Reading 2025

I usually do an end-of-the-year reading roundup, and last year I didn't because I wasn't posting. So I thought I might do it belatedly, but then I looked over the list of books I read last year and realized there really weren't that many great books. 

I could whine about The Decline of Readable Literary Fiction, but honestly I think it's more of a me-problem than a problem with contemporary authors. I am so discouraged and downhearted about the world these days that I don't think I give anything a fair chance. I should  probably work on that. 

One major change in my so-called reading life has been that twenty-five or thirty years ago, I don't think I read any non-fiction at all. Maybe the occasional self-help book (I remember The Artist's Way and Eat Pray Love(meh)), but nothing else. 

That has gradually been changing, until this year most of my 5-star reads are nonfiction (I still read mostly fiction, but the books I really enjoyed this year were mostly non-fiction). 

I don't know that I have a good explanation for why or how that happened. Maybe part of it is the rise in narrative non-fiction-- books that are about science or history but are told like a story. Part of it is that I find it harder and harder to find fiction that I want to read. My reading tastes haven't kept up with the times. 

So instead of listing the books I gave five stars (which is how I usually do it), I will just tell you the ones that stood out to me when I scanned down the list. Some of them I didn't even "like," but these are the ones I'm still thinking about.

Fiction:

Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su

Dayswork by Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder

Playground by Richard Powers

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

All Fours by Miranda July

Non-Fiction

Challenger by Adam Higginbotham

Shakespeare: the Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench

The Emperor of All Maladies (I know, it's old)

Source Code by Bill Gates

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The book I've had the most luck recommending to people is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. People love that book. I liked it, didn't love it, but I re-read it with my spouse a couple of weeks ago and it really is a good story. I probably enjoyed it more the second time through. 

So that's it. I will go back to posting occasional reviews of books I read soon, because I've read some books in 2026 that I've been thinking about lots. Let me know if you have recommendations for me.

Related posts:

My So-Called Reading Life part 1

My So-Called Reading life part 2

2022 Reading Wrap-up (the second half of that one is about writing reviews on Goodreads)

7T: (why, oh, why are we so in denial) when we know we're not happy heeee-yer?

1. We're driving from Montana to Southern California. The plan is to visit family on the way down, spend a long weekend at the Indian Wells tennis tournament, then drive back. Not a super ambitious trip, but it should be relaxing. It's nice to not be in a hurry to get somewhere.

2. I had never heard of snowbirds before we moved here. Snowbirds are people who live someplace with a long winter, so they spend six weeks (or more) someplace warm to get out of the snow. (We didn't get snow this year but that's another story.) It's mostly retirees, but I suppose you can be a snowbird at any age. My spouse is finally fully retired, and we were hoping to do a six week snowbird stretch this winter. But a number of family obligations interfered, so we did a week with my mom in mid-February, and this two week trip, and that's it for this year. Maybe next year we will be able to be full-fledged snowbirds. 

3. Another migraine tip: I realized last year that I don't have any trouble with caffeine when I drink it first thing in the morning, and maybe again in mid-afternoon. But if I spread it out— if, for example, I fill an insulated mug with my morning tea and sip on it over the course of a couple of hours, it gives me a headache. Weird, right? It's happened often enough now that it's become something I pay attention to. So now I drink my morning tea over about 20 minutes, and if I want to have something to sip on for several hours, I do decaf or herbal. That seems to work. 

4. OK. Here is something I've been thinking about. You hear a lot about how we're trying to dismantle authoritarian power systems and get rid of the patriarchy, etc. But also we are absolutely obsessed with the person in the White House. Isn't that patriarchal thinking? It is occurring to me that maybe one of the most subversive things that each of us individually can do to suck the air out of patriarchal power systems is to not pay so much attention to them. Obsessing about the people who are in power just gives them more air time, more attention, more energy. Paying attention to what we can do and be and change right in front of us distributes power away from the people at the top. Plus, it's something that I can actually do. Obsessing about the news very quickly becomes wasted time. 

(That's not to minimize the importance of protest when protest is needed, of course.)

5. And while we're on the subject of power structures, here is a weird thing that I've come to realize about the religion I grew up in, and have subsequently come to see it in all kinds of other situations. The individual evangelicals I knew in my personal life had the best of intentions (most of the time, at least). They genuinely believe that the bible is the word of God, completely true in every word, interpreted in the way that their group interprets it. They're genuine. But the people in power, the people who are worried about maintaining their power and getting people to give money and show up for events and keep their group/church/ministry running— those people are not always so authentic. Those people are sometimes using their congregants/members' genuine, heartfelt beliefs to manipulate their behavior. I could give a million examples, but maybe I will just leave it at that. 

Just be wary, a tiny bit skeptical, when you are presented with something that comes with a request for cash, or likes on Instagram, or clicks through to a website, or subscribe here to my newsletter that will keep you riled up and angry all the time. They may be preying on your good intentions to further an agenda that isn't what you intend, or even just to make themselves rich, or maintain power. Be smart. Just because someone knows how to engage your genuine heartfelt beliefs doesn't mean that they intend good things. 

6. Also could we grow out of the junior high phase where we are all trying to be like the cool kids. Good grief. 

7. We have a list of things that are a little ridiculous to pay for but we have decided are worth the subscription fee. Our list includes Sirius XM. My spouse listens to it in his truck all the time, I mainly listen when we are on road trips (like now). His favorite station is #6, pop rocks, and at least once a day they play that damn OutKast song which then gets stuck in my head. Hence the post title. It wasn’t until after I googled the exact lyric that I realized it’s kind of apropos. 

Have a great day.