No. 5 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Dan Chaon’s novel, ONE OF US. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/one-...

No 6 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Adam Haslett's novel, MOTHERS AND SONS. Here's my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/moth...

“Lots of people have great marriages while rooting for rival teams.” Brian Platzer, THE OPTIMISTS (coming in February 2026) #sundaysentence

No. 7 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Andrew Porter’s novel, THE IMAGINED LIFE. Here’s my review from @shelf-awareness.com: www.shelf-awareness.com/sar-issue.ht...

No. 8 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Ocean Vuong’s novel, THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

No. 9 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Jess Walter’s novel SO FAR GONE. Here’s my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/so-f...

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Anne Fadiman’s FROG and Other Essays: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

No. 10 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Jill Lepore’s, WE, THE PEOPLE: A History of the U. S. Constitution. Here’s my review from @readbookpage.bsky.social: www.bookpage.com/reviews/we-t...

No. 11 on my list of Favorite Books of 2025 is Donal Ryan’s novel, HEART BE AT PEACE. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/hear...

Today I begin revealing my Favorite Books of 2025, a dozen selections—fiction and nonfiction—chosen from the 64 I reviewed this year. No. 12 is Gwendolyn Brooks’s memoir, MEMORIAL DAYS. Here’s my review from @bookreporter.bsky.social: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/memo...

Beginning Monday, December 1, and for each of the following eleven days, I’ll reveal one of my Favorite Books of 2025 of the 64 I reviewed this year. Just in time for you to add one to your holiday gift list for the book lovers in your life.

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Susan Wise Bauer’s THE GREAT SHADOW: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of Martha Cooley’s MY LITTLE DONKEY: Essays: www.bookpage.com/reviews/my-l...

From Shelf Awareness my review of Ian Frazier’s THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA: Reporting, Essays, and Criticism: www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?i...

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Joseph J. Ellis’s THE GREAT CONTRADICTION: The Tragic Side of the American Founding: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-...

“Finally, we were introduced to sentence diagramming, which hacked away at the unruly jungle of English syntax until it became a tidy French garden with its topiary sorted and arranged by function.” Anne Fadiman, FROG and Other Essays (coming in 2026) #sundaysentence

A couple views of the Susquehanna River just north of #Harrisburg, #Pennsylvania . The train is passing over the Rockville Bridge, at 3,820 feet, the longest stone masonry arch railroad viaduct ever built: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockvil...

From @readbookpage.bsky.social my review of WHEN ALL THE MEN WORE HATS: Susan Cheever on the Stories of John Cheever: www.bookpage.com/reviews/when...

“The subject hardened into a public posture, like a pigeon- stained statue of a forgotten general.” Ian McEwan, WHAT WE CAN KNOW #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Joe McGinniss Jr’s DAMAGED PEOPLE: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons: admin.bookreporter.com/reviews/dama...

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Peter Handke’s novel, THE BALLAD OF THE LAST GUEST: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

“In America, pessimists are more likely to be right, optimists more likely to succeed.” Richard Russo #sundaysentence

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s novel, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

"Childhood is a darkened, fantasy-filled theater in which, after a long or short while, the houselights are turned on, and the brightness makes you blink, and then you see the candy wrappers under the seats and the lines for the bathrooms." Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Patricia Lockwood's WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/will...

Sorry, Donny, you don’t get a Nobel Peace Prize when you’re busily working to destroy democracy and undermine the rule of law in your own country.

My #sundaysentence a day late (I was out of town yesterday.) “Light came right down the middle of the street like a delivery.” Ian Frazier, THE SNAKES THAT ATE FLORIDA (coming January 2026)

“Suddenly she is fluttering near the wood-and-mud root cellar ceiling above her—not like a butterfly but more like a bit of ash or ember, carried off on the night breeze, pulled upward like a spark in the narrow trail that leads from a campfire to the dark sky.” D. Chaon, One of Us, #sundaysentence

From @bookreporter.bsky.social my review of Dan Chaon’s new novel, ONE OF US: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/one-...

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of Stewart O’Nan’s new novel, EVENSONG: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202...

“It was one of those rare evenings one dreams about in winter, when the air seems viscous with warmth, scents and fading light together melting onto the skin as a balm and soaking into the senses.” Ian McEwan WHAT WE CAN KNOW (2025) #sundaysentence

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of HISTORY MATTERS, a posthumous collection of pieces from David McCullough, some of them never before published: www.bookreporter.com/reviews/hist...

This is a massive, history making abuse of your power. It will define your legacy and one day you will come to regret punishing free speech and trying to destroy democracy.

The US has had wise presidents and stupid presidents, strong presidents and weak presidents. But we've never had a gangster president. Until now.

From @shelf-awareness.com my review of John Irving’s novel QUEEN ESTHER: www.shelf-awareness.com/theshelf/202... @simonandschuster.bsky.social

“A writer must see with the painter’s eye; a writer must have an ear for the music of words; a writer must have the actor’s gift for mimicry, the capacity to take any part.” David McCullough, HISTORY MATTERS (2025) #sundaysentence

“She was like a powerful atmospheric depression that squeezes every puff of smoke out of chimneys and casts winter smog over cities.” Olga Tokarczuk, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT (coming 12/2/25) #sundaysentence

“But in fact the most important thing is what’s actually going on here and now, right before your eyes, and questions about the beginning and end tell you nothing worth knowing.” Olga Tokarczuk, HOUSE OF DAY, HOUSE OF NIGHT (pub 12/2/25). #sundaysentence

This woman’s spurious, and often utterly ridiculous, claims about the 2020 election have been discredited time and time again by multiple courts and election officials. She doesn’t care about election integrity; her sole job is to make sure Republicans win.

Trump appoints a prominent election liar to help oversee election security in '26. If you are not worried about the integrity of that election, you should be, because Republicans only view one outcome as legitimate--when they win. stocks.apple.com/AgrgS-2vERZW...

I hope Lisa Cook defies Trump and shows up to work today. Because if her illegal firing is allowed to stand, we’re no longer living in the United States. We’ve become Hungary.

Dear Trump Voters: He said this in 1998. He doesn’t feel differently today.

No one cares what he thinks. Why does every stupid opinion he vomits out become a news story?

A pardon. @wutangforchildren.bsky.social

Not too shabby. . . Wordle 1,527 2/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

If you go around wearing a cap that says what Trump’s says, you’re definitely not. . .

It’s not enough to watch and complain. Resolve to do something about it.

Are you part of the 16%?

“He said many things that sounded intolerable, but when I thought about them sometime later it seemed to me he just said what most people think but wouldn’t dream of expressing.” Claire-Louise Bennett, BIG KISS, BYE-BYE (coming 10/9/25) #sundaysentence