Book of the year, 2025

I was nervous for a while, but a high read rate in December kept me exactly on target on reading book numbers, despite a lot of very long (and many cases very good) books. Goodreads stats tell me that though I'm almost exactly the same on number of books as last year, it's seven thousand more pages read. An exceptionally high rate of hard non-fiction topics too, with 41 (34%) history, politics or theology, only bettered in 2005 and 2010. I am thinking of reading more literary criticism next year and this will blow the segmentation.

Books of the month were less clear with a 4-5-3 split between fiction - hard - soft non fiction, though there are some outstanding novels lurking under some of the BOTMs. August was an outstanding month. I am slightly worried about whether monthly is the right way to assess it. I gave 15 five star ratings and these split 4-6-5. Either way, the big undercurrent here is the dominance of America. I wanted to read a lot in response to Trump, and I have: 17 novels (of 60), 11 historical works (of 27), 5 cultural books (of 19) were on America. The first of those is typical, the latter two very much not. For history, that's 40% of all books on US history I have ever read (previous annual record: 2) And almost all those history books were huge. 

Of all the non-fiction, it is therefore inevitable that my favourites would be American. There is a lot to be said for Nicolson's diaries and for Bayes, but this was a year dominated by Lyndon Johnson for me. I loved Caro (apart from the second one), and the best of them all was Master of the Senate. It's beautifully written, and acute on the way that people get things done in small forums. I do think it's hard to read unless you have read the earlier work though and its really really long. Sorry.

Novels were mixed this year and many of the best ones don't appear on BOTM lists. In particular, I also loved Half of a yellow sun and Flaubert's parrot (see above). They just lost out to non-fiction in July and August. The two best novels of all though were books of the month. I loved Rundell's follow up to Impossible Creatures and I think she is an exemplary and enchanting children's author. However, I thought Tan Twan Eng's House of Doors was superb. Evocative of both the people, place and time he was writing about. A jewel.

Jan: B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023)
Feb: H. Nicholson, Diaries and letters (2004)
Mar: R. Caro, The path to power (1982)
Apr: R. Caro, Master of the senate (2002)
May: A. Patchett, Those precious days (2021)
Jun: P. Morris, Black Butterflies (2022)
Jul: T. Chivers, Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World (2023)
Aug: Tan Twan Eng, The house of doors (2023)
Sep: Guha, India after Gandhi (2017)
Oct: K. Rundell, The poisoned king (2025)
Nov: A. Aswany, The Yacoubian building (2002)
Dec: S. Charles, The Medieval Scriptorium (2024)

List of books rated 5*

Jan (2), B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), G. Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces (1986)

Feb: J. Dench, Shakespeare (2024), E. Morris, Colonel Roosevelt (2010), H. Nicholson, Diaries and letters (2004)

Mar: R. Caro, The path to power (1982)

Apr: R. Caro, Master of the senate (2002), R. Caro, The passage of power (2012)

May: A. Patchett, Those precious days (2021)

Jun: - 

Jul: T. Chivers, Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World (2023), C. Adiche, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)

Aug: H. Chang, Bad Samaritans (2007), J. Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot (1984), Tan Twan Eng, The house of doors (2023)

Sept: - 

Oct: K. Rundell, The poisoned king (2025)

Nov: - 

Dec: - 

Bibliography, December 2025

BOTM: S. Charles, The Medieval Scriptorium (2024)

C. Achebe, There was a country (2013)
A. Berkeley (as F. Iles), Before the fact (1932)
A. Drury, Advise and consent (1959)
M. Grant, Hunger (2010)
T. Harford, How to make the world add up (2020)
S. Mintz, Sweetness and power (1985)
C. Moran, Moranthology (2011)
T. Pratchett, The thief of time (2001)
S. Richards, The prime ministers we never had (2021)
K. Tordasi, Bramble Fox (2022)
G. Treasure, Huguenots (2014)
J. Wood, How fiction works (Revised edition. 2018)

I read widely this month, but not particularly well. Some of these were duffers and I was especially disappointed in Treasure, which was a turgid account of what should be a fascinating history, and Richards, which was facile and unthinkingly partisan. Some good ones here too, though none was a standout. I'm glad I read Wood, but the middle section did disappear into pretention, and Harford was reliably clear and effective, but I've read too many of this type of books. The best of them all was Charles' book on the medieval book production, which was stuffed full of insights and facts. It's a reminder of just how different reading is for us now, and how little attention we pay to that difference when we talk about medieval government. I bought it on sight. I am glad I did.