March 7, 2026 by Philip Lewenstein
My Books in 2025 Featured 2024 Election
I was pleased to read more than 50 outstanding books in 2025. These books covered several categories: politics and history, media, sports, other nonfiction, and fiction.
I read eight books—probably seven too many—about the 2024 presidential election campaign although different authors offered a variety of intriguing details based on their behind-the-scenes access to sources.
Having visited the Minnesota Legislature for 31 years, I appreciated Lori Sturdevant’s new book about Martin Sabo, renowned legislative leader and respected congressman who performed a key role in developing the modern legislature.
I read books about several sports figures: Anthony Edwards, Earl Weaver, the late Steve Prefontaine, LeBron James, Caitlin Clark, and Todd Marinovich.
I especially enjoyed Gales of November, John U. Bacon’s account of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years ago.
And I continued to read books by several of my favorite novelists: John Grisham, Scott Turow, James Patterson (with Bill Clinton), and Elin Hilderbrand.
Following is a summary of the books.
Politics and History
Trump in Exile by Meredith McGraw (August 6, 2024)—an account from behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago as former President Donald Trump regroups from an election defeat that he refuses to acknowledge and plots his return.
All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America by Michael Wolff (February 25, 2025)—insider account of the 2024 campaign, including multiple criminal trials, two assassination attempts, and a sudden switch of opponents.
Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (May 20, 2025)—inside story of Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.
Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History—an Insider Account of the Presidential Election That Put American Democracy to the Test by Chris Whipple (April 8, 2025)—behind-the-scenes chronicle of the 2024 presidential campaign, documenting the true story of the Harris and Trump campaigns and the difficult, urgent decisions made in the back rooms of power.
Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House by Jonathan Allen and Annie Parnes (April 1, 2025)—backstage story of blood sport politics in its rawest form—the clawing, backstabbing, and rabble-rousing that drove Donald Trump into the White House and Democrats into the wilderness.
107 Days by Kamala Harris (September 23, 2025)—memoir of the 2024 presidential campaign by the vice president and Democratic candidate.
Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America by Jonathan Karl (October 28, 2025)—new detail from inside the White House and the 2024 presidential campaign as political fortunes fall and rise again and as a new team coalesced around President Trump with the goal of creating an entirely new political order.
2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Prager, and Isaac Arnsdorf (July 8, 2025)—account of how Trump and his advisers overcame a dozen primary challengers, four indictments, two assassination attempts, and his own past mistakes to defeat the Democrats and pave the way for a second term that would be far more aggressive and ruthless than the first.
The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy by Jeffrey Toobin (February 11, 2025)—narrative of the most controversial presidential pardon in American history—Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, revealing the profound implications for the current political landscape and how it is already affecting the legacies of both Presidents Biden and Trump.
Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress by Anni Karni and Luke Broadwater (March 25, 2025)—a portrait of the epic dysfunction of Congress from the rotating cast of failed speakers to the MAGA efforts to impeach Joe Biden to the insanity of the 2024 presidential race.
Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department by Carol Leonning and Aaron C. Davis (November 4, 2025)—investigation of the subversion of the Justice Department over the last decade, culminating in Donald Trump’s upending the cornerstone of democracy and threatening America’s rule of law.
Perpich: A Minnesota Original by Benjamin M. Schieren (April 22, 2025)—story of Minnesota’s longest-serving governor and his role in propelling the state to the global stage—following Perpich from his youth on the Iron Range to his political forays on the school board and in the statehouse, including his years in the governor’s mansion.
Martin Sabo: The Making of the Modern Legislature by Lori Sturdevant (August 19, 2025)—story of the role of Minnesota legislative leader and later congressman in the development of the modern, professional state legislature—one that fairly represents all the state’s regions and populations and operates in public view.
The Mission: The CIA in the 21st Century by Tim Weiner (July 15, 2025)—history of the modern CIA from 9/11 through its covert operations in Afghanistan and Iraq to today’s secret battles with Russia and China, concluding with the agency’s fight for survival under the current president.
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atom Bomb by Garrett M. Graff (August 5, 2025)—narrative of the atomic bomb’s creation and deployment on Hiroshima and Nagasaki woven from the voices of hundreds of scientists, generals, soldiers, and civilians.
While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot (September 2, 2025)—story of how Hamas succeeded in launching a surprise attack on one of the world’s most powerful militaries, exposing the intelligence and strategic failures that enabled their devastating invasion.
I Am Andre: German Jew, French Resistance Fighter, British Spy by Diana Mara Henry (September 17, 2025)—life story of Andre Joseph Scheinmann—story of espionage, courage, resistance, and friendship and love.
Only in America: Al Jolson and the Jazz Singer by Richard Bernstein (October 8, 2024)—biography of world-renowned Jewish singer and actor Al Jolson and the history of his performance in and making of The Jazz Singer.
My Russia: What I Saw Inside the Kremlin by Jill Dougherty (April 15, 2025)—story of CNN correspondent’s transformative journey from a Cold War-era obsession with Russia to witnessing firsthand the rise of Vladimir Putin and the unraveling of a nation she grew to love.
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin (October 14, 2025)—narrative of the most infamous stock market crash in history, going behind the scenes in a raging battle between Wall Street and Washington and larger-than-life characters whose ambition and naivete in an endless boom led to disaster.
Media
On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR by Steve Oney (March 11, 2025)—history of public radio, including its chaotic ascent, cultural triumph, and imperiled future.
Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful—An Essential Investigation of America’s War on Journalism by David Enrich (March 11, 2025)—an in-depth investigation of the broad conspiracy orchestrated by elite Americans to silence dissent and protect the powerful.
Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism by Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen (December 26, 2023)—analysis of why and how so many people consume so little or no news despite unprecedented abundance and ease of access.
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (March 26, 2024)—investigation into collapse of youth mental health in an era of smartphones, social media, and technology—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.
Sports
Ant: The Incredible Journey of NBA Rising Star Anthony Edwards by Chris Hine (June 3, (2025)—story of budding NBA superstar, from his early life in Atlanta, the challenges and family tragedy he overcame, and his relentless determination that has propelled him to stardom.
The Book of Piv by Jay Pivek (December 16, 2024)—memoir of how Minneapolis basketball fanatic channeled his love for the game into a 40-year coaching career, forging strong relationships with his players and winning 605 games.
The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball by John W. Miller (March 4, 2025)—first major biography of legendary Baltimore Orioles hall of fame manager and one of baseball’s most colorful characters.
The Front Runner: The Life of Steve Prefontaine—An Essential 50th Anniversary Reappraisal of an American Icon by Brendan O’Meara (May 30, 2025)—a retelling of the life of Steve Prefontaine, one of the most recognizable and charismatic figures to ever run competitively in the United States—a talent who presaged the American running boom of the late 1970s and helped put Nike on the map as the brand’s first celebrity athlete.
A Hollywood Ending: The Dreams and Drama of the LeBron Lakers by Yaron Weitzman (October 21, 2025)—behind-the-scenes story of the fraught partnership behind James, who signed with the Lakers in 2018, and the Buss family.
Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar by Howard Megdal (June 17, 2025)—story tracing the arc between women who played 6-on-6 basketball in the 1920s and Clark in the 2020s, examining her fame and style of play in the context of her predecessors.
On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports by Christine Brennan (July 8, 2025)—narration of Clark’s rise to basketball prominence—including new details about her Olympic snub by USA Basketball, the safety concerns around her that led to charter flights for all players, the WNBA’s lack of preparation for heightened national scrutiny, and troubling outbreaks of jealousy and resentment as a white player became the top story in a predominantly Black league.
The Running Ground: A Father, a Son, and the Simplest of Sports by Nicholas Thompson (October 28, 2025)—meditative memoir of chief executive officer of The Atlantic on how running helped him transcend some of the hardest moments in his life, including relationships with his father and family.
Marinovich: Outside the Lines of Football, Art, and Addiction by Todd Marinovich and Lizzy Wright (August 5, 2025)—story of the famous southern California football prodigy’s early entry into elite athletics, exposing his childhood trauma, battle with addiction, and path toward self-acceptance—with honesty and humility.
Other Nonfiction
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (October 7, 2025)—account of the sinking of the Great Lakes ship 50 years ago in the “storm of the century”—exploring the vital role Great Lakes shipping played in America’s economic boom, the uncommon lives the sailors led, the sinking’s most likely causes, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind.
Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy by Katherine Stewart (February 18, 2025)—reporting and political analysis that helps reframe the conversation about the moral collapse of conservatism in America and points the way to a more democratic future.
Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story by Rich Cohen (May 20, 2025)—investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful, rich, suburban Connecticut mother who dropped her kids off at the New Canaan County School one morning and vanished—her body has never been found.
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home by Stephen Starring Grant (July 8, 2025)—memoir of a mailman in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia who found that working as a rural letter carrier back in his old home town saved his life, taught him who he was, gave him purpose, and educated him deeply about a country he loves but had lost touch with.
Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service by Michael Lewis (March 18, (2025)—essays that portray dedicated workers, reluctant to take credit, doing interesting and important jobs for the government.
Antisemitism: An American Tradition by Pamela S. Nadell (October 14, 2025)—story of antisemitism in America and how it has shaped the lives of Jews for almost four centuries.
Antisemitism in America: A Warning by Chuck Schumer (March 18, 2025)—chronicle of Democrats’ Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s Jewish experience, sounding the alarm about the troubling resurgence of antisemitism based on historical, political, cultural, and intellectual forces.
Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You by Jeffrey Selingo (September 9, 2025)—exploration of why elite college degrees matter less than one thinks, why many parents are choosing value over prestige, and how to make sure the degree pays off.
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De Leon (May 19, 2024)—in-depth look at human smuggling by internationally-recognized anthropologist who embeds with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over seven years.
The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy by James Patterson and Vicky Wood (July 14, 2025)—story with new details of the murder on November 13, 2022, of four innocent college students attending the University of Idaho—disturbing portrait of a killer and his victims.
The Haves and Have Yachts: Dispatches on the Ultrarich by Evan Osnes (June 3, 2025)—collection of essays exploring American oligarchy and the billionaire culture, offering an unfiltered look at how the ultrarich shape—and sometimes warp—the social and political landscape; portrait of tactics and obsessions that define today’s elite class: super yachts, luxury bunkers, tax dodges, and political donations that bespeak staggering disparities of wealth and power.
The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker (September 2, 2025)—examination of past pandemics, highlighting the ways society both succeeded and failed to address them; traces the Covid-19 pandemic and evaluates how it was handled; and looks to the future, projecting what the next pandemics might look like and what must be done to mitigate them.
In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us by Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee (March 11, 2025)—examination of the pandemic response, posing some provocative questions: why did we ignore pre-Covid plans for managing a pandemic? Were the voices of reasonable dissent treated fairly? Did we adequately consider the costs and benefits of different policy options? And, aside from vaccines, did the policies adopted work as intended?
Inside the Cartel: How an FBI Agent Smuggled Cocaine, Laundered Cash, and Dismantled a Columbian Narco Empire—the Legendary True Crime Memoir of a Family Man’s High Stakes Double Life by Marten Suarez and Ian Frisch (2025)—story of how legendary FBI special agent Martin Suarez went deep undercover—and lived a double life for years—to infiltrate Columbia’s most insidious drug cartels.
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas (September 18, 2018)—Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist’s memoir as “the most famous undocumented immigrant in America.”
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (March 18, 2025)—tracing of the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and a proposed path toward a politics of abundance—a paradigm shift, call to renew a politics of plenty, face the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.
Fiction
The Widow by John Grisham (October 21, 2025)—novel about a small-town lawyer accused of murdering a wealthy widow in need of a new will—and the race to find the real killer and clear the lawyer’s name.
Presumed Guilty by Scott Turow (January 14, 2025)—another Turow courtroom drama in which Rusty, a retired judge, returns to court one last time to defend the adult son of his soon-to-be wife who is on trial on charges of first-degree murder.
The First Gentleman: A Thriller by James Patterson and Bill Clinton (June 2, 2025)—a political thriller in which the president of the United States is up for reelection and her husband is on trial for murder.
The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham (September 16, 2025)—scandalous story about one drama-filled year at a New England boarding school.
All Fours by Miranda July (May 14, 2024)—novel about 45-year-old female artist’s quest for a new kind of freedom—a midlife awakening in which she announces her plan to drive cross country from Los Angeles to New York—but 30 minutes after leaving her husband and child at home spontaneously exits the freeway, checks into a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in an entirely different journey.
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (April 29, 2025)—novel about the transformative power of the written word—in Sybil Van Antwerp’s letters—and the beauty of slowing down to reconnect with the people we love.
An Inside Job by Daniel Silva (July 15, 2025)—journey through the dark side of the art world and the Vatican’s murky finances; art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon must solve the perfect crime in the dazzling new tale of murder, greed, and corruption.
Source: summaries are borrowed from Amazon.
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