Top Ten Books of 2025
It’s been five years now, that I’ve shared my top ten favorite books of the past year, started at the suggestion of my sister Karen. In that first column, I mentioned we share a love of books and reading.
Karen and others, especially my friends Micki, Kim and Sheila, have recommended some very good books to me over the years. I also keep an eye on what CRAIC, our own Cleveland based Irish book club, is reading.
I’m still reading the works of authors Preston and Childs, and the continuing stories of FBI Special Agent Pendergast. Very strange tales reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes. Vampire and all manner of horror stories including those from Irish mythology are also favorites.
With the unfortunate passing of Irish author and documentary maker Manchán Magan, I found myself revisting his books. You don’t need to be interested in the Irish language, just your Irish heritage to enjoy his writing.
Burial Tide By Neil Sharpson
Last year, Knock Knock Open Wide by Sharpson made my top ten list. I called it a “freaky story that has me anticipating his next book.” Burial Tide did not disappoint!
The story starts with a bang, Mara Fitch awakens inside a coffin, buried alive. She claws her way out with no memory of who she is or how she ended up in a grave on the strange Isle of Inishbannock.
The story kept me up late a couple of evenings. Sharpson blends Irish mythology with a modern horror story. He also includes the Irish language in his stories giving them a sense of location and puts the reader right there on Inishbannock. Neil Sharpson is becoming one of my favorite writers of this genre.
Patrick Kavanagh Collected Poems
Dedicated to his brother, this collection was published three years before Kavanagh’s death. He is often referred to as Ireland’s greatest poet since Yeats. I find that Kavanagh’s poetry is more accessible.
His early poems reflect the life of a simpler time, while later works are on a much more personal level. In between, his commentary on Irish life was not always welcomed.
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
A New York Times bestseller, Larson tells the story of the five months between Lincoln’s election and the start of the Civil War. The war that ensued ripped families apart, pitting brother against brother and the deaths of 750,000 people or more.
Think of this book as a true American political horror story. I shudder when people talk of an impending iteration of a civil war in this country.
Dark Fairy Tales by Lizzie Stoddart
These are the original stories from the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson and many others. Definitely not the Disney versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Snow White and many other stories we think we know.
American Prometheus – The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin
“Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen Man with his own mind.”
from Prometheus by Lord Byron
I found it interesting that the authors chose to call Oppenheimer an American Prometheus. Prometheus was one of the Titans, when Zeus hid fire from mortal men, it was he who stole it back and returned it to earth, only to suffer the consequences of Zeus’ wrath.
This book was the inspiration for the movie Oppenheimer. It chronicles the life of the physicist who led the team that constructed the atomic bomb and the misgivings and moral repercussions he would suffer later in life.
Atomic the First War of Physics and the Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-1949
by Jim Baggott
It’s been eighty years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The weaponization of nuclear fission has been an overpowwering part of global politics and morality since.
As usual, I went down the rabbit hole after reading Oppenheimer. This book tells of the race between America, Britain, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to build atomic weopons.
We are introduced to the people and their reasons behind their motives in developing these weapons. The book was published in 2009, and our predicament with the threat of this technology has only increased.
Wiseguys and the Whitehouse, Gangsters, Presidents and the Deals They Made
by Eric Dezenhall
Shady deals with less than upstanding people have been a part of American politics since the beginning. This book starts with the Roosevelt Adminstration. The world was at war, and America, before entering into the fray, had become a target for German U-boats.
In the years 1940 and 1941, the submarines had sunk 282 Allied ships carrying 1.5 million tons of cargo. The following year, the number spiked with 500 Allied ships sunk in just a ten month span.
The New York mob was no stranger to politics, they remained heavily involved in Tammany Hall and pretty much everything that went on in the city. They were picking judges, politicians at the city level, and overseeing who got the contracts to work in the city.
Roosevelt wanted the support of Tammany Hall in his 1932 bid for the Whitehouse but was fearful of a negative public response. He knew the power the mob could exert.
Prior to America’s formal declaration of war, domestic terrorism and sabotage were a very real threat. Nazi infiltration was constantly on Roosevelt’s mind.
The mob controled the docks of New York. Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky were already well known by the Federal government. Jewish mobsters were quietly being enlisted to break up pro-Nazi rallies by local law enforcement and politicians.
Luciano took it upon himself to secure and protect New York’s docks against a Nazi threat. He thought of himself as a patriot protecting his country and thought that he should be rewarded for his actions.
Roosevelt wasn’t alone as far as dealings with the Mafia, although he was the first president to use the word to describe organized crime. We learn about the dealings Joe Kennedy had to ensure his sons victory only to have JFK and his brother not only snub the mob but to go after them.
Lyndon Johnson and the FBI used a mob hitman to hunt down the killers of civil rights activists. Trumps ties to construction and gambling cartels, and Biden’s early connection to Frank Sheeran, “The Irishman.”
“People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well I’m not a crook.” Richard Nixon.
The Great Irish Potato Famine
by James S. Donnelly Jr.
One of the best in-depth analysis of An Gorta Mór. Donnelly looks at the circumstances that led to the famine, it’s effect on the people of Ireland and the response of those that were in a position to help.
The belief that the government was guilty of genocide against the Irish, fueled the push for independence. It was also responsible for one of the largest human migrations in history.
Human Universe
by Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen
For the science nerd in all of us. This is the companion book to the BBC series. It explores the beginnings of the universe and our own understanding of how we fit in and where we might be headed. Proffessor Brian Cox is a phenomenal writer and educator.
The ServiceBerry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
I know this is more than ten books, and I was ready to send off my column, but this book just came. To be honest I’m only half way through with it but, just like Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin shares her veiws and the indeginous wisdom of the Potawatami tribe. I didn’t want to wait a year to share this with you. A great writer!
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley
This was another book I pulled from my shelves and reread after Oppenheimer. The subtitle of Frankenstein is A Modern Prometheus, perhaps the authors of Oppenheimer, saw the resemblance between the fictional Victor Frankenstein and Oppenheimer. Both were gifted scientists that believed their work was for the benefit of mankind only to become mentally and morally tortured by the monsters they created.
If you’re only familiar with the movie Frankenstein from 1931 with Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein and Boris Karloff as the creature, you’ve only experienced a couple of pages of Shelley’s excellent story. When the book was first published anonymously, people were appalled at the suggestion that a man could create life and became even more shocked when it was learned that a young woman was it’s author.
This book is worthy of being read more than once. It, along with Dracula, I find the time to read over every couple of years.
