Book of the Year 2025

 We are back...and I'm going to start with what I tried to read but didn't like.  I started Black Spartacus and couldn't get into it.  I read the first 2 pages of Midnight's Children about 4 times and then closed the book.  I finished The Crying of Lot 49 and then wondered why anyone has anything good to say about Pynchon.  But in the words of Joel Plaskett "Every note we sing can't be solid gold" (brief aside - Joel seems to be conjuring up Ricky Bobby in this video as he has no idea what to do with his hands).

There were plenty of good books...let's talk about them.

One that I read parts of, but was still good was The Divine Conspiracy.  After finishing, I asked my personal trainer to compare this book to number 1. I found those insights helpful as I had a rough idea but struggled to articulate the connection I felt (both find a path to inner peace and moral clarity...in different ways).  My personal trainer also drew me a map of Texas that had 2 Austins and a made up city called Huso, (which I assume is an amalgamation of Houston and Waco), so my relationship with AI (that's right, my personal trainer is Chat GPT) is not perfect...and the thoughts below are all mine...

Number 10 is Devil in A Blue Dress.  Easy Rawlins gets in and out of trouble in Los Angeles in the 1940's.  These books are fun...you can't worry too much about some of the plot twists and go along for the ride.  Definitely recommend and will probably read some more in this series.

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone is number 9.  Also fun.  And flawed.  Great title, pretty good book.

I really enjoyed Creation Lake.  Our hero is infiltrating a group of eco-terrorists in France - the leader of the group lives in hiding and only communicates in rambling email rants where he extols the benefits of the "Thals" (Neanderthals).  I can't say that I ever seen a plot that is anything like that (although I may have written similar rants...like now...please don't do any Thal-related eco-terrorism...).  Unique and worthwhile.

Frederick Douglass is number 7.  Great book, incredible story.  Non-fiction has a tough time here and so this is really high praise.

I have a strange relationship with Kazuo Ishiguro.  I really enjoyed The Buried Giant (as you might know if you remember every detail of these lists), but violently quit Klara and The Sun halfway through.  When We Were Orphans is weird - I enjoyed the first 80% of the book way more than the end, but I found it compelling and well-executed.  Deserving of the #6 spot.

Nemesis by Phillip Roth is number 5.  Roth has won our prestigious award before with The Plot Against America.  Nemesis is by no means as great as that book (and probably not as good as American Pastoral), but is short (which wins points here), well-plotted, and thought-provoking.

Number 4 is The Women.  Great book.  Our protagonist volunteers to be a nurse in Viet Nam where she deals with some awful circumstances...and then comes back to California and it just gets worse.

The Cloven Viscount also experiences war...but this book is nowhere near as gritty.  The Viscount is unfortunately cut in half by a cannonball and...this is just science...one half is all good, the other half is all bad.  The bad half returns to his hometown first and is remarkably unpopular...the good half shows up later and also manages to piss some people off.  Very short and fantastic.   My copy also came with another story - The Non-Existent Knight, which was also fun.

I've always felt like the best art is that which entertains but also makes a statement, without every feeling pedantic (and hopefully without ever using words like pedantic).  The point of Chain Gang All Stars is not subtle, but it also doesn't get in the way of a really great story.   This book flew by for me.  Really enjoyed it and highly recommend.

Number 1 was nowhere near as fun, but is such an amazing and life-changing book.  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.  Marcus has some amazing advice "It never ceases to amaze me:  we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more abut their opinion than our own" or "our life is what our thoughts make it" and some thoughts that are a little less uplifting "none of this matters, you will be dead soon" and some that are just for him and make no sense to any of us reading it 2000 years later...but you know what Joel Plaskett told us...and the solid gold in this book is unmatched.

There they are...the best books of the year.  Of course, the irony here is the Marcus Aurelius quote "you always have the option to have no opinion"...hmmm...I guess I'll keep working on that one.