Quick-hit libertarian themes in the late-2024 and early-2025 reading list

I recently “conned” my parents into giving me a Christmas gift that came in the form of a book early. Now, I’ll be reading Spirit Legacy by E.E. Holmes in paperback for the first time ever, even if I’ve read it plenty of times in e-book and audio.

But I’m going “old school,” you see? That said, every book that I enjoy, even modestly, is coming to me in a physical copy no matter what so I can further build up the dream library. It also means I’ll be buying Scott Horton’s Enough Already: Time to End America’s War on Terror after I finish giving it a listen or two on Spotify.

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And speaking of which, just when I thought I knew about all the lies coming in from Washington, I’m sad to admit I was wrong. Yeah, if only I paid more attention to alternative media back when I was in middle and high school. Better late than never, I guess, right?

I can also credit Tom Woods’ podcast, which recently hosted Horton, for letting me know the best there ever was on foreign policy has another book out called Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War in Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine. Yeah, that one sounds interesting, too, I think.,

Anyway, let’s jump off the nonfiction train for a minute and talk a little about some libertarian themes in my upcoming TBR list. One that really comprises books I’ve read years ago (or annually), but wanted to give them another in-depth review as they pertain to my favorite niche.

Spirit Legacy by E.E. Holmes

What’s funny here is that our main character, Jess Ballard, is a progressive feminist. Or, at least that’s the way I’ve always seen her. That said, it’s not long until Jess finds out that a pure Matriarchy isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and it’s something she discovers more in-depth in Spirit Legacy’s sequels, Spirit Prophecy and Spirit Ascendency.

Still, the foreshadowing’s there in Spirit Legacy. While some readers might see the ‘foreshadowing’ more as a complete “information dump” than something Jess organically stumbles upon, rest assured that she finds all of this out late in the book when some good old telling is more than fine.

Plus, Holmes drops a lot of hints in this one, including why nearly every member of the Durupinen sisterhood seem to resemble supermodels. Oh, and don’t even get me started on how corrupt that Council is, something that’s also hinted at in Spirit Legacy before it hits Jess like a tidal wave in later books.

Counteract by Tracy Lawson

You might recall me mentioning that I had Counteract on my dystopian TBR list a while ago, and it’s great to be getting around to it shortly. Another book I’ve read multiple times in e-book and listened to in audio, going “old school” for 2025 will also make this one seem like a first-time read.

Anyway, I’m not sure if Anthony Fauci read this book shortly before the You Know What hit a few years back or if Tracy Lawson is just a prophet, but wow, the similarities are scary.

The only difference is that there isn’t a pandemic going on. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t a ton of societal restrictions headed up by…you guessed it…a corrupt public health official.

Beyond the Wall by Kate L. Mary

This book features one of those ‘would you rather’ scenarios. Would you rather live in a society that gave you everything you needed, literally granting you the “right” to food, water, shelter, clothing, and anything else it told you was essential?

Sounds like it’s an easy choice, right? But what if you realized you were only granted those “rights” at the expense of your inalienable right to self-ownership? Oh, and if you showed any signs of dissent like, I don’t know, asking a question, you might just put a target on your back.

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Drea Young faces a nice, little internal struggle here. And while it’s easy for us libertarians to say we’d forgo all of this, the situation would be a little scarier in real life.

That said, the right not only to self-ownership resides as a strong theme in this one, but also, making a tough decision to resist tyranny, even if it meant the possible death of your parents as the Society’s way of exerting revenge if you left.

Six Days of the Condor by James Grady

Okay, so this is the one book I’ve never read. Anyway, this one talks about one of the favorite topics of all libertarians: Corruption in America’s most well-known intelligence agency! Yeah, so it was easy for me to make the decision that I’d be diving deeply into this one.

I’ve read about the work though, and I know how it ends. That said, I was basically 33-and-a-half years old when I found out that the hit TV show Seinfeld referenced this one in The Junk Mail.

Just in case you’ve never seen it, the video below will show you some of that episode’s finer points.

Fate of Crowns by Rebecca Garcia

Another one from that listicle article linked above from a couple months back, Fate of Crowns will challenge you with another would you rather moment. Another e-book read from 2021, I cannot, for the life of me, remember the protagonist’s name.

Anyway, the burning question here is a simple one: Would you rather let your corrupt father continue to lie, cheat, and steal, knowing it's wrong, or would you rather put an end to his reign of terror? Yep, this one features a main character who might just become a queen someday.

Stick to the duty your tyrannical family has outlined for you and become the Queen of Everything, albeit a corrupt one? Or, become the Princess of Nothing if you refuse those duties? The ultimate internal struggle, right?

And again, if we were all faced with that choice, it might just challenge the libertarian in all of us.

Other Works

I’ll have The Giver coming up at some point as well, especially when I start diving into more children’s and middle-grade fiction. The opening to Book II is especially enthralling, and it’s one I’ll have to break down here because, as I mentioned with Lawson, Lois Lowry may have had some Nostradamus in her, too. And keep in mind, Lowry concocted that opening back in like 2000, if I’m not mistaken.

The Tuttle Twins is also on deck, as it’s a staple for every libertarian whose kids are grade-school-aged, right? Oh, if you’ve never heard of them, trust me, it’s well worth it.

And, as always, Harry Potter is never off the TBR, especially when we talk about Order of the Phoenix. Oh, and I can’t help but credit the YouTube channel MovieFlame, a primarily Harry Potter-based outlet that just gave me an outstanding idea about Dolores Umbridge when I was watching one of his videos.

Yeah, it’s gonna be one action-packed year and it can’t come fast enough.

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