{"id":250330,"date":"2025-07-09T08:59:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250330\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T08:59:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:59:23","slug":"every-brutal-brilliant-occasionally-trash-book-anthony-jeselnik-has-crowned-in-2025-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250330\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Brutal, Brilliant & Occasionally Trash Book Anthony Jeselnik Has Crowned in 2025 (So Far)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If your resolution was to \u201cread more\u201d in 2025, well\u2026 we\u2019ve reached the halfway mark of 2025. And just so you know, Anthony Jeselnik has already torn through 26 books in 26 weeks, swinging between Nobel-approved trauma epics, cannibal cult thrillers, and at least one memoir so horny it should come with a parental-advisory sticker.<\/p>\n

We get it. Time is fake, your \u201cto-read\u201d stack is taller than you, and you weren\u2019t trying to keep up with Jeselnik in the first place. But maybe you should? The comedian hasn\u2019t missed a single Tuesday in 2025, coughing up one book (and one scorching mini-review) every week. Consider this your catch-up cram session: 26 straight picks, in order, with Anthony\u2019s own words\u2014the praise, the profanity, the spectacular hate-reads. We hope it inspires you to do whatever it takes to keep pace before July drops another avalanche.<\/p>\n

Playworld \u2013 Adam Ross<\/p>\n

\u201cAdults, I think now, were the ocean in which I swam.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

A fantastic novel about a child realising he\u2019s being taken advantage of as he enters adulthood. Catcher in the Rye for the \u201980s. Essential read if you wrestled in high school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Good Girl \u2013 Aria Aber<\/p>\n

\u201cDawn was like a pill broken and scattered across the horizon.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Highly recommend this debut novel from a fantastic poet. Good Girl is about identity and acceptance, following a 19-year-old girl partying her ass off in Berlin. Perfect for anyone who prefers a quiet night at home, but also used to do a lot of drugs in warehouses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We Do Not Part \u2013 Han Kang<\/p>\n

\u201cI had not reconciled with life, but I had to resume living.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

A masterfully written novel about generational trauma from a Nobel Prize winning author. What it means to be destroyed by your own people. What it means to survive. And what it means to make art from that destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Loves of My Life \u2013 Edmund White<\/p>\n

\u201cWas Rochefoucauld right, that no one ever fell in love without first reading about it?\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

A fearless and funny memoir from a man who is so obsessed with sex it\u2019s a miracle he ever had time to put pen to paper. Sex memoirs aren\u2019t my thing but Edmund White is such a brilliant writer and his story is all the more remarkable because it began in the fifties and carries through today. I bet the audiobook is hilarious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Saint of the Narrows Street \u2013 William Boyle<\/p>\n

\u201cHe guesses he believes her. He guesses he\u2019s feeling relaxed. It won\u2019t last.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Just because you keep getting lucky, doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ll get away with it. I love a novel where the characters suffer an incredible amount of shit just because they didn\u2019t call the cops when the first body hit the ground. Highly recommend to anyone who loved the underrated film, The Place Beyond the Pines.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stone Yard Devotional \u2013 Charlotte Wood <\/p>\n

\u201cAnything that had lived could make itself useful, become nourishment in death, my mother said.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Brilliant novel about what people choose to do with their lives and the options we actually have at our disposal. Highly recommend to anyone who needs to turn off the news and get off the internet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Garden \u2013 Nick Newman<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew now that it was this kind of death she had wished on the boy and her sister, though she worried she had sentenced them to something far worse.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

It takes a little more than murder and cannibalism for me to consider something \u201chorror\u201d but this is definitely a step up from Fairy Tale. Read it if you loved everything but the last five minutes of M Night Shyamalan\u2019s The Village.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

True Failure \u2013 Alex Higley\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cMariska Hargitay, attacked.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Fantastic debut novel that I flew through in a couple of sittings. All of the characters are memorable but I would read an entire series about Tara. This is basically Catch-22 for people who want to be on Shark Tank. I loved it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Passenger \u2013 Vijay Khurana<\/p>\n

\u201cHis dad is weirdly jolly about everything, in that way that makes a person seem like they\u2019re just about to snap.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Best book I\u2019ve read all year. A sparse, powerful novel about friendship and toxic masculinity, deftly handled. Should be required reading for all 14-year-old boys.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stag Dance \u2013 Torrey Peters <\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you beg when you don\u2019t know the words to beg with?\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

I loved this book. Three short stories and a novel. All uncomfortable as f*ck, all different genres. Peters is a propulsive writer and her characters feel singular.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Funny Because It\u2019s True \u2013 Christine Wenc\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cWeird Al Honours Parents\u2019 Memory With Tears in Heaven Parody.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Starts slow, but really picks up as The Onion becomes undeniably great. Especially enjoyed the stories behind the famous 9\/11 issue, endless complaints about management, and one writer\u2019s hilariously misguided attempt to get revenge on Weird Al Yankovich. The final chapters serve as a eulogy for the best years of the internet before it became an advertising hellscape. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne \u2013 Ron Currie\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Man was elemental, amoral, impervious to reasoning or bargaining. Pleas for mercy quivered on a frequency he could not hear. He was the fifth late notice on a long-overdue bill.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Killers doing killer shit. I f*cking loved this book so much. Funny, badass, and very, very cool. 11 out of\u200a10. Inject this into my eyeballs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Flesh \u2013 David Szalay\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just dies in her sleep. That happens sometimes apparently.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Incredible book. Loved the sparse, emotionless writing style. A rags to riches story that kicks off with a sexual assault\/murder and ends with the first real choice the hero gets to make in his entire life. Highly recommend.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Audition \u2013 Katie Kitamura\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026what was family if not a shared delusion, a mutual construction?\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

A beautiful and thrilling novel that masterfully keeps the reader off balance. Every page is soaked with tension. No small feat in a novel about the masks we wear for those closest to us. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Vanishing World \u2013 Sayaka Murata\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cNormality is the creepiest madness there is. This was all insane, yet it was so right.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

An exploration of parasocial relationships, sex, friendship, and the decision to bring a child into the world. And the final 100 pages are batshit awesome.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Atavists \u2013 Lydia Millet <\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew that no matter how you self-identify ultimately, chances are that you succumb to becoming what the world treats you as.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Loved this book so much, I read it in a day. 14 interconnected short stories about, frankly, how we try to deal with the hopelessness of life, the bleak future that humanity is facing, and how we live with that before it\u2019s right on top of us. Incredible work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng \u2013 Kylie Lee Baker\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cThe living are good at forgetting\u2026 But in Hell, it is always just yesterday that everything was lost. The dead do not forget.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

This book starts with the strongest opening possible, and then lets the dread slowly build to an unexpected, yet inevitable finale. It\u2019s a serial killer during the pandemic in NYC. It\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Director \u2013 Daniel Kehlmann\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve hurt you so much,\u201d he said. \u201cI loved another woman, and I brought you and Jacob back into hell.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Fantastic novel about the sacrifices we make to produce art. Not just our own but the sacrifices we demand from everyone around us. Beautiful and terrifying.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Emperor of Gladness \u2013 Ocean Vuong\u2028<\/p>\n

One of the most highly anticipated novels of the year, it\u2019s about a hopeless young man talked out of suicide by an old woman with dementia. It\u2019s 400 pages. Let\u2019s f**ing go.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s All I Know \u2013 Elisa Levi\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my sister, the world killed itself the moment she was born.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

I f**ing hated this. Hated everything about this. 150 pages long and it felt like reading the Bible. Just goes to show you, anything can happen on #NewBookTuesday!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Stalker \u2013 Paula Bomer\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery woman loves a fascist.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

My favourite: the toxic-masculinity novel. The most unlikeable protagonist in recent memory. I read this book as a f*ck you to every guy who looks up to Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. It is haunting, extremely unpleasant, one of my favourites of the year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Slip \u2013 Lucas Schaefer\u2028<\/p>\n

\u201cNever trust a cop!\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

This novel did not work for me at all, but at least it went big. A baffling, but audacious work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

King of Ashes \u2013 S. A. Cosby<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything burns.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Rules from beginning to end. The tension is incredible. The villains are terrifying. A beautiful and complex family dynamic IN A F*CKING CREMATORIUM.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

UnWorld \u2013 Jayson Greene<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever it is he wanted, I don\u2019t think he got it,\u201d she said. Then she disappeared.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

I loved this book. The characters feel hopelessly real in this meditation on mental illness, suicide, grief, guilt, the afterlife and AI. All these big thoughtful ideas and it still reads like a murder mystery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Among Friends \u2013 Hal Ebbott <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course people shake babies to death. Because they won\u2019t listen, because there\u2019s no way to make them see.\u201d\u2028<\/p>\n

Truly loved this novel. The characters\u2019 inner monologues are brilliantly written. Their choices are both easy and impossible. I highly recommend this brutal story about friendship, money, and family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I Want to Burn This Place Down \u2013 Maris Kreizman<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking hard and playing by the rules can be futile and demeaning if the game itself has always been rigged.\u201d <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be 100% honest and say l would not have chosen this book of essays had I known the title was a quote from Mad Men. While this book isn\u2019t the call to violence I was hoping for, I really enjoyed walking a mile in the shoes of someone living with diabetes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Your move, dear reader: grab the ones that sound like your preferred flavour of depravity, mute all other notifications, and maybe set an alarm for every Tuesday morning. The man\u2019s on a streak\u2014and now, thanks to this list, so are you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If your resolution was to \u201cread more\u201d in 2025, well\u2026 we\u2019ve reached the halfway mark of 2025. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-250330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114822459155516048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}