A few of the titles in this list are amongst my favourite reading pleasures of the past year*. Most of he ten books were published in 2025, but three were from 2023.
THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans * / novel
When is the last time you wrote someone a letter? When was the last time you received a letter from someone? (Let’s not count email correspondents.) Throughout her life, Sybil Van Antwerpt has been dedicated to writing letterrs to friends, families, neighbours, authors, businesses etc. and this book is written as a series of Sybil’s letters (and yes, emails). Sybil , now in her sevenies, is living alone in Annapolis, Maryland and her letter writing provides her with the opportunity e to complain to the Dean of a college, to help a troubled young teenager deal with his mental health, reflect on a challenging relationship with her estranged daughter, learn some truths through DNA testing, recount her current romantic experiences and sometime helping others to cope with their life circumstances and carry on. Most of all, Sybil is haunted by memories of significant mistakes that riddles her with guilt and she can’t seem to let go of. Virginia Evans gives us an unforgettable character whose secrets and opinions and worries we get to know through beautiful writing (Evans and Antwerpt). Her letters reveal Sybil to be a smart, kind, cranky, and honest character. The letters we write are often meant to be private but this epistolary novel invites readers into the world of an opinionated senior citizen who looks back on her life, attempts to repair wrongdoings and confronts regrets, dreams and the reality of getting older (and losing her eyesight). Virginia Evans and Sybil Van Antwerp invite us to consider the relationships in our lives and think about the small and large things, the could have been, should have been events that are part of our life journeys. I highly recommend this novel. It’s wonderful!
HIRSHFELD’S SONDHEIM: by David Leopold / poster book *
This book is a treasure for lovers of art, and fans of Stephen Sondheim. Hirschfeld’s Sondheim is a collection of twenty-five posters created by Al Hirschfeld to celebrate the openings of Sondheims work from 1967 (West Side Story) to 1996 (Getting Away with Murder). Besides the full-page reproductions, additional pieces depicting scenses from past and present musical productions and staggering portraits of Sondheim. Hirschfeld’s brilliant black and white art work dances off each page, adding music to the composer’s work. Awesome! Two thumbs up! Make that four thumb up for two artistic geniuses.
HONEY, BABY, MINE by Laura Dern & Diane Ladd: A mother and daughter talk abou Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) / 2023 / nonfiction / conversations
In 2019, actress Diane Ladd was diagnosed with chronic hypoxic failure and was told she only had months to live. One doctor advised Ladd that taking long walks would help to strengthen her lung capacity and so her daughter Laura was determined to help her mother gain health and so mother and daughter went walking, despite weakness and exertion felt Ladd. To distract her mother was to get her talking by reminiscing and telling stories “as if in a Santa Monica version of The Arabian nights.” This book offers transcripts of fifteen conversations between mother and daughter, conversations about love, divorce, fame, celebrations, sex, ambition, arguments and legacy. Honey, Baby, Mine is an honest, close-up view of mother and daughter’s memories and confessions and appreciations. If nothing else, the walks and the talks, gave Diane Ladd about another 6 years of life. She died at the age of 89 on November 3, 2025. The shared anecdotes, and many photographs spread throughout provide a compelling testament of lives well-lived and a document of personal interviews where nothing seem to be left unsaid. The book provides inspiration to talk – really talk- to those we love the most, before it’s too late and in so doing we can come to better understand one another and ourselves.
Excerpt (p.111)
Laura: I know how you feel, Mom.. truly. What’s the expression – “A mother is only happy as her saddest child”? We pour it all into this person. Then they grow up. Wow.
Diane: I know. It’s so beautiful, and man, it can just be hell.
True Story: I slept in Laura Dern’s bed. Sometime in he 1990’s I travelled to Sedona Arizona with some friends and we rented a house that happened to be owned by Diane Ladd. My friend slept in Diane’s bed. I slept in Laura Dern’s bed. It was a great holiday.
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER by Harper Lee / stories and essays
Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and became – and continues to be – an iconic read throughout the world. A sequel of sorts, Go Set A Watchman, (which was written before To Kill a Mockingbird) was released in 2015, alas to not great acclaim. The Land of Sweet Sorrows offers short stories and short nonfiction pieces written early in Lee’s career. The posthumous collection of 8 short stories and 8 short essays was found in the New York apartment the author lived in before returning home to Alabama. The book serves a as a curiosity of sorts for die-hard fans of Lee’s work offering glimmers of characters and setting that appear in Mockingbird. As with most collections, there are often hits and misses but for the most part this is not a must-read.
THE OLD MAN BY THE SEA by Domenico Starnone /novella
The title captured my attention. The story is set in Italy and the fact that the sea is in Italy, pleased me. The story of an 82 year old man, Nicola, thinking about his past, present and future, intrigued me. Nicola spent his life writing and now by the sea, the old man records the world he is now experiences and also reflects on the woman who shaped his passions. A good portion of the narrative tells stories of his infatuation with the women he encounters and meets in a local dress shop. The purchase of a kayak is a symbol for Nicola’s determination to have a project to live for, a sport adventure that involves some risk and new learning. The Old Man By The Sea has been translated from the Italian and offers readers a story of observation, of memory and melancholy:
“Old age was increasingly a balcony from which one had a view on meaninglessness.” (p. 105)
Excerpt (p. 104)
“When you fail at everything, you truy anything.”
“Are you working on a book now?
“Yes.”
“Here at the beach?”
“Yes.”
“What’s it about?
“It’s a summary of everything I haven’t been able to write well.”
“What doe writing well even mean?”
“Finding the right words that give meaning to all the pointless things that happen to us while we’re alive.”
ONLY SON by Kevin Moffett / novel *
This is a novel about being a son. This is a novel about being a father. This is a book about the bewildering, fraught and tender relationship between fathers and sons. The book is presented in three sections: 1) a nine-year old boy (unnamed narrator) living in Florida tries to cope with his father’s death 2) twenty-five years later the boy is now a father, a writer living in the desert outside of Los Angele 3) spurred on by a travel journal his father had kept, the father and son go on a road trip retracing the father’s mystifying journey. I loved this book. Moffett navigates what it means to deal with grief, and profoundly explores what it means to do the best you can as a parent, without having a strong role model. I’m a fan of any character that rests on the shoulders of J. D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield, and like Caulfield the young boy observes and judges the world around him with a cast of quirky characters. I’m intrigued with inventive style in fiction and Moffett’s narrative is presented as vignette’s in passages that are most often less than one page in length. I like books that appeal to my tuned-in reading fiction for middle age readers and this book digs into the life of a pre-teen and teenage character). I love reading books with humour and heart. I love books that help us understand the psychology of our behaviours, and how parents, (or lack of good parenting) for better or worse help to shape who we become and how we relate to others. As a writing teacher, Moffett’s character tells his students: Notice what you notice. I tell them to look closely at things. We’ll try, they say. On my drive home I struggle to remember the last time I looked closely at things.” (p. 105). Kevin Moffett is an an author who notices things and encourages readers to do the same. I loved Only Son, one of my favourite novels of the year.
Excerpt
“I read somewhere that memories are temporary constellations, projected by the mind only for as long as they’re needed. Years from now when my son looks back, what I’d like is for him to remember me as a vial but inconspicuous presence, rushing ahead to open doors and stepping aside.” (p. 81)
“Children are the living messages. Maybe that’s the problem. Something got lost between my father and me and me and my son. The baton dropped. Maybe the only reason I wrie about him is in the hopes of finally getting it right.” (p. 135)
RIGHT FROM WRONG: My story of guilt and redemption by Jacob Dunne / 2023 / autobiography
When he was a teenager in Newcastle, Jacob Dunne, drunk and drugged, got into a fight (defending his gang) who threw a a fatal punch at James Hodgkinson who later died in the hospital. Dunne was sent to prison for manslaughter and after fourteen months, he was released only to find himself, unemployed and struggling with shame and guilt. In a desperate attempt to find purpose, Jacob Dunne embarked on restorative justice programming. Support from others and especially from the compassion of the victim’s parents, Dunne gradually got things back on track and as a result has spent time helping others to do the same. This is a heroic story of forgiveness and reform and finding the light out of darkness despite dire family circumstances (his single mother was an alcoholic). The book is the story of making right from wrong. Dunne asks big questions about self-worth, making choices and moving on. Dunne’s story was made into a play, entitled PUNCH (UK and Broadway), which inspired me to read this compelling autobiography.
SHY by Max Porter / 2023 / novella
Shy is the name of the troubled, angry, dangerous teenager who has failed his parents, teachers and frienbds and now lives at Last Chance, a boarding school filled with other disturbed teenagers like him. Instead we get inside he anguish of Shy’s head as he deals with his violent past and works toward a calmer future (unlikely). There are passages of stream of consciousness ranting and parts presented in various typefaces. Shy is more poetry than prose and for want of flow of narrative plot, this can be frustrating. Still, Porter’s use of language dazzles beyond lyricism. This style isn’t for everyone, but I was intrigued with his inventive wordsmithing to tell a story of a pained character whose life seems hopeless but you want to move on, carry on and deal with his mental anguish before reaching the end of 122 pages.
What inspired me to read this book is the fact that it was made into a movie shown on Netflix. The title of the movie is Steve and stars Oscar winning actor Cillian Murphy (astonishing!) and Tracey Ullman (astonishing!). Steve, the headmaster has drink and substance abuse problems of his home and like the boys who reside in Last Chance, he is filled with rage. Like the book (screenplay by Max Porter), the film tells a gut-wrenching story of teachers and a cast of mentally, angry adolescent boys set in a boarding school: Bleak, unsettling and brilliantly done. How does anyone reach these violent adolescents? How does anyone teach these adolescent? Does listening help? Will a hug or two help?
Excerpts
“He’s spayed, snorted, smoked, sworn, stolen, cut, punched, run, jumpled, crashed an Escort, smashed up a shop, trashed a house, broken a nose, stabbed his stepdad’s finger, but it’s been a while since he crept. (p.6)
His mum has written down: Like a person being devoured/ animal that’s in him/ skin? on him/ trapping himn/ Shy’s inside, but the skin is also him, so angry, so true. (p. 16)
“The night is a shattered flicker-drag of hese sense-jumbled memories, like he’s dropped bu he’s stone-cold not, he’s just traipsing along, conducting memories.” (p. 45)
WHAT’S WITH BAUM? by Woody Allen / novel
The cover of this novel says much. A cartoon-l ike character walking across a bridge ‘borrowed’ from Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”. The skyline of Manhattan, and bare trees serve as a background to the character’s angst. This black and white image gives evidence to a character who seems to be losing his mind, a mind invented by the creative, clever, seemingly neurotic Woody Allen. Disclaimer: I’m a fan of Woody Allen’s movies where the director often appears as a creative, clever, seemingly neurotic soul. In this, his first novel, Allen presents us with a middle-aged Jewish journalist and playwright to is consumed with anxiety. Baum talks to himself: “He wasn’t sure of anything anymore except he was the only person he could talk to and sometimes even he couldn’t understand himself.” (P,. 110). Asher Baum is a Worrier, worrying about his book sales, his being dropped by his publisher (accused of sexual harassment with a young journalist), his rocky third marriage, his envy of his younger brother, his contempt of his stepson who is enjoying a huge success as an author. What’s a fellow to do but scream! ? This novel is everything you’d expect from Woody Allen, “a portrait of an intellectual crippled by neurotic concerns about futility and emptiness of life.” (from the book jacket). I enjoyed this book, not only for its insight into the publishing world but for being a love letter to a life in New York (that I think I’d like to have). What’s With Baum? shows Woody Allen at his observant, philosophical and witty best. Nothing wrong about reading about a kvetch and thinking about things to kvetch about in your own life.
Excerpt (p. 37)
“My play was failing in rehearsal, then the heart attack –
“You didn’t hve a heart attack.”
“A kidney stone can mimic a heart attack.”
“You didn’t have a kidney stone.”
“Arthritis can mimim a stone and I have arthritis.”
SHOUT OUT
A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF by Megha Majumdar / novel
The setting of this book is he near future in Kolkata.. Flood and family has had dire consequences on the citizens of India ravaged by climate change and scarcity of food. The story is centred on two protagonists. Ma, her two year-old daughter and her elderly father are days away from departing the collapsing city. Ma is desperate to join her husband who has been working in Michigan. All seems to be in order but Ma awakens to discover that =immigration documents has been stolen from her purse. Boomba who we come to learn is the one responsible for stealing the treasured papers is desperate to care for his family as food shortage worsens. Boomba is both a guardian and a thief and as we come to learn, so is Ma. The novel unfolds in a one week time period adding tension to the story. Megha Majumdar’s novel is a tale of desperation, hope and ferocious love of family. From the reviews I’ve read for A Guardian and a Thief, much praise has shone on this novel. When it was recently deemed an Oprah’s Book Club choice, I decided to get a copy. I’m so glad that I did. Thank you Oprah. Five stars from Dr. Larry.
Excerpt (p. 126)
“It was her duty, as a guardian, to put into acion the beautiful ideal of hope. Ma thought harshly: This is what it looked like. Hope for the future was no shy bloom but a blood-maddened creature, fanged and toothed, with is own knowledge of history’s hostilities and the cages of he present.”