It seems appropriate to re-launch a personal website (for at least the third time) with the one post I’ve made every year for as long as I can remember. My list of the best books I read this year (out of the 66 in total.) If the next post I write is the best books I read in 2025, we’ll see in a year.
The Lovers – Paolo Cognetti
Beautiful language about the mountains that form the main character in Cognetti’s novels. Close second is Eight Mountains.
Challenger – Adam Higginbotham
By far the best history of the manic drive to the bottom that seems to infect everything in the country, that in this case led to the disaster that had a huge effect on my childhood.
House of Leaves – Mark Danielewski
Finally got around to reading this twenty-some years after being told I’d love it by Johanna. Nothing like I’d expected it to be after years of building it up in my head, and better for it.
Patriot – Alexie Navalny
Both a great memoir of how to lead resistance against autocracy (maybe more relevant now than ever) and, through the second half, a case study of survival under terrible circumstances.
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven – Nathaniel Miller
Great memorable characters and a story of a life unlike any that seem to be possible today, for better or worse.