely my favorite fantasy author, and certainly one of my favorite authors period, got her start writing young adult novels in the 70’s. The first book of hers that I read was The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, published in 1974, and winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1975. It was her third published novel.
When I finished my re-read (probably my fifth or sixth over the years), this is how I reviewed it: “Re-read this classic fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip for the fourth or fifth time, and honestly it gets better and better every time. Quite possibly my all-time favorite fantasy novel. The way McKillip intertwines such disparate themes as love, power, revenge, self-reflection, manipulation, and family with her consummate skill at crafting poetic language is astounding. And it packs such a powerful emotional punch.”
The fact that this complex novel, with its adult relationships and hard-to-like female protagonist was marketed to young adults astounds me to this day, but it clearly worked, launching a major career for McKillip. The main character, Sybel, is one of the all-time great flawed heroes, and her journey to adulthood is a masterpiece. I remember I was enchanted by the “beasts” of the tale, mysterious, magical creatures that were enough to enthrall any young, fantasy-lovers mind, but i remember as a young boy how taken i was by Sybel’s tragic story. I look forward to reading this book over and over again.
Biggest Disappointment of 2025 – Songbird: An Intimate Biography of Christine McVie by Lesley Ann Jones
Not every book can be great… many aren’t even that good. If you’ve looked at my lists of favorites books of the past couple of years, you know that I have been on a journey reading memoirs of female rock & rollers for sometime. After the tragic loss one my all-time favorites, the incredibly talented Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac, i was thrilled that, if not a memoir, at least a biography was being published about her. Sadly, it turns out to be my biggest disappointment of the year. I will let my review speak for itself.
“This was a tough one: a mediocre biography about a fascinating, beloved icon. Lesley-Ann Jones “intimate biography” of Christine McVie is about a lot of things, but as an intimate look of the legendary performer’s life is not really one of those things.
“Fleetwood Mac front-woman and keyboard player was a very private person, and when her family refused to participate in the writing of her biography, there aren’t a lot of avenues to explore someone who has died. Instead Jones spends the first third of the book telling us about the history of the British village of Wickhambreaux and the region where Christine was born and raised. Slightly interesting, but adds way more than it needs to to provide some color to our subject.
“Granted, Jones was a casual friend/acquaintance of McVie’s, in the way many of the very extended Fleetwood Mac family were. In addition, most of the information she provides in the book seems to come from interview with other who either provide expert opinions (therapists) or were three, four, or five levels away from the woman in question, part of that massive entourage. Sure there were some quotes from her fellow band-members, but most of them came from previously published interviews.
“In the end, Songbird: an Intimate Biography of Christine McVie provides a whole lot of conjecture — some of which conflicts with other conclusions the author made. Surely any person, especially an internationally famous celebrity, can be painted with different brushstrokes in a 300-page book, sadly, Jones’ over-written book doesn’t give us much more than an article in the Rolling Stone magazine.”
Finally, before launching into my actual Top 20 books of the year, I include my list of also-rans” books that I enjoyed and are notable enough to mention here. Three books earned a spot on this list, a look at the roles of women in rock during the 90’s, a excerpt about chickens from a Sy Montgomery book, and a play that hit really hard
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar – Powerful, visceral examination of a successful lawyer confronted with this deeply ingrained Muslim upbringing and his own an his contemporaries beliefs and assumptions.
What the Chicken Knows: a New Appreciation of the World’s Most Familiar Bird by Sy Montgomery – Originally written as a chapter in the book Birdology Sy Montgomery, author of The Sould of an Octopus remarkably does for the most prevalent barnyard fowl what she did for the massively intelligent cephalopod. Perhaps that’s a bit of hyperbole, after all, if you can pack everything there is to know about a chicken into a single chapter, perhaps they are not quite on the same level as an octopus? Still, Sy loves her flocks of chickens, and she conveys their intelligence, playfulness, and emotional lives convincingly. Of course, as you could no soubt surmise from the title of this blog, I already loved chickens, so it wasn’t too hard a sell.
Pretend We’re Dead: the Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of Women in Rock in the ’90s by Tanya Pearson – Tanya Pearson spotlights women who fronted or filled out alternative rock bands throughout the 90’s and goes on to explore how politics and society removed these counterculture women from pop culture after 9/11. Some unnecessary repetition keeps the book from taking this important topic to a more energizing read, but still well researched with some great interview by such 90’s icons as Shirley Manson, Tanya Donnelly, Liz Phair, and Kristin Hersh.
My number one book of 2024 was a bit of a surprise, as it is a new author, and book I reserved on a whim after reading a review. Obviously, I wasn’t let down by this quirky, pseudo-science fiction novel that tells the story of a life that is unique.I love finding books like this that come out of nowhere and have a powerful impact. Both funny and a little sad, it’s one of those books that sticks with you after you finish it.
The beauty of Marie-Helene Bertino’s latest novel Beautyland is that while our protagonist, Adina, purports to be from another planet, born through a human mother, you never really know for sure if that’s fact, or delusion… and it doesn’t even matter. The novel is a beautifully written allegory for being the ‘other.’ Adina was always a little strange growing up; from her aversion to mouth sounds, to her largely solitary existence, with only her mother as a companion for her early childhood. As she grows into adolesence, she forms a strong bond with Toni and her family. As an adult, she tries out a romantic relationship, but doesn’t really understand how it all works. All the while, she dutifully faxes her ‘superiors’ from her origin world, receiving brief sometimes heartening, sometimes frustrating responses. In the end, Adina lives a life, and whether she finds what she needs will be up to the reader.
It should come as not too much of a surprise that if there’s a new McKillip novel published in any given year, it’s likely to be near, or at the top of this list. Now, it’s not a given. Patricia’s books are coming more slowly in recent years, and there were a couple of story collections to fill in some gaps, but somehow, the quality of her stand-alone novels just doesn’t diminish. Believe me, I’m waiting for it. Nobody’s streak can last this long. Each time I pick up one of her books I think, this will be the one that disappoints me. And while I certainly do have favorites, I have yet to really be disappointed. Her latest novel, Kingfisher is no exception, and features all the McKillip hallmarks that I love so much.
It may be cliche, but I must start this review with, “How does she do it?” Without being at all formulaic, Patricia A. McKillip has managed to write a stunning series of stand-alone novels (shocking in the fantasy genre) that consistently weave wonder, magic, romance, adventure, and stunningly complex characters, male and female with such startling consistency and nary a misstep in over thirty years!
In her latest novel, Kingfisher she creates an astounding number of well-define, diverse characters in a fantastic world that blends modern day, with the time of knights, and the remains of magic. Each character is distinct and memorable, even when they don’t appear for chapter on end. She also deftly creates several factions all seeking the same goal for different purposes, but in such a way that the reader is never quite sure who to root for? Is there one group that is in the right? Another working for nefarious purposes? It’s hard to tell, right up to the fantastically mystical denouement.
As usual, her prose drips with exquisite language that in and of itself is a joy to experience. And again, coupled with a complex and delicious stories mainly centered around food, in fact, and the magic inherent in the creation of a superb meal. Patricia A. McKillip, admittedly, is my favorite author, so take this review with a grain of salt, but I stand by it.
And now a recap of my top books read in 2016:
Kingfisher by Patricia A. McKillip
The Weaver by Emmi Itäranta
At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Heat and Light by Jennifer Haigh
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
Mercury by Margot Livesey
Christodora by Tim Murphy
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Hanslett
An Unrestored Woman by Shobha Rao
Opportunity Knocks by Alison Sweeney
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by KJ Charles
And a few other titles I enjoyed last year:
A Wild Swan and other stories by Michael Cunningham
A Case of Possession and The Magpie Lord: A Charm of Magpies by KJ Charles
Mrs. Houdini by Victoria Kelly
In an upcoming post I will talk about some of the other books I read including graphic novels, children’s books and plays. In addition, there were a few books I read that I did not like, or I did not finish, but I won’t be mentioning those here. And I’m off to a good start in 2017 too!
And now we go full-on fantasy. It’s been a while since I’ve found some really great fantasy novels to top my list of books read in a given year. What’s so great about these next two books is that they took me completely be surprise, with one being an author I had never heard of before, and another being an author whose debut I had read and liked well enough, but her new novel blew me away.
#3 – At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Storiesby Kij Johnson
Those who know me, know I am fascinated by bees, and this eye-catching book cover and title could hardly fail to catch my eye despite it’s 2012 publication date. What an extraordinary find. This collection of mysterious and magical stories captivated me quickly and did not let go. I am thrilled to have discovered this new author and hope to read many more works form her pen.
From the first couple of paragraphs of “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” I knew this collection of short stories by Kij Johnson was going to be something special. Johnson’s stories explore the lives of animals, and their relationship with humans, but also explore realms of science fiction — alternate earths, or alien lifeforms. While every story is enjoyable, the standouts for me revolve around the inner lives of every day animals. The monkeys in the aforementioned tale are delightful and mysterious. The protagonist of “The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles” is as heroic as any literary protagonist as she makes her way from Japan’s capitol city to The North. And the mysteries of the swarm in the title story includes a benevolent queen whose kindness will break your heart.
There are some dark stories as well, including the horrific “Spar”, the devastating yet hopeful “The Horse Raiders,” and a shockingly brutal take on the entire “My Little Pony” phenomenon as told in “Ponies.” Johnson’s longer tales, including the title story, the afore-mentioned “The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles,” and the powerful science fiction story, “The Man Who Bridged the Mist,” could easily be spun into full novels. I look forward to reading her novel, The Fox Woman, which surely emerged from her story included here, “Fox Magic.” Kij Johnson plays with language as deftly as she plays with ideas and preconceived notions. This is a magical collection for anyone who enjoys a little imagination in their stories.
#2 – The Weaver by Emmi Itäranta
What an extraordinary surprise, and what was so lovely, was that even after just a couple of chapters, I knew I was going to love this book. I did. Emmi Itäranta is a Finnish novelist , who writes in both her native language and English. She impressed me with her debut novel a couple of years ago, The Memory of Water, which boasted strong, lyrical writing, and in intriguing story, but fell short of really reaching greatness. Itäranta writes in the acknowledgements of The Weaver, how difficult it is to write that second novel. Well, it may have been difficult, but the hard work paid off. I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Weaver near the top of my books read for 2016.
The world Itäranta has created is mythic, complex, intriguing, mystical, harsh and fascinating. Eliana is a young woman living on the island, a weaver in the House of Webs. When during her night-watch, she finds another young woman who has been brutally attacked and left to die, her life is suddenly altered with the discovery of her name tattooed in invisible ink on this woman’s palm. This discovery leads to a journey so unexpected, so imaginative, and so compelling that I didn’t want it to end.
The characters are rich with nuance, from the mysterious young woman Valeria, to The Spinner, monstrous, wise and ancient. Alva, the healer at the House of Webs, and Weaver, who runs the house and retains her own council. The intricate society revealed in The Weaver is as fascinating as Frank Herbert’s Dune, (and fully realized in half as many pages!) I can only hope Itäranta revisits it again someday.
