Best Books 2025
Crime, Freedom, Boxing, Notebooks, Right Wing Technology
What’s the point?
Happy New Year everyone! We made it.
I hope you all had a great year and a fun night last night. There was one year when I was in high school I decided around 9PM to go to my best friend’s house for the night. My grandmother said to me, “Good, you need to go out and have fun.” My friend’s family ran a firework stand every summer, so on New Year’s Eve they always had a ton of fireworks. Ground flowers were our favorites. We’d hold them until the fuse burned all the way down and throw them so they’d go off mid-air. At midnight we were throwing fireworks into the street and one landed underneath a car. We held our breath convinced the car was going to explode. Nothing happened. We went inside and lit the fireworks off inside. It seemed safer. My grandmother was right.
Below are my favorite books I read in 2025. Below that are all the books I read in 2025. Currently I am a judge for the Virginia Library Association Graphic Novel Diversity Award. As a judge I’ve read a ton of comic books that I wouldn’t normally read and haven’t wholly enjoyed. I’ve separated out everything I read as a judge at the very end and put in bold the ones I would recommend.
If I wrote about a book in an earlier newsletter the title of the book is a link to the newsletter it features in.
Before we get going, here’s what I am currently reading:
The Details by Ia Genberg
Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher
A Critical History of Schizophrenia by Kieran McNally
What were your favorite books of 2025? What are you reading now? Let me know!
Okay, here it is.
Favorite Books of 2025
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle
Headshot is structured around a round robin female boxing tournament. Each chapter is a fight between two young women. There isn’t a main character. Perspective shifts from fighter to fighter as well as to coaches, audience members, and gym owners. Previous fights linger in the atmosphere. Everyone and everything exists simultaneously in the gym. There are winners and losers but there are no winners without losers. Everyone is necessary.
Criminal Deluxe Edition: Volume One by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
In my early 20s Ed Brubaker was my favorite comic book writer and I tried to read everything he wrote. Last winter I went through and reorganized all my comic books and came across the first issues of Criminal. It inspired me to re-read it and then try to read everything else he wrote. Not long after I started my endeavor it became torturous. He wrote a lot and it started to feel like punishment. Still, the first volume of Criminal is the best heist story I’ve ever read. It’s a perfect crime novel. I think there’s a TV series of Criminal coming out soon. It will probably be bad.
I read six books set in Montana this year. Beartooth was my favorite. Two brothers try to poach some antlers out of Yellowstone for a sketchy criminal named The Scot. It goes bad.
My grandfather used to work in West Yellowstone, Montana not far from where this book takes place. He was a telegrapher for Union Pacific Railroad. In 1959 there was an earthquake in Yellowstone National Park and my grandfather was the only line of communication in and outside the park. I remember driving through the Beartooth mountains with my grandparents when I was a kid. The main thing I remember is stopping on the side of the road so my grandpa could piss. He pointed to a mountain peak and said it looked like a bear’s tooth. Reading this book was some kind of trick mirror hangout with my grandparents.
Moment of Freedom by Jens Bjørneboe
According to Bjørneboe’s wikipedia another novel of his was banned in Norway because of “sexual nihilism.” It’s not that sex is depicted. It’s that sex is depicted as meaningless. Norwegian’s are weird.
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solveij Balle
On The Calculation of Volume has to be one of the loneliest books I’ve ever read. Tara is repeating the same day over and over again. No one else is. At first she explains what’s going on to her husband every morning. He believes her and they spend the day trying to figure it out. Over time it becomes too much and she hides in rooms in the house she knows her husband won’t go into because he does the exact same thing everyday. She watches as the gap between her and the person she loves grows and grows. She eventually has to leave.
I also read the second volume this year, which is a little less lonely and a little less sad. The third volume came out this fall and the fourth is set for the spring. There are seven in total. It’s hard to see how this can be sustained for seven books, but so far its fantastic.
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Out of sheer laziness I’m not ranking these books, but if I were The Golden Notebook would be number one. Easily the best book I read this year. It’s not even close.
Time to read has been hard to come by the last couple years, but I still try to read one long book every year. The Golden Notebook was this year’s long book. Structurally it’s one of the most complicated things I’ve read but it is engaging throughout. In many ways it’s ahead of its time. Everyone should read it and then lets talk about it.
Gates of Plasma by Carlos Gonzalez
I read so many mediocre comic books this year. What a treat to read something weird and sweet and beautiful. Gonzalez really wasn’t on my radar until last year when I heard cf mention being roommates with him. I figured if cf was his buddy I’d probably like his comics. I was right. Picked this up while in Philadelphia for the American Library Association. Cool.
Cyberlibertarianism: The Right Wing Politics of Digital Technology by David Golumbia
Sometimes people say that when the internet started there were utopian ideals in mind. People meant well but somewhere along the way it got corrupted. Some people say this about things like Twitter. It was once a good place where people could connect and grow and find themselves and have fun, but then Elon Musk bought it and now it is awful. Cyberlibertarianism suggests that from the start the internet was anti-democratic and any anti-democratic manifestations of the internet/social media that we see now were the intended outcome.
Not only is the book persuasive that digital technology is built on right wing, anti-democratic ideology but from reading the book I feel like I have a new way of seeing, understanding, and criticizing technology. It has taught me to think differently. Better.
David is a friend who died from cancer a few years ago. It is a strange delight to get to read his book. There is a section on copyright I don’t agree with and I’m sad I can’t talk to him about it.
The Calf by Leif Hoghaug
Friend of the newsletter and real life friend Danny emailed me about this book. It’s translated from a Norwegian dialect into an Appalachian dialect. As a child of a Norwegian immigrant and a person who once lived in West Virginia this seemed like a good book for me. It was. The language is fun and funny. It’s great to read aloud. The language distracts from the plot. It is hard to follow but at the center of the story is a mechanical barn gnome with a washbasin for a head who hears “chainsaw voices.” He works at an underground office where he shreds paper and makes coffee for everyone. The whole book is him trying not to remember the events of a summer night in the 1980s where he and his buddies “the cowboys” encountered an alien, The Calf. The gnome is telling a story he doesn’t want to remember. The language distracts from the story being told. It all works together.
Everything Else I Read in 2025:
Normal People, Sally Rooney
All Ears: Cultural Criticism, Essays, and Obituaries, Dennis Cooper
Neuromancer, William Gibson
The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, Gerard Early
Scene of the Crime, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark
Night Fever, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Starvation Heights: A True Story of Malice and Murder in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest, Gregg Olsen
Houses of the Unholy, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Criminal Deluxe Edition: Volume Two, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
Reckless, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
The Indian Lawyer, James Welch
The Fade Out, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Criminal Deluxe Edition: Volume Three, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Cruel Summer, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
Pearl, Sian Hughes
August, Callan Wink
Childish Literature, Alejandro Zambra
Reproduction, Louisa Hall
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State, Kerry Howley
The New Me, Halle Butler
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative, Mark Fisher
Ephemera, Briana Loewinsohm
The Wrestler, John Kenn Mortensen
Foundational Writings, Ronald E. Day
The Woman With Fifty Faces, Jonathan Lackman and Zachary J. Pinson
Libra, Don Delillo
The Sea and Poison, Shusaku Endo
Duels, Nehemy Dahomey
The Perfect Archive, Paul Lisson
Vaim, Jon Fosse
Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis
Glass Jaw, Raisa Tolchinsky
Death by Landscape, Elvia Wilk
Try, Dennis Cooper
On the Calculation of Volume II, Solvej Balle
The Bushwacked Piano, Thomas McGuane
All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess, Becca Rothfield
His Master’s Voice, Stanislaw Lem
Fall Back Down When I Die, Joe Wilkins
(Virginia Library Association Graphic Novel Diversity Award 2025)
Remember Us To Life, Joanna Rubin Dranger
This Beautiful, Ridiculous City, Kay Sohini
Curb Angels Vol. 2, Lisa Mendis and Nyala Ali
Modern Asian Family: Straight Outta Busan, Stefano Jun
Remembering Taiyaki, Starkie Mak
Precious Rubbish, Kayla E.
The Forgotten Frontier, Tristian Jones and Alexander Bumbulut
Zeroed Out, Jim Munro and Eric Kim
Young Men in Love: New Romance, Joe Glass and Matt Miner (eds)
Life Drawing, Jaimie Hernandez
Black Arms to Hold You Up, Benn Passmore
Calavera P.I., Marco Finnegan
Akogun: Brutalizer of Gods, Murewa Ayodele
Misery of Love, Yvan Alagbe
Surrounded: America’s First SChool for Black Girls, 1832, Wilfrid Lupano and Stephane Fert
Will Eisner: A Comics Biography, Stephen Weiner and Dan Mazur
Baby Blue, Bim Eriksson
Down By Law: Criminalization, Solidarity, and Survival in Europe, Crimscapes Research Group (eds)
Anarchy in the Big Easy: A History of Revolt, Rebellion, and Resurgence, Max Cafard and Vulpes
From Conicas to Lucha Libre Ringsides: A Latinx Comics Anthology, Frederick Luis Aldama and Angela M. Sanchez (eds)
Love Languages, James Albon
Raging Clouds, Yudori
Simplicity, Mattie Lubchansky
Fela: Music is the Weapon, Jibola Fagbamiye and Conor McCreery
Dickie Does America, Pieter De Poortere
Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance, Denali Sai Nalamalapu
Breadcrumbs, Kasia Babis
The Past is a Grotesque Animal, Tommi Parrish
Toxic Tropics: A Horror Story of Environmental Injustice, Jessica Oublie
You Must Take Part in Revolution, Badiucao and Melissa Chan
Everything Is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder, Cara Gormally
Call Me Emma, Makee
Heaven, West Virginia, Ravi Teixeria
Pass Me By: Lily, Kat Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen