Fiction ——————-
Russell Banks, Magic Kingdom (2022). Since I am drawn to books that take me to times and places new to me, I reveled in this tale of rural Florida in the early 20th century and the Shaker community that first thrived, then struggled there.
Geraldine Brooks, March (2005). This novel reimagines the life of Mr. March (the unseen father in Little Women) as a chaplain during the Civil War. With luminous prose, it shines a light on the wretched lives of the newly released slaves, of the unimaginably horrible front lines and of the grim conditions in Civil War hospitals.
Percival Everett, James (2024). This novel retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from the standpoint of the enslaved Jim (here, called “James”). Although it may be heresy to admit this, I enjoyed James more than Mark Twain’s original, which I reread at the same time!
Bernard Malamud, The Fixer (1967). This novel, which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1967, is based on the true story of a poor Jew in Tsarist Russia who is accused of the ritual murder of a Russian boy. Difficult to read but impossible to put down.
Gary Shteyngart, Vera, or Faith (2025). This dystopian tale follows a precocious 10 year old girl (Vera) in near-future America. The story, told from Vera’s perspective, follows her attempts to connect with her Korean-American birth mother and to hold together her (very!) blended family as it struggles with rising authoritarianism. Somber yet hilarious!
Wallace Stegner, The Angle of Repose (1971). This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel weaves together the story of a retired historian confined to a wheelchair and the 19th-century frontier lives of his grandparents, whose letters and papers he is studying.
Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again (2019). This novel, told through interconnected stories, focuses on Olive Kitteridge,
a prickly retired math teacher from Crosby, Maine featured in a previous Strout novel. It spans roughly a decade of Olive’s later life as she navigates aging, loneliness, love, regret, and connection. You can’t go wrong with this or with any of Strout’s novels!
Non–Fiction ——————–
Frances Dinkelspiel, Towers of Gold (2008). This is a biography of the author’s great-great-grandfather, Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant who rose from penniless store clerk to powerful financier in California. It chronicles how Hellman’s financial acumen and investments in industries like banking (including Wells Fargo), transportation, viticulture, and oil played a pivotal role in transforming California from a raw frontier into a modern economy. A terrific read!
Richard Federko, A Walk in the Park (2024). Just how many things can go wrong when you attempt to hike the entire Grand Canyon? More than you can imagine!
Stephen Greenblatt, Dark Renaissance (2025). I had no previous interest in Christopher Marlowe and knew only that he was a contemporary of Shakespeare. My bad! Marlowe’s story, told by a master storyteller, is as fascinating as that of the Bard of Avon!
Patrick McGee, Apple in China (2025). McGee chronicles the background of Apple’s placing all of its bets on China, currently doing 90% of its manufacturing there. It is thereby putting itself at great risk as well as training China’s next generation of engineers, who may go on to develop hostile technology.
Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World (2004). Who knew that New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony that became New York, was the font of American diversity or that a a Dutch-born lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck was the true father of the liberties we cherish?
Ian Tattersall, Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins (2012). This book explores how Homo Sapiens became the dominant species on Earth, focusing on the unique traits that allowed us to outcompete other human species, such as Neanderthals.
Amanda Vaill, Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution (2025). Having revered Ron Chernow’s Hamilton in 2016, I wondered what more there was to say about this man and his family. Much, much more, it turns out, especially when the focus is on his wife and sister-in-law!
Irvin Yalom, Becoming Myself: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir (2017). Yalom arose from an impoverished immigrant home to become a foremost modern psychotherapist, writing numerous books along the way (I read three of his other books this year, as well as this one!)
My very favorite books this year were:
Fiction – Brooks, Geraldine, March (2005).
Non-Fiction – Stephen Greenblatt, Dark Renaissance (2025).
Happy New Year and happy reading to all of you!