Looking Back On 2025

Y’all, I read my Looking Back On 2024 column in preparation for writing this one and have never been more depressingly reminded of the French aphorism “Plus ce change, plus c’est la meme chose” or as we say in English “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Ofc, not everything has been the same. Some things have gotten worse! All my personal accomplishments this past year — with the absolute pinnacle being that I was a contestant on Jeopardy!, and a darned good one, too! — feel so small in the face of the horrors generated by this US administration, their cronies and the tech broligarchy all coming together to burn down the planet in order to line their own coffers. So while I did hit my stated goal of reading fewer books this year than last, I don’t feel like that was due to a corresponding increase in my sense of either mindfulness or rest. Instead, I’ve had to pay too much attention to a world on fire, with headlines almost daily sapping me of my energy as I try to make sense of the real world in addition to the ones between the covers of the books I (too often have to) read.

Which, according to Goodreads, totaled 270 in 2025. I’m just gonna say it: I feel like I read a lot more dreck this year than in previous. Part of it is due to the fact that I’ve developed a reputation for being fair in my reviews and championing lesser-known/offbeat titles that have important things to say about self-acceptance, self-examination and empathy. I think a lot of publicists just send me their quirkier babies and hope for the best.

And a lot of times that works out! But there are also way too many books which have felt like a slog this year, and others which remind me how desperately the publishing industry needs to hire more editors and pay them all a living wage. There are so many enjoyable books out there, and even more that have potential, but the editors I know are under so much pressure to produce that they don’t have the time to sit an author down and tell them “hey, this needs a lot of work, let’s get started.” Instead, books are tossed into the market before they’re probably ready, in hopes they’ll turn into the latest inexplicable success story. And don’t even get me started on how many times I’ve read around 400 pages of a novel and thought it would have been so much better with about 100 fewer. Idk why people feel the need to pad their volumes — especially when they do the dreaded detail-by-detail retelling of actions we already read about earlier in the book — but it is aggravating, to the point where I will happily decline any book I’m on the fence about nowadays if it’s longer than 400 pages.

I did find at least 23 books I thoroughly enjoyed reading this year, tho 3 of them were published in years prior, so didn’t quite count for the Top 10 below. These are all books that made me laugh, cry and gasp, and I’m presenting them more or less in order of preference:

1. Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle was hands down my favorite book of the year. It’s a sci-fi horror novel that starts out with Vera Norrie, a bisexual statistician, coming out to the mom with whom she has a fraught relationship, right before their entire world goes to hell. Years later, a federal agent comes looking for Vera’s help in proving that a gambling company she’d been researching was somehow responsible for the Low Probability Event that wreaked havoc across the USA. A fresh sense of purpose drags Vera off the couch and into a story even wilder and more life-affirming than any you’d ever imagine. It’s not a book for the squeamish, but it’s smart and heartfelt and gave me faith in love and the human experience all over again. Best book of 2025 by far!

2. A Drop Of Corruption was a solidly 4.5 star read for me until you get to the fiery afterword and realize exactly what Robert Jackson Bennett was doing with his story and worldbuilding in the second Ana & Din speculative fiction mystery. Our investigators are sent to the far reaches of Empire to investigate the locked room murder of a Treasury officer. What they discover cuts straight to the heart of the delusion of authoritarian government. Come for the inventive science fantasy and/or mystery: stay for the excellent politics.

3. I truly want a physical copy of Sara Gran’s Little Mysteries, which is a dazzling use of practically every mystery short story form to engage with the greater questions of human life. Funny and heartbreaking, this book is a reminder to readers that we get to write our own stories, choose our own paths and solve our own conundrums. We have the agency to go with our brains and beliefs, our loves and our longings. It is also, after a fashion, as anti-authoritarian as the second book in this list. Fascists want you to give up, to stop believing in yourself and in the goodness of this world. Little Mysteries reminds you that you are more powerful than you know.

4. That’s also the lesson learned by the heroine of Sandra Chwialkowska’s The Ends Of Things. Oppressive societies teach minorities to distrust themselves and one another. Laura Phillips, for one, never thought she could vacation in paradise until she had a boyfriend who could whisk her away to an all-inclusive resort. But when she becomes entangled with a mysterious woman vacationing alone who subsequently disappears, she’ll have to confront her own prejudices and the limitations she’s allowed them to impose on her if she’s to have any hope of finding her friend again.

5. The only non-fiction entry on this year’s list is another book that encourages people to believe in themselves, through the examples of both historical figures and the young author’s own life. I expected to be entertained by Taylor Cassidy’s Black History Is Your History; I did not expect to feel so seen. Ms Cassidy expertly relates the biographies of twelve famous Black people in US history while explaining how the lessons learned from their struggles can help us overcome our everyday adversities. Honestly, she gives me hope that the kids are, and will continue to be, alright.

6. I knew of Jeff Lemire by reputation, but don’t think I’d ever read any of his full length stuff before the haunting Fishflies. Set in Canada, this is a deeply moving horror graphic novel of hope, redemption and the breaking of cycles, as a neglected young girl decides she’s going to save a monster, whether he wants her to or not. It isn’t an easy or a pretty book, but it’s a deeply humane one.

7. That said, the prettiest book on this list is undoubtedly Joelle Veyranc & Seng Soun Ratanavanh’s The Paper Bridge. Honestly, the art in these pages is museum quality. The fact that it accompanies a children’s story about the importance of courage and communication in seeking equitable solutions makes the entire project outstanding.

8. The other children’s book on this list is one that I wish I’d had when I was younger. M C Kasper’s first book, There Doesn’t Have To Be A Reason, is just as much about science as it is self-acceptance, as the other animals question Bear about the purpose of their tail, comparing its utility to their own. This deceptively simple story serves as an excellent reminder that not everything has to have a practical purpose, and that it’s okay to like things that aren’t bad for you just because they make you smile.

9. The prolific Jesse Q Sutanto’s Vera Wong’s Guide To Snooping (On A Dead Man) may feel a little formulaic but who cares when the formula is such a winner? Everyone’s favorite busybody grandma is back to meddling in major mysteries again, but with a crucial human rights issue twist. I’m so glad Ms Sutanto is talking about this in her popular fiction: far more people need to be made aware of what could turn out to be a major crisis of the 21st century.

10. Finally, we have the latest astonishing novel from Ashley Winstead. This Book Will Bury Me is a compelling murder mystery about five members of a true crime forum who team up to help the police close cases. Even more importantly, it’s a book about grief, legacy, the ways we lie to ourselves, and the fraught business of being found family.

Shamefully, I am still wading through a backlog of books from 2025 going back to May (see above about things being worse this year than last) so hopefully will discover enough other great books from this past year to make note of in next year’s roundup. In that vein, I do want to shout out a spectacular graphic novel from 2024, Star Trek: Lower Decks ― Warp Your Own Way by Ryan North & Chris Fenoglio. Equal parts clever and moving, it plays with the rules of genre and format to present my favorite space opera of the year.

Edited to add that the haze of the holidays had me completely forgetting that I read John Allison’s excellent Steeple series before the New Year. I highly recommend that gently humorous but incisive rebuke of the negative form modern tribalism that comes too often in the guise of religious identification.

I’m tempted to write more but I have so much other work to do and must at least attempt to be responsible. You can check out more of my 2025 favorites, arranged in reverse order of publication, at the links below!