Favorite Reads of 2025

Although we are rather late to the game, we wanted to briefly write about our favorite books of 2025. Although we did not read as much fiction as we would've liked, we did rekindle our love of of mysteries. We also read some intriguing histories about different parts of the world. Hopefully in 2026 we will catch up on science fiction novels and other genres.

1. The Decagon House by Yukito Ayatsuji. As part of our renewed interest in whodunits and mystery novels, The Decagon House was the perfect combination of an ingenious (and macabre!) whodunit involving a mystery club at a Japanese university. The book reads like an homage to all the classic British and American detective fiction of yesteryears while still being fresh.

2. The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada was another favorite read of 2025. This mystery contains a great combination of occult themes involving astrology and alchemy while our sleuth, an astrologist, solves a crime committed several years ago. We were less fond of the other work of Soji Shimada translated recently, but this one is a classic.

3. Basil II and the Governance of Empire by Catherine Holmes was one of our favorite historical studies of 2025. Since we are always interested in that apogee that precedes the inevitable decline or fall, Basil II's reign in Byzantium was of great importance for the medieval Roman Empire. However, our sources for this seminal reign are disappointingly few compared to other periods in the annals of the Byzantium. Holmes does a great job analyzing Basil II's reign nonetheless.

4. Anacaona’s Gift: Cotton and the woven arts of the 11th to 17th century Caribbean by Joanna Ostapkowicz was another great read of the year. We have been interested in this topic for a few years now, ever since reading a study by Sued-Badillo on indigenous women in the Antilles that referenced a study by a Puerto Rican graduate student on textiles. Unfortunately, it looks like that earlier study was never published or completed, so Ostapkowicz's work is filling a large gap in the study of Taino material culture. 

5. Angkor and the Khmer Civilization by Michael Coe. The most recent edition of this lovely book is richly illustrated and provides an excellent overview to the history of Angkorian Cambodia. This part of Southeast Asia has quickly become one of the most interesting to us.

6. Les racines du sous-développement en Haïti by Benoit Joachim is one of those classic texts in the study of Haiti we skimmed in the past, but only read in toto in 2025. It raises a number of interesting questions whilst seeking to elucidate the roots of Haiti's underdevelopment. Sadly, some of the questions raised by the author have not been pursued or explored further. But the growth in the interest of the imposed debt and Haiti's ongoing current crises have made Joachim's study very relevant.