The Year in Books
Blog vol 6.25. The Year in Books
Since 2022, I have put out a list of books, highlights of my reading year. Here are four of the best of 2025:
Blaise Pascal by Graham Tomlin.
A 2025 book which looks at Pascal’s life and thought thematically. Pascal lived in the mid 1600’s in France and was a brilliant mathematician, physicist, and philosopher. He grew up in Enlightenment France and deliberately chose the middle ground in ideology, between Descarte’s rational empiricism and Montaigne’s doubting scepticism, and in religion, steering clear of Roman Catholic dogma and the more extreme Jansenists of the time. He did science experiments, inventing the barometer (ever hear of kilopascals?). He also designed elaborate counting machines, public transit for Paris, and very advanced math formulas. His thoughts were posthumously collected and put in a book, Pensées, great food for thought. Fascinating individual.
Dune by George Herbert.
This summer I took on all 6 of Herbert’s 1960s Dune books as part of our reading club at home. What an excellent read. The second book felt like filler between the more epic 1st and 3rd, but filler, especially from Herbert is still very good. The books are based mostly on Paul Atreides, aka Muad’ Dib, his legacy and struggles with the Harkonnens and the Bene Gesserit “Witches”. The main setting is the desert planet Arrakis where giant worms are harvested for spice which seems to keep the Empire rolling. I really appreciate Herbert’s insights and his political wisdom as he weaves together the Dune tapestry. I was really surprised by how much of my other reading and stories have been informed by this world. A must read for anyone.
Silence by Shusaku Endo.
Like Herbert, this was written in the 1960’s. I would also call this a seminal work, opening the door into a lot of other worlds. The story is set in the late 1500s in the Shogunate era of Japan, when the Catholic faith and missionaries were banned from the islands. The story is in the form of a journal kept by a Portugese Jesuit missionary, Father Rodriguez, who is looking for Father Ferreira who it is feared, reached Japan but had since apostatized. The story is about Rodriguez’s struggles as a missionary, his hiding from the authorities, and his final capture by the officials. He too is faced with the ‘silence’ of God. Japanese culture is a ‘swamp’ where the Christian faith struggles to take root. Rodriguez also must decide whether to abandon his faith. What costs are tolerable? personal pain is one thing, pain for others? Heart rending, thought provoking.
The Martian by Andy Weir.
I am partial to science fiction, but I am even more partial to a great story. The Martian is a great story. Imagine that you are on a mission to Mars and you are left there by your crewmates due to some really bad circumstances. This is basically a story of survival, and Andy Weir knows his science, like organic chemistry and physics, and can create sustained tension over a long period. I have not seen the movie, not sure if I will. It does make me hopeful to read his 2021 offering , Project Hail Mary, even though the movie trailers appear a bit hokey with isolation, tension, sentient beings, and space travel. We will see.
Use your eyes responsibly, read a book. Here’s to a great year of reading in 2026! Happy New Year!
The good doctor
