Presenting the top MTC posts for 2025, based on reader views.
December is a month for “Best of” and “Top Ten” lists. I join in the fun with your selection, Brilliant Readers, of the top MORE TO COME posts for the year of 2025.
Readers keep checking in, providing feedback through their choices of what’s of interest, and for that I’m very grateful. We had a banner year, with more reader views than in any twelve month period since I started this endeavor back in 2008! Thank you!
The top stories, as chosen by readers, break down into:
- Author interviews
- Life’s passages
- Thoughts on the times we live in
- Family
Here’s a baker’s dozen of the top stories from the past year, as selected by the readers of MTC. And yes, you have to scroll almost to the bottom to see what’s #1.
AUTHORS TELL THEIR STORIES
Nine authors graciously engaged in a conversation with me during 2025 to discuss their new works in the Author Q&As series. Four of those conversations were among this list of top reader views and one of the books highlighted was just included in NPR’s list of top books for the year!
- A love letter to small towns is my post about the new work, Sex of the Midwest: A Novel in Stories, an NPR “Best Book” of 2025 with a featured interview with Weekend Edition host Scott Simon. The residents of Lanier, Indiana (population 12,234) wake up to discover an email in their inbox inviting them to participate in a study of sexual practices. Author Robyn Ryle chats with me about her new work where “the e-mail opens up the secret (and not-so-secret) lives of one small town, and reveals the surprising complexity of sex (and life) in the Midwest.”
- BONUS READ: Check out my 2023 interview with Robyn about her short story “Hemingway Goes on Book Tour” in the anthology Playing Authors.
- Challenging a narrative of rupture between past and present looks at a richly illustrated book of the largely forgotten architectural work of Gustavo Giovannoni, an important early advocate for the conservation of historic cities. New Buildings in Old Cities is an impressive, wide-ranging, thoughtful, and relevant work. I was delighted when the editors agreed to answer my questions.
- BONUS READ: I have a book review of this work coming out in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Architectural Education.
- An environmental disaster and cover-up wrapped in a whodunit is the focus of Fiction as a pathway to the truth. The novel Troubled Waters is an engrossing read written by Syd Stapleton—who studied at Berkeley in the 1960s and became a leader of the Free Speech Movement; ran for Congress as a socialist in 1970 (and lost); and has been a former ferry captain, landing craft relief skipper, and tugboat worker. Syd graciously agreed to answer my questions about his first book.
- BONUS READ: I just posted a review of the sequel earlier this month in MTC.
- Many of us easily recall the narrative around the birth of Jesus. But how many know, much less think about, the nativity stories of Moses, Isaac and Ishmael, Samson, and Samuel. Nativity stories that provoke, encourage, and perhaps even inspire is my review of an insightful book that examines the other stories about birth in the Hebrew Bible: A Child is Born: A Beginner’s Guide to Nativity Stories. My wide-ranging conversation with author Amy-Jill Levine is full of her insight, wit, and wisdom.
- BONUS READ: My earlier conversation with AJ, The transformational power of stories, topped last year’s list of reader views at MTC.
PASSAGES
Three of the top posts in terms of reader views touched on passages, death, and appreciation for lives well lived.
- On the 100th anniversary of my father’s birth, I posted What constitutes a good life? Born on July 5, 1925 in Franklin, Tennessee, Daddy passed away just shy of his 91st birthday. Tom Brown was not a wealthy man in the eyes of the world, but he was rich in so many ways that count. In his faith. In love of his wife, children, and extended family. In friendships that stretched across the globe. In his insatiable curiosity. In a deep belief in community and a deep, deep love for people. Love was at the heart of a good life for Tom Brown.
- Richard Moe: A personal appreciation is my tribute to a former boss and mentor, who passed away this year at the age of 88. The New York Times obituary is extensive in covering Dick’s legacy of public service. As others were remembering Richard Moe for this public life and legacy, I offered a more personal note in thanksgiving for all the support and guidance he gave to me. I will always treasure our work together.
- Life is finite . . . love is not was written after I learned that a friend and former colleague passed away after a difficult battle with pancreatic cancer. In her last message sent just a few days before she passed, Nancy talks about drawing from a great reservoir of gratitude for the wonderful life she’s been given. She ends by saying, “Please take good care of yourself and remember to love the people you love every day. Life is finite … love is not.”
THE TIMES WE LIVE IN
Two posts among the top reader views focused on our difficult times, when too many in our country have given in to bigotry, hate, power, and greed.
- Rewriting the past to control the future is as old as history itself. Some attempts—such as state-sponsored erasure—are more malicious than others. Jason Stanley literally wrote the book on understanding fascism and in Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future he uses his family’s experience in 1930s Germany as a touchstone for a deeper dive into the tools of totalitarianism.
- We think these are the worst of times. But history tells us we have seen chaos and disruption in the past. The next four years will be filled with upheaval and uncertainty . . . just look at our history considers disruptive and history-changing events in the first fifteen years of my life, going from Brown v. Board of Education to fear of nuclear annihilation, the Montgomery Bus boycotts, Little Rock, Castro’s revolution in Cuba, political assassinations, Vietnam, and more.
FAMILY
Three family-related posts were among the top reader views in 2025.
- After a summer of singing opera in Santa Fe, our son—the tenor Andrew Bearden Brown—returned to the concert stage in New England, California, Florida, and Washington, DC. I highlighted his schedule in Fall 2025.
- Our Year in Photos — 2025 says it all.
- Candice and the twins had a surprise waiting for me on my 70th birthday: more than 90 cards from friends and family from all around the world. Rich (in a George Bailey kind of way) is my post on these wonderful notes and the beautiful thoughts they contained.
AND THE WINNER IS . . .
Yes, I completed my 70th trip around the sun in 2025 so it is appropriate that the top post from the year in terms of reader views was 70 lessons from 70 years. It begins with words of wisdom such as “The graveyard is full of folks who thought the world couldn’t get along without them” and ends with this reminder: “Savor every moment. They pass faster than you can ever imagine.”
BTW, I WAS RATHER FOND OF THESE AS WELL
While they didn’t make it into the top views this year, I was rather fond of these posts, which I recommend as well:
- New headshots had me thinking about the spaces between teeth and on the calendar, which I explore in Gaps make life interesting.
- A stunning work of great pain and grace is my review of Anne Berest’s compelling and timeless autobiographical novel The Postcard.
- Pearl Harbor is not just a place, but it is a reminder of a national response. In Pearl Harbor and the ongoing fight against fascism I write about a time when country, a caring for humanity, and a desire to defeat fascism and bigotry took precedence over personal achievement, power, and greed.
- How is it to live with eternity at your door? makes the counterintuitive argument that the antidote to the loss of life is more life.
- Finally, three conversations—with a priest, a recovering lawyer, and a professor—about the quality of my writing here on MTC led to the post Writing a present.
Whatever you found to enjoy this year on MTC, thanks, as always, for reading!
More to come . . .
DJB
Last year’s listing of the top posts on MORE TO COME as selected by reader views can be seen by clicking on the link. You can also check below to find similar lists from:
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
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