Closing in on the Top 5 we have a couple of international novels that take place abroad. One is a literary novel with elements of time travel, the other is a mother son story set in war-torn Beirut with a wittily biting voice.
#7 – The True True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine (2025)
Acclaimed author Rabih Alameddine has written a caustically funny novel about a Lebanese man living in Beirut across six challenging decades, both personally and nationally, all while dealing with his beloved and hated mother. Nearing the age where many people retire, Raja, the solitary, orderly, “neighborhood homosexual” is still teaching his “brats” when an opportunity presents itself to take a three-month sabbatical in America — a journey that sends him on a journey throughout his life, recounting the personal and political upheaval he has endured.
Alameddine has a sarcastic humor that gets Raja through difficult times. His relationship with his mother is complex and fascinating, and it’s always illuminating to read LGBTQ+ stories from outside mainstream American culture.
#8 – A Line You Have Traced by Roisin Dunnett (2025)
Beautifully written speculative fiction about three women from different times whose connected lives come together in a unique way to change the course of the future as the world approaches an environmental collapse. Bea lives in Post World War I London living a quiet life in Jewish East London, confused by the sporadic, mysterious visits by an ‘angel.’ Kay hangs out with her friends in contemporary East London’s underground queer scene finding herself visited by time travelers. While years in the future, Ess, part of a group that is preparing for the end of human life on earth, becomes caught up in a plan to make a journey into the past to help save the present.
Roisin Dunnett’s debut novel is an intricately plotted portrait of three unique women and the unbelievable encounters they must make sense of. With deep roots in the exploration of personal history, it’s a unique and vibrant work.
Dipping my toe into my Top 10 books of the year, we have a couple of novels actually published in 2025 as well (okay, #11 was published in December 2024 — close enough). Both are by authors new to me, and both we impulse reads, which turned out to be good choices. I was particularly taken by my #10’s title. and MA setting. Both had moments that took me out of their stories, which kept them from getting higher on my list, but still, I enjoyed them both very much.
#11 — Rental House by Weike Wang (2024)
Compact story about an interracial couple from very different backgrounds, navigating adulthood, marriage, their strong-willed parents, and their very different outlooks on life. Weike Wang’s third novel was sometimes difficult to read, as the main characters were so wrapped up in their own heads they had difficult reaching out to each other, but this is a thoughtful examination of complex relationships and a strong read.
#10 — The Frequency of Living Things by Nick Fuller Googins (2025)
The four women who make up the Tayloe family endure exhilarating joy, consuming rage, and devastating grief through the course of Nick Fuller Googins’ novel, The Frequency of Living Things. Youngest daughter, Josie, brilliant scientist fascinated by the order and loyalty of colonies of ants, keeps the family moving forward. When her sisters ask her for help, the serotonin in her system skyrockets and she takes control. The twins, Emma and Ama, creative musicians, struck it huge with the band JoJo & the Twins, when they were young. One massive hit and a Grammy nomination , and that was it. Emma, kept them going, getting the band gigs in smaller and smaller venues, while Ama spirals into an opioid addiction that lands her in jail where she must detox not only from her drugs, but her family. Then there is their absent mother, Bertie, political activist, always focused on her cause, less so on her daughters. When her daughters need her the most, she is on a ship headed for Gaza to help the Palestinians.
Googins creates a compelling and powerfully dramatic colony of women in the Tayloe family, carefully giving them each full inner lives with insight, and emotion. It’s a rough ride for JoJo and the twins, and there are times when it seems like the colony just won’t make it. Googins takes the reader on a wild and dark path that ultimately leads to the future.
As we near the Top 10, we start to get deeper into fiction and start to leave the plays behind. My novel reading is a mixture of recent publications, recommendations from co-workers, and reading advanced readers copies that were sent to me by publishers back in the 2015 – 2017 time frame when physical galleys were still being created. I have a bookshelf in my office filled with titles that looked intriguing, and now that my retirement is not that far away, I’m trying to get through some of them! Of course, some are just titles that jump out at me, like #13.
#14 – To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage (2025)
I had trouble trouble reviewing Eliana Ramage’s To the Moon and Back. There is so much to appreciate bout this novel, from the beautiful command of language, to the intricate, complex women that inhabit it. The first challenge the novel faces is also a positive. The books explores so many threads, each of which could power an entire book on its own. In some ways, this is more like life. We don’t grapple with one single issue as we grow, there are a plethora of challenges hurled our way. For Steph, Moon’s main character, there is her single-minded pursuit to become an astronaut, there is the conflicting feelings about her Cherokee heritage, there are the complex relationships with her mother and her younger sister, there is the mystery of her birth father, there is the connection with her mother’s boyfriend, and the very messy entanglements with the women she falls in love with. All of this is then shoved into a coming-of-age story. Somehow though, for the most part, all of it is handled very well.
Where I am somewhat disappointed is how neatly it all gets wrapped up in the end. After a complex, involving three-quarters of a novel, when things start falling into place (partly due to a rather dramatic and unexpected — slightly ridiculous? — experience) everything starts resolving, like a Hollywood movie.
In the end, due to its many strong points, I am giving To the Moon and Back 4 stars. It really kept me going and Ramage creates some interesting characters, an includes a heck of a lot of research to bring reality to their worlds.
#13 – We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, E. Madison Shimoda (Translator) (2023)
Part of that unique genre of Japanese novels that feature cats, We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, by Syou Ishida, features a series of interconnected stories about a mysterious Kyoto establishment, The Nakagyo Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. Visitors learn about the clinic through byazntine recommendations, are greeted by a less than welcoming receptionist and diagnosed quickly by a somewhat distracted doctor — with the end result inevitably being prescribed a cat.
We cat lovers know that cats have miraculous healing properties, but is delightful to enjoy this novel about them. An intriguing through-line slowly emerges introducing a magical realism aspect that borders on full-on magic. There is a unique cadence to the modern Japanese novel, but it’s easy to become accustomed to, and the result is charmingly rewarding.
#12 – After the Flood by Kassandra Montag (2019)
When the worst tragedies have befallen you, you can either be consumed with guilt, or reach for hope. Myra and her young daughter Pearl are struggling to survive an earth that has been overcome by massive flooding so only the mountain ranges attract small colonies, while raiders haunt the waters. When she learns through an act of violence that her older daughter, stolen from her by her husband years ago, might still be alive, she risks everything to find her.
After the Flood is a taut, dark, heart-rending tale of survival, grief, and guilt. The earth that author Kassandra Montag has imagined is vivid and filled with danger. Lots of action, adventure, and edge of your seat suspense seen through the eyes of a mother driven to save her daughter. This was one of those books that have been sitting on my office bookshelf for nearly 7 years. Glad I finally picked it up! This was Montag’s debut novel and she has written several since, which are now on my “to-read” list.
I try to read several plays a year. I’ve been directing shows in community theater for the last 8 years or so, and I find reading plays is a skill you have to learn. The more I read, the better at it I get. Along with the play in this batch from my Top 20 comes a gorgeously written debut novel from a Vietnamese-American author, and a new book from a Finnish author whose work I enjoy.
#17 – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019)
Little Dog was brought to the States from Vietnam by his mother and grandmother when he was a child. Now, as a young adult, he writes a letter about his growing up to his mother, who never really learned English. Vuong uses language beautifully to tell his story and to paint a picture of life as a young gay immigrant who’s different from those around him in suburban Connecticut, but as the novel progresses into his teen years it gets more and more impressionistic which lessened its impact for me.
As the only member of his family to speak English, Little Dog often chooses what to translate to his mother. The multi-generational relationship is complicated and sometimes fraught, but makes for powerful storytelling. I wish that had continued on into Little Dog’s teen years.
#16 – Perfect Arrangement by Topher Payne (2015)
I found it interesting that in 2025 I decided the next play I would direct, After the Revolution by Amy Herzog, without any advance knowledge, two of the plays i read this year took place in the time period in which Herzog’s play explores. Topher Payne’s Perfect Arrangement, like Matt Charman’s Regrets, takes place during the 1950’s and explores the era of communist witch hunts that center Herzog’s play. However, Payne’s play takes a slightly different angle.
Perfect Arrangement is a nicely written play that takes place during the McCarthy era of the 1950’s . Two gay couples (two men; two women) pretend to be heteronormative living in adjoining apartments. Trouble is two of them work for the State Department which is expanding its witch hunt from communists to all sorts of perverts. Funny, until it isn’t, powerful — and all too recognizable in today’s world.
#15 – The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta (2022)
Finnish novelist, Emmi Itäranta, released her third novel, The Moonday Letters in 2022. This complex, intriguing tale is told mostly in correspondence to weave a tale of the ecological downfall of Earth that leads to the colonization of the Moon and Mars, as well as cylinder cities, wrapped up in a deep love story. Like her two previous novels (Memory of Water; The Weaver Itäranta explores dystopian societies blending science fiction and the metaphysical. In this case, Lumi is a healer, whose spirit guide traverses unseen spaces to help her reunite afflicted patients with lost parts of their soul. When her lover, Sol, seemingly disappears under mysterious circumstances, Lumi must find them, and unravel a deeply concerning secret from the clues that are left for her.
Itäranta is an author of deep imagination and lush language. The framing of this novel in correspondence and journal entries worked surprisingly well, extending the longing for the two characters to reunite to the breaking point. All of the author’s works are intriguing and satisfying.
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.
