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.
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.
Almost to the top — and in after a brief anomaly in 2023 where two of my top 3 books were non-fiction (and both Tracey Thorn memoirs to boot) we are back to the standard top books being fiction. What is interesting, perhaps is the fact that all three of my top books of 2024 are written by authors that I am reading for the first time. The authors of my #’s 2 & 3 book of the year were both born outside of the U.S. (where my #2 author still lives). They are all quite different, which is fun, and other than the fact that all three were written by women, I can’t really draw any parallels between them!
#3 – All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews (2022)
Set in Milwaukee, Sarah Thankam Mathews’ debut novel explores the life of twenty-two year old Shena, Indian-born, who came to America with her family as a child. When upsetting circumstances force her parents to return home, Sneha forms her own life in America, snagging a successful job as a consultant right out of college during a recession, and exploring her new home in Milwaukee. She chases women, hangs out with friends, and develops an unexpected crush on a dancer named Marina.
Written in bold, fresh prose, Mathews explores so many issues, from childhood trauma, to the unexpected impact the recession has on a successful young woman, and how quickly someones life can change. While this novel sets the reader up to become invested in the potential romantic relationship between Sneha and Marina, I was profoundly moved by how the ultimate central theme emerged as friendship, and the importance of the bonds we make with our closest friends.
#2 – What You Are Looking For is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
A lovely collection of intertwining stories about a group of unrelated folks who are at a crossroads in their lives who find subtle direction from an unusual librarian at the community library. The characters are from a variety of backgrounds, all at different points in their lives, who lack purpose, or who are dissatisfied with their lives. Author Michiko Aoyama beautifully tells their stories without melodrama or heavy-handedness to develop moving portraits of finding purpose and satisfaction with ones life.
Apparently there is a subgenre of novels in Japan featuring libraries and cats, of which this book falls. While definitely filled with charm and a dose of sweetness, Aoyama ably skirts anything that could be considered cloying, deftly examining the inner lives of her protagonists. Also, a brisk, quick read that makes you feel good.
No, you’re not experiencing Groundhog’s Day… I did already do a post with this very title. And now you can’t find it, you say? That’s correct, because I messed up and the two books I posted about a week or sho ago, Sister of Sorcery: A Marvel Untold Novel and The Flick were actually my #’s 5 & 4 books read in 2024! I mistaken skipped over #’s 7 & 6. My sincerest apologies, but we’re getting back to them now. It’s an important pair though, because here we find the highest ranking in 2024 in the female pop/rocker memoir category (but don’t worry, this genre will reappear in 2025) and another novel to take note of. So here we go before diving back into the Top 5 of 2024!
#8 – Another Planet: A Teenager in Suburbia by Tracey Thorn (2019)
Singer/Songwriter, author, Tracey Thorn tackles her boring teenaged years growing up in suburban London in her third memoir, Another Planet. While the books gets off to a slightly slow start, with Thorn commenting on the monotony of her journal (how can that not translate to the memoir?) it’s all in service of the point Thorn is making about her life during those years. She details the food she ate, the clothes she did or didn’t buy, and the television shows she watched, as well as the boys she got off with and the rows with her mother. Yet, as a mom in her 50’s when she wrote the book, she allows herself the observations of an adult looking back, and that’s where Thorn’s power as a writer excels.
As always, Thorn’s strength as a writer elevates her subject matter, along with her insightful eye and self-deprecating humor. Now after four memoirs, I wonder where she will go net? Perhaps motherhood? It doesn’t matter to me, I will be there to read.
#7 – Real Americans by Rachel Khong (2024)
Rachel Khong’s multi-generational saga explores what makes us who we are, our DNA and our our lived experiences. The story starts with May, the family matriarch, born and raised in a village outside of Beijing, struggling through the political unrest of the 60’s and eventually fleeing to America to become a scientist devoted to her fascination with genetics. May’s daughter Lily, born in America, is struggling to find her place as an adult in the early 2000’s, and feeling like a disappointment to her mother. Finally, Lily’s son Nick, raised by his mother in an isolated island town off the coast of Oregon, separated from his father, with an unknown heritage behind him that could alter his future.
Khong’s characters and their extended families each navigate challenges over the course of their lives, making choices that don’t always turn-out well. Some of these choices are tinged with both science fiction and fantasy elements, from the (near?)-future reality of gene manipulation to the potential wish-fufillment powers of the lotus seed, that Khong uses sparingly to tell a powerful saga that is ultimately about forgiveness.
