2025 Book List

A list of books I read in 2025. Summaries are from Goodreads.

1. Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari

Summary: For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI—a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence. Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

A really impressive and immersive history of information networks. Harari grounds his narrative in the importance of stories to humanity and traces the evolution of how stories are told and the impacts this has throughout history. At times, deep dives into specific examples felt like they disrupted the narration and overall it didn’t always feel like the story had one unifying core, but rather the main topic came in and out of focus. Some parts felt like they lacked intentionality and it felt like the book had several topics inside of it. Nevertheless, it was very engaging and informative and did an excellent job of explaining how different AI is to other information networks and why it should be treated differently. 

2. Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali

Summary: 'It is, perhaps, easier to dismiss a man whose face gives no indication of an inner life. And what a pity that is: a dash of curiosity is all it takes to stumble upon treasures we never expected.'

A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade in 1920s Berlin. The city's crowded streets, thriving arts scene, passionate politics and seedy cabarets provide the backdrop for a chance meeting with a woman, which will haunt him for the rest of his life. Emotionally powerful, intensely atmospheric and touchingly profound, Madonna in a Fur Coat is an unforgettable novel about new beginnings and the unfathomable nature of the human soul.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

A deep and layered exploration of yearning, fate, and identity, and nationhood. The book doesn’t feel particularly outstanding, but this almost feels intentional, as it explores the life of a very regular man, who has an experience that is profound, but still accessible to everyone.

3. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Summary: Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

Absolutely incredible writing and storytelling. The book follows the family lines of two separated sisters, as them and their family lines live through colonization, the slave trade, and racism. Each 20-30 page chapter is dedicated to a family member from one generation of the family, and the storyline goes back-and-forth between the two family lines. The characters’ stories were so deep and compelling, it felt like a whole novel could be written about each character, and like each short chapter contained an entire world. The writing was incredibly intentional and visceral, communicating a lot to the reader without over-explaining. An incredible account of the impacts of injustice and trauma, and impossible to put down. 

4. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Summary: First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. A famous nursery rhyme is framed and hung in every room of the mansion. When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

The mystery and atmosphere were constructed very well. The book felt scary and suspenseful and the story was very intriguing and remained a secret until the end. It felt like the narrative would be enriched with more exploration of the characters. Beyond their introductions, it felt like the narrative maintained a distance from them, so caring about the story was not supplemented by caring about the characters. But overall this was a great read and very enticing.

5. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Percival Everett

Summary: In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.

Rating: 5/10

Impressions: 

Had a really hard time getting through this book. Not much happens for most of it, but the plot points feel very drawn out and repetitive. The world it’s set in feels sort of paralyzed, like it doesn’t really venture out past a very narrow path that doesn’t serve it very well. At times the writing felt too woke and at others bewilderingly near-sighted, and the characters felt underdeveloped.

6. James by Percival Everett

Summary: A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Rating: 4/10

Impressions:

The author went so far trying to reimagine Jim as a deeply intellectual man that this novel felt like satire. It feels very unnecessary and unrealistic to go as far as to describe him talking to philosophers in his mind and dreaming of them - something that would be inaccessible for most privileged, well-educated white people in America during this time. It cheapened the original story and the structural disadvantages that were imposed on the original figure of Jim and felt like a gimmick. The plot also felt very robotic and the characters (especially the female ones) felt flat.

7. Trust by Hernan Diaz

Summary: An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception. Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly boundless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit. Hernan Diaz's TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation. At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: 

This book was well-framed, with four distinct parts coming together to reveal something different about the story at the heart of it. It would have benefitted from more intrigue - as it stands, the plot twists and the revelations in each part are very predictable, so introducing them as plot twists did not make much sense. The third part felt like the center of gravity of the novel, but needed a lot more development and suspense to work. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable read.

8. Республика Шкид by Григорий Белых и Алексей Пантелеев

Summary: Повесть Григория Белых и Алексея Пантелеева (писавшего под псевдонимом Л.Пантелеев) «Республика Шкид» — добрая и веселая история о мальчишках, которые в трудные годы революции и Гражданской войны попали в Школу имени Достоевского — исправительное заведение для беспризорных, об их воспитателях, о дружбе и первой любви. Шкидские рассказы продолжают историю школы им. Достоевского. В них Л.Пантелеев рассказывает об учителях школы и уже намного глубже открывает духовную жизнь бывших беспризорников.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

Found this at a park book sale in Yerevan in the summer. I loved this book when I was a kid and already re-read it once or twice as a teenager. Returning to it as an adult was wonderful - it’s full of wisdom and life and paints a profound picture of life in an orphanage during the Russian revolution.

9. The Filial by Sergei Dovlatov

Summary: Сергей Довлатов - один из наиболее популярных и читаемых русских писателей конца XX - начала XXI века. Его повести, рассказы и записные книжки переведены на множество языков, экранизированы, изучаются в школе и вузах. "Заповедник", "Зона", "Иностранка", "Наши", "Чемодан" - эти и другие удивительно смешные и пронзительно печальные довлатовские вещи давно стали классикой. "Отморозил пальцы ног и уши головы", "выпил накануне - ощущение, как будто проглотил заячью шапку с ушами", "алкоголизм излечим, пьянство - нет" - шутки Довлатова запоминаешь сразу и на всю жизнь, а книги перечитываешь десятки раз. Они никогда не надоедают.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions: 

An incredibly funny, profound, and human book. There is such apt commentary on the intricacies of human nature here, and reminders to laugh even in the saddest moments. It feels like a life-lesson but you never once feel like you’re being lectured, just watching people go about their lives, living them on some profound level that is accessible when you are able to see yourself from the side and not take it all too seriously.

10. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Summary: A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,” Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed. With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another. Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

This novel felt flat. The tumultuous backdrop of the story feels like it should lend itself to engaging, captivating storytelling, and the variety of the characters should propel the story forward. Somehow, all of it felt bleak and disappointing and the story never delved far beyond a well-polished and safe surface.

11. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays by Albert Camus

Summary: One of the most influential works of this century, this is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan, and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide: the question of living or not living in an absurd universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Camus posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

An engaging, succinct reflection on absurdism and existentialism. Camus is in conversation with other philosophers, yet provides his own unique take very clearly and honestly. Feels like an essential piece of reading for unpacking some of the ideas of philosophers of his time.

12. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Summary: France, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France… but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive. Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gäetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others. With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war. The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

This book seems to have been very well-researched and the plot developed very smoothly, in a very satisfying way. As soon as I got the sense that it was time for things to shift, they did so, and the characters got into increasingly more difficult circumstances. It was clearly crafted with care and a lot of thought and was an enjoyable read. At times it felt to drag on a bit and overall felt a bit long and made some of its points several times instead of just once - I think nearly a quarter of it could be taken out without negatively impacting the story. Nevertheless, the book really drew me in and was a pleasure to read.

13. Hostage by Eli Sharabi

Summary: On October 7th, 2023, Hamas terrorists stormed Kibbutz Be'eri, shattering the peaceful life Eli Sharabi had built with his British wife, Lianne, and their teenage daughters, Noiya and Yahel. Dragged barefoot out of his front door while his family watched in horror, Sharabi was plunged into the suffocating darkness of Gaza's tunnels, where he endured 491 days in captivity. As war raged above him, Sharabi held onto the hope that he would be reunited with his loved ones. In the first memoir by a released Israeli hostage, and the fastest-selling book in Israel's history, Sharabi offers a searing firsthand account of survival under unimaginable conditions—starvation, isolation, physical beatings, and psychological abuse at the hands of his captors. Eli Sharabi's story is one of hunger and heartache, of physical pain, longing, loneliness and a helplessness that threatens to destroy the soul. But it is also a story of strength, of resilience, and of the human spirit's refusal to surrender. It is about the camaraderie forged in captivity, the quiet power of faith, and one man's unrelenting decision to choose life, time and time again. Reminiscent of Elie Wiesel's Night, Hostage is a profound witness to history, so that it shall be neither forgotten nor erased.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

An incredible account of resilience in the face of unimaginable suffering. Eli Sharabi writes with piercing clarity and wisdom after enduring something nobody ever should. I was struck by the thought that his writing style resembles that of Primo Levi, having recently read Survival in Auschwitz. This account feels like a continuation of Levi’s account of suffering and resilience and seems to be a crucial piece of Jewish literature. 

14. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Summary: Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar. Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train...

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

This felt like a lamer, more underwhelming follow-up to Gone Girl. The tension of the unreliable narrator was done well, but overall the characters were very one-dimensional, the plot twists were predictable, and the suspense felt very artificial because it relied on the author withholding crucial information and the main character randomly realizing important things for no reason at a convenient time. 

15. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Summary: It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

This feels like a good YA WWII novel and a good way to introduce children and young adults to the subject. The story manages to get the historical weight of the events across without delving too far into the horribleness of them. Death being the narrator also worked well and provided an omnipresent mystical quality to the novel. At the same time, the main character, the little girl at the heart of the story, felt incredibly emotionally hollow. She sort of just experiences things as they happen, but we never get a good sense of who she is and how they impact her. A more emotionally tangible character would help the story resonate more deeply.

16. Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham

Summary: In Theatre, W. Somerset Maugham–the author of the classic novels Of Human Bondage and Up at the Villa–introduces us to Julia Lambert, a woman of breathtaking poise and talent whose looks have stood by her for forty-six years. She is a star UK stage actress–-so good, in fact, that perhaps she never stops acting. It seems that nothing can ruffle her satin feathers, until a quiet stranger challenges Julia's very sense of self. As a result, she will endure rejection for the first time, her capacity as a mother will be affronted, and her ability to put on whatever face she desires for her public will prove limited. In Theatre, Maugham subtly exposes the tensions and triumphs that occur when acting and reality blend together, and–for Julia–ultimately reverse.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

This book was a huge pleasure to read, very human, funny, and accessible. We are allowed quite deep into the mind of the main character and follow her as she grapples with authenticity, passion, fame, and pretence. It felt wonderfully realistic and satisfying and the story flowed very well - it was hard to put down. 

17. Persuasion by Jane Austen

Summary: Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year (but dated 1818). Persuasion is linked to Northanger Abbey not only by the fact that the two books were originally bound up in one volume and published together, but also because both stories are set partly in Bath, a fashionable city with which Austen was well acquainted, having lived there from 1801 to 1805. Besides the theme of persuasion, the novel evokes other topics, such as the Royal Navy, in which two of Jane Austen's brothers ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. As in Northanger Abbey, the superficial social life of Bath-well known to Austen, who spent several relatively unhappy and unproductive years there-is portrayed extensively and serves as a setting for the second half of the book. In many respects Persuasion marks a break with Austen's previous works, both in the more biting, even irritable satire directed at some of the novel's characters and in the regretful, resigned outlook of its otherwise admirable heroine, Anne Elliot, in the first part of the story. Against this is set the energy and appeal of the Royal Navy, which symbolises for Anne and the reader the possibility of a more outgoing, engaged, and fulfilling life, and it is this worldview which triumphs for the most part at the end of the novel.

Rating: 6.5/10

Impressions:

Thematically very cohesive, but felt very surface-level at the same time and many plot points felt repetitive. At the same time, it makes some very astute commentary on the society it focuses on and feels very human.

18. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Summary: Alaska, 1974. Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed. For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival. Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier. Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown. At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources. But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: They are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves. In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

There is a quote in this book that goes something like “we had gone all this way, and been through so much, just to end up exactly right back where we started”, and that’s what this book kind of felt like. Even worse than The Nightingale, it’s incredibly drawn out and could have cut about a third out without losing anything. The same plot points were revisited multiple times and the reader was ahead of the story for the majority of it. The characters’ motivations were often unclear and unrealistic and there was a lot of “shock factor” seemingly for no other reason than to shock. At the same time, lots of things were well done - the landscape descriptions were mesmerizing and many points of the book drew me in.

19. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

Summary: The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series! When you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for? As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

This felt like an essential puzzle piece in the Hunger Games saga and was very satisfying. Structurally it resembles the first two books and had a cast of equally engaging characters and an arena that lent itself to incredible plot points. Whereas The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes ventured beyond the original structure and felt dull and flat, this one is on par with the first two books in its sense of adventure and suspense, without losing any tension. A really fantastic addition to the rest of the books.