BOOKS I'VE READ IN 2025 (AS OF JUNE 30, 2025)

In previous years, I used bold to indicate books I particularly enjoyed, but I am feeling a need to indicate fiction and nonfiction, so I’m going to bold the titles of NONFICTION books.**

  1. Kingmaker: Pamela Churchill Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Seduction, Intrigue, and Power, by Sonia Purnell
  2. Libertad, by Bessie Flores Zaldívar
  3. A Legacy of Spies, by John le Carré
  4. The Secret Heart, by Suleika Dawson
  5. The Message: by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  6. Agents of Influence: Britain’s Secret Intelligence War Against the IRA, by Aaron Edwards
  7. Great Expectations, by Vinson Cunningham
  8. Outrage, by Ellen Jones
  9. The Shadow in the Garden: A Biographer’s Tale, by James Atlas
  10. Wizard of the Kremlin, by Giuliano de Empoli
  11. Women’s Hotel, by Daniel Lavery
  12. Lives for Sale: Biographers' Tales, ed. Mark Bostridge
  13. Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson
  14. Janet Malcolm: The Last Interview
  15. Stakeknife’s Dirty War: The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA’s Nutting Squad, and the British Spooks Who Ran the War, by Richard O’Rawe
  16. The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, by Janet Malcolm
  17. In Search of J.D. Salinger, by Ian Hamilton
  18. Herzog, by Saul Bellow
  19. Heaven’s Command, by Jan Morris
  20. Karla’s Choice, by Nick Harkaway
  21. Pax Britannica, by Jan Morris
  22. Death in the Downline, by Maria Abrams
  23. Her Husband: Hughes & Plath, a Marriage, by Diane Middlebrook
  24. Jackal, by Erin A. Adams
  25. The Passion of Pedro Almodóvar: A Self-Portrait in Seven Films, by James Miller
  26. Time Will Tell, by Rita Mae Brown
  27. Hang on St. Christopher, by Adrian McKinty
  28. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, by Gary J. Bass
  29. Spent: A Comic Novel, by Alison Bechdel
  30. Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King, by Gareth Russell
  31. All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America, by Michael Woolf
  32. Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son, by Lionel Barber
  33. Sealed With a Hiss, by Rita Mae Brown
  34. King of Ashes, by SA Cosby
  35. When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists and the Origin of Trumpism, by John Ganz
  36. A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian Hellman, by Alice Kessler-Harris
  37. A Bookshop of One’s Own, by Jane Cholmeley
  38. Mean Moms, by Emma Rosenblum
  39. Parisian Lives: Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, and Me, by Deirdre Bair (re-read)
  40. Rubyfruit Jungle, by Rita Mae Brown (re-read)
  41. Refuse to Be Done, by Matt Bell
  42. You Have Unleashed a Storm: New York City’s Descent Into Chaos During America’s Most Explosive Era of Radical Violence, by David Viola
  43. The Light of Day, by Christopher Stephens and Louise Radnofsky
  44. Zofia Nowak’s Book of Superior Detecting, by Piotr Cieplak
  45. A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle, by Julian Jackson

EVENTS FOR A PLACE OF OUR OWN

Monday, June 3Washington, DCPolitics and Prose, Connecticut Avenue, 7 p.m., in conversation with Christina Cauterucci.

Wednesday, June 5: New York City. P&T Knitwear, Lower East Side, 7 p.m., in conversation with Amelia Possanza.

Thursday, June 6: Toronto Public Library (Virtual Event), 7 p.m. In conversation with Jane Farrow.

Friday, June 14EdinburghTopping & Company, 7:30 p.m., with Alison Bechdel.

Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024: Wilderness Fest, Cornbury Park, Oxfordshire, 2:45 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 19Minneapolis, Magers & Quinn, with Krista Burton, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Aug. 21Chicago, Women & Children First, 7 p.m.

BOOKS I READ IN 2024

  1. The Craft of Literary Biography, ed. Jeffrey Meyers
  2. North Korea Confidential, by Daniel Tudor
  3. Sycamore Row, by John Grisham
  4. Parisian Lives, by Deirdre Bair
  5. The Professor and the Parson, by Adam Sisman
  6. Royal Holiday, by Jasmine Guillory
  7. The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens, by Claire Tomalin
  8. Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the making of Modern Asia, by Gary J. Bass
  9. We Could Be So Good, by Cat Sebastian
  10. Charles Dickens: A Life, by Claire Tomalin
  11. The Palace Papers, by Tina Brown
  12. King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig
  13. The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle, by Anna Shechtman
  14. Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter, by Rachel Shteir
  15. Betting on the Bird, by Cassandra Medcalf
  16. A Spy Alone, by Charles Beaumont
  17. Looking for Lorraine, by Imani Perry
  18. The New Life, by Tom Crewe
  19. The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown
  20. High School, by Tegan and Sara Quin
  21. Keep This Off the Record, by Arden Jay
  22. Within My Reach, by Amy Blythe
  23. American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump, by Tim Alberta
  24. Requiem for a Mezzo, by Carola Dunn
  25. Somehow: Thoughts on Love, by Anne Lamott
  26. The Secret Life, by Andrew O’Hagan
  27. Very Bad Company, by Emma Rosenblum
  28. With a Mind to Kill, by Anthony Horowitz
  29. Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt, and the Long War on the Crown, by Rory Carroll
  30. Mona of the Manor, by Armistead Maupin
  31. Caledonian Road, by Andrew O’Hagan
  32. Not in the Plan, by Dana Hawkins
  33. Anansi’s Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World, by Yepoka Yeebo
  34. Razorblade Tears, by S.A. Cosby
  35. Emperor of Rome, by Mary Beard
  36. Here We Go Again, by Alison Cochrun
  37. All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby
  38. Nine Lives to Die, by Rita Mae Brown
  39. Lesbian Love Story: A Memoir in Archives, by Amelia Possanza
  40. My Darkest Prayer, by S.A. Cosby
  41. Thank You for Listening, by Julia Whelan
  42. One Man Against the World, by Tim Weiner
  43. To Name the Bigger Lie: A Memoir in Two Stories, by Sarah Viren
  44. The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam
  45. Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfield
  46. The Memo, by Rachel Dodes and Lauren Mechling
  47. A Woman of No Importance, by Sonia Purnell
  48. Remembering Satan: A Tragic Case of Recovered Memory, by Lawrence Wright
  49. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley
  50. One Last Stop, by Casey McQuiston
  51. Blacktop Wasteland, by S.A. Cosby
  52. Nothing Ever Just Disappears, by Diarmuid Hester
  53. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, by Katherine Rundell
  54. Virginia’s Apple: Collected Memoirs, by Judith Barrington
  55. What Happened, Miss Simone, by Alan Light
  56. The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA, by Liza Mundy
  57. Housemates, by Emma Copley Eisenberg
  58. 10 Things That Never Happened, by Alexis Hall
  59. Munich, by Robert Harris
  60. Death in a Strange Country, by Donna Leon
  61. The Last Dream, by Pedro Almodóvar
  62. Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
  63. Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, by Emily Nussbaum
  64. Murder by the Book, by Claire Harman
  65. There There, by Tommy Orange
  66. The Queer Arab Glossary, ed. Marwan Kaabour
  67. The Pairing, by Casey McQuiston
  68. The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America, by Sara B. Franklin
  69. The Safekeep, by Yael van der Wouden
  70. Hampton Heights, by Dan Kois
  71. Our Evenings, by Allan Hollinghurst
  72. Wild: The Life of Peter Beard, by Graham Boyston
  73. Orbital, by Samantha Harvey
  74. The Theme Park of Women’s Bodies, by Maggie Cooper
  75. The God of the Woods, by Liz Moore
  76. Crypto Confidential, by Nat Eliason
  77. Big Girl, Small Town, by Michelle Gallen
  78. Bluebird, Bluebird, by Attica Locke
  79. Four Shots in the Night, by Henry Hemming
  80. Feline Fatale, by Rita Mae Brown
  81. Furmidable Foes, by Rita Mae Brown
  82. Hiss of Death, by Rita Mae Brown
  83. Three Cups of Deceit, by Jon Krakauer
  84. Restless, by William Boyd
  85. The Other Olympians: The True Story of Gender, Fascism, and the Making of Modern Sport, by Michael Waters

BOOKS I READ IN 2023 (UPDATED)

  1. Bad Actors, by Mick Herron
  2. Count Your Lucky Stars, by Alexandra Bellefleur
  3. Hell Yeah or No, by Derek Sivers
  4. Written in the Stars, by Alexandra Bellefleur
  5. Trailed, by Kathryn Miles
  6. Decluttering at the Speed of Life, by Dana K. White
  7. The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm (re-read)
  8. The Private Patient, by PD James (re-read)
  9. Skip the Line, by James Altucher
  10. No Man’s Land, by Riley Smith
  11. Vibrator Nation, by Lynn Comella
  12. Roller Girl, by Vanessa North
  13. Sex by Design, by Betty Dodson
  14. Buzz, by Hallie Lieberman
  15. Big Death, Little Death, by Susie Bright
  16. Season of the Witch, by David Talbot
  17. Sierra City, by Gerri Hill
  18. Cowboys and Kisses, by Karin Kallmaker
  19. Comfort and Joy, by Karin Kallmaker
  20. Watergate, by Garrett M. Graff
  21. Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
  22. Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
  23. The More of Less, by Joshua Becker
  24. Peril, by Bob Woodward
  25. A Swing at Love, by Harper Bliss
  26. Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover, by Ruth Marcus
  27. Agent Twister, by Philip Augur and Keely Winston
  28. Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America, by Krista Burton
  29. Nine Black Robes, by Joan Biskupic
  30. The Pathless Path, by Paul Millerd
  31. Behind the PIne Curtain, by Gerri Hill
  32. In a Midnight Wood, by Ellen Hart
  33. Twisted at the Root, by Ellen Hart
  34. Ceremonies, by Essex Hemphill (re-read)
  35. Diving Into the Wreck, by Adrienne Rich (re-read)
  36. The Power of Adrienne Rich, by Hilary Holiday (re-read)
  37. Written on the Body, by Jeannette Winterson (re-read)
  38. Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop, by Thomas Travisoro
  39. Loving Robert Lowell, by Sandra Hochman
  40. Traffic, by Ben Smith
  41. Simply the Best, by Karin Kallmaker
  42. Touchwood, by Karen Kallmaker
  43. Portrait of a Thief, by Grace D. Li
  44. Lesbian Death, by Mairead Sullivan
  45. Burn It Down, by Maureen Ryan
  46. The Passage of Power, by Robert Caro
  47. Love & Other Disasters, by Anita Kelly
  48. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Caroline Fraser
  49. Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For (Audible version)
  50. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier
  51. Austral, by Carlos Fonseca
  52. Vintage Contemporaries, by Dan Kois
  53. Bad Summer People, by Emma Rosenblum
  54. The One Thing, by Gary Keller w/Jay Papasan
  55. Companion Piece, by Ali Smith
  56. Homegrown, by Jeffrey Toobin
  57. American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson
  58. We Set the Night on Fire, by Martha Shelley
  59. There are the Dawning, by Barbara J. Love
  60. SPQR, by Mary Beard
  61. Becoming Kim Jong Un, by Jung H. Pak
  62. Circus of Dreams: Adventures in the 1980s Literary World, by John Walsh
  63. A Thread of Violence, by Mark O’Connell
  64. Break-Up: How Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon Went to War, by David Clegg and Kieran Andrews
  65. Country of the Blind, by Christopher Brookmyre
  66. The Book of Evidence, by John Banville (re-read)
  67. The Cold, Cold, Ground, by Adrian McKinty
  68. The Darien Disaster, by John Prebble
  69. I Hear the Sirens in the Street, by Adrian McKinty
  70. The Art of the Idea, by John Hunt
  71. In the Morning I’ll be Gone, by Adrian McKinty
  72. Gun Street Girl, by Adrian McKinty
  73. Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty
  74. A True Account, by Katherine Howe
  75. Astor, by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
  76. Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly, by Adrian McKinty
  77. The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron
  78. The Fall: The End of Fox News, by Michael Wolff
  79. Past Lying, by Val McDermid
  80. The Falls, by Ian Rankin
  81. The Detective Up Late, by Adrian McKinty
  82. Lost & Hound, by Rita Mae Brown
  83. Salvation of a Saint, by Keigo Higashino
  84. Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Hollywood Media Company, by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams
  85. One Summer Night, by Gerri Hill
  86. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, by Roxanna Asgarian
  87. The Vanity Fair Diaries, 1986-1993, by Tina Brown
  88. A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré
  89. The Secret Life of John le Carré, by Adam Sisman
  90. The Pigeon Tunnel, by John le Carré
  91. American Classicist: The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton, by Victoria Houseman
  92. After Sappho, by Selby Wynn Schwartz
  93. Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wilde Rise & Staggering Fall, by Zeke Faux
  94. The Night Brother, by Rosie Garland
  95. Northern Spy, by Flynn Berry
  96. A Life of My Own, by Claire Tomalin
  97. The Possibility of Life, by Jaime Green (read in October, but inexplicably left off the earlier list)

THE BOOKS I READ IN 2023 (AS OF DEC. 15)

  1. Bad Actors, by Mick Herron
  2. Count Your Lucky Stars, by Alexandra Bellefleur
  3. Hell Yeah or No, by Derek Sivers
  4. Written in the Stars, by Alexandra Bellefleur
  5. Trailed, by Kathryn Miles
  6. Decluttering at the Speed of Life, by Dana K. White
  7. The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm (reread)
  8. The Private Patient, by PD James (reread)
  9. Skip the Line, by James Altucher
  10. No Man’s Land, by Riley Smith
  11. Vibrator Nation, by Lynn Comella
  12. Roller Girl, by Vanessa North
  13. Sex by Design, by Betty Dodson
  14. Buzz, by Hallie Lieberman
  15. Big Death, Little Death, by Susie Bright
  16. Season of the Witch, by David Talbot
  17. Sierra City, by Gerri Hill
  18. Cowboys and Kisses, by Karin Kallmaker
  19. Comfort and Joy, by Karin Kallmaker
  20. Watergate, by Garrett M. Graff
  21. Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon
  22. Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
  23. The More of Less, by Joshua Becker
  24. Peril, by Bob Woodward
  25. A Swing at Love, by Harper Bliss
  26. Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservative Takeover, by Ruth Marcus
  27. Agent Twister, by Philip Augur and Keely Winston
  28. Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America, by Krista Burton
  29. Nine Black Robes, by Joan Biskupic
  30. The Pathless Path, by Paul Millerd
  31. Behind the PIne Curtain, by Gerri Hill
  32. In a Midnight Wood, by Ellen Hart
  33. Twisted at the Root, by Ellen Hart
  34. Ceremonies, by Essex Hemphill (re-read)
  35. Diving Into the Wreck, by Adrienne Rich (re-read)
  36. The Power of Adrienne Rich, by Hilary Holiday (re-read)
  37. Written on the Body, by Jeannette Winterson (re-read)
  38. Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop, by Thomas Travisoro
  39. Loving Robert Lowell, by Sandra Hochman
  40. Traffic, by Ben Smith
  41. Simply the Best, by Karin Kallmaker
  42. Touchwood, by Karen Kallmaker
  43. Portrait of a Thief, by Grace D. Li
  44. Lesbian Death, by Mairead Sullivan
  45. Burn It Down, by Maureen Ryan
  46. The Passage of Power, by Robert Caro
  47. Love & Other Disasters, by Anita Kelly
  48. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Caroline Fraser
  49. Alison Bechdel’s Dykes to Watch Out For (Audible version)
  50. It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier
  51. Austral, by Carlos Fonseca
  52. Vintage Contemporaries, by Dan Kois
  53. Bad Summer People, by Emma Rosenblum
  54. The One Thing, by Gary Keller w/Jay Papasan
  55. Companion Piece, by Ali Smith
  56. Homegrown, by Jeffrey Toobin
  57. AMerican Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson
  58. We Set the Night on Fire, by Martha Shelley
  59. There are the Dawning, by Barbara J. Love
  60. SPQR, by Mary Beard
  61. Becoming Kim Jong Un, by Jung H. Pak
  62. Circus of Dreams: Adventures in the 1980s Literary World, by John Walsh
  63. A Thread of Violence, by Mark O’Connell
  64. Break-Up: How Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon Went to War, by David Clegg and Kieran Andrews
  65. Country of the Blind, by Christopher Brookmyre
  66. The Book of Evidence, by John Banville (re-read)
  67. The Cold, Cold, Ground, by Adrian McKinty
  68. The Darien Disaster, by John Prebble
  69. I hear the Sirens in the Street, by Adrian McKinty
  70. The Art of the Idea, by John Hunt
  71. In the Morning I’ll be Gone, by Adrian McKinty
  72. Gun Street Girl, by Adrian McKinty
  73. Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty
  74. A True Account, by Katherine Howe
  75. Astor, by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
  76. Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly, by Adrian McKinty
  77. The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron
  78. The Fall: The End of Fox News, by Michael Wolff
  79. Past Lying, by Val McDermid
  80. The Falls, by Ian Rankin
  81. The Detective Up Late, by Adrian McKinty
  82. Lost & Hound, by Rita Mae Brown
  83. Salvation of a Saint, by Keigo Higashino
  84. Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Hollywood Media Company, by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams
  85. One Summer Night, by Gerri Hill
  86. We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, by Roxanna Asgarian
  87. The Vanity Fair Diaries, 1986-1993, by Tina Brown
  88. A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré
  89. The Secret Life of John le Carré, by Adam Sisman
  90. The Pigeon Tunnel, by John le Carré

What a lovely obit. I remember that book so well, though I never owned it. www.nytimes.com/2023/04/2…

This sculpture outside the Edinburgh Council building is called “Everyman,” but is anyone else getting Jerry’s dad vibes?

So cool to see my latest zine (somehow mine is not “Rebel Dykes”) at the Edinburgh Zine Fest communal table. Open through Sunday evening at the Fruitmarket.

Three years! I miss my misspent youth!

A really interesting insight from Hanif Kureishi’s Kureishi Chronicles newsletter hanifkureishi.substack.com/p/a-crick…

Sorry, boss, we can’t just use the Scottish ads in other markets …

Sorry, boss, we can’t just re-use the Scottish ad in any other markets …

The latest episode of Working Overtime has some really good ideas for how you can reprime the creative pump. If they worked for Claes Oldenburg in the 1960s, they should work for us now, right? slate.com/podcasts/…

I’ll take two artisanal haggis, please!

Judging by today’s “In Memoriam” section on Hyperallergic, a career as an artist appears to correlate strongly with a long life.

That feeling when you know that the way to tackle a big, overwhelming task is to break it down into small parts, but you’re not quite sure what the parts should be!

I sent some zines to friends in the US last week. Pretty sure all are stalled by the cyberattack that has meant no international mail has left Britain in the last week or so. www.bbc.com/news/busi…

In the however many days it has been since the various Twitter clients stopped working, I must’ve reflexively checked Echofon hundreds of times. It’ll take some serious retraining to reprogram that reflex.

I’ve been away from New York for four months, and I’ve already forgotten EVERYTHING. I’m trying to make a list for a friend who’s heading there next week, and it took me 5 minutes to come up with “Bryant Park.” (I still remember the names and locations of all the stationery stores, though.)

I admit to being charmed by the sight of burly blokes eating while wearing paper crowns.

Having lunch in an Edinburgh restaurant in the company holiday lunch period means eating to the crackle of Christmas crackers!

Wanted to share some of my Gelli print journals, @onewildcrow

We moved at the end of August, but our stuff is still in transit. We just got a general sense of when it will arrive, and while I’ll be glad to be reunited with some possessions, it has been nice to be a minimalist, at least for a little while. I’m guessing we’ll be donating a bunch of the new arrivals. I don’t feel owned by my stuff the way I have at some points in the not too distant past, and I love it.

I’ve been a bit under the weather for the last few days–one of those I’m not so sick I can only lie in bed and bemoan my fate but I’m really not myself situations. Subject to weird mood swings and I’m better, no wait, I’m really not uncertainties. Needless to say, though, I’m very glad I’m in this weird liminal place than what the Brits call “proper sick.”

Maintaining a Duolingo streak has been much easier since the pandemic, and more recently our move. On the other hand, we haven’t been able to visit Japan since 2018 (finally got a refund for a May 2020 trip deep into 2021), so while it’s easier for me to study, I haven’t had a chance to use what I’ve been learning.