I gave Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations a go and gave up around half way. Maybe if I knew the historical context it would seem more profound?
I enjoyed Three Body Problem a lot more than I thought I would. That was probably the best book I read in 2025.
Expecting it to be "cohesive" seems like an odd thing, considering it's literally a bunch of musings & meditations which were taken from a man's private journal.
I've found many of the individual musings to be quite interesting. In particular the ones that relate to perception (my own biggest pitfall).
Which version did you read? I read this one: https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Penguin-Classics-Hardcove..., which provides a lot of context. Here are my thoughts on it: https://vtomole.com/blog/2025/12/14/aurelius
I also read Meditations this year. Definitely not what I was expecting. It's not cohesive at all. My biggest takeaways were the inevitability of death and generally letting go of our sense of control.