Right around January 1 each year, book-loving friends start sharing their reading lists from the past 12 months — exchanging tallies, finds and recommendations.
Back when I had school-age kids and a full-time job, I managed only 40 or 50 a year; but as a retired empty-nester in 2025, I chalked up a whopping 142 titles.
For other bibliophiles out there in Webb-land, here are 10 of my faves on the year:
The Big Wander, Will Hobbs – Enchanting young-adult Western, with 14-year-old Clay Lancaster roaming the rugged Southwest in search of a long-lost uncle. Set in 1962, Wander offers a little history, a little romance, a little humor, a lot of landscape, some fine supporting characters (especially the Native Americans) — and plenty of exciting action.
City of Tranquil Light, Bo Caldwell – Many novels about missionaries malign their methods and motivations (cf. Mosquito Coast and Poisonwood Bible). In Tranquil Light, by contrast, Caldwell pays reverent tribute to her own grandparents, who served a tough but tender tenure in China — where they came to feel more at home than in their own native land.
Gringos, Charles Portis – 2025 was the year I fell in love with Portis, a true American treasure. Best known for the incomparable True Grit (1968), Portis gave us five fine novels — all of which tend to elicit the cry, “I’ve never read a book like this!” Gringos, his final and most subtle, is a slacker travelogue and rescue-quest set among ex-pats in Mexico — sort of Indiana Jones meets Jimmy Buffett. I also relished Portis’ Masters of Atlantis, a similarly sly and charming satire on Masonic-type cults.
Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King – I like but don’t love King, a master story-teller with a wildly uneven prose style. But in this 1999 collection of inter-related stories, the King of best-sellers keeps his verbiage well under control. Much of it is beautifully written; and in what feels like a memoir, the author holds down the horror, keying instead on the legacy of violence — in a 1960s setting of small towns, colleges and Vietnam. His masterpiece.
In Defense of Sanity, G. K. Chesterton – The prolific Chesterton, who wrote essays and mysteries 100 years ago, sounds more and more relevant with every passing year. This a careful selection of his best essays — wise, comical and irreverent, with a strong Christian worldview that constantly forces us to see things in new ways.
Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli – Another young-adult gem — and another utterly unique work of fiction. It focuses on the titular orphan, an ever-active eight-year-old who stops running only long enough to wow everyone he meets — leaving a legend-like legacy that includes inroads against ugly racial segregation. Winner of the Newbery — from a beloved writer who also gave us the stellar Stargirl.
Paradise Postponed, John Mortimer – Mortimer’s impressive resume covers more than 50 novels — including his well-known Rumpole of the Bailey series. Though followed by two sequels, Paradise is essentially a stand-alone set in post-WWII Britain. Focused principally on a kindly rural clergyman who appears to have bequeathed his entire legacy outside the family, it covers a vast array of people in the rapidly changing social milieu of those turbulent decades.
The River of Doubt, Candace Millard – The prolific Millard has become the go-to writer for fans of Stephen Ambrose and David McCullough. Doubt is an astoundingly informative account of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing 1912 attempt to navigate a fierce and fiendish Amazon tributary. The resulting odyssey was so torturously difficult that I actually had to take a break halfway through and read something else for a while. Whew.
The Tiger in the Smoke, Margery Allingham – With Christie, Marsh and Sayers, Allingham was one of the so-called “Four Queens of British Mystery”; Tiger is widely considered the finest in her acclaimed Arthur Campion series. Set right after the close of World War II, it involves a young war widow whose husband seems to have returned from the dead. But that is just the doorway into an enchanting and labyrinthine mystery with roots going back to the war itself. Beautifully written, with the usual quirky cast of characters that makes Golden Age mystery so entertaining.
The Turret Room, Charlotte Armstrong – Speaking of which — here’s another mystery queen who ought to be crowned right along with the other four (though Armstrong is American). I’ve read several Armstrongs in recent years — all terrific; but this one, a sort of locked-room mystery involving a supremely dysfunctional family — well, it simply knocked me silly.
I could honestly read nothing but Golden Age mysteries for the rest of my life and be perfectly content.
Here’s to more of that in 2026.
