https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts daily 0.75 2025-12-31 https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/the-best-books-i-read-in-2025 monthly 0.5 2025-12-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/a86cb0fa-5539-4596-847a-10bbf0de4b09/2025favorites.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/43c32c86-8ee3-439d-a9f3-2fbade0ef0f4/truegrit.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 1. True Grit, by Charles Portis I’ve seen the old True Grit movie with John Wayne dozens upon dozens of times and know the dialogue by heart, but for some reason I’ve never been able to figure out, I’d put off reading the novel it’s based on…until this year. It quickly became one of my favorite books of all time, and as soon as I finished the last page, I went right back to the beginning and read it all over again. It’s that good. In fact, it’s about as close to perfect as a book can ever get. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/75d2cdef-98b0-4110-934f-5c3a82f20d12/bulgakov.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 2. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov I found myself reaching for this book when the Christmas season rolled around, something I’ve been doing every Christmas now for years. Some years, I just read the Pilate chapters and the end. Others, I read the Margarita chapters and the end. This year, I read the entire thing again from start to finish, then went back and re-read the parts I loved the most. To me, it is a Christmas story, because it captures the modern spirit of Christmas so perfectly, something I wrote about in a piece for The Boston Globe this Christmas: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/25/opinion/master-margarita-book-christmas/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/90a5279b-9661-4afe-8a9a-4ca494804038/mockingbird.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 3. Mockingbird, by Walter Tevis I was on a Walter Tevis kick this year, and read The Queen’s Gambit (which I had read forever ago) as well as The Man Who Fell to Earth and Mockingbird, both of which I’d never read before. I loved the first two books but was flat-out astounded by the brilliance of Mockingbird. It has to be one of the best works of science fiction ever written, up there with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I won’t say more about it than that, but if you haven’t read it, you should get your hands on a copy immediately. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/ad633f61-2cc7-4fa0-a834-5b5977a12f6a/twilightworld.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 4. The Twilight World, by Werner Herzog I love everything Werner Herzog does, writes, and makes. I love his films, I love his memoirs, I love his performances, and, dear god, I love this novel. The Twilight World is a fictionalized account of Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who was stationed on a island in the Pacific in World War II and remained there, not knowing the war was over, engaging in guerrilla warfare against the island’s inhabitants. I read the book, was obsessed with it and sad it was over, then listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Herzog himself, and loved that even more. In fact, this is one of those rare books where I recommend the audiobook over any other format, simply because hearing Herzog tell the story is a remarkable experience. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/9504b13d-cb81-4c49-97ce-67f83069fcc8/graydoncarter.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 5. When the Going Was Good, by Graydon Carter This is not your average journalist or editor memoir, and Graydon Carter was not your average editor. I could not put this book down (which, for me, is rare when it comes to memoirs). I especially loved the early chapters about his upbringing and experience as a lineman, but the entire book was fascinating, insightful, wickedly funny, and sometimes horrifying (when it came to the rise of Donald Trump). I’ve recommended this to so many people from many different backgrounds who are interested in a wide range of things — it’s one of those rare books that I think has something for everyone. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/968257e1-6e41-4dd7-9bfc-d935b18d3973/daughterofdrmoreau.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 6. The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (read together) I’d never read Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau before, and was surprised at how modern and spectacular it was, but I felt a bit incomplete after reading it. I remembered that Silvia Moreno-Garcia had written a retelling with a twist, so I immediately jumped into The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (which was utterly fantastic), and the combination of the two together made it all feel complete. Reading them back-to-back with the original first was a great experience, and I’m now on the lookout for more original and retelling combinations to do this with! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/b5e05340-ebd9-40d8-ae35-f8df88ae0aff/revelations.png Thoughts - The Best Books I Read in 2025 - 7. Revelations, by Elaine Pagels Reading this was an incredible experience for me, as someone who was raised in an Evangelical Christian family that very much believed in the book of Revelation and was waiting for its events to happen. I always kind of ignored the book and was sure there was more to the story, but I didn’t know much about the historical context and questions about it have been lingering in my mind since childhood. A few months ago, I randomly came across a review in The New Yorker of Elaine Pagel’s Revelations from 2012, and all the questions I’d ever had came back to me. I read it, and a handful of her other books, and she managed to answer every question I’d ever had and helped me come to an entirely new understanding about the New Testament, Christianity, and Jesus. https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/susans-2025-holiday-gift-guide monthly 0.5 2025-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/454e3b30-b6e5-4043-bb3b-f2c35cb48855/madeherenyblankets.png Thoughts - Susan’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/3be1ce70-a852-4bf7-b2f6-2c3dd08b98dd/paintingsbysashy.png Thoughts - Susan’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Make it stand out Pet Paintings by Sasha Spielberg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/8f59662d-6a37-4c75-bc47-d73621fade0c/lepliagebackpack.png Thoughts - Susan’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/5f4f1f97-5fc4-4347-8bc8-ce554e0e2867/micromags.png Thoughts - Susan’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/9781eb1d-b39f-4358-a6c8-a30791337d1b/instaxcameras.png Thoughts - Susan’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/the-problem-of-being-known monthly 0.5 2025-10-23 https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/how-to-revise-a-book-manuscript monthly 0.5 2025-10-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/1709945270882-6WD7XGKE1SI1BFJ88AWC/02300017.jpg Thoughts - How To Revise a (Book) Manuscript - Make it stand out Photo by Susan Rigetti https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/my-obsessions monthly 0.5 2025-07-17 https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/the-good-things-box monthly 0.5 2025-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/6d38c96f-cbc2-4c79-87cf-cdc4d1304267/good+things+boxes.png Thoughts - My Favorite New Year’s Tradition: The “Good Things” Box - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/my-favorite-books-of-2024 monthly 0.5 2025-01-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/7bd816dc-eb43-425b-86fe-8ef3ef3489b9/Screenshot+2025-01-01+at+11.53.40%E2%80%AFAM.png Thoughts - My Favorite Books of 2024 - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/2f4a2045-026c-4e67-b635-a2986571902c/i+who+have+never+known+men.png Thoughts - My Favorite Books of 2024 - 5. I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman a https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/06954df4-9536-46f7-84a6-884d418b9a42/Screenshot+2025-01-01+at+11.52.37%E2%80%AFAM.png Thoughts - My Favorite Books of 2024 - 4. 4:50 from Paddington, by Agatha Christie (and other books by Agatha Christie) I brought five of Agatha Christie’s novels with me on my trip to Venice, and read and loved every single one. I couldn’t put them down! I’d read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd once before, and was curious to see how it would hold up even though I knew the twist — I’m pleased to report that it was even better the second time! The others were new to me: The A.B.C. Murders, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, The Hallowe’en Party, and 4:50 from Paddington. The latter one, starring Miss Marple, was my absolute favorite of the bunch. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/8940a030-d6c6-45ef-a554-6d19b4c856da/Screenshot+2025-01-01+at+11.49.29%E2%80%AFAM.png Thoughts - My Favorite Books of 2024 - 3. Sarajevo Daily, by Tom Gjelten I knew very little about the Siege of Sarajevo and the Bosnian War. Wanting to rectify that, I searched for a book that would help me understand it better. As a journalist, I found that Sarajevo Daily was the perfect thing for me to read, as it tells the story of the war, the siege, the horrific genocide, and the context and history of the conflict all through the story of the city newspaper and the brave journalists who refused to give up on their city and their beliefs. I think this is essential reading, especially for journalists. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/a1dc1b5f-2eec-4596-af67-5d25a865f63e/Screenshot+2025-01-01+at+11.48.42%E2%80%AFAM.png Thoughts - My Favorite Books of 2024 - 2. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy Even though this was my third reading of War and Peace, it was my first since graduating from college — my first time reading it as an adult, as a grown-up, as someone who has seen and lived in the world. As I always find it goes when re-reading books at different stages in life, the things that struck me on this reading were so different from the things I had noticed as a teenager or as a college student — at times, I felt as if I were reading an entirely different book. My younger self identified heavily with Natasha and Marya, and was enraptured with their storylines. This time around, however, I found myself completely enthralled by the commentary about war — something I hadn’t paid attention to at all in my younger days and earlier readings. I read, over and over, Tolstoy’s words about the calculus of history, mesmerized, taking obsessive notes, and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t understood what he was saying until now. I will read it again, perhaps in five years, or maybe in ten — I wonder what I will discover then… Note: The copy of the book that I read this time around, which is the one pictured in the image above, was missing 49 pages — pages that I had to go hunt down in an ebook — so if you are going to read this edition, be sure to double check that it is not missing the pages between 988 and 1037. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/13f27b07-6f4b-4371-a1f4-3ea74df075ef/Screenshot+2025-01-01+at+11.51.51%E2%80%AFAM.png Thoughts - My Favorite Books of 2024 - The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer A woman wakes up one morning and finds that the forest she is in is surrounded by a wall that she cannot pass. The world outside the wall has changed, and is frozen, decaying, lost forever. She lives in the forest with the animals she finds, and we follow her through season after season, through birth and death, feeling her pain and her joy. This book was a revelation. It was the best thing I read all year, is one of the best books I have ever read in my life, and I think about nearly every day. https://www.susanrigetti.com/thoughts/blogging-is-back-baby monthly 0.5 2024-01-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/216dcdf6-180a-4975-90cc-e0505e007542/Portrait+of+Eleonora+Duse+by+Ilya+Repin.jpg Thoughts - Blogging is Back, Baby! - Make it stand out Portrait of Eleonora Duse by Ilya Repin https://www.susanrigetti.com/about daily 1.0 2026-03-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/af7afa54-c21e-4cdf-8b17-dba91564d745/IMG_3137.jpeg About Me, in my favorite place in the world: Antarctica. https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics daily 0.75 2021-04-21 https://www.susanrigetti.com/math daily 0.75 2022-03-07 https://www.susanrigetti.com/philosophy daily 0.75 2024-01-09 https://www.susanrigetti.com/reading-list daily 0.75 2026-01-06 https://www.susanrigetti.com/contact daily 0.75 2026-02-04 https://www.susanrigetti.com/books daily 0.75 2025-12-08 https://www.susanrigetti.com/books/production-ready-microservices monthly 0.5 2024-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/88246b0d-0da7-49a5-b545-696530870b52/prm.jpg https://www.susanrigetti.com/books/whistleblower monthly 0.5 2024-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/75fb7b4a-7085-4079-a89d-e2342d6947b6/whistleblower.jpeg https://www.susanrigetti.com/books/cover-story monthly 0.5 2024-03-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6065fc12e9124a1ea2bac4f9/3a78dd92-b394-4e07-9088-49220765f4f2/coverstoryrigetti.jpg