Nicholas Coghlan's 3 favorite reads in 2025

• 2023
• 2024
• 2025

At first I thought this was likely to be another grim book about climate change, but I loved Vaillant's earlier "The Golden Spruce" so I decided to give it a try. What a great read this is! Above all I liked the graphic, hour-by-hour description of the apocalyptic 2016 wildfire close to Fort McMurray and Canada's oil sands and Vaillant's interactions with all those involved with battling it, from firefighters to local business owners and wealthy oil executives. He lets these individuals speak for themselves and is not judgmental. But a picture emerges of a society that has profited so much from the lucrative oil sands (huge profits for the oil execs and shareholders, comfortable rancher homes, Skidoos, long vacations and gas-guzzling pickup trucks for the people of Fort McMurray ) that its members find it easier just not to think about the industry's effects on the world's climate, rather than accept any responsibility for their career and life choices. If in the year ahead you read only one serious book about the path the world is currently on, make it this one.

I read most sailing/cruising books that I come across, but this was something really different. Suzanne's account of the decade she spent as a child, sailing around the world with her brother and parents is anything but the romantic idyll you might expect. The narrative takes on ever darker, more gothic undertones as it gradually becomes evident that Suzanne's parents care little for the dreams and aspirations of their daughter as they set about fulfilling their own dream of following in the wake of Captain Cook around the world. Particularly poignant is a moment when Suzanne's father simply confiscates the few dollars that she has saved up - from babysitting - to buy a new dress, "because we need it for the cruising kitty." If it all sounds a bit bleak, Google Suzanne's Wikipedia entry after you finish the book and you'll see what a success she subsequently made of her life, after breaking free. This is less a sailing book, more of a parable about not imposing your own unfulfilled hopes and ambitions on your children.

In late 2024, as part of our long-distance trek along the Arizona Trail from Utah to Mexico, my wife and I traversed the Grand Canyon (north to south) - a gruelling 3-day descent/ascent. But this was nothing compared to the epic hike described here: a longitudinal traverse of the Canyon, east to west and on foot. There are no trails, the climate and terrain are unforgivingly hostile, water is often so scarce it must be sucked up with a syringe from tiny puddles (steep cliffs mean that following the Colorado River is impossible). The hardships the author and a succession of companions faced are described graphically but with humour and understatement; the history of the pioneers who first explored these lands is inserted deftly. A must read if you're at all interested in the Great Outdoors, even if you prefer your hikes to be of a more gentle nature.