Once again it is time for our annual departure from all things SEC- and governance-ish so that I can let you know about my favorite reads of the year gone by.

In case you’re wondering about the title of this post, it reflects my view that book critics who tell us what they think were the 10 best books of the year gone by are arrogant and wrong – or, at a minimum, greatly out of touch with the reading public.  For example, none of the five works of fiction cited by the New York Times as the best of 2025 scored more than 55% of five-star ratings on Amazon.  (Of course, Amazon ratings are far from the be- and end-all, but let’s not even go there.)  The five works of non-fiction cited by the Gray Lady fared better against Amazon’s ratings, but some of them were highly esoteric (for example, with no slight intended, a 400-page biography of Paul Gauguin), which suggests that a much smaller group of non-fiction readers may have a disproportionate influence.

Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I began to find the word “best” offensive or worse. 

As always, my favorite books are those I read during the year gone by, regardless of when they were published.  With that, here goes….

Fiction

Reports indicate that fewer people are reading books and, in particular, that men are reading fewer books and less fiction – especially historical fiction – than women.  Well, I’ve always loved historical fiction, and I doubt that will change.  That said, in 2025 I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction.  You can see the details further on.  For now, here are my favorite works of fiction for 2025.

• Isola, by Allegra Goodman: This work of historical fiction is based on a very bizarre but true story of a 16^th Century orphaned French heiress whose guardian abandons her on a small island.  It is beautifully written, and the story is incredible and gripping.

• The Ogre’s Daughter, by Catherine Bardon: Another work of historical fiction, this one about the daughter of Rafael Trujillo, the dictator who ran the Dominican Republic with an iron fist for many years.  A fascinating character study and, again, beautifully written.

• Florenzer, by Phil Melanson: Yes, more historical fiction.  This is about young (and gay) Leonardo da Vinci as an apprentice as he discovers his gift and who (and what) he is in 15^th Century Italy.  The atmospherics of Renaissance Italy, the characters, and the story  are all well done.

• There Are Rivers in the Sky and The Island of Missing Trees, by Elif Shafak:  Ms. Shafak is a prolific author whose books take us to far-away lands and times. (I previously selected her book, The Architect’s Apprentice, as one of my favorites.)  I’m not a fan of magical realism, but Ms. Shafak has an admirable talent for combining elements of that craft with history, great characterizations, and gripping tales.  There Are Rivers… is not perfect; the book veers off in some weird directions towards the end, but otherwise paints a great tale of Turkish history.  Missing Trees tells the sad tale of Greek and Turkish antagonisms in Cyprus.  Great novels both.

Non-Fiction

As noted, I read a lot more non-fiction in 2025.  So much so that it was difficult to narrow down my favorites to five.  So I didn’t (see “Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions” below).

• The Wolves of K Street, by Brody and Luke Mullins.  This is a great history of lobbying in Washington.  It’s gripping and depressing, and very well done.

• Henry V, by Dan Jones.  Jones, a highly regarded British historian who writes both fiction and non-fiction works about his nation, wrote this book with the goal of increasing the reputation of Henry V.  One of the most interesting aspects of the book is that it is written in the present tense.  Some have called this a gimmick, but for me it gave the book an immediacy that one rarely finds in history books.

• Original Sin, by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.  I know – this is one of “those” books – a potboiler about the mental decline of Joe Biden, its cover-up, and, to a lesser extent, the impact of both on the 2024 presidential election.  Potboiler or not, I found the book well done and depressingly interesting.

• Careless People, by Sarah Wynn-Williams.  A fascinating and upsetting expose about Facebook.  If, like me, you are not a fan of Facebook, you’ll relish it.

• The Gods of New York, by Jonathan Mahler.  I generally feel about books the way one is supposed to feel about one’s children – no favorites.  But this book was far and away my favorite of 2025.  It’s a history of the Big Apple in the late 1980s, and features all the characters that everyone in NY knew about at the time.  I first moved from NY to Florida in 1991, so the years covered by this book were my last in NY until 2002 and were consequently very near and dear to me. I literally couldn’t put this one down.  Perhaps a more accessible comment is that it is the non-fiction version of Bonfire of the Vanities.  ‘Nuff said?

Honorable and Dishonorable Mentions

First, Joyride, by Susan Orlean.  Ms. Orlean is a fantastic writer of oddball non-fiction; among other things, she wrote The Orchid Thief, one of the great books about weird things in Florida.  Joyride is a memoir; despite Ms. Orlean’s wry sense of humor, the book comes across as very sincere, and a dividend is that it provides great insights into how a writer approaches her craft.  Joyride was also my favorite audiobook of the year.

Next, A Flower Traveled in My Blood.  This is a profoundly sad but well written book about the grandmothers – the abuelas – who confronted the junta in Argentina by searching for the grandchildren left behind when their parents (the abuelas’ children) were disappeared by the junta.

Finally, Mother Mary Comes to Me, by Arundhati Roy.  A remarkable memoir by the Indian writer and activist about her mother.  It’s a tale of two very strong and equally difficult women.  Also a good audiobook.

My dishonorable mention is, sadly, 1929, by Andrew Ross Sorkin.  Sorkin’s book about the financial crisis, Too Big to Fail, was brilliant; I remember taking it along on a one-day trip to San Francisco because I couldn’t bear to put it down, despite the fact that it weighed a ton.  Unfortunately, 1929 focuses on some of the prominent people involved in the crash rather than on the crash itself, the circumstances that led to it, and its impact on a generation.  By focusing on trees rather than the forest, Sorkin disappoints.

Happy reading!