2025 Reading List

Alien Clay

I thought this one was ok, hard to get into

Wool

Read after watching Silo on Netflix. I liked the book significantly more than the show and and I really liked the show. One of my favorites from this year.

The Money Trap

Pretty wild 1st person account of Softbank's investments. Some great behind the scenes with Adam Neumann and what makes Masa tick. Style of the book was disjointed and probably in need of some editing.

Bad Blood

Wild story of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes. The book is pretty well researched. It's a terrifying account of when the "story" of the company starts outweighing the reality. Really enjoyed this one.

Machine Vendetta

Bizarre setting with a a great misanthropic detective protagonist. There are a bunch of weird things that start happening that are very unsettling, but ultimately I felt the "explaination" in the end was not satisfying given the setup.

Zero to IPO

The Quants

Glucose Revolution

Eversion

Even more weird than alastair reynolds's normally is. I generally don't like sci-fi where the setting is historical instead of futuristic and this one spent a little too much time in the past.

The Thinking Machine

Fantastic account of history of Nvidia. Although, this is not the best book on Nvidia that I read in 2025. Told some wonderful stories of the early days of Nvidia.

House of Huawei

Extremely interesting company, but ultimately this book is insanely incomplete. Felt like the author did about 1/4 of the research that they should have for this book. Spent most of the time weaving narratives that were not justified at all by the facts presented. She spent a very long time on the court case against Meng Wanzhou for extradition to the US, but failed to actually bring the reader through the main points of the Trial. For example, "The Coup at Caesar's Palace" has a much more boring court case that it steps through in fantastic detail and actually brings the reader along through the main sticking point of the trial. Very disappointing book.

Empire of Silence

This was a bit out of left field for me. I loved the protagonist and the world building. I loved the presentation of the complexities of galactic politics and the rich son who did not want to follow in his father's footsteps. I loved his escape and fall into poverty. This is my first read by from this author, but I'm looking forward to reading more.

1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated)

I got into a bit of a ancient anthropology kick this year. This was one of my favorite reads. I think with much of ancient anthropology, the academics are cornered into needing to invent quite a bit of the narrative they paint about these socities. Because the fragments of data they do have are incredible sparse. Ultimately I walked away feeling a deep appreciation for the complexity of these ancient peoples. How small the world really felt to each of them, and how many other societies also existed, but just didn't happen to ingrave their writings into clay tablets that would survive for thousands of years.

The Mountain in the Sea

Tried this one, but story was disjointed and weird, so stopped very quickly.

Anathem

I have tried to read this book several times over the year, but I always tap after about 100 pages. This one has never managed to pull me in.

The Mercy of Gods

This is the absolute standout of the best science fiction book of 2025. Corey is an expert of his craft and manages to write a completely fresh and to my estimation quite accurate depiction of an alien invasion of Earth. The humans barely stand a chance. Every turn you think, certainly now they'll turn a corner and be able to put up a fight, but no. They technological advantage of the invaders is insurmountable.

Another important aspect that this book manages to nail, is to provide a believable motivation for a alien invasions. Most just leave it unsaid and unexplainable. The horror of being completely dominated by aliens then being the main feature of the book. But I felt like Corey provided wonderful world-building and presented a really well-motivated culture with excellent reasons for wanting to parade around the galaxy smashing and grabbing more primitive species.

More Money Than God

Another really great read. This one picks out hedge fund managers through the decades since 1960s. For each of the managers that feature as the focus of each chapter, Mallaby provides a detailed account of the character and the strategic innovation that defined their success. He also does a great job of weaving a narrative between the chapters. Painting a picture of the shifting sands of the financial markets and how the best hedge fund managers were forced to find a new seam in the market to exploit. Fantastic read.

The Box

If you don't hate unions, then I entreat you to read this book. I had to keep putting it down for a few days before picking it up again, because the horrible value-destructive nature of unions at ports is such a sad tax on our societies. Those horrible organizations tried their best to prevent humanity from evolving and driving the cost of shipping costs down over time. They negotiated astonishingly complex make-work schemes in order to maximize the need for their members' services. Receive a pallet unpack, repack a pallet, load that pallet onto ship, unpack and repack on the ship. Eventually the good guys won, but unfortunately the inventor of the container didn't seem to benefit financially as much as maybe he should have.

Seeing Like a State

This is one of the densest books I've read in quite some time. I think the author really does have something remarkable to say throughout this book. I really enjoyed how fresh and interesting the examples that Scott presents are. He does have a fundamentally pessimistic perspective, but nonetheless he did expand my mind. He provides an excellent explaination for the internal motivations of beauracracies. They must make the economic activity of their citizens legible, so that they can levvy taxes. This has forced some unfortunate dislocations of previously acceptable ways of life, but modernization is not a great evil as Scott would have you believe. Weird, but I really did like it.

Despite not enjoying the experience of reading the book, as time marches forward I find myself referencing and considering the point of view of the author quite a bit. So I think for that reason it's worth reading. I love the idea that there are evolutionary forces acting on societies. Shaping behavior outside of culture and intention, but rather glacial, potent innate forces guiding the progress and shape of government. I find that quite a powerful idea.

Apple in China

Outrageously good book and excellent topic selection by the author. I really enjoyed the framing. It's not just a book about Apple, as we've all read biographies and accounts of the developments of Apple over time, but focused through the lens of what has Apple been up to in China? Why have they invested hundreds of billions of dollars into China? Who were the characters and people that made that possible? I love the stories about Terry Gou and the bizarre informal supply-chain formed by the scalpers at the Apple stores in China.

The New Map

I think before 2025, most people do not thing about energy. You turn on the light switch and the light comes on. But it's really much more interesting than that. I find Yergin a little too jingoistic for my taste, but I think he wrote a remarkable recent history of the major world powers and their energy situation. Remarkable to me how the Middle Eastern states have been positioned as important players in the modern world only because they happened to have oil in their patch of Earth. Additionally, I did not appreciate how important fracking has been for the security of the United States until I read this book.

The Power Broker

The Power Broker is a book I originally bought in 2023 and spent a lot of time on and off pushing my way through. The book is so thoroughly researched that it can feel tedious at times. And truly, I found myself skipping entire chapters wholesale after I found the premise suitably monotonous. But Caro does sketch a fascinating arc of a man's life.

Robert Moses started his career as a true full-throated reformer who wanted to follow the rules and elevate public service. He felt it was truly the highest calling of mankind and wanted to promote that behavior into those that were career public service. However, the rat's nest he stumbled into was enough to completely break him and force him into a darker path.

By the time he ended his career, he was the single most important man in New York public life. So many governors and mayors tried to ice him out over the years, but he was an unfireable man. To the point, that his most oft-used trick was to flip the script and threaten to quit any time the opposing party seemed to be confused about how critical Robert Moses was _personally_ to progress. The mayors would winge and complain, but the inevitably would give him his way because otherwise nothing would get done. Truly a fanstastic book.

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