As I happily hunker down for some quality winter reading time, I can’t help but think back to some of the books I read and enjoyed last year. Which means I also think about those books I didn’t like. Most books on my “meh” list I read because they were chosen by someone in one of my book clubs. A few others had such a buzz going on about them that I was curious.
Here are three books I didn’t love in 2025 and three books I did.
“Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi was a gigantic disappointment. A self-published novel that rose to astonishing fame through word of mouth, it’s the story of a mysterious old man who shows up in a college town in Georgia. Theo is intrigued by the dozens of pencil portraits that decorate the walls of a local coffee shop. He buys the portraits and then sets out to find their subjects, making many friends and dispensing much wisdom along the way. Though it’s a sweet story, I found the writing amateurish, the plot predictable and the characters one-dimensional. Though millions have read and loved “Theo,” I give it only two stars. And that’s generous.
Next is “The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife” by Anna Johnston, an Australian author. Again, the protagonist is an elderly man, but this one is financially destitute rather than filthy rich like Theo. Luckily, a madcap case of mistaken identity changes his life for the better. “Frederick Fife” is silly, juvenile–it’s filled to the brim with “potty humor,” if that tells you anything–and overwritten. The best thing about this novel is the title. One star.
Now for the worst of the worst, and I can’t believe I’m saying this about a book by one of my very favorite authors. How could the brilliant John Steinbeck have written “East of Eden,” “Of Mice and Men” and “The Grapes of Wrath” but also the dreadful “The Red Pony”? It’s a novella, portions of which were published as magazine stories from 1933-1936 and the entirety of which was published in 1937. It’s disjointed, boring, violent and very, very sad. I can’t imagine this awful book having ever been required reading for schoolchildren. Zero stars.
But, and not by accident, “The Red Pony” the perfect segue into one of the best books I read in 2025 (or ever): the middle-grade novel “Pony” by R.J. Palacio, who also wrote the megahit “Wonder” back in 2012. “Pony” is a horse story. It’s a ghost story. It’s a mystery. It’s historical fiction. It’s a story about counterfeiting and photography and boot making and friendship and love. It’s flawless. It’s pure pleasure. It’s a book I’ll happily read again and again and again. Five stars.
I read the novel “Run for the Hills” by Sewanee, Tennessee native Kevin Wilson before he came to speak at our own Plenty Downtown Bookshop last summer. Wow. What a book. It’s the rollicking but poignant story of several half-siblings, separated by age and geography, who undertake a cross-country trip in hopes of finding the father who abandoned most of them. I enjoyed this book so much that I plan to read all of Wilson’s other novels. Five stars.
Last but certainly not least in the list of my favorite reads from 2025 is “The Correspondent” by Virginia Evans. This is an epistolary novel, a fictional device I’ve adored ever since reading Lee Smith’s brilliant “Fair and Tender Ladies” way back in 1988 and “The Christmas Letters” in 1996. In beautifully handwritten letters and typed emails she has sent and received, we learn about the wonderful and tragic life of protagonist Sybil Van Antwerp. Reading Sybil’s correspondence over the course of her long life is like working a massive jigsaw puzzle, challenging but absolutely worth the time and effort. Five stars.
As for what I’ll be reading in 2026, stay tuned.
(January 10, 2026)