2025 Reading List
Cataloging all of the books I've read in 2025.
Facing the Mountain: An Inspiring Story of Japanese American Patriots in World War II (Daniel James Brown) – 4 stars out of 5. Very engrossing, thorough account of the outrageously immoral and illegal detention/internment of Japanese-Americans within the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Demon Copperhead (Barbara Kingsolver) -- 3.5/5. A little too long and repetitive, but overall a entertaining and heartfelt coming-of-age account of a boy in poverty in Appalachia. It does not sugarcoat this kid's experiences.
Mickey 17 (Edward Ashton) -- 3.5/5. One of the breeziest reads of the year. Intriguing Sci-Fi that is not too heavy on the science but is heavy on the comedy. The movie Bong Joon Ho just made adaptating it was unfortunately just ok, despite a great performance from Robert Pattinson.
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land (Rebecca Nagle) -- 4.5/5. Excellent book and an essential text. It is part-true crime and part-captivating history book about the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the United States's early days. The genocide is told very well in my opinion.
The Message (Ta-Nehisi Coates) -- 5/5. Another essential text. Coates is an exceptional author, and this is a deeply personal collection of three essays:
- His travels to Dakar, Senegal, which is his first trip to Africa.
- His visit to Columbia, South Carolina, where he talks to a professor whose job is at risk due to teaching one of Coates's own books.
- His journey to Palestine where he experiences Israel's oppressive apartheid first-hand, clashing with bunk preconceptions that he had been fed from Zionist mythology all his life.
Dark Matter (Blake Crouch) -- 4/5. Really interesting novel that is a suspense thriller with a Sci-Fi bent. Set in Chicago, and the TV adaptation for AppleTV+ (starring Joel Edgerton) was solid too.
Iron Gold (Pierce Brown) -- 3.5/5. Book 4 of the Red Rising saga, quickly becoming one of my favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy series after A Song of Ice & Fire and Dune. This fourth book is a step down from the trilogy that preceeded it, but it set the stage nicely for book 5 and this second trilogy.
What the Water Taught Me (Katherine Gramann) – 5/5. This is sort of a coffee table book of poems, with great images of serene lake life. The poems paint nice pictures in your brain and make you think about why we love being in (and by) the water so much.
The Mechanic: The Secret World of the F1 Pitlane (Marc 'Elvis' Priestley, David Coulthard) -- 4/5. My first Formula 1 book, a sport which has quickly become an obsession of mine. It's a nice inside look at the sport in the late 90s/early 00s, from the perspective of a top mechanic who worked for one of the premiere teams at the time: McLaren.
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (Patrick Radden Keefe) -- 4.5/5. I went into this knowing very little about the Irish Republican Army and Northern Ireland's struggle for independence from the British (BRITS OUT now). I came away being endlessly fascinated by the period. This is a very well written book. The miniseries on it, from FX, is strong too.
The Ax (Donald E. Westlake) -- 3.5/5. Sought this out on the premise alone, which you'll have to look up yourselves because it is a wild one. Darkly funny and a great crime story.
Fatale (Jean-Patrick Manchette) -- 3/5. I picked this up after I found out that the great Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is in talks to adapt it into a movie. It was fine, but I honestly don't remember much about it. A good crime noir, and a short read.
Bound for Glory (Woody Guthrie) -- 3.5/5. Guthrie's memoir is enlightening, albeit ocassionally difficult to read as it very much reads like a book directly from the 1943 Dust Bowl era it was, well, written in. We love Woody though don't we folks?
Her First Palestinian (Saeed Teebi) -- 4/5. A beautiful collection of stories, specifically about Palestinian immigrants in Canada. All about their identities and experiences as immigrants.
Red Harvest (Dashiell Hammett) -- 3.5/5. Very cool mystery/crime noir tale exploring corruption and violence in America in the early 20th century. So many twists and turns.
Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News (Alec Karakatsanis) -- 4.5/5. Endlessly thorough book researching "the way the media and police distract us from what matters." The Goodreads blurb also says it "describes a special kind of propaganda that affects who and what we fear and what kinds of social investments we support to address our fears." Gift this to everyone you know in the Blue Lives Matter crowd.
East of Eden (John Steinbeck) -- 5/5. Will be one of my favorite books of the year, and honestly favorite fiction books ever. It blew me away. Over 500 pages of the most beautiful prose you'll find on the page. It contains many complex, fascinating, and deeply flawed characters, while describing cities and periods within America like nobody I've ever read.
Dark Age (Pierce Brown) -- 4/5. Book 5 of the Red Rising Saga. This was a return to form in the series and got me stoked to start book 6, Light Bringer. The new characters introduced in Iron Age got fleshed out further, and most if not all of them had great arcs in this next installment.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Omar El Akkad) -- 5/5. Yeah that's a 5 star no question. This book skewers the "western ideals" that we've supposedly had faith in in our countries for generations, and it takes Zionism and the so-called "rules-based order" to task. A must-read.
Shock Wave (Jack Slater) -- 3.5/5. Book 11 of the Jason Trapp series. This is sort of my "guilty pleasure" series to be honest. It's like a Jack Ryan or Tom Clancy book. I'm a heterosexual cis-white male, I still need some classic espionage action thrillers in my life ok?
The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces (Seth Harp) -- 5/5. A third essential text. A riveting investigation into unsolved murders at America's largest military base, and the drug-trafficking and impunity that has taken place there by the elite special operations soldiers who call it home. Harp is not only a good writer, but every podcast I heard him on during the book tour for this was a great conversation.
Cannery Row (John Steinbeck) -- 3.5/5. Good still, but a step down from East of Eden in my opinion. Read it for its vivid depictions of community, specifically 1940s Cannery Row in Monterey, California. Fun cast of characters.
A Competent Witness: Georgiana Yoke and the Trial of H. H. Holmes
(Judith Nickels) -- 3/5. My wife's dear aunt lent me this book. It is a follow-up to Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, written about H.H. Holmes's wife, her starting out in Chicago, meeting Holmes and getting seduced by him, and then where the relationship goes from there. Definitely worth a read.
Kubrick: An Odyssey (Nathan Abrams and Robert P. Kolker) – 5/5. A very comprehensive biograph of Stanley Kubrick's life, but also deep diving into each one of his feature films. I rewatched each of Kubrick's movies as I passed them through this book, and that includes watching Spartacus for the first time.
Light Bringer (Pierce Brown) -- X/5. Book 6 of the Red Rising Saga, the final book currently out! 75% done with the book. It is fantastic so far and has the potential to be an incredible ending to a truly great series.
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