how is summer so busy! these are supposed to be lazy read-in-hammock days, not busily manage all kids of nonsense. don’t worry, I didn’t cope by trying speed. someone in one of these books did though, and as you can imagine it did not go well. it is perhaps best not to model one’s life on fiction (as Don Quixote taught us).

here’s what I read in july 2025

*denotes favorite

denotes book club

*A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

• I am revisiting some canonical works that I haven’t engaged with since I was an annoying teenager, and this was worth it. if you haven’t read Forster in a while, or ever, please do yourself a favor and liberate him from high school curricula and indulge. this book is so infinitely layered and careful, an elegiac story about the interpersonal cruelties of empire, and it’s also full of funny little observational darts. see:

Ronny approved of religion as long as it endorsed the National Anthem, but he objected when it attempted to influence his life.

or

It was unbearable, and he thought “How unhappy I am!” and became happier.

lesson: don’t cast alec guinness in your film adaptation

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie

• most british murder mysteries are somewhat reactionary but hoo boy this one takes the cake. two plucky english youths take on a criminal syndicate that is apparently wholly responsible for communism, irish republicanism, the labour party in general, and anyone who thinks the tories are doing a bad job. probably a reason this one doesn’t really get adapted much. also…is agatha christie actually a good writer? she described the criminal den as “filthily dirty” more than once! lesson: if a man on the lusitania offers you a secret briefcase, say no.

The Limits by Nell Freudenberger

• one of the least annoying covid novels. similar in theme and subject matter to richard powers’ Playground. however, powers has proven able to engage with the rationale behind ecoterrorism, whereas Freudenberger raises the issue and then backs away from it. lesson: if you can live in Tahiti without being a dick about it, do that.

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

• lesson: sometimes you can die from being too melodramatic

Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake

• the conclusion to the Gormenghast trilogy. peake meant for it to be longer, but he died before he could complete it. this final volume is much shorter than the previous two, and quite different in style. I missed the world of Gormenghast and the precise observation of its peculiarities. this one is a more allegorical work, a sort of pilgrim’s progress for titus the wayward earl. the new characters here are less fully developed, and the places they appear in are also dreamlike, not as textural as gormenghast itself. the prose is still rococo and indulgent, but somehow insubstantial compared to the edificial aspect of the other books. lesson: it pays to make friends with a guy who travels around with a pet ape.

Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

• why is everyone so obsessed with having sex with bears??? lesson: leave bears alone!!

*Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

• this is the first novel in a series franzen is calling the key to all mythologies, leaning into the Mr. Casaubon reputation that developed around him in the 2010s (which I gleefully took part in, insomuch as a bartender/blogger with no influence can be said to have taken part in anything). now that I’m older and less irritating to myself and others I can say that franzen does deserve to place himself in the george eliot school of the novel. he is interested in storytelling as a means to explore interiority, the shape of the human psyche, not mere events (or god forbid, the internet). this midcentury midwestern family saga handles character with such depth and perception, letting people be flawed without disdaining them. this was my issue with some earlier franzen work — it felt like he was judging his characters too much. now I sense him down in the muck with them, letting them make their bad decisions with compassion. also he’s funnier these days. the dialogue tag “he bragged, repellently” sticks me with from this one. lesson: see subject line.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

• bennett’s worldbuilding is always so good, like in City of Stairs. this world is also intricate and magical, plus it’s a page-turning mystery. the prose is workmanlike, so it’s really the atmosphere that makes it soar. lesson: don’t trust rich people.

Children of Radium by Joe Dunthorne

• in this memoir, Dunthorne picks at his family history and discovers some dark chemical weapons wartime secrets. unique in that I’ve rarely read anything where a person is able to change their opinion of family mythos and actually come to terms with historical complicity. lesson: so, so many things in the early twentieth century were irradiated basically for fun.

Blackouts by Justin Torres

• more multi-disciplinary fiction and beautiful books! the erasure poetry here was thrilling. lesson: live messy.

*Wildcat Dome by Yūko Tsushima

• this novel was published in Japan many years ago but only recently translated into English. it’s a non-linear look at three friends pursued by history, managing both literal and metaphorical nuclear events that shape their lives. they are all witnesses to the death of another childhood friend, and this event echoes throughout their adulthood. this is by no means a straightforward novel and will not reward readers who come for plot or resolution. what interested me so much about it was its insistence upon the emotional truth of every moment. I have a friend who insists that time is a lake, not a river, and that’s what this book felt like to me. lesson: call your friends more.