2025 Year in Reading
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
-
Jon Fosse
14 min read
Norwegian author who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature, mentioned prominently for his work Septology which the author found deeply moving. Readers would benefit from understanding his minimalist prose style and philosophical themes.
-
Natalia Ginzburg
11 min read
Major 20th-century Italian author whose work the reviewer is systematically reading. Her life spanning fascism, WWII resistance, and post-war Italian literature provides rich historical and literary context.
-
Rosemary Tonks
15 min read
English poet and novelist who mysteriously abandoned the literary world after converting to fundamentalist Christianity in the 1970s. Her rediscovery and the circumstances of her disappearance make for compelling reading.
This week I asked some friends of the substack to write a little note on the books they loved this year, and on any which disappointed them. Everyone interpreted my prompt slightly differently because it was badly written. I just used the words “things you liked” and so, one person didn’t realise I meant books. We fixed that. My criteria for who I asked was people who, if they said to me “oh this book is actually good” I would assume this to be accurate. Here are their responses. They’re lovely to read.
Rachel Connolly (me)
This is not an exotic suggestion but I had a truly beautiful time reading Septology by Jon Fosse last January. I remember waking up early one morning to read it, after a late night at a party, and watching the windows in my bedroom grow foggy and wishing it was twice the length it is.
Some rereads. I reread The Road by Cormac McCarthy. A perfect book. I read it every few years. I still haven’t read The Passenger, I’m saving it. I reread God Bless You Otis Spunkmeyer by Joseph Earl Thomas for work, which was excellent. He is an extremely smart and funny writer. You can tell he has been out in the world too. He has interesting things to say about human nature. I reread Show Them A Good Time by Nicole Flattery too. Another perfect book. Another laceratingly intelligent and funny writer with interesting things to say about human nature. I bought this book at random years ago because I liked the cover and that was the first time I encountered her work, very glad I did.
I’ve been reading bits from a book of Donald Judd’s collected essays and criticism, which are brilliant. A very original and distinctive thinker and writer. I read Klostvog by Margarita Khemlin, about an extremely vain and scheming Jewish woman in the Soviet Union. Very interesting view on trauma. I read Happiness as Such by Natalia Ginsburg and loved it. I’m slowly working through all of her translated books. This one had one of the funniest chapter openings I have encountered: “I reached Leeds yesterday morning. I stayed in a boarding house called the Hong-Kong. You can’t imagine anything sadder than the Hong-Kong boarding house in Leeds.” There have been lots of funny lines at New Work, my reading series. I often think of ...
This excerpt is provided for preview purposes. Full article content is available on the original publication.