My Best Reads of 2025
- Alex Meshot
- Dec 20, 2025
- 5 min read
Growing up I found it difficult to find books I was really interested in reading. I was taught once I find a book I enjoy, check out the other books by that author. Shoutout to JK Rowling. This really summarizes my book selection of 2025. I started with an AI Search for "Best books to read for men in their 30s" and discovered a few authors that I fell in love with. On author in particular, was Japanese author Haruki Murakami. I enjoyed getting lost in the adventures of his imaginative characters within Tokyo metro.
Here are my best reads of 2025:
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins is a novel about a Mexican mother and son fleeing cartel violence to reach the United States, following a journalist husband's murder. The book, has some great moments of suspense and humanity, and is a page turner with nonstop action.
The book does a great job detailing the portrayal of the migrant experience following the family from a normal middle-class life to suddenly on the run from the cartel, and maintaining humanity in the midst of corruption. The book features the dangerous, real-life migrant train known as "La Bestia" (The Beast) that Central American migrants ride atop to reach the U.S.
The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy about a father and son's journey through a desolate ash-covered America. They travel toward the coast with a pistol and scavenged food, facing starvation, cold, and dangerous bands of cannibals, sustained only by their love for each other and the father's mantra to "carry the fire" of humanity within them.
Similar to Blood Meridian, and in classic Cormac fashion, there are long periods of the book that seem unnecessarily repetitive which attributes to the suspense of an unknowing, wandering direction. However the patient reader is rewarded in the end with a formidable outcome between father and son.
Don't let the number of pages (626) deter you from this wonderful story. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a 1994 novel by Haruki Murakami that follows an unemployed, down-on-his-luck man, as he searches for his missing cat and wife. He encounters a psychic prostitute, a morbid teenage girl, and a sinister politician, all while descending into a dry well to find answers.
While on the surface the plot may seem unamusing, his adventures lead him into a surreal, dreamlike world filled with bizarre characters and events leaving the reader to wonder if this is book is a fantasy, abstract depiction of a deeper meaning, or simply a figment of the characters imagination.
Norwegian Wood is a nostalgic coming-of-age novel by Haruki Murakami set in 1960s Tokyo, that follows college student Toru Watanabe as he navigates love, loss, and memory, particularly his complex relationship with Naoko, his mentally ill girlfriend who is obsessed with the death of his best friend, and his connection with a vibrant girl named Midori. The story is a poignant exploration of first love, grief, and the transition to adulthood.
At times the book felt like a cheesy teenage romance novel, but the framed backdrop of student protests, suicide endemic, and the Beatles' song of the same name, which is central to the narrative, kept me engaged as a reader.
After Dark is a 2004 short-story novel by Haruki Murakami that follows a young woman named Mari through a single night in Tokyo, exploring themes of alienation, identity, and the surreal world that emerges between midnight and dawn. The plot centers on Mari's chance encounters with a cast of characters, including a jazz musician, a love hotel manager, and a prostitute. All the while her sister Eri falls into a mysterious, deep sleep, seemingly trapped in a world inside a television, creating an interesting juxtaposition in experiences between those who are awake and those who are asleep in the middle of the night within an urban city like Tokyo. The book is known for its dreamlike atmosphere, blending reality with the fantastical as it delves into the city's nocturnal underbelly
The Monster of Florence is a must-read for any true crime junkie. The book recounts the true story of a serial killer, known as "The Monster of Florence," who, between the late 1960s and 1985, murdered eight young couples in the hills around Florence. After moving his family to an old farmhouse that happened to be a former crime scene, Preston teamed up with local journalist Mario Spezi to investigate the case themselves. Their investigation led to a bizarre turn of events where they identified a potential suspect, only to later be targeted by the police investigation themselves, with Spezi even being imprisoned and Preston forced to leave the country. The breakdown in Italian police investigation resembled the Amanda Knox story.
This book screams, "I listen to Joe Rogan", but in all seriousness The Lost City of the Monkey God is a really intriguing book detailing the discovery and exploration of a lost city in the Honduran rainforest that was, according to legend, once full of gold before it mysteriously disappeared. Preston recounts joining an expedition that used LiDAR technology (the same technology used to first explore the Titanic) to find the legendary civilization rumored to be cursed, and describes the team's harrowing journey through the jungle, the discovery of the ruins, and the subsequent outbreak of a mysterious, disfiguring disease among the explorers upon their return.
I am not much of a tennis fan, but as it turns out, neither is Andre Agassi. What do you do when the thing you have dedicated your entire life to suddenly becomes uninspiring misery? Open is a candid autobiography of tennis legend Andre Agassi, detailing his life from a childhood pushed by a demanding father to his struggles with fame, addiction and resentment for the sport. The book covers his rise as a prodigy, his tumultuous relationships (including with Brooke Shields and Steffi Graf), his battle with crystal meth, and his eventual transformation through philanthropy and finding love. I enjoyed reading about the locker room trash talk and ongoing rivalries in tennis.
A Confederacy of Dunces is a satirical novel by John Kennedy Toole, and was on Matt McCuskers' reading list. Set in 1960s New Orleans, the book follows the misadventures of the obese, slothful, neurotic and self-infatuated Ignatius J. Reilly as he navigates a series of disastrous jobs and encounters with bizarre characters while living with his mother.
Ignatius narcissistic behavior constantly gets him in trouble from ignorantly exposing the illegal activities taking place at a strip club, to staging a violent demonstration at the Levy Pants factory to eating all of the hot dogs from his vendor cart. The lack of humility makes it challenging but unrelenting to cheer for the protagonist.
A Prayer Before Dawn: A Nightmare in Thailand is the autobiography of Billy Moore, detailing his descent into drug addiction and subsequent imprisonment in Thailand's notorious Klong Prem prison (the "Bangkok Hilton"). Billy is a struggling drug addicted boxer from the UK who, on a whim, explores the fight scene and his sobriety in Thailand. He falls into the dangerous nightlife in Thailand and relapses on a meth-like drug called Yaba before he gets locked up for dealing drugs. His brutal fight for survival in the overcrowded, violent prison, where he eventually finds a path to redemption through Muay Thai boxing, leading to his early release. It's a story of addiction, survival, and redemption. The book is a complete page-turner and the movie is great as well.
The Temptation of Adam is a novel about a high school student, Adam Hawthorne, whose struggles with a pornography addiction gets his suspended from school. As part of his punishment, he commits to a support group, The Knights of Vice, with other teenagers facing their own destructive habits, learning about recovery, self-forgiveness, and forming meaningful connections.
The Knights of Vice consists of two other boys, and a girl, Dez. The book details the conflict Dez and Adam face exploring their love for each other and their love to their addictive patterns. The group is led by a music producer Mr. Cratcher, who becomes fatally ill and inspires the Knights of Vice to search for a long, lost, unfinished album.
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