Editor Karen Leidy looks back on reading for 2025
By all accounts, 2025 made interesting reading. In fact, I began the year knee-deep in socialists and anarchists.
If you will remember, it was December of last year that the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan. The crime was viewed as an indictment against the greed of the health insurance industry, profiting from denying coverage to patients for vital medical procedures.
The headlines actually sounded familiar, so I combed through some of my older books. Sure enough, a similar tale appears in The Silent War (1906) by John Ames Mitchell, founder of the first Life magazine (before it became the famous photojournalist publication).
While this story was not about health insurance, it had the familiar themes of excessive greed, profits made on the backs of the less fortunate, and assassinations of wealthy, powerful men.
After going down several rabbit holes into the life and times of the author, I realized that the reformers and muckrakers of the Progressive Era (1890-1920) were the ones that seemed to more closely mirror the current conversations of the day.
So, I read up on Nelly Bly and Upton Sinclair, soldiered through The Destruction of Gotham (1886) by Joaquin Millier and then The Iron Heel (1908) by Jack London – and then I found the poets.
I Am the People, the Mob
A poem by Carl Sandburg (1916)
A short read about how the world is both created and sustained by the work of “the people” yet they tend to forget their exploitation and oppression.
The poem declares that the power of “the people” comes when they can remember – when they “…no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool…”
That is when they will demand respect, and receive the justice due them.
I encourage you to read this one aloud, or find a video of an oral rendition. There are several to be found with a quick search online.
It is inspiring, rousing, stirring (as the best poems are designed to be).
The Woman in White
By Wilkie Collins (1860)
Not sure why this unobtrusive book caught my eye at the local library, but I very quickly applauded the impulse.
A classic mystery that felt rather modern, revolving around mistaken identity, inheritance, and the horrors of asylums for women of that era.
“This is the story of what a Woman’s patience can endure, and what a Man’s resolution can achieve,” declares the narrator, who relates the tale in much the same way as it would be told in court before a judge; bringing in new characters to tell their portion of the story in their own words, as witnesses would describe the elements of a crime.
Readers gather clues with each new telling, until the mystery is solved and justice prevails.
The strength of this book is in its memorable characters.
In fact, during its initial 1859 serialisation in Charles Dickens’ weekly magazine, contemporary readers so loved the characters that they reportedly named pets after the villain, babies after the hero, and even bought “Woman in White” perfume.
Highly recommended.
Don’t Believe It
By Charlie Donlea (2018)
I enjoy a murder mystery that keeps me guessing. This one had so many plot twists and rabbit trails, it kept me on my toes.
If you like true crime documentaries, well here is a well-crafted fiction about a woman creating a true crime documentary, who finds several surprises along the way.
Entertaining read.
Mexican Gothic
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2020)
Set in the 1950’s with a heavy Victorian-esq feel to it.
Yet the themes are more modern: feminism, objectification, colonialism and imperialism, corruption and death.
The story begins in a fresh Gothic style, but inexorably devolves into GOTHIC HORROR with all caps.
If you like your fiction unsettling and disturbing, this book might be for you.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it for weeks afterward.
Not for the faint of heart.
Only Forward
By Michael Marshall Smith (1998)
Wow. This one blew my mind.
If you want to stretch your mental muscles, grab a copy of this science fiction conundrum.
Although the futuristic elements come into play early, this feels like a noir private eye story.
The protagonist is tasked with finding a kidnapped VIP, but finding him is merely the beginning of the mystery.
Half the fun is reading how this PI deals with everything that goes wrong, all while grumbily making cynical observations about life in general.
Then, there is the stark realization about what this story is really about: time travel.
Hence the name, ‘Only Forward.’
You may find yourself puzzling through the implications even after the book is closed.
Just, wow.
My Sister, the Serial Killer
By Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018)
I ended the year with a bit of dark humor.
An older sister, tired of cleaning up after her younger, prettier sister.
Literally cleaning up.
(I learned a few things about bleach from this novel.)
The family dynamics may be familiar, but they are even more exaggerated, considering this younger sister makes a habit of killing her boyfriends (talk about bad breakups).
Then, the inevitable happens.
The younger sister starts dating a man the older sister is secretly in love with.
Will she continue to clean up after her sister, or will she choose her new love?
What do you think?
It was quite a reading journey last year.
Only the first week of January, 2026 and I already have a few contenders for next year’s review.
For poetry, I am starting with Heather Hamilton’s “Eat the Dirt: 52 Poems on God and Being Human.”
So far, they are devastingly authentic.
Here we go!
