Reading 2025: Fiction

 Fiction I read in 2025: 

1.    The Exchange by John Grisham

2.    Camino Ghosts by Jonn Grisham

3.    All the Glimmering Stars by Mark Sullivan

4.    The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens

5.    None of This is True by Lisa Jewel

6.    My Friends by Fredrik Backman

7.    The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

8.    Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

9.    The Caretaker by Ron Rash

10.   The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

11.    The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

12.    Culpability by Bruce Holsinger

13.    The Widow by John Grisham

I would recommend any/all of these with #9 The Caretaker being my favorite, and #11 The Correspondent coming in at a close second. 

Rash (The Caretaker) is a brilliant writer, the author of Serena which I read a couple of years back. which was excellent but dark, and with few redeemable characters. I liked this one better. 

Virginia Evans deserves high praise for The Correspondent, which is equal parts funny, poignant and moving. Being a letter writer myself, this one was perfect for me. 

Grisham continues to crank them out (three on this list), and I continue to read them. Fortunately, I have a friend who buys all of them and passes them on to me when he is done. 

Culpability (#12) is certainly worth your time if you have any interest in, and/or concerns about, Artificial Intelligence. 

#6 My Friends is another solid read by Fredrik Bakman, author of A Man Called Uve and others I have enjoyed. 

#3 All the Glimmering Stars is nothing short of disturbing and one likely to stay with you long after you have finished. Masterfully written, it is based on the true story of two teenagers kidnapped in the 1990s and forced to become child soldiers in Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. It reminded me of how much injustice there is in the world and how largely insulated I am from it. 

My nod to the classics was #10 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. My interest was piqued when a pastor in my church referenced it while preaching on Romans 7 and the Apostle Paul's struggle with his sinful nature. I very much enjoyed this one and will likely read something similar in 2026. 

Speaking of 2026, Happy New Year to all of you. I hope to be reading more now that I am retired and look forward to sharing more titles. I hope you will do the same. 

Reading 2025: Non-fiction

 I have read 29 books this year and 16 of those have been non-fiction, so more than half. I will list them here, then make a few comments: 

1.    The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, Bernard Devoto

2.    Roots & Rhythm, Charlie Peacock

3.    The Riverside Boys, Thomas Fuller

4.    Here be Dragons, Melanie Shankle

5.    The Fix, Ian Cron

6.    Will the Circle be Unbroken, Sean Dietrich

7.    You are My Sunshine, Sean Dietrich

8.    My Sojourn, Mike Cosper

9.    Challenger, Adam Higginbotham

10.    Little Miss Diagnosis, Erin Nance

11.    Oath of Honor, Liz Cheney

12.    The Last Sweet Mile, Allen Levi

13.    A Fever in the Heartland, Timothy Egan

14.    Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis

15.    Help, Thanks, Wow, Anne Lamott

16.    How to Test Negative for Stupid, Senator John Kennedy

I enjoyed all of these. As I have stated previously, I have a 50-page rule, meaning if I don't like it at 50 pages, I decide to take a pass. That rarely happens because I have usually done enough research to know I will probably like the book. 

While these were all good, my favorite is #9, Challenger, by Adam Higginbotham, about the explosion of the space shuttle of the same name in 1986. As I posted on my Substack when I recommended it there, that occurrence is of particular significance to me as it took place the day we brought our firstborn home from the hospital. We head news reports of it as we walked down the halls to make our exit. 

In addition to the narrative about the Challenger and details about crew members and their families, the author offers glimpses into NASA and the space program in general at the time. I found it fascinating. 

I also very much enjoyed a rereading of #14, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis's account of his conversion to Christianity. 

The Last Sweet Mile, by Allen Levi, author of Theo of Golden (my favorite fiction from 2024), describes the last year of Levi's brother's life, and the sweet times they shared together. It's a tearjerker for sure, but worth the tears, in my opinion. 

I will offer a disclaimer for #16, How to Test Negative for Stupid, by Senator John Kennedy, Republican from Louisiana. This book was passed on to me by a friend who is more conservative than I, and who knows my feelings about the Republican party in general today, and Donald Trump in particular. 

But as I told my friend when he handed it to me, I am willing to consider a point of view different from my own, and I can learn something from most people, even those with whom I largely disagree. 

That would be the case with this book. I enjoyed Kennedy's take on serving in the Senate and his view of Washington, D.C. There were points he made, especially about dysfunction in government, with which I agreed. I enjoyed his description of life in Louisiana, a state less than 20 miles from where I grew up in south Arkansas, and the state in which I attended college. 

But like most political memoirs, his narrative was self-serving. While Kennedy portrays himself as an independent-minded senator, his MAGA colors shine through. 

The most fun book on the list is #1, The Hour: a Cocktail Manifesto. First published in 1948, the author explores what he perceives as the many benefits of spirits and the cocktail hour. Read in the right frame of mind, the author's tongue-in-cheek humor should please imbiber and teetotaler alike. 

Again, I enjoyed all of these, and I would recommend all of them (with the disclaimer I just made for #16). If you would like more information on any of them, send an email and I'll be glad to engage. 

Back soon with fiction for 2025. 

Also, Merry Christmas! 

The Thanksgiving that grew

We have set the tables for Thanksgiving. 

In fact, we set them several days ago. Wife believes having the tables ready provides a good framework to work from as she prepares. No argument from me on that. 

This year will be our biggest ever, with 26 humans on site. 

It started with our family, which now numbers 14. Older Son's wife's parents live here, and they will be joining us as they usually do. I have recently come to know a first-cousin-once-removed who lives only a few miles away. Her mother, who died about three years ago, was my first cousin. Her father had died before her mom. 

I sent her a text a couple of months ago asking if she, her husband and two children would like to join us for Thanksgiving. She immediately accepted, saying holidays have sometimes been difficult since both of her parents passed away and she would love to be with extended family. Oh, and she has a sister (also my cousin, obviously) who will be visiting with her husband from Viriginia, and they will come too. 

That put us as 22. We set the dining room table for 11. We set up a six-foot table end-to-end with a card table in the front room (what we call the living room). Wife found a tablecloth that fit the two tables, so it looked like one. We were ready to go. 

Or so we thought. 

A few days ago we were talking to Daughter, who told us about her college friend who lives here (whom we know well) with her husband and two children, who will not be traveling and will not be with family for Thanksgiving. 

We were scarcely off the phone before Wife had placed a call to this person and extended an invitation for them to join us. She accepted. 

The card table came down, replaced with another six-foot table now end-to-end with the other one. Two matching tablecloths replaced the one that would no longer fit. 

We are at 26 and holding.

"Are we crazy?" Wife asked me a couple of days ago. 

"Not yet," I sheepishly replied.