In late 2025, I had the pleasure of joining my poetry writing partners Gabriel Ricard and Kevin Ridgeway on an episode of the Meat for Teacast, a podcast hosted by Elizabeth Macduffie.
In late 2025, I had the pleasure of joining my poetry writing partners Gabriel Ricard and Kevin Ridgeway on an episode of the Meat for Teacast, a podcast hosted by Elizabeth Macduffie.
As with all my annual lists, these aren’t all new books but they were all new to me in 2025. And re-reads do not count, so some incredible favorites like Train Dreams by Denis Johnson or Dark Voyage by Alan Furst don’t appear here. A couple of these were audiobooks, but I say those count, especially when you’re life gets busy as hell and the country is falling apart into the dumbest plutocracy of all time and you just want to escape, lie in bed in the dark, and listen. Anyway, these are some damn fine reads. Enjoy!
I haven’t posted a whole lot this year but it’s been a busy summer so far. A quick trip to Philadelphia, a cancelled camping expedition, baseball games, pool adventures, parades, and I moved in with Amelia and Henry at long last. I’m settling in and getting back into a writing groove after spending most of the spring packing. Beyond a busy summer personally, I’ve been busy publishing and writing too.
As with all my annual end-of-year lists, the following books were new to me this year, but not necessarily new in 2024. I hope you find a few of these recommendations inspiring for your own To Read Pile in 2025 and beyond.