Media Diet July-December 2025 and Best Of 2025

Jan 6
10 min read

Monty's first (though he's assured us, not his last) Monster Truck show. Morgan (eight months pregnant here!) is not so sure.

Hello all! It is the July to December 2025 edition of my media diet. I ended the year on a banger with two of the best books from the whole year that I read back to back (though you’ll have to scroll to the end to see my best-ofs). Besides that, no real trends. I’d love to read more but two kids under three is really cutting into my pleasure reading time. Without further ado, my media list from the last six months and my best ofs 2025.

Michelin Rules apply. *** is best ever. ** best of decade. * is best of year.

Books

Newton and the Counterfeiter; by Thomas Levenson (B): Isaac Newton was a weird guy and this book about how Newton took over and basically saved the British mint proves it. It also proves the Hobbes’ quote about life being nasty, brutish, and short as I lost track of all the hangings and executions of counterfeiters.

The Snakehead; by Patrick Radden Keefe (A-): An in-depth look at the smuggling world that led to the Golden Venture tragedy. Not Keefe’s best work (that would be Say Nothing, which is absolutely amazing) but still engrossing. Looking forward to his next book which comes out this spring.

How Y’all Doing; by Leslie Jordan (A): Listened to this on a car ride with Morgan and we devoured it in only a day and a half (which at five hours long is not hard to do). Jordan is an entertaining writer who used to have his own one-man show and the book reads like an extended version of that show. Don’t know how it would be on the page since the best part of the book is hearing Jordan read it so definitely go the audiobook if you’re interested.

It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time; Bruce Vilanch: (A)* Consider this and Leslie Jordan's books to be double features-- both short, chatty, and filled with jokes. Would give the nod to Bruce's book over Jordan's book and also recommend the audiobook version of this which is read by Vilanch. If you’re interested in the book but do not want to spend 7 hours of life on it, I recommend the one-hour interview Vilanch did with Marc Maron on WTF.

The Six Pack; by Brad Balukjian (B+): Balukjian tracks down six wrestlers he saw on a show in the 1980s and sees how they are doing with their lives. Shocker! A lot are severely disabled, dealing with drug problems, homeless, or all of the above. Each chapter is only as good as the wrestler he meets and befriends, and the best chapters are on the Iron Sheik and Tony Atlas.

A Spy in Plain Sight; Lis Weil (B) About the Robert Hassan case. Weil is a former federal prosecutor and this is the third or fourth book I've read by a prosecutor and they all read the same-- terse prose with fact after fact after fact like a legal brief. Informative but a pretty tough read.

Mike Nichols, a Life; Mark Harris (B): I love Nichols work-- from the Graduate to the Bird Cage to Angels in America, but this book, while factual and thorough, doesn't have the same Nichols storytelling humor and magic an autobiography would have had and which I really wish he had written.

1929; By Andrew Ross Sorkin (A-): it was actually surprising how much of the country still approved of Hoover after the depression and the Smoot Hawley act. Based on reading this I bought Sorkin’s book about the 2008 crash but still have not had the motivation to read it, which pretty much sums up how I feel about Sorkin’s writing here—interesting enough to keep me reading, but not interesting enough to really desire more.

Powerhouse: the Oral History of CAA; By James Andrew Miller (B): The most disappointing book of the year. Had such high hopes since I love Miller's oral histories of SNL and ESPN but this one lacks the crazy pace and at 700 pages, seemed 200 pages too long. I hope Miller tackles Pixar next.

The Bad Guys Won, the 1986 Mets Season; by Jeff Pearlman (B+): While I think Pearlman has one of the best YouTube channels (The Pressbox Chronicles, start with the John Rocker video) out there, this book lacks the same pace and pizzazz of his 20-30 minute videos. Similar to Sorkin above, I bought Pearlman’s book about the 1990s Cowboys because I liked his style just enough but have not had the motivation to read it.

The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson (B -): The first part about the actual history of coinage and crashes is good. The second part when Ferguson starts getting into his (dubious) theories of economics is a no for me dawg.

The Fall of the House of Zeus; By Curtis Wilkie (A): Horrible title but interesting investigative story into tobacco trial attorney Dick Scruggs, Mississippi lawyers in general, and a very very aggressive prosecutor.

What Am I Doing Here; By Bruce Chatwin (B): What am I doing reading another Bruce Chatwin book when the only one I’ve ever liked of his was Songlines. I liked the essay about his trip down the Volga. I cannot remember another one of the stories.

Justice; by Dominick Dunne (B+): Speaking of authors I read too much of and just like okay*, it is another year and another anthology of Dunne's articles from the heyday of Vanity Fair. The meat of the book, and the heart, revolves around the several long articles he did as a court attendee in the OJ trial. Those are the best articles and I devoured those. The other several stories were forgettable.

*This happens because one of my favorite things in the world is to spend a couple of hours in a used bookstore just browsing. My current favorite is COAs Books in downtown Las Cruces. Inevitably, I will run into a book that I have not heard about from an author I know quite well, like Dunne or Chatwin, and immediately snatch it up.

The Fort Bragg Cartel; By Seth Harp (F); I think the first F I've ever given for a book I read the whole way through. This book deserves its F for taking a non-fiction, journalistic story and adding so much editorializing and preaching, while getting basic facts about the military judicial system dead wrong.* The author sees every move by the Army as a cover-up, whereas if he had interviewed one JAG or had one look at his draft, it could have cleared up a lot of why the Army acts in these ways he says are suspicious-- usually because the Army is tightly bound by what it can investigate: or because the judicial system of the Army is complicated. I am very much looking to see how HBO turns this into a mini-series without opening itself up to numerous lawsuits.

*Full disclosure, I do know several of the prosecutors who worked these cases, and several JAGs involved in special mission units discussed in the book, but I was not involved in the defense or prosecution of the case personally and have no firsthand knowledge of Delta Force. I just know the players involved and how the system works, something Harp apparently does not.

My Boy Jack; By David Haig (the play) (B): Named after Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem* about the death of Kipling and Britain’s sons during WWI, this play does not shy away from laying a lot of blame on Kipling. I just never got the sense that Kipling, the man or the character, grew though after the grief of his son’s death.

* "Have you news of my boy Jack?"

Not this tide.

"When d'you think that he'll come back?"

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Has any one else had word of him?"

Not this tide.

For what is sunk will hardly swim,

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"

None this tide,

Nor any tide,

Except he did not shame his kind–

Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,

This tide,

And every tide;

Because he was the son you bore,

And gave to that wind blowing and that tide.

The Wizard of the Kremlin; by Giuliano da Empoli (A+):** The only book I read twice this year (minus the first three preamble chapters). Just an amazing book that slowly unravels its story overtime before turning into something else the last two chapters. Reminds me of one of my favorite books of all time—Remains of the Day -- in how it effortlessly peels back its story.

Danger’s Hour: The Story of the USS Bunker Hill and the Kamikaze Pilot Who Crippled It; by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy (A+):** A great WWII story about the fleet in the Pacific and specifically, the battles of Midway and the Navy battle of Iwo Jima. It is 550 pages long and I wish it was longer, as Kennedy (yes, the son of RFK, and the brother of a certain government official) makes the Sailors on the Bunker Hill come to life and want to hang out with them. When the Kamikaze plane does hit the ship in the last 150 pages and people start dying, it really made me emotional.

Movies & TV:

Spy Game: (B+): Redford RIP. No one has any one ever looked better than Robert Redford in a rumpled sports coat. Blows Brad Pitt off the screen.

Casper (B): I didn't know anything about this 90s classic and came away with two thoughts: (1) great cameos. The best use of them in any movie I can remember: and (2) no one told me this kids film is actually a meditation on death and grief!! Anyways, Monty laughed at the stinky ghosts and I cried at the end when Casper remembered his dad. Tough watch but good Halloween movie to share with Monty.

I Like Me: The John Candy Story (B-) No mention of Cool Runnings!! An okay homage to Candy that just made me long for a full SCTV documentary while most of the original cast is around.

House of Dynamite (A): I don't think it's realistic-- well, as realistic as Zero Dark Thirty-- but it is entertaining. After watching it, I spent a full day with a nagging thought about the movie until it hit me: (SPOILER!) If the military does not know what country the ICBM was fired from, then how do they know the payload on the missile will destroy all of Chicago? Just a big plot hole I cannot get over. Everyone assumes Chicago is toast. Well—what if it was a small nuclear device, or a non-nuclear device? This is not brought up once?! Why?

The Twister: Caught in the Storm (B+): No. Not the Glenn Powell remake but a documentary of the tornado that hit Joplin Missouri. I lived in Joplin for the worst four months of my life, and this documentary captures both the scariness of a huge tornado, and also the bleakness of Joplin.

Chad Powers (B+): Speaking of Glenn Powell! The Cohen brothers describe writing their movies as 1% writing themselves into a box, and 99% just sitting around thinking how to get themselves out of the box. Powell and team spent a lot of time writing themselves into the box of him being quirky Chad Powers but didn't spend the time writing Chad out of the impossible box they wrote him into.

Real Life (B -): 90 minutes of Albert Brooks being Albert Brooks is a ALOT of Albert Brooks

Memento (A): This used to be one of my favorite films about 20 years ago and so on a quiet night, I finally got around to showing Morgan it. It is still good but does not seem as impactful or groundbreaking as it did when I first watched it. Morgan said it was okay but left her feeling a little cold and I felt the same way.

The Thief Collector (A)*: As part of our National Park adventures, we were in Silver City, New Mexico and stopped by a flea market. While there, I got talking to the proprietor and learned that the store had been a central part of the recovery of the Willem de Kooning’s stolen painting Woman-Ochre. After that discussion, I started going down the rabbit hole of the theft of the painting and the secret life of Jerry and Rita Atler which lead to this documentary/reenactment.

Stand Up:

Kelsey Cook; Mark Your Territory (A)*: She’s young. She’s good and has a good POV. Looking forward to her next special.

Gianmarco Soresi: Thief of Joy (A)*: He's got the Jewish and New York sensibility of Woody Allen combined with the theatrics of Glee. Makes for a pairing that is occasionally odd, but more times than not works.

Andrew Santino; White Noise (B -): Watched this before the Riyadh Comedy Festival. Can no longer recommend. Even without Riyadh, just meh.

Zarna Garg: Practical People Win (B): Watched this after the Riyadh Comedy Festival but before I knew she was a part of it. Felt very Catskills but would no longer recommend.

Articles (I read a lot of articles so if anyone is listed here, it is one of the best of the year)

Terminal Velocity: The Life and Death of Freefaller Dan Osman (Outsider).

The Tyranny of the Penny (NY Times Magazine)

Ukraine’s Most Lethal Soldiers (The Atlantic)

Pay Up or Move Out. Zombie Mortgages (Bloomberg)

BEST OF 2025!!! The best from the entire year.

Best Books of 2025

1. Wizard of the Kremlin

2. The Friedkin Connection

3. Black Dahlia

4. Danger’s Hour

5. Box Office Poison