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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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Top Books Read in 2024 #’s 3 & 2

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)

All This Could Be Differet

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

What You Are Looking for is in the Library

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.

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Top Books Read in 2024, #’s 7 & 6

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.

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Top Books Read in 2024 #’s 5 & 4

My next two entries are a curious pair: an original novel based on characters from the Marvel Comics Universe, and an Obie Award winning play (that also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for drama). The former is not something that I would usually read, despite my penchant for reading comics. What makes that book unique is its focus on super-heroines, and what’s more, lesser-known super-heroines. And while I read a lot of plays, they seldom make my Top 5 books read!

#5 – Sisters of Sorcery: A Marvel Untold Novel by Marsheila Rockwell (2022)

Being a big fan of the superheroines of the Marvel Comics Universe, I was thrilled to find this original Clea novel among the company’s series of novelizations of comics characters. Clea is the wife, and often adventuring partner of Dr. Strange. In this story, when she is called upon to save a friend from Umar, the current ruler of the Dark Dimension, (and did I mention that Umar is also Clea’s mother?) she enlists the aid of several other powerful, yet obscure sorceresses from the corners of the Marvel Universe. Agatha Harkness — probably the most well known to mainstream audiences due to her recent Marvel TV series — is, at the moment in Marvel chronology that this novelization is set, currently dead, and existing only in the form of a still very powerful ghost. She offers her new disciple Holly as aid to Clea. Margali Szardos, powerful Romani witch and disciple of the Winding Way, is also the adopted mother of the X-Man Nightcrawler, and a women who suffers no fools, reluctantly signs on. And finally, Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, sometimes member of the Canadian band of superheroes called Alpha Flight, who is called Talisman, very reluctantly joins the crew despite her aversion to taking on her sorcerous legacy again.

Author Marsheila Rockwell has a strong handle on the characters’ personalities, expecially placed in a certain moment in time on the convoluted Marvel timeline. Her command of the Marvel way of magic-using is consistent and detailed. Rockwell focuses on the personalities of the characters, and the evolving relationships that emerge after a very rock start. For me it was a delightful read featurig mostly overlooked comic characters, with Clea being one of my favorites. So seeing her take front and center leading this unusual band made for a thrilling read.

#4 – The Flick by Annie Baker (2014)

I’m not sure how or why I missed my several opportunities to see the production of Annie Baker’s The Flick when it played in Boston or beyond. After all, I run an independent film society and am quite passionate about film. Still, I missed Annie’s play about a single-screen, independent movie house in Worcester, MA, so I decided to read it finally. What an amazing work! While exploring the challenges of operating such a cinema through the eyes of three of its employees, she also manages to explore the psyches and interpersonal dynamics between three very different people. I hope to see a full production of this powerful work, or perhaps even direct it if the opportunity presents itself.

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Favorite Books Read in 2024, #’s 9 & 8

Moving into the Top 10, I’ve got another memoir, but this one moves into the world of film, thanks to The Brattle Theater’s Podcast. An episode from lat year featured filmmaker Susan Seidelman talking about her memoir detailing her life as a woman creating films in the 80’s to today. Thanks for the tip, Brattle pals! Another genre that I’ve alway enjoyed throughout my life is science fiction. Yuma Kitasei is a Japanese-American author whose second novel has made a respectable showing on this year’s list.

#9 – Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls by Susan Seidelman (2024)

Susan Seidelman, best known for directing DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, has written a lively, entertaining, memoir that incorporates growing up in a suburban bubble during the 60’s, then spending most of her adult life in New York City, seeing the evolution of Manhattan from a gritty, urban proving ground, to the gentrified wonderland it is today. Her story focuses on the struggles of being a woman in a man’s world — the world of making movies — and the challenges she face creating both independent films and Hollywood studio pieces. She comes across as smart, fun, and independent. The weaving of various themes into her personal story is masterful.

#8 – The Deep Sky by Yuman Kitasei (2023)

Yume Katiasei’s debut science fiction novel is a space faring journey where a crew of specialized young people who are capable of giving birth are sent as a last hope from Earth to Planet X to create a new civilization. The book bounces back and forth quite nicely between the academy where these young people are trained and tested, where representatives from each country (number based on population or political clout) compete for a spot on the flight, and the ship after ten years of deep sleep, where those selected to go must deal with an unexpected emergency.

Asuke, half Japanese/half American, wants desperately to honor her younger brother who always wanted to go to space, but was killed in a fire. Asuke’s mother doesn’t want her to go. Asuke lives in a perpetual state of underestimating her skills and doubts herself every step of the way. Even after she makes the cut (not a spoiler, you know that immediately) her doubts continue to plague her as does the turbulent relationship with her mother who she left behind on Earth.

The rest of the crew are filled with varied personalities that make the story interesting and fun. The tension is high, as this crew must deal with an emergency, potential sabotage, and maybe even a traitor in their midst. Kitasei keeps the drama and the suspense ever-present, and Deep Sky provides an action packed, emotional roller-coaster of a ride for a fun space suspense story.