2024 Book List

I read 81 books in 2024. This is eight more than the total from 2023 but is still a low number for me. Subjectively and in order, these are my 24 favorite books of 2023.

No. Book Title AuthorYearPublisherComments
24 The Best American Essays,
2024		Wesley Morris, Ed.2024
Mariner
Books		I look forward to this annual anthology every year.
I have every volume in the series dating back to
1986. Many good essays in here. A couple of my
favorites are Jenisha from Kentucky by Jenisha
Watts and Proxemics by Jonathan Gleason
23The Midwife’s TouchSue Harrison2023Shanty Cove
Books/Open
Road
Integrated
Media		Sue is a fellow member of UPPAA and graduate
from LSSU with a B.A. in English. She is also one
of the best novelists in the U. P. Set in the Ozarks
in the 19th century, it brings to life the characters in
the place and time while also serving up a
scrumptious side dish of witchery.
22Shit Cassandra SawGwen E. Kirby2022Penguin
Books		A fun and clever collection of stories. All of them
are good, but my favorite was For a Good Time,
Call. The paperback cover is a wild, attention-
getting picture of eyes and mouth in neon blue,
green, orange, and yellow.
21 The Book of ElsewhereKeanu Reeves and China Mieville2024Del Rey Keanu gets top-billing but I’m certain China did all
the heavy-lifting. Another take on the immortal-
man trope, it is a fast-paced, sci-fi thriller.
20A Fair CountryJon Robin Baitz1997Theatre
Communications Group		Probably the best play I read in 2024. It takes place
in Mexico at an archeological dig and examines
family dynamics and issues of morality with
sterling dialogue.
19Time’s Arrow or The Nature
of the Offense		Martin Amis1991Vintage InternationalSon of Kingsley Amis and probably a better
novelist than the old man, which is saying
something. This is caustic and brilliant.
18Run Man Run Chester Himes1966The Library of AmericaAnother great novel by a writer who seems to be
finally getting his due recognition. This is from the
LOA Crime Novels, Four Classic Thrillers 1964-
1969 volume. I could have easily included all four
selections in my list.
17The Mere WifeMaria Dahvana Headley2018Picador A wonderful, modern re-imagining of Beowulf.
This one was compelling, difficult to put aside.

16
God Lives in St. Petersburg		Tom Bissell
2005		Vintage
A marvelous collection of inter-related short  stories. Tom Bissell is a native son of Escanaba and  has to be the most talented writer my adopted  hometown has ever produced.
15On Lying and PoliticsHanah Arendt2022Library of
America
A slim volume containing her two essays: Truth and Politics and Lying in Politics. They are equally brilliant and offer, decades later, still timely insights to the madness of present-day American politics.
14
Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates		2009-
originally
1961
Everyman’s LibraryFrom an omnibus edition that also includes The Easter Parade and Eleven Kinds of Loneliness which could easily have made the list but RR, deservedly so, is his bitter masterpiece.
13CryptonomiconNeal Stephenson1999Avon BooksAnother big book by Stephenson. I loved the characters and intricate plotting. Many readers complain about his “info-dumping” but I’m typically enthralled and love learning about whatever his topic at hand is…in this case cryptoanalysis.
12WWW: WakeRobert J. Sawyer2009AceFirst book in the Wake trilogy, it is a delight to read and difficult to decide who I liked better, the young girl or the AI character. Sawyer is a pro. It’s no surprise he keeps winning awards.
11ShavetailThomas Cobb2008Berkely
Books		This is a rousing adventure set in the western U.S. during the Civil War era. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. The American Western is alive and well in Cobb’s capable hands.
10The Tremor of ForgeryPatricia Highsmith1969The Library of AmericaHighsmith takes the Crime Novel to new heights in this psychological masterpiece. I can’t wait until LOA comes out with their Crime Novels from the ’70’s.
9Old Poets: Reminiscences and OpinionDonald Hall2021GodineHall seems to have known everybody who was anybody in the Poetry World. His essays are thoughtful and insightful if not fun and gossipy.
8A House for Mr. BiswasV. S. Naipul1961Quality
Paperback
Book Club		Considered by many to be his masterpiece, it is abundantly clear in this and the other novel, A Bend in the River, in this omnibus volume why he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
7BlindnessPeter Watts2006TORA brilliant and challenging read, this is science fiction at its best. It blurs the line between genre fiction and literary fiction.
6The FraudZadie Smith2023Penguin
Press
Zadie is back again. This time she tries her hand at historical fiction and succeeds fabulously. I wonder if she can write poetry?
5The Cunning ManRobertson Davies1994Penguin
Books		Is the Cunning Man the MC or Mr. Davies himself…and does it matter? A wonderfully witty and charming story with characters that speak from the page. What a treasure was discovered here.

4		The River WhyDavid James Duncan1983Sierra Club BooksThis is a long and tender love letter to rivers and fly fishing peopled with very real, vulnerable characters. I believe this is his debut novel and what a debut it is!
3OutJohn Smolens2019Michigan
State
University
Press		I believe Smolens is Harrison’s hand-picked successor as best novelist in Michigan and for good reason. He has the chops. The story plot and characters are compelling. I devoured it. Also, a shout out to MSU Press for producing a lovely volume.
2The OverstoryRichard Powers2018W. W.
Norton &
Co.		Another love letter from the Northwest, this one is to trees. A well-deserved winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The writing is simply superb.
1The PassengerCormac McCarthy2022Alfred A.
Knopf		The master has spoken and you would do well to heed his words.

2025 Book List

I read 83 books in 2025, two more than in 2024, and still a bit low by my standards. However, numbers only tell part of the story. The overall quality of the books I read is perhaps the best ever. Here, in ranked and unapologetically subjective order, are the 25 books that stayed with me the most.

It Was Life Itself

A discussion near the pitcher’s mound ensued. There were clenched fists, red faces, cursing, nose-to-nose confrontations, spittle flying, threats, pushing, and gloves lifted high overhead then slammed to the turf in anger quickly followed by baseball cap—just as we had been taught by watching the adult, professional ball-players on television when they had their bench clearing brawls. The participants were careful to keep the belligerence this side of fisticuffs. Bitter experience had taught us once punches started flying there’d be bloody noses, black eyes, and, even worse, termination of the game. Nobody wanted that. We were here to play ball.

A discussion near the pitcher’s mound ensued. There were clenched fists, red faces, cursing, nose-to-nose confrontations, spittle flying, threats, pushing, and gloves lifted high overhead then slammed to the turf in anger quickly followed by baseball cap—just as we had been taught by watching the adult, professional ball-players on television when they had their bench clearing brawls. The participants were careful to keep the belligerence this side of fisticuffs. Bitter experience had taught us once punches started flying there’d be bloody noses, black eyes, and, even worse, termination of the game. Nobody wanted that. We were here to play ball.

Monica in the Boundary Waters

A love sonnet I wrote for my beloved bride. (First published in Woods Reader, Spring 2020; Vol. 3, Issue 1).
A coworker, Angie Neubecker, was kind enough to do the calligraphy. I framed it and gave it to Monica for her 48th birthday.
Here is the explication:
1st quatrain – Monica is fearful of bears and the BW, of course, has many black bears. She was always unhappy when I went to the BW. Pine sap and pepper grass are some of the best smells in the BW. Monica’s smile shines like the full moon in a cloudless BW night.
2nd quatrain – The BW and Monica are uniquely, yet comparably, beautiful which carries us over to the
3rd quatrain – As I continue relating Monica’s beauty to the BW: her brown eyes to the clear brown waters; her flushed cheeks after our love-making to the pinkish hues found in some of the granite outcroppings.
Closing couplet – I missed her so much but was able to see her loveliness in so much of the BW’s beauty.

Listen, Recall

Odilon Redon, Orpheus In early morning hush,the moon sings farewell,gelid murmured notesthrough white cat-paw clouds if you listen, recalllight recalls time recalls light,the ancient ships of night seasask whenask whatyou wantfrom the whispers and pulsesof mother music from earth and sky, the fiddle, flute, and drums ofwind-beats and tree rustle,the cardinal chirps and crow caws,black […]

Listen, Recall

2021 Book List

I read 89 books in 2021. These are, subjectively and in order, my top 21 in 2021.

NoBook TitleAuthorYearPublisherComments
21Mefisto in OnyxHarlan Ellison1993Mark V. Zeising BooksAnother powerful story from H.E. in a beautiful, oddly shaped 1st edition. One of the only books written for adults that is wider than it is tall. Keeping in character, Ellison could not resist a shot, in his Acknowledgements, at some folks who had rejected the book. MiO is a gritty, noirish novella of murder and suspicion.
20Typewriters Bombs Jellyfish: EssaysTom McCarthy2017New York Review BooksThe essays are full of erudition and odd insights. They carom off delightfully in every direction. My favorite was The Prosthetic Imagination of David Lynch which provided a glimmer of understanding of the film director’s strange and tenebrous aesthetic.
19Christopher Durang Complete Full-Length Plays 1975-1995Christopher Durang1997Smith and Kraus, Inc.Durang’s plays are funny with caustic commentary on the foibles of modern American society. I’d already read Beyond Therapy and seen it in a small theater in L.A. with my son Tristan playing the part of Andrew. My favorite play in this collection was The Vietnamization of New Jersey.
18Get in Trouble: StoriesKelly Link2015Random HouseLink is a faultless stylist and a master of the outre.
17J. G. Ballard: The Complete Short StoriesJ. G. Ballard2001FlamingoI had already read a number of the stories in this massive, 1200 page volume because they’d been published in so many ‘Best of’ anthologies. My favorites were Minus One, The Smile, and Love in a Colder Climate.
16On Wings of SongThomas M. Disch1993Easton PressAnother gorgeous leather-bound volume with gold-leaf embossments and gilt-edges from Easton Press. It is a modern fairy tale and biting satire of American society and Christianity. Disch never disappoints.
15The Fires of HeavenRobert Jordan1993Tor BooksThe fifth in the epic fantasy series the Wheel of Time. There is good reason WoT is mentioned in the same breath as GoT, LOTR, and Narnia.
14The ArrestJonathan Lethem2020EccoLethem is one of our best writers and a rarity in that he is equally adept at writing speculative and mainstream fiction. The Arrest is a dystopian novel set in America’s near future and depicts what happens when cars, computers, airplanes, etc. stop working.
13The LowlandJhumpa Lahiri2013Vintage ContemporariesThis novel was apparently a finalist for the National Book Award and the Man Booker Prize so, yeah, it’s pretty good stuff. Set in India from the 1960’s to the present day, it is a family tale about two brothers replete with love, tragedy, and contemporary Indian history.
12Bartleby in Manhattan & Other EssaysElizabeth Hardwick1983Random HouseE. H. was one of our best essayists and literary critics. If you don’t believe me ask Robert Atwan who chose her over the likes of Joyce Carole Oates, Annie Dillard, and Susan Sontag as the first guest editor in his Best American Essays series started in 1986 and still going strong.
11A Memory of EmpireArkady Martine2019Tor BooksArkedy Martine is the pseudonym of Dr. AnnaLinden Weller. This space opera is full of action and intrigue and won the 2020 Hugo award for Best Novel.
10News from the World: Stories & EssaysPaula Fox2011W. W. Norton & Co.P. F. is the under-appreciated author of Desperate Characters. These essays and stories have both sparkle and depth, a difficult trick to pull off. My favorites were Clem and the eponymous piece.
9The Complete Poems of Philip LarkinPhilip Larkin2012Farrar, Strauss and GirouxAt 700 pages this is the definitive work for Larkin scholars. It has as much commentary as poetry. I read it for the poems only. Some of my favorites were Night Music, No Road, Ignorance, The Old Fools, and Winter Nocturne.
8The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual CollectionGardner Dozois (Ed.)2011St. Martin’s GriffinThis annual collection of the best science fiction from the previous year is always one of the best books I read in any given year. I’ve always wondered about the correct pronunciation for this multiple Hugo-award winning editor’s last name. My favorite stories were The Emperor of Mars by Alan M. Steele, Under the Moons of Venus by Damien Broderick, and In-Fall by Ted Kosmatka.
7The Drowned WorldJ. G. Ballard1965Doubleday & Co.This 1st edition volume also included The Wind from Nowhere which could easily have landed in the top 21 as well but three works from one author in the list seemed excessive. This post-apocalyptic world in which sea-levels have risen drastically is described n Ballard’s signature dreamy, moody atmosphere.
6LessAndrew Sean Greer2017Back Bay BooksThis Pulitzer Prize winning novel is a clever, heart-warming, and funny look into the over-lapping worlds of literary writing and academia.
5Raised in Captivity: Fictional Non-FictionChuck Klosterman2019Penguin BooksThis much better-than-expected collection of short story[/essays?], all of them about a dozen pages or less, features Klosterman’s wit, humor, weirdness, and crazed imagination.
4The Portable VeblenElizabeth McKenzie2016Penguin BooksThe funniest, sweetest novel I read in 2021, it takes a clever and witty look at families and Big Pharma.
3The Largesse of the Sea MaidenDenis Johnson2018Random HouseEverybody who is anybody in the literary world loves Johnson’s writing. Who am I to disagree? He is a master word-smith. I liked the prison story Strangler Bob the best in this collection where every story is good.
2The Hotel EdenRon Carlson1997Penguin BooksAnother great collection of short stories that edged out Johnson’s above only because of the superb story Keith.
1Perdido Street StationChina Mieville2000Del Rey Ballantine BooksA wonderful meld of science fiction and fantasy. This Arthur C. Clark award-winning novel set in the steampunk world of New Crobuzon (which bears a more than passing resemblance to London) is an enthralling tour-de-force.