2025 Reading List

In 2025 I read 243 books. I should probably clarify that by saying I listened to 231 audiobooks and read 12 Kindle books. I set a goal to read one physical book per month (on Kindle since I travel so much) and I spent an outrageous amount of time driving my truck from Baja Mexico to the top of Alaska and back to mainland Mexico during the calendar year. With all of those solo miles behind the wheel I had plenty of time to listen to audio titles, sometimes on 2x speed, sometimes one per day. And now, for the 6th year, I’m revisiting my favorite reads from last twelve months with some notes about each.

2025 Reading List Totals

243 Books Total
231 Audiobooks
12 Kindle Books
0 Paper Books

Books in my tracking spreadsheet since 2006
– 1,779 Titles
– 1,562 Audiobooks
– 217 Physical & Kindle Books

2025 reading list book open in Guanajuato, Mexico. — Reading view in Guanajuato, Mexico in January 2026.

Favorite Book(s) Of 2025

My favorite book(s) from the year have to go to the 4 part series written by Rick McIntyre about his firsthand experience observing the process of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park.

First I read The Rise of Wolf 8 by recommendation from my Aunt Karen. I couldn’t get enough of it. I quickly followed with The Reign of Wolf 21, The Redemption of Wolf 302, and The Alpha Female Wolf. Rick’s unwavering dedication to studying the animals as well as his insights into lone wolves and pack behavior goes deeper than just nature, he makes you think hard about today’s societal norms and how we can learn from one of our continents most illusive animals.

I also enjoyed his books because in the fall I visited Yellowstone National Park and drove through the Lamar Valley. I didn’t see any wolves there, but a few months earlier while making dinner in my camper in Canada’s Yukon Territory I saw a large figure slink by. I ran up to the road with my camera and locked eyes with a very big canine before it took off into the woods. It was a powerful experience made even more meaningful through reading Rick’s research and stories.

Author Deep Dives

I read multiple titles from various authors but if they fit into a specific genre in my list that’s where I placed them. These three though crossed category lines so I’ve detailed them here in my Author Deep Dives.

As soon as I finished reading Eric Weiner’s book The Geography Of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World I knew I wanted more. A bit dated, published in 2008, Eric traveled around researching interesting places, even writing a large chapter on the Kingdom of Bhutan. Next I read Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine where he travels around the world looking for spiritual insights from popular sources as well as some lesser known fringe “faiths”. And finally, Eric’s most recent book Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life was a mix of biographical history, travel stories, and introspective self-help, written in a way that learning can be done while laughing, a great combination. This year’s deep dive into Eric Weiner was nearly my top pick and now that I’ve read all of his published titles I’m waiting anxiously for more!

I read Rory Stewart’s book The Places In Between about walking across Afghanistan in 2002. He shared fascinating experiences from his trek, both good and bad, and it was a deep look into a unique culture in a tumultuous time. I wanted more. Then I learned that he has been active in British politics and I read How Not to Be a Politician: A Memoir and I really resonated with his positions and values, his outlook on life, the world, and different cultures. The Marches: A Borderland Journey between England and Scotland was a walking tour and introspective journey in his home country and both The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq and Can Intervention Work? returned to geopolitics, his experience working in the Middle East, and a deep history of interventions around the world.

The final author whose titles I had a hard time categorizing together was Jared Diamond. In his book The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal I enjoyed explanations of history, nature, animal and human behavior and his thought provoking observations of the world around us. In Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis he wrote at length about how the world has reacted to crises in the past, and what that means for the U.S. going forward. I always enjoy Jared’s writing and both of these books were great.

Travel & Adventure

My top genre of titles is what I call “Travel & Adventure”. Some of these could be in history, some in current events, but generally I enjoy books that weave together exploration and learning about a new place through history or culture, along with pushing one’s own limits to the far corners of the earth or just down the street.

An author who has made my list before is J. Maarten Troost. I always enjoy his personal insights into different cultures, at times a bit irreverent, but always comical. This year I read both Getting Stoned with the Savages: A Trip through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu and Headhunters on My Doorstep: A True Treasure Island Ghost Story and together they tell his story of living life on the edge of the South Pacific and then returning years later after his struggle with alcoholism and rehab.

The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge by Jamie James was almost a top pick. This book tells the wild story of an adventurous biologist who took chances to do revolutionary research and met his match in the jungle of Burma. Incredibly well written and a seriously good read.

Mark Synnott’s Into The Ice: The Northwest Passage, the Polar Sun, and a 175-Year-Old Mystery is a modern adventure tracking historical epics across the Arctic. I also enjoyed it because I listened to the stories while traveling myself to the Arctic Coast of Canada and Alaska and this YouTube video about the expedition is very much worth watching. But wait until after you read the book!

Speaking of the far north, I devoured several regional reads while driving through Canada and Alaska including Michael Engelhard’s What The River Knows: Essays From The Heart Of Alaska and No Place Like Nome: The Bering Straight Seen Through Its Most Storied City, both intersting accounts of life in Alaska. The Mad Trapper: The Incredible Tale of a Famous Canadian Manhunt by Hélèna Katz was a gripping tale of the wild west in the Yukon and I really enjoyed reading it during my drive up the Dempster Highway, even stopping to see points and markers that she wrote about in the book.

Wrapping up Arctic tales (because I can only handle so much cold) Buddy Levy always hits the spot and his Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History’s Greatest Arctic Rescue is another well written book with great history, interesting people, and challenging adventures. Paul Watson’s Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition tracked the Arctic explorers from the first tragic expedition to today’s search for causes and clues. Lennard Bickel’s book Mawson’s Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written has been in my wish list for years since Aron Ralston recommended it while we were crewing Scott Jurek on his record breaking trek on the Appalachian Trail. I finally listened to it and really enjoyed the enthralling stories of true adventure into the unknown. Paul Theroux mentioned that Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s book The Worst Journey in the World was one of his favorite travel books of all time, and I agree that Apsley’s stories about spending several years struggling with R. Falcon Scott’s expedition to Antarctica were absolutely wild.

On top of the world in a different way, mountaineering books like Jon Krakauer’s Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains and Daniel Light’s The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering both told gripping histories and personal stories about adventure climbing.

There are several writers I can never go wrong with and this year I read Bill Bryson’s Neither Here Nor There: Travels In Europe as well as Paul Theroux’s classic Riding The Iron Rooster about his journeys in China and his collection of essays in Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings. Both of these authors have vast catalogues of publications and I highly recommend them.

Wade Davis is one of my favorite authors and thinkers and his book River Notes: A Natural And Human History Of The Colorado was great, especially having spent 23 days rafting through the Grand Canyon in 2023. Beneath the Surface of Things is his new publication of essays concerning current events, history, technology, culture, and human civilizations. It really is a must read.

On the note of the Grand Canyon I also read Kevin Fedarko’s A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon which was a wild adventure along the Colorado River and again was even more enjoyable after my own Grand Canyon rafting trip.

And finally, I was fortunate at the end of the year to preview a new book from my friend Michael Miller. His recently published title Run Like A Raramuri: Stories and Wisdoms from the Sierra Tarahumara and Running Long under the pen name El Falcon Rojo is sort of an afterword for the very popular book Born To Run by Chris McDougall. Michael shares his experience getting into ultra endurance distances, the trail running culture in the U.S. Southwest, and his own pull to the Copper Canyons after meeting Caballo Blanco and subsequently becoming very involved in the Sierra Tarahumara with the Raramuri. If you’re interested in trails and endurance running you’ll enjoy this new book, and the profits go directly to help the Raramuri people!

History

My next favorite genre is History and some of these historical accounts could really be in Travel & Adventure too, so I’ll start with those.

Brian Castner’s Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike was another great read that I listened to while driving through the Yukon and Alaska. Even today that region is so sparse and wild, I can’t image what it was like in the late 1800’s!

Similarly, Timothy Egan’s Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis follows a photographer in the early 1900’s to capture and preserve on film the continent’s original inhabitants before their way of life disappeared. I enjoy Egan’s writing and this was a fantastic historical book.

Eliot Stein’s Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive highlights 10 people around the world maintaining some of the world’s oldest traditions and reminded me a lot of the Business Insider YouTube video series Still Standing.

I picked up Scott Anderson’s King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation after reading Rory Stewart’s books on the Middle East and I learned a lot about the history, people involved, and events still impacting geopolitics today.

Much more current, but I guess still considered “history”, is the very intersting book McMillions: The Absolutely True Story of How an Unlikely Pair of FBI Agents Brought Down the Most Supersized Fraud in Fast Food History by James Lee Hernandez. Being a fan of the Big Mac, even having been employed by the golden arches for 4 years in high school, I knew about the game Monopoly but had no idea that it had been rigged in a scam for so many years. This was actually near the top of my favorite books of the year and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys true crime podcasts or recent business history.

And finally, on a bit of a more serious note, David McCullough’s book History Matters is a posthumous collection of some of his best essays, lectures, and speeches and really spoke to me about the importance of history, study, contemplation, and understanding in a complex world. Especially considering today’s political climate.

Science & Technology

I always enjoy Malcolm Gladwell’s insights and Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering was an enjoyable listen. I say listen because this audiobook was produced like a podcast or radio show with sound effects, interviews and more. The Tipping Point is a great book in general, but with the added benefit of multimedia it is even more engaging.

I checked out Adam Weymouth’s Lone Wolf: Walking the Line Between Civilization and Wildness after reading Rick McIntyre’s Yellowstone wolf series and this story of tracking a wolf across Europe by GPS was a wild nature story with personal insights from people living along the route.

Also, I downloaded Christie Wilcox’s book Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry after reading Jamie James’ The Snake Charmer and I enjoyed another scientific study of venom with research into the natural world and wild stories.

Finally, Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker was a very funny, very well written, and seriously enjoyable book about real life stories involving math. Probably not for everybody, but as I can fall down the rabbit hole of math, science, engineering, and physics on YouTube for hours Matt’s book was a laugh out loud educational read for me.

General & Humorous

A book that surprised me this year was Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home by Steve Grant. After losing his marketing job during the pandemic Steve became a rural letter carrier and his experiences and stories from what most people might think is a basic or mundane job made for a fun and light read.

Recently I’ve been reading more about the ancient Stoics and how their practices can positively impact our lives today. Last year I liked both The Stoic Path to Wealth: Ancient Wisdom for Enduring Prosperity by Darius Foroux and Brigid Delaney’s Reasons Not to Worry: How to Be Stoic in Chaotic Times, written during the chaos of the pandemic. These books included inspiration from the Stoics about their approach to life, dealing with challenge, finding purpose, and simplifying things to focus on your purpose. Always great life lessons.

A.J. Jacobs does it again with The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning. Jacobs is deft at pushing historical and cultural ideas to their extreme while telling funny stories and explaining history in depth without getting too political.

Almost my favorite read of the year, Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood was more than a memoir. By using his own personal life story Trevor illuminates today’s cultural divides, global issues, human fallibility and great tragedy, all wrapped up in a satirically funny read.

A few other fun books from famous comedians included Kevin Hart’s Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons and Michael Kosta’s Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy. I also laughed my way through two of Jim Gaffigan’s titles Dad Is Fat and Food: A Love Story.

Business

Transitioning to the next category is a mix of humor and business in Christine Wenc’s book Funny Because It’s True: How The Onion Created Modern American News Satire. It’s a good story of the founding of The Onion, how it grew and pushed the medium, and what has happened to the business since.

I also find value in biographies of business leaders, and even better when they are interconnected with adventure in nature. Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away by David Gelles was a great account of how Yvon reluctantly got into business and grew a massive company but stayed humble, supported nature conservation, and eventually gave away the majority of his wealth.

Another business biographical read was Source Code: My Beginnings from Bill Gates. He covers a lot of history of the early days founding Microsoft in New Mexico and the book ends as the company moves to Seattle. It would be hard to not know much about Gates and his company in the years since then, but getting a glimpse into the beginning was fascinating.

One of my most impactful reads this year was Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee. This eye opening read really explained how China has become a super power and what their real strengths are today.

Another good book focusing on a large company was Liz Pelly’s Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist. Her writing is well researched covering the founding and growth of Spotify, the technology behind it, and how it’s impacting artists and record labels today.

Talking about big business in general was Dakin Campbell’s Going Public: How Silicon Valley Rebels Loosened Wall Street’s Grip on the IPO and Sparked a Revolution. I learned a lot about the conversations and negotiations that go into IPOs, their valuations, and how the initial stock sales work.

And finally, another nearly favorite book of the year for me was Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall. Similar to Going Infinite from Michael Lewis, Zeke combines lots of research, engaging stories, and a great storyline that made the book enthralling from cover to cover, or from 0 to 100% since I listened to the audio version.

Politics

And finally, maybe my least favorite genre but one that is probably the most important, Politics. For me this category is not just left vs. right, Republican vs. Democrat, or even focused on my home political climate in The United States. I try to read as broadly as I can to obtain different viewpoints, thoughts, and ideas from all cultures, long histories, and varying positions. I hope that ultimately this breadth of study will help me become a better human being and global citizen, but I do still have my own leanings and as you read through the list below you’ll probably be able to figure them out. With anything as divisive as politics about half of you will agree with me, and the other half won’t. Feel free to skip this section.

Before getting to political, I finally read Robert D. Putnam’s Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. This book has been referenced in so many other things I’ve read about communities, or the lack thereof, that I was long overdue reading the original source. After Bowling Alone I also ready Our Kids: The American Dream In Crisis and The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, both from Putnam and while I may not agree with him on everything I found value in challenging my own thoughts and assumptions about what’s currently “wrong” in our world.

Jacinda Arden’s A Different Kind Of Power is in the politics category because well, she is a well known politician. I enjoyed the stories about how the Former Prime Minister of New Zealand got into politics as well as her thoughts on leadership, empathy, and most importantly of all, being kind. I think we could use a little more of those traits in today’s leadership ranks.

Along similar lines, 107 Days by Kamala Harris delivered as expected, and while I don’t agree with all of her positions I resonated with her thoughts on the political process, ethics, serving the public, and what America stands for.

Now that I’ve lost half of the readers I might as well double down on divisive topics with Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning by Peter Beinart. In addition to his book about the history, current events, and lack of empathy in the region his thought provoking video interviews online are well worth watching.

In Escape from Kabul: The Inside Story, author Levison Wood (one of my favorite explorers) writes deeply about Afghanistan and how the extended military occupation and withdrawal has impacted the local people and culture.

Jake Tapper’s Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again was a well researched, straightforward and unbiased (in my opinion) look at the recent presidential election. Ultimately I thought that it made a really great case for a new, younger generation of world leaders at all levels of politics and I’m really looking forward to that.

Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds by John Fugelsang really took organized religion, and the business behind it, to task. Comparing his writing to my own thoughts about growing up in the church and feeling a distinct difference between religion and personal faith, I found his book to be painfully enjoyable.

Speaking of religions, Jane Borden’s Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America covered church, social, business, and political “cults” today and how their indoctrination can lead to extremism.

So many terms on TV today are thrown around as sound bites and this year I dug deeper into a few including in the book How Fascism Works: The Politics Of Us and Them by Jason Stanley. It’s easy to think that we know exactly what is right and what is wrong and categorize it in simple terms, but it takes more work to study history and make comparisons with current events. Not everything is black and white, but even so it was interesting to compare today to the past.

I think many people, no matter the side of the isle, might say that our country is more divided than ever. But upon further investigation there are stories from our nation’s past that would test that theory and Dana Bash’s America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History is one of those tales. For better or worse, this was a great reminder that we’ve been here before, and somehow we made it through, so there is hope (hopefully) for compromise and growth.

And on that bright note there were a few political titles that gave me more hope than consternation, including David Litt’s It’s Only Drowning: A True Story of Learning to Surf and the Search for Common Ground. In this memoir-style book the author takes up surfing with the help of his brother-in-law who could not be more outwardly different than the former Obama speechwriter. But through the process of catching waves together Litt tells a story of creating an unlikely friendship by crossing fault lines and finding things in common, something that our would could really use more of.

I also read Litt’s book Democracy in One Book or Less: How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think which was much less about finding common ground than pointing out the faults of a certain party. While this title has less kumbaya vibes, it still is an important read.

And finally, two of my favorite authors took stabs and creating unity or a positive path to our future and although neither title is my favorite by either writer, they were both good reads. Ezra Klein’s Abundance: What Progress Takes was a good book, but I found that I actually enjoyed his radio and TV interviews on the topic more. Similarly, Michael Lewis’ Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service was more of a series of essays, but the focus on the actual people behind the government was a breath of fresh air and a good reminder that politics is more than just TV sound bites, it’s all of us.

Conclusion

And That. Is. A. Wrap. Wow. I think that covers something like 76 of my favorite books from 2025. I thoroughly enjoy tracking and making notes about each title and wrapping up the year with a book report almost as much as I enjoy reading, but similar to last year I’m making a goal for myself to be a bit more discerning about my “favorites” going forward. I enjoy doing my annual review, but covering so many books (76 this year, nearly 70 last year) is a bit time consuming. Hopefully in 2026 I’ll stick to the really really good ones and have a bit slimmer of a list 12 months from now.

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, most of my “reading” is done via audiobooks. I do subscribe to Audible and get some of my titles through their paid service, mostly brand new books, hard to find authors, or Audible Originals, but I also rely very heavily on my public library system. Through the Adams Public Library in Indiana I have access to the Indiana Digital Library section of Overdrive with the Libby App as well as Hoopla, all fantastic platforms that not only check out audiobooks, but ebooks for Kindle, multimedia, music, videos and more. Something that I learned this year is that through my paid Spotify subscription I actually get 15 hours of audiobooks per month, and their library seems extensive, so there’s a chance that someday Spotify will replace my Audible subscription.

If you don’t have a public library card please go get one and start diving into everything your local system has to offer. As John Adams said, and a quote that David McCullough included in his biography of the 2nd President of the United States, “The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know.” I couldn’t agree more.