Eleven (really 15) books we read this year we'll be thinking about for a while
Greetings from Read Max HQ, and welcome to the last column of 2025!
Most weeks, in the Read Max “roundup” newsletters, I pick out some worthwhile and often overlooked books, articles, movies, and music to recommend to paying subscribers. But for this column, the second of two year-end round-ups (read the first here), we’re picking out ten(-ish--some are series) books we read this year that we’ll be thinking about for a while.
Are these “the best books of 2025”? Well, most of them didn’t come out in 2025, for starters. And many of them are not “great books” in most of the ways you might define such a term. But they are the books that we spent a lot of time with this year, and back towards which our brains have been returning ever since.
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If you’re already a subscriber, thank you: It’s been a wonderful 2025 thanks to your support and generosity. Read Max will be back in 2026 with more of the same bullshit.
Now, the roundup:
