Six of My 2025 Reads: Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

At the top of 1997 I sat down and listed all the books I’d read up to that point. I came up with ~40 titles. I’m sure this was not all of them, but it was a fair start. Beginning that same year I began to keep a list of the books I’d read each year.

As we’ve ended 2025, I’m highlighting six of the past year’s reads—a book of poetry, two novels, and three non-fiction titles. Perhaps you’ll find one you wish to add to your 2026 reading stack. Of course, I’d recommend you add all of them.

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

As referenced in a blogpost late last year, last summer we traveled to Rome. Several months before we left I asked ChatGPT for a list of books set in Rome. Four Seasons in Rome was one of the titles it returned. I knew Doerr from his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, and his short fiction such as the story “The Hunter’s Wife,” thus I was enthusiastic to add this book, a work of nonfiction, to my pre-travel reading stack.

In 2007 the American Academy in Rome awarded Doerr the prestigious Rome Prize, which included a year residency. As Doerr worked on the novel which would win the Pulitzer, he penned this memoir which is divided into four sections—one for each season.

Alongside absorbing the culture and the throes of creative work, Doerr and his wife tackle the challenge of raising newborn twin boys. I’ve never been a reader of travel writing, but this book does all that such writing should. It immerses you in both the place and the personal experience of the writer. This book, and the trip I took, have left a deep-seated desire to spend my own Four Seasons in Rome.

Leave a comment with a title you read in 2025!