8 Books to See the World (and Yourself) More Clearly
—December 2025 Book Recommendations
“A library is infinity under a roof.”
― Gail Carson Levine
The eight books I finished reading last month have this in common: they give us a clearer view of the world—and ourselves. Whether through memoir, fiction, political reflection, or spiritual exploration, each one reminds us to pay closer attention to the stories around us and within us.
[See previously recommended books here]
NONFICTION
1. Dear America
Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
by Jose Antonio Vargas
This is a powerful memoir by a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist. It gives you an intimate look at what it means to grow up undocumented in the United States. Hearing the human stories of the immigrant experience is particularly timely with our national conversations about immigration.
2. Growing Old
Notes on Aging with Something like Grace
by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
I found this book to be both funny, sad, and wise. Each of us still here is growing older day by day; we might as well learn how to do it better, no matter how old we are now. This book helps with that.
3. On Tyranny
Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
by Timothy Snyder
I love the short lessons in this compact book about how ordinary people can help safeguard our democracy. I understand now why so many people have recommended it. Snyder does a great job connecting the past and present to help us stay aware of our responsibilities as citizens.
4. 107 Days
by Kamala Harris
I’m always interested in behind-the-scenes books. This one looks at the short presidential campaign in 2025 from Kamala Harris’ perspective. You really pick up on the intensity and urgency of the race she ran as she tells how it played out for her.
5. The Dreaming Way
Courting the Wisdom of Dreams
by Toko-pa Turner
This book surprised me in the best way—what started as a book club pick I wasn’t sure about became a meaningful guide to understanding my own vivid (and often crazy!) dreams. It helped me stop fearing and dismissing my nightmares and instead listen for the wisdom they might be signalling to me.
6. Facing Climate Anxiety
Evidence-Based Skills to Cope with Fear and Overwhelm, Find Meaning, and Take Action
by Jon Gorman, PsyD
If you want to learn more about the science of climate change, this is not your book. But if you want to better navigate the heavy emotions that climate anxiety stirs up (yes, please!), this is a good guide for practical tools to work through the fear, grief, and overwhelm that a world on edge can cause. I’ll do a more full review in a few days.
FICTION
7. My Friends
by Fredrik Backman
Both sweet and distressing, this novel kept me turning page after page. It weaves together the lives of four teenagers in the past with a teenager in the present who is mesmerized by a painting and its backstory. Backman has a gift for pulling me into his fast-paced stories.
8. The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
Honestly, I both like AND dislike this book. It’s a heartwarming AND heartbreaking story of friendship, betrayal, and redemption between a wealthy family in Afghanistan and a servant family. The emotional complexity of it has stayed with me even weeks after I finished it. It’s also a book club pick, so I’m really looking forward to the discussion we have about it this weekend.
WHAT I’M READING NOW
- Unfair
The New Science of Criminal Injustice *
by Adam Benforado - Awake: A Memoir
by Jen Hatmaker - Everything Is a Story
Reclaiming the Power of Stories to Heal and Shape Our Lives
by Kaitlin B. Curtice - Is a River Alive?
by Robert Macfarlane - The Good Father
by Diane Chamberlain - The Common Good
by Robert B. Reich - The Afterlife of Data
What Happens to Your Information When You Die and Why You Should Care
by Carl Öhman - Banned Together
Our Fight for Readers’ Rights
by Ashley Hope Pérez
* Asterisked books are from Daniel Pink’s Favorite Books list; you can find it here.
Have you read a good book lately? I’d love to hear in the comments.
Thanks for all the recommendations, Lisa. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Blessings!
I did have a nice Thanksgiving, Martha. The weather was so beautiful and fallish. Hope all was well in your neck of the woods, too. Now on to Christmas! 🙂
I read very few non fiction books, the books you read in November sound really good, I’d like to be sitting here saying I’d read them all!!
Yes, the drawback from reading other people’s book lists is that it makes me want to do nothing but sit and read all the books! 🙂
Lisa, as always thanks for the recommendations. When I saw your upcoming list and a book on story, I thought of Mary Pipher’s Writing to Change the World: An Inspiring Guide for Transforming the World through Words. That book had an impact on me and gave me a way to approach our daughter’s (then) high-school administration about something to which my husband and I objected. Rather than just complain, thx to Pipher’s counsel, I opened with a true family story and also commended them on the good things they’d done. The principal said it was not threatening, though firm, and after a two-year dialogue the school changed course. BUT it started w/ a story.
Also, I note she has written a book on vintaging called Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age. Sounds interesting, as well as a book I saw on Amazon by her about refugees.
I’ve only read the “Writing’ book.
xo
Lynn
Thanks, Lynn! I had to look up my Goodreads account to see which Mary Pipher books I’ve read. It’s been years since I read the Writing book (might be time for a reread?) and I read Women Rowing North in 2019 (6 years ago already? feels like just last year). I remember I really liked it. In it she says that the older the person is, the better her mental health tended to be. We could add some caveats to that, I’m sure, but overall, I like the thought! 🙂
She also said, “Women in their sixties and early seventies are crossing a border and everything interesting happens at borders.”
Nice to know! 🙂 Glad we’re both still here to cross interesting borders together.
These do all sound really good! Off to check and see if I can get Dear America from our library…
Such great reads, Lisa! Of course, Fredrik Bachman is always a win for me. Your NF choices are intriguing. Dear America sounds a lot like Solito, which I read a few years ago and was one of my favorite books that year. I’m struggling with growing old as I am caring for my aging parents–my mom has dementia, and my dad has physical disabilities as well as terrible anxiety. I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy, but looking at them makes me anxious for my future!
I read Kamala Harris’ book (fascinating) and Jen Hatmaker’s memoir ended up being one of my top 4 books of the year. Thank you for continually supplying me with interesting books on a wide array of topics. You’ve always enlarged my comfort zone and I sure have appreciated it.
May Advent’s blessings encourage your spirit in this bittersweet season, dear one. I thank God for you.
I love Fredrik Backman and have been waiting for My Friends to come out in paperback so I can read it. Kamala Harris’s book sounds very interesting too. As a Brit, I can say that nearly all of us would have loved to see her as president.
Another great selection of books, Growing old is one I definitely need to read. I like Fredrik Backman too.