My top read of 2025, Horse, by Geraldine Brooks, is an ambitious and masterfully written novel. I was a bit late to the party in reading Horse. How I wish I’d read this intelligent, artistic, and unforgettable book sooner. What lingers for me is Brooks’s exquisite use of language and careful braiding of time. Every word and sentence is brilliantly crafted with care. And she weaves 1850 Kentucky, 1950s New York, and contemporary Washington, DC as distinct stories, each amplifying the other, and resolving in a satisfying convergence.
"Brooks' chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling." -The New York Times Book Review
"Horse isn't just an animal story-it's a moving narrative about race and art." -TIME
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an…
Among the standout literary novels of 2025, The Height of Land shines as a quietly powerful, deeply resonant, and artfully crafted work. Its language is precise and lyrical, its storytelling deeply affecting, its imagery exquisite. Benner Dixon’s metaphors make me smile. And think. And re-read them out of pure admiration. Some readers will scarcely notice the perfection of her metaphors because they enhance an already compelling story. The Height of Land is novel to linger over. A book to savor. A book I highly recommend.
The Height of Land follows the quest of a young man torn between spiritual longing and commitment to his community's survival in a harsh landscape. Red sacrifices everything to study the long-lost words of the gods. He does not know that he is reading the poetry of Lucille Clifton, Ḥáfiẓ, and Walt Whitman, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, and the Tao Te Ching. In a world reborn from catastrophe, these ancient texts take on new meanings.
To seek such things is to court peril. Belief in the gods is forbidden. But Red is desperate to know the…
Daikon is a deeply engaging and thoughtfully crafted work of alternate history. Meticulously researched and thoughtfully structured, the novel offers an intellectually rich and emotionally resonant reading experience. The author’s command of historical detail is matched with a clear devotion to the craft of storytelling, evident on every page. I know, because the research mirrors the very ground of my own historical novel, Of White Ashes. Daikon stands as a meaningful and memorable contribution to historical fiction that honors the past while inviting reflection in our present and future. What if? When one is talking about nuclear weapons, those what-ifs are imperative.
"A riveting tale about war, intrigue, love, and perseverance." -John Grisham
"Absorbing...Unfolds like a detective novel...The story barrels ahead urgently...Duty, anger, sorrow, conscience and even hope mix together to form the novel's bracingly intimate ending." -The Wall Street Journal
"What if not two but three atomic bombs wound up in the Pacific theater?...Hawley's impeccably detailed narrative offers an unnerving fictional answer...The novel's tension mounts in highly cinematic fashion, despite our awareness of what the history books tell us." -The New York Times
"Thrilling...Builds to a pulse-pounding climax. The result is the most imaginative take on Hiroshima since Edwin Corley's The…
The bombing of Pearl Harbor propels America into WWII and two Japanese Americans into chaos. Separated by the Pacific, each embarks on a tumultuous path to survive childhood and live the American dream. Ruby Ishimaru loses her liberty and uproots from her Hawaii home to incarceration camps on the mainland. Koji Matsuo strains under the menacing clouds of the Japanese war machine and atomic bombing while concealing a dangerous secret—one that threatens his family’s safety.
When destiny brings Ruby and Koji together in California, their chemistry is magnetic, but wounds of trauma run deep and threaten their love as another casualty of war.
Inspired by the true stories of the authors’ family, OF WHITE ASHES crosses oceans and cultures, illuminating the remarkable lives of ordinary people who endure seemingly unbearable hardship with dignity and patience. Their experiences compel us to reflect on the resilience of humanity and the risk of history repeating.
