My Year in Books: 2025

I read thirty-three books in 2025, four fewer than last year. The list does not include three books I am currently reading but haven’t finished. I’ve been too scattered and distracted to do much of anything right this year. My new year’s resolution is to focus on the important stuff—getting back to my writing, but (of course) still making time to read.

Wishing you all a new year filled with love, kindness, and good reading.

The list appears below. I’ve refrained from rating them. I liked most of them, a few not so much. You decide for yourself.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Ballentine Books. New York. 1969. Banned book club selection.

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Anchor Books. New York. 1986. Banned book club selection.

Bennett, Lorraine Martin. Twenty Seconds to Midnight. Austin Macauley Publishers, LLC. New York. 2025.

Busch, Lonnie A. Push Me. UBiQ Press. North Carolina, USA. 2024.

Campana, Caesar. Frogs in a Midnight Marsh. Self-published. Columbia, SC. 2025.

Cooper, John M., Jr. Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. New York. 1990.

Dante Alighieri. The Inferno. Translated by John Ciardi, 1954. 1996 Modern Library Edition. New York.

Dante Alighieri. Purgatorio. Translated by John Ciardi. Historical Introduction by A. T. MacAllister. New Brunswick, N.J. Rutgers University Press, 1954.

Davis, Tom (editor). In the Yard II: A Poetry and Prose Anthology. Old Mountain Press, Sylva, NC. 2025.

Davis, Tom (editor). Mountain Lakes: A Poetry and Prose Anthology. Old Mountain Press, Sylva, NC. 2025.

Everett, Percival. James: A Novel. Doubleday. New York. 2024.

Hensley, Danielle. If the Bough Breaks: When Faith and Politics Bend a Family Tree to its Breaking Point. Cascade Books, Eugene, Oregon. 2024. Nonfiction.

Howard, Joan M. Radiant Blues. Mountain Lake Publishing. North Carolina, USA. 2025.

Jones, Randell (editor). Bearing Up—Victory. Survival. Calamity. 2018. Personal Story Publishing Project. Daniel Boone Footsteps, Winston-Salem, NC. 2025.

Jones, Randell (editor). Foiled…of loss and discovery—trials, serendipity, and life after. 2025. Personal Story Publishing Project. Daniel Boone Footsteps, Winston-Salem, NC. 2023.

Jones, Randell. In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone. 2024. Daniel Boone Footsteps, Winston-Salem, NC. 2025.

Jones, Randell (editor). Lost & Found—personal stories—great expectations gone awry by surprise, short-sightedness, and trickery. 2023. Personal Story Publishing Project. Daniel Boone Footsteps, Winston-Salem, NC. 2025.

Jones, Randell (editor). Twists and Turns—personal stories—inflection points in life by choice, happenstance, misfortune, failure, and grace. 2022. Personal Story Publishing Project. Daniel Boone Footsteps, Winston-Salem, NC. 2025.

Kimmerer, Robin W. The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World. Scribner, New York. 2024. Nonfiction.

Ledford, Brenda Kay. The Persistent Trillium. Finishing Line Press, Georgetown, KY. 2025.

Martin, Christopher H. The Restoration Project: A Benedictine Path to Wisdom, Strength, and Love. Forward Movement, Cincinnati, OH. 2013. Nonfiction.

McWilliams, Peter. Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society. Prelude Press, Los Angeles. 1993. Nonfiction.

Reich, Robert B. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America. Alfred A. Knopg. New York. 2025.

Ricketson, Mary. Tall Flowers and Living Long: Poems. Redhawk Publications, Hickory, NC. 2023. Local author.

Rushdie, Salman. Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. Random House, New York. 2024. Nonfiction.

Segrest, Mab. Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum. The New Press, New York. 2020. Nonfiction.

Simard, Suzanne. Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin/Random House), New York. 2021. Nonfiction.

Smucker, Carol J. Reflections Day by Day. Straub Publishing. Blairsville, Georgia. 2019.

Sparks, Nicholas. Counting Miracles: A Novel. Random House, New York. 2024.

Sparks, Nicholas. Dreamland: A Novel. Dell, New York. 2023.

Sparks, Nicholas. The Wish: A Novel. Grand Central Publishing, Hatchette Book Group, New York. 2021.

Verghese, Abraham. The Covenant of Water. Grove Press, London. 2023.

Williams, Rowan. Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K. 2014. Nonfiction.

See you next year!

Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash

#bookworm #books2025 #booklover #booklist