The Rest of Our Lives and Other Titles on Booker 2025 Short List

This past week I read The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits. It was short-listed for The Booker Prize in 2025. It’s fairly short as novels go these days, just 229 pages. The main character, Tom Layward, is in his mid-50s and at a crossroads in his life, though for the first half of the book he doesn’t realize it. After driving his daughter to college for her first year away from home, he suddenly finds himself embarking on a road trip cross-country with no prior planning, visiting people who once were important in his life, pondering their connections with his current life. He’s confused about his relationship with his wife, which appears to be unraveling, but Tom is not a complainer, not a whiner, nor does he over-analyze. That’s for the reader to do!  He’s not into angst per se. He’s exploring the past and himself as he is now, and as he was growing up, in his 20s, and after his marriage. The novel is conversational, with plenty of dialogue, but more than that, Tom is in continual dialogue with himself, or is trying to be. 

I found this a compelling read, especially so given the riveting conclusion, and blessedly brief, which makes it sound as though I didn’t enjoy it. I did enjoy it, but Markovits’s approach to the novel could not have borne 400 pages, and it’s a much better book for its brevity.  

I did not choose it because it was on the Booker Shortlist; in fact, I didn’t know it was until I opened the box. Oddly, I’ve now read three books that were on that shortlist; the other two being Audition by Katie Kitamura and The Land in Winter by the British writer Andrew Miller. I’ll be frank—I did not “get” Audition. It did not resonate with me on any level whatsoever. It, too, is a short novel. Have you read it? I would love to hear other opinions.

I was attracted to The Land in Winter because it is set in England during the historic harsh winter of 1962-1963. That aspect of the novel intrigued me, when the setting becomes an important character and catalyst in the novel. I was interested in the characters, two couples, very different from each other, living in the rural West of England. Because they live on adjoining landed properties, the brutal winter makes them interact, and forces them to be closer than they otherwise would have been—yet they have little in common. I enjoyed reading it, but towards the end, the events that unfolded were very strange, to the point of being downright bizarre. The plot then steers back on course—very different.   

Books of the Week

 It's going to take me awhile to get back into the groove of book blogging, as evidenced by the generic header for this post. 

Over a week ago I finished reading The Searcher by Tana French, the first book in the Cal Hooper series,  published in 2020. Cal Hooper, the former Chicago police officer and a newcomer to a small Irish village in the west of the country, is a wonderful, multi-dimensional character. I very much enjoyed the reading--it swept me away in a good way. But in many ways, it was a hard and sad story, despite the well-drawn characters. I do heartily recommend it, and the writing is brilliant. 

I listened to Snow in April, a short Rosamunde Pilcher novel. This easily could have been a much longer book, and I think it would have benefited greatly from the typically lengthy Pilcher treatment. I enjoyed every minute, especially the misadventure of siblings Caroline and Jody to Scotland. If you enjoy Pilcher, you will like this--It was published in 1972, and is an earlier book than many of hers that I have liked.  

I'm currently reading a historical novel by Beatriz Williams. Our Woman in Moscow has a dual timeline, and I don't feel it's effectively managed.  The chapters for each timeline do not dovetail well, and at times the entries seem pointless because they don't move the plot forward at all. A frustrating read, but I discovered all of this too late, so will plow through to the end. The setting's era is 1940-1952, and is set in Rome, Paris, New York, and Moscow. Twin sisters, each very different, but they, too, are not well-drawn. I just don't believe in them. Sigh. I've enjoyed others of Beatriz Williams's books, but this is not one of them. 

I have a new laptop computer and it will take me more time than I have right now to add images and links. I will be back! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books I Loved Reading in 2025

 So far in 2026, I’ve finished only two books! (I'll post about them later.) The problem is simple: I’ve not set aside time in each day, or in each week to read. Work has been unusually busy-frantic this year. My colleagues and I agree this status is at least partly due to the severity of the winter, with many people staying indoors digging into their genealogy, leading them to urgently seek help.

In 2025 I had a wonderful reading summer. I worked, but also had plenty of time to read. My favorite book of the year I read in July. Fox by Joyce Carol Oates weighs in at 652 pages, and I had no problem finishing it in ten days. I’d never read Oates before, had no inkling what a roller-coaster explosion of an experience it would be. It’s a tale of a fascinating sociopath, and what amazed me most is how Oates takes the reader inside the head of such a man—his dizzying, relentless stream of thoughts, the way he “manages” all the people around him—in fact, how exhausting it must be to be a sociopath! The other characters more than share their weight with him--they are all so unique and astutely drawn. And Oates is in her 80s! This novel proves her to be at the height of her powers. 

In August, I read the new mystery by John Banville, The Drowned, the fourth of his Strafford & Quirke novels written under his own name. Prior to the most recent four, he wrote Quirke novels using the pen name Benjamin Black. The best thing about reading Banville is his agility with language. All a description needs is one or two sentences and the reader sees and knows everything. The setting is Dublin and environs, sometimes hopping south to Wicklow, and the time is a noirish 1950s. His take on Irish culture at the time is so illuminating—the tension of being a minority “Prod” (Protestant) in the Republic of Ireland. Because Banville’s characters are both Prods and Catholics, even though the conflict between them is never stated, it hangs on every word of dialogue. Banville has sympathy for his Prod characters, of whom Strafford is the most notable--He opens up a view of Irish life that I hadn’t encountered before. Prods are the descendants of the English who ran the country before 1922, and their descendants have been in sharp decline as far as status and wealth are concerned ever since. I’m so glad I bought the book because it is definitely worth a re-read.

Another top read of 2025 I read in February or March last year. Bernhard Schlink, one of my favorite authors, had a new book The Granddaughter, which is, I think, definitely his best, if not one of his best. Schlink is most well-known for his novel The Reader, which was made into a top-rated film. Not one of my favorites of his, however.

Other favorites of 2025—All published in 2025 except for Elizabeth George’s mystery. Have you read any of these? 

The Wild, Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

The Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George