Books to read in 2025

If you’re looking for a few recommendations for your 2025 reading list, here are a few of my favorites from the past year for your consideration. There are three categories to choose from – general recommendations that cover my favorite fictional reads, technology and personal development, and my fun reads that can use to fill in any remaining holes in your list.

General Recommendations

  1. Exhalation by Ted Chiang
    In between books, I like to read short stories. I picked up this collection by Ted Chiang and had a hard time putting it down. There are nine short stories in the book, but don’t be fooled by their length. These stories are mind-benders, and most have an ending that will blow your mind. At least that was the effect that they had on mine!
  2. The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
    A near future, post-apocalyptic novel set in the Western US. The backdrop is that the drought has worsened, and water rights have become as valuable as gold, if not more so. It involves greed, deception, double-crossing, and an ending that was as mysterious as it was fitting. I also loved the way the author wove in references to a number of non-fiction books covering the nature of water rights in the West, including one of my favorites of all time – Cadillac Desert.
  3. Pandora’s Brain by Calum Chace
    When the son of a prominent neuroscientist studying artificial intelligence is killed, a controversial decision is made to upload the slain son’s brain into a conscious, self-aware, artificially intelligent computer. The overall plot and story is not the best I’ve read, but the exploration of how to handle an extremely powerful, conscious AI makes it well worth reading. The big question I was left wondering was whether such an AI would be an aide to humanity or the cause of its destruction. The book also explores the issue of whether humanity is living in a simulation, but I’ll leave that topic as an exercise for the reader to consider.

Technology and Personal Development

  1. The Choice by Edith Eger
    I’m not sure where to begin with this one. In The Choice, Dr. Eger recounts her personal story starting from her childhood in Hungary, the traumatic experiences of World War 2 where she was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp, forced to march across Europe, and rescued in Austria, her move to the United States, and her journey to let go of her past and achieve her ultimate freedom from the prison she created in her own mind. While her personal story is powerful, the book had a profound impact on me personally. It caused me to do a lot of introspection where I learned a lot about myself by reading her story. The Choice can be graphic at times when Dr. Eger recounts specific moments from the concentration camp, and it can be emotionally wrenching to read about her struggle for survival both during and after her imprisonment. However, there are valuable lessons to learn about how letting go of our past is key if we are to experience the freedom to become who we are meant to be.
  2. Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America – Christopher Wylie
    Wylie was one the primary whistleblowers who came forward to expose how Cambridge Analytica misused Facebook users’ data to manipulate the public and influence important events, such as the 2016 presidential election and Brexit vote. Wylie details how social media has been used, and how it is still being used, to target individuals with specific messages and how this targeting has disrupted governments around the world. In fact, governments are now using social media as a weapon to wage information wars on each other that have the effect of dividing the public, influencing elections, and in extreme cases, inciting violence. Even within countries, powerful entities use these tools to divide and conquer the public in an effort to preserve their power. While one-sided, the book is an important read that will cause you to pause and rethink your use of any social media network, if not the internet itself.
  3. Outlive: The Science & Art of Longetivity by Peter Attia
    I like to read one or two health and fitness books per year that challenge my beliefs around health and fitness. Outlive exceeded my expectations. My most important take aways from the book is that there is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy to staying healthy and living longer, and that anyone who espouses it is wrong. We are all different, from our genetics to our experiences and environments that shape us. The challenge is learning, experimenting, and finding what works best for you, and Dr. Attia provides plenty of ideas and resources to help you get started.
  4. You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter by Joe Dispenza
    I wouldn’t recommend this book if you are in the early stages of personal development. Dispenza’s work is more of a 200-level or 400-level course on how to more effectively use your mind to affect your physical condition. It’s a highly meta-physical book, so if you don’t buy into the power of the mind, then this book is going to fall flat, and I mean really flat. But if you believe in the power of the mind, and have found that having beliefs, having faith, and regular meditation can transform your mind and body, then You Are the Placebo will help you take it to another level. In other words, it’s not a book for beginners but for those who are looking to build upon and extend existing practices.

The Fun Reads

  • The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
    A thought-provoking exercise at how the world may have turned out if the Axis were the victors in World War 2.
  • The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
    Back-to-back pandemics decimate the world’s population making it a battle for survival among those who remain. More than a story, it’s an exploration of what it means to be human and the drive to live when things are stacked against you.
  • Three Laws Lethal by David Walton
    A fictional view of how self-driving cars could emerge, and how things could go awry given that the institutions, laws, and companies involved are either not equipped to handle the problem or have an incentive to exploit the system. Beware, this may make you reconsider self-driving cars, especially those autonomous, self-driving taxi services.
  • The Artificial Divide by Gary Lee
    An interesting take on how artificially intelligent machines could evolve and put humans to work to serve the machines.
  • When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
    A modern day take on the Scarlet Letter that explores how punishments could be meted out under our current cultural, political, and socioeconomic environment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *