Read, review, repeat
Even though I only review books that I enjoy, a few of them always stand out from the others. Here are my top picks for 2025 including the best book I didn’t review, three series of note, and a reading conundrum.
In a slew of excellent and entertaining books, The Human Scale was the best novel I read in 2025. I still marvel at how Lawrence Wright managed to create a timely, poignant, and unflinching take on Israel / Palestine / Gaza and the 2023 Hamas attacks.
The Human Scale is a new novel by Lawrence Wright and what an ambitious, tender and unflinching book it is. Perhaps only Wright could have created a story like this – his background in the Middle East is well-established and his writing chops are undisputed. The Human Scale is beautiful in its humanity, and I loved it.
Get the Picture by Bianca Bosker is my pick for best nonfiction. This ode to art – anywhere and everywhere you can find it – is inspiring and completely bananas.
I’m beginning to think that Art is everything, am I wrong?
I wrote that in a letter to my cousin, a poet living in New York City. I had just finished Bianca Bosker’s 2024 book, Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Impressive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See and it didn’t as much open my eyes as affirm what I know: that life is better with art and color; that art is an antidote to things like life’s monotony and the evening news. I enjoyed the hell out of this book.
The best book I didn’t review is Exiles, a moody and chilling novella by the late Andrew Pyper, writing under his pseudonym Mason Coile. It’s a mission to Mars gone bad, it’s AI and robots gone rogue, it’s an examination of motivations and self-deceptions. Who (besides Elon Musk) would willingly sign up for a one-way trip to the red planet? This book is a seriously mind-bending trip. (If you missed Coile’s first sci-fi horror novella here’s my review of William.)
William is diabolical, delicious, and supremely entertaining. It’s short and can easily be read in a day, which is a good thing because this is a book that demands a second reading. Why? Well, it starts out as one book but in the last few pages becomes another. I literally finished, sat grinning in shocked silence for a minute, then flipped to the first page to begin again with new eyes and a fresh perspective.
As I looked back at all 49 books I read I noticed some patterns. It was a year of comfort reading and catching up on favorite authors.
It was also a year of reading rabbit holes, the aforementioned reading conundrum. What do you do when you find an author you like and they have 5, 10, 20+ other books already written and just waiting there for you? Sometimes I’m all-in and I start from the beginning and work my way through (see C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett novels). But other times are less obsessive, as with my light infatuations with the Roberts (Harris and Littell). I ended up reading three of Harris’ books, two of Littell’s, and watched three adaptations of their works as well.
The Cormoran Strike novels written by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym) were comfort reads. I read the first three books years ago but when the next one in the series topped 900 pages I was out, that size book is not something I can curl up with. This was well before I started listening to audiobooks though, and I finally put 2+2 together and realized I could listen to these tomes! Now I’m all caught up and looking forward to what’s next for Strike and Ellacott.
Similarly, I went on a Barry Eisler kick, caught up on a few books I had skipped, and read his new thriller, The System. See my Barry Eisler Fangirl Post.
Eisler delivers action and anxiety in scene after scene, including a bloody public run-in with assassins, a scary cat-and-mouse play in a school library, and a chilling encounter with a ruthless government moll and her brutes. Literally breathtaking.
I also read all of the James Reece novels by Jack Carr and ended the year with his Cry Havoc, set in the Vietnam era and featuring James’ dad – Tom Reece. It didn’t disappoint!
Carr’s work appeals on many levels, including the authenticity of his writing and the charm of SEAL Commander James Reece, the Frogman, a sincere, loyal and tenacious leader of men. The action and jargon are as real as can be and never dumbed down for civilians. And Reece? He’s an unwilling hero, a man with principles, and a killing machine.
I already finished my first book of the 2026: Absolute Power by David Baldacci. Yeah, two Baldacci books in 2025 were not enough and I went back to his first novel. (Quick review, it’s a twisted story, perfectly plotted and satisfying good. I’m watching the movie next.) Reading rabbit holes strike again!
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