BOOKS I'VE READ IN 2025 (AS OF JULY 7, 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
46. Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artifacts, by Roberta Mazza
47. Evenings and Weekends, by Oisín McKenna

EVENTS FOR A PLACE OF OUR OWN

Monday, June 3: Washington, DC. Politics 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 14: Edinburgh, Topping & Company, 7:30 p.m., with Alison Bechdel.

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

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

Wednesday, Aug. 21: Chicago, 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.