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Favorite Books Read in 2025 — Beyond the list

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 Eld by Patricia A. McKillip

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - First Edition
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.

Songbird

“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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

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Tusk!

Fleetwood Mac circa 1979I periodically go on a Fleetwood Mac jag, where I can’t get enough of their albums.  And not being a Stevie Nicks sycophant (although I do enjoy a lot of her work) but a Christine McVie fanatic, my Fleetwood Mac listening is not limited to their 1975 white album on, but goes back to the early 70’s, pre-Buckingham Nicks, when the likes of Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan were members.  My latest obsession from the last couple of weeks has been Tusk, their 1979 follow-up to the phenomenally successful, life-changing Rumours.

tuskTusk was a curious album.  There was no way the band was going to repeat the magic that emerged out of their personal break-ups and formed Rumours, number 10 on the list of best-selling albums of all time.  (You can see that list at http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/whats-the-biggest-selling-album-of-all-time/).  I’m sure the pressure from their label, Warner Bros. was pretty intense to do just that, but the band went in a completely different direction.  While it seems that Lindsey Buckingham was the driving force between the pseudo-punk, vaguely country tone of Tusk, certainly throughout all of his, the majority, contributions, his quirky production served Christine and Stevie’s compositions well.  Back in 1979, when Tusk was released, it was a rather shocking turn from Fleetwood Mac.  When listened to today, it seems even more incomprehensible juxtaposed with Rumours, but it works all the better for it.  The double album cost $1M to record, an exorbitant amount at the time, and with it only reaching #4 on the U.S. Billboard charts it is considered a disappointment.  Still, it did sell over 2M copies, earning a double platinum certification.

The title track was released as a single in advance of the album, and should have been a good indication that this was not going to be a Fleetwood Mac album like anything we’d expected.  From the jungle beat of the drums, the bizarre lyrics mumbled, then half-shrieked, and the overlay of the USC marching band, this was something visceral and different.  I was transfixed.  I ran around my high school (I was a senior) shouting Tusk!  I even included it as one of my quotes in the yearbook.

Now as I listen to Tusk some 34 years later, I am struck by how forward thinking it was, and how I think it might be Fleetwood Mac’s best album.  Okay, maybe not their best, but certainly Lindsey Buckingham does his best work ever with the band, or at least, most original.  Stevie Nicks turns in some pretty interesting work as well, and while Christine McVie has always been, in my opinion, the most reliable of the Mac songwriters, she doesn’t disappoint on Tusk.  While Tusk is arguably Lindsey’s album, it’s the way he pushes Christine and Stevie to the far reaches of what could be their comfort zones that really shines on Tusk.  (Although, part of me hopes that they all had fun trying out stuff they’d never usually perform – just take another listen to ‘The Ledge.’)

My current obsession is Christine McVie’s ‘Think About Me.’ It was a third single off the album, and is considered a minor hit for the band, only reaching #20 on the Billboard singles chart.  When I first heard ‘Think About Me’ it seemed a typical McVie single, reminiscent of ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Say You Love Me.’ Listening to it today, I am struck by the rock ‘n roll and punk influences, and the sparse, powerful mix of the song.  Lyrically, McVie injects a little wry sarcasm into the song, something she is not usually known for.  ‘Think About Me’ really features the power of McVie’s piano driving the song rhythmically forward, and Buckingham’s chunky guitar blends to create something truly rollicking.  Once again, McVie choses to alternate vocals with Buckingham, the former taking the lead on the vocals, the latter leading the bands trademark sublime harmonies on the choruses.  The vocal mix is perfect, with each of the unique voices easily picked out when they sing together.  Add to that the solid foundation of Fleetwood’s drums and McVie’s surprisingly flashy bass and it thrills me every time I listen to it.  McVie’s other contributions include the album opener, ‘Over & Over,’ the haunting ‘Brown Eyes,’ the gorgeously simple and heartfelt ‘Never Make Me Cry,’ the intricate confection ‘Honey Hi,’ and one of the best album closers ever, ‘Never Forget.’

Stevie Nicks’ most memorable song on Tusk for most people is ‘Sara,’ the second single from the album, and the highest charting, climbing to #7 on the Billboard charts.  I’ve always found ‘Sara’ to be rather uninspired, overlong and little boring.  The fourth single from Tusk was Stevie’s ‘Sisters of the Moon,’ a dark, pseudo-sequel to ‘Rhiannon.’  Nice enough, but pretty standard Stevie-fare.  Her other three compositions for Tusk are some of her finest work.  ‘Storms’ is a gently rumbling lament, beautifully constructed, and more complex than much of her Fleetwood Mac work.  ‘Angel’ is probably my favorite song Nicks wrote for Fleetwood Mac.  It’s got a bouncy, bluesy chord progression that makes it sound like a Christine McVie composition sung by Nicks.  The hauntingly lovely ‘Beautiful Child’ closes out Nicks’ contributions to Tusk.  Powered by McVie’s gentle piano and flush with the vocal interplay Fleetwood Mac is known for ‘Beautiful Child’ is a heartfelt ballad that highlights Stevie’s strength as a songwriter.  While Nicks’ songs are possibly the least affected by Tusk’s strangeness, Buckingham keeps the arrangements sparse and raw lending an urgency even to her most gentle numbers.

But it’s true, Tusk is really Lindsey Buckingham’s album, and his creativity and originality really show through on his songs.  Penning nine of Tusk’s twenty songs, Lindsey’s short, energetic numbers are like exclamatory punctuation marks sprinkled through the narrative.  His songs burst with heavy, distorted guitars and raucous vocal shrieks that convey frustration, anxiety and anger.  In some cases the bizarre lyrics seem interchangeable (and in fact, listening to the demo tracks included on the 25th anniversary release, snippets of lyrics are used on various songs).  The first of Lindsey’s songs you experience is the punk/country hybrid called ‘The Ledge.’  You might think, ‘he’s lost his mind, what the heck is this?’ but it’s a powerful locomotive of a song with the three vocalists harmonizing with wails and whispers the likes of which Fleetwood Mac had never explored before.  ‘Not That Funny’ is Buckingham’s punk response to Rumours’ ‘Never Going Back Again.’  It’s a bouncy pop ditty that leaps off the record with a high-pitched acoustic guidtar part that sticks in your head.  Along with ‘That’s Enough for Me’ and ‘I Know I’m Not Wrong’ these are three musical outbursts that highlight Lindsey’s new musical direction and his frantic energy.  ‘What Makes You Think You’re the One’ is almost traditional anchored by a pounding piano line that McVie once said made here wrists hurt after a day of recording.  ‘Save Me a Place’ and ‘That’s All for Everyone’ are lush, dreamy tracks that retain the quirky sensibilities of Lindsey’s current vision, but are less confrontational and again, use the trio’s vocal interplay to maximum affect.   Buckingham’s most beautiful number is yearning falsetto-powered ‘Walk a Thin Line.’  It highlights his adept vocals but it once again takes the expected Mac oohs and aahs and pushes them slightly left of center to remind us that we’re not listening to Rumours.

The first time I saw Fleetwood Mac live was during the Tusk tour at the Boston Garden.  It was a glorious show, and was the first of three (or maybe four times) that I was able to see them live.  I know they have had a bit of a return in the past few years, but without Christine McVie, it’s just not the same for me.  There was some sort of magic when those five made music together, and Christine McVie is one of my all time musical heroes.  I’m just glad the band has a long history of music to which I can return.