Tags
2025 Mid-Year Favorites, 2025 Mid-Year List, Books to Read, Favorite Books, Favorite Reads, Fiction, Nonfiction, What to Read Next
The contributors to this 2025 mid-year list of Favorite Reads are evenly divided between females and males and has slightly more fiction than non-fiction books.
I asked for just a few titles. If there was nothing outstanding from the first half of this year, I suggested that contributors list a previously read book that has remained a favorite.
The contributors are listed alphabetically by first name, and I am thankful that so many of you took the time to share what you’ve recently enjoyed, whether it was from the first half of this year or from the past.
Know that this list is shared with more than 100 friends who use it to find books they may not have known about or are willing to try because of the comments that accompany the contributions.
Enjoy.
(PS – If I have missed a contribution or made an error in the posting of your book or comment, please let me know as it is easy to make corrections)
The 2025 Mid-Year List
Allan Latts:
Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick (NF) is a clear, practical guide to working with AI as a collaborative tool. Mollick shows how tools like ChatGPT can boost creativity, productivity, and decision-making across fields. A quick, engaging read for anyone curious about using AI effectively—today.
Barbara Friedman:
Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum by Elaine Sciolino (NF) is a wonderful book on one of the world’s great museums. You learn all sorts of interesting facts — for example, there is a gallery with empty picture frames . . . no, that is not an exhibit about to be hung . . . the frames are the works of art themselves! Another interesting story relates a curator of the Iranian section finding unopened crates and beginning to see what they contained. He found a strange-shaped long stone and he had an idea! On a day when the museum was closed, he took the shard into the statue area to see if it fit a particular statue – Bingo! And this is just two examples. The book makes you want to hop the next flight to Paris to visit the Louvre again!
The Lumumba Plot: The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination by Stuart A. Reid (NF) is a very interesting and informative book about the “independence” of The Congo from Belgium in the early 1960’s, its previous history under Belgian control, it’s emergence as an independent country under Lumumba, the CIA plot to murder Lumumba, and the eventual takeover of power by Mobutu. It is not a “pretty” story.
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (NF) is a wonderful biography of the famous scientist, engineer, architect, and artist. An interesting fact, Leonardo often wrote in “mirror script” from right to left with the letters in the same “opposite” direction. . . i.e. Napoli instead was ilopan (except I couldn’t do the letters in the opposite direction!). Most of us think of Leonard as the famous artist, and that he was. However, his work as a scientist is equally amazing – With his experiments, he wrote how blood flowed through the heart – and in 2014, an Oxford team proved conclusively that Leonardo was right! And as he made his scientific observations, he drew them – the intersection of his myriad of talents! This is a WONDERFUL biography and a fascinating man.
PS – Here is an absolutely MUST read!!!!! Lucky Loser by Russ Buettner and Suzanne Craig (NF) . . . as you read the book you think the person described is a total loser, only impressed with himself, and obnoxious! Then you realize he is the President of the United States for the second time! OMG!
Bill Plitt:
The Gift by Bob Mosley (F). The Gift is a book about what use to be America’s greatest pastime. Now it may be pickle ball. It’s author is the winner of two national award-winning sports novels. This latest book may be his best ever. The story is gripping and well written. It is not only a sports novel, it is an inside look at the life of a young super star who climbs the ladder of promised success, only to learn of his new gift. Can he keep it?
I was glued to every page from the beginning, but even more in the last 20 pages as it hit a theme of my own book which is about acts of loving kindness, something we all could use a little more of these days.
Brandt Tilis:
The Names by Florence Knapp (F). The perspective and narrative device used to tell this story is unlike anything I have ever read. Surely, avid readers of your blog will find another book that used something similar, but my library isn’t so vast. Anyway, it’s an interesting story about ordinary people who go through life in many different ways. In many ways, it follows a thought pattern I frequently find myself in regarding Chaos Theory and how one event or one decision can change our lives and the lives of those close to us. I don’t want to ruin it by discussing some of the more detailed things I enjoyed about the book. Still, I haven’t been captivated by a Fiction book like this since Kite Runner.
Men and Rubber: The Story of Business by Harvey Firestone (NF). Yes, that Harvey Firestone. He wrote a book 100 years ago about building his Tire business, and the principles he discusses still hold up today. Firestone also has interesting takes on:
-Automobiles: that electric motors are the future if we can figure out how to get a battery on a car
-HR: that the best people for a job want to feel like they a part of something great and be paid a fair wage than to go to the highest bidder
-Disputes: that courts are only necessary if there is a differing opinion on facts. If parties can agree to facts, then anything can be settled.
If you are building something, I highly recommend this book. If you are a fan of US History, you may also enjoy it. At the end, Firestone goes into details on the trips he would take with Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and John Burroughs.
Honorable Mention:
Why We Love Football by Joe Posnanski (NF). Richard gave me this book and got Joe to sign it for me. Little did he know that Joe’s wife would end up working on reading and writing with my kids a few months later! This is just a fun read for any football fan. Joe goes through 100 fun moments in football, the impact they had on him, and the impact they had on the game.
Brian Steinbach:
The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson (F). Last year I commented on having read Ms. Wilson’s translation of The Iliad. As promised in those comments, now I have read her earlier translation of The Odyssey. It did not disappoint. As in The Iliad, she provided a lengthy introduction that set the scene and the context in which it was originally created and its history, as well as an overview. She also provides summaries and some notes for each of the 24“books.” She translates the original dactylic hexameter into the iambic pentameter that is more comfortable in English, and choose simpler, more direct and modern language, not the more pompous language that typically is used in translating Homer. The result is a highly readable version, more so than the Iliad. Again, reading the whole thing – rather than just the few books that described Odysseus’s travels through the Mediterranean – is an eye opener. A theme throughout is the responsibility the elites have toward and for “hospitality” – welcoming visitors, uninvited guests, strangers, and even homeless beggars, and sending guests away with gifts, all designed to create bonds between people who are geographically distant. Failure to do so may result in bad events. Reminiscent of traditions among nomadic peoples in more recent times. Yet another is the role of females. There’s also a lot of scheming and blood to keep things moving. Notably, throughout there are references to other traditional stories, some of which have been passed down (the murder of Agamemnon and his son Orestes getting revenge for that) and some of which have not. This hints and the great diversity that once existed in stories told by the ancient poets. There are many themes that still have meaning for today.
I also very much enjoyed James by Perecival Everett (F) on which others have commented.
Carol Haile:
Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey (NF). The authors share 10 stories of wrongful incarcerations. The grotesque inadequacies and blatant prejudice exhibited by law enforcement and members of the judicial system is beyond belief and infuriating. Many of the crimes occurred decades ago, when discrimination and racism was at its height. But appeals were often more recent; yet, the parties involved seemed more concerned with protecting the image of the department or someone’s reputation than delivering justice.
Those accused (many young black men) were stripped of years of their lives because someone wanted a conviction and the way to ensure it was to manipulate evidence, intimidate the accused, bribe witnesses, disregard credible testimony and basically just pin the crime on someone. In the first case, at one point 7 people were in jail for the same crime! It is beyond ridiculous.
It was a difficult book to read. I found each case heart wrenching. Most astounding is how these men were able to move forward, some more successfully than others, after their release. Unfortunately, not all lived to be exonerated. I listened on audio but understand there are photos in the hard copy book.
Chris Boutourline:
Two favorites I read due to the recommendations of other contributors to your list:
The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City by Kevin Baker (NF) is one of the best books about sports I’ve read (Ball Four, The Boys in the Boat, and Seabiscuit are the only others that, offhand, I recall admiring). It’s also delves into general history, scientific advancement, urban development, culture and more.
Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness by Jamil Zaki (NF) is an uplifting read during a time when goodness may seem difficult to believe in. The title says it all- scientifically speaking, people are better than we might think (although, given a couple of quizzes in it that I took, I’m not quite as enlightened as I might have thought).
Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal (F) is a novella about a young Russian conscript who has second thoughts (and actions) on a Trans-Siberian train that is taking him to basic training.
Chris McCleary:
Blindsight by Peter Watts (F). Interesting sci-fi read about first contact led by a motley crew of savants/neurodivergents, including a vampire. The prose is dense and a bit challenging to follow at times (the book didn’t seem to have normal chapters, and it switches timelines sometimes abruptly) but some of the ideas and the approach to the first-contact genre were thought-provoking and novel.
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (F). A near-future dystopian tale of water scarcity and its effect on the American southwest. I particularly enjoyed that the ending eschewed the expected.
Chuck Tilis:
The Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (NF). Do you want to revisit a train crash? This is what I asked before deciding to do this book by audio. I learned my question should have been “Why didn’t we stop the train from crashing?”
Opinions of this book span from a must read to its merely yesterday’s news. I say-read it and reflect on how could this happen under the eyes of so many.
Cindy Olmstead:
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (F). Historical Fiction about a Lithuanian woman who was a single mother, studying to be a librarian who ends up as an expert sniper in the Russian Army fighting the Nazis. Based on a true story the heroine becomes a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and helped convince FDR to become involved in fighting the Germans. It is a compelling read. Author also wrote The Rose Code.
Donna Pollet:
This is Happiness by Niall Williams (F). Lyrical Irish storytelling from an old man looking back on his experience as a confused seventeen year old in a small Irish village. The plot is meandering with multiple digressions. Everything and nothing happens setting you up for the real drama. It comes late in the novel but is worth the wait, a real “sucker punch” to the heart.
Eric Stravitz:
Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe (NF).
Better Off Dead by Lee and Andrew Child (F).
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (F).
True Prep by Lisa Birnbach and Chip Kidd (NF).
Forty-Five Years at the Bar by Irwin E. Weiss (NF).
Elizabeth Lewis (Goodman):
House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (F). Based on an actual visit by W. S. Maugham to a colonial British family in post WWI Malaysia, this novel has the hostess as a first-person narrator alternating with Maugham’s thoughts as recounted by an omniscient 3rd person narrator. The varying perspectives as well as time shifts create a rich tableau of intersecting cultures, the origins of the Chinese Communist party, and human frailties. The characters in the book worry about how Maugham will portray them in stories he surely will write about his travels, even as they expose their failings to him; and so I too was moved to read Maugham’s The Casuarina Tree (F) and Rain: The Story of Sadie Thompson (F).
Elizabeth Tilis:
The Names by Florence Knapp (F). Easily the best book I’ve read this year. I cannot stop thinking about this book which alternates timelines based on the different names chosen for a baby and how those choices alter family history and destiny.
Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (F). Would have been my top choice if I hadn’t just finished The Names. A beautiful story about three estranged sisters returning to their home in New York after the death of their fourth sister.
Ellen Miller:
Few books that I have read in the first half of 2025 have been as enjoyable/engaging/engrossing as those from last year. So, what you see below are four books from last several years, which, if you haven’t read you really should.
Baumgartner by Paul Auster (F) has always been a delightful read, and we readers lost a literary giant when he died last April. His last book Is memorable. This book is witty, and the stories he tells us about his past are delightful. This is one of the books which grabs you from the very beginning. You won’t want to put it down, and you’ll be sorry when it’s over.
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan (NF). This is an extraordinary book. It tells of a time in the 1920s when the Ku Klux Klan was reconstituted in Indiana by a slick salesman and soon spread throughout the country, hoodwinking some, finding willing participants in many places, and paying off others to join with them to create a white supremacist movement. It’s a perfect book for our times.
The Pole by J.M. Coetzee (F). First up, I pretty much enjoy reading everything Coetzee writes, and The Pole is no exception. This is a short book (only 176 pages) that tells the story of older (Polish) pianist and interpreter of Chopin who becomes infatuated with a woman who is a stylish Spanish patron of the arts. They first meet after she helps organize his concert in Barcelona. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by the pianist, she soon finds herself swept into his world. A relationship develops but only on Beatriz’s terms.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz (F). This was one of the books I most thoroughly a year ot two ago. It’s a must-listen. It’s funny, it’s real, and it’s heartbreaking all at once. And it is another story about how we fail as a country to serve those who need just a little bit of help to raise themselves out of poverty. The heroine of this story is a woman – a factory worker for 25 years — named Cara Romero who was laid off in her md-50s. She turns to a government agency to help her find a new job. The book is comprised of “transcripts” from her many visits to a government agency which, after assessing her skills, will try to place her in a new position. This is a light “listen” that takes a hard look into how America fails those who need help. I highly recommend listening to this book.
Ellen Shapira:
Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung (F). This book is the compelling story of a mother and her three daughters trying to flee from the Communists in China as the Red Army was taking over the country from the Chinese Nationalists after the end of World War II. The book not only tells the story of the difficulties and hardships of being a refugee for years on end, but it also explores the complexities of family traditions, relationships and generational conflicts.
Emily Nichols Grossi:
Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley (NF). She writes in the aftermath of a burglary and the suicide of her best friend, processing her grief with its full experiential spectrum: confusion, anger, denial, bargaining. I couldn’t put this down. She’s an excellent writer!
Fruzsina Harsanyi:
Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd (F). The new book by William Boyd may not rise to the level of literary fiction, but it is not just a “beach read,” which I, for one, would consider a waste of time. It is a thoroughly entertaining Cold War era spy novel written by a master story-teller of improbable stories that kept me turning the pages. It’s a great summer read, as is almost anything by this author.
Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (NF). I usually stay away from current event-type political books. They are often more hype than a new perspective. I also felt it would be somewhat disloyal to read it. Why tell this story when the alternative was going to be (and has been) so much worse? But I was drawn to it because I wanted an answer to my gnawing question of why good people do bad things and how they justify it to themselves and others. To say it was all about staying in power is too simplistic and doesn’t explain anything. Tapper and Thompson take this question head-on. The book is not mean-spirited, though often painful to read. It takes into account love, loyalty, and patriotism, as well as ego, self-interest and defiance.
The Haves and Have-Yachts: Dispatches from the Super Rich by Evan Osnos (NF). Are the super-rich bad people? Reading about them in Evan Osnos’s new book I’d say no. Rather, they seem to me unimaginative, boring, and motivated by a constant search for the next thing money can buy that would set one of them apart from another. Status is at the top of the list and a bigger yacht isn’t enough to get it. To get more and therefore to be more, it’s political power they want. It’s interesting to read stories of how they get to be super rich, what they do with it, how they lose it. More important than just interesting, read this book together with the many New Yorker articles on oligarchy for insight on what is happening in America today.
Garland Standrod:
The Age of Magical Thinking by Amanda Montell (NF). A fascinating look, despite a breezy style, at our modern culture by a young writer focusing on the bad habits of our minds in this age of information glut.
Haven Kennedy:
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal (F). This book manages to be both hilarious and heartwarming. A college dropout, Nikki, finds herself teaching a writing class in a Sikh neighborhood. It turns into a group of widows writing erotic stories. The book delves into Sikh culture, the place of women, and the importance of female friendship. The women go from being alone and isolated to being empowered.
Hugh Riddleberger:
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (F). Historical fiction story about the abolitionist, James Brown, as told through the voice/eyes of a boy and slave, Onion, adopted by James Brown and accompanied him for four years prior to Harper’s Ferry. A unique tale of a complex man.
Jane Bradley:
The Oppermanns by Lion Feuchtwanger (F). This novel about a German Jewish family living in Berlin in 1933 when Hitler becomes Chancellor is remarkable because it was written during that time, drawing on the author’s own experience. It’s alarming, cautionary, and timely.
Janie Radcliffe:
Just sit back and enjoy Remarkably Bright Creatures by Sidney Van Pelt (F). The book is a nice relaxing break from the heavy topics of the day. It is sweet, charming, humorous, and sensitive. A plot that ends up having many surprising twists and turns! Simple kinJeffdness can affect so many people!
Jeff Friedman:
Shamanism: The Timeless Religion by Manvir (NF). A fascinating description of how shamanistic beliefs recur in nearly all cultures, including modern societies. (One chapter argues that tech CEOs are akin to modern shamans.) The book has a wonderful combination of first-person experiences and synthesis of interesting scholarship. Singh is a superb writer.
Jesse Maniff:
One of my favorite books has a life of its own in public discourse, so I thought it was time for a reread. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (F) remains a wonderfully entertaining work of fiction (that should not be confused with an instruction manual for building a society).
Judy White:
The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance by Robin Wall Kimmerer (NF). This beautifully written and illustrated little book can be read in an hour or two, but both Mike and I re-read it more slowly more than once. Drawing on her Native American wisdom, she helps readers see that what we think is a natural economy is anything but that. Our librarian granddaughter says that her library has had to re-order more copies since it is so popular.
Kate Latts:
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitakwe (F). A boy nicknamed ‘Patch’ is abducted and held underground, in the dark, for a period of approximately ten months. He survives the experience because he is accompanied by a young woman (a tad heavy-handedly) called Grace. After he is free he spends the bulk of the novel searching for this woman, whose comforting words enabled him to survive. In the course of the story he becomes a painter, a (well-intentioned) bank robber, and the love object of two women, one of whose lives he saved and the other who, in multiple ways, saved his. This book had great characters and great twists along the way. It is not short, but kept my interest.
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen (F). This sweeping novel follows Suchi and Haiwen, childhood friends in 1940s Shanghai whose bond deepens into young love. Their lives are upended when Haiwen secretly enlists in the Nationalist army to protect his brother, leaving behind only his violin and a note. Suchi, displaced by the war, eventually finds refuge in Hong Kong and later the U.S., while Haiwen’s journey takes him through Taiwan before settling in Los Angeles. Told through alternating timelines—Suchi’s story moving forward, Haiwen’s in reverse—the novel traces their separate paths from the 1950s to the 1980s, culminating in a lovely, albeit predictable reunion decades later. I enjoyed reading about the Chinese Civil war and learning about the struggles of Chinese in maintaining loyalty to the nationalists vs the communists, and the sacrifices across family members and the ensuing difficult lives for everyone.
Kathleen Kroos:
The Girl With Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee (NF). A extraordinary insight into life under one of the world’s most secretive dictatorships of Kim Yong-Un and the story of one woman’s struggle to avoid capture and to guide her family to freedom.
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel (F). Inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, a young woman with a talent for forgery helps hundreds of Jewish children flee the Nazis in this historical novel about WWII and the French resistance.
Kathy Camicia:
Time of the Child by Niall Williams (F). The best novel I have read in some time. Wiliams wrote This is Happiness a couple of years ago and this is a follow-up. Same Irish village, interesting characters, and excellent writing.
Larry Makinson:
It’s been a great year for exposes, and these are two of the best:
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (NF). A view Inside the Facebook juggernaut as seen by someone drawn into it to make the world a better place and getting quickly disillusioned with the reality of Facebook’s leaders, who share none of those ideas and actually make things worse. Much worse. Well-written and frankly shocking.
Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alexandria Thompson (NF). A detailed and well documented story of President Joe Biden‘s physical decline in office, and how it was kept under wraps by his closest advisors.
Melanie Landau:
Stargazer by Anne Hillerman (F). Anne Hillerman is the daughter of Tony Hillerman, author of the Joe Leaphorn, Navajo tribal policeman, series. She continues the series updating and using his characters to solve mysteries on Navajo Tribal Lands in the southwest. Culturally insightful, interesting, and easy summertime reading.
Mike White:
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin (NF). This book enabled me to re-live a memorable era of my own life, and to better understand the dilemma Lyndon Johnson had about ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war in conflict with his desire to create a more equal and just society. Long but very readable.
Nick Fels:
A long-shot choice would be When Women Ran Fifth Avenue by Julie Satow (NF). It describes the professional and personal lives of the women who, improbably, came to manage Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor, and Henri Bendel, leading fashion outlets in the 1950’s and 60’s. I found it interesting because my mother worked at Bonwits during that time.
Nick Nyhart:
Cloud Cuckoo Land a grand tale by Anthony Doerr (F) a grand tale that follows a handful of seemingly unconnected characters in a tale that weaves its ancient, present, and futuristic storylines together across centuries, all over and, apparently, beyond our globe. It is an adult version of the wild fictional stories I enjoyed as a child.
And, ohh, the frustrating Red Sox, not such a great NF read. I had believed a bit in the pre-season hype, but, so far, it’s an old story. (Not recommended.)
Richard Margolies:
Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words by Douglas L. Wilson (NF). A masterful and deeply thoughtful analysis of Lincoln’s strategic choice of words to move Americans during our prior years of crisis. Wilson also reveals Lincoln’s character and how a visionary humanist thinks. I came to this book because in beginning a writing project I wanted to learn from America’s master at motivating and inspiring readers. This book was much appreciated by Lincoln scholars who recommended it.
Richard Miller:
Letters by Oliver Sacks (NF). Kate Edgar, Sacks’ longtime editor, has gifted us a treasure. I read this 694-page collection of letters slowly, just three of four of his letters each night before bed. If there is such a thing as an autobiography through letters, this is it…ones’ life as it was lived, not recounted, and certainly not in retrospect. It’s also much more. It is a window into the life and mind of this brilliant, fascinating man. I plan to reread it, and I suspect I may like it even more than the first read.
If you’re looking for an escapist read or an audible book simply to stay on the treadmill a bit longer, A.S. Cosby’s All Sinners Bleed (F) is a good place to start. Almost everything he’s written is engaging, though his newest one, King of Ashes (F), is not as good as most of his others.
Romana Compos:
Playground by Richard Powers (F). I liked but not loved this book. His writing is superb, and he has me hooked since he wrote the The Overstory which I believe won the Pulitzer Prize.
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult (F). I have read other Picoult books, but this book digs deeper and tackles racism in a way that breaks it down into a story that is digestible and works with you and doesn’t gut punch you.
Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard (F). Loved this book although I was so frustrated with the main character. This story is a love story but also about the attachment to home and place. It’s a women’s version of a Wendell Berry story with characters full of virtues and flaws and always evolving.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelvy VanPelt (F). Funny, charming, perfect summer read. Connects a lonely person to a trapped Pacific Coast Octopus. Who could ask for a better plot than that?
Chasing Hope: A Reporters Life by Nicholas Kristof (NF). Excellent and a must read!
Wrong Place Wrong Tme by Gillian McAllister (F). Murder mystery with a time shift twist that makes it really interesting.
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford (F). I loved this book! It’s hard to describe, but it’s another one of those time twisting-traveling plots If you don’t like shifting timelines, you won’t like this book. But it reveals sooo much about how Chinese people were treated in America around the turn of the century and in such an amazing plot scheme.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (F). I can’t believe I’m reading a book about the Civil War and particularly about the battle of Gettysburg!!! That’s my husband, Ed Scholl’s genre. But, this book captures the thoughts and emotions behind some of the people leading up to the Battle of Gettysburg and it does it in a way I’ve rarely seen history portrayed. It is soooo GOOD! It is engaging and it’s historically correct, except for the conversations generated which are pulled together from dairies, journal entries, etc. If you are not nuts about history but want to learn more about the civil war, this is a great book and it won a Pulitzer Prize!
Ruth Quinet:
Just finished reading Notes to John by Joan Didion (NF). It’s a posthumously published book, controversial for that reason and because it’s a series of notes taken over years of therapy with a psychiatrist about her daughter’s alcoholism and Didion’s own issues as a mother. It provides more insight into Didion’s character, her motivation to write, and her relationship to her husband, John Gregory Dunne, as well as her relationship with her daughter. At the same time, it leaves you feeling a bit voyeuristic.
Sam Black:
These are all non-putdownable:
The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsythe (F) – a cold war thriller by a master. Perfect beach or summer reading. Published in 1984, and considered by some to be Forsyth’s best work.
City of Night Birds by Juhea Kin (F). A first-person account to mid-life of a woman who became the most admired principal ballerina at the apex of the ballet world – Leningrad, Moscow, Paris. So convincing that you have to remind yourself that it’s fiction. Accomplished storytelling and characterization. Moments and thoughts of rare clarity and intensity. Richly informed by the author’s deep knowledge of the art.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (F). New Yorker-level snarky writing about Seattle parents. Way funny. Narrated by an intelligent 15-year old daughter whose mother, an accomplished architect, disappears.
Mr. Texas by Lawrence Wright (F). Wright is a master of many genres; this is a marvelous short comic sendup of Texas politics, convincing and wise.
Steve Radcliffe:
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (F). It is a very timely book about how different groups of people relate to each other. It is fiction but very believable. It is very poignant for today’s society.
*** *** *** ***
And if you somehow are unable to find a book of interest above, you can always check on the list(s) from a previous year.
To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016, 2017. 2018, Mid-Year, 2018, 2019 Mid-Year. 2019. 2020, Mid-Year 2021, 20221. 3/30/22. 7/16/22, 2023, 2024 (Plus three mid-year posts: 6/1/23, 7/16/23, 6/25/24.)
