From their website: 

The following list was decided after consultation between California Review of Books co-editors David Starkey and Brian Tanguay and the journal’s most frequent reviewers, Walter Cummins and George Yatchisin. As always when creating year-end lists, we could have easily generated another one that included dozens of additional outstanding books. However, we believe a reader who dives into these particular volumes will find work that is stimulating, provocative, deeply memorable–and in some cases unexpected. Once again, CRB‘s celebrated eclecticism is on proud display in this list. (The books are presented in alphabetical order by author’s last name.)

The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe by Marlene L. Daut (Knopf)

It’s no wonder the book is hefty, more than five hundred pages, often dense, but the end result is simply magisterial. Haiti’s Declaration of Independence of November 29, 1803, was unprecedented: formerly enslaved Black people declared themselves independent from one of the world’s fiercest colonial powers. And yet wasn’t until 1947 that Haiti was able to retire its enormous and unwarranted debt to France. “The independence debt and the resulting drain on the Haitian treasury,” writes Daut, “not only resulted in the underfunding of education in Haiti but also contributed to the country’s inability to develop public infrastructure.” The motto of Henry Christophe, the country’s first and last king, “I am reborn from my ashes,” can just as easily sum up Haiti’s history. (Read Brian Tanguay’s full review here.)

Read the rest of the list here: https://calirb.com/10-best-books-of-2025/