Favorite Books 2025

 

 

Read a bunch of books again this year.  These are the ones that stood out.

 

Non-Fiction

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: the Biography of Randy Newman, Robert Hilburn (2024)

Former LA Times music critic chronicles the life of Randy Newman, one of the most versatile and creative musicians of the music culture that evolved beginning in the late 1950s. It’s a long, detailed story, well-documented with interviews from family and other musicians, lyrics and the broad context of the musical environment as it evolved in the second half of the 20^th century. Newman is an uneasy fit in that environment throughout much of his career. His music was well-received by his peers but had mixed commercial success. Despite the disappointments, Newman created a body of work over 50 years that ranks among the best of its era. Most interestingly, Newman, who has often appeared cynical, misanthropic and even racist in his music, comes across as an empathetic person. The length is more likely to interest long-time fans rather than the like me than the general reader.

A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon, Kevin Fedarko (2024)

Lured by the Grand Canyon not far from his home in Flagstaff, Arizona, Kevin Fedarko abandoned his career as a journalist job to become an unpaid boatman guiding a raft full of equipment through the canyon. Although the work fed his longstanding interest in the Grand Canyon, he also came to understand how little he knew of the canyon beyond the river When photographer Pete McBride, with whom Fedarko had worked on assignments, suggested they hike the Grand Canyon end-to-end for a National Geographic article, Fedarko agreed thinking his long fascination and association with the canyon were sufficient to the task. The book’s subtitle pretty much gives away the plot; he and McBride were woefully unprepared for the the trek. Although they linked up with experienced back country Canyon hikers, neither man fully understood the guidance they were offered or had the discipline and endurance to meet a demanding hiking schedule when they began hiking their first section at Lee’s Ferry. It went downhill from there and they had be extracted from the canyon, leaving with no expectation of finishing the assignment.

What’s amazing about the story is how they returned to continue their hike and the community that encouraged them, taught them, guided them and enabled them to actually complete their traverse of the Gran Canyon, a milestone which has been achieved by fewer people than have walked on the moon. Fedarko is a gifted writer who is able to describe the grandeur and intimacies of the canyon in finely rendered prose. His extensive knowledge of the canyon’s geology, hydrology and history give the reader a broad context of the forces defining the canyon and how those forces intersect with human presence and enterprise. Having hiked many miles in the Grand Canyon’s back country I recognized much of their experience (although none of my hikes involved the extreme preparation and challenges of their trek)

A Walk in the Park was a quick read for me. I almost think I should read it again

 

Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion, Elliot West (2023)

Elliott West examines in considerable detail how the acquisition of the American West after the US-Mexico war created an economic and social culture largely separated from the more populous East. The discovery of gold in California drew prospectors, adventurers and investment that spawned a communities well before the US government had any real understanding of the land and peoples in the newly -possessed lands. Cut off from the center of government by geography and limited transportation options, newly arrived Californians began making it work, not so much by modifying known technology to the new environment but, but rather by developing technologies suitable for their circumstances. . Only after the Civil War when transportation and communication improved did the the US government and economic system begin to percolate into the West. By then, however, the culture and methods of the western lands had proven their utility sufficiently to feed back into the East.

Along with to overarching narrative, West also focuses on the gritty details of western expansion, its impact on indigenous peoples, the massive alterations of landscapes and ecosystems and crushing burdens of life on a frontier where much wealth was to be gained but only by the relative few. Continental Reckoning is long (455 pages) and well-researched (135 pages of notes and bibliography) but well-organized and easily readable—all that detail never gets overwhelming or boring.

By the Fire We Carry:The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land, Rebecca Nagle (2024)

By the Fire We Carry documents the history of the Muskogee Nation and other eastern tribes that were removed to Oklahoma during the early 19^th century and their fight to establish their sovereignty over lands that were promised to them for “as long as the grass grows and the streams flow” (my paraphrase. The book follows two tracks. One track is the appeal of a convicted murderer who challenges the State of Oklahoma’s right to try him for a crime he contends was committed on Tribal land and not subject to state prosecution. The second track explores the history of US-indigenous relations during the early years of the federal republic that led to their removal to what was supposedly a permanent home, much of which was ultimately usurped by white settlers. The long legal battle resulted in a victory for tribal recognition, much to the consternation of Oklahoma officials who continue to challenge and seek ways to compromise Native American sovereignty. The victory remains tenuous. Author Nagle concludes: “Sometimes when the law is on our side we win. But more often, we watch the [Supreme Court] depart from law and precedent at will.”

Excuse Me While I Disappear: Tales of Midlife Mayhem, Laurie Notaro (2022)

Laurie Notaro, who wrote some very funny earlier memoirs, brings the same humor to middle age. Many of the tales are specific to the changes women go though and experience but many are still laugh out loud funny to a male reader. Notaro is quite open to her own faults,and shortcomings; they are the focus of her tales as she tries to figure out how to cope or even just understand. I don’t doubt that the experiences are real although the telling may involve some exaggeration. But that’s the fun of the whole thing. Notaro is able and more than willing to be the butt of her own story if she can get a laugh out of it. She succeeds.

Charlottesville: An American Story, Deborah Baker (2025)

A detailed account of the events leading up to the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Deborah Baker presents what seems like a minute by minute narrative of the of the neo-Nazi tiki torch parade that occurred at the University of Virginia on Friday night before the rally and the events of the following day in downtown Charlottesville which saw violent confrontations between the neo-Nazis and local anti-fascists that led to scores of injuries and one fatality. Baker places the weekend events in the context of the post-WW2 neo-Nazi movement in America and Virginia’s history of racism throughout much of the 20^th century. Her account gives much credit to local anti-fascist organizers who confronted the neo-Nazis who were far better prepared for violence and documents the failure of local and state law enforcement to anticipate the threat of violence in advance or control violence when it erupted.

Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell’s Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River, Zak Podmore (2025)

The Millennial Drought which has affected the US southwest since 2000 has reduced the level of the massive Lake Powell that filled Glen Canyon and many side canyons of the Colorado River since the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam in the 1960s. As a result the upper reaches of the lake have receded, exposing long-drowned and allowing those areas to begin recovering as native plants and animals return. Zak Podmore explores the opportunities for nature to restore at least some of the natural areas that were long thought to be permanently lost. Life After Dead Pool traces the history of western water use, water law, dam building and the impact of climate change to identify the possibilities for “life after Lake Powell”. Along with the statistics, studies and policy debates. Podmore provides much first-hand evidence to demonstrate the possibilities for recovery and realistic management of water and cultural resources in the 21^st century.

Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sonora Babb, Iris Jamahl Dunkle (2024)

Sonora Babb grew up in the early 20^th century in what would become the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. Her family was poor, often to the point of near starvation and subject to the chaos of an addicted gambler and abusive father and husband. Self taught to read from newspapers pasted to the bare walls of a dugout shelter in eastern Colorado, she was a keen observer of the land and people around her and began writing about her observations. As a teenager she found some employment at local newspapers and gradually developed her craft and gained some local and national notoriety as a poet. In her twenties, Babb relocated to Los Angeles, publishing well-received short stories based on her childhood and early adult experiences. During the Great Depression she reported on migrants escaping to California from the Dust Bowl. Those experiences became the basis for her first novel, Those Who Are Unnamed, which could not find a publisher after the publication of John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, which became THE Dust Bowl Novel and was based in part on Babb’s field notes and never credited to her. Riding Like the Wind chronicles the life of this gifted, determined writer who struggled to gain recognition and maintain independence in an era when women were often ignored.

Fiction

Fever Beach, Carl Hiaasen (2025)

Carl Hiassen has a definite formula: a somewhat renegade individual with some agency (money, skill, etc.) who is outraged at entitled persons/organizations who despoil Florida’s environment encounters a normal person in some sort of difficult situation linked to said entitled persons/organizations planning yet more harm to the land. And despite the formula (which is based on the four or five Hiaasen novels I’ve read), the stories are always fun to read. It is very much in that tradition, featuring right wing wackos, a corrupt, clueless nepo baby, greedy developers and a determined protagonist. The plot is too complex for me to even attempt to condense but it was, like previous novels Sick Puppy and Stormy Weather, an engaging story and a fun read.

Brotherless Night, V.V. Ganeshananthann (2023

Set in Sri Lanka during the 1980s civil conflict between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists, Brotherless Nights follows 16 year old Shashi and her family as the war gradually takes over their lives. Her oldest brother, a promising medical student, is killed during ethnic violence in the capitol, Columbo. Not long after, her two other older brothers and close friend K join the Tamil Tigers, one of five different Tamil factions and the one seeking to dominate the separatist movement. Later, as Shashi is in her first year of medical school, K brings a wounded cadre to her for treatment and subsequently recruits her to work in a Tiger clinic where she treats wounded Tamil cadres and injured civilians. He two brothers attempt to recruit their youngest brother who rejects their pressure, citing the war crimes committed by the Tigers as reason not to support them. At the same time, Shashi is also aware of these atrocities and her own complicity in serving. The plot moves gradually so that the reader feels the growing presence of the violence and watches as it draws even closer. This is war as experienced by civilians and while the violence is mostly offstage, its ominous presence becomes all-encompassing and Sashi must make a fateful choice. A very compelling read.