Book #5 of 2025 was Tell Me Everything, by Elizabeth Strout. I've mostly found that the books by Strout that I've read in the past have been about loneliness. This one had lonely people in it too, but it was also about friendships and how people interact with each other.
Book #6 was The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl. I loved this gentle look at a backyard in Nashville.
Book #7 was North Woods, by Daniel Mason. In this novel we see centuries of events in one small plot of ground in Western Massachusetts. I liked some sections more than others, but overall this kept me reading. I especially liked the ending.
Book #8 was This Motherless Land, by Nikki May. This was presented to me as a retelling of Mansfield Park, which intrigued me because I couldn't imagine an updating of that book. It's really not at all what I was expecting. The only Mansfield Park related thing is the unfortunate cousin coming to live with the wealthy cousins. Plus there are some people in it called the Bertrams. It was a good story, though, and I enjoyed the Nigeria/England aspect of it.
Book #9 was The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis. I reread the Narnia books in times of great stress, which this is turning out to be.
Book #10 was I Cheerfully Refuse, by Lief Enger. I really enjoyed this story set in the near future in the US. Everything has pretty much collapsed, including literacy, but the main character's wife, Lark, has a bookstore. And there's an epic boat trip. This was a perfect read for me.
Book #11 was Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. This is such an amazing book. I just read Verghese's more recent book, The Covenant of Water, and liked it so much that I had to go looking for this one too. It's set mostly in Ethiopia, which is a big draw for me, but I also loved the parts in the United States. Like the other novel, this one has a big focus on medical issues, but this one is about a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. At the end, Verghese mentions John Irving in his acknowledgements, and I thought, oh yeah, that's who this book reminded me of. Verghese has the same sense of the weirdness of individual humans. These characters are absolutely unforgettable and I just wish Verghese would write faster.
Book #12 was The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with recipes), by Kate Lebo. I expected this to be more poetry than it was. It was interesting to learn about the different fruits, but this was mostly a book of personal essays about Lebo's own experiences, not just with the fruits but with life in general.
