2025 in Books

Nonfiction

The Monarchy of Fear by Martha Nussbaum

A very good pop philosophy work on why fear is so detrimental for democracies, with some good tips at the end for dealing with America’s crisis… in 2018. Nussbaum is a major writer in philosophy, and this is a bit fluffy at times – with a few wrong notes – but overall worth a read.

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder                         

Twenty lessons from the twentieth century – a nice little guide of what to look out for, and why the Trump administration is dangerous.

Fiction

Human Acts by Han Kang

The brilliant work of South Korea’s first Nobel Laureate in literature is an account of a massacre during the dictatorship, and the ripples it had through society.

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

A Pulitzer-winning work of historical fiction which incorporates real Victorian letters of a remarkable woman, Susan Ward, who was and author and illustrator of the East Coast smart set, who lived much of her life in the wild west with her husband, a mining engineer. The author, her grandson, is also dealing with his own parallel marital struggles, a century later. A worthwhile read.

The Devils by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The fourth of the Russian’s masterpieces, and possibly my second favorite. It’s a bit slow going in parts, and like lots of novels of the era, assumes a level of French I don’t possess. But the characters are good, and the story of a terrorist cell in a provincial town is intriguing.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Glad to have finally encountered this classic, even if I didn’t get much out of it. The dialect was irksome, and the frame conceit of telling a yarn is appropriate, since that’s really what it is.

Five Indian Masters by Rao, Tagore, Premchand, Anand, and Singh

I wanted to get to know Rao’s work, but this was a bad way to do it. His “short stories” made up half the volume, but all three were excerpts from his novels – and the second made no sense out of context. As for the other authors, I’d read Tagore previously, and his stories were nice. Anand and Premchand were both very moralistic, the former in an annoyingly melodramatic way. Singh’s stories, though, were very good – I wanted to read more.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

A great, laugh-out-loud, comic novel. The fact that the last joke is played on us, the reader, is slightly irritating, though. That said, the characters are strong, the story is mostly good, and the writing is great.

Women of Algiers in Their Apartment by Assia Djebar

This is a totally fine collection of short stories, collected from the 1950s to 1970s, and a short essay as a coda. I am glad of the perspective of Algerian feminism, but would have preferred more consistent literary quality.

Midnight Stories by Su Tong

As I continue to try to broaden my global literature, China is a region where I’ve not read hardly anything since the 1930s. Su Tong came to prominence for ‘Raise the Red Lanterns’. These short stories are totally fine – they are well-crafted – but have no particular depth to them, with maybe two exceptions.

Black + Blues by Kamau Brathwaite

A nice, short collection of the celebrated Barbadian poet. A few real gems, and the rest all solid.

Oromay by Baalu Girma

An interesting portrait of a disastrous campaign led in the 1980s from Ethiopia against Eritrea. The main character, a state propaganda journalist, sees the disgusting side of war up close, but doesn’t lose faith in the revolution and its cause – only in war and humanity. It’s an unusual take, and it requires a certain naïve simplicity from our narrator that can be a bit wearisome.

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

What if Heracles, after his violent trauma, decided not to – or couldn’t – be violent anymore? How does he handle the hydra? The Nemean lion? Wiswell produces another strong work on themes of family, healing, and pathos. A compelling page-turner, the work is so strong it now feels like canon.

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

This tremendous work of prose poetry essays deals with race in America in a captivating way. Interspersed imagery adds to the powerful reflections of a modern classic.

The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence

I’d not read Lawrence since Freshman year in college, and didn’t care for him them. So I decided to give him another shot. The writing strikes me as almost bad – poorly constructed. The psychology is, on the other hand, very deft, in parts. And then there’s the tinge of racism not unusual to the time. A very uneven reading experience follows, which is difficult to recommend.

This Earth of Mankind by Pramodeya Ananta Toer

An interesting, if slightly melodramatic, look at the experience of living under 19^th century Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia. Caste and race determine everything, rather than ability or merit, which is a profound blow to the protagonist – one of the first natives who manages to achieve a European education.

The Antipeople by Sony Labou Tonsi

This is not good literature – but even finding Congolese novels is a challenge. The narrative structure is odd – particularly with regard to time – and the plot is unpleasant, relying on the terrible ‘falsely accused of rape’ trope to get started. Lastly, the characters aren’t super well-developed, and there’s a lot of tiresome philosophizing. Only if you really want a glimpse into Congolese lit, would I potentially recommend.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

There were one or two nit-picking missteps – usually around the characters of the boys. But the father and the crow were excellent, and the whole work is well-worth a read as one of the best works of grief I know.

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

I suspect, in time, this portrait of 1950s suburbia will become as universally acknowledged as Gatsby is for Long Island in the 20s, or Grapes of Wrath for the dustbowl. Initially, I was concerned this was just another entry in the Bad Husbands Parade (John Updike, Richard Ford, JP Donleavy). Thankfully, it is a much richer work than that, and has more meaningful depth than those other works which try, without success, to capture failing and failed marriages. Moreover, this work captures a particularly important moment in America’s development and identity.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

A great collection of short stories, often focusing on the South Indian diaspora in the greater Boston area. Well-crafted, and enjoyable to read, they are, oddly not super memorable – but still a worthwhile collection of short fiction.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

I really enjoyed the character work, and the story-telling in this 1940 novel about life in the South. It had all the right themes, and major developments. But, oddly, despite a lot happening… nothing really happens? Which may be the point, but left me a somewhat letdown.

2666 by Roberto Bolano

Split in five sections, four of them seem exemplars of critical darling types: a section on academics trying to solve a mystery, a section on an existential single father, a section on an American black man’s journey of masculinity and identity, and a section on a transformative WWII experience. The fifth section (#4 in the book), however, is a numbing litany of dead women, which, on the one hand, doesn’t fit neatly into the other story’s conventions, but also… was a slog? Bolano is a gifted writer, but it almost felt like he was saying “see? I can do every type of vaunted literature.” Impressive, and probably a worthwhile read, but… left me cold.

Allegria by Giuseppe Ungaretti

A collection of radically modern, moving poems composed during the First World War, which established Ungaretti as a major Italian author.

Selected Poems by Paavo Haavikko

A moderately obscure Finnish poet, once celebrated, Haavikko’s poems are not super memorable, on the whole, with repeating themes that drag even in a slim volume. That said, some of the self-aware poems are striking, and engaging.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Brilliant and innovative, the premise – based on historical fact – is that Lincoln visited his son’s grave the evening he was interred. Remarkably blending the poignant, the comic, and the grieving, a cast of spirits creates an engaging panorama of humanity in what seems destined to be a classic.

Murambi, the Book of Bones by Boudacar Boris Diop

A remarkable account of the Rwandan genocide, especially given the obvious challenges tackling such subject matter. Profound, moving, and expertly crafted, the work made me wonder if it was even possible to write the story any other way.

Graphic Novels

 

Saga vol. 12 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

The saga continues! It’s still a good read – but at the end it underlined just how many characters and arcs I’d forgotten over the years. Once it wraps, I’ll need to do a reread from the start, without the years-long gaps in-between publications.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Finally got to enjoy this classic – and found it just as wonderful and worthwhile as everyone else.

Captain America Penguin Classics Marvel Collection

I’ve long been interested in this collection of Marvel titles, having never been a comics reader, and was excited to begin a journey of learning these iconic stories. It was nice to start with punching Nazis, and to see the evolution of the panels and format.

Black Panther Penguin Classics Marvel Collection

If the Captain America collection is designed to give the basic vibes of a character, the Black Panther collection is the opposite: a long, sustained narrative arc. Most of that arc is based on Killmonger (far better in the movies, unfortunately), and a coda, at the end, on the Klan, which was enjoyable. It was interesting to see how the comic came about. The writing, however, is overdone.

 

Top 5 8! Wow!

 

Murambi, The Book of Bones

Lincoln in the Bardo

Revolutionary Road

Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Human Acts

The Arrival

Citizen: An American Lyric

Allegria