Here are some of the books I read in 2025 and what I thought of them.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels

This... was interesting. I may have to publish some more detailed thoughts on the topic of communism another time. The Communist Manifesto begins with a lot of points I agree with: the oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, the necessity of seeking capital to force others to a lower status, and the oppression inherent in a capitalist system. However, the quality of arguments does seem to devolve a bit near the end.

For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

Another great Bobiverse book. 10/10.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I remember the cool kids in my eighth grade class honors reading/newspaper class being super into this series, so of course I eschewed this series at the time, because if those guys liked it, how could it possibly be good? Ah, the follies of youth.

This is a 9/10 book. I would rate it 10/10 except it is simply frustrating to read, especially at the beginning. Not because the writing is bad, mind you. In fact, I think Dashner's prose captures the thought patterns of an adolescent boy marvellously. No, I was frustrated reading this book at times because it poses many more questions than it actually answers. The first ten (short) chapters make you ask more and more questions, with the only answers given to the protagonist being "Shut up and you'll find out, noob."

Some things in the mystery of the Maze I figured out before the official explanation was given in the narrative (allow me to pat myself on the back for being quicker on the uptake than a literal teenager, heh heh). But there were still plenty of times that Maze Runner surprised and shocked me, even to the point of audible gasps!

This book left a lot of things unanswered, and I'll admit that I was a little annoyed I might have to read -- what? seven more books to get the answers I crave now! It's an exercise in trust in the author to invest eight books' worth of time in his works to get a satisfying narrative resolution. But trust I shall, because for all the narrative checks Dashner writes, he hasn't bounced any yet. Looking forward to the series being finished off before I get to the end.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

This is the second book in The Maze Runner series. 10/10.

The Death Cure by James Dashner

The third book in The Mazer Runner series. 9/10. It's been a while between finishing this book and writing this review, but I seem to recall there were some plot choices that seemed to weaken parts of the narrative that happened previously. However, the ending was a fairly satisfying payoff. I if I finished on a different day I would have balked at the rapid conclusion, though.

All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor

10/10. What can I say except the Bobiverse is one of my favorite series now? My goodness, another solid installation. Every book of Mr. Taylor's I have read thus far has been consistently top-notch.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

10/10. This is a wonderful book. It's one of stories that makes you hate a guy, then love him. I was floored really early on. This is a wonderful tale about communiy, heartbreak, taking responsibility, and human kindness.

Heaven's River by Dennis E. Taylor

10/10. What more is there to say? Another Bobiverse book. Another fantasitc, nerdy novel in what has quickly become my favorite Sci-fi series. Just start at the beginning and read all these books. That's all I have to say on the subject.

Russia in Revolution by S. A. Smith

I've been reading a lot of literature on communism (not all of it finished, and not all of it mentioned here), and so I needed to have some legitimate historical context to the Soviet state. This provided that. It was dry in some parts, but what serious historical work isn't? 8/10.

All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians by Phil Elwood

10/10. This book still sticks with me, months later. Granted, the author's whole premise is he is a confessed liar without scruples, so take the contents with a healthy dose of skepticism. But my goodness, interesting if true.

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

10/10. A Very Important Book to read in the 2020s. It is short, almost a long pamphlet in length. You could probably knock it out in an hour or so, but it is full of an essential overview of tyranical regimes of the 20th century and how they relate to today (or, more specifically, the first term of President Rump.)

If you do not read On Tyranny (and you absolutely should. I'll lend you a copy), please take this advice: Fight tyrrany. Do not preemptively obey.

Not Till We Are Lost by Dennis E. Taylor

10/10. The fifth installment of the Bobiverse series, and it has solidified my love for it. Just start reading it, you won't be disappointed. This honestly might be my favorite book series as an adult now.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Oh man. Where do I begin with this? I believe this is a worthwhile book to read, but its pacing was a little challenging for me at times.

Atwood has a peculiar cadence to her writing. Her prose -- if it may be called that -- is lyrical and flowery to the extreme. This is often to good effect. But more often, it seems self-indulgent, as if she's showing off. The text is littered with paragraphs that introduce an idea, and then proudly parade half a dozen literary devices to support that idea before moving on to the next paragraph. I must confess that her use of these literary devices is skillful, but altogether overused.

An example is quoted below from chapter 22:

I lie on the bed. I would like to rest, go to sleep, but I'm too tired, at the same time too excited, my eyes won't close. I look up at the ceiling, tracing the foliage of the wreath. Today it makes me think of a hat, the large-brimmed hats women used to wear at some period during the old days: hats like enormous halos, festooned with fruit and flowers, and the feathers of exotic birds; hats like an idea of paradise, floating just above the head, a thought solidified.

The prolificity of metaphors and poetic phrases in this stream of conciousness are indeed masterfully done, but for crying out loud, it continues for another two paragraphs before actually advancing the plot. My wife tells me this stylisitc choice seems to be Atwood's signature touch, as Alias Grace apparently follows the same pattern.

Some small comfort to me in this complaint is Atwood at leastgives the reason for her loquacity.

It's impossible to say a thing exactly the way it was, because what you say can never be exact, you always have to leave something out, there are too many parts, sides, crosscurrents, nuances; too many gestures, which could mean this or that, too many shapes which can never be fully described, too many flavors, in the air or on the tongue, half-colors, too many.

I will say this, though, the deluge of sexual and fertility symbolism in the text is used to great effect for what the author was going for: in mentioning these symbols and metaphors (and even the use of color) so often in connection to the terrible things endured by the women in The Handmaid's Tale, I find myself frequently experiencing a Pavlovian queasiness which I have no doubt the author would find immensely satisfying. (Satisfying like the last morsel of Thanksgiving dinner, the final remaining droplets of gravy swept off the china with a hand-kneaded roll and brought almost reluctently to a waiting mouth...)

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

This was a little harder to follow as an audiobook, as narratives from multiple viewpoints often are. But it was a solid sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. I am glad she wrote it, and I'm also glad she waited as long as she did.

9/10.

Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson

This was a pretty fun book. I liked the humor and the light-hearted style. I think this book parallels Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson because the first chapter seems to be so much more polished than the rest of them.

The world building was well done in this, the snark and humor is nice to keep things fun. I would probably be open to reading this again, to be honest. 9/10.

SpecOps by Craig Alanson

A good sequel to Expeditionary Force.

What is Ancient History? by Walter Scheidel

Oh, man. This is going to take an entire other article, I think. What a load of tripe. 2/10.

When Church is Hard by Tyler Johnson

Like many people in the 2020s who value truth and grew up with faith, I have experienced deconstruction and faith crisis before. Perhaps one day I will share more of that journey in this venue. For now I will say that I found Johnson's When Church is Hard to be thoughtful, but a little off the mark. Johnson admits that he has never experieced a crisis of faith, but as a local religious leader he has counselled many who have. The usefullness of this book is hampered by the author's lack of direct experience in the subject. YMMV.

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

10/10. Maniac Magee was one of the books my fifth grade teacher would read to us after lunch to bring us back into classroom behavior. It still holds up. The antiracism of it went straight over my head as a 10-year old, but as an adult now I can fully appreciate this masterpiece of tolerance, understanding, and belonging. I highly recommend this book.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Andrew Carnegie

How to Win Friends and Influence People walked so The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People could run.

This is the granddaddy of all "Be Like This Business Guy" books that have simply drowned the publishing world in recent years. Every half-baked bit of "business influencer" content can likely trace its origins to Andrew Carnegie.

It was nice to read some of these memes, like "Always repeat someone's name to them when you first meet" got started. I've heard so many of the "tips" and "tricks" over the course of my life the value of this book itself was greatly diminshed. And Carnegie loves to fluff up his little lessons with anecdotes from students by the fistful.

That being said, it was still a worthwhile book to read, especially taking the content with a tiny grain of salt. 7/10.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

9/10. I read the first chapter as a sample and had to read the rest of the book. What a fun spoof of the time loop and fantasy genres!

The plot felt like it dragged on a tad occassionally, and Davi's brashness was a little obnoxious from time to time, but I quite enjoyed the book. Would recommend.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

There are books that you just can't put down; books that you simply must keep reading in every waking second, and you have appetite for nothing so much as finishing that book. This is one of those books.

Expertly crafted, wonderfully executed, mysterious titillations galore, and What A Payoff at the end! Oh man, Gillian Flynn, I'm only scared to read more of your work because I don't want the illusion that they're all this perfect to be shattered.

10/10.

The Long Walk by Stephen King

2/10. Stephen King is really hit or miss, I'm finding. He's a masterful author, but he just doesn't know how to write an ending. The premise of the book is -- for reasons never really explained -- 100 young men volunteer for a death march every year. They walk without breaks until only one is left walking. The catch? If you fall under 4 miles per hour, you get shot.

If you think that an entire novel where the characters simply walk themselves to exhaustion would -- ahem -- drag on, you're right. The act of walking for days straight without any rest at all is so outside the realm of human experience it is impossible to convey the exhaustion of these poor fellows in terms we can understand. Eventually, I caught myself thinking things like, "Oh, he only made it 60 miles?" That's a narrative problem.

I will give King credit on the pacing. It is strung out at just the right rhythm to keep the reader reading. It seemed every time I started to get bored and wondered about putting the book down, something new happened in the very next paragraph.

However, the ending was absolutely atrocious. I don't care if King was making a meta point about the pointlessness of it all. It was very clearly a case of "Oh crap, I was supposed to have this finished and to my editor by 9 a.m. this morning, let me poop out the last two pages." And poop he did. The ending had no payoff whatsoever. Worse, it didn't even really make sense. Several main characters suddently just up and die with no explanation given, while the remaining 98% of the book took painstaking care to set up and execute (if you'll pardon the expression) the deaths of other, more minor characters.

I will say the movie wasn't all terrible. I read The Long Walk because my wife wanted to go see the movie, and was enjoying reading the book until the end. Having finished both now, I can report with relief the movie solves the book's most glaring errors. I'd give the movie a 6.5/10.

Not Even Bones by Rebecca Schaeffer

I was reading Not Even Bones when my wife got on The Long Walk. Reading those two books juxtaposed so made a really interesting experience, as The Long Walk could be described as a mediocre idea writen by a good author, and Not Even Bones is a good idea writen by a less experienced author.

Schaeffer's writing felt like it was missing something to me.... Perhaps the voice was off? It felt less polished than I think it could be. Perhaps it needed more revision? I'm not sure. I'm happy to explore that and give more detailed feedback if Ms. Schaeffer contacts me.

However, the plot and basic premise was intriguing! Despite the prose lacking a je ne sais quoi to grip me, the story left me wondering what would happen next at every turn. A good read. 8/10.

Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton

This was an interesting book. I asked an LLM for advice on what books to read after I finished the Bobiverse series (for who better to ask than a pretty dumb robot who's probably read them all?) and this was one of the recommendations.

I did enjoy reading it, but it also wrapped up so nicely I wasn't keen on starting the second book.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Murderbot has been getting a lot of publicity lately, what with the Apple TV+ series that started airing in May. I decided to check out the book. It was... alright. Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed this series much more in a written form than as an audiobook. There were lots of unfamiliar names that I wanted to see so I could pick up the context of where such a name was from... which is harder to do in audio.

All Systems Red wasn't really my cup of tea this time around, but I could see that changing some other time. You know how you sometimes just have to wait for the right stage of life, or the right frame of mind or whatever, for something to click? That might be this.

The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim

3/10. I went in expecting a novel about a programmer. I got a Dev-Ops sermon wearing very thin allegorical clothing. The writing, characterization, and dialogue were all critically weak spots. The Dev Ops advice was solid. All in all, this came across like when HR tries to spice up their trainings and make them "Fun (TM)."

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

Given the author's admission that he falsified a good deal of the book, I have to give it 1/10. If not for that, I would have scored it like an 8/10 for its interesting "case studies."

Deal of the Century: The Breakup of AT&T by Steve Coll

8/10. This was a very well-written account of how Ma Bell gave birth to all the telecom companies that came after... and are now trying to re-conglomerate themselves. Interesting insight into Ma Bell, Bell Labs, and the telecom industry in the 80's. Futhermore, a horrifying realization that even when there is ample justification for an antitrust suit to succeed in this country, this one only did by the narrowest margins and turns of fate. The DOJ succeeded not because of a system that works, but rather in spite of it. Absolutely chilling.