Hey look! It’s another rundown of books and movies from 2025! I know, we’re all thoroughly sick of these lists. But I find it helpful to look back over a year and consider what was good and not-so-good, even in a year as variegated as this one.
Let’s start with the books…
Fiction:
• Probably the best of the year (that I read, obviously) was Out There Screaming, an anthology of new Black horror edited by Jordan Peele. I don’t ordinarily review works by friends, because if I have to say something negative, it’s awkward and rude to say it in front of them. I’m not about to claim that I’m friends with Jordan Peele. But I do have some friends and acquaintances involved in the project, and I’m breaking my own rule because the anthology is so excellent that I am delighted to be able to give it two thumbs up. The stories by Chesya Burke, Maurice Broaddus, N.K. Jemison and Tananarive Due were probably the best, but the whole collection is really worth your time, if you can handle intensity of horror, of emotion, and scenes of rank racism and fear.
• I am the wrong person to review Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. The tale of two young people in my own generation who find wild success and weird bounces of love and tragedy over the course of their youth while making video games would have been doubly compelling for someone who had played any video game after Zork. As it was, even with my bare knowledge of modern gaming, Zevin drew me in with her complex characters and solid pacing.
• Sunrise on the Reaping, the next in the Hunger Games series. I liked this one much more than the previous prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. While the latter failed (in my humble opinion) to help us understand how Snow became the monster totalitarian he was, Sunrise helped us see the world of Panem as it was before Katniss blew it all up. It further humanized Haymitch, who we mostly saw as a broken, traumatized older man and plot device in the original stories. I’m looking forward to the next inevitable movie.
• The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead was not a new book, but one off the TBR pile. Whitehead is one of the best writers of our age, and the fact that not as many people know of him outside the literary world is a crying shame. Colossus is a collection of vignettes about New York City, a love letter to his home and through it, to America. Even for one whose New York experience is one 48-hour signing stop and a fifth-grade field trip to the Bronx Zoo, Whitehead’s use of language is so lovely that one can’t help but be entranced. If anything, the repetition of gorgeous language and description (without much happening) wears a little thin by the last quarter, but that might be my commercial-fiction heart waiting endlessly for a plot. For that, you need to seek out his novels.
• The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw was one of my favorites this year. It’s short stories, vignettes of African American women, and there’s not much connection between them (if any) but I was dismayed when the notice came from the library that I would have to return it soon. Some of the stories had killer writing, and I was particularly fond of the one where the “other woman” lays down the rules for her married lover. Published in 2020, I hadn’t heard much about it and I can only assume it was buried by COVID, as were so many good books that came out while we were distracted.
• Never Flinch by Stephen King is yet another Holly Gibney mystery and one that I found marginally better than the last few. However, I am not in love with Holly the way King and most of his fans are, and I kind of wish he’d move on to some other theme. I know many have said she is his most interesting character ever, and I am just not feeling it. Then again, he did write a non-Holly book a couple of years ago – Fairy Tale – and I actually couldn’t finish it due to boredom. He’s still my favorite writer, but it’s been a while since I could really fall into the page the way I do with his older work.
• Erasure by Percival Everett, which became the movie American Fiction. Full review is here. This was a solid story that was of comparable quality to the movie, which I really loved. My experience was flawed due to terrible book design, as I detail in the review. My recommendation is to get this one in ebook so you can actually, you know, read it.
• The Tradition, a poetry collection by Jericho Brown. I heard Brown speak at AWP a few years ago and he so intrigued me that I found more of his talks and use them in my comp classes. This poetry volume won the Pulitzer, and deservedly so. It easily takes a place in the top five poetry collections I’ve read. Other solid poetry collections this year were Authenticity by Lesley Day, Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood and A Fine Day From a Middle-Class Marriage by Marlene Pearson.
I also reread The Stand by Stephen King. Again. While I’ve never found it scary, I’ve always found it fascinating in its depiction of what America would be in an apocalypse, plus or minus the metaphysical battle between good and evil. I was fond of the 1990s miniseries, even though it was limited by broadcast TV standards and naturally shortened for time. I lasted one episode into the remake miniseries before giving up in disgust. King has his detractors and there are some aspects of The Stand that haven’t aged as well, but it’s still as good of a read as ever.
Nonfiction:
• One of the best nonfiction reads this year was Scream With Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism by Eleanor Johnson. This is a non-fiction analysis of six domestic horror movies of the 1970s as reflections of the state of feminism at that time, but written from the perspective of post-Roe America. This sounds very academic, but it’s written for a general audience. Some of the appendices I had to skip because they were about movies I haven’t seen and clearly I need to, but she and I are very solidly on the same page that the remake of The Stepford Wives is an abomination and a betrayal of everything the novel and original movie were saying. The other movies include Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, Alien, The Shining, etc. It’s a good read if this is the kind of analysis that you like, and while I do think she stretched the metaphors a little thin in a few places, overall it was a very engaging book.
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. I audited a class in African American literature this summer and this was one of the assignments. Douglass‘s memoir is incredibly powerful, and he spares few details in his experiences of slavery. The casual viciousness and loss of self-determination are key themes. The only details where Douglass backs off a little are sexual violence, as it was probably verboten at the time, and the specific details of how he escaped. He explained that to do so might risk people who were still trying to help the enslaved get free, because when he wrote his narrative, America was still enslaving people. Others I read for the class included The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois, Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington and several others. The class was heavier on nonfiction and memoir than fiction by far, but it gave me a stronger base in African American writing, which was my goal.
• Why We Can’t Sleep by Ada Calhoun. It’s spot-on detailing the particular challenges for Gen X women as we enter middle age, focusing heavily on middle-class women and the bullshit we wrangle. I did get frustrated with it about halfway through because it detailed a lot of problems without many solutions, but it pulled through in the end. Not a life-changing book, but affirming in the sense that others are facing the same issues as I.
Movies:
Without a doubt, the movie I enjoyed the most was Wicked: For Good. I liked the Gregory McGuire books, loved the musical, and the first movie was a delight. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are perfect as Glinda and Elphaba, and the visuals and pacing of Part 2 was on a par with the perfection that was Part 1. They did shoehorn in two new songs, which usually means filler, but these did not detract from the overall experience. And any chance I can get to watch current It Man Jonathan Bailey is perfect. (I referred to him as my new movie boyfriend, and my husband and son were quick to remind me he doesn’t walk on my side of the street. This is irrelevant.)
Another favorite this year was Lee, Kate Winslet’s ten-year passion project for a biopic of photojournalist Lee Miller. Full review is here, but let me reiterate what I said then: “To view Lee Miller and her work through the lens of photojournalism is only to look at it from one perspective and one level, and then it seems almost pretentious, the sort of ‘art photography’ we rarely have time for in the age of smash-and-grab breaking news. But to see it through the viewfinder of this film, we begin to appreciate it as the art form that it is, not merely stenography, but commentary. That is a challenge to any photographer: instead of simply recording a still image of what you see before you, finding a way to represent that image in subtext and artistry that brings the eye and the mind back to it again and again.”
And holy crap, Sinners. I will always regret I didn’t go back to see it a second time in the theater, as it absolutely blew me away and I am completely rooting for it in the Oscars. At least three of my students chose it to analyze for their cultural reflection essay, and each of them found a different metaphorical analogy to explore. As for me, I bought the soundtrack before we left the theater, and the Blu-ray is definitely on the must-buy list. As I wrote at the time: “One of the things irking me about reactions to this film are the people declaring it’s not really horror, because it’s about something more. Its aboutness (MFA word alert) doesn’t negate its horror status. Horror is more than eyeballs and entrails, and most – especially this one – have something to say.”
• Nuremberg and The Running Man. Full review is here, but with a few months’ perspective, it’s funny that Running Man is probably the movie I would choose to watch again over the arthouse film, given the opportunity. In the subgenre of Stephen King movies, I might add that The Long Walk was brilliantly acted and quite disturbing, even for someone who read the book a thousand years ago and (thought she ) knew what was coming.
• Superheroes rundown! Fantastic Four: First Steps was just okay, I declare as I hear a howl of protest from the comic fanboys in my household. No major protests, but also not a movie I was rushing out to order or see a second time. It was so obviously an origin tee-up for the next big Marvel crossover that I really couldn’t get too invested in anything I was watching. Also in the “filler” category was Captain America: Brave New World, which was a disservice to the awesomeness that is Anthony Mackie. Thunderbolts* was much better and smarter than I expected, which isn’t saying much since I was really only invested in Bucky heading into the movie (and Red Guardian annoys me – oops, there go half my fans). Superman was much more fun, if only that they finally got the Big Boy Scout back to the character he’s supposed to be after all these years of grimdark nihilism. I am not a fan of Krypto, which diluted my fun but enhanced it for literally everyone not me. But mostly it was their take on Supergirl that bugged me, and it’s only the last two minutes. Let’s just say I am approaching the next movie with great skepticism. Every time I say this, I get a lecture on Woman of Tomorrow, but I still prefer Kara of the Arrowverse and would happily sign up for her movie.
• Leave the World Behind. Full review here. From my initial take: “The concept that removing the vestiges of our current civilization makes us all into assholes is hardly a new one (William Golding would like a word), but our characters are barely inconvenienced – they still have power, water, food, shelter, etc. They’re assholes to each other because they started out as assholes, and that’s not much of an indictment of society. From a wider view: I have no doubt that the collapse of our highly electronic society would lead to violence and chaos in the short term, but I also doubt that the entire fabric of humanity would disappear as the attackers appear to presume. Not everybody started out as an asshole, and some people are perfectly capable of managing life without the cell phone.”
• Everyone but me loved Weapons. Don’t get me wrong: the POV-switch structure was unusual and interesting, most of the characters were three-dimensional and well-acted, but I can’t get into why I was left with a noncommittal shrug without mega spoilers.
• Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning and Karate Kid: Legends. Full reviews are here. To quote myself again: “It was eminently predictable and I could see every plot point coming 1,000 miles away. But Jackie Chan is naturally fun, and Ben Wang (also known as Wang Puchun) as the new Kid has a surprising level of acting chops even if it’s hard to believe him as a ‘kid.'”
Also in the category of “okay…” was the finale (?) for the Conjuring movies with Last Rites. I’ve had an unhealthy love of these flicks despite my general suspicion of all things associated with the Warrens, and this was weak sauce for a final battle against the forces of evil. I had to actually go Google to remember what happened, which is never a good sign. “Okay but eh” also describes Jurassic World Rebirth, despite both Scarlett Johansson and my movie boyfriend Jonathan Bailey (again: I know.) It was better than the last two Jurassic Worlds, which is definitely damning with faint praise.
• Disneyana: Snow White was not nearly as bad as its reviews, with some definite tweaks to bring it into the 21st century while maintaining the fairytale basics. But apparently the idea that Snow can teach the dwarves to clean their own damn house rankled enough purists that they slammed the hell out of it. Sadly, where it failed was (surprisingly) in Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen, which was not where I expected it to falter. Weirdly, I have not seen most of Disney’s releases this year, and we usually try to catch them all. Waiting for us on Disney+ are Inside Out 2, Avatar 3, Lilo & Stitch live-action, Predator: Badlands (yes, it’s Disney, look it up), and Zootopia 2.
• Yuck. Nosferatu.
Finally, we were hitting a lot of re-releases in theaters this year. Sense and Sensibility, Brokeback Mountain, It’s a Wonderful Life, The Princess Bride and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were all on our lists to experience on the big screen. In fact, tonight is another one: The Muppet Movie, for the lovers, the dreamers and me.
Happy New Year!
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