Favorite Reads from 2025

Practicing my set up for my first book stand at the Northside Book Fair this past October.

I listen to far more newly released music than I read newly released books. I do tend to read at least a few recently published books each year, but not nearly as much as I listen to newly released music. One of the joys of working at the library is having easy access to books from many eras, and to read where my interests go and flow. This has been essential to my own research and my pleasure. As with music, I don’t think there is a best book. (Or “one true book” for that matter.) I certainly have favorites, but as with music, my favorites many. As the great sage Robert Fripp noted, there is a resplendence in divergence.  Yet all are part of the whole joy that is the body of literature. Within that resplendent divergence are both fiction and nonfiction.

(Note: I link to Bookshop.org  or publisher in the title as a place to buy the books. As an online company, Bookshop isn't as damaging to brick and mortar bookstores or to authors as is that big company online that started off by selling books. I have also written full reviews of several of these, in which case I provide the link if you want to read my thoughts in more detail. )

One of Us by Dan Chaon

One of Us by Dan Chaon is one of the few brand new novels I read this year. As soon as I saw the cover of the book and the title I already knew I wanted to read it. When I read the inside dust jacket, I knew I really wanted to read it. When I learned that Chaon was an Ohio author, and would also be at the Buckeye Book Festival, where I also had a spot, I was even more excited. So I bought the book when I was up there, got to say hello to Chaon and he signed my copy.

It is an exquisite tale. I’d call it either a historical fantasy or an occult history, leaning towards the theosophical. It concerns two twins, a brother and a sister, who seem to share a gift of telepathy. When they become orphans they get taken in by their deranged uncle, who it turns out isn’t really even an uncle at all. He just wants what they have, that is, their spiritual gifts, to use as his own. Along with a diary that was their late fathers, and associate of the lunatic before he went fully off his rocker. Escaping his clutches they get taken into the colorful world of the circus and sideshow. I love a good carnie tale. This is one of the best I ever read, and the writing, the language, is what make it so.

This is a lyrical and literary telling, with freakishly intriguing characters you grow to love an care for.

Here is that dust jacket blurb. “It's 1915 and the world is transforming, but for thirteen-year-old Bolt and Eleanor-twins so close they can literally read each other's minds-life is falling apart. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost uncle Charlie, the only kin they have left. During a late-night poker game, when one of his rages ends in murder, they decide to flee. Salvation arrives in the form of Mr. Jengling, founder of the Emporium of Wonders and father to its many members. He adopts Bolt and Eleanor, who travel by train across the vast, sometimes brutal American frontier with their new family, watching as the exhibitions spark amazement wherever they go. There's Minnie, the three-legged lady, and Dr. Chui, who stands over seven feet tall; Thistle Britches, the clown with no nose, and Rosalie, who can foretell the death of anyone she meets. After a lifetime of having only each other, Eleanor and Bolt are finally part of something bigger. But as Bolt falls in deeper with their new clan, he finds Eleanor pulling further away from him. And when Uncle Charlie picks up their trail, the twins find themselves facing a peril as strange as it is terrifying, one which will forever alter the trajectory of their lives. An ode to the misfits and the marginalized…”

Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse

The past few years I have been trying to make an effort to always read or re-read at least one book by Herman Hesse. I’ve read quite a few. The Glass Bead Game ranks as one of my favorite novels, if I had to pick. This one I hadn’t got to yet, and I want to make sure I read all of his works as I can, because every one of them I read touches me deeply inside.

The book is set in Europe just before the time of the black plague and then during the plague. It centers on the friendship of a monk and a young man who has come into the monastery, possibly to give his life to the divine, but in the end, he gets seduced by the call of the world, and becomes a wondering homeless ladies man and then an artist.

After reading the story I got to thinking of how one of the gifts of Narcissus the monk was his ability to really and truly read a person’s inner nature. He knew Goldmund was haunted by the absence of his mother, and had an inner knowing of the path his friend would go down after he left the monastery -knowing he would live the monastery for a life "in the world." Later they are reunited after many adventures, vagaries and times of wonder on the part of Goldmund.

Goldmund alternated between losing himself in dispersion, but then all of that libidinous energy coming back around and he was able to do something useful with it in the creation of his sculptures after he had gazed upon a carved Madonna and felt the calling to the artists life. When he worked with the master artisan, he learned how to call forth all the images of the Divine Mother he had experience in all her glory and terror and was able to bring them into his own masterpiece, only to fall prey to dispersion again.

There is so much more to this story, though. As with all of Hesse’s work it hits you on multiple levels, starting with the metaphysical.

Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany

Sometimes the best reads are rereads. Dhalgren is certainly a case in point. When I first read this at the age of twenty it blew my mind. It blew my mind again when I re-read it for the first time in just over twenty-five years. I am surprised at myself for waiting this long to reread it, because when I read it the first time, Samuel R. Delany became my favorite author for many years and I quickly read most-all of his novels and a fair amount of his critical writings in the years that followed when I was just starting out as a shelver working at the library.

My taste for some of the transgressive aspects of this novel has mellowed. The other aspects -the poetry, the critical discussions, the beauty of the dialogue, the psychogeography of Bellona, all the things about race relations, the entire section when the Kid, the books main character, is going up to the highrise apartment building and moving furniture for the Richards family, and  the unending dialogue, I continue to love. Perhaps maybe I waited so long because it was like reading the book all over again and having that love for literature, reading, poetry and writing that the book does so well to imprint on the reader came through once again with full force. As did so many of its surreal, psychological, and science fictional elements. Yes, it is a total tour de force.

Did I mention the dialogue and the dialogue in the book? Delany has such a keen ear for language. This was written in the early seventies, and it really sounds like he is transcribing directly from some of the conversations he heard, which makes this book a masterful mix of literary realism, in the dialogue and the way people speak, and of postmodern science fiction, in all of the elements that make this a book of science fiction: the two suns, the visions the cities inhabitants have, the fact that Bellona itself is a fictional city, somewhere in North America. My mind places it in the Midwest, but hey, I am biased about the Midwest, in its favor. There are the elements that make this a postmodern work of fiction. I hope that isn’t a dirty word to you. There are many more colorful dirty words in the book. The dabbling in metafiction, the playing around with time and voice, and the holes in Kids memory, his sanity or unsanity, the way the work can be read as a Möbius Strip, the way it can be read as pertaining to the experience of multistable perception, all of this added to the rich experience of reexperiencing the book. 

I read the imagery of Bellona in a new way that I did not read in the first time I walked through this urban labyrinth. Having discovered the world of “psychogeography” in the intervening years, I wonder how much of the Situationists work Delany might have read? He was well versed in French critical theory (again, I hope you don’t think it is a dirty phrase, but if you do, I guess that’s your own business). That he might have incorporated some aspects of the dérive or drift into the novel is not without question. Another thing I didn’t know when I first read the book was how Delany himself had experiences of seeing some of America’s great cities with certain neighborhoods burned out and messed up. He put these visions into his work. Knowing that now, I think it is what adds to its sense of reality.

I hope I don’t wait so long to read it again and again, or go back to his imaginary world Neveryona for that matter.

Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology, and Lost Futures by Mark Fisher 

This book has been an inspiration. In part because of what I agree with Fisher about. But in a much larger part because of where I disagree with him. It fueled me creatively. His Capitalist Realism, which I read towards the end of December last year, was just as inspiring. Fisher set a high water mark for contemporary music criticism even if I don’t agree with all his conclusions, or some of his positions. In particular, I don’t find the sense of loss that he seemed with regards to the whole area of hauntology, and how most new music of the twentieth century was a rehash or even remix of what had come earlier, but that stems from me not feeling like constant progress is what deserve to have. I see history as much more cyclical. He is a writer to argue, as such, ultra-stimulating. 

Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack.

I stumbled on this book while looking for speculative fiction novels from the 80s and 90s. It was amazing. A difficult read, but the language was incredibly beautiful, I wrote a full review of the book.

It is not a book for the faint of heart, but it might be good to read anyway for those who’d rather bury their heads in the sand, or medicate themselves into a false rosiness (just as the mother in this story does). Cozy this is not. Tragedy it is. The kind of happenings it raps on could well be heading to a future near you, even though some of the elements of this near future tale date it to the time it was written, 1991. Kids connecting over payphones and landlines are part of my own fond memories so I was happy to read about them talking on the house phone anyway. These tech anomalies don’t matter too much in the end, because they aren’t the focus of the tale. This is science fiction of the social variety.

[Read the rest of my sothismedias review ]

Against the Vortex: Zardoz and Degrowth Utopias in the Seventies and Today by Anthony Galluzzo. 

This was a book with a more recent publication. In it Galluzzo introduces the very important term “Critical Aquarianism.” The term “critical aquarians” alone is worth the price of entry. But there is so much more. I ended up writing a full review of this book as well.

What happened to the ecological utopian visions and visionaries that came out of the counterculture of the fifties, sixties, and seventies? Prior to the role reversal of hippies into yuppies, of the back to the land dreams transformed into jobs at a bank, a life in suburbia, and 2.5 kids, there had been an Aquarian counterculture. Those Aquarians carried a strain of thought critical of technology, unafraid of our biology, inspired by ecology, and considered alternate economies and the prospects for degrowth as a way to shift culture. This nascent tradition aimed to put the brakes on the endless expansion of the industrial system represented by all things Establishment, man. If endless growth can be thought of as a synonym for cancer, then the push for progress at all costs is metastasis. These Aquarians sought another way.

Anthony Galluzzo’s book Against the Vortex: Zardoz and Degrowth Utopias in the Seventies and Today, looks at these neglected Aquarian visionaries in an effort to rattle the hypermodernist cages and the addled worldview promulgated by the transhumanist inmates of Silicon Valley.

[Read the rest of my sothismedias review]

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Mike Azerrad.
 
This book was phenomenal. One of the best music books I have ever read. I wrote a few articles based off it, hope to come out with a few more still (have some in the draft hopper actually), about how it can be used as a kind of handbook for analog and underground culture. I learned so much, and the way he structured the book was itself great. A super fascinating tale of so much music that I have loved -and other groups who I didn’t really get into (Replacements, Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr.) or didn’t hear a ton of (Butthole Surfers) … but this got me listening to all the music I missed, and going back with new ears and insights to all the music I loved. The story of the labels SST, Sub Pop, K Records, Dischord and others… it really spoke to me. How he wove it all together… it was fantastic.

[Our Band Could Be Your Life part 1] 

[Our Band Could be Your Life part 2]

Touches of Sweet Harmony: Pythagorean Cosmology and Renaissance Poetics by S.K. Heninger 

This took me several months to read, generally a bit before bed each night. The first part on Pythagorean cosmology went faster, but the second part of the book on Renaissance poetics and how they manifested in English language during the Elizabethan age, mostly examined in the work of Sidney (Shepherds Calendar, The Fairy Queen) was absolutely fascinating. This will be a book I return to again and again, an excellent reference. I learned so much about Pythagorean thought, but also how their ideas of cosmos have continued to echo down the centuries. Recommended especially for all those interested in the music of the spheres, in “speculative music” and western esotericism in general.

America’s Greatest Noise: About RRRecords, Emil Beaulieau, and the True Sound of Love by Frans Da Waard

One of the themes now emerging from this list is how several of my favorite reads were about independent music and its spirit. Frans De Waard digs into this terrain in and even more fringeworthy way in this book about Emil Beaulileau, America’s Greatest Living Noise Artist, his record store and record label. This was another one that I wrote about, this time for Igloo…

If it is true that you imitate what you contemplate, then we should expect a new crop of labels, record stores and noise musicians putting forth their efforts after reading this audacious and inspiring book.  Reading about Ron Lessard’s life as a record store owner, a noise artist under the moniker Emil Beaulieau, as the force behind the RRRecords label, about ant-records and his custom built turntable with four-arms, the Minutoli, certainly filled me with the inspiration to make more noise, to do more in the DIY spirit, and get things out there into the world. The series of recycled music releases put out on recycled commercial cassettes are showcased here in Lessard’s own words. Alongside them are numerous tales of the American musical underground, with notable forays into Japan and Europe.

The focus is centered on the noise scene in the United States, as might be expected for a book about America’s greatest living noise artist. I love reading about most any kind of subculture, especially those that are home grown. The noise scene has a special place in my heart. I became involved in it myself through the former Art Damage radio show here in Cincinnati and the numerous shows put on by people involved with that program. It was a gateway drug into a world of broken consumer electronics, tape editing and manipulation, and feral children expressing themselves through sonic disruption in the lacerated zone of failed industry lurking between the bible belt and the rust belt...

​[Read the rest of my review on Igloo.]

Independent as F***: Underground Hip-Hop from 1995-2005 by Ben Pedroche

Having traversed the independent worlds of punk, indie rock, and noise, now it was time to get into the world of independent hip-hop which had equally important lessons to teach. This one came out in 2025 from my own publisher Velocity Press, and was thus one of the new books I read.

Hip-hop has only been a small part of my musical diet. But it’s always been there in the background, part of the soundtrack to my misspent youth skateboarding around the city. It played during the underage drinking sessions of malt liquor forties and while we passed blunts in the park or on a porch. In adulthood my listening to the genre faded quite a bit, because most of my listening was based on the records my friends had in their collections, while I was busy buying up ambient, industrial, and punk, going down into other rabbit holes of collecting. Yet I’ve always been fascinated by a variety of styles of music, and even more so, by the subcultures around them. Whether it was the Beatniks, hippies, punkers or the industrial scene I have  immersed myself in reading about, or later the danceable energy around the rave movement and moment, or the technological quests of the hacker community, if there was a subculture built around something, I’ve been interested in that subculture. In the last few years that’s manifested as reading more about graffiti and hip-hop. Independent as F*** by Ben Pedroche that came out earlier this year fits perfectly into all of this, and even covers the years when my youth was most misspent. 

One of my favorite musical histories of all is Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad. What I love about that one is how much it can act as a blue print for how to set up alternative networks in the underground. That book focused on punk, but the principles behind how the bands created their own labels, how independent labels supported independent bands, and the DIY infrastructure of zines and venues that allowed for the spread of the culture remains of vital importance. Pedroche’s book fills a critical gap in the history of independent music and does so for the vibrant scene around indie rap. The stories he tells are a kind of essential information for any creator who wishes to work independently from corporate labels and publishers.

[Read the rest of my review over at Igloo]

Merge by Walter Mosley

Merge was a short novel by Walter Mosley that captured my imagination from start to finish. It was one of the best alien contact books I ever read to boot…and it was streetwise and relatable to those who’d grown up in urban settings.

“Raleigh Redman loved Nicci Charbon until she left him heartbroken. Then he hit the lotto for twenty-four million dollars, quit his minimum wage job and set his sights on one goal: reading the entire collection of lectures in the Popular Educator Library, the only thing his father left behind after he died. As Raleigh is trudging through the eighth volume, he notices something in his apartment that at first seems ordinary but quickly reveals itself to be from a world very different from our own. This entity shows Raleigh joy beyond the comforts of twenty-four million dollars….and merges our world with those that live beyond.”

Formless Irregular by Babs Santini

This tome of an art book is going to get its own review. Every time I’ve sat down to look at it, I’ve gotten gobsmacked by the ostranenie. Having high quality reproductions of the cover art of so many Nurse With Wound, Coil, Current 93 and Legendary Pink Dots albums that I love dearly is just part of the sinister beauty of this book. More thoughts soon, but they are so formless, and the book so vast, it has been difficult gathering the ectoplasm together.

There were of course many other great reads that I read this year... these are just a few of my favorites. Thanks for tuning in and reading with me.
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