Books I read in 2025

A few good ones and a few bad ones

This year, I found myself diving down rabbit holes: deep warrens of both specific authors and specific topics. I discovered Philip Caputo, a war journalist become fiction author who reminds me in many ways of Graham Greene, a perennial favorite of mine. I finally began the Cormoran Strike series (by Robert Galbraith a la J.K. Rowling) — likely the best detective series written in the past few decades. I continued reading a few of the Stripe Press releases (stories from the early Silicon Valley days). And I found myself obsessed with Vietnam, digging into the complicated war history with both old and new literature.

Nonfiction

I have read a bit more nonfiction this year than last, and with only a few exceptions I was able to honor my self-imposed ban from business books, which are, almost without fail, the most useless pieces of word-slop ever put together.

Ordering the nonfiction vaguely from best to worst:

A Rumor of War - Philip Caputo
Four Voyages - Christopher Columbus
The Prince - Nicolo Machiavelli
In Pharaoh’s Army - Tobias Wolff
Dispatches - Michael Herr
Hillbilly Elegy - J.D. Vance
A Great Place To Have A War - Joshua Kurlantzick
Movie Memories - William Shatner
The Making of Prince of Persia - Jordan Mechner
Moldova: A History - Rebecca Haynes
The Big Score - Michael Malone
The Technological Republic - Alex Karp
Incident At Devil’s Den - Terry Lovelace
A Confederate Soldier In Egypt - William Loring
How I Found Livingstone - Henry Stanley

Of note, I found the following nonfiction books especially good.

A Rumor Of War tells of Philip Caputo’s story of going from Vietnam grunt in the first year of the war, to returning 10 years later as a journalist. While not always the most pleasant of reads, I learned that Vietnam was a far more complicated story than I’d been led to believe.

Four Voyages is a collection of Columbus’s diaries, ship logs, and contemporaneous accounts of the discovery of the New World. Likely the most straight up educational book I read this year. Did you know that Columbus, prior to his discovery of Hispaniola, had journeyed up and down the coast of Africa, and even visited Iceland, where according to his son he first learned that Vikings had been visiting the northern mainland for many years? Did you know that Columbus’s second voyage was comprised of 17 ships and over 1,200 men, establishing settlements across Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, and Guadeloupe?

The Prince is perennially misunderstood. It’s more of a warning, not a devilish handbook to psychopathy. Worth a read.

Fiction

I also read (and re-read) quite a few fiction books. I disperse these in between the heavier nonfiction (sort of like listening to Fatboy Slim in between Bach’s cello suites). I was specifically pleasantly surprised by J.K. Rowling’s Strike series, which are some of the better written and attention-grabbing mysteries I’ve read in a long time.

That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
Horn of Africa - Philip Caputo
The Cuckoo’s Calling - Robert Galbraith
The Silkworm - Robert Galbraith
Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith
Lethal White - Robert Galbraith
Troubled Blood - Robert Galbraith
The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy
Wise Blood - Flannery O’Connor
DelCorso’s Gallery - Philip Caputo
The Prose Edda - Snorri Sturluson
The Campaign of Prince Igor - Anonymous
The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Camp of the Saints - Jean Raspail
The Algebraist - Iain M Banks
The Partner - John Grisham
The Broker - John Grisham
Bleachers - John Grisham
Point of Impact - Stephen Hunter
The Things They Carried - Tim O’Brien

I was especially disappointed by The Things They Carried, perhaps because it comes so recommended as one of the best pieces of Vietnam fiction/nonfiction. I found it self-important and pandering. To echo Truman’s famous quote about Robert Oppenheimer, “Don’t you ever bring that crybaby back here ever again.”

I also revisited Atlas Shrugged for the first time since my adolescent foray into libertarianism, ironically solidifying myself as very much not-a-libertarian. Although a vastly important book, with a million accurate points, I can only come to the conclusion that Ayn Rand was an extremely bright yet severely autistic lady who never actually hired, fired, or ran a successful business in any way.

Horn of Africa was especially good. Perhaps it’s because I have trudged around some of the most corrupt areas of Africa to identify with the protagonist, but it was nostalgic in an odd and brutal way.

Top recommendations

If you haven’t read these books, read them: That Hideous Strength, The Cuckoo’s Calling, Four Voyages, The Prince, Horn of Africa.