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It's that time of year, folks: the top 10 books I read in 2025. For your reading, holiday shopping, and general interest. Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Stolen Pride, Arlie Hochschild. A thoughtful, deeply empathetic look at Appalachia. How a proud culture of self-reliance can lead to self-destruction when exploitative forces aren’t held accountable.
2. Nomads , Anthony Sattin. So much of what we know about history’s nomadic cultures — the Mongols, the Huns, many pre-Colombian American peoples — is from the perspective of settled cultures. A fascinating look at the wanderlust baked into our DNA.
3. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ , Jose Saramago. A random purchase while on vacation in Portugal turned out to be a fascinating retelling of the story of Jesus' life. It was especially significant because the next book I read was…
4. Tonight in Jungleland: The Making of Born to Run , Peter Ames Carlin. On the making of Springsteen’s Born to Run. Carlin describes how an album that starts with Mary and ends with a sacrifice is something biblical — a new perspective on an iconic bit of American music history.
5. The United States Governed by 600,000 Despots , John Swanson Jacobs. Jacobs describes the first-hand experience of slavery as eloquently as Frederick Douglass, but without the constraints of 19th-century abolitionist politics.
6. The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt, Edmund Morris. I find ol’ TR fascinating. He was president during a time of massive corruption and economic inequality (sounds familiar), but insisted on reforming America’s institutions, rather than tearing them down.
7. The Violent Take it By Force , Matthew Taylor. A deep dive into the ties between the evangelical movement and far-right Christian Nationalism, January 6th, and the current leadership of the GOP. Frightening, but necessary reading.
8. The Politicians & The Egalitarians, Sean Wilentz. What do we do when what’s necessary is not politically possible? A politician, in the purest sense, does the latter. America’s great leaders prioritize the former. Wilentz explains how we need both to achieve our greatest goals.
9. World Enemy No. 1, Jochen Hellbeck. A look at how Hitler’s anti-Soviet hostility shaped the anti-semitism that led to the Holocaust. Hellbeck follows this thread all the way to modern day, exploring how it shapes Putin’s rhetoric against Ukraine.
10. In France Profound , T.D. Allman. Here’s a fun one: A gifted writer buys a really old house in southwestern France and tells its story, which takes the reader through a thousand years of European history.
I hope you pick up one or two of these at your local bookstore, and if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Read on,
Sean Casten
P.S. Fundraising this month hasn’t been as strong as expected. My End-of-Year FEC deadline is around the corner, so if you can, invest $25 or more to support my re-election so I can continue fighting for a more thoughtful, informed, and well-rounded democracy. [[link removed]]
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Casten for Congress
P.O. Box 132
Downers Grove, IL 60515-0132
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