Can you remember everything you read last year? I can’t. So, I keep journal to remind myself which books are essential, just for fun, or not worth a second chance. And for the past few years, I’ve shared those highlights on my blog. If your taste in reading is like mine, you might enjoy some of these or at least avoid a few I didn’t think measured up.
As I always say, I hope you will consider purchasing any books that interest you through an independent bookstore like Powell’s in Portland, Oregon or Vroman’s in Pasadena, California. Visiting a local library is also great. Here’s to another year of books!
👍👍 Essential reading
Crook Manifesto – Colson Whitehead. The follow-up to my favorite book of the year in 2022, Harlem Shuffle. Whitehead is one of the best contemporary American fiction writers.
Slow Horses – Mick Herron. Yes, I was late to this one! Better late than never. A great read for fans of the spy genre.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – William Kamkwamba. I was even later to this gem! If you want an inspiring true story about the human spirit, please read this one!
When the Game was War – Rich Cohen. Any fan of NBA basketball in the 1980s should have this on their reading list.
Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone – Benjamin Stevenson. I was sucked in by the title, and it paid off. A clever mystery novel.
👍 Definitely worth your time:
Burn Book: A Tech Love Story – Kara Swisher. Maybe the tech titans of Silicon Valley aren’t as smart as they (and too many of us) think they are?
Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan - Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay. The title says it all. A must read for any Dan fan.
The A.B.C. Murders – Agatha Christie. Christie’s novels are almost always good and sometimes approach great. This falls in the latter category.
One Summer: America,1927 – Bill Bryson. There are a lot of parallels between the summer of 2024 and 1927. You’ll be surprised.
Jeeves and the Wedding Bells – Sebastian Faulks. An homage to the wit and style of PG Wodehouse. Fun, light and breezy. Just like it was written by the master himself.
💡 A must-read for those working in PR:
All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians – Phil Elwood. Almost reads like fiction, but you can’t make this stuff up!
👎 Disappointing, skip them:
Bleeding Edge – Thomas Pynchon. As you would expect, the writing style and character dialogue from Pynchon is masterful. But the plot? Not so much.
Widespread Panic – James Ellroy. Ellroy is a master of mystery and noir fiction. Not here.
👇 Bonus: A 2023 must-read:
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall - Zeke Faux. From Bored Ape NFTs to SBF, financial reporter Zeke Faux chronicled it all.
Who’s reading books in 2025?
Short answer: A lot of people, but not nearly enough! According to the National Endowment for the Arts:
Last fall, the NEA reported how, according to its 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, 48.5 percent of adults reported having read at least one book in the past year, compared with 52.7 percent five years earlier, and 54.6 percent ten years earlier. Meanwhile, in 2022, just 37.6 percent reported reading a novel or short story, compared with 41.8 percent in 2017 and 45.2 percent in 2012. As we said at the time, the fiction-reading rate was the lowest in the history of the SPPA, a survey that goes back more than three decades.
I’m not sure this will ever change in our new smartphone era, but I’m going to do my part.
Happy reading in 2025!
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