Books I Read in 2025

 

                                             Mr. Wise Owl likes to read! [art by me]

I wrote a list of books, I want to read, of multiple classics and others, this also includes great book recommendations from a friend of mine. This list isn't all conclusive, I read books laying around in my apartment, there's graphic novels and comics, I read here and there beyond this list. I am reading Cannery Row and a few old Steinbeck books now and checked out a couple novels by Tom Wolfe. Reading and going to the library is one of my hobbies. What books have you read or would you recommend? Feel free to add some. 

Some of my selections are what I call "easy reads" like the McFadden books, but there's more dense stuff. My focus did switch from more non-fiction to decent fiction. I learned I liked Sinclair Lewis a lot reading Babbit. I never had read Tolkien in completion, that took some time, I read them in order though they may not show in order here. I saw the movies, maybe I would get more out of the movies having read the books. I haven't had money to purchase new or used graphic novels this year. Some books were ordered from interlibrary loan. Lionel Shriver is a favorite new author, the Mandibles seems to predict the future, She does question some of the authoritarianism which I like.

 I still read some Stephen King, can't stand the guy or his politics but some books are interesting, sometimes I think they are ghost written or his son Joe Hill has huge influence on the new books. Some books were kind of dark like Revolutionary Road and Joyce Carol Oates. I have read almost every novel by Joyce Carol Oates back to her earliest ones, but I do question some of her latest themes. My writing group compared me once to the style of Joyce Carol Oates on poems. Demon Copperfield was one of my favorites, since Kingsolver wrote about a poor person, rare in today's literature. Some of the stuff with the drugs got a bit much, maybe stereotypical but I liked the book overall. The Valentine books will give you a new view of Vietnam and how politics and war work. They were intense but I recommend them highly. Merton I mentioned in articles here.  I want to get some more of his books. My local library doesn't have many spiritual books just the basics. 

The Art of Cartooning

Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Holly by Stephen King
History of the great American fortunes, by Gustavus Myers.
The CIA as organized crime : how illegal operations corrupt America and the world / by Douglas Valentine.
TDY by Douglas Valentine
Pieces Moon: The Dark Arts of Empire by Doug Valentine

The Return of the King by Tolkien

The Two Towers by Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien
The Hobbit by Tolkien
Revolutionary Road
You Like It Darker by Stephen King
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Dirtbag Massachusetts
Ask Not: The Kennedy's and the Women They Destroyed
People Pleaser by Jinger Duggar Vuolo
House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Lies I Taught in Medical School by Richard Lufki
The Boyfriend by Frieda McFadden

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
The Idaho Four by James Patterson
Maniac by Lionel Shriver
The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver
150 Masterpieces of Drawing and several other art technique books
Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi 

The diary of Frida Kahlo
Ward D by Freida McFadden
Do Not Disturb by Freida McFadden
Fox: A Novel by Joyce Carol Oates
The End of the World as We Know It [collections of stories based on The Stand by Stephen King]
Snafu: History's Greatest Screw-ups
Vinland Saga 12 [graphic novel]
The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire by Henry Gee
Gluten Free Gal
Orthodoxy by Chesterton
There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
Kent State [graphic novel--reread]
Country schoolma'am
Jack of Spades Joyce Carol Oates
The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton
Book of Jonas by Thomas Merton
Chinese Girl in the Ghetto by Ying Ma